Reuters News Service reports that, at least three times -- in 2010, 2011, and 2012 -- Netanyahu and political leaders were ready to attack Iran but had to back down when their own military leaders advised against it.
This comes from interviews with the former Israel defense minister Ehud Barak, released by Barak's biographers on Israel television.
The report included some details given by Barak. In 2010, the military said it did not have "operational capability." In 2011, it went as far as having top security ministers discussing plans for an attack, but they changed their minds about the advisability.
In 2012, the timing would have conflicted with a joint military exercise with the United States and would have pulled the U.S. into the conflict because our troops were there. Barak explained that Israel couldn't very well demand that America respect its sovereignty -- and at the same time drag it into an action it opposed but couldn't avoid if it was in the area.
That was Ehud Barak speaking. It's too bad that the Israeli military couldn't over-rule Netanyahu's inappropriate trip to Washington to try to derail President Obama's negotiated agreement between Iran and the U.S. and its five partners.
Ralph
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