Global Post:
JERUSALEM — A talking fever is afflicting the State of Israel.
In recent days, the country has been seized by an unprecedented epidemic of public disquisition, opinionating, posturing and frenzied, heated chatter on the subject of a possible Israeli military attack on Iran.
It remains unclear if any of the former chiefs of staff, former intelligence chiefs, former prime ministers, and current serving members of the government, that are speaking their minds to local media possess relevant information.
But everyone, it seems, feels a sudden urgency to impart his opinion.
In one much criticized instance of the local flare-up, a renowned Ha’aretz columnist, Ari Shavit, published an imperative argument for an Israeli strike against Iranian nuclear installations. He said the argument was conveyed to him by “a key figure in the security establishment.” He called him the “decision-maker.”
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“A nuclear Iran is one of the gravest things that could happen to Israel,” the decision maker begins, according to the article. The unnamed source has since been identified as none other than Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
“If Iran goes nuclear, everything here will be different. Everything. We will shift into a different state of existence. If Iran goes nuclear, down the road Israel will face a threat of existential magnitude. The first aspect of the issue doesn’t only concern us but the international community and the regional alignment. I’m talking about the spread of nuclearization. Up to now the world has found a way to live with two recalcitrant countries: Pakistan and North Korea. If Iran goes nuclear, the world will just lose it. It won’t have any control over the nuclear demon.”
Even the one man who must have an inkling about any possible attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has been dragged into the melée.
“I have not yet made a decision,” he said in a television interview.