Strike on Iran’s nuclear program could provoke bloody month-long war: Israeli defence chief National Post, Amy Teibel, Associated Press | Aug 15, 2012 JERUSALEM — An Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear program could trigger a bloody month-long war on multiple fronts, killing hundreds of Israelis or more, the Israeli Cabinet’s civil defence chief warned in an interview published Wednesday.
It was the most explicit assessment yet of how the government sees events unfolding in the aftermath of an Israeli attack.
Matan Vilnai, who is stepping down as the “home front” Cabinet minister to become Israel’s ambassador to China, described the scenarios to Israel’s Maariv daily at a time of heightened debate about the Iranian nuclear threat. Vilnai, a retired general who was
deputy military chief of staff, has spent the past five years overseeing upgrades of Israel’s civil defence systems, including air-raid sirens, bomb shelters and a public alert system.
It could be that there will be fewer fatalities, but it could be there will be more. That is the scenario that we are preparing for according to the best experts
In the Maariv interview, Vilnai said “the home front is ready as never before.” Nonetheless, he said the country must be braced for heavy casualties in the case of conflict with Iran……
At a news briefing in Washington on Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta
reaffirmed the U.S. assessment that Israel has not yet decided whether to strike, while the U.S. military chief, Gen. Martin Dempsey, echoed a widely held assessment that an Israeli operation would only set back, not destroy, Iran’s nuclear project.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/08/15/strike-on-irans-nuclear-program-could-provoke-bloody-month-long-war-israeli-defence-chief/
Agressive statements from Israel leaders upsetting Iran, and upsetting Israel’s military leaders
The report claimed that the prime minister and the defense minister were encountering stiff resistance to the idea of ordering the strike now from military and intelligence chiefs
Talk of military strike ‘makes Tehran nervous’ Jerusalem Post, By YAAKOV LAPPIN08/13/2012 Israeli media continue to be dominated by reports of supposed imminent strike on Iran’s nuclear program.ran is disturbed by threats emanating from Israel to strike its nuclear sites and takes such threats seriously, a senior Iran expert told The
Jerusalem Post. Continue reading
Israel, not Iran, greatest threat to world peace
“The greatest threat to the world is clearly nuclear-armed Israel with its almost daily threats to launch an attack on Iran, inevitably involving the U.S. in a potentially catastrophic Middle East war,”
Hush Now, Mitt: A Nuclear Iran Is Not the World’s Greatest Threat, The Atlantic, AUG 7 2012, Three-quarters of national security experts polled disagreed with the candidate. Three-quarters of National Journal’s National Security Insiders disagreed with a recent statement by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who said a nuclear Iran represents the greatest threat to the world.
If Tehran acquires a nuclear weapon, Romney told Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, it would pose the most serious threat to the world, to the United States and to Israel’s existence.
Not so, said 73 percent of NJ’s pool of national-security experts, even as they acknowledged that a nuclear Iran could have a destabilizing effect on the Middle East and erode international nonproliferation efforts. “It would be an unmitigated negative for U.S. interests,” one Insider said. “But it is not the greatest security threat facing the U.S. or the world at large.” Continue reading
USA, Iran developed “Flame” computer virus against Iran’s nuclear program
Flame malware developed by US, Israel to slow Iranian nuclear efforts http://www.slashgear.com/flame-malware-developed-by-us-israel-to-slow-iranian-nuclear-efforts-19234747/ Rue Liu, Jun 19th 2012 It turns out that the massive Flame malware attack last month was a sophisticated computer virus developed by the US and Israel in an effort to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program. Citing unnamed Western officials with knowledge of the effort, the Washington Post reported that the attack involved the National Security Agency, the CIA, and Israel’s military as well as the use of the infamous Stuxnet virus. The Flame virus was first discovered last month when Iran detected a series of cyber attacks on its oil industry. Although the attacks were allegedly carried out by Israel alone, the software used was developed in collaboration with the US, adopting much of the same code as the Stuxnet virus.
The virus is said to be the most sophisticated malware discovered to date. Masquerading as a routine Microsoft software, Flame was able to replicate itself across even highly secure networks, control everyday computer functions, send back secret information, log keystrokes, control computer cameras and microphones, take screen shots, and even extract geolocation data from images. Story Timeline…… http://www.slashgear.com/flame-malware-developed-by-us-israel-to-slow-iranian-nuclear-efforts-19234747/
Nuclear weapons for Israel submarines
Israeli subs can carry nuclear weapons’ By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JERUSALEM POST 06/04/2012 ‘Der Spiegel’ claims that German-supplied Dolphin fleet has second-strike capability.BERLIN – The German magazine Der Spiegel reported on Sunday that German-manufactured Dolphin-class submarines delivered to the Israel
Navy can be equipped with technology for carrying nuclear warheads.
Over the years there has been a swirl of German media reports about the nuclear capability of Israel’s submarines, ever since the shipment of the first Dolphins arrived in the late 1990s.
In an article in Der Spiegel titled “Made in Germany,” experts from Israel and Germany confirmed that the “ships are armed with nuclear warheads. And Berlin has long been aware of that.”…… http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=272562
Iran’s leadership ‘rational’ about nuclear weapons, says Israel’s military chief
Israeli military chief: Iran will not decide to make nuclear weapons Guardian UK by Saeed Kamali Dehghan 25 April 2012 Benny Gantz has told Israeli daily Haaretz that the Iranian leadership is composed of very rational people
Israel‘s military chief, Benny Gantz, has stated he doesn’t believe Iran will decide to make nuclear weapons and that Iranian key decision makers are rational. Continue reading
Can Israel maintain its secret nuclear arsenal?
Israel’s atomic arsenal could fall victim to a new U.S. nuclear policy Haaretz, 4 May 12, Senior Haaretz analyst Amir Oren says that if Obama wins in November, he will likely push for dramatic new reductions in nuclear arsenals; in addition to the U.S. and Russia, Israel may also have to give up some of the nuclear warheads it reportedly holds.
By Amir Oren “…..According to a secret document of the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency, which was drawn up at the end of the Bill Clinton administration and leaked during the period of the George W. Bush administration, Israel had “60 to 80” nuclear warheads in 1999. The document’s authors did not expect this number to change much in the next two decades….. http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/israel-s-atomic-arsenal-could-fall-victim-to-a-new-u-s-nuclear-policy-1.428231
3.000 of Chernobyl’s most vulnerable children helped to safety and care
Children of Chernobyl Airlifts 97th Group in Advance of 26th Anniversary http://www.chabad.org/blogs/blog_cdo/aid/1838545/jewish/Children-of-Chernobyl-Airlifts-97th-Group-in-Advance-of-26th-Anniversary.htm, April 25, 2012 By Joshua Runyan One week before the 26th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear explosion that rained down fallout across an entire swath of Eastern Europe, Chabad’s Children of Chernobyl brought 26 more children to safety and medical care in Israel, its 97th rescue mission.
“On this significant anniversary, thousands of children every day are still feeling the tragic consequences of the Chernobyl disaster,” said Nancy Spielberg, founding board member of CCOC, in a statement. “They are facing devastating illnesses from radiation contamination –radiation that will be with us for thousands of years. As we’ve seen from the recent Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan, the impact from this kind of radioactivity is as devastating today as it was 26 years ago.”
To date, the Chabad-Lubavitch run organization, which was designed to rescue those most vulnerable from the April 26, 1986 meltdown that left thousands of square kilometers uninhabitable, has helped 2,822 children escape the contaminated living conditions surrounding that portion of Ukraine. Most are brought to a sprawling educational and residential complex in the central Israeli village of Kfar Chabad, where they’re provided 
with medical care and social services.
The organization also provides medicine, equipment and other needed items for those who
cannot leave Europe. Spielberg pointed to World Health Organization statistics, which show the rate of thyroid cancer in the contaminated areas surrounding Chernobyl as more than 200 times the world norm.
Israeli experts criticise Netanyahu’s belligerent stand towards Iran
Mr Diskin’s comments echoed those previously made by Meir Dagan, the director of Israel’s Mossad spy agency until January last year, who said that a strike on Iran would lead to ”regional war” and encourage Iran to continue its nuclear program.
‘Messianic’ Israeli leaders warned over Iran strike, Sydney Morning Herald, Karin Brulliard April 30, 2012 JERUSALEM: The recently retired chief of Israel’s domestic intelligence agency has described the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, as men driven by ”messianic feelings” and said that he had ”no faith” in them to lead a possible strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
The scathing comments by Yuval Diskin, who had kept a low profile since retiring last year, added to the sense of a divide between Israel’s security establishment and its political leadership over Iran. Last week the head of Israel’s military, Lieutenant-General
Benny Gantz, said sanctions and the threat of military action would deter Iran from building nuclear bombs, an analysis that contrasted with Mr Netanyahu’s and Mr Barak’s grimmer assessments. Continue reading
Israel’s Secret Illegal Nuclear Biological And Chemical Weapons
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/04/israels-secret-illegal-nuclear.html April 2012, In this article, we will explore the secret weapons of mass destruction program in Israel, which still has not been disclosed to the UN or anyone else for that matter. Not disclosing the possession of weapons of mass destruction is illegal.
Israel to replace nuclear reactor with linear accelerator for nuclear medicine
Israel to phase out civilian atomic reactor by 2018 Particle accelerator to replace aging, fuel-short reactor By Dan Williams SOREQ, Israel, March 20 (Reuters) – Israel is phasing out a civilian nuclear reactor to which it has admitted foreign inspectors while keeping a second reactor, widely believed to have produced atom bombs, off-limits, officials said on Tuesday.
The small facility at Soreq, which began operations in 1960 with a one-time stock of uranium fuel from the United States, will be replaced by 2017 or 2018 by a particle accelerator fulfilling many of the same research and medical functions…..
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/20/israel-nuclear-idUSL6E8EK3AS20120320
Israel agrees that Iran has not decided to develop nuclear bomb
[includes video] Israel: Iran Nuclear Bomb Construction Not Yet Decided On, Huffington Post,18 Mar 12, JERUSALEM (AP) — Despite saber-rattling from Jerusalem, Israeli officials now agree with the U.S. assessment that Tehran has not yet decided on the actual
construction of a nuclear bomb, according to senior Israeli government and defense figures. Continue reading
Time that Israel came clean about its secret nuclear weapons
Come Out of the Nuclear Closet, NYT, Micah Zenko MARCH 8, 2012 Israel has been a nuclear weapons state since May 1967, when Prime Minister Levi Eshkol ordered the assembly of two nuclear devices to be driven to the Egyptian border, in the event that Arab troops defeated the Israeli forces.
Over the past 45 years, Israel has refused to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, place its civilian nuclear program under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards, or even
acknowledge that it has the bomb. Instead, Israeli officials such as Prime Minister Netanyahu have maintained, “We won’t be the first to introduce nuclear weapons into the Middle East.”
It is time for Israel to come out of the nuclear closet.By maintaining this fiction, Israel has pigeonholed itself as an international pariah, allowing adversaries and the nonaligned movement to use Israeli intransigence as an excuse to slow progress on nuclear nonproliferation objectives, including preventing a nuclear Iran…..
There are three concrete steps that the Israeli government should take. First, provide transparency about the size, command and control, nuclear security features, and nonproliferation objectives of its nuclear arsenal, following the example of other states that have not signed the nonproliferation treaty. Second, in light of its intention to pursue civilian nuclear energy, sign a safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency covering all existing or future nuclear facilities. Third, actively participate in international forums, like the conference on the W.M.D.-free Middle East to be held in Finland later this year. http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/03/08/should-israel-accept-a-nuclear-ban/come-out-of-the-nuclear-closet
Even Netanyatu’s supporters offended by his inflammatory remarks about Iran
Netanyahu’s references to Holocaust in relation to Iran nuclear threat bother some Israelis Washington Post By Associated Press, March 7 JERUSALEM — The Israeli prime minister’s linking of Iran to Nazi Germany evoked ringing applause this week at a gathering of a pro-Israel lobbying group in Washington. Back home, though, it drew some heavy criticism.
The Nazi Holocaust of World War II is a delicate and charged topic in Israel, and many felt Benjamin Netanyahu’s repeated equating of the Nazis with the possible modern-day threat of a nuclear-armed Iran went too far..
…. His parallels were clear: Just as the Nazis tried to exterminate European Jewry during World War II, Netanyahu implied that Iran’s apparent pursuit of nuclear weapons is part of a plot to wipe Israel off the map. “Never again” is the signature phrase of the Jewish pledge that the Holocaust must not be repeated.
Critics accused Netanyahu of both cheapening the memory of the Holocaust and unnecessarily escalating tensions at a time when the U.S. was urging restraint….. Yehuda Bauer, a Holocaust scholar at Israel’s national Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, said Netanyahu’s Auschwitz analogy in Washington this week was “sheer nonsense.” While acknowledging the dangers of a nuclear Iran, Bauer said, “to bring up Auschwitz is a cheap way of gaining public attention.”
The uproar caused some discomfort even among Netanyahu’s supporters.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/netanyahus-references-to-holocaust-in-relation-to-iran-nuclear-threat-bother-some-israelis/2012/03/07/gIQAFC6GxR_story.html
Class action in Israel, by cancer sufferers who worked for nuclear centre
Israel nuclear reactor sent unprotected workers to search for uranium ore, lawsuit claims Haaretz 13.02.12 Former employees at the Negev Nuclear Research Center in Dimona saywere given only dusk masks, goggles during an official search for the rare mineral.
By Gili Cohen Workers at the Dimona nuclear reactor were sent to search for uranium ore across Israel without the necessary protective gear, a court hearing discussing the class-action suit advanced by the reactor’s former employees indicated on Sunday.
The hearing in the Petah Tikva District Court was held on the complaint by 44 employees and their families that the workers are suffering from cancer and other diseases due to radiation at work . According to claims made by the plaintiffs, some of the reactor’s workers were employed at a “project to search for uranium ore inIsrael,” working week-long stints, equipped with only goggles and dusk masks…… http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-nuclear-reactor-sent-unprotected-workers-to-search-for-uranium-ore-lawsuit-claims-1.412648
1 This Month
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/2352741955560
of the week–London Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Tell the Ukrainian Government to Drop Prosecution of Peace Activist Yurii Sheliazhenko
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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