International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, 5 Mar 2009

According to a report recently issued by a prominent Washington think tank, Israel is seriously considering launching a go-it-alone pre-emptive strike against Iran’s renegade nuclear facilities in order to prevent the Islamic Republic from attaining atomic weapons.

The report, published by Washington Institute for Near East Policy and entitled "Preventing a Cascade of Instability," concluded that one possible reason for a unilateral Israeli strike might be the narrowing window of opportunity, as Iran is approaching the theoretical "point of no return" beyond which it will be impossible to stop them from going nuclear. The report also notes that Russia will probably soon deliver its highly advanced S-300 air defense system to Iran, making air strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites more difficult.

The report’s authors include veteran members of Congress and respected Middle East experts. Dennis Ross was among those writing the draft report until US President Barak Obama tapped him to be his special representative to the Persian Gulf region to basically deal with the Iranian threat to US allies in the region.

Israel is "quite serious in acting on its own about a nuclear-armed Iran," stated former US ambassador to the United Nations Nancy Soderberg, a member of the team that travelled to the Middle East to compile the report. She added that one of the goals of the report was to try and inform leaders of the situation so that things would not escalate to the point where military action was unavoidable. "You've kind of lost the ballgame at that point," she said.

The report calls for intensifying economic pressure against Iran to reinforce the administration’s plans for diplomatic engagement with Tehran. It also suggested an increase in the supply of missile defenses and security guarantees to US allies in the region, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iraq, Jordan and Egypt.

The WINEP report assessed that Sunni Arab states would be open to coming under an American "nuclear umbrella" whereby the US would threaten nuclear retaliation against Iran if it attacked any of its neighbors. However, the authors concluded from discussions with Israeli officials that Jerusalem would be more inclined to rely on its own assumed nuclear program for deterrence. Israeli leaders "fear that a declared US guarantee could come at the price of circumscribing Israel's freedom of action in confronting existential dangers," the report states.

Copyright © 2009 International Christian Embassy Jerusalem