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Thursday, July 23, 2009

Preparing to Attack?

Israel may have the effective cooperation of Saudi Arabia and Egypt in order to attack Iran's nuclear infrastructure, which all three countries have an interest in destroying:

There's continued talk of an Israeli air raid on Iranian nuclear weapons facilities, but no action. Israel does appear to have formed an informal alliance with several Arab states (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, etc.) against Iran. The Arabs cannot officially admit to an alliance with Israel, because of decades of state sponsored anti-Israel (and anti-Semitic) propaganda. Some of this propaganda is being shut down, quietly. Something is going on here.


Saudi Arabia obviously is helpful in getting Israeli planes through the southern route around Iraq.

Egypt is important for diplomacy and for use of the Suez Canal for moving military assets. Remember this from earlier this month?

Two Israeli Saar class warships passed through the Suez canal, to the Red Sea. An Israeli submarine, that had passed through the canal (the first Israeli warship ever to do so) last month to the Red Sea, recently returned via the canal.


Mind you, even with Egyptian cooperation Israel can't sneak a sub through the Suez Canal in order to get it to the Arabian Sea for a strike on Iran.

But could the ships and sub be a red herring to distract observers while a merchant ship rigged with cruise missiles passes through the canal or sails from Elat at the southern tip of Israel? Or a dry run for doing that?

I think Israel has the capability for a one-off strike that depends on knowing the critical targets before the planes take off (as opposed to our capability for an aerial campaign lasting weeks if necessary that can really do the job by striking targets discovered after H-Hour).