In a meeting with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi warned that he believed “no one including Obama” could stop Israel from launching an attack against Iran once it had made up its mind.
Berlusconi, who has publicly said previously that he absolutely believes Israel will ultimately attack Iran, was revealed in the new comments, part of a WikiLeaks cable, to be concerned that Israel was planning to use nuclear weapons in the attack.
Though it continues to officially take a position of “ambiguity,” Israel has a large nuclear weapons arsenal and is indeed the only nuclear weapons power in the Middle East. Israeli officials have repeatedly threatened to attack Iran over its civilian nuclear program, claiming it constitutes an “existential” threat.
Berlusconi was said to have been briefed about a 2008 Israeli Air Force exercise in which warplanes flew a mock bombing run over Greece, apparently an attempt to simulate a flight to and attack against Iran. Others, including Australia’s intelligence community, have expressed similar concerns about the possible attack recently.
I'm pretty sure the first sentence is supposed to read "could stop Israel from launching an attack against IRAN once it had made up its mind." It says "attack against Israel…" which doesn't make sense. Israel is going to attack itself?
Threats, threats and more [nuclear attack] threats…….. Someone needs to tell America's No. 1 Welfare Queen to cool it…. and that nuclear threats are a sure way to drive poliferation… P.S. How do the Israeli planes get to Iran without entering American controlled air space…?? We do NOT need twenty dollar a gallon gas………………..
"and that nuclear threats are a sure way to drive poliferation.."
– Keeping threat levels up in the ME, and particularly Israeli belligerence, keeps companies like Lockheed Martin's coffers full selling weapons to others (who want to have some kind of deterrence against Iran if Iran is attacked).
Oh, and major Oil companies are definitely NOT against gas being 20 dollars/gallon. You'll have to remind them that they are not working in America's "interests"…
Clowns like Burlusconi don't know what they are talking about, but he has a lot of money, so he gets to play at "politics", and people unfortunately have to listen to his blatherings.
jason ditz says, as of this posting…
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huh! …israel attacks israel…
so who would be blamed? …iran, probably… seeing as how the legend of iranian/north korean nuke cooperation has been established by caroline glick and the usual assortment of myth makers.
About 12,800 google results for glick "israel and the axis of evil"
About 7,090 results for "new york times" "nuclear forensics" declining
got to find some way to rehab israel's reputation, dont we? …although even a nuke attack on israel wouldnt change the basic problem… the basic problem being: israel was a bad idea in the first place.
so we got to decide: the north koreans are famous for producing atomic weapons that are duds, so a bomb that fizzles into low-yield conventional dirty bomb status might be just the ticket… israel would survive and would have the propaganda coup they need.
About 863,000 results for "north korea" "nuclear test" dud
or there could be a full-on attack that wipes israel out, thus eliminating the israel problem while giving us a persection myth that we could exploit til the cows come home.
Wiping of CHazarstan on occupied Palestinian territory would be a blessing for the whole World.
No more thieves.liars.mass murderers,invaders,terrorists and criminals.
This would start the GOLDEN AGE prophesied long time ago.
hey you can't have a pax romana with out outremer
p.s. berlusconi is a scumbag
p.p,s sorry am i misunderstanding the man who wants israel to be part of the eu http://blogs.reuters.com/global/2010/02/02/berlus…
p.p.p.s israel is totally dependent on european trade if they are so worried about israel nuking iran why not support sanction on israel instead of supporting sanctions on iran?
by the way the only news sites that have a reference to this are haaretz ynet and financial times i found nothing of it on der speigel
haaretz
"No one, including [U.S. President Barack] Obama, can stop Israel if it feels an existential threat,"
Berlusconi concluded that Iran is secretly working to build a nuclear weapon."
final edit- there is no cable yet release regarding this, im glad to see people don't bother looking at anything more than a 3rd hand un-sourced headline
anyone gona post a link to the cable or the derspiegel article?
If Israel does launch a nuclear attack on Iran, then any and all Israelis immediately become terrorists and targets.
It may just be that all these numerous rumors of Isral nuking Iran are just a tactic to keep Ahmedinejad off balance and hearten the opposition. Actually hitting Iran would have too many costly consequences.
Agreed. That would be highly foolish on Israel's part to launch such an attack. Conventional weapons should only be used is it comes to the point of deterring Iran via military force.
Paul
Isreal would likely just use standard munitions and a lot of them and on more targets than that. Any nuke attack would have to many ramifications even for Israel. If you were going to try to do something in that vein, then smuggle a small nuke or dirty bomb into the area of the reactor and set it off so that it would appear to be an Iranian nuclear accident.
The real danger is the Pentagon pursuing a disarming first-strike capability, maybe only for blackmail. But anyway. Trident missile engineer Bob Aldridge -www.plrc.org-resigned because it´s suicidal as it inevitably leads to Launch On Warning, maybe even automatic. Robert C. Aldridge wrote: First Strike! The Pentagon´s Strategy For Nuclear War and Nuclear Empire (ch. 9 on anti-submarine warfare). Bob Aldridge commented on the missiles to be deployed on ships in the Black Sea in Bulgaria and on land in Romania and Poland: "Whether they are on ships or land, they are still a necessary component for an unanswerable first strike".
Pitz !– all fear mongering. Iran is not that stupid to buy it but Jason does :^/
Come on it's Israel – he only rational democratic state in the middle east. The homeland of those who survived Hitler's crematoria. Would they want to incinerate other people?
Let's wait and see if a smoking gun turns out to be an atomic cloud. Just so long as it's over Iran and not over here.
Are you saying Israelis are moral? Ha, ha, ha, darkest joke the day, that is the same government that dropped White phosphorus (a chemical weapon) on the vast open air prison camp that is the most densely populated area in the world Gaza. Next to the U.S. Israel is the second biggest war crime committing country in the world and its leadership ought to be executed in Brussels for vast crimes against Humanity. You wonderful "democracy," has hundreds of government employed Rabbis who call for a total boycott of renting to Palestinians shades of the pre civil rights era south U.S., Jewish only roads, biased religion based marriage laws, a Rabbi who said non Jews are donkeys to serve the Jews and other vile savage activity far worse than the often vilified Iran that in fact has a Jewish population that lives their in peace without harrasment very much unlike Palestinians in Israel.
Shame on you Hasbara shill and the worst of luck in your endeavors!
This, from the nation that used bombs and poison gas against sheepherders with jezails in Ethiopia.
The U.S. covered up the Israeli ATTACK on the USS LIBERTY that killed 34 and wounded 174 AMERICAN SERVICEMEN. Do you think we'd not do the same if Israel nuked Iran?
Since when has the US *ever* been able to stop Israel from doing anything? One word: NEVER. Israel might play the game for a while, but in the end they always get what they want, regardless of how it affects the US. Oh, I forgot- Washington politicians are so used to being Tel Aviv's prison b*tches they don't know what they were elected for any longer.
The only thing they'll listen to is if the US threatens their welfare checks. Stop those = stop Israel. Anything less is a waste of time.