Aluf Benn
Haaretz
March 3, 2010
“Do not strike” is what the Americans are telling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Let’s first try sanctions on Iran.”
“Do not strike” is what Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is saying to Netanyahu. “If you go crazy and go to war, it will be the end of the Zionist regime.”
Netanyahu managed to convince the world that Israel is on the verge of a preemptive war to try to foil Iran’s nuclear program. His speeches on a second Holocaust and Amalek, the acceleration of military preparations, the exercises on the Home Front, the distribution of gas masks and even the stockpiling of dollars by the Bank of Israel all suggest that Israel is preparing to strike Iran, as it did when it attacked the nuclear plants in Iraq and Syria.
The preparations for war give Israel unprecedented international significance. U.S. President Barack Obama, who kept his distance at the beginning of his tenure, is now airlifting senior officials to ask Netanyahu to hold back. When he wanted to deal with the Palestinian problem, Obama made do with a retiree without authority in the form of George Mitchell.
