Via Friday-Lunch-Club
"b", previously of Moon of Alabama, flagged this story in the WSJ/ here "....... Today, Israel's political and military establishment appears to be tilting toward one of his long-ignored views: Israeli support for Iran's opposition movement—and not a miltary strike—is the best way to combat the regime in Tehran....."A military strike will at best delay Iran's nuclear program, but what's worse, it will rally the Iranian people to the defense of the regime," says Mr. Lubrani, who was ambassador to Iran from 1973 to 1978 and is now a special adviser to Israel's minister of defense. "We must do everything possible to help (the protest movement) do the job."Rafi Eitan, an adviser to Mr. Netanyahu, says the protests "changed people's attitudes here. They started to understand that this should be done the way Lubrani has been saying it should be done."........ even hawkish officials interviewed in recent months stressed they were aware of the risks of military action. Officials expressed support for sanctions, and said they weren't eager to attack......Heading Israeli government activities in Lebanon since 1983, he was one of the first to warn of Iran's growing influence among the country's Shiites. His recommendations were largely neglected and Hezbollah soon emerged as one of Israel's most potent foes."Lubrani was one of the few, the very few, to identify that Israel should find a way to the Shiites before Iran did," recalls retired Brig. Gen. Shimon Shapira, who was an intelligence officer in Lebanon at the time.More recently, as Iran's nuclear program grew and Washington and Israel hardened their views, Mr. Lubrani's calls to support what appeared to be a beaten-down opposition seemed out of touch.Mr. Lubrani says that witnessing the Iranian revolution gave him faith in the power of the Iranian people to affect change. From a remote seventh-story ofge in an old Ministry of Defense building, he oversaw a four-man team that quietly supported the Iranian opposition and sowed unrest inside Iran's borders..."
Posted by G, Z, or B at 12:47 PM
Uprooted Palestinian
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