Israeli Officials Divided over Iran Attack

Friday 9 March 2012

Israeli Officials Divided over Iran Attack

To attack or not to attack? This controversial issue of whether to launch an attack on the Islamic Republic has divided Israeli officials.

Israeli President Shimon Peres said Thursday the Zionist entity does not need a "public debate" before taking military action against Iran.

Speaking in Los Angeles, he said economic sanctions were the first course of action in pressing the Islamic republic, but not the only one. "I think we have to try first sanctions, and then we shall see," he said, noting that "in the case of South Africa, sanctions did the job," as they arguably did in Libya and Ukraine. "If we have to choose, let's start with the non-violent ... saying very clearly (that) all other options are on the table," he told an audience in Beverly Hills.

Pressed about the threat of military strikes against Iran, Peres said: "I don't think that we have to make a public debate ahead of time." Benjamin Netanyahu

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyah was more precise mulling that an attack on Iran could take place within a matter of months
"We're not standing with a stopwatch in hand," he said in a series of television interviews on Thursday. "It's not a matter of days or weeks, but also not of years. The result must be removal of the threat of nuclear weapons in Iran's hands."

Netanyahu gave separate interviews to all three Israeli television stations, the first he has given since his return from Washington earlier this week.

"I hope there won't be a war at all, and that the pressure on Iran will succeed," the prime minister stressed, noting that his preferred choice would be for Iran to halt its nuclear program and dismantle the uranium enrichment facility located in an underground site near Qom. "That would make me happiest," he said. "I think every citizen of Israel would be happy."

However, former Mossad chief Meir Dagan said in an interview on CBS News' 60 Minutes that there is yet "more time" on the Iranian nuclear program, and that the international community should not rush into a military option. "An attack on Iran before you are exploring all other approaches is not the right way how to do it," he said.

He continued that "Whoever attacks Iran must understand that he may start a regional war in which missiles from Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon will be fired. The Iranian problem must be made an international problem and we must continue to act to delay the development of Iran's nuclear capabilities," Dagan said.

When pressed by CBS interviewer Leslie Stahl about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Dagan stated that he along with the Iranian regime are rational.