DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis October 11, 2013

Israeli Air Force F-15 and F-16 fighter squadrons this week carried out exercises testing their capability to conduct missions at long ranges from base, the Israeli military said Thursday, Oct. 10. The drills included air-to-air refueling and dogfights against foreign combat planes. They were conducted together with Hellenic Air Force aircraft and naval units over the western Peloponnese and the Myrtoon Pelagos of Greece, shortly before the Six Power talks begin in Geneva on Iran’s nuclear program.
Israeli commentators noted that the drill broadcast a message to Tehran that Israel’s military option for bombing its nuclear program was alive and kicking. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu bombarded European TV media with interviews warning their leaders that the Iranians were conning the world while continuing to develop a nuclear weapon capability. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” he said.
Prime Minister Netanyahu was acting as though he believed he still holds three spanners for throwing into Iran’s nuclear program:

1. The Israeli military as embodied in its air force;

2. European leaders, who are dismayed by President Barack Obama’s precipitate rapprochement with Tehran. Addressing them, Netanyahu warned: “Better no deal than a bad deal.”
3. The US Congress, on which he counts to block future presidential applications to approve the lifting in stages of sanctions against Iran, simply by withholding approval of his agreements with Tehran.
However, the truth which every Middle East and Western leaders knows by now, is that the battle against a nuclear Iran is lost.

President Obama has wound up his secret negotiations with Iran and instructed US delegates to put on the table of the Geneva negotiations on Oct. 15 the understandings or deals he has reached with Iranian leaders.

Those understandings are about to be endorsed by the P5+1 (the five permanent Security Council members plus Germany) for implementation in stages. They will leave Iran with the capacity, reduced but intact, to continue to enrich uranium along with its ability to use clandestine sites to house the nuclear weapons they are able to produce.
Netanyahu may keep on calling this a bad deal. But after all, it took shape on his watch as prime minister. And after Barack Obama became president in 2009, Israel failed to stall Iran’s race for a nuclear bomb – not in Parchin, Arak and Fordo – but in the White House.

The prime minister staged the long-distance air force drill more for domestic consumption than for use as a deterrent to impress Tehran. The Iranians have succeeded far too well in their diplomatic maneuvers to take much notice. They are sure the Netanyahu government will tire of its campaign, end up aligning once again with the Obama administration and swallow its deals with President Vladimir Putin on Iran, just as it did for Syria’s chemical weapons.

Ego aside, would want nothing more than to be proven wrong, after all, living in the eye of the storm makes “right or wrong” less than a footnote, thus, allowing millions of Jews/Zionists to breath easier. YET, PM Netanyahu continues to opine: 

In the midst of what many see as warming diplomatic ties between Iran and the West, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu continues to warn the world on the dangers of a nuclear Iran and told the New York Times in an interview published on Friday that he would not let the Islamic Republic have nuclear weapons.

During the interview Netanyahu reportedly pointed to two photos above his desk in his Jerusalem office, one of the British WWII leader Sir Winston Churchill and the  founding father of Zionism, Theodor Herzl and said: “They were alone a lot more than I am…..”  

Nevertheless, it is neither hyperbole nor hysterics to state that PM Netanyahu’s FAILURE to act – so far – has been the worst misstep of leadership under any Israeli leader. NOW, that is not an easy statement to make, since the 1973 Yom Kippur War would not have occurred had PM Golda Meir been on the ball, instead of listening to her bombastic advisers, as well as Washington’s arm twisters to “stand down”, even as Egypt’s colossal army, with Syria in tow, amassed at its southern and northern borders. History repeats. Most recently, the accursed Oslo Peace/Death Accords, signed under PM Rabin’s stewardship, pale in comparison to Iran getting the bomb.

The charges laid out are not whether Israel’s leaders have the ability to stop Iran – they do. Dolphin subs…EMP strike…pick a door. Yet, despite ALL of PM Netanyahu’s verbal bluster, again, as is said, “the proof is in the pudding”, as their centrifuges never stopped spinning under his watch – PM Netanyahu’s rhetorical flourishes beside the point!! 

The hour before midnight is fast approaching, with hardly a few weeks left to spare. So, if this American-Israeli wakes up one morning to the sound of sirens wailing, signaling to take cover, that Israel is attacking Iran’s WMD sites, it will be a huge relief, even if the shit hits the fan for weeks to come. So be it. However, more than likely, the opposite will take place. Israelis will probably awake to the grim news, yes, Iran is a nuclear power and that is that. 

So far, “Vegas” odds are  – Iran: 1. Israel: 0.