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Report: Netanyahu To Delay Iran Attack Until Next Year

Source: Bibi wants to use military assault as election propaganda

Paul Joseph Watson

A senior Likud politician has revealed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to delay an attack on Iran until weeks or months before next year’s scheduled Israeli election, dovetailing with other reports that the military assault targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities has been postponed until 2013.

“A senior Likud politician told my confidential Israeli source that Bibi Netanyahu has decided to delay an Israeli attack on Iran until some weeks or possibly months before the next scheduled Israeli election. That will happen by October 2013 unless Bibi determines he wants to go to the nation earlier,” writes Richard Silverstein.

According to the source, Netanyahu is preparing to take a huge gamble by following the strategy of Menachem Begin, whose decision to attack Saddam Hussein’s Osirak nuclear plant shortly before the election in 1981 was a key factor in securing victory at the polls.

Netanyahu will be able to position himself as a war leader and rally the population around getting behind him to face an external threat if he launches the attack prior to the election.

Silverstein’s report coincides with an article published today by the Jerusalem Post which also cites anonymous defense establishment officials who suggest the attack will not take place this year.

“It could happen this year, but also 2013 is a possibility,” said the source. “We will need to wait to see the effect sanctions and diplomacy have on Iran and what the regime decides to do.”

According to the report, Israel is waiting on the outcome of talks between Iran and the P5+1 group comprised of the US, UK, France, Germany, Russia and China, discussions set to begin in mid-April, before making a firm decision.

However, if Iran begins the enrichment of high grade uranium and clearly takes steps to build a nuclear device, Israel could change the timeline and swiftly launch the attack.

Last week we reported on Haaretz correspondent Amir Oren’s assertion that the attack had been delayed until spring 2013 as a consequence of a joint US-Israeli wargame that did not produce the desired results.

Oren also claimed that Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s acknowledgment that Israel would not launch the attack without U.S. support before the American presidential election represented, “An announcement that this war was being postponed until at least the spring of 2013.”

However, with two U.S. aircraft carriers currently positioned in the Persian Gulf, and with another, the USS Enterprise, on its way, along with a number of smaller warships in the region, it remains to be seen whether this is all just a bluff to take the Iranians by surprise.

Link:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/report-netanyahu-to-delay-iran-attack-until-next-year.html