Israeli Preemptive Strike against Iran This Year?

JERUSALEM, Israel -- One Israeli journalist is proposing that a preemptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities should take place before the United Nations lifts its sanctions because once that happens, it would be "dicier" from a legal standpoint.

Jerusalem Post political analyst Yonah Jeremy Bob projects mid-December as the probable cutoff for a preemptive military strike, admitting that such a move is diplomatically "unthinkable" right now.

According to the analysis, the United Nations will wait to remove most of its sanctions until after the International Atomic Energy Agency provides its final assessment of "all past and present outstanding issues."

While the sanctions remain in place, Iran's flagrant violations of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, coupled with Security Council resolutions against it, have not stopped Iran's nuclear weapons activities.

While international law prohibits preemptive strikes under the rationale that a country may only respond after an attack, international law does allow a preemptive strike to prevent that from happening in the first place.

For nuclear bombs, which have the potential to wipe out any possibility of defensive action, this is especially true, he says.

There is added justification for a preemptive strike as self-defense when the United Nations fails to intervene effectively to protect a nation against an unprovoked attack.

Once the United Nations removes its sanctions, Iran can no longer be viewed as a "presumed violator."

Meanwhile, Iran can continue its cheating and "foot-dragging" on obligations it has theoretically accepted, Bob said.

Based on "legal justifiability," the author concludes that "Israel would be better off making a preemptive strike than it would be after the U.N. resolution is passed."