Is Iran NIE a Blessing in Disguise for Israel?

The US National Intelligence Estimate's assertion that Iran currently does not have a nuclear weapons program has caused much frustration in Israel. Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh referred to the report as a lie at a recent breakfast in New York, and Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer reportedly "doesn't buy" its findings.

Though the report aggravates Israel's effort to compel Washington to pursue an increasingly harsh line against Tehran, all is not lost for Israel. In fact, despite these initial knee-jerk reactions, the NIE may very well end up being a blessing in disguise for the Jewish state by pulling Israel out of its state of paralysis vis-à-vis Iran.

Israel has long been at odds with Washington's intelligence agencies. It started sounding the alarm bells on Iran's nuclear program back in 1991, arguing that in the post-Cold War world, Iran and Shi'ite fundamentalism were emerging as the new strategic threat to the Middle East.

The Israeli warnings were met with great skepticism and surprise within the Beltway. After all, only a few years earlier – at a time when Iran's revolutionary fervor was still riding high – the Israelis had gone to great lengths to bring Iran and the US back on talking terms, dismissing all notions that Iran was a threat.

But Israel stuck to its guns and ever since 1992, the Jewish state has employed a bellicose rhetoric against Tehran (echoing the Islamic Republic's venomous verbal attacks on Israel) and maintained that Iran is just a few years away from the bomb. Antiwar.com