Yadlin to Obama: Visit Israel to allay Iran fears

Former Military Intelligence head Amos Yadlin on Saturday urged US President Barack Obama to visit Israel in order to allay domestic fears that the US is not fully committed to stopping Iranian nuclear program.

"The US president should visit Israel and tell its leadership — and, more important, its people — that preventing a nuclear Iran is a US interest, and if we have to resort to military action, we will," Yadlin said in an opinion piece published in The Washington Post. Yadlin also presented a five-point plan to the Obama administration to convince "allies and adversaries alike that military action is real, imminent and doable."

Yadlin called on Obama to notify Congress in writing that he reserves the right to use military force on Iran. He added that the US should increase its military presence in the Persian Gulf, and should also publicly commit to the security of its allies in the region. Perhaps most significantly, Yadlin asked the the US to provide Israel with advanced military technology and intelligence, contingent on Israeli pledges to delay a strike.

Yadlin, who left his IDF post in 2010 and is currently the head of the Institute for National Security Studies, has been a vocal supporter of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who have both hinted that Israel would not place the fate of Israel into the hands of the US.

"Israel cannot afford to outsource its security to another country," Yadlin wrote in the Post. "But if the United States wants Israel to give sanctions and diplomacy more time, Israelis must know that they will not be left high and dry if these options fail."

Yadlin, one of eight pilots who took part in the 1981 attack on an Iraqi reactor, hinted that Israel had the capability of hitting at the heart of the Iranian nuclear program, but said that Israel would need US support "both the day after and the decade after a strike."

Source: The Jerusalem Post