[Peace-discuss] Sabra rattling

[C. G. Estabrook]

ANALYSIS & EDITOR’S COMMENT: Inbedded reporting
http://warincontext.org/

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Israel is a long way from attacking Iran
By Yossi Melman, Haaretz, June 22, 2008

Israeli leaders and officials have recently intensified their campaign against 
nuclearIran. The messages from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to Ambassador to 
Washington Salai Meridor and Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz is clear: 
Israel will not tolerate a nuclear Iran. Indeed Israel is very concerned by the 
likelihood that Iran, whose leadership has called for the Jewish state’s 
destruction, will be able to produce nuclear weapons.

These public statements, as well as closed talks between Israel’s leadership and 
leaders around the world, can be interpreted as “preparing the ground” for the 
possibility that Israel will attack Iran. It is also correct that all the bodies 
dealing with the “Iran case,” including the Mossad, Military Intelligence, 
Operations Directorate of the Israel Defense Forces, Israel Air Force and the 
Israeli Atomic Energy Commission, are planning for the worst-case scenario. This 
is their professional duty. But one cannot conclude, as many have following a 
report in The New York Times (June 19) that an Israeli attack is certainly 
around the corner. Not only has such a decision not been made in any relevant 
forum in Israel - the question has not even been discussed...
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Editor’s Comment — When an “inbedded” reporter like Michael Gordon not only 
performs a service for his government, but is internationally seen to be acting 
as a stooge, I wonder how he feels?

Last Friday, no-questions-asked, he got the Israeli-attack-on-Iran-rehearsal 
story out and it provoked lots of reaction. A bump in oil prices (yet another 
little windfall for Iran), a rebuke from the Iranian government, a threat that 
Mohamed ElBaradei would resign as director of the IAEA in such an event, and a 
carefully studied no-comment from the Israeli government. Even if this was an 
Israeli Air Force exercse, the consensus among Israeli commentators was that the 
story — courtesy of Pentagon-mouthpiece Michael Gordon — was an expression of 
American pressure.

The fact is, a military exercise of this nature is not really newsworthy. As 
Amos Harel noted in Haaretz: “There is little new in the fact that the IAF is 
preparing for the Iranian challenge. About six months ago, Channel 2 reported a 
similar exercise covering a radius that an operation against Iran would require. 
At the time the report received little attention.” Indeed, assuming that the IAF 
as an active and well-trained air force will periodically engage in major 
exercises, what would we expect them to be training to do? Attack France?

So why did the Pentagon/New York Times need to get the story out? The Iranians 
know that the Bush administration is a spent force and the antics of 
attention-seeking neocons are becoming increasingly easy to ignore, but mad-dog 
Israel — that’s always the wild card. Less than a year ago it burnished its 
image of unpredictability by bombing Syria. The idea that Israel is 
unpredictable is at this point the only thing that has any chance of keeping the 
Iranians on their toes.


C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> [There was some discussion at the AWARE meeting tonight as to how this 
> "leak" was to be understood.  --CGE]
> 
>     Leaked Israeli drill seen as U.S. pressure on Iran
>     Sun Jun 22, 2008 8:25am EDT
>     By Jeffrey Heller
> 
> JERUSALEM (Reuters)...