Report: Israel’s Military Drawing Up Plans to Strike Iran

Defense Minister Benny Gantz says Israel 'needs to have a military option on the table'

According to a report from the Israel Hayom, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) is drawing up plans for an attack on Iran’s nuclear program.

The report said IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi asked the military for three proposals to hit the nuclear program. The Hayom did not elaborate on the proposals but did say one of them included a military strike.

The Hayom said the military option would require Israel to invest more money into its military and quoted Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz. “It is clear that Israel needs to have a military option on the table. It requires resources and investment, and I am working to make that happen,” he said.

The Israelis say they are responding to increased uranium enrichment recently announced by Iran.

Iran said they are increasing uranium enrichment to 20 percent to make fuel rods for the Tehran Research Reactor, a facility that was built by the US in the 1960s. Despite sensationalist headlines in Western media, the increased enrichment has a civilian purpose and does not indicate the Iranians are racing towards a bomb.

Iran’s parliament passed a law calling for increased enrichment after the November assassination of scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who killed in an apparent Israeli plot. So it was Israeli aggression that ultimately led to the increased enrichment that Israel is now making threats over.

The Hayom report came a day after a minister from Israel’s Likud party threatened to attack Iran if the Biden administration returns to the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA.

Author: Dave DeCamp

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.