Tuesday January 31, 2012

I've Been Thinking:

Tensions between the United States and Israel about how to respond to Iran continue to rise. They have a clear difference of approach on how to handle the situation.

Israel has no doubt that Iran is on the verge of nuclear independence which would, in turn, enable the Iranians to provide enough refined uranium to make nuclear warheads. Israel says that the "window" is 5 months to 18 months. Action must take place before that window closes.

The United States sees the situation very differently. The US wants to continue to monitor and not act. It is far less of a threat for the US and the clock is not ticking nearly as loud as it is for Israel.

But both the US and Israel - and add to that even Iran, know that Israel does not have a knockout punch that would eliminate the entire Iranian nuclear threat. Rather, Israel has a knockdown punch which will delay progress. That means that the US will also have to engage Iran if they want to do the job right.

Israel has another option. They can attack the sites of Iran's national infrastructure - the military headquarters, the intelligence centers, the communication centers, the command and control centers.

That may be the best backup plan Israel can develop.

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