There was a time when Israel knew how to keep a secret. This was not the case after the sabotage of Iran’s Natanz nuclear site on April 11. In the hours following Tehran’s revelation of the operation, Israeli officials rushed to claim it in the press, on condition of anonymity. Were they openly seeking to torpedo the international negotiations which were relaunched in Vienna on the Iranian nuclear issue, closely followed by the American ally?
The fact is that the Hebrew State and Washington are pursuing, in this delicate period, divergent policies, which ultimately seem irreconcilable. The Democratic administration of Joe Biden has made a point of quickly reviving the 2015 international agreement on Iranian nuclear power, which President Trump denounced in 2018. Faced with multiple violations by Iran of its commitments since the spring of 2019, it look for “Put the Iranian nuclear program back in its box” and to stem a still reversible crisis.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for his part, seems to want to persevere in the policy of “Maximum pressure”, designed in 2018 in close collaboration with the Trump administration, as if he had never left the White House. “For the Israeli government, the pressure must be maintained. This did not force Iran to change its behavior, but its logic requires not to dialogue with Tehran ”, deplores Ephraim Halevy, former director of Mossad. This course is maintained without Israel having clarified its objectives, without showing any alternative or plan to end the crisis, and henceforth without discretion.
The Hebrew state breaks with its “doctrine of opacity”
In speaking out on the attack on Natanz, the Jewish state has broken with the “doctrine of opacity” applied to its own nuclear program since the 1960s, and adopted for the secret war it is waging against Iran . This doctrine requires him to neither confirm nor deny his clandestine operations in the country. It gives Tehran a margin of uncertainty and reduces the need for a response.
On April 12, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Mr. Netanyahu’s political rival, himself criticized “The serious chatter that harms our forces and the security of the state.” ” Mr. Gantz went so far as to ask the Attorney General of the country to commission an investigation into the leaks of internal intelligence, arguing that they were“Irresponsible behavior. If it is caused by personal or political interests, it is very serious in my eyes. “
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