Bombshell Recording Reveals
Netanyahu Blocked from Striking Iran
By Lea Speyer August 23, 2015 ,
“Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle.” (Psalm 144:1)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and
Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, along with IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt.-Gen.
Gadi Eisenkot visiting the IDF Northern Command, August 18, 2015.
(Photo: Amos Ben Gershom/ GPO)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu was blocked from striking Iran’s nuclear facilities in 2010
and 2011 by
army and government officials, former defense minister Ehud
Barak revealed.
The information was aired on Israel’s Channel 2 on Friday night, in recordings that Barak attempted to block from broadcast. Israel’s military censors, however, allowed Channel 2 to play them.
According to the report, Barak said he and Netanyahu sought plans to
order the Israeli Air Force to strike Iran on several occasions.
However, in 2010, then IDF chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi said the army
was not ready for such an operation
and rejected the idea.
Fellow cabinet members Moshe Ya’alon, Israel’s current defense
minister, and Yuval Steinitz, current minister of
energy and Netanyahu’s
point man on the Iran deal, disapproved any military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
In the recordings, Barak is heard stating: “Ultimately, you need the
IDF chief. The IDF chief has to say that there is operational
capability. We gathered in a side room, just a small group; there were
30 people in the discussion and in this case we had a very small group –
the prime minister, defense minister, foreign minister, chief of staff,
the head of Mossad, the head of Military Intelligence, the head of the
Shin Bet [domestic security service]. In this forum we actually wanted
to know what the situation was. The answer [from Ashkenazi] was not a
positive one… when he was pushed into the corner.”
According to Barak, without the support of the head of the army, a discussion on any possible military strike
became impossible. “He created an untenable situation,” Barak said in
reference to Ashkenazi. “You cannot go to the Cabinet when the chief of
staff says to you, ‘I’m sorry but I told you no.’”
In February 2011, after the appointment
of Benny Gantz as the new IDF chief of staff, Gantz was open to
exploring a military operation against Iran. Following a meeting at
Mossad headquarters, Barak was confident that a “forum of eight” senior
ministers could be garnered to approve a strike.
However, cabinet ministers Benny Begin, Eli Yishai, Dan Meridor and
heads of the Shin Bet, Mossad and almost all the IDF’s top leaders
opposed a strike.
“Gantz said the capability was there, you know all the limitations,
everything, all the risks,” Barak said of the meeting. “Bibi
[Netanyahu], me and [Yisrael Beytenu leader and then-foreign minister
Avigdor] Lieberman supported the operation and were ready to present it
to the forum of eight…Bibi was supposed to ensure [the support of
Ya’alon and Steinitz]…At a certain stage of the consultations, Bibi said
they were in favor, it’s okay.”
Ehud Barak and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2013.
(Photo: Yossi Zeliger/Flash90)
(Photo: Yossi Zeliger/Flash90)
He continued, “Then we held a discussion
on it in the forum of eight. We went there after Bibi told the two of us
— Lieberman and me – that Bogey and Steinitz supported [the operation].
The chief of staff lays it all out — all the difficulties, the
complications, the complexities and the problems including the
possibility of losses — and you see Bogey and Steinitz crumbling in
front of your eyes. Either Bibi did not do his preparation or he had
misunderstood what constitutes a yes.”
The prime minister and Barak planned the strikes in anticipation of Iran entering a “zone of immunity” that would render its nuclear facilities impenetrable. Currently, Netanyahu has threatened that Israel will act alone to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Israeli leaders are livid over the recordings, accusing Barak of revealing state secrets. According to a follow-up report on Channel 2, there is widespread “anger” directed towards Barak.
Yisrael Beytenu leader Abigdor Liberman criticized Barak on Army Radio, saying, “More surprising than discussions that were supposed to be closely guarded secrets being publicized and analyzed by the media, is that Barak has broadcast that he is a chatterbox, who is unreliable.”
“This is perhaps one reason, among others,
that Iran is supported by the international community, while we,
Israel, are swept into the corner.”
Read at
http://www.breakingisraelnews.
According to Liberman, the public should never have been made aware of any discussions of a possible military strike on Iran.
“Of course the public didn’t need to know, let alone five years
later. These things usually don’t go out, not even 40 years later. But
the disclosure now actually raises a question – how much can Israelis be
privy to secrets and should information be shared with them?”
Read at
http://www.breakingisraelnews.
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