Why might Israel attack Iran

According to this line of thinking, which has adherents…focusing on the tactical questions surrounding such an operation — how much of Iran’s nuclear program can Israel destroy?  how many years can a bombing campaign set the program back? — is a mistake.  The main goal of a hit would not be to destroy the program completely, but rather to awaken the international community from its slumber and force it to finally engineer a solution to the crisis…any attack on Iran’s reactors — as long as it is not perceived as a military failure — can serve as a means of "stirring the pot" of international geopolitics.  Israel, in other words, wouldn’t be resorting to military action because it is convinced that diplomacy by the international community cannot stop Iran; it would be resorting to military action because only diplomacy by the international community can stop Iran.

That is Shmuel Rosner in the 30 July The New Republic.  Personally I do not think that Israel will attack Iran, but since I had never heard this argument before I thought I would pass it on.

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