Israel Won’t Warn US Before Attacking Iran

Officials Plan to Keep US 'In the Dark' About Impending Strike

Reports quoting a number of anonymous US and Israeli officials today say that the Israeli government has decided, and has informed the US, that it will not offer any advanced notice to the US before attacking Iran.

This comes amid repeated US official visits to Israel in an attempt to convince the nation to at the very least delay its attack for a few months. Israeli officials say the decision to keep the US “in the dark” is meant to keep them from being held responsible when the strike is launched.

Exactly how they figured this would work is uncertain, however, as the US has repeatedly given verbal support for the idea of an Israeli attack on Iran, repeatedly pledged to commit itself to Israel’s side unconditionally in the ensuing war, and has provided Israel with massive amounts of military hardware that would be used in such an attack.

The more interesting story is that, while the White House declined to comment on the new revelation, there doesn’t appear to be any US attempt to secure at least a little advanced notice of such an attack, meaning that the embassies in the region and the massive occupation force in neighboring Afghanistan are likely to find themselves sucked into a war with no preparation time.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.