The Jewish State should be kicking itself for not acting against the Iranian nuclear threat sooner via military force, said an Israeli commentator.
As talks aimed at persuading Iran to re-enter an agreement to suspend its nuclear program resume in Vienna, the Jewish State should be kicking itself for not acting against the threat sooner via military force, said an Israeli commentator on Tuesday.
Channel 13’s Arab affairs correspondent Tzvi Yehezkeli told Radio 103 that Israel had failed to act swiftly enough to curb Iran’s nuclear program, either through diplomatic or military means, and is now paying the price.
“The Syrians once had a nuclear program, just like the Iranians do, and now look what happened, after we told the world what was going on without attacking,” Yehezkeli said. “We didn’t necessarily have to wipe them out.”
“Today, the Iranians are just a short distance away from getting the bomb. That’s what they’re discussing now in the negotiations – the fact that the Iranians are closer to getting the bomb than ever before, and that’s what’s going to cause the rest of the world to capitulate,” he said.
His reference to the Islamic Republic being on the threshold of obtaining a nuclear weapons comes on the heels of a recent report that Iran is gearing up to begin enriching uranium at a 90 percent, weapons-grade level in order to gain leverage in the Vienna talks.
Yehezkeli said a show of force from Israel that is a departure from the more low-key sabotage strategies that the Jewish State has preferred to use, could make a significant impact on stopping the Iranian nuclear threat.
“If it was up to me, I would demonstrate our capabilities, which is something that can impress the Iranians, if we do something that shows them just how wide our reach is, if we manage to hit something they didn’t think we could touch,” he said.
“A cyber attack, for instance – but not a high-intensity attack. How can we tolerate a situation in which a senior Iranian official states openly that their goal is to destroy the State of Israel? What I would do is turn up the volume of cyber attacks on Iran,” he stressed.
“We could be hitting far deeper at Iran’s nuclear programs,” he added, “because we’re already in an emergency situation. And soon enough, it will be a genuine emergency.”
Also on Tuesday, Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev told Radio 103 that despite the resumption of talks, “it’s obvious the military option is on the table.”
IDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Ran Kochav told Channel 11 News that the military was well-prepared for defending Israel against Iran.
“As I’ve said in the past, we are prepared for all eventualities and we have stepped up preparedness on the matter,” he said.
“The military and operational questions are our top priority, both in terms of preventing Iran from entrenching itself to the north and preventing it from becoming a [nuclear] threshold state.”