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Brian Wilson denies "Barbara Ann" mistranslation
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak want an attack on Iran as soon as possible, according to the Israeli daily {Ha'aretz}.
Citing unnamed sources {Ha'aretz} reports that within the so-called "octet" forum of the Israeli cabinet where security issues are discussed, there is a split on the question of attacking Iran.
Defense Minister Barak "supported an Israeli military strike on Iran and said it should take place as soon as possible." Netanyahu agrees with him. On the other hand Moshe Ya'alon, a former Chief of the Defense Staff, despite his hard-line security positions, opposes a strike and believes "Israel should give international sanctions on Iran more time, and that if military action did become necessary, it would be better for America to do it.
Under no circumstances would Israel conduct such an operation on its own." Another report indicates that Minister of Intelligence and Atomic Energy Dan Meridor and Minister Without Portfolio Benny Begin, (son of late Prime Minister Menachem Begin) also oppose a strike against Iran.
Military commentator for {Ha'aretz} Reuven Pedatzur wrote in {Ha'aretz}, "If anyone can save Israel from catastrophe it is the Israel Air Force commander. ... Maj. Gen. Ido Nechushtan" who has to tell "the prime minister and defense minister that an Air Force attack on Iran cannot achieve its goals."
Pedatzur lays out the well known facts that Israel could never hope to hit the all the targets, saying "Nechushtan must act with national responsibility. It would not be a display of defeatism, but rather one of supreme responsibility in an era when the decision-making process has gone dangerously haywire.
Only he can stop the train speeding to a collision in Iran's skies." He once again cites former Mossad Chief Meir Dagan warning that "an attack in Iran is the stupidest thing I ever heard." Pedatzur goes so far as to say that the Air Force chief should cancel all contingency exercises for an attack on Iran because it only "gives Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak the illusion that it is possible to destroy the Iranian nuclear program by military action.
This is why the Air Force commander must go to these two and explain there is no point in the continued investment in these drills and they should be stopped."



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