Netanyahu Moves Closer to Iran Attack

Israeli PM Trying to Sell Public on War

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is once again hinting at the possibility of an attack against Iran in the near future, saying that he won’t need US “blessing” for the attack, while insisting that the recent clashes in Gaza were all Iran’s fault.

“Gaza is Iran,” Netanyahu declared, though oddly the faction with which Iran is on relatively good terms, Hamas, did not participate in the rocket fire. The comments, however nonsensical, point to a preoccupation with couching everything as a prelude to this war.

And it’s a war that the Likud leader is desperate to sell the Israeli public on. Recent polls have shown considerable resistance to an Israeli attack on Iran among Israeli voters, and while most seem eager for the US to start such a war the Netanyahu government seems more interested in starting the war first, and just getting the US sucked into it through sheer momentum.

Meanwhile, the US State Department is denying that it threatened to attack Iran recently in a message delivered through Russia, saying no such warning was delivered. At the same time, President Obama has made several public comments insisting he is not bluffing about threats to attack Iran.

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.