Until recently, Israelis — leaders and citizens alike — avoided discussing in public the issue of a nuclear Iran.  Such discussion was viewed as off-limits — an extension of the nation’s nuclear taboo, which holds that on nuclear matters, silence is golden. Indeed, this was the practice before Israel destroyed the Iraqi Osirak reactor in 1981 and then a quarter of a century later when Israel bombed the North Korean reactor in Syria in 2007. In both cases, no national debate preceded military action; in the Syrian case, nobody even knew what the strike was about for months. 

This code of silence was shattered last June when former Mossad chief Meir Dagan decided to voice his serious concerns that the Israeli leadership — primarily Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Ehud Barak — was pushing the country into a dangerous and unnecessary war with Iran. 

Dagan’s claims had a deep impact. In fairness, the discussion was initially not about the pros and cons of such an attack, but about the power struggle and behind-the-scenes domestic politics of such an attack. In response, senior members of the government, especially Barak, angrily denounced Dagan’s claims as false and irresponsible. It was at that point that the Israeli military censorship — the only institution that has the legal power to control such public discussion — effectively gave up enforcing silence on the Iranian subject.

In a recent interview with New York Times Magazine, Barak shattered the remains of the old taboo. Never before has an Israeli leader in office articulated so openly the case in favor of military action against Iran, including specifying the conditions that should be satisfied in order for Israel to take such action.  Never before has an Israeli leader invoked a timetable for how long Israel could wait until Iran enters an “immunity zone,” where such action becomes militarily impossible. Finally, never before has an Israel leader created such a close (if implicit) linkage between Israeli military action and an American election.