Obama-Biden Arabists are still sabotaging Israel
Three administrations couldn’t manage to stymie Iran from getting nuclear weapons. It is left to Trump in his second term to figure out how.
By Mitchell Bard
JNS
Feb 19, 2025
Like zombies rising from the grave, former officials—likely Arabists from the CIA, State or Defense departments—have resumed their relentless campaign to sabotage Israeli plans to eliminate Iran’s nuclear threat. Holdovers from the Obama and Biden administrations, who President Donald Trump has not yet purged, may be responsible for leaking the latest intelligence to block Israeli military action. These individuals will stop at nothing, including leaking classified information, to protect Iran.
Former President Barack Obama made no secret of his opposition to an Israeli strike on Iran. He promised a reformed Islamic Republic that would have no path to a nuclear weapon when he negotiated the loophole-filled nuclear deal with Iran—the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Often ignored was his admission that “in year 13, 14, 15, they have advanced centrifuges that enrich uranium fairly rapidly, and at that point, the breakout times would have shrunk almost down to zero.” Obama was wrong; it took less than 10 years.
In 2012, just before negotiations were set to begin, the Obama administration feared Israel might preemptively attack Iran and was determined to prevent it through selective leaks. For example, results of a classified war game that predicted an Israeli strike were leaked to The New York Times, anonymous officials told Foreign Policy Israel had been given access to Azerbaijani air bases from which it could launch an attack, and Bloomberg was provided a congressional report that questioned the impact of an Israeli strike.
Commentator Ron Ben-Yishai observed, “In recent weeks the administration shifted from persuasion efforts vis-à-vis decision-makers and Israel’s public opinion to a practical, targeted assassination of potential Israeli operations in Iran.” Ben-Yishai said. “The campaign’s aims are fully operational: To make it more difficult for Israeli decision-makers to order the IDF to carry out a strike, and what’s even graver, to erode the IDF’s capacity to launch such strike with minimal casualties.”
That same year, Obama officials also exposed Israel’s role in cyberattacks on Iranian computer systems, further damaging Israel’s ability to operate covertly. Obama later pardoned a general who pleaded guilty to falsely denying to the FBI that he was the source of classified information about U.S.-Israeli cyberattacks on Iran’s nuclear program.
A Kuwaiti newspaper claimed that the Obama administration had threatened to shoot down Israeli planes if Israel went through with a planned attack in 2014. The administration denied the report.
A Kuwaiti newspaper claimed that the Obama
administration had threatened to shoot down Israeli planes if Israel
went through with a planned attack on Iran in 2014.
The Biden administration spent about two years in fruitless efforts to negotiate a stronger nuclear deal with Iran. The Iranians strung the United States along while continuing to advance its program. By the time Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Biden had abandoned any hope of an agreement but remained adamantly opposed to military action by America or Israel.
After Iran attacked Israel in April 2024 with ballistic missiles and drones in response to Israel bombing what the Iranians claimed to be their consulate in Syria, Washington knew it was inevitable that Israel would retaliate. Then-President Joe Biden pressured Israel not to launch a major attack that might escalate and draw the United States into a conflict with Iran. He was particularly concerned that Israel would strike Iranian nuclear and energy facilities. Netanyahu ultimately decided on what amounted to a pinprick strike on air defenses in two cities where nuclear facilities were located that did not cause any casualties or significant damage and reduced the fear of Iran upping the ante.
In October, however, Iran launched a larger missile attack ostensibly in revenge for Israel assassinating the leader of Hezbollah, a top Hamas official while he was in Tehran, and a commander of the Revolutionary Guards. This time, a few of the 181 ballistic missiles did some damage at two air bases.
Again, the United States knew Israel had to respond, and Biden cautioned Netanyahu to exercise restraint. In a clear effort to sabotage Israel’s plans, top-secret Pentagon documents revealing U.S. intelligence on Israel’s plans for its retaliatory attack on Iran were leaked and published on a pro-Iranian Telegram channel on Oct. 18. A CIA official, Asif William Rahman, was later arrested and charged with the willful transmission of national defense information.
Now, in the latest case of sabotage, warnings of a potential Israeli strike that appeared in multiple intelligence reports spanning the end of the Biden administration and the beginning of the Trump administration have been leaked to the press. According to The Washington Post, “current and former U.S. officials familiar with the intelligence” revealed that Israel would probably attack Iran in the first six months of 2025. The short-term impact was to damage Israel’s operational security and provide Iranians with sufficient warning to strengthen their defenses.
As in other discussions by critics determined to prevent Israel from acting, the leakers emphasized the view that a strike would have minimal impact, perhaps setting Iran back only weeks. History does not support such cynicism. Israel destroyed the nuclear facilities of Iraq and Syria, and neither was rebuilt. Granted, the Iranian case is more complex, but that doesn’t make it impossible. Furthermore, even if it is a short-term fix, who knows what might happen in the interim? Israel might develop more sophisticated anti-missile defenses like its soon-to-be-deployed Iron Beam laser-defense system, or the Iranian regime might be overthrown. A military attack, if directed at the regime as well as the nuclear targets, might hasten that outcome. Also, if need be, Israel could take military measures to prevent rebuilding or hit any reconstructed facilities again.
The notion that Iran will voluntarily end its nuclear ambitions is delusional. President Donald Trump thought he could negotiate a better deal than the one Obama signed but failed and left office with Iran closer to a bomb than when he arrived despite his “maximum pressure” campaign. Having apparently learned nothing, Trump is repeating the same strategy, insisting that he can negotiate a deal and counterproductively saying that he doesn’t support regime change. Some believe he would not get in the way of an Israeli attack, though he might not give Israel any help. On the other hand, allowing Israel to strike risks escalation and his goal of world peace.
All evidence points to Iran accelerating its effort to build a bomb since Israel laid bare the country’s vulnerability. Iran has enough uranium for at least nine bombs when it increases enrichment purity from 60% to 90%. Depending on who you ask, it will take a matter of months or as much as two years for Iran to then have a useable weapon.
Time is running out if Tehran is to be stopped. Obama, Biden and first-term Trump all pledged to prevent Iran from getting the bomb but failed to neutralize the danger. Trump now says, “Everyone thinks Israel, with our help or our approval, will go in and bomb the hell out of them. I would prefer that not happen.” Emphasizing diplomacy, he said, “I would love to make a deal with them without bombing them.”
Meanwhile, defenders of appeasing Iran and Israel’s enemies inside and outside the administration will leak whatever information they can to stymie Israel’s plan.
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