Iran - Israel's clock different to Obama's

On the eve of his visit to Israel, President Obama has made a statement that Iran is still 1 year away from nuclear weapons capability.

This is at odds with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's graphic warning to the UN that Iran is expected to reach that red line by the the spring or summer of this year.

So who is right?

The truth is that, where Iran is concerned, America and Israel are working in two very different time zones.

America and the Western powers are by nature reactive. They seem content to wait until Iran carries out a North-Korea-style nuclear weapons test, perhaps in a year's time. Only when that stark reality hits them in their faces will they take action. 

Then they have the option to respond with their traditional shock and awe - like the opening round of NATO action in Bosnia. 

America had the ability to carpet-bomb Afghanistan with impunity, much the same way as Britain carpet-bombed Dresden and the Russians carpet-bombed Chechnya. 

This is not Israel's way of doing things.

When Israel bombed Saddam's nuclear facilities on June 7th 1981, it did so with a surgical strike lasting 2 minutes on a quiet Sunday afternoon. It chose this time to minimize civilian casualties to the absolute minimum. In the event, only 10 Iraqis died in the raid and the massive explosions which followed.

Israel is not reactive but proactive.  And it will aim to destroy Ahmadinejad's weapons of mass Jewish destruction in a way that causes minimal harm to ordinary Iranian citizens already repressed by his tyrannical mullocracy.

For the people of the book, every life is precious.
Carpet bombing a year from now is not in our DNA.