By Mati Cohen

Iran needs an Israeli move that will save its honor and above all a move that will prevent the collapse of its regional deterrence power. In our opinion, this is the reason why it is now implicitly threatening that Qatar will be able to hold it and prevent it from attacking Israel in response to the untimely death of the oppressor Haniyeh; Iran hints at the price it demands for hiding the attack plans: Israel must sign a cease-fire agreement in Gaza.

This week the Prime Minister of Qatar visited Iran. The Iranian press wrote that this is an attempt by Qatar to prevent Iran from reacting against Israel, so that an Iranian attack does not harm the negotiations in Gaza. The Iranian mouthpiece Tehran Times stated that Qatar ties Iran's response to the negotiations in Gaza. That is, Qatar assumes that Iran will be ready to stop the attack plan in exchange for a cease-fire agreement in Gaza. In the next line, Iran does not claim that Qatar's assessment is wrong; Instead, the text goes on to detail the justification that the newspaper has for an Iranian reaction against Israel.

To clarify this point, Iran brought its Chief of Staff to the microphones, and in an official announcement he claimed that the attack was committed. In the Iranian military structure, the Chief of Staff of the Army, and not the Chief of Staff of the Revolutionary Guards, expresses the Iranian nationality (and not only the Islamic Revolution).

Israel should attack Iran's nuclear facilities. The question is whether such an attack would bring destruction on Israel, should be tested against the question of what avoiding an attack would do. The first question examines the immediate reality, while the second question refers to a distant reality, for which a remedy can seemingly be brought forward by political means. This is a question of deep fundamental and existential significance for Israel.

We believe that if Iran prepared and launched an attack against Israel with the stated aim of annihilation, it will try to do it again. Nuclear weapons will allow it to maintain a balance of terror for generations against Israel, until the moment it has the resources to fulfill its religious oath. The religious element will never allow Iran to come to terms with the existence of Israel. The question is whether the citizens of Iran will succeed in overthrowing the Islamic Nazi regime in the future is in this context fundamental. But if nuclear weapons precede an attempt to overthrow the regime, the threatening reality will exist in a more poignant way.

No wonder Benjamin Netanyahu is having trouble deciding on this fateful question. This is an almost inhuman decision. What's more, in our opinion, Israel must carry out such an attack alone, to carve out its own slot in the Middle East forever, outside the West's bayonets. Only a few can decide with judgment and balance on such questions; There are generations in which there is not even one such person. But this is exactly why Benjamin Netanyahu sought to lead Israel; Folded in a man's desire to lead Israel is his testimony that he can make decisions that no one can make. Netanyahu should have been more aware of his limitations to make essential non-political military policy decisions; Above all, he must have been aware of this when he maintained for decades a policy of only war towards Iran, thereby encouraging it to obtain nuclear weapons; Perhaps the demand from him now to admit that the decision on the Iran question is beyond his power, is fundamentally unfounded. Netanyahu will not be able to admit that. Therefore, the decision regarding the fate of Iran and Israel is now in Iran's hands. If it attacks Israel, Israel will, in our estimation, be obliged to respond by attacking Iran's nuclear facilities and destroying them, even if for this purpose the Air Force will have to attack Iran more than once. Such Iranian behavior may oblige Netanyahu to fill in the gaps in his nature and decide. The question is whether Iran will provide this aid to Israel.