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U.S.-Israel Differences on Iran Threat Re-emerging
(New York Times) Thom Shanker and David E. Sanger - A close adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that "the fundamental difference of views on how much risk we can take with Iran is re-emerging." Israel's position has been that Iran cannot be allowed to build up too large a stockpile of medium-enriched uranium that could allow it to then race for a bomb. So far, Iran has stayed just below the red line Netanyahu drew at the UN last September. To the U.S., this has offered more time for a diplomatic solution. To many Israeli officials, it is a ploy, designed to buy time as Iran installs a new generation of centrifuges that could speed its production. "It's all about timetables," said Dore Gold, the president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and a member of Netanyahu's inner circle of strategists. "If you say the goal is to halt Iran in the enrichment phase, you don't have much time. If you are waiting for Iran to weaponize" - the position the Obama administration has taken - "maybe you can give it another year or more."