Israeli military blocked anti-Iran move by Netanyahu, says reporter Dayan

An Israeli news channel reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak asked the military in 2010 to prepare for an imminent attack on Iran's nuclear programme, but that their efforts were blocked by concerns over whether the military could do so and whether the men had the authority to give such an order.

The report, by the respected investigative journalist Ilana Dayan, came in the form of a promotional preview on Sunday night for an hour-long documentary about Israel's decision-making process regarding Iran, which was scheduled to be broadcast last night. Dayan said on the channel's evening news that Netanyahu, in a meeting with top ministers, told Gabi Ashkenazi, the head of the Israeli Defence Forces at the time, to "set the systems for P-plus", a term meaning an operation would start soon.

Ashkenazi and Meir Dagan, head of the intelligence service Mossad at the time, would later say that this was an attempt at "stealing a war", Dayan reported, because in their view such an order required a decision of the full cabinet, not the smaller group in the meeting, who were then known as the forum of seven.

Ashkenazi, now retired, and Dagan, who stepped down after the meeting, have become vocal critics of plans for a unilateral Israeli attack on Iran. Dayan said in the preview the issue deepened a divide in Israel's top echelon.

Ashkenazi was quoted saying of the P-plus order: "This is not something you do unless you are certain you want to execute at the end. This accordion will make music if you keep playing it." But Barak told Dayan "it is not true that creating a situation where the IDF and the country's operational systems are, for a few hours or for a few days, on alert to carry out certain operations means the state of Israel is compelled to act".

"Eventually, at the moment of truth, the answer that was given was that, in fact, the ability did not exist," Barak said in the clip shown on Sunday.