Israel is Planning for the Inevitable

Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies explains the dilemma: “Ultimately, the Israelis cannot wait for a green light from the U.S. when its survival is at stake. This administration, or any other for that matter, cannot possibly understand Israel’s stressful and painful calculus right now. My sense is that the Israelis will continue to work with the administration to the last moment until they believe they simply can’t any longer.” To make matters more complicated, Schanzer contends, “The Israelis need us very badly for this incredibly complex operation.” He explains, “ From things like intelligence to IFF [Identify Friend or Foe] codes to mid-air refueling to sophisticated ordnance (just to name a few), this operation would likely be extremely difficult to pull off without significant U.S. assistance.” And yet Israel, with whatever assistance it can extract from the Obama administration (and many experts believe that at lower levels there is extremely close military and intelligence cooperation between the two countries), may have to act soon, if the International Atomic Energy Agency report is accurate.