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Experts View Israel's Options After NIE Report

[Chicago Tribune] Joel Greenberg - Israel's freedom of action to strike at Iran's nuclear program has been curtailed after a recent American intelligence assessment that Tehran stopped its work on nuclear weapons, but force remains an option of last resort should Israel eventually conclude that the weapons threshold is about to be crossed, according to Israeli experts and former intelligence officials. Iranian nuclear weapons development work has apparently resumed clandestinely, said former chief of Israeli military intelligence Maj.-Gen. Aharon Zeevi Farkash. "Israel's job is to continue trying on the intelligence level to find a smoking gun and to see to it that the West takes action so that [Iranian nuclear weapons capability] doesn't happen," Zeevi Farkash said. In the wake of the NIE, Israel has three options, according to Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror, who headed the research division in Israeli military intelligence, with responsibility for preparing the Israeli national intelligence assessment. Israel can launch a military strike to set back the Iranian nuclear program, try to persuade the U.S. that its intelligence approach is flawed and press for more vigorous diplomacy to block Tehran's nuclear ambitions, or it can acquiesce in a nuclearized Middle East with a Cold War-style balance of power that would deter any attack on Israel.
2007-12-26 01:00:00
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