A DAY AFTER BIBI'S SECRET MEETING IN MOSCOW BECOMES PUBLIC, PUTIN WARNS WEST: "DON'T ATTACK IRAN!"

A FEW DAYS AGO, BIBI WENT TO MOSCOW TO MEET WITH PUTIN (NOT MEDVEDEV) - SECRETLY.

TODAY: Russian PM Vladimir Putin has warned against military action targeting Iran or imposing new sanctions to curb its nuclear programme.

Coincidence?

NIMHO.

UPDATE: HAARETZ ANALYSIS: "Clock is ticking for Iran as Israel appears ready for strike"

During the past year, military experts and commentators are increasingly coming around to the view that the Israel Air Force is capable of executing the mission. The Israel Defense Forces was significantly upgraded during the tenure of Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi. The goal, it is argued, is not to liquidate the Iranian project but to set it back. According to this line of thought, if an attack, American or Israeli, causes a couple of years' delay in the project it will have achieved its aim. Similarly, before launching the attack on the Iraqi reactor in 1981, Israel did not foresee the chain of events that finally forced Saddam Hussein to forgo his nuclear ambitions.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak take a similar view of the Iranian threat. At least, that is what both their public statements and their comments in closed meetings suggest.

For an Israeli attack to be considered, Israel would need the tacit approval of the Obama administration, if only in the sense that it looks the other way. This is due above all to the necessity of passing through the Iraqi air corridor, as American soldiers will still be in Iraq in 2011. No less important is strategic coordination for the day after: How will the United States react to a prolonged aerial attack by Israel on the nuclear sites and to the regional flare-up that might follow?

These are matters that would have to be agreed on directly between Obama and Netanyahu. The disparity in their policy stances, together with the total lack of personal chemistry between them, is liable to prove a hindrance.

Iran is likely to respond to an Israeli attack by opening fronts nearby, via Hezbollah from Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.

IT'S ONLY A MATTER OF WHEN...

• AND I'D BET BIBI GETS REBUFFED BY BARRY AND DECIDES TO GO IT ALONE, AND THAT BARRY SIDES WITH THE WORLD AGAINST ISRAEL IN THE AFTERMATH.

• OR THAT BARRY PREEMPTIVELY ATTACKS ISRAEL TO PREVENT THEIR PREMPTIVE ATTACK ON IRAN.

• (BTW/FWIW: EITHER OF THESE POSSIBLE SCENARIOS WOULD ESSENTIALLY AGREE WITH DANIEL, ISAIAH AND EZEKIEL.)