The Associated Press’ Aron Heller fired an early shot in what will undoubtedly be a massive media attempt to chip at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s effort to push the military option against Iran.
In a story headlined “Despite swagger, Israelis feeling vulnerable,” Heller reports from Jerusalem that “skepticism about Israel’s ability to defend itself runs deep here. Israelis still remember Iraqi Scuds landing in the center of the country 20 years ago. In 2006, the Lebanese Hezbollah militia seemed able to rain rockets at will during a monthlong conflict with the Jewish state. A scathing government report issued months ago suggested the homefront is still woefully unprepared.”
But other than those tidbits of history, a rehashing of the White House’s message that Israel will be unable to finish the job even should it decide to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, and one quote, from Vice Prime Minister and minister of Intelligence and Atomic Energy Dan Meridor, who said: “Whereas in the past, there was a battlefield where tanks fought tanks, planes fought planes, there was a certain push not to see the homefront affected. Now the war is mainly in the homefront.”
Not much of a story, certainly not enough meat there to support the chilling “Israelis feeling vulnerable” headline. Mostly because Israelis also feel vulnerable at the idea of stockpiles of nuclear weapons in the hands of a neighbor whose leaders have sworn time and again to wipe Israel off the map.