“The Iranian challenge is more acute for Israel than it is for the US. We are closer and more immediately threatened, and our capacity to inflict substantive military damage on Iran’s nuclear facilities is more limited than that of the US. Our “window of opportunity” to stop Iran thus closes sooner than does America’s.

But this US administration has vowed to stop Iran attaining nuclear weapons. It has argued that an Israeli strike could not destroy the Iranian program but would prompt Iran to rebuild and accelerate its drive to the bomb, and would shatter the sanctions effort. Many wise and experienced Israeli figures share those assessments and muster additional arguments against an Israeli attack.

The Israeli government may not be confident that a second-term President Barack Obama or a first-term president Mitt Romney would actually send in the bombers. It may dispute the American assessment that there would be sufficient time for a US-led coalition to act if Iran made a breakout bid for the bomb. It may feel that a solo Israeli strike is necessitated, now, even though this might merely delay an Iranian bomb — because who knows what else might change if a delay of a year or two can be achieved. But asserting that America’s contrary position is not “moral” is unjustified and counterproductive, the more so when the prime minister has repeatedly acknowledged that the US recognizes Israel’s sovereign right to take the decisions it feels necessary to ensure its security.”

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