Apocalypse Soon? (Iran-Israel‪)‬

A few years ago, the commander of Israel's air force, General Dan Halutz, was asked how far he was prepared to go to destroy or cripple Iran's nuclear program. He replied: "2,000 kilometers"--about the distance from Israel to Iran's key facilities. Halutz went on to become chief of staff of Israel's armed forces, the first pilot to do so, and to lead the Jewish state into a 33-day war with Lebanon's Hizbullah in July 2006. Now in Israel the drumbeat for pre-emptive strikes against Iran, a far more dangerous target, is growing louder by the day, despite U.S. misgivings. Israeli leaders claim Iran's nuclear effort masks a clandestine nuclear weapons program with the Jewish state as the primary target. The air force, as the strategic arm of the Israel Defense Forces, will have the task of mounting those attacks with aircraft and possible ballistic missiles. According to Ehud Yaari, one of Israel's leading military analysts: "Israel has no great appetite for taking on Iran on its own, recognizing the difficulties involved in an attack as well as the potential that Iran could retaliate either with its Shehab-3 missiles, already operational, by embarking upon a large-scale terrorism campaign, or by having Hizbullah ignite a conflict on the Lebanese front. Many view the military option as the 'worst possible course' other than tolerating an Iran equipped with nuclear weapons. The Israeli leadership would, therefore, prefer action by the United States to stop Iran from acquiring a bomb either through diplomatic dialogue, effective sanctions, or--if it came to it--military strikes," he wrote in a November 2009 analysis for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a pro-Israel think-tank. The Americans with their superior technology would be able to mount a far more extensive campaign using land-and carrier-based aircraft, with in-flight refueling and airborne command centers capable of coordinating multiple targeting, as well as ballistic and air- and sea-launched cruise missiles than Israel could with its limited resources.