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I'm starting to question both their ability to actually hit Iran, and their political will power.

IMHO, we won't see what needs to be done.

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I'm starting to question both their ability to actually hit Iran, and their political will power.

IMHO, we won't see what needs to be done.

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this

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No time soon.......Obungo told him not to.

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I am guessing they would say to Obongo the same as I .... if my family were facing extermination...

FOAD!!!

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Outside of repelling foreign invasion Israel is not going to be making any overt military actions into the forseeable future. They do not have the political support in the USA or withing their own country. Iran is going to build a small arsenal of nukes. Israel's only option is to engage in a policy of Mutual Assured Destruction as we had during the Cold War.

Most Israelis could live with a nuclear Iran: poll
Sun Jun 14, 2009 8:00am EDT
By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Only one in five Israeli Jews believes a nuclear-armed Iran would try to destroy Israel and most see life continuing as normal should their arch-foe get the bomb, an opinion poll published on Sunday found.

The survey, commissioned by a Tel Aviv University think tank, appeared to challenge the argument of successive Israeli governments that Iran must be denied the means to make atomic weapons lest it threaten the existence of the Jewish state.

Asked how a nuclear-armed Iran would affect their lives, 80 percent of respondents said they expected no change. Eleven percent said they would consider emigrating and 9 percent said they would consider relocating inside Israel.

Twenty-one percent of Israelis believe Iran "would attack Israel with nuclear weapons with the objective of destroying it," the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), which commissioned the poll, said in a statement.

Iran says its uranium enrichment, which has bomb-making potential, is for energy only. But its leaders' anti-Israel rhetoric and support for Islamist guerrillas in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories have stirred fears of a regional war.

Some Israeli officials have said that the Islamic republic's ruling clerics may consider destroying Israel a goal worth the risk even of a devastating counter-strike: Israel is widely assumed to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal.

A longer-term scenario sees Iran using the nuclear specter to undermine Israelis' desire to stay in their homeland.

DETERRENCE, RATIONALISM

"The Israeli leadership may be more informed," INSS research director Yehuda Ben Meir told Reuters, explaining that the discrepancy between public and government views about Iran.

But he added: "I think the Israeli public does not see this as an existential threat, and here there may be an exaggeration by some members of the leadership.

"Most Israelis appear willing to place their bet on Israel's deterrent capability and, I would add, on Iran's rational behavior."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was to give a major policy speech on Sunday citing Iran's reach among the reasons his government is reluctant to cede occupied land for a Palestinian state, as envisaged by U.S.-led peace mediators.

Like his predecessors, Netanyahu has hinted Israel could attack Iran pre-emptively should Western diplomacy fail to curb its uranium enrichment.

The INSS survey found 59 percent of Israeli Jews would support such strikes, while 41 percent would not back the military option.

The poll had 616 respondents and a margin of error of 3.5 percent, Ben Meir said.

Israeli Arabs who make up some 20 percent of the population –– and are generally less likely to see themselves as targets of the Jewish state's enemies –– were not included for budgetary reasons, he said.

A separate survey, commissioned by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, found 52 percent support for pre-emptive Israeli attacks on Iran, with 35 percent of respondents opposed.

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE55D0DR20090614

Last update - 08:29 15/06/2009

Dennis Ross to be ousted as Obama's envoy to Iran

By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent

Tags: Israel News, Dennis Ross


Dennis Ross, who most recently served as a special State Department envoy to Iran, will abruptly be relieved of his duties, sources in Washington told Haaretz. An official announcement is expected in the coming days.

The Obama administration will announce that Ross has been reassigned to another position in the White House. In his new post, the former Mideast peace envoy under President Bill Clinton will deal primarily with regional issues related to the peace process.

Washington insiders speculate that a number of reasons moved the administration to reassign Ross. One possibility is Iran's persistent refusal to accept Ross as a U.S. emissary given the diplomat's Jewish background as well as his purported pro-Israel leanings. Ross is known to maintain contacts with numerous senior officials in Israel's defense establishment and the Israeli government.

Diplomatic sources in Jerusalem surmised that another possibility for Ross' ouster is his just-released book, "Myths, Illusions, and Peace - Finding a New Direction for America in the Middle East."

Ross, who co-wrote the book with David Makovsky, a former journalist who is a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, argued against a linkage between the Palestinian issue and the West's policy against Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Ross and Mokovsky also raised the possibility of military action against Iran.

"Tougher policies - either militarily or meaningful containment - will be easier to sell internationally and domestically if we have diplomatically tried to resolve our differences with Iran in a serious and credible fashion," they wrote.

Another possible reason for the reshuffle could be Ross' dissatisfaction with his present standing in the State Department, particularly given the fact that Washington's two other envoys to the region - George Mitchell, who is overseeing the Mideast peace process; and Richard Holbrooke, who is dealing with Pakistan and Afghanistan - wield great influence and are featured prominently.

A diplomatic source in Jerusalem speculated that perhaps Ross preferred to work for the National Security Agency, which answers directly to President Barack Obama, and would thus be considered a more enhanced role.

Last year, Ross was an advisor to Obama's successful presidential campaign. Before Obama's inauguration, speculation was rampant as to which job Ross would assume in the new administration.

On February 24, 2009, he was officially appointed as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's advisor on the Persian Gulf and special envoy to Iran.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1093058.html