In early August, three former high-ranking figures in Israel announced that the government of Binyamin Netanyahu was planning to strike on Iranian nuclear facilities this fall and that they strongly objected to this, because this step was fraught with the beginning of the third world war and the extermination of the Jewish state. Thus, the former chiefs of military intelligence (AMAN), General Aharon Ze'evi Farkash and General Amos Yadlin, and the former head of the "Mossad" Efraim Halevy joined the opinion of other former heads of "Mossad" and the General Security Service (Shin Bet), Meir Dagan and Yuval Diskin. Yadlin even called the more or less exact date of the attack - "after a period of 12 weeks from early August." At the same time, he said, the Chief of General Staff of Israeli army Benny Ganz also opposed such a strike, but Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Barak insisted on it.
In an interview with a reporter of VK a senior official of the office of Prime Minister of Israel expressed his indignation at these escapades of former heads of intelligence agencies. According to him, it is clear that after such statements the strike on Iran will soon become impossible, because its success is largely due to the factor of surprise. By making such statements, the source continued, former generals openly harm the national interests and clearly act on someone's tip.
It is not difficult to guess whose this tip is. During recent visits to Israel of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and of Defense Minister Leona Panetta the distinguished guests openly hinted that the U.S. strongly condemned Israel's intention to conduct a military operation against Iran. But, they said, in a year and a half, when it became clear that the sanctions did not yield any results, this operation would be possible, and the United States and NATO would take a direct part in it. In response, Netanyahu, Barak and the head of the Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that all sanctions and attempts to negotiate with Iran yielded no results, and the time to strike ended, because Iran was about to develop nuclear weapon. In addition, it is possible that in a year and a half Russia and China will provide Iran with a "protective umbrella" like the Syrian one, and the U.S. will also vary on the issue of the strike on Iran, as they now vary on the question of the actions in Syria.
The meaning of all the conversations of the representatives of the Israeli leadership with Clinton and Panetta was clear: of course, Israel would act with the support and direct participation of America, but without such support the Jewish state would take its destiny into its own hands. "When we face a choice if we should blow up Iran's nuclear facilities or wait until the explosion of Iranian nuclear bomb in Israel, I will choose explosions in Iran!" - Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Thus, Farkas, Yadlin and Halevy, holding press conferences and saying to media that the attack on Iran is planned to be made in the coming weeks are likely to have acted at the request of Washington. The very raising of this issue made the plans of the Israeli leadership for such a strike irrelevant - just like the leak of information about the possible strike on Iran from the territory of Azerbaijan admitted by the Americans which has made such a strike impossible.
We can only guess what former heads of Israeli intelligence are guided by. However, it is no secret that, after resignation most Israeli generals began to actively engage in business, in particular, with the U.S.; this means that it is important for them to maintain ties with the ruling circles of the superpower.
In fact (and Israeli or international media do not give any information about it for some reason), the question of whether to make strike on Iran or not will be decided in Israel at the next meeting of the "narrow" Cabinet of Ministers for security issues scheduled for the last ten days of August. The cabinet includes eight ministers. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz and Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Lieberman support the idea of attacking Iran. Ministers Benny Begin (son of former Prime Minister Menachem Begin, who made a strike on the Iraqi nuclear reactor), and Dan Meridor believe that such a strike is possible only with the assistance of the United States and strongly oppose any unilateral steps by Israel; ministers Moshe (Boogie) Ya'alon and Eli Yishai are hesitating, though they are more inclined to believe that the strike should be avoided. Thus, everything depends on whether Netanyahu will be able to win over Ya'alon and Meridor before the meeting. Only in this case he will have the majority on this issue not only in the narrow cabinet for security issues, but also in the government as a whole, and after the cabinet meeting the issue will be submitted to the government. Only if the Israeli government approves the strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, in fact, it will be made in several weeks – of course, in general, if it is advisable to make such a strike after the recent publications of the Israeli media.
