Israelis May Be Planning Iran Attack

The London Times reports that Isreal is planning to attack the Iranian nuke facilities if diplomacy doesn't stop their nuclear ambitions:

ISRAEL has drawn up secret plans for a combined air and ground attack on targets in Iran if diplomacy fails to halt the Iranian nuclear programme.

The inner cabinet of Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, gave “initial authorisation” for an attack at a private meeting last month on his ranch in the Negev desert.

Israeli forces have used a mock-up of Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment plant in the desert to practise destroying it. Their tactics include raids by Israel’s elite Shaldag (Kingfisher) commando unit and airstrikes by F-15 jets from 69 Squadron, using bunker-busting bombs to penetrate underground facilities.

The plans have been discussed with American officials who are said to have indicated provisionally that they would not stand in Israel’s way if all international efforts to halt Iranian nuclear projects failed.

I don't think anyone would be surprised to hear this. The Isrealis have a history of taking out foreign nuke facilities (remember Iraq in the early 80's). A couple of years ago an attack like this probably wouldn't have been possible because of the need to overfly Iraq to get to Iran. With the U.S. in control of Iraqi airspace, as long as the U.S. agrees to stay out of the way, the route to Iran is wide open.

I doubt that the U.S., or much of Europe for that matter, would mind too much if Isreal did the dirty work. The Europeans would surely gripe and moan in public about such an attack, but in private they'd probably breath a sigh of relief.

What would be really interesting is the reaction of the Arab world. Iran is not an Arab country, so would the Arabs respond violently to such an attack? They might take offense at an attack against fellow Muslims, but it's hard to say just how far they'd be willing to go.