A former Israeli national security adviser said Wednesday that the prime minister and the defense minister told him this week they had not yet decided to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities and could be dissuaded from a strike if President Obama approved stricter sanctions and publicly confirmed his willingness to use military force.
“There is a window of opportunity,” said the official, Uzi Dayan, a former deputy chief of staff in the military. “This window is closing, but if the United States would be much clearer and stronger about the sanctions on one hand and about what can happen if Iran won’t make a U-turn — there is not a lot of time, but there is still time to make a difference.” …
The meetings came during a week of intensifying public discussion about the possibility of a unilateral Israeli attack on Iran, fueled by a series of leaks to journalists by supporters and opponents of such a strike. The media blitz seems to have awakened the Israeli public — left-leaning intellectuals staged protests, and there were long lines at gas mask distribution centers — and to have engaged Washington, where two top defense officials tried to tamp down the talk on Tuesday.
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