Israel preparing to attack Iran (Before Christmas) : Report

LONDON: Israel is preparing for a ground attack on Iran before Christmas, after conducting commando dry runs in the Iraq desert, a media report said.

Top military officials in Tel Aviv believe they have until the end of the year to strike at Iran's nuclear programme, The Sun reported.

The main target would be a heavily fortified uranium enrichment plant at Fordo, near the holy city of Qom.

Israeli leaders have reportedly made it clear they are ready to launch military action alone - if the US does not help.

Late October or early November have been identified by intelligence analysts as a likely time because of the US elections on Nov 6.

"We know the Israelis have been active in the Iraq desert, it would appear preparing forward bases for a ground assault. Bombing Iranian nuclear installations will most likely be a part of their plan, but the only way to confirm they have destroyed what they need to is to put boots on the ground," an unnamed British official was quoted as saying.

Israel to attack Iran before Christmas 2012?

A lot of us have been speculating that Israel was only waiting until the U.S. elections were over to attack Iran. According to this article, it seems Intelligence analysts are thinking the same way. I guess we will have to wait and see if this does happen, but it is only a couple of months away.

reply to post by SUICIDEHK45


panetta clearly said, israel will not be able to destroy iran's nuclear capability.
the u.s. didn't even deliver the necessary bunker-breaking bombs to israel.

Blimey this is Slimy...

So they'll attack even if US don't help them? Do people really think US won't help???

If US doesn't help in an upfront way, they'll surely help indirectly ... US & Israel are BFFs ...

maybe that's the real plan.

Israel attacks first without the support of the USA.

then Israel needs help later on and the USA gets dragged into problem it didn't start.

I could see that happening.

I did read a while ago when the politicians were gunning for Iran that even the military advisers to Obama said that there was no real threat (at present) from Iran to warrant attacking them.

So maybe there is some sense in the world then.

Don't get me wrong, I think the politicians in America do want to have war with Iran (pay back for the American embassy hostages) but the timing and logistics have to be right for America to do it.
Currently troops in Afghanistan and Iraq prevent this from happening.

If they were not there then I bet America would already be in Iran.

Thank you for posting SuicideHK,

However this seems to be just another spin on the same story from another media outlet. The news it not really new, just repackaged with a new angle.

We have now heard from media sources on the same report from:

Israel
United States
London
Canada
Iran
Russia
and now India,

You can find a thread for the same news use eaching unqiue source.

It is interesting though how each outlet from a particular nation spins the story.

Star for the work

reply to post by SUICIDEHK45


This story keeps changing every time i hear it. They were going to attack Iran before fall of last year, then before christmas of last year, then they moved it to January this year, then February of this year, then it got moved to June, then it got moved out till before the election, now it's after election around christmas again.

This story passed the point of the boy who cried wolf 3 times. I'm to the point now whenever i hear Israel this or Israel that, it goes in one ear and out the other.

yes lonewolf19792000. that does sound like crying wolf.

Never mind I may wake up tomorrow and find Iran has attacked Isreal because it got fed up waiting for Isreal to attack after spouting numerous B***S**** stories. lol

Y'know, Israel has been saber-rattling for a while now, and there's a fast, easy solution for the US.

Nuke Israel.

It's the size of New Jersey. It couldn't take more than 4-5 decent sized nukes to completely annihilate that part of the Earth. In a down economy, it's a great way to eliminate the real threat of the region at a fraction of the cost of the war Israel wants the US to participate in.

reply to post by faryjay


US either help or destroys Isreal.
I'm pretty sure US will attack after Isreal send most of its troops.Let the little guys fight. This doesn't mean WW3 won't be prevented because Russia sides with Iran. If Russia helps US, Russia is going to lose the war.

Top military officials in Tel Aviv believe they have until the end of the year to strike at Iran's nuclear programme, The Sun reported.

The Sun...come on

reply to post by icepack

panetta clearly said, israel will not be able to destroy iran's nuclear capability.

From the air they can't. They don't even have the logistics to get there and come back.

the u.s. didn't even deliver the necessary bunker-breaking bombs to israel.

It wouldn't be the first time that weapons and bombs were delivered without the media - or anyone else - knowing about it.

However, it goes back again to the fact you are referring to one scenario of attack: using the air force.

If this article is correct, they are considering a ground operation, and that is a whole different type of ball playing. In order to attack from the air you can't do it without the U.S. and their bombs. But a direct attack from the ground, could actually do it.

Commandos would be able to infiltrate and disable those facilities, without even causing too much damage. (cutting out ventilation systems, pipelines, etc...)

If that's the case, then their air force is a lot more suitable for that, because it gets back to the role of air support (an area of action where they are very good), and not actual direct bombing.

reply to post by lonewolf19792000


I think you are confusing thing's.

The time-limit has always been to strike around the elections. The debate was always around the question if it was more beneficial to attack while Obama was still in power, or after the elections (independently of who wins).

Israel has always argued that striking Iran as soon as possible would be better, and that actually makes sense, if what they argue about is correct (Iran developing nukes). It's better to stop a threat before it gets serious than to stop it when it has enough power to bite back.

As for the other predictions or debates, that was more around ATS than in actual reality. You are referring to predictions and comments made in ATS, not by the actual governments.

The U.S. has been stepping up it's rhetoric slowly and gradually. One example of that are the sanctions.

Israel has been complaining about this issue for years, and they simply want to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. That hasn't changed.

reply to post by GarrusVasNormandy


Israel is not going to use a ground attack to overwhelm Iran's nuclear facilities simply because they lack the numbers to cause any damage. If they want to stop Iran's nuclear development (Pentagon war games placed the delay at 3 years max) then they will need to totally eradicate the nuclear facilities and simply cutting the ventilation or other trivial disruptions isn't going to do much except make Iran more paranoid and fortify their borders with tens of thousands of militias and soldiers.

Israel will not go for a land assault, they will use the US' carrier groups to flatten the facilities and then just try pick of Tehran's air force.

If Israel and the US do attack Iran they will need to occupy it like they did in Iraq because Iran is going to be like 'We tried peacefully, now we are going to build a nuclear bomb and use it on them'.

So, the US and Israel are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

reply to post by Trajan

Israel is not going to use a ground attack to overwhelm Iran's nuclear facilities simply because they lack the numbers to cause any damage.

Commandos and Special Forces aren't strong because of numbers. They are actually meant for unconventional combat, like infiltration and sabotage.

If they want to stop Iran's nuclear development then they will need to totally eradicate the nuclear facilities

I think you don't understand much of what is going on.

This operation (if real) isn't meant to stop neither Iran or their nuclear program. It's to delay them enough for a plausible U.S. participation. If analysts have doubts that U.S. + Israel could completely halt the Iran's nuclear program, there is no way Israel can do it alone.

and simply cutting the ventilation or other trivial disruptions isn't going to do much except make Iran more paranoid and fortify their borders with tens of thousands of militias and soldiers.

Do have any idea what lack of ventilation and disruption of pipelines can do to a facility that operates nuclear material and reactors?

Fukushima is a good example:

(...) Consequently those generators ceased working, causing eventual power loss to the pumps that circulate coolant water in the reactor. The pumps then stopped working, causing the reactors to overheat due to the high decay heat that normally continues for a short time, even after a nuclear reactor shut down. The flooding and earthquake damage hindered external assistance.
In the hours and days that followed, Reactors 1, 2 and 3 experienced full meltdown.

Source

Israel will not go for a land assault, they will use the US' carrier groups to flatten the facilities and then just try pick of Tehran's air force.

Sorry, but I laughed with this one.

The only planes capable of carrying those bunker busters can't land on carriers.

If Israel and the US do attack Iran they will need to occupy it like they did in Iraq because Iran is going to be like 'We tried peacefully, now we are going to build a nuclear bomb and use it on them'.

They want to stop Iran's nuclear weapons program, or at least, Iran's nuclear program.

Talks about invasion are just meant to be background noise to a discussion that has nothing to do with it. If there is the need for an invasion, it will be due to Iran's actions afterwards.

This is meant to be as a preemptive attack. Not that I agree with it, but thing's are what they are.

Well hopefully if the terrorists do attack Iran the US will say,"sorry benny we got our fingers in too many pies, handle it yourself"!
Oh yeah and the blood money check will be late, and we can't send all the weaponry you want.
You will find enclosed a slingshot, if you are truly gods favorite, I'm sure things will work out fine!
Those terrorists sure are itching for a fight though aren't they?

reply to post by GarrusVasNormandy


1. They are trying to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons capability. That means shutting down their facilities totally.
They aren't going to cut the ventilation system because if we use your example (Fukushima) then the radiation fallout and dust will blow back on Israel. They would need to cover the facilities in tons of rock and earth to stop the worst of the spreading.

2. There is more than one way to flatten a facility my friend. There is some 450-600 Tomahawk Cruise missiles in the area and a squadron of F-22s, F-18s, B-52s and more stationed in the UAE. The Carrier groups themselves would weaken the Iranian Air Force and take out the anti-air defenses around the bunkers while the US Air Force in the UAE combined with the Israeli Air Force (who were just given fuel carriers [not sure on the name] by the US) drop those 'Super bombs' on the facility.

3. The US and Israel will *need* to occupy Iran to stop them going after nuclear weapons (Pentagon War Games aren't trivial information my friend) or it will come back to bite them in the butt when Iran throws itself into researching nuclear weapons... This whole fiasco came out because of the US' decisions back in the 60's and 70's.

reply to post by Trajan

1. They are trying to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons capability. That means shutting down their facilities totally.

Yes, but if they feel the need to attack Iran in order to delay that, they have to do it them-selfs, since the U.S. Gov is very reluctant in starting anything as soon as Israel wishes.

Since they can't stop them completely alone, their only option is to cripple the facilities long enough for the U.S. to get involved.

They aren't going to cut the ventilation system because if we use your example (Fukushima) then the radiation fallout and dust will blow back on Israel. They would need to cover the facilities in tons of rock and earth to stop the worst of the spreading.

So, what you are saying is that blowing the crap out of the buildings is going to stop them and not have any nasty consequences to the surrounding countries.

But to you, cutting power-lines, ventilation and water supplies to refrigeration is going to launch fallout and radiation? That doesn't make much sense. Especially if you consider that the Iranians will be the ones with the best interest in safeguarding that situation.

The fact that the facilities (which are already reenforced) are intact, actually helps safeguard the release of any radioactive material. Not the bombings.

There is more than one way to flatten a facility my friend.

Yes, and most of them are out of Israel's reach.

There is some 450-600 Tomahawk Cruise missiles in the area

Tomahawk missiles are unable to pierce these bunkers. Both Israel and U.S. have stated that in the past. They are great to take out surface, non-armored fixed targets. But not to take out massive underground bunkers.

and a squadron of F-22s, F-18s, B-52s and more stationed in the UAE.

Of those, only the B-52's can carry the MOP bombs needed to destroy the facilities. And even those MOP's are still under doubt as to their effectiveness against Iran targets. It's all just theory, for now.

And you shouldn't go back and forward in reality. In order to those to be applied, the U.S. would have to commit to the attack.

This topic isn't about that, nor is that a reality. At least yet.

The Carrier groups themselves would weaken the Iranian Air Force and take out the anti-air defenses around the bunkers while the US Air Force in the UAE combined with the Israeli Air Force (who were just given fuel carriers [not sure on the name] by the US) drop those 'Super bombs' on the facility.

Again, you are talking about U.S. full involvement, mixed with a lot of wild speculation.

This topic is about a local Israeli effort to take those facilities.

The US and Israel will *need* to occupy Iran to stop them going after nuclear weapons (Pentagon War Games aren't trivial information my friend) or it will come back to bite them in the butt when Iran throws itself into researching nuclear weapons... This whole fiasco came out because of the US' decisions back in the 60's and 70's.

Iraq was also developing WMD's (apparently). After Kuwait they were totally crippled in their military power. So much, that when the Iraq war started, Iraq didn't put up much of a fight.

Iran will be no different.

Now I thought it was Sept 25th.
would the psychic people that create the news make up their minds. I'm trying to plan a future here!!

there was another report which said Israel will attack Iran by June 2012

I think Israel's leader(s) are gonna attack a few weeks prior to the US elections. This will rev up the good old right wing propaganda machine in the US, ensuring that Romney's popularity will surge. Lots and lots of Republicans will vote for him since he's openly stated that he wants to attack Iran. And lets not forget the enormous Jewish lobby in the US.

So in short, Israel will gets its hands dirty for once, but just for a little while. The US rolls in to do all the dirty work, as it always has done.