Would Israel strike first? It’s not a far fetched proposition. Internal polling seems to suggest this would be acceptable to the Israeli public. I often think one purpose of polling, is a way to get approval for desired actions. The poll question is like the seed and the responses provide the growth for that idea/plan/belief.
As tensions rise, some in Israel have called for a preemptive strike on Iran and its proxies. According to Israeli media reports, the country’s leadership would consider such a strike if it had solid evidence that Iran was planning a significant attack.
A poll conducted by the 103FM radio station published Tuesday showed that half of the Israeli public favors such a strike.
Clearly this idea is being considered by Israel and the US.
Ambassador Alan Baker, who directs the Institute for Contemporary Affairs at the Jerusalem Center, told The Media Line that Israeli and American decision-makers will consider whether a preemptive Israeli strike would prevent a larger regional war.
“Israel and the US will probably have positive evidence which will then enable them to justify whatever action is proportionate to the immediacy of the threat,” he said.
The idea is to go big.
“Any attack that Israel will carry out larger than the previous one in April will be considered a major escalation,” Professor Danny Orbach, a military historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told The Media Line. “Because of this, it is important that such an attack be of high quality in order to justify it. This will create a further escalation and in essence, a calculated cycle of violence.”