[caption id="attachment_24058" align="alignright" width="150"] Israel�s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu[/caption]

"[An Iranian nuclear bomb] was a lot further away 15 years ago when I started talking about it. It was a lot further away 10 years ago. It was a lot further away five years. It was a lot further away five months ago. They are getting there, and they are getting very, very close."

- Benjamin Netanyahu,�March 7, 2012

"Red line, white line, black line and the like is for children. This is the level of this guy's character."

- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,�October 2, 2012

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to recent�Sunday morning airwaves�to spout�tired talking points�about the non-existent threat Iran's safeguarded, civilian nuclear program poses to Israel, the United States, and presumably Neptune and Krypton.

In a renewed�propaganda blitz, Netanyahu�told�CBS's Bob Schieffer on�Face the Nation�that Iran is getting "closer and closer to the bomb," and�resurrected�a number of�embarrassing phrases�including "red line," "credible military threat" and something about ticking clocks.

"They're edging up to the red line," Netanyahu said. "They haven't crossed it yet. They're also building faster centrifuges that would enable them to jump the line, so to speak, at a much faster rate ��that is, within a few weeks." He also said Iran is�"building ICBMs [intercontinental ballistic missiles] to reach the American mainland in a few years."

Dismissing the recent Iranian election as irrelevant to what he insists are devious Iranian intentions, Netanyahu called Hassan Rouhani, who was inaugurated as Iran's new president on August 3, "a wolf in sheep's clothing," whose maniacal strategy will be, "Smile and build a bomb."

The media carried the news with headlines like "Israeli PM threatens to strike Iran" and "Israel Increases Pressure on U.S. to Act on Iran," quoting Netanyahu as claiming that, when it comes to blah blah blah, "I won't wait until it's too late."

We've been here�before. �It was boring then and it's boring now.

"If sanctions don't work, they have to know that you'll be prepared to take military action ��that's the only thing that will get their attention," Netanyahu said, suggesting that Iranians are subhumans who only understand grunts and shoves, rather than�rational actors�preserving and protecting their inalienable national rights and refusing to back down to offensive and illegal demands made by serially-aggressive nuclear-armed bullies.

Netanyahu urged the United States government to "make clear that the�nuclear�option" - whoops, Freudian slip of the war criminal's tongue ��"the�military�option which is on the table is truly on the table," but lamented that there seemed to be "no sense of urgency" when it comes to stopping Iran from doing something every�intelligence agency�on the planet ��including�Israel's�� says it's�not doing.

The�Israeli�prime�minister�and his�military�and�political�acolytes�have�repeatedly�called�for the United States to�issue�a "credible military threat"�against�Iran. Netanyahu�did so again�at a Cabinet�meeting�prior to his appearance on "Face the Nation."

Threatening, let alone committing, an unprovoked attack�on Iran is�unquestionably�a�violation�of the United Nations Charter.

Still, an obsession is an obsession and, at least, Netanyahu isn't ashamed of being obsessed. "Iran is the most important, the most urgent matter of all," he whined, before throwing up a silly hodgepodge of scary-sounding words in an attempt to be taken seriously. All the problems in the world, including Israel's�ongoing�colonization�of�Palestine, won't amount to a hill of beans, he cried, if the "messianic, apocalyptic, extreme regime" in Tehran acquires "atomic bombs."

Such a ghastly scenario would present "a terrible, catastrophic change for the world and for the United States," he said, because the United States apparently isn't part of the world. (Actually, considering the�isolation�the�United States and Israel�� along with lackey states like Palau and Micronesia ��face�in the United Nations, Netanyahu may be on to something here.)

Of course, the�often-repeated�assessment�of the U.S. intelligence community that Iran is not actually building a bomb and has�no nuclear weapons program�went unmentioned, as did the fact that Iran has supposedly been "a year or so" away from developing nuclear weapon for roughly a decade now.

Unsurprisingly,�Face the Nation�host Bob Schieffer challenged none of Netanyahu's assertions; all the�warmongering and propaganda�was given a free pass. This is especially disappointing considering, in January 2012, then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta�told�Schieffer himself when asked about Iran's alleged pursuit, "Are they trying to develop a nuclear weapon? No."

Netanyahu has been leading the charge against Iran since the mid-1990s, warning of weapons programs that don't exist and calling for sanctions and explicit military threats. His talking points since then literally have not changed and are�identical�to those he used to encourage the United States to invade Iraq a decade ago.

Here's a reminder of why the Israeli prime minister's�CBS�interview may actually have been a rerun:

The suggestion�that Iran would soon be in possession of, or be in a position to quickly manufacture, nuclear weapons�has been in constant circulation for�nearly three decades.�In 1984, Iran was reportedly moving "very quickly" towards a nuclear weapon and could have one as early as 1986. By the early 1990's, the CIA�predicted�Iran was "making progress on a nuclear arms program and could develop a nuclear weapon by 2000," later�changing�their estimate to�2003.

Israeli estimates have always been of an especially hysterical quality. In March 1992,�The Jerusalem Report,�noting�that "Israel keeps a wary watch on Tehran's march to the Bomb," predicted that, "[b]y the year 2000, Iran will almost certainly have the bomb."

A few months later,�Israeli Major General Herzl Budinger�insisted�that, unless "Iran's intensive effort to develop atomic weapons is not 'disrupted,'" it would "become a nuclear power by the end of the decade." Then-Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres�shared�similar assessment later that year.

On November 8, 1992, the�New York Times�reported�Israel was confident Iran would "become a nuclear power in a few years unless stopped." An Israeli "senior army officer" feared "The Iranians may have a full nuclear capability by the end of the decade."

In March 1993,�a�Washington Post�report�headlined "Israel seeking to convince U.S. that West is threatened by Iran" noted Israeli leaders attempting to push their American counterparts into taking a stronger stance on Iran. The article quoted then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin warning of "megalomaniacal" Iran intent on establishing "a Middle East empire."

The alarm was still ringing a couple of years later when, on January 11, 1995, Benjamin Netanyahu�told�a nearly-empty Knesset hearing that "Within three to five years, we can assume that Iran will become autonomous in its ability to develop and produce a nuclear bomb, without having to import either the technology or the material."

His solution to this crisis? "[The nuclear threat] must be uprooted by an international front headed by the U.S. It necessitates economic sanctions on Iran," he declared.

By 1996, Israeli assessments�put�an Iranian nuclear bomb four years away. One year later, they confidently�predicted�it would happen by 2005. By mid-2001, Israel was still�holding fast�to its 2005 deadline and�reaffirmed�such a�warning�in�2003.

By 2004, however, an Israeli intelligence report�determined�that "Within three years, Iran would have the means to produce an atomic bomb by itself." In 2005, Israel's Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz�said�Iran was "less than one year away." At the same time, Israeli Military Intelligence's�prediction�was 2007, then 2008, later revised to 2012, then�returned�to 2008. In 2007, Israeli Military Intelligence�said�Iran would become nuclear weapons capable by mid-2009. A year�later, the 2009 threshold�referred�to "an operable nuclear weapon," rather than just capability.

When 2009 rolled around, then-Prime Ministerial candidate Benjamin Netanyahu�told�an American congressional delegation that Israeli "experts" determined Iranian nuclear weapons capability "was probably only one or two years away," while Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak�put�the window of opportunity to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons at a mere six to 18 months. At the time, Mossad chief Meir Dagan�insisted, "The Iranians will have by 2014 a bomb ready to be used, which would represent a concrete threat for Israel."

Later that same year, Brigadier General Yossi Baidatz "argued�that it would take Iran one year to obtain a nuclear weapon and two and a half years to build an arsenal of three weapons. By 2012 Iran would be able to build one weapon within weeks and an arsenal within six months." A month later, Netanyahu�said, "Iran has the capability now to make one bomb or they could wait and make several bombs in a year or two."

By 2010, some Israeli officials�said�Iran was only a year away from a bomb; some said it "one to three years away from having a breakout nuclear capability," and others said it still had seven years to go. An unnamed "Israeli policy maker"�revealed�to Jeffrey Goldberg that Iran would have a nuclear weapon "nine months from June���in other words, March of 2011." In early 2011, the prediction�jumped�to 2015.

Nevertheless, a year later, the�Times of London�claimed�an Israeli security report assessed Iran may become a nuclear power "within a year," a conclusion subsequently�confirmed�by Ehud Barak. Six months later, in mid-2012, Barak�suggested�that Iran would take "several years" for Iran to "turn nuclear." Shortly thereafter, Netanyahu�reportedly�put the "red line" of Iranian nuclear capability at just "a few months away," later�telling�the United Nations in September (along with his trusty cartoon bomb drawing) that Iran would have "enough enriched uranium for the first bomb" by mid-to-late 2013. By October, Ehud Barak�added�an extra "eight to 10 months" to the timeline.

Accompanying all of these predictions, of course, have been�fever-pitched threats�of an�ever-imminent�Israeli military strike on Iran and its nuclear infrastructure. In 2012, the predictions of such an illegal assault were especially incessant.�Not a month went by�without hysterical rumors of a new Middle Eastern war in the offing.

This past January, a new prediction emerged.�McClatchy Newspapers�reported�that "Israeli intelligence officials now estimate that Iran won't be able to build a nuclear weapon before 2015 or 2016, pushing back by several years previous assessments of Iran's nuclear ambitions." The report is based on "[i]ntelligence briefings given to�McClatchy�over the last two months" which "confirmed that various officials across Israel's military and political echelons now think it's unrealistic that Iran could develop a nuclear weapons arsenal before 2015. Others pushed the date back even further, to the winter of 2016."

In early March 2013, Netanyahu�claimed�that "Iran is getting closer" to his self-determined "red line" of nuclear weapons capability and is "putting itself in a position to cross that line very quickly once it decides to do so." Later that same month, in a joint�press conference�in Jerusalem with President Obama, Netanyahu�warned�of "Iran's relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons" before reiterating his position that "In order to stop Iran's nuclear programs peacefully, diplomacy and sanctions must be augmented by a clear and credible threat of military action." �Soon thereafter, the Israeli press publicized�claims�by anonymous Israeli officials that "Iran could have the capability to build a nuclear bomb by July."

Well, it's July, so Netanyahu tells us Iran is getting "closer and closer."

Sadly, Netanayhu's�tired propaganda�never seems to elicit the glazed-over, yawning-inducing dismissal from the U.S. press that it so sorely deserves; rather, he gets to schedule high-profile interviews on major networks whenever he wants to reissue his warmongering bromides.

A�diplomatic cable�sent from sent from the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv in 2005, published by Wikileaks, noted that, despite Israeli warnings that Iran would reach a critical nuclear weapons capability within six months, some Israeli "officials admitted informally that these estimates need to be taken with caution. The head of the MFA's [Ministry of Foreign Affairs] strategic affairs division recalled that GOI assessments from 1993 predicted that Iran would possess an atomic bomb by 1998 at the latest."

Another�cable�from 2009 wondered whether "the Israelis firmly believe" their hysterical predictions about Iran's nuclear progress "or are using worst-case estimates to raise greater urgency from the United States)."

In truth, Netanyahu himself is increasingly viewed as an Israeli Chicken Little. In early 2013,�McClatchy Newspapers�reported�that Israeli officials "have said there's a widening gulf between Netanyahu's remarks and the intelligence reports he receives," and quoted one unnamed "intelligence officer" as wondering, "Did we cry wolf too early?"

While the alarmism will surely continue unabated, the answer is obvious.

The post originally appeared on�Wide Asleep in America.

By policymic

 

 

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