The government has tabled a bill for dissolving the Knesset. The date is still not confirmed, but would-be candidates for seats at the post-election cabinet table are lining up.  Defense Minister Ehud Barak launched his bid to carry on in defense at a news conference Wednesday, May 2. Other bidders, on the assumption that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will head the next government, aim to cut Likud’s current right-wing and religious partners out of his coalition and push Likud into a centrist role.

The US, Israel and Iran embarked on significant military steps Tuesday, May 1, refuting certain US media reports of a lessening in war tensions over Iran: Shortly after Israel launched a big war exercise on its northern borders with Syria and Lebanon, Iran’s border guards initiated naval drills along its southern coast where nuclear facilities, Revolutionary Guards bases and oilfields are situated.  The United States disclosed that the first phase of its anti-Iran missile defense network for protecting Europe was complete.

Binyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak are facing another of the periodic opposition campaigns to unseat them. New faces have joined the opposition lineup, including a fledgling party, “There is a Future.” They are campaigning against an Israeli attack to preempt a nuclear Iran, questioning both leaders’ credentials for leading one and calling for an early election. However, before peaking, the opposition campaign is starting to backfire, debkafile reports. Netanyahu may count on a successful operation against Iran boosting him at the polls.

Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak arrived in Washington Thursday, April 19 with tough questions for US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta about the administration’s dialogue with Iran, on the lines of, “What’s going on? Is there a deal? Don’t tell me what you have settled with the Iranians, just your minimal demands, your bottom line.”  Because Israel was in the dark about the dialogue, Barak sought the truth about Obama’s concessions, especially on IAEA inspections, directly from Panetta.

Israel is fed up with being kept in the dark, doesn’t trust American diplomatic maneuvers to stop a nuclear Iran and is getting ready to make its own decisions after the May 23 Baghdad talks between the P5-1 and Iran. That is the message coming from Binyamin ...

After Binyamin Netanyahu was assured of an inner cabinet majority for a strike on Iran, he sent Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz to Washington with a clear timeline for attacking Iran. Three months are left to stop Iran’s nuclearization in its tracks, after which Israel will strike.

Israel used the Gaza missile war to test and improve three new systems. The brief campaign occasioned the most extensive cyber war Israel has ever conducted, as well giving a new intelligence command and control system its first field test and marking out the many gaps in the big cities' defenses against ...

Washington suspects Saudi Arabia and Israel have revived their intelligence cooperation. The Obama administration will bend over backwards to prevent Israel using Saudi or other Gulf bases for an attack on Iran, even to providing refueling planes for Israeli bombers conducting the attack.

The White House expects talks to start in days and lead to the halting of Iran’s nuclear program development and nuclear enrichment and the dismantling of its nuclear weapons facilities and labs. Israel’s Binyamin Netanyahu is less sanguine, says sanctions or not working and slams Iran as “the most ...

By suddenly stating, contrary to all informed estimates, that Iran’s nuclear arms program has not yet reached the point of no return, Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak implied that Israel was in no hurry to strike its nuclear facilities, a message for which Washington has been angling for months. His words Thursday Feb. 16 contradicted the evaluations of the current and former Israeli Military Intelligence chiefs. debkafile attributes Barak’s re-evaluation to reports of US-Iranian agreement to resume nuclear talks soon.

Israel's top IDF command is being reshuffled, tailored for the potential confrontation with Iran. When Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel takes over in May as Air Force chief, he will free the retiring AIF commander Maj. Gen. Ido Nehushtan to become Dep. Chief of Staff and bring his high technological ...

The new round of European sanctions will not stop Iran's pursuit of a nuclear weapon, Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned in a radio interview Tuesday, Jan. 24.  debkafile: The Obama administration and EU delayed oil sanctions to July 1 for back-channel contacts to ripen and produce a fresh round of nuclear talks with Tehran. Barak stressed Israel's hand was always near the trigger and advised taking "very seriously" Israel's military option which had not been taken off the table.

Benjamin Netanyahu refuses to wait for US-led sanctions to take hold before making unilateral decisions about preempting Iran's development of a bomb. He believes time is running out too fast to hold back for much longer.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu disclosed Thursday night, Jan. 19 that Iran had opted to become a nuclear state.  He called for action to stop Iran before it is too late and iran completed the construction of a nuclear weapon. . His statement at the end of talks in Holland gave Gen Martin Dempsey, on his first visit to Israel as Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, the message he will be asked to take back to President Barack Obama.   

The US and Israel, while bound tightly by military bonds, are at loggerheads over Iran. The Obama administration wants to cut Israel out of military action against Iran's nuclear sites and prevent it hitting back for an Iranian reprisal. Israel is withholding a commitment to abstain from striking Iran ...

A triangular bond is formed by Israel, Nicosia and Athens for joint gas field exploration and production secured by the shared umbrella of the Israeli Navy. On January 9, Cyprus Defense Minister Demetris Eliades arrived in Tel Aviv for the signing of two defense pacts with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

  Moscow and Rome are angling for contracts to build and operate the future pipeline to Europe. The Unites States holds the edge in the bidding.

Barack Obama set about tightening US cooperation with Israel after discovering Iran had embarked on nuclear weaponization. He was persuaded by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak that there was no time to lose for eradicating Iran's nuclear program – hence the White House flip-flop on attacking Iran.

Iran has embarked on "activities related to possible weaponization," said American sources Thursday, Dec. 22, thereby crossing the Obama administration's red line. This accounts for the dramatic reversal of the US administration's wait-and-see policy on attacking Iran, as articulated this week by Leon Panetta and top US soldier, Gen. Martin Dempsey. debkafile reports the US and Israeli are now in sync on action against Iran and have tightened cooperation.

Tehran offers to slow uranium enrichment in stages in step with the lifting of sanctions. The Obama administration is listening - provided Iran ditches Assad. This exchange of messages was carried by Iraqi PM Nouri al Maliki when he visited Washington this week.  It was the main subject of President Barack Obama's talks with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak Friday, Dec. 16. Israel is concerned that Iran has again contrived to buy time and leeway for completing its nuclear weapon program.

Iran says all its nuclear facilities, including uranium enrichment centrifuges, are now underground and safe from US and Israeli attack. Israeli Defense Minister Barak has warned that once underground, Iran's nuclear infrastructure could no longer be attacked and no one would know when a start was made on a nuclear weapon. debkafile:Iran has obtained from North Korea the special metals for advanced uranium enrichment up to weapons grade - contrary to Western claims that their short supply had stalled enrichment.