News & Views

Preceding a potentially damning report on Iran's nuclear quest by the United Nations atomic watchdog, a flurry of reports about Israel increasingly tilting towards preventive military action against Iran highlights US military support of Israel, but tests Washington's influence over its ally. The International Atomic Energy Agency is expected to report that Iran has carried out experiments for developing nuclear weapons including explosions and computer simulations of explosions. Either public diplomacy or policy, psychological warfare intended to advocate harsher international sanctions or preparation for international endorsement of military action, the wave of speculation redoubled itself before President Shimon Peres addressed the media reports. Appearing on Channel Two's primetime news on Friday, the president urged "the other nations of the world to act. It's time to stand behind the promise that was made to us, to fulfill their responsibility, whether that means serious sanctions or a military operation. ... It may well be that comments on the topic serve their own function." he added elliptically. Peres didn't depart from the customary "all-options-are-on-the-table" shared by Israeli and US spokespeople. "No decision was made," he said. This has left the international community, particularly the US, wondering whether Israel is on the brink of deciding in favor of such unilateral attack. The frenzy was ignited a week earlier by Nahum Barnea, Israel's foremost columnist, in the mass-circulation newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth: "Have the prime minister and defense minister settled on a decision, just between the two of them, to launch a military attack on the nuclear facilities in Iran?"