Evening Update: "To Annihilate Israel, We Need 24 Hours"

This comes from the Jerusalem Post:

'To Annihilate Israel We Need 24 Hours, An Excuse'

In his interview, Shirazi said that Israel was “close to annihilation” and wanted to attack Iran as an act of desperation.

 “Are our enemies intelligent, wise or foolish? They are foolish. It’s also possible that they will do this foolish thing [and attack Iran]. Why do we sometimes say this is the strongest probability? Because today the Israelis are telling us that ‘we are not the Israel of yesterday, we are getting weaker day by day and the Islamic Republic is getting stronger day by day,’” he added.

Khamenei appointed Shirazi a year ago as his representative to the Qods Force, the highly secretive extraterritorial wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which reports directly to Khamenei.In his first public interview in a year, reported in the Persian-language Jahan News, which is close to the regime, Shirazi said if Israel attacked Iran, the Islamic Republic would be able to turn the conflict into a war of attrition that would lead to Israel’s destruction.

The Qods Force, whose exact size is unknown, is responsible for IRGC operations outside Iran, including in Syria.

“Well, when Israel finds itself in danger of extinction, it flails around, and so it’s easy for it to do foolish things and will start a war just to sting Iran.”Shirazi’s remarks echo those of other senior Iranian military leaders, who have repeatedly threatened to respond to any attack by the US and its allies on its nuclear facilities by engaging in a war of attrition.Iran has also repeatedly paraded what it claims are advances in military technologies, including in ballistic missile technologies, which could be used in such a war.

Early Election Rumors In Israel

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz met Tuesday to discuss whether to try to pass an unpopular proposed budget or resort to calling early national elections, adding to speculation that Israelis could be going to the polls within months.
Observers have suggested that with the budget deadline approaching, and with resistance to the budget from at least some coalition parties, Netanyahu will choose instead to disband the government and call elections.

Early elections could be called for February or March 2013, and some coalition parties are already reportedly planning for that possibility. Elections are currently scheduled to be held only a year from now. At the weekend, Yisrael Beteynu party leader Avigdor Liberman, the foreign minister, said it would become clear fairly soon whether elections will be held in the spring, or as scheduled in the autumn.Sources close to Netanyahu, however, said that the prime minister is aiming to avoid early elections at all costs, Channel 10 reported on Monday. And last week Israeli business site Calcalist reported that sources in the Prime Minister’s Office and Finance Ministry said the budget would likely be put before the Knesset next week and that the elections would not be moved up.

Cold-Shouldered By The U.S., Netanyahu Shifting Anti-Iran Campaign Focus To Europe

Good luck with that. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Europe before the end of the year in an effort to persuade leaders to step up sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.
After unsuccessfully lobbying US President Barack Obama’s administration for support for such a strike — or for an American declaration that Iranian activity beyond a certain “red line” would invite US military intervention — Netanyahu’s plans for a European trip to push for tighter sanctions on Tehran seem to signal a shift in policy.

The New York Times on Tuesday quoted an unnamed Israeli official as saying, “Our feeling is that with the elections and everything, we’ve not seen much on the American front except for sealing holes where the Iranians have found ways to get around the sanctions.”Regarding the shift to Europe, the official said, “Up until now, it’s been the US and then the Europeans following. If it’s the other way around, so be it. We’ve got to go with what we’ve got.”