Is Israel Planning On Striking Iran?

Washington Post columnist David Ignatius says U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta is worried Israel is planning on striking Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Ignatius, who was traveling with Panetta at the time, says Panetta believes it isn’t years away but months away.

According to Ignatius Panetta believes it could be as soon as April, May or June.

Israel is surrounded by enemies (and is probably wondering if the U.S., under the Obama administration is one of them) and one of them is a whack-job who not only is trying to build a nuclear program, but has made it clear it’s imperative from their standpoint to wipe Israel off the map.

Israel has been in similar situations before and acted swiftly and decisively to neutralize the threat. I don’t believe many people doubt that the Israelis aren’t justifiably concerned about the situation and certainly have the military option on table.

There are a few things that must be factored in, however. For one, they would have to know where the facilities are hidden under ground. Two, they would have to have something akin to the MOP (Massive Ordnance Penetrator – bunker-busting bomb). The MOP is a 30,000 pound bomb that Panetta told the Wall Street Journal has some kinks that need to be worked out, yet.

It’s not likely the Obama administration is particularly keen on providing one to Israel. That would mean Israel would have to come up with another plan. They would also pretty much be on their own since Obama isn’t likely to offer and help for fear he would be perceived unfavorably by the Russians or Iran – two countries we can certainly count on to have our best interest at heart, don’t ya know.

This all leads me to question why Panetta would pass his concerns on to a journalist – knowing it would certainly be published for Iran, God and the whole world to see. The noted Chinese general, Sun Tzu is credited with authoring one of the most well-known combat strategy books of all time – The Art of War.

In his book he speaks of planning, deception and indirect attack. I rather doubt Sun Tzu would fancy letting an enemy – and make no mistake, contrary to what President Obama would say, Iran is an enemy of the U.S. and certainly an enemy of Israel know they were planning an attack in the very near future. Perhaps it’s deception on Panetta’s part – designed to make Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad believe he has a few month before he has to be concerned.

Another possibility could be Obama thinks Israel is off the reservation and wants to publicly tip their hand, believing Israel will abandon the plan, now that any planning they have invested into the attack and any deception, i.e., if and when they were planning such an attack has been blown, compliments of their ‘good friend’, the U.S., via Panetta.

What I do know is if Panetta’s statements weren’t given with the full knowledge of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu we can assume he’s quite put out with us and any musings about the U.S. being an ally that could be counted on to watch their back has now become a metaphorical knife in the back. But that’s just me.