Seeking perhaps to replicate the success of the Sarkozy-Cameron coalition against Gaddafi, it appears that David Cameron and Benjamin Netanyahu are pushing hard for an imminent strike on Iranian facilities thought to be nuclear.
Will they succeed in drawing the United States into another middle eastern war?
The signs are ominous.
Haaretz reports that Netanyahu and his flunky sidekick Ehud Barak are trying to drum up a majority vote inside Israel's cabinet for a war with Iran.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are trying to muster a majority in the cabinet in favor of military action against Iran, a senior Israeli official has said. According to the official, there is a "small advantage" in the cabinet for the opponents of such an attack.
Netanyahu and Barak recently persuaded Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who previously objected to attacking Iran, to support such a move.
It's rather remarkable that one of the leading doves on this matter had been Lieberman.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Wednesday that Iran poses the largest, most dangerous threat to the current world order, adding that Israel expects that the international community will step up efforts to act against it.
Bibi wants a war. Barak wants a war. Lieberman wants a war. How much longer can the non-warmongers inside Israel's cabinet hold out? Probably not indefinitely.
Who else wants a war?
David "Tony Blair redux" Cameron reporting for duty!
Britain's armed forces are stepping up their contingency planning for potential military action against Iran amid mounting concern about Tehran's nuclear enrichment programme, the Guardian has learned.
The Ministry of Defence believes the US may decide to fast-forward plans for targeted missile strikes at some key Iranian facilities. British officials say that if Washington presses ahead it will seek, and receive, UK military help for any mission, despite some deep reservations within the coalition government.
The United States may be launching such attacks?
Well, they're getting around to that part.
"Beyond [12 months], we couldn't be sure our missiles could reach them," the source said. "So the window is closing, and the UK needs to do some sensible forward planning. The US could do this on their own but they won't.
"So we need to anticipate being asked to contribute. We had thought this would wait until after the US election next year, but now we are not so sure.
"President Obama has a big decision to make in the coming months because he won't want to do anything just before an election."
Thus far, Obama has done as George W Bush did and passed on a war with Iran.
But, will he hold out or instead choose to again 'lead from behind?'
In the mean time, the peace-loving Israeli government test fired a likely nuclear-capable ballistic missile capable of reaching Tehran, which was purely coincidentally around the same time it launched air force drills with the Italian air force and conducting drills to prepare for incoming missiles.
What would the literal fallout from such an action be?
To start with, Israel/the US would have to illegally violate another state's airspace
But attacking Iran would be a much more difficult task. It is a more distant target, and Israeli warplanes would probably have to go over hostile airspace in Syria, Iraq or Saudi Arabia to reach it. Turkey could be an alternative — but its relations with Israel are fraught.
Yeah, I'm gonna guess Turkey ain't down with that. Smart money is on Syria, since Israel has already bombed them recently.
Oh, and about the utterly inconceivable eventuality of the other side shooting back?
The Iranian military is far more powerful than those of Syria or Iraq, equipped with sophisticated anti-aircraft defense systems as well as powerful medium-range missiles capable of striking anywhere in Israel.
An Israeli attack would also likely spark retaliation from local Iranian proxies, the Hamas militant group in the Gaza Strip to Israel's south and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon along Israel's northern border. And it would reorder priorities in a region now consumed by the Arab Spring and the Palestinian issue.
Oh yeah, probably hundreds if not thousands of dead Israelis, and the very real possiblity of a regional war.
And, let's not pretend that even if President Obama fails to join the attack, that the US will not join the hostilities. The United States never misses an opportunity to emphasize that its MidEast policy is Israel-centric.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland commented on the possible Israeli strike against Iran on Wednesday, saying "I'm not going to comment on stray press reports out of Israel. I'm going to send you to the Israeli government for its views on these things.”
“We remain committed to Israel's security. We and Israel share a deep concern about the direction that Iran is taking,” she added.
“We continue to work with Israel, with the international community to speak clearly with regard to Iran's nuclear obligations. And you know where we are on this, that Iran has got to take the necessary steps established by the international community to come back into compliance with its obligations. We are focused with Israel; we are focused with our other international partners on getting Iran to comply with the IAEA, to increase the international pressure for Iran to comply. And that's the focus of our activity," she said.
We all know what would happen in Washington. Massive majorities in both Houses of Congress would demand that the US join the fight.
Certainly, the lobby that supposedly does not exist would not press the administration to look after the our own national interest as opposed to backing Israel to the hilt.
And President Obama has shown exactly how much stomach he has for a sharp break with Israel and its hardcore supporters inside the corridors of power: none.
Failure to conduct our Middle Eastern policy according to our own national interest--and the remarkable lack of controversy over this failure--could very well get the United States dragged into a war that has no benefit and huge costs.
The only thing stopping a war between the United States, Israel and the Uk vs Syria and Iran are a few currently sane cabinet ministers in Israel. Disaster awaits the planet if they waiver even temporarily.
