As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sought to ramp up pressure on Iran’s nuclear program with hints he might order a unilateral attack on Iran, he's been staunchly supported by Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
Lately, there have been cracks emerging in that support.
Amid this week’s flare-up between Mr. Netanyahu and President Barack Obama over how to confront Iran, the Israeli defense minister appeared to break ranks. In a press statement, he criticized the prime minister for his public scolding of the White House, saying “we must not forget that the U.S. is Israel’s main ally’’ and that differences should be resolved behind closed doors.
Observers believe those remarks have wider significance: After months of publicly and privately expressing support for an aggressive posture towards Iran, Mr. Barak seems to have joined those opposing an attack any time soon. With much of Israel’s military establishment and the US opposed to a strike, a Barak defection would isolate the Israeli prime minister as the lone proponent of military action at the upper reaches of either country.