Eye On Israel

[mike435]

i still dont see what people see in this guy that they want to be objective with him or even say he has logic

why is he denying this guy

[Rasputin]

BERLIN (AFP) - Israel and Germany called for a strong international front on Iran's contested nuclear program as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned a Holocaust conference in Tehran.



Both leaders urged the international community to prevent Iran obtaining nuclear weapons. But after a day in which the spotlight fell on Israel's weapons capabilities, Olmert reiterated the Jewish state's longstanding position that it will neither confirm nor deny having such an arsenal.

In an apparent blunder, Olmert had appeared to state in an interview ahead of his European visit that the Jewish state possessed the nuclear bomb.

"Israel will not be the first country to introduce nuclear weapons to the region. That is our policy and it has not changed," Olmert told a press conference with Merkel.

Later, he told journalists travelling with him that in listing Israel alongside acknowledged nuclear powers France, the United States and Russia in the interview with German television "it was only to exclude any parallel being made between Israel and Iran."

"I had absolutely no intention of giving the impression that our position on the nuclear issue was going to change," he said.

Speaking in the city where the Holocaust was planned, Merkel and Olmert were united in their condemnation of the conference in Tehran at which "revisionist" historians have cast doubt on the extermination of six million Jews by Nazi Germany in World War II.

Merkel said Germany rejected the conference "in the strongest terms."

"Germany will never accept this and will use all possibilities at its disposal to oppose it."

Olmert said the conference exposed the true nature of the Iranian government.

"The statements of the Iranian leadership at the conference underline once again the unacceptable character of the Iranian policy and the danger to Western civilisation as a whole from such a state," he said.

Iran must never be allowed to have "unconventional weapons," Olmert added, in a reference to Iran's controversial nuclear program.

The six major powers dealing with the Iranian nuclear issue -- Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany -- have been wrangling for months over the terms of a UN Security Council resolution.

Olmert said it was essential that any sanctions included in a resolution were sufficiently tough to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, an ambition Tehran has repeatedly denied.

"If the sanctions are done in such a way that they can prevent that, then they are the right means," Olmert said.

"I hope that we will see a resolution from the UN Security Council in the next few days."

"I think that a big international effort can make Iran change," Olmert added, although he warned the decisions taken must be "unequivocal."

Merkel said Iran had turned its back on attempts to persuade it to stop enriching uranium and "unfortunately, the time has now come for sanctions."

Olmert later said he welcomed Merkel's "clear and firm" line on the sanctions issue.

Israel had criticized a visit by the German foreign minister to Damascus last week, but standing alongside Olmert, Merkel took Iran and Syria to task for sending "very negative signals" about their willingness to participate in efforts to bring peace to the Middle East and Iraq.

A report from the Iraq Study Group, a group of senior US politicians, recommended last week that Washington should involve Damascus and Tehran in negotiations to attempt to end the bloodshed.

Earlier on Tuesday, Olmert laid a wreath at Berlin's Grunewald train station from which 50,000 Jews were herded onto trains heading for the Nazis' death camps during World War II.

Olmert will go on to Rome on Wednesday to meet his Italian counterpart Romano Prodi and have an audience with Pope Benedict XVI.

[Rasputin]

ROME (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called on the international community to coordinate efforts to stop Iran from building nuclear weapons.

During talks in Rome with Italian counterpart Romano Prodi, Olmert hoped to convince Italy to back sanctions against Iran's nuclear programme.

He said they both agreed that "coordinated efforts are needed to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear power".

Prodi pledged that as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council from next month Italy would help lay out sanctions so Iran cannot make and use nuclear power for aggressive purposes.

Prodi appeared to have hardened his stance since a visit to Egypt last month, when he said he was open to dialogue with Iran and its regional ally Syria to reach a more stable Middle East.

"Our ears are always open to listen, and we are ready for dialogue," Prodi had told a joint news conference with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Prodi also agreed to go slow in efforts to convene international talks for peace in the Middle East, he said in comments after meeting with Olmert.

"The time is not ripe for an international conference" of the type proposed by Spain and previously backed by France and Italy as part of a broader Middle East peace initiative launched last month, Prodi told journalists.

Prodi said he and Olmert agreed that the current situation in the unstable region was "unacceptable", but that a series of "small steps" was the way to tackle it -- rather than a large-scale initiative like the Spanish proposal.

That initiative was announced by Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero last month after talks with French President Jacques Chirac.

As well as an "international conference", the plan called for a ceasefire, an exchange of Israeli and Palestinian prisoners, a Palestinian "government of national unity" and a fact-finding mission to the Palestinian territories.

The proposal was welcomed by the Palestinian Authority but promptly rejected by Israel.

Olmert was in Italy on the second and final leg of a brief European tour.

He earlier met with Pope Benedict XVI, who said in August that he hopes one day to visit the Holy Land, if possible "in times of peace".

During the audience with the pope, Olmert's spokesman said the Israeli leader asked the pontiff to intervene "personally and publicly" among Christians to protest against attempts to deny the Holocaust.

Olmert was referring to a meeting of revisionists in Tehran who deny the genocide of Jews by the Nazis during World War II, a position the Vatican condemned in a statement Tuesday, saying the Holocaust was "an appalling tragedy, before which we cannot remain indifferent".

In Germany, his previous stop, Olmert won backing for anti-Tehran sanctions from Chancellor Angela Merkel, who said that "unfortunately the time has come for sanctions" after Iran had turned its back on attempts to persuade it to stop enriching uranium.

Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, who has said Israel should be wiped off the map, says his country's nuclear programme is aimed at purely civilian use.

Olmert's spokeswoman Miri Eisin told AFP earlier that during his talks with Prodi, Olmert would also "underline the importance for Israel of Italy's participation in the Interim United Nations Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)."

Rome is to send 2,500 troops and take over command of the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, which was beefed up after a 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in July and August.

As part of the UN force, German navy ships have been patrolling the Lebanese coast to prevent any arms smuggling into the country.

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

Israel has approved the construction of a new settlement in the occupied West Bank, Israeli officials have said.
The defence ministry said 30 houses would be built in the settlement for families moved from the Gaza Strip.

It marks the first time since 1992 that Israel has approved a new settlement, rather than expanding existing ones, an Israeli settlement watchdog said.

Settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law, although Israel rejects this.

Palestinian condemnation

The construction of the Maskiot settlement in the West Bank's northern Jordan Valley will begin within weeks, Israeli officials said.

It will house families who were moved from the Gaza Strip when Israeli troops and settlers left in 2005, they said.

Israel's Peace Now group - whose members monitor Israeli settlements in the West Bank - said it would be the first such settlement since 1992.

The Israeli decision was denounced by Palestinian officials, who said it violated the US-backed "road map" peace plan for the region.

"We condemn this act and this decision especially as it comes after the Israeli side committed itself to stop all unilateral actions," Saeb Erekat, an aide to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, told AFP news agency.

Under the road map, Israel committed to freezing all settlement expansion in the occupied territories, while the Palestinians pledged to crack down on militants.

There are approximately 450,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

[Rasputin]

Will Israel bomb Iran?
BBC's "This World" investigates the debate going on in Israel about how to deal with Iran's nuclear project, which divides the diplomatic world .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ohx75f4l3A&eurl=

[mike435]

if dont want to watchthe whole thing

watch from 40 minute mark

[Rasputin]

Three Iranians interested in converting to Judaism recently left their native country, but have been unable to find any entity to assist them.

The three Shi'ite Muslims left Iran and approached the Israeli embassy and Jewish communities in Azerbaijan, but were rejected. It is impossible to convert to Judaism in Iran, as they would be considered heretics, a crime punishable by death. They are now waiting in a makeshift city in Turkey for a United Nations hearing on their application for refugee status.

The three left Iran two months ago and immediately approached the Israeli embassy in Baku. According to N., they were given a chilly reception. N. points out that embassy officials did not invite them into the building, but talked to them on the street.

"We told them we want visas to Israel in order to convert," N. recounts. "They told us that if we are not Jewish, our parents aren't Jewish and we have no family members in Israel, we cannot get visas."

The three also did not receive warm welcomes in Baku synagogues. At one place of worship, they were laughed at, at another - locked out. They were told there is no rabbinical court that can handle conversion in Baku.

N. says he became interested in other religions while still a practicing Shi'ite, and learned that Judaism was the basis of the other religions. N. wrote to the United Nations: "Since I stopped obeying the Muslim commandments, my soul has sought a way home. In order to be a complete Jew, it is necessary to undergo official processes."

Iran does not officially allow its citizens to travel to Israel, although many of the 25,000-strong Jewish community have done so through Turkey.

The three potential converts are now waiting for a February hearing date, and dependent on financial help from their families. "The Iranian authorities are aware of our plans. They can't hurt us so they are trying to harm our families." They hope to get assistance from some Israeli or Jewish institutions.

Contact with the three is mostly through e-mail and the occasional phone call from N., who always verifies at the beginning of each call that recent e-mails really originated in Israel and not with Iranian security forces.

The Foreign Ministry stated that the three approached the Baku embassy on a weekend when offices were closed, and have not returned. They would have been helped during regular office hours. The ministry also noted that Israeli law prohibits entry to Israel for the purposes of conversion, although there is an appeals committee to examine specific cases

[Rasputin]

Is there anyone left in the world that does not know the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, hates the Jews? Just as he welcomed representatives of an extremist branch of Orthodox Judaism to his conference denying the Holocaust, we are reminded that the Nazis, whenever possible, used leaders in the Jewish community to facilitate the deportation of Jews to the death camps.

This devout man of Allah, Ahmadinejad, known affectionately by Iranians as "The Monkey" for his non-stop silly and embarrassing antics should be given a fair hearing, never mind the fact that he would not even think of doing the same for others. What makes The Monkey more than a laughing stock is what he represents and the power he wields at arousing millions of his co-Islamofascists against the "undesirables" of the world.

For some reasons, Jews are on the top of The Monkey's hit list as they have been in the same position of "honor" with other past fascists of the world. Perhaps precedence by itself constitutes the basis for arriving at a verdict, as is sometimes the case in the law.

And when it comes to the Jews' guilty verdict, there is no shortage of precedence. Jews have been around for a long time and have been a convenient target of scapegoating. People being people have a difficult time looking at themselves for their problems. It is by far easier to find others to blame than to try to mend one's own ways. So the Jews became convenient scapegoats for bigots, the fascists, and all manners of malevolent louts.

This is neither the place, nor is it necessary for the purpose of this article to provide an exhaustive documentation of the historical suffering of the Jewish people. The main purpose of this article is to tell the world that Iranians are proud of their historical friendship with the Jewish people. The bond of friendship goes back to the landmark action of King Cyrus the Great of Persia. In 537 B.C., having conquered Babylon, the benevolent King Cyrus freed the Jews from captivity and empowered them to return to the Promised Land and build their temple.

For his acts of kindness, Cyrus the Great is immortalized in the Bible in several passages and called "the anointed of the Lord." The Jews throughout the recorded history looked to Cyrus' people, the Iranians, as their friends and protectors against oppressors such as the Seleucids and the Romans. There existed, in the ancient world, a universal admiration for the beliefs and practices of the Persians as enshrined in Cyrus Charter of Human Rights. Even the Greeks, the traditional adversaries of the Persians, called Cyrus "The Lawgiver."

The return of the Jews to the Promised Land did not mark the end of their ordeal. Successive waves of ill-wishers, notably the Romans and then the savage Muslims unleashed their unjustified wrath on the Jews.

The Jewish people, in spite of suffering huge losses at the hands of their enemies, remained resilient and, with one exception, outlived their tormentors. The Pogroms in Russia, the ghettoization in much of Europe, and even the genocidal Hitlerism failed to wipe out the Jews.

One diehard enemy, Islam, has been hard at work for some 1400 years to complete the work of finishing off the Jews that Muhammad himself had started.

Iranians are saddened and ashamed by the appearance of Ahmadinejad on the international scene and his declared intent to wipe out the Jewish homeland from the face of the earth. Ahmadinejad is not an Iranian. Numerous photos show him proudly donning the Arab headscarf around his neck˜a Palestinian headscarf that presently stands as a symbol of Arabo-Islamic genocidal hate campaign against the Jews as well as non-believers of all stripes.

Ahmadinejad does not represent the Iranian people any more than his turbaned-colleagues presently ruling Iran do. What needs to be understood is that in fact Ahmadinejad and the Mullahs, above all else, are true Muslims and despise anything "Iranian" and its ancient "pre-Islamic" heritage.

You can tell a true Muslim by the ferocity of his hatred. Islam is driven by hate. And the Islamic hate is so intense and blind that it consumes even its own adherents. Just consider, for instance, the rocketing of mosques full of Friday worshippers by one sect of the religion of peace against another sect of the same religion. Or, the raging gun battle between the Hamas thugs and the Fatah murderers in the Palestinian territory.

Iranian Muslims are victims of the Islamic virus that has destroyed in them their traditional respect for diversity. It is the Iranian ancient fundamental belief in the validity and value of diversity that has held the nation together over the millennia.

The diverse people who give Iran its enduring strength include Persians, Azaris, Kurds, Baluchis, Torkemans, Arabs and more: one and all have their allegiance to Iran as an idea and a nation. Iranians are spiritual children of Cyrus the Great and adherents of his Charter˜the first Charter of Human Rights˜that clearly proclaims the equal rights and worth of the beliefs and practices of all people.

Islam overtook Iran and brutally strived to replace the traditional lofty Iranian belief in human rights with its barbaric exclusionary dogma of the primitive Bedouin Arabs. Regrettably, the forced subjugation of the Iranians succeeded to some degree in transmitting the Islamic psychosocial virus to many Iranians. The virus transforms the person into a bigot˜one who sees only his way and his belief as the right way and the only right mandate. Any and all people who do not see things his way are wrong and must be reformed by whatever means, including eradication, if the bigot sees fit.

True Iranians have remained friends of the Jews by both belief as well as deeds. During the shameful Hitlerian campaign of exterminating the Jews, for instance, Iranian missions in Europe, notably the one in France, issued Iranian passports to facilitate the flight of French and other European Jews from the claws of Nazis and their gas chambers˜the very gas chambers that the true Muslim, disgracing Iranians, Ahmadinejad, denies ever existed.

Iranians stand for the right of the Jews as well as the equal rights under the law for any and all religious and secular people. Iranians believe that Islamofascism is a present and imminent danger and call on all free peoples of the world to do all they can to frustrate its "Pogrom," heeding Martin Niemoller's warning:

"They came for the communists, and I did not speak up because I wasn't a communist; They came for the socialists, and I did not speak up because I was not a socialist; They came for the union leaders, and I did not speak up because I wasn't a union leader; They came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak up for me."

[Rasputin]

Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is making the rounds in the media with his "new" slogan designed to scare American Jews and Christians into supporting the bombing of Iran. Netanyahu has a simple message consisting of three reductionist falsehoods:

1) 2006 = 1938
2) Iran = Nazi Germany
therefore:
3) Ahmadinejad = Hitler

So, as the man says whenever he gets a chance, 2006 is 1938 and Iran is Nazi Germany. Except that 2003 was 1938, when Natanyahu said the same thing about Iraq. And before that 2002, 1999 and 1996 were 1938. And while he's currently calling Ahmadinjead Hitler, in the past he's bestowed that honor on Saddam Hussein and Yasser Arafat.

This canard was repeated in front of 3000 cheering fans at the General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities in Los Angeles in November.

Repeating these lines over and over again, Netanyahu hopes to build enough public pressure to justify bombing Iran, or at least force the US Congress not to stand in Bush's way, when Israel tries to do it.

The far-right wing TV personality Glenn Beck broadcasted a hour-long hate-fest of him and Netanyahu talking mostly about how evil Iran is. Netanyahu hammered home his talking points and for good measure, topped them off with a bunch of outright lies and distortions.

He said Iran wants to "take over the world" and "annihilate America." He said Ahmadinejad's hates Israel only because Israel represents "the west." Israel "is only an obstacle before Europe and America." He urged people to listen to Ahmadinejad's words.

With a straight face, he told the CNN audience this:

Netanyahu: You know, normally, if he wasn't as fanatic as he is, he'd say, "Well, you know, yes, I think we could recognize Israel if it made the right concessions to the Palestinians." He'd play along; he'd play the game. He'd say, "We're not really developing nuclear weapons. We just want nuclear energy for peace." You know, he'd say all that.

Netanyahu is a former prime minister of a country with access to top secret intelligence. Surely he knows about Iran's numerous statements on the record that Iran is not seeking nuclear weapons. Surely the former PM knows that Iran's stated position via Palestine is whatever the Palestinians want. Perhaps he could read the Spiegel interview with Ahmadinejad from May 30, 2006 where Ahmadinejad said:

Our stance with respect to Palestine is clear. We say: Allow those to whom this country belongs to express their opinion. Let Jews, Christians and Muslims say what they think.

and also he said:

We argue that neither you nor we should claim to speak for the Palestian people. The Palestinians themselves should say what they want.

and again from the same Interview, Ahmadinejad said:

We're fundamentally opposed to the expansion of nuclear-weapons arsenals. This is why we have proposed the formation of an unbiased organization and the disarmament of the nuclear powers. We don't need any weapons.

And again, as if he knows people like Netanyahu will not remember it, he said:

I stress once again, we don't need any nuclear weapons. We stand by our statements because we're honest and act legally. We're no fraudsters. We only want to claim our legitimate right.

So here we have two direct contradictions. Not that I'm saying Ahmadinejad's words are necessarily truthful, but Netanyahu's argument is that he never said them. He's building his entire case out of the fact that Ahmadinejad is such a fanatic that we should believe his outrageous statements. Well, only the uncensored ones, I guess...

Netanyahu is a liar and a willful manipulator. He's actively banking on the ignorance of his audience to paint Iran as an irrational, unpredictable force. Once people accept this, his work is done since people will naturally conclude that you can't negotiate with a "suicidal maniac," therefore, we must use force.

He, in fact goes one step further and "pre-emptively" blames America for failing to prevent a second holocaust upon the Jewish nation when he says: "Hitler started with the annihilation of the Jews, but pretty quickly moved on to threaten the entire world. And America woke up late, after 6 million Jews died."

Elsewhere Netanyahu openly equates any attack on Iran as defense of Israel. He speculates that Israel would bomb Iran "because we have a right to live."

Such reductionist fear-mongering. You'd think this guy has stock in weapons companies or something. Has Benjamin forgotten about the tens of thousands of Jews inside Iran to whom this "Hitler," - as the Persian saying goes - hasn't even said "above your eye, there's eyebrow?" let alone put them in concentration camps. Regardless of what Ahmadinejad may have opined about the Holocaust, the fact remains that today Jews in Iran are safer than Jews in Israel.

From Netanyahu's perspective this is a problem. You can't have a Hitler that doesn't seem to be interested in killing Jews. One can say - as Netanyahu frequently implies - that Ahmadinejad wants a nuclear weapon to kill Jews in Israel, but what's holding him back from killing those in Iran? That's why Benjamin and his neocon buddies completely ignore the Iranian Jews.

Fortunately, not everyone at the LA Jewish gathering was buying it. Professor and Journalist Murray Fromson saw right through the propaganda when he said:

"How could anyone think Netanyahu's absurd comparison between Nazi Germany in 1938 and the whacko leaders in Tehran today had any merit whatsoever? "

Let's hope there are more people like Fromson who are able to distinguish BS from reality.

[Rasputin]

LONDON (Reuters) -Israel has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran's uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons, Britain's Sunday Times newspaper said.

Citing what it said were several Israeli military sources, the paper said two Israeli air force squadrons had been training to blow up an enrichment plant in Natanz using low-yield nuclear "bunker busters."

Two other sites, a heavy water plant at Arak and a uranium conversion plant at Isfahan, would be targeted with conventional bombs, the Sunday Times said.

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously last month to slap sanctions on Iran to try to stop uranium enrichment that Western powers fear could lead to making bombs. Tehran insists its plans are peaceful and says it will continue enrichment.

Israel has refused to rule out pre-emptive military action against Iran along the lines of its 1981 air strike against an atomic reactor in Iraq, though many analysts believe Iran's nuclear facilities are too much for Israel to take on alone.

The newspaper said the Israeli plan envisaged conventional laser-guided bombs opening "tunnels" into the targets. Nuclear warheads would then be used fired into the plant at Natanz, exploding deep underground to reduce radioactive fallout.

Israeli pilots have flown to Gibraltar in recent weeks to train for the 2,000 mile round-trip to the Iranian targets, the Sunday Times said, and three possible routes to Iran have been mapped out including one over Turkey.

However it also quoted sources as saying a nuclear strike would only be used if a conventional attack was ruled out and if the United States declined to intervene. Disclosure of the plans could be intended to put pressure on Tehran to halt enrichment, the paper added.

Washington has said military force remains an option while insisting that its priority is to reach a diplomatic solution.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for Israel to be "wiped off the map." Israel, widely believed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, has said it will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons.

[Rasputin]

ISRAEL has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons.
Two Israeli air force squadrons are training to blow up an Iranian facility using low-yield nuclear “bunker-busters”, according to several Israeli military sources.



The attack would be the first with nuclear weapons since 1945, when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Israeli weapons would each have a force equivalent to one-fifteenth of the Hiroshima bomb.

Under the plans, conventional laser-guided bombs would open “tunnels” into the targets. “Mini-nukes” would then immediately be fired into a plant at Natanz, exploding deep underground to reduce the risk of radioactive fallout.

“As soon as the green light is given, it will be one mission, one strike and the Iranian nuclear project will be demolished,” said one of the sources.

The plans, disclosed to The Sunday Times last week, have been prompted in part by the Israeli intelligence service Mossad’s assessment that Iran is on the verge of producing enough enriched uranium to make nuclear weapons within two years.

Israeli military commanders believe conventional strikes may no longer be enough to annihilate increasingly well-defended enrichment facilities. Several have been built beneath at least 70ft of concrete and rock. However, the nuclear-tipped bunker-busters would be used only if a conventional attack was ruled out and if the United States declined to intervene, senior sources said.

Israeli and American officials have met several times to consider military action. Military analysts said the disclosure of the plans could be intended to put pressure on Tehran to halt enrichment, cajole America into action or soften up world opinion in advance of an Israeli attack.

Some analysts warned that Iranian retaliation for such a strike could range from disruption of oil supplies to the West to terrorist attacks against Jewish targets around the world.

Israel has identified three prime targets south of Tehran which are believed to be involved in Iran’s nuclear programme:


Natanz, where thousands of centrifuges are being installed for uranium enrichment

A uranium conversion facility near Isfahan where, according to a statement by an Iranian vice-president last week, 250 tons of gas for the enrichment process have been stored in tunnels

A heavy water reactor at Arak, which may in future produce enough plutonium for a bomb
Israeli officials believe that destroying all three sites would delay Iran’s nuclear programme indefinitely and prevent them from having to live in fear of a “second Holocaust”.

The Israeli government has warned repeatedly that it will never allow nuclear weapons to be made in Iran, whose president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has declared that “Israel must be wiped off the map”.

[Rasputin]

Robert Gates, the new US defence secretary, has described military action against Iran as a “last resort”, leading Israeli officials to conclude that it will be left to them to strike.
Israeli pilots have flown to Gibraltar in recent weeks to train for the 2,000-mile round trip to the Iranian targets. Three possible routes have been mapped out, including one over Turkey.



Air force squadrons based at Hatzerim in the Negev desert and Tel Nof, south of Tel Aviv, have trained to use Israel’s tactical nuclear weapons on the mission. The preparations have been overseen by Major General Eliezer Shkedi, commander of the Israeli air force.

Sources close to the Pentagon said the United States was highly unlikely to give approval for tactical nuclear weapons to be used. One source said Israel would have to seek approval “after the event”, as it did when it crippled Iraq’s nuclear reactor at Osirak with airstrikes in 1981.

Scientists have calculated that although contamination from the bunker-busters could be limited, tons of radioactive uranium compounds would be released.

The Israelis believe that Iran’s retaliation would be constrained by fear of a second strike if it were to launch its Shehab-3 ballistic missiles at Israel.

However, American experts warned of repercussions, including widespread protests that could destabilise parts of the Islamic world friendly to the West.

Colonel Sam Gardiner, a Pentagon adviser, said Iran could try to close the Strait of Hormuz, the route for 20% of the world’s oil.

Some sources in Washington said they doubted if Israel would have the nerve to attack Iran. However, Dr Ephraim Sneh, the deputy Israeli defence minister, said last month: “The time is approaching when Israel and the international community will have to decide whether to take military action against Iran.”

[Rasputin]

روزنامه ساندي*تايمز گزارش داد كه خلبانان اسرائيلى براى حمله با تسليحات هسته*اى به تأسيسات ايران در حال آموزش هستند اما اسرائيل قاطعانه اين گزارش*ها را تكذيب كرد.

به گزارش "ايلنا"، اين روزنامه انگليسى به نقل از منابع نظامى اسرائيلى نوشت: طرح*هاى برنامه*ريزى شده در اسرائيل شامل استفاده از تسليحات هسته*اى "بانكر بوستر" براى حمله به تأسيسات هسته*اى در جنوب تهران پايتخت ايران است.
به نوشته اين روزنامه، مقامات نظامى اسرائيل معتقدند كه ايران ظرف دو سال مي*تواند اورانيوم غني*شده كافى براى ساخت تسليحات هسته*اى را توليد كند.
ساندي*تايمز افزود: خلبانان اسرائيلى به "گيبرالتر"، مستعمره انگليس پرواز كرده*اند تا براى پرواز دو هزار مايلى براى حمله به تأسيسات ايران آموزش ببينند.
به گزارش خبرگزارى آسوشيتدپرس، دفتر "ايهود اولمرت"، نخست*وزير اسرائيل از اظهارنظر در اين باره خوددارى كرد.
"ميرى ايسين"، سخنگوى اولمرت گفت: ما به گزارش روزنامه ساندي*تايمز پاسخ نمي*دهيم.
"مارگ رگو"، سخنگوى وزارت خارجه اسرائيل نيز اين گزارش را تكذيب كرد و گفت: اگر ديپلماسى به موفقيت منجر شود، اين مشكل به طور مسالمت*آميز حل*وفصل مي*شود.
"ديوون پداتزور"، تحليل*گر دفاعى اسرائيل به خبرگزارى آسوشيتدپرس گفت: فكر نمي*كنم كسى در اسرائيل استفاده از تسليحات هسته*اى عليه ايران را بررسى كند. احتمالاً اين اظهارات به عمد و به عنوان بازدارنده بيان شده است.
"افرايم كم"، عضو مؤسسه مطالعات استراتژيك ملى در دانشگاه تل*آويو نيز گفت: اين گزارش نبايد جدى گرفته شود، زيرا هيچ منبع موثقى در اين باره به ويژه با روزنامه ساندي*تايمز گفت*وگو نكرده است.

[Rasputin]

Israel denied a newspaper report that it's preparing a nuclear attack against Iranian uranium- enrichment plants and said it remains committed to ending a dispute over Iran's nuclear program through diplomacy.

The denial followed a report in the London-based Sunday Times today, citing unidentified people in the Israeli military, that Israel plans to use nuclear ``bunker-buster'' bombs against the Natanz site in northern Iran. The Mossad, Israel's intelligence service, predicts Iran will be able to produce nuclear weapons within two years, the newspaper said.

Should such a plan be carried out, it would be the first use of nuclear weapons since the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Japan in 1945. The United Nations Security Council last month imposed sanctions on Iran, through resolution 1737, for its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment. Iran says its enrichment program is designed to produce nuclear power not weapons.

``Israel is 100 percent committed to the international effort to achieve a diplomatic solution and supports the full and expeditious implementation of UN resolution 1737,'' Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said by telephone today. Israel ``formally denies'' the newspaper report, he said.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini, speaking at a weekly briefing with reporters, said in response to the Sunday Times report that any ``attacker would quickly regret their act,'' the official Islamic Republic news Agency, or Irna, said on its Web site.

Arms Control

Emily Landau, director of the arms control and regional security program at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, said that while Israel hopes diplomacy will bring a suspension of Iran's program, officials have hinted at military action in what she called ``deterrent statements.''

``Israel is basically still hoping for some kind of diplomatic outcome to this crisis while trying to keep a low profile,'' Landau said by telephone. ``It shouldn't surprise us that Israel will also attempt to deter this danger, but I don't think we need to make leap between deterrent statements and plans to make an attack.''

Israel's concerns about the Iranian program have grown since Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for the Jewish state to be ``wiped off the map'' several times in the past year. The president On Jan. 3 said Iran will start producing nuclear fuel on an industrial scale soon, without elaborating.

Two Israeli air force squadrons are training to attack the concrete-shielded facility in Natanz, to the south of Tehran, using low-yield bunker-busters equal to 1/15th the power of Little Boy, the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, the Sunday Times said.

Nuclear Reactor

Israel is also considering facilities near Isfahan and Arak as targets and its pilots are flying as far as Gibraltar, a 2,000-mile round-trip, to prepare, the newspaper said. Israel carried out air strikes against an Iraqi nuclear reactor in Osirak in 1981, the Sunday Times said.

Iran in November test-fired a Shahab-3 ballistic missile capable of traveling 2,000 kilometers, a range that would put Israel's major cities within reach.

Hosseini told reporters today that his country had no plans to suspend cooperation with the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency in spite of the Security Council resolution, Irna reported.