By Jonathan Steele
ICH
25/09/08 “The Guardian”
US president told Israeli prime minister he would not back attack on Iran, senior European diplomatic sources tell Guardian
Israel gave serious thought this spring to launching a military strike on Iran’s nuclear sites but was told by President George W Bush that he would not support it and did not expect to revise that view for the rest of his presidency, senior European diplomatic sources have told the Guardian.
The then prime minister, Ehud Olmert, used the occasion of Bush’s trip to Israel for the 60th anniversary of the state’s founding to raise the issue in a one-on-one meeting on May 14, the sources said. “He took it [the refusal of a US green light] as where they were at the moment, and that the US position was unlikely to change as long as Bush was in office”, they added.
Israel asked US for green light to bomb nuclear sites in Iran : Information Clearing House – ICH.
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Very good point, epppie. And good question.
I hope that’s right – about the refusal. I don’t believe it, though. I think this could be called Project Plausible Deniability. The whole point of such leaks, in my view, is to set the scene such that when Israel DOES strike Iran, and iran (presumably, as it says it will do) attacks both the US and Israel in response, the US can claim they had nothing to do with Israel’s attack and thus can claim the Iran attack as yet another “Pearl Harbor”.
Riddle me this: if Bush really refused the green light to Israel, why ship them 1000 bunker busters?