Israeli Government Sources- "Not Bombing Iran"

I want to respond to the recent Huffington Post and Businessinsider articles that Israel is considering bombing Iran before the UN vote on a Palestinian state in September. All of my sources' who are either in the Prime Minister's office or Israeli military, intelligence officials, and diplomats, say that the bombing of Iran will not occur before the UN Vote.

Israel is deathly afraid that the UN could create a separate Palestinian state. As you may recall, Israel was created by a UN Vote.

All of the Israeli government's current energies are directed towards defeating that vote. The Israeli government considers the creation of Palestinian state by the UN the most serious threat that the state of Israel has ever encountered. They believe that the creation of a Palestinian state by the UN will endanger the safety of its citizens far more than Iran.

This is why Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu agreed last week to start peace negotiations with the Palestinians along the lines of the 1967 borders if the Palestinians would forsake asking for statehood at the UN.

One military official said to me, "Why would we risk bombing Iran before the UN vote. What is the rush?"

While Israel may have tacit American support for an attack on Iran, Israel do not want to risk anything going wrong during the bombing which would force America to withdraw its support at the UN.

While I know many follow Jeffrey Goldberg's reporting on Israel including the shaky prediction that Israel would bomb Iran, I urge you to not believe that Israel is going to bomb Iran any time soon.

I have lived in Israel for 10 years, returning in 2009. Many of my family have lived since the State's creation.

While living in Israel, I made the acquaintance of many in government, military, and intelligence. I freelanced at the defense contractor Elbit Systems, where many former military officials worked. As a reporter for Israeli news outlets such as Globes, Israel21c, Jerusalem Post, and Haaretz, I wrote about military matters and know many of the military reporters covering the beat.