Israeli
PM’s 2010 Iran strike order rebuffed by IDF, Mossad – documentary
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and Minister of Defense Ehud Barak (AFP Photo/David Buimovich)
Meir Dagan, head of Israel's spy agency Mossad (L) and srael's army Chief Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi (R) (Reuters/Yonathan Weitzman/Umit Bektas)
Vladimir Kremlev for RT
In
2010, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the IDF to prepare fully
for a war with Iran. The head of Mossad intelligence service and
country’s chief of general staff opposed the move and prevented war
with Iran, a documentary claims.
RT,
5
November , 2012
Investigative
journalist Ilana Dayan produced an hour-long documentary for Israel's
Channel 2 TV on the decision-making process in Israeli policy towards
Iran over the last decade, from PM Ariel Sharon to PM Benjamin
Netanyahu.
The
film, to be aired late on Monday, poses the question as to how far a
politician can go in taking a “no return” decision to assault a
foreign state he believes poses a threat to his country and whether
he has the authority to do so unilaterally.
The
move was made during a meeting of “forum of seven” group that
represents only a part of the Israeli government. Netanyahu addressed
the now-retired Chief of General Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and actually
ordered the head of the Israeli Defense Forces to “set
the systems for P-plus,” which
means full IDF readiness for an assault. The request met full support
of the attending the meeting country’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and Minister of Defense Ehud Barak (AFP Photo/David Buimovich)
The
request put Israel on the brink of war with a country that has
practically ten times Israel’s population and a modernized, fairly
well-armed and respectively more numerous army.
The
demand met fierce objections on the part of Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi
and the head of the Israeli intelligence service (Mossad) Meir Dagan,
who had to step down after that notorious meeting.
The
former Mossad chief told Ilana Dayan that Netanyahu attempted to make
the IDF attack Iran’s nuclear objects in a “stealing a war’
manner, in other words, without holding consultations with all 15
members of his cabinet.
After
his resignation from Mossad, Dagan called that move by Netanyahu
“stupid”, reports AFP.
At
the time, Ashkenazi reportedly warned that P-plus order is
irreversible and Israel would have to actually attack Iran as the
preparations would "create
new facts on the ground." Barak
objected that such readiness does not necessarily mean that an act of
aggression is imminent.
On
Sunday, Barak actually told Channel 2 that back in 2010 Ashkenazi
said that IDF had no operational means for a successful assault on
Iran.
On
the other hand, Haaretz daily says that while quitting his post of
chief of general staff, Ashkenazi told associates that the army
actually was ready for the strike, but he personally considered the
assault a strategic mistake.
In
any case, in 2010 the decision to attack Iran was finally dropped.
Meir Dagan, head of Israel's spy agency Mossad (L) and srael's army Chief Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi (R) (Reuters/Yonathan Weitzman/Umit Bektas)
Journalist
Ilana Dayan said in the documentary promo that she was not allowed to
give the actual date of that meeting. It is possible that it took
place after the Stuxnet cyber worm’s attack on Iranian uranium
enrichment facilities failed to put the Iranian nuclear program to a
full halt. Still, the Stuxnet worm allegedly managed to damage as
many as 1,000 centrifuges in the Iranian uranium enrichment center in
Natanz, reports The New York Times.
Israeli
Channel 2 TV plans to broadcast the documentary as a part of Dayan's
investigative journalism show “Fact” on Monday evening, the eve
of the US presidential election on November 6. The precise timing of
it suggests that the discussion between Washington and Tel Aviv on
how to stop the Iranian nuclear program might be reopened immediately
after the presidential election in America.
The
administration of President Barack Obama has been decisive to decline
all Israel’s attempts to draw the US into a military strike on
Iran’s nuclear facilities. Washington has warned that should Tel
Aviv opts to do the assault on its own, it would have to face the
consequences all alone.
Washington
still lays its hopes with the crippling international sanctions
imposed on Iranian Islamic Republic
Despite
Washington’s decisiveness on the Iranian question, the Israeli
leader continues to call for military action against Tehran. During a
recent speech at the UN, Netanyahu declared that the show time for
Iran is simply postponed till spring, or at maximum till summer 2013.
Vladimir Kremlev for RT
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