Israel’s top defense and security brass is engaged in a tense dispute over the handling of Iran’s nuclear program.
The drama is reminiscent of the deep disagreement among Israel’s leadership 10 years ago, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak unsuccessfully sought to convince the security cabinet to approve a strike on Iran’s military nuclear infrastructure. A decade on, history is repeating itself. Israel’s military capabilities for such an attack have since degraded as Iran’s program has progressed and expanded, but the Israel Defense Forces is feverishly building up is capabilities with generous funding.
The controversy is the same, as is the balance of power between opponents and proponents of a deal with Iran. The crux of the controversy is over intense US efforts to reconstitute the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. One camp believes reviving the agreement is Israel’s best option, at least among bad choices, and the other is convinced that the proposed agreement negotiated in Vienna is a disaster.
Brig. Gen. (reserve) Dror Shalom, the former head of the Research and Analysis Division of Israeli Military Intelligence, reportedly told his American interlocutors this week in Washington that the US decision to pull out of the agreement with Iran in 2018 was a careless strategic mistake.
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