Citing multiple unidentified Israeli military sources, The Sunday Times said the proposals involved using so-called "bunker-buster" nuclear weapons to attack nuclear facilities at three sites south of the Iranian capital.
The Israelis deny the report.
These comments are interesting:
"I refuse to believe that anyone here would consider using nuclear weapons against Iran," Reuven Pedatzur, a prominent defense analyst and columnist for the daily Haaretz, told the AP. "It is possible that this was a leak done on purpose, as deterrence, to say 'someone better hold us back, before we do something crazy.'"
Ephraim Kam, a strategic expert at Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Strategic Studies and a former senior army intelligence officer, also dismissed the report.
"No reliable source would ever speak about this, certainly not to the Sunday Times," Kam said.
So what is it? Kam's confidence in the ability of the Israelis to avoid leaks makes me envious of Israeli security.
When you consider that Israel is a "one-bomb state" (one bomb will pretty much devastate the country if it hits where aimed), if Israel thinks that Iran would nuke Israel, Israeli leadership would be criminally negligent not to consider how to bomb Iran to prevent Iran from getting nukes. And if Israel can't carry out an attack with conventional ammunition, the need to stop Iran from going nuclear does not disappear. Thus, thinking of nukes is the logical next step.
Haaretz probably has it right. While I think Israel would consider using nukes, I'd bet that use would only be to destroy confirmed nuclear sites after Iran is openly a nuclear power but before weaponization is clear (and perhaps not until it was clear nuclear weapons were avaialable to Iran). But Israel obviously doesn't want Iran to go that far. Israel would rather we do the job because we can do a better job without nukes and are better able to handle Iranian reactions.
So Israel is probably reminding us that this crisis is so serious to Israel that nuclear weapons are not off the table.
