That diplomatic exploitation of the Israeli threat came seven months after Haaretz reported in May 2009, that CIA director Leon Panetta had just obtained a commitment from Netanyahu and Barak that they would not take military action without consulting Washington first. That commitment reflected a reality that most senior national security officials accepted -- that Israel could attack Iran without US cooperation.
What happened in late 2011 and early 2012 was a "good cop/bad cop" routine by Panetta and Barak at a historical juncture when the United States and Israel were cooperating closely in a strategy to get crippling sanctions against Iran approved in the UN Security Council while pressuring Iran to begin negotiating on its enrichment programme.
Panetta's role in the routine was to wring his hands over alleged indications that Israel was intent on a strike in the spring. But Panetta's interview with David Ignatius in early February 2012 in which he warned of the "strong likelihood" of an Israeli attack in "April, May or June" included a clear give-away that the real purpose of his warning was to gain diplomatic leverage on Iran. He suggested to the Iranians that there were two ways to "dissuade the Israelis from such an attack": either Iran could begin serious negotiations on its nuclear programme, or the United States could step up its own cyber-attacks against Iran.
Later that year, of course, Obama would break dramatically with Netanyahu's strategy. But despite that clear indication in early 2012 that Panetta was playing a game that suited the interests of both administrations, consumers of the world's commercial news media were led to believe that Barak and Netanyahu were on the brink of war.
Barak himself is still peddling that same warmed-over, patently false tale of near war -- war with Iran. And in one more indicator of the degree to which the media parrot the Israeli line on Iran, they are still reporting it as unquestioned fact today.
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