Although Israel is officially opposed to the nuclear deal due to its many holes in it, the defense establishment hopes that the agreement with the Iranians will be signed soon, so that at the very least, Iran will stop its current rush to the nuclear program.
In this way, the defense establishment will be able to "buy time" to complete the preparations for an attack on Iran.
Defense officials say Iran is closer than ever to a nuclear bomb today, and it is estimated that if Tehran wants it and there is no external force to stop it, within a few weeks it will be able to obtain enough high-level enriched uranium for one bomb.
For Israel, this is a critical event, because if Iran does get its hands on enough nuclear material for a bomb, it will to some extent become a nuclear threshold state.
The American approach is a bit different, according to which Iran will become a real threat if it advances other elements in the nuclear program, such as building the bomb itself and completing the missile project that will carry it.
The defense establishment acknowledged that Iran's attack capabilities had been reduced in recent years, especially after the signing of the agreement in 2015.
Israel assumed that while the agreement with the superpowers was in force, Israel would have difficulty attacking itself, and therefore the preference was to invest resources in more urgent matters, such as preparing for a confrontation with Hezbollah and UAV attacks in Syria and elsewhere. The White House, and the removal of sanctions from Iran, seized Israel unprepared, and without a sufficient military plan to attack the nuclear sites.
These developments led Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Defense Minister Bnei Gantz to order the IDF to step up preparations for a "third circle" attack, ie mainly in Iran, and a budget was allocated for this purpose to be used mainly to upgrade Air Force capabilities. , Also to deter Iran from continuing with its nuclear programs. But Israel does not hide the fact that although the IDF has an initial capability to attack Iran, the defense establishment needs time to reach a more appropriate and mature operational plan.
Oppose the original wording
Israel, as mentioned, opposes the wording of the original agreement, the JCPOA, which was signed in 2015, and disagreements between it and the US on the issue are known to all. And it is no secret that at least in the first stage, the required achievement for the United States is the signing of an agreement at almost any cost (even if it is problematic according to Israel).
In this state of affairs, in closed talks in the defense establishment, it is hoped that at this stage Iran will sign the renewed nuclear agreement, if only to slow down its nuclear program, so that the IDF can complete its preparations for an attack on Iran. With the Iranian nuclear program it will be postponed for at least a few years, while the IDF will improve its capabilities, and may even already receive the new refuelers it has purchased from the US.
One way or another, Israel hopes that eventually, even if the US errs and makes mistakes in Israel's approach, Washington will do the "right thing" to prevent Iran from reaching the nuclear, since no American president will want to reach a situation where Iran becomes a nuclear state.
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