Netanyahu is coming to Mar-a-Lago on Dec. 29 and, according to a report yesterday by NBC News, one of his objectives will be to try to convince Trump to join Israel in a new bombing campaign against Iran. According to NBC, Israeli officials also are concerned that Iran is reconstituting nuclear enrichment sites the U.S. bombed in June, the sources said. But, they added, the officials view Iran’s efforts to rebuild facilities where they produce the ballistic missiles and to repair its crippled air defense systems as more immediate concerns. Netanyahu is expected to make the case to Trump that Iran’s expansion of its ballistic missile program poses a threat that could necessitate swift action. They said part of his argument is expected to be that Iran’s actions present perils not only to Israel but also to the broader region, including U.S. interests.
A couple of days ago, Yediot Ahronoth ran a report which claims that Iran is obsessed with developing a “fourth generation nuclear weapon,” that is, a “fusion bomb” that does not depend on a fission trigger to detonate it. The Iranians have supposedly poured an enormous effort into the development of such a device but have yet to succeed.
Trita Parsi assesses that such demands from Netanyahu will never end, until Trump puts a stop to them. “Israel’s military doctrine demands endless war. Not to achieve security, but to exercise dominance,” he writes.