Israel calls on world to declare Iran policy failed

TEL AVIV

The Israeli deputy foreign minister has called on the international community to declare the diplomatic channel with Iran over its nuclear program a failure, as a recent poll shows a majority of Israelis are opposed to a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Danny Ayalon told Israel Radio on Aug. 12 that the Iranians must understand that they have reached the edge of the international community’s patience, and that if they continue their actions all options will be on the table, according to Israeli daily Jerusalem Post.

Ayalon specified that “all options” do not just refer to Israeli action, but also to action by NATO, the United States and other forces. Asked how much time remains for sanctions and threats to take effect, Ayalon said “several weeks.” If the Iranians’ choice is made starker, he said, they are capable of changing their policy, as they did in 2003 when they grew nervous about an American attack following the Iraq invasion.

Majority of Israelis do not support attack on Iran: Poll

However, it seems that a majority of Israelis do not agree with Ayalon, according to a recent poll conducted by the Dialogue Institute.

The poll found that 46 percent of respondents said that Israel should not attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, while 32 percent advocated an Israeli strike and 22 percent offered no opinion, according to the Times of Israel, a Jerusalem-based online newspaper. The survey results were published amid heightened debate among senior policy officials about the necessity of a military strike to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak have made increasingly vociferous statements about the urgent imperative to stop Iran. Netanyahu said at the weekly Cabinet meeting on Aug. 12 that the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran dwarfs all the threats emanating from Sinai. “Every threat against the home front is dwarfed by one threat. Iran cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon,” Netanyahu said.