Israel to U.S.: Strike on Iran is feasible
Geostrategy-Direct, www.geostrategy-direct.com, January 18, 2006

Israel's military brass has concluded that an Israeli or U.S. strike on Iran
could eliminate that nation's nuclear weapons facilities. Israeli Chief of
Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz ordered such a report as part of strategic
cooperation talks with the United States.

Israeli military chief Maj. Gen. Aharon Zeevi-Farkash discussed the report
during his visit to the United States last week. Zeevi-Farkash met the heads
of several U.S. intelligence agencies, including the Defense Intelligence
Agency, and argued that an air strike against Iran was feasible and would
set back Teheran's nuclear program for up to a decade.

Asked last week whether Iran's nuclear weapons program could be eliminated
in a military strike, Halutz did not blink. "Professionally, the answer is
yes," Halutz told a defense seminar in Tel Aviv.

Zeevi-Farkash has gained credibility in the U.S. intelligence community. He
headed several joint forums in which Israel provided accurate intelligence
on Syria and Iran as well as assessments on Iraq's Saddam Hussein.

But the Bush administration has quelled any serious U.S. discussion over any
attack on Iran. U.S. intelligence assessments say the administration could
wait until at least 2008 before Iran emerged as a nuclear threat. That would
give the United States enough time to implement plans to complete its
military withdrawal from Iraq over the next 18 months.