Is Israel Preparing To Launch A Strike On Iran's Nuclear Sites?

Does Israel feel compelled to launch a strike at Iran’s nuclear sites? And if so, when?

DEBKA

Israel may have to go it alone against a nuclear-armed Iran, said senior minister Tzachi Hanegbi on Tuesday, Feb. 2, because, je said, he can’t see the US taking such a military initiative. The minister spoke the day before an Israel foreign affairs and security cabinet session to discuss the Iranian nuclear issue for the first time since the Biden administration took office. For now, said Hanegbi, it is vital to keep up the pressure of sanctions.

On Monday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken added his voice to the warnings issued by US national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Israel’s top military chief Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, who both estimated that Tehran may be just weeks away from enough fissile material for making a nuke.

The Iran pundits find it hard to pin down the exact point Iran has reached in developing a weapon. Is it only as far as a primitive device, or are they now able to build a nuke sophisticated and compact enough to mount on a missile? And what about, other sensitive components, such as the envelope for the fusion fuel canister, for instance? Is Iran getting help from North Korea or Pakistan on these essential details?

It may be assumed that these questions and more were covered in the quiet conversations US CENTCOM chief Gen. Kenneth McKenzie held in Israel last week, first with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi and then in a two-hour sit-down with Yossi Cohen, director of Israel’s Mossad agency. Cohen no doubt filled the American general in on the intelligence data behind Kochavi’s landmark speech last Monday, in which he ruled out renewed nuclear talks as “wrong” and disclosed that he had instructed the Israel Defense Forces to prepare a number of operational plans, in addition to those already in place.”.

“It will be up to the political leadership, of course, to decide on implementation,” the general noted. “But these plans need to be on the table.”

The most notable development now is that the IDF is preparing for action against Iran’s nuclear program – even if it has to do it on its own.

Meanwhile, Washington and Tehran are moving along a predicable track, each waiting the other to make the first move.

Netanyahu is meanwhile preparing the ground for action. 

On Monday, he was closeted with the finance minster Yisrael Katz and Gen. Kochavi to put together a three-billion-shekel package (roughly $910 million) to fund a possible military attack on. On Wednesday, the security cabinet was to be convened to air the options. But time is short. If the incumbent government decides on action, it will have strike before the general election takes place on March 23

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