Why an Israeli Military Option against Iran Is Back on the Table

The most important message to come out of last week’s United Nations General Assembly gathering in New York wasn’t Africa’s call for greater vaccine diplomacy or a plea for the world body to get more engaged in Myanmar. Rather, it was that Israel, now under new management by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and his broad political coalition, is making serious contingency plans to move unilaterally against Iran, should it become necessary to do so.

In his September 28 address before the U.N. General Assembly, Israel’s new premier made it clear that the Jewish state continues to view the Islamic Republic’s persistent nuclear ambitions as a truly existential danger — and that it is prepared to take military action on its own in order to thwart them if it feels it has no other choice.

Such a step, it should be noted, has never been Israel’s preference. Israeli policymakers have long maintained that diplomacy and multilateral pressure — or, barring that, collective action — are preferable methods for containing Iran’s nuclear progress. This is so for obvious reasons. After some two decades of development, Iran’s atomic enterprise is simply too vast, too distributed, and too complex to be eliminated outright by a targeted strike. That is why, on the rare occasions that they do speak of action against Iran, Israeli strategic planners make clear that the best they hope for is to cause temporary setbacks and complications to Tehran’s path toward the bomb.

Nevertheless, they are also acutely aware of the fact that Iran’s nuclear program isn’t standing still. Back in August, Israeli defense minister Benny Gantz warned publicly that the Iranian regime could be as little as ten weeks away from “nuclear breakout” — that is, acquiring the weapons-grade material necessary to assemble an atomic weapon. In his remarks in New York last week, Bennett echoed this essential point. “Over the past few years, Iran has made a major leap forward, in its nuclear R&D, in its production capacity, and in its enrichment,” he said. “Iran’s nuclear weapon program is at a critical point.” In other words, as seen from Jerusalem, Iran’s nuclear clock is ticking loudly indeed.

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https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/10/why-an-israeli-military-option-against-iran-is-back-on-the-table/