Anonymous, the hacking ‘movement’, has created a YouTube video declaring war on Israel. The form and content of the declaration are sinister, in a Hollywood type of way. The cyber war, after all, has been going on for quite some time already. But what’s new is that this movement has now fornally called on like-minded people all over the world to join in on the attack against Israel. By the way, the Anonymous video could be a fake, nobody really knows.

The video is sinister because the ‘declaration of war’ comes from an anonymous source that gathers “people who travel a short distance together – much like commuters who meet in a bus or tram: For a brief period of time we have the same route, share a common goal, purpose or dislike. And on this journey together, we may well change the world.” The declaration of war has not been made by a country or a dictator, or even a clearly identifiable terrorist group like Islamic Jihad. This is not an Iranian leader inspecting a military parade with mounted missiles rolling by, missiles which have “Death to Israel” scrawled on them. This is something else entirely, who knows who is really behind it, how many they are, how serious they are, and how much damage they can do. Israel gets hacked thousands of times a day, and this number has been increasing lately. The level of seriousness is also rising. I believe we’re just at the beginning of this new type of warfare, and I hope to God that we’re ready for it. By the way, if you want to ‘join’ Anonymous, here’s how. You know, just in case you want to get into the game and maybe, you know, ask the people nicely to please instead focus on really bad people like Bashar Assad, Vladimir Putin, Hugo Chavez, Khaminei, Robert Mugabe etc etc etc who make this world a really bad place.

Kriegerin, which translates loosely as “female fighter” is on wide release in Germany. It looks like a serious and contemporary film exploring the issue of women in the neo-Nazi scene, and it has parallels to a recent neo-Nazi case in Germany. From the screenshots [I haven't seen the film] I do get an impression however that the protagonists are humanized, and fighting to be recognized. It’s tough to reconcile myself to the fact that, in Germany, neo-Nazis might not seem, to the mainstream anyway, as nothing other than pure scum. Screenings are also planned at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival as well as the Berlin International Film Festival.

Ascot Elite/ Alexander Janetzko

And then this, Iron Sky, a Finnish-German-Australian co-production about an invasion of space Nazis. According to IMDB: “The Nazis set up a secret base on the moon in 1945 where they hide out and plan to return to power in 2018.” It also premieres at the Berlin International Film Festival.

While Iron Sky is an entirely different genre and less serious than Kriegerin, it’s worrying in its celebration of ‘Nazi chic’. The Nazis here are portrayed as villains, but in such a comic way that young international audiences might think that the real Nazis of WW2 weren’t such terrible people really. I’m worried abot the long term impact it could have on millions of young people, who may think it a cool thing to say, as the promo does, that: “It’s gonna get Nazi” [instead of it's gonna get nasty]. What’s next, Nazi Westerns? Will the Nazis play the cowboys or the Indians? What about Nazi vampires?

When did being a Nazi become “so fucking awesome”?

There are a few things very wrong with this piece of news:

Firstly, Matan Vilnai, a former soldier and deputy defense minister, has absolutely no diplomatic experience to speak of. And he doesn’t speak Chinese. I mean, China is not important enough for us to send a career professional diplomat to, right? Vilnai will replace the current ambassador, Amos Nadai, who served as deputy head of the foreign ministry’s Asia department prior to his appointment as ambassador to China. Now THAT’S relevant experience.

But that’s not even the most salient problem.

The real problem with this news is that, on the eve of a possible regional war, with 200,000 rockets aimed at all parts of Israel, the minister responsible for preparing the home front to deal with the expected nightmare ups and leaves his post. To me, Vilnai can now be mentioned in the same breath as the Italian captain who abandoned the passengers of his sinking ship while he escaped safely to shore.

That’s unconscionable. It’s unforgivable on his part to even be interested in this posting at this specific time of emergency, and it’s unforgivable on the part of whoever decided to appoint him to China.

What’s also unconscionable, is the sad fact that Vilnai’s ministry was never given a budget and a staff, nor was it given any statutory powers. So why, I hear you asking, would it matter if Vilnai, the minister of nothing, is removed from his position and sent to China, if his ministry wasn’t doing anything anyway? What does it matter if Yossi Peled, another minister of nothing, is appointed to the position instead? It matters because Vilnai failed to rally people to his cause; failed to bang his fist on the table to get funding and power for what everyone is telling us will be the new front line in our next war. And if he couldn’t get the budgets and powers he needed to get the job done, Vilnai should have resigned in protest. That’s what real leaders do. They fight from inside the system, and if they absolutely fail to change the system from within, they resign and fight the system from the outside. Peled will not be able to get anything from the government that Vilnai didn’t get. Vilnai essentially accepted his ministerial seat because it was politically expedient to do so at the time. And now, when it is clear that the government has absolutely no intention to form one unified homefront command structure that coordinates all of the needs of Israel’s 7 million people under severe rocket attack, he finds an elegant way out. He leaves his position when over 1.5 million Israelis don’t have gas masks or bomb shelters. He leaves on the eve of a possible war.

Former GOC Homefront Command Maj. Gen. Yair Golan says that Israelis can expect to be under severe rocket attack for anywhere up to two months. That means two months of severe disruptions to daily life; it means that somebody needs to coordinate between the local authorities, the fire department, the police, the army, the hospitals, the factories, public transportation, the airports, the social services, etc etc etc

Take a look at what his office is responsible for, and tell me if you think it’s not serious enough.

This should be one of the most important, prestigious, and sought-after jobs in the country right now. It should be handled by a capable minister at the helm of a serious ministry. It should be handled by a career soldier, with decades of military and logistical experience. Someone like Vilnai would actually be perfect for this job. But instead of giving Vilnai the tools he needs to do his job [if he even demanded them], the government sends him to China, far, far away from here, to a posting that he is far, far too underqualified for. I’m not interested in Vilnai’s career, I want to know who replaces Vilnai at the MOD and what budget and powers he is given. I’m interested in the state of bomb shelters and bread bakeries.

And guess what, no replacement for Vilnai at the Homefront Defense Ministry has yet been announced. Why the government would trumpet Vilnai’s appointment to China instead of trumpeting a successful replacement for the Homefront Defense Ministry is beyond me. It’s not like Israeli citizens are worried or anything…

Stupid, short-sighted, frustrating, scary.

According to Krauthammer, Bashar Assad’s fall would “deprive Iran of an intra-Arab staging area and sever its corridor to the Mediterranean. Syria would return to the Sunni fold. Hezbollah, Tehran’s agent in Lebanon, could be next, withering on the vine without Syrian support and Iranian materiel. And Hamas would revert to Egyptian patronage.”

It all sounds so fine and dandy. Too good to be true even. Wish it were so. But so often in the Middle East the best case scenarios turn out to be just that, scenarios, while reality stabs you in the back and takes a bite out of your ass. When Israel left Lebanon in 2000 we were supposed to get a good and quiet border. We left Gaza hoping it would become Singapore, instead it became Waziristan. America invaded Iraq to rid Saddam of WMDs he didn’t have and instead created hell-on-earth, a War of Mass Distraction, while, just over the border, the Iranians were cooking up real WMDs.

How can you be so sure, Charles, that post-Assad Syria “returns to the Sunni fold”? The truth is that we a) don’t know when and how Assad falls, b)what he’s capable of doing before he finally goes down, and b) what kind of Syria we’ll get after Assad goes (a strife-torn, hell-on-earth Iraq redux).

And what exactly is the “Sunni fold” nowadays? A Muslim-Brotherhood dominated region (from Morocco, Libya, Egypt, and Tunisia) – with secular groups pushed out of the centers of power. What do we know about the alliances, policies and aims of the new leaders of the Sunni fold? How can we be sure that they really won’t find ways to work and coexist with Iran? It’s not a stretch. If it’s in their interests, and in Iran’s interests, they’ll find ways to cooperate. And how do we know the new regimes in the Middle East will be pro-peace, pro-democracy and pro-West? In fact, all the indicators so far point in the opposite direction. Krauthammer’s pieces fit too neatly to be plausible in this uncertain region.

Hamas may “revert to Egyptian patronage” but it is an entirely different Egypt that they might revert to. The new Egypt, ruled by the army and Muslim Brotherhood gives Hamas a much more solid base of support and operations than they ever had in Syria. A base which they can use to further consolidate their grip on Gaza. A new Egypt, which has totally lost all control over the Sinai – which is fast becoming the world’s next terror mega-hub. Hamas, by thawing its relations with Jordan, will work to deepen its infrastructure in the West Bank.

So yes, we want Bashar Asssad to fall, hard, fast and painfully. We want Iran to be weakened and isolated. But let’s not have any illusions about what happens next. Bashar still has China and Russia, and so do the Iranians, incidentally.

But with all the recent talk of attack, is Israel bluffing?

The question goes to the very heart of how we see ourselves in this neighborhood. Defense Minister Ehud Barak is fond of saying two things: 

1. We’re a villa in the Middle East jungle

2. We’re the strongest power within a 1000 mile radius, including those on the edges of that radius. 

How do we want to be seen? As a country that never, ever bluffs when it comes to its security? Or a country that bluffs sometimes, and sometimes doesn’t? What’s better for our deterrence?

As the New York Times reports:

Israelis like to say that when it comes to military and security operations, those who know don’t talk, and those who talk don’t know.  The standard view has been that successful attacks rely on secrecy and surprise, so the more talk there is about an operation, the less likely it will occur.

This seems to me like classic Ehud Barak. The more we talk about hitting Iran, the more people say that we’re not going to hit them because we don’t actually have a credible military option, so we’re talking a big game to make it seem as if we have a credible military option. And then we attack. It’s reverse-reverse psychology. It’s Ehud Barak.

The sense we’re trying to give you is that we’re crazy; we’re unpredictable. We keep you on your toes. Just like Ehud Barak.

Why else would Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu keep Barak around? Because he’s an electoral asset??

“I don’t think that Israel has made a decision on what they need to do,” President Obama said Sunday in an interview with NBC.

I think the Israelis have made a decision, Mr. President, but they’re just not telling you.

We’re sorry about the unfortunate timing, what with the U.S. election looming and the global economy “hanging by a razor’s edge.”

But these things really are not all that important to us. Elections come and go. Economies go and up down in cycles. We’re interested in the price of our blood, not the price of your oil.

We’re talking about our lives here.

If anyone is bluffing, Israeli security officials believe it’s the Iranians, with their threats of massive retaliation.

A top security official tells me that Iran’s retaliation will likely be a combination of Argentina in 1994, Iraq in 1991 and Lebanon 2006. Take these three things and multiply them by three – that’s all they’ve got. They can’t send divisions to our borders – they’ll die in the desert. They can’t choke the world with their navy.   

Personally, I don’t think the Israeli government is bluffing. 

Sitting at a desk beside a flag of Israel, and in front of a volumes of Talmud and the Old Testament, Netanyahu, whose words were subtitled into Arabic at the bottom of the screen, said the following:

“Citizens of Israel, Shalom. I speak to you today from Jerusalem, our eternal, undivided capital, and the capital of King David. Several hours ago, I ordered the armed forces of this nation to remove the threat of extinction made against our country by the rulers of Iran. As of 3am last night, all of the armed forces of the State of Israel are in action to achieve a swift and decisive victory in this historic mission. All efforts at diplomacy and compromise have come to naught. While repeated, serious and honest efforts toward a peaceful resolution to the crisis were made by the P5+1 world powers, Iran was continuing to make preparations to produce atomic bombs. After receiving reliable and validated information that the Iranian nuclear program was about to enter its “zone of immunity,” I, together with members of the Security Cabinet, decided that the moment of truth had arrived, and that consequently, I must tell you, this nation is at war with Iran and its proxies in Lebanon and Gaza. Let me be dugri: this is not a war of choice. The truth is that we were left with no choice. We cannot live with a nuclear Iran because Iran will use its nuclear weapons to destroy us. Our enemy’s knife is at our throat, and there is no use in debating whether or not he will decide to draw our blood. As we have said all along, again and again, our security, and the security of our children, were always in our own hands. History has left us no choice: we are the only nation in the world whose very existence is threatened. Throughout history we have seen that those who rise to destroy the Jews do not stop at the Jews. But this time the Jews have a state of their own, and an army of their own. A mighty, fearsome, honorable and pure army which knows how to get the job done. Those threatening to destroy us are not sufficing with words alone, but are assiduously, and undeniably working to produce the ultimate weapon of destruction: the atomic bomb. Make no mistake; they intend to use this weapon. First, they will use it against us. After that, they will use it against anyone who stands in their way – anyone who dares to believe in the principles of freedom, democracy, and human rights. We ask the world to recognize our act as an act of self-preservation, and we ask the international community to recognize the step we have taken as the only option left to us. To those nations who condemn us: spare us your condemnations and hypocrisy: we know that many leaders, in every capital of the world, quietly support the military action we have embarked on today. What we ask now is that you step forward and support our struggle, which is also your struggle. If you will not follow us into battle, then the least you can do is tell the truth to your nations: tell them that the brave Israelis, these proud and gutsy few, have done what needed to be done, have stepped up to history’s call to defend the free world against the evil of tyranny and fundamentalist Islam. To our friends and allies: we ask your understanding that our calculations are different to your calculations. We remain committed to the concept of international peace and security, and are ready to play our part toward that goal. To the people of Israel, my people, and our brothers and sisters around the Diaspora: I am looking you in the eye, and I promise, as the prime minister of the State of Israel, the reconstituted nation state of the Jewish people in its historic homeland, that our resolve will not waiver, the Sword of Gideon and the Shield of David will not falter; we will not fail you. As long as we are united, there is nothing we cannot achieve. The Third Temple will not be destroyed. Masada will not fall again. We refuse to be murdered. We will not be led again quietly to our deaths, and we refuse to let our enemies get their hands on the weapons to destroy us. As our holy book teaches us: ‘He who rises to kill you, rise first to kill him.’ We refuse to play the part that many in the world have prepared for us. Better a bad headline than a good eulogy. We will prevail, and peace and prosperity will come to this land. This tiny nation has persisted to exist despite our enemies’ great and consistent efforts to wipe us out. While we are a nation that believes in miracles, we put our survival down to our own true grit and determination to keep living, and to live a normal life in our historic homeland. Citizens of Israel: I emplore you to listen to the instructions of the Home Front Command, stay close to your shelters; be brave and resilient, look after one another; support our brave men and women in uniform; have hope and pray with a full heart to the Almighty. Oseh shalom bimromav, hu ya’aseh shalom aleynu, ve’al kol Yisrael ve’imru amen. He who makes peace in His heights may He make peace upon us and upon all Israel; and say, Amen.”

Note to reader: This is a fiction, of sorts.

It started two weeks ago with his academic degree issue. Lapid was accepted to Bar Ilan University without a bachelor’s degree, even though the requirements include a BA with distinction. Bar-Ilan said Lapid had been accepted based on his journalistic and literary accomplishments. The Council for Higher Education, however, called the university’s explanation “insufficient.” Lapid’s only response, posted on his Facebook page, was that he didn’t care about the degree, and that the reports were a politically motivated attack on him.

He didn’t say he may have a problem with the way the university bent the rules for him. He didn’t say that he should have maybe set a better example. He’s not talking about or displaying the kind of moral clarity and clean leadership that so many Israelis crave, and that he was always preaching in his newspaper columns. In fact he’s not saying much at all. Once every few weeks he updates his Facebook status responding to something, but beyond that, nada. Just status updates. That’s how he’s talking to people. Which, in today’s world, could be enough, but also disconnects him from a lot of other people who want to see him working the street, talking, in the flesh, about what he believes in and what he’s going to do to change things. The Israeli electorate is not all found on Facebook. By sticking to his current formula, Lapid runs the risk of people not taking him seriously.

He’s already being lampooned on Eretz Nehederet, the country’s top-rated political satire program, as a vacuous airhead, a good-looking pin-up, who focuses more on his pout than his politics. This show, like Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show, has huge influence on how many Israelis brand their politicians. Once you’ve been typecast on Eretz Nehederet, that’s what many Israelis think of you.

Even the president of the Israel Democracy Institute Dr. Arik Carmon has, subtly, attacked the Lapid persona as a phenomena that strengthens the cult of personality over strengthening the political party. Carmon says that personification of politics needs to be weakened: the power of the central figure, the latest leader-celebrity to promise the Israeli electorate a way to the promised land. Carmon doesn’t want to see new, mid-sized, star-studded parties. He wants to see fewer, and bigger, mainstream parties that will stabilize the political system here and give the elected government a chance to govern, for the long-term.

How utterly predictable, and saddening, this all is. Lapid holds much promise, but he’s already tanking. Time will tell if his decision to go it alone and not join Kadima was the right one. Time will also tell how much staying power he has, and how much real depth and grit he can muster to fight his way through Israel’s political swamp.

Firstly, the sensational story about alleged harrassment by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bureau chief Nathan Eshel.

The alleged victim, R, who also works in the Prime Minister’s Office, complains to her colleagues in the PMO about Eshel, saying that he snooped on her emails and SMSs, that he took pictures of her feet below her dress and frequently acted toward her in an inappropriate manner, and that this behavior was borne of jealousy that she accompanied another official on a trip abroad. Her three colleagues, Military Secretary Yochanan Locker, Cabinet Secretary Zvika Hauser, and National Information Directorate Chief Yoaz Hendel, good, upstanding men all, took her complaint straight to the Attorney General [and not to Netanyahu], who decided that there was nothing there of a criminal nature. AG Weinstein ordered the Civil Service Commission to investigate the case, which called on R to come and testify. The alleged victim, however, refuses to testify or lodge an official complaint. The three senior PMO officials who took her ‘unofficial complaint’ to the Attorney General now find themselves in a rather uncomfortable position: they believed that had they acted correctly in reporting the woman’s ‘complaint’ of alleged harassment, but the woman on whose behalf they acted now refuses to back them up. Kind of like a damsel in distress calling for a knight on a white horse to come to her aid, and then jumping off the back of the horse while he’s not looking, taking his sword with her. Those in Eshel’s circle who believe that the three acted out political considerations in an attempt to besmirch the powerful bureau chief now have some ammunition for their claim. The three seemed to have jumped the gun and gotten themselves embroiled in a personal relationship between Eshel and R, a relationship whose real depth and complexity is yet to be ascertained. They have also made an enemy of Eshel, Netanyahu’s right-hand man and close confidant of the Prime Minister’s influential wife. In the meantime, Eshel has retained the services of one of the country’s most fearsome lawyers, and has taken a ten-day leave of absence. If and when he comes back to the ofice, it is highly unlikely that these five people can continue to work together in harmony. God knows for how long they haven’t been working harmoniously together. At the end of the day, this is what concerns me. Assuming R’s complaint is validated, Eshel will have to be removed. If she’s lying, she’ll have to be removed. If she’s lying, Hendel, Locker [whose brother Harel Locker is PMO Director General], and Hauser will look rather silly. Eshel will probably be vindictive. And in between all of them, Netanyahu, trying to run a country…

Secondly: Today’s Cabinet Communique from Sunday’s cabinet meeting carried this following statement:

“Today, we will begin a discussion of historic significance in the State of Israel, on the construction of a railway from Tel Aviv to Eilat and from Eilat to Ashdod. The former will be for passengers; the trip will take approximately two hours. It will, of course, link up with the periphery in a way that has not been done up until now. The latter route will be for shipping freight from Asia to Europe, which will create a very great interest on the part of Asia’s rising powers, China and India.”

Are you kidding me? The idea of a train linking Eilat to TLV has been discussed for years. It’s even been on the Interior Ministry’s National Planning Authority’s books for years. So why would the government say:

“Today we will begin discussion of historic significance for Israel, on the construction of a railway from TLV to Eilat and Eilat to Ashdod”?

Has it not been discussed before? Strange. There must be a deal in the works…

Apparently, the government has signed, or is about to sign, an agreement with China to build the line. If we actually allow the Chinese to build it, then it may actually happen. They know how to get things done. But I’m not so optimistic. Ten years ago a different cabinet under a different Prime Minister promised a train line between Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem by 2009. Then 2011. Then 2016. Then 2021. And now the Transportation Ministry says work on it will start in 2017. Similarly, for years people have been talking about a rail line between Eilat and Ashdod, that would take cargo, dropped off at Eilat port, onto trains to Ashdod port and from there out to the world on ships. Egypt earns about $10 billion a year off taxes from the trade at the Suez Canal. Turkey, Cyrpus, and many other countries in our area are developing their ports so that they can get a bite out of the world shipping trade in goods. But our ports in Haifa and Ashdod are small, and at the mercy of strong unions. The idea to outfit Eilat port to receive a large volume of international shipping from the East has also not gotten off the ground. Let’s see how this develops. At least we’ve had our first ever cabinet discussion on the matter…

Thirdly:

Pursuant to Article 11 of the 1975 Government Companies Law, the Cabinet approved a plan to raise capital for the Israel Electric Corporation.

In other words, the price of electricity is going up again, this time by some 7%. Last summer’s socioeconomic protests targeted the market concentration and monopolies in Israel. The government even established a committee to tackle monopolies, but, for some reason, the Electric Corp has not been touched. Its employees earn the most out of anyone in the public sector, and there is no competing company delivering electricity to Israelis. So in effect, “raising capital” for the IEC just means raising the price of electricity again, while doing nothing to diversify the energy sector.

Fourth:

The Cabinet decided to increase the rate of participation in the labor force and the rate of employment in order to improve the growth potential of the economy and reduce the level of inequality and social gaps among the Arab, Druze and Circassian populations; to increase the employment rate of people with disabilities; to step up the enforcement of labor laws; and to encourage the employment of single parents.

This is all fine and great. But there’s a rather large elephant in this communique: increasing the rate of participation of the ultra-Orthodox sector in the workforce. When I see this line in a Cabinet Communique I’ll know that the government is taking the secular middle class seriously, and not just pandering to its religious coalition partners.

How awful. I’ve had such a long day, and now I’m lying in bed, and all I can think of is Iran. Will we or won’t we? Should we or shouldn’t we? If we do, will the Americans join in? Or will we be in this on our own?

It seems like today, more than most days, was ‘let’s talk about Iran’ day. Ashkenazi talked about it, Yadlin talked about it, Dempsey talked about it. Time Magazine wrote about it. The New York Times had a big story about it. The Institute for Science and International Security released a report about it today.

And it wasn’t just today. Yesterday Bibi talked about it, the day before Barak talked about it. The day before that Foreign Affairs wrote about it.

Barry Rubin says we won’t.

Ronen Bergman says we will.

Iran overload. Did I miss something? Was there a memo? Why was there so much about Iran today?

I’ll try think about something else. Clear my mind. Decompress. It’s late.

But wait, will an attack destroy the program, or just set it back a few years? And if it just sets it back a few years, and gives them a legitimate justification for making nuclear bombs, what good is an attack then? And if we attack, will all our pilots come home? And what will happen to the Strait of Hormuz? Will the Iranians close it? And if they do, will the Americans open it? And what will that do to the price of oil? And if the price of oil spikes so high, what will that do to the European and American economies? And if those economies collapse, will there be a massive backlash against us?

Ok, let’s try this again. Clear your mind. Look for tension in your body and breathe into…

Hold on, will the Japanese and South Koreans join the EU oil embargo on Iran? Will the Saudis give China all the oil they might lose from Iran? And what about us and the Americans? What do they expect from us, and what do we want from them? Are we on the same page? It doesn’t seem like it. Can we do it without them? Can we withstand and sustain the fallout without them?

Don’t fight it Amir. This is big. Really, really big. History hinges on this moment; and you want to count sheep?!. Shame on you.

So go ahead, let go, let your mind ponder, ruminate, obsess.

See, by writing this, you’ve joined the long list of words about Iran today.

Bliss. Now I can sleep.

Tomorrow we can start all over again.

Just over the past week, the Israeli defense establishment has released the following pictures of its set pieces:

The Ministry of Defense has released pictures of an Arrow 3 anti-missile defense system test. [Message to Iran: We can hit your long-range missiles, your threats of massive rocket attack have been noted and we're prepared].

The Israel Air Force released pictures of its “IAF pilots train against realistic enemy simulations.” [Message: We know what you've got around your nuclear sites, see? We've even built little mock versions of your systems].

Then the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit released photos of The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States Military, General (****) Martin E. Dempsey, at Yad Vashem [Message to Iran: Israel takes your threats of annihilation seriously and has brought the commander of the US Army to Yad Vashem to make that point to him - just so that he knows we're not kidding when we say 'Never Again']

And by the way, don’t believe those reports of tension between Israel and the US. Clink.

Before that was the release of images of the first IDF Paratrooper Brigade practice jump in 15 years. [Message: The IDF has more tools in its box than just air strikes and is not squeamish about sending a large amount of crack troops deep into enemy territory].

All of these events [bar Dempsey's visit to Yad Vashem] could have been conducted in secret, as many other security operations routinely are. There is no doubt that they were made public as part of a wider campaign to send messages about Israel’s military preparedness regarding a strike on Iran’s nuclear program. The question is: do the Iranians get the picture?