Times report says Israel came extremely close to striking Iran in 2012
(Worthy News) – A New York Times report Wednesday revealed how close Israel had actually come to striking Iran in 2012.
The long-discussed option in US and Israeli foreign policy circles of dealing with Iran militarily would have happened “unequivocally” at the time, Netanyahu was quoted by the Times as saying, were it not for a lack of majority support in his security cabinet.
The report further details how US officials detected Israeli aircraft mobilizing for an attack on Iran through imagery from spy satellites in the summer of 2012, after which the Americans acknowledged the seriousness of Israel’s intention and sent an Obama administration diplomat every few weeks to “Bibisit” Netanyahu away from ordering the strike.
In October of 2012, the strike was finally called off, according to former Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barack, because “it is one thing to strike alone, and a totally different thing to draw the United States into a confrontation that it doesn’t want to be a part of.”
Speculation arose this week that the Trump Administration is mulling a mutual defense pact with Israel to be rolled out before elections on September 17th, which would obligate the US to support Israel in the case of a military strike against Iran.