[Marxism] Israel prepares air and ground attack on Iraq

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

An article from the London Times and introductory comments by Prof. Mark
Jensen of United for Peace of Pierce County (Seattle).
Fred


NEWS: *Sunday Times*: Israel plans air & ground attack on Iran

[London's *Sunday Times* reported on Sunday that Ariel Sharon gave
"initial 
authorization" in February for an attack on Iran to deal a devastating
blow to 
Iran's nuclear program.[1]  --  Israel's élite *Shaldag* commando unit,
F-15s, 
and "bunker-busting bombs" for penetrating underground facilities are
all said 
to be part of the plan.  --  A longer story indicated "senior Israeli 
intelligence sources" as the basis of the report (which may, of course,
be 
pure disinformation).   

According to this version, an elaborate mock-up of the Natanz uranium
enrichment facility in central Iran has been constructed 
in the Negev desert so that elite commando teams can practice, and "the
U.S. 
administration will authorize Israel to attack" later this year, should 
diplomatic efforts to persuade Iran to abandon uranium enrichment fail.
--  
The consequences of an attack would be far-reaching:  it might "scupper 
President George W. Bush?s Middle East peace plans and unleash the full
force 
of Iran?s military might against Israel and Jewish interests around the 
globe," wrote Uzi Mahnaimi and Tony Allen-Mills in the *Sunday Times*.
-- 

 A humanitarian-environmental justification for the strike seems just
around the 
corner, since "The risk of delaying a military strike, [nuclear experts]
say, 
is that once the Bushehr reactors start up, their destruction might
cause an 
environmental catastrophe on a par with the Chernobyl meltdown in 1986."
--  

The reporters speculate that "Not the least of the reasons Bush has
become so 
accommodating to European diplomacy is that the Pentagon has told him it
can?t 
be sure it has located the entire Iranian nuclear structure.  'There
isn?t a 
military option at the moment,' the Washington official added.  

By leaking details of its attack plans, Israel may be trying to put
pressure on Bush amid 
concerns that the U.S. is going 'soft' on Iran in the interests of 
trans-Atlantic harmony.  Some analysts believe that if Washington
concludes an 
Israeli attack is inevitable, U.S. forces will be obliged to act in the
hope 
of saving the Middle East peace process."  --Mark Jensen]

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/2425/

1.

World

REVEALED: ISRAEL PLANS STRIKE ON IRANIAN NUCLEAR PLANT
By Uzi Mahnaimi

Sunday Times (London)
March 13, 2005

Full article:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1522978,00.html

Israel has drawn up secret plans for a combined air and ground attack on

targets in Iran if diplomacy fails to halt the Iranian nuclear program.

The inner cabinet of Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, gave
?initial 
authorization? for an attack at a private meeting last month on his
ranch in 
the Negev desert.

Israeli forces have used a mock-up of Iran?s Natanz uranium enrichment
plant 
in the desert to practice destroying it.  Their tactics include raids by

Israel?s elite *Shaldag* (Kingfisher) commando unit and airstrikes by
F-15 
jets from 69 Squadron, using bunker-busting bombs to penetrate
underground 
facilities.

The plans have been discussed with American officials who are said to
have 
indicated provisionally that they would not stand in Israel?s way if all

international efforts to halt Iranian nuclear projects failed.
[snip]


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