G P N S T O R Y
The choice of what to do with Iran is clear cut – just listen to the experts who tell us, but then be prepared to do some of the most serious thinking in your own life and make your painful choice when there is nobody who can really be certain about what is right, but so many lives are at stake that we have to choose.
CON
Avner Cohen is the author of “The Worst Kept Secret: Israel’s Bargain with the Bomb." GPN has described him as a former Israeli, who is not allowed in Israel because of his nuclear politics, and he has been quoted before in GPN Issue 9, Winter 2012, "What if the Iranians start killing scientists?"
“It’s easier to criticize the 'messianic' Israeli leadership, which thrives on 'falsehoods and deceptions,' when the criticism comes from the heart of the security establishment - the former head of the Shin Bet security service. Yet even here, Israeli tribalism's response has been mainly denial.
"[Netanyahu] made the Iranian issue the be-all and end-all, he's the one who created the warped connection between Iran and the Holocaust, between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Adolf Hitler.
"Some believe that an Israeli strike now would be an irrational move; that all the talk about an attack is one big falsehood and deception, a bluff aimed at increasing the pressure on Iran.
"Could it be that Netanyahu is the person in charge who has gone crazy and is gambling on a minor apocalypse to prevent a major apocalypse?"
Source: Cohen, Avner (May 6, 2012). Messianic and then some. Haaretz English Edition.
The same Avner Cohen is again quoted in the next article on Israel's Haaretz on a battleground about Iran. It seems that because GPN disagrees strongly with Cohen's longtime objections to Israel's nuclear policy we are bending over backwards to quote him. I think we mean well, but we also mean for readers to see how wrong Cohen's stretch is.
Yuval Diskin, former Shin Bet Chief, and Meir Dagan, former Israeli Mossad Director and Reserve Major General
In the last year Dagan has called a possible Israel military strike on Iran “a stupid idea,” saying that it was not likely to achieve its goals and that it could lead to a protracted war.
Diskin’s criticisms echo nearly identical complaints voiced by Dagan a year ago. Both men served under Netanyahu until early 2011, together with then-army chief Ashkenazi. Dagan has claimed that the three of them together had managed while in office to restrain dangerous impulses toward "adventurism" on Iran by Netanyahu and his defense minister Ehud Barak. Dagan worried aloud who would do so now that the three had retired. Diskin made a similar argument in his April 27 speech, accusing Netanyahu and Barak of "messianic" impulses.
Ashkenazi had not publicly acknowledged his disagreements with Netanyahu until a New York conference, where he spoke out for the first time in favor of Israeli restraint toward Iran. Echoing Dagan, Olmert and ex-air force chief Shkedy, Ashkenazi said Israel should face Iran as part of an international alliance with its "friends in the region and around the world," rather than going it alone. He added that sanctions against Iran had "worked in the past," citing Iran's freezing of nuclear research under pressure in 2003.
Source: Goldberg, J.J. (May 6, 2012). How a conference became a political brawl over Israel's Iran policy. Forward.
Ehud Olmer, former Prime Minister
The Islamic Republic, Olmert said, is neither the Nazi-like existential threat that Netanyahu claims it to be nor the simple target Netanyahu claims Israel can overcome alone. For all of Israel's strengths, Olmert said, "we should face the international community with quieter tones." It isn't healthy for either party, he said, if America is seen as "under the command of the State of Israel."
PRO
Amos Yadlin: Former Military Intelligence chief, Reserve Major General
“A nuclear Iran is more dangerous than a military strike against the Islamic regime.”
A story by Haaretz and Reuters quoted Yadlin as saying that “Iran has a ‘sophisticated’ strategy to pursue nuclear weapons. “Yadlin gave his assessment that Iran’s strategy “is ‘unfortunately’ working.” Yadlin said he favored exhausting all other options before attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities. “If they can’t be contained when they don’t have nuclear weapons how can they be contained when they do?”
Source: Mozgovaya, Natasha (May 6, 2012). Former Chief Yadlin: A nuclear Iran is a bigger risk than attacking Iran. Haaretz English Edition.