What Is Israel's Strategy for Iran?
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00:00What is Israel's ultimate strategy here? I think we can know for sure that de-escalation, it's not a strategy that would be considered rather thin gruel as far as the Israelis are concerned, having committed themselves to a very well planned and according to them, very successful so far offensive. So their plans as at the outset, their demands are for an end, whether through their military force or perhaps combined military force for the United States. Time will tell if that will happen or through a negotiated deal, an end to the Iranian nuclear program, an end to the missile program. Netanyahu also added that he described an end to the Iranian reign of terror in the Middle East. He said this an interview last night. That's a bit hard to pass right now, but it would suggest he wants to see a dismantling of its regional connections, especially with groups on Israel's borders, which Israel has been battling for the last 20 months. So Israel has no patience right now for talks for the sake of talks, if they're going to be talks. It wants a conclusive deal. Okay. That's interesting context given given what we're hearing around around potentially US officials getting involved in conversations with their Iranian counterparts. We have lines crossing from CNN right now saying that the US intelligence assessment is that Iran was years away from a nuclear weapon, that they reported by sea and it since the domestic support for this conflict in Israel, where does that stand? Domestic support is very strong. Bloomberg reported yesterday had a first look at what I believe is the first poll issued. Keep in mind that this flare up, it seems a quite long duration. It's only four days old. That poll found strong 70% support across Israelis for this. The one weak points of their support is whether Israel can alone tackle finally Israel's nuclear programs without U.S. support, be it diplomatic or military. Also, Israelis, in the long run, should they suffer thousands of casualties and there have been casualties, but it's not the thousands that would be a third of them that would at that point suggest it's not worth the cost.
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