Bush in the Middle East

Ilene Prusher reports in Israel steps up warnings to Bush on Iran Christian Science Monitor 01/09/08 that Israeli officials are expected to stress the alleged urgency of the Iranian nuclear weapons program to Bush on his visit there this week:

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokesman says that during Mr. Bush's visit, the first in his presidency, Israel plans to place Iran as high and as prominently on the agenda as the recently resurrected Israeli-Palestinian peace track. ...

At a briefing late last week with recently retired military officials, who enjoy more leeway to speak about controversial issues in public than do sitting officials, several sounded alarm bells on Iran following the NIE report.

"It's very clear that it puts Israel in a corner and that means that decisionmakers will have to take very critical decisions because in the past we thought someone else was watching and that the world would take care of it," said retired Maj. Gen. Jacob Amidror.

"I want to be strong: Iran is building their nuclear military capability," Mr. Amidror told the small group at the briefing, including a handful of Western reporters, at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, a conservative think thank in Israel. "We think that the report of the American intelligence community is a huge mistake, based on I don't know what."

It's well to keep in mind in all this that Israel has its own nuclear weapons. I've seen estimates of 100 on the low end to 400 on the high end. But even if they only have ten, they have a nuclear deterrent against any Iranian nuclear attack on their country.

Tags: iran war, israel