| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
In a television interview in November 2011, former head of Mossad Meir Dagan warned that an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities could lead to a regional war involving actors such as Hizbullah, Hamas and Syria. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has had a different view. In October 2012, he told French magazine Paris Match that such an attack would stabilise the Middle East:
Five minutes after, contrary to what the skeptics say, I think a feeling of relief would spread across the region … Iran is not popular in the Arab world, far from it, and some governments in the region, as well as their citizens, have understood that a nuclear-armed Iran would be dangerous for them, not just for Israel.
US officials, however, predict that Arab states would have a strong reaction to an independent Israeli attack. Such an assault is likely to sever Israel's already limited diplomatic relations with Arab states, they argue, and may destroy its peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan. Washington believes that an attack would give rise to popular protests in the Arab world, forcing its leaders to act.
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