A documentary on the alert was broadcast Monday night on Israel’s Channel 2 in its Uvda (Fact) program.
The documentary made clear that no actual attack order was ever issued, just an order to raise the military’s alert status to P-Plus to be in a position to attack.
It said the alert order quickly met opposition from the then-
chief of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, who warned that Israel’s enemies would notice the measure and that in itself might touch off a war.
“This accordion produces music when you play it,” Ashkenazi was quoted as saying. “This is not something you do if you are not sure you want to end up with a military operation.”
The documentary also said Meir Dagan, then heading the Mossad spy agency, accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak of acting illegally by not seeking formal approval from the Security Cabinet, made up of about half the cabinet ministers.
Netanyahu and Barak “simply tried to steal a decision to go to 
war,” Uvda quotes him as saying.
The documentary showed Barak saying Ashkenazi told him the military wasn’t able to carry out the attack.
Ashkenazi denies that, saying he instead told Barak that an attack at that time “would be a strategic mistake.”
In the broadcast, Barak played down the significance of the alert order. “It is not true that creating a situation in which the IDF … is on alert for a few hours or a few days, to carry out certain operations, forces Israel to go through with them.” That implied that Barak and Netanyahu never intended to issue an attack order. But, if so, the documentary didn’t explain why they then ordered the alert.
In recent weeks, Israel has backed off its war talk. Both Barak and Netanyahu have said there is no need for any military action against Iran in the near future.
In his September address to the United Nations, Netanyahu said Tehran would not be on the brink of a nuclear weapons capability until the spring or summer of 2013. Last week, Barak said Iran has slowed down its nuclear program by using its 20 percent enriched uranium to make fuel for its Tehran reactor, thus giving Israel time to think over its next steps. But according to the broadcast, Barak and Netanyahu were thinking over the next step more than two years ago.
