MIDDLE EAST: Israel has drawn up plans for strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities with bunker-busting bombs supplied by the US, but analysts say it has no intention of carrying them through while diplomatic pressure is growing on Tehran
Israel regards Tehran as the single greatest threat, a view sharpened by the Iranian president's call for the destruction of the Jewish state and his denial of the Holocaust.
Last month Benjamin Netanyahu, the former prime minister and leader of the Likud party, said that if he wins the general election in March he would follow the example of former prime minister Menachem Begin, who ordered the Israeli air force bombing of Iraq's nuclear plant in 1981.
But the government does recognise important political and military differences from the situation with Iraq 25 years ago.
"I don't think there's a desire on any side to deal with this militarily," said Emily Landau, of the Jaffee Centre's arms control project in Tel Aviv. "I think that . . . everybody's looking to referring the case of Iran to the UN Security Council and that is what Israel is hoping for as well."
The Israeli government has been sceptical of European efforts to pressure Tehran over the past two years, saying a more robust approach led by the US would be required. But there are other factors at work, including a US desire to ensure the Iranians are not able to garner support by portraying pressure over the nuclear issue as a Zionist plot.
The US also controls air space that Israel would probably have to fly over to reach Iran. Some Israeli analysts have questioned Israel's ability to carry out such an assault. - (Guardian service)