No surprise here. The last thing Israel wants is productive dialog with Iran.

"This is par for the course for Netanyahu and Israel’s political leaders, whose constant harping on the alleged "existential threat" of an imaginary Iranian nuke has been a single note of hysteria sounded throughout the past few years, like an annoyingly defective car alarm the neighbors have learned to ignore. Time and again they have announced Tehran is "on the verge" of acquiring a nuclear arsenal: in two years, a year, in six months – the ticking of this purported time-bomb has been going on so long it has become just so much background noise."

http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2012/04/15/a-chance-for-peace-with-iran/
(well worth reading in its entirety)

Don't think we will actually see peace with Iran and Israel, any "chance" I don't see being possible. What's interesting to me is how peace talks and "bringing" peace to the middle east is somewhat of a dead subject now. Like you said Tolstoy, that annoying car alarm.

What do you think though, do you think if Israel were actually to attack Iran that the US would take part in providing aid or assistance? Who's side would we take? hmmm...

I'm hoping that if a war were to erupt, that it wouldn't be a war with the ambition to *change* Iran or bring democracy, or McDonald's restaurants, but just to slap them on the nose a bit. Send some fighter jets to destroy some installations and fly back. If unsuccessful, repeat with more jets. But don't make it a better place or something, that's their own job.

Iran has 74 million people and direct access to russia etc through the caspian - so occupation would be 'very difficult'. Would need another 9/11 to go justify going into iran. Regime change would be easier. Maybe syria was a practice run?

Israel will do as it pleases as usual. Merica will pretend to dissaprove.

I hope the iranians choose to work with the west. God knows it can't be much fun to have the USAF hanging over your head!

""bringing" peace to the middle east is somewhat of a dead subject now"
- dude, its called pax americana :P

The USA is nowhere near Iran but continues to threaten it when the issue is not their problem..........or is it?
Israel is like the little guy being egged on fight by his big mate who's offering him back up if he gets in to any trouble. Israel is run by religious nutters anyway, they remind me of Joe Pesci in Casino, willing to commit violence to impress/scare their mates.
The simple truth is Iran is full of oil and could just give that all to China, that is a big problem for the USA.
If an alternative to petrol is found the Iranian issue will go away.

"The USA is nowhere near Iran"
- iran is almost completely surrounded by US airbases and fleets. Sanctions and airstrikes would take them back to the stoneage, and stop their oil exports at the very least.

"The simple truth is Iran is full of oil and could just give that all to China, that is a big problem for the USA."
- nailed it!

"If an alternative to petrol is found the Iranian issue will go away."
- nothings cheaper than stuff you can just suck out of the ground. Nor will Big Oil just roll over and die.

Iran is not Iraq, any war will see heavy casualties on both sides and could easily escalate into a global crisis. Iran, Israel and the US all know this, and for this reason, despite all the rhetoric floating around, I doubt we'll see a full scale military conflict, even if Iran develops and tests the evasive nuke, merely more noises.

The US will do what it has done traditionally in the case of strategically important countries with unfriendly leadership - bump off important people in the ruling party, fuel and arm dissidents against the Government, overthrow the leadership, and replace them with more US-friendly characters. That this has spectacularly backfired on more than one occasion isn't really going to change too much.

Only this will be difficult on Iran, because Iran is not like the rest of the middle-east. Any pro-democratic movements are nascent at best, and the people are deeply patriotic. Any military adventures by either side would be extremely short-sighted, and extraordinarily foolish.

Let's not forget what happened the last time Iran had a nascent democratic process in the '50s, when a weak shah lead to an environment where the elected parliament could actually do something, and the secular leading party decided to nationalise AIOC. CIA and MI6 quickly organised a coup to oust the still frail government and put the shah back in autocratic power, resulting in 26 years of horror as the CIA-trained secret police crushed any hopes of democracy with censorship, torture and executions. It did supply the US and UK with cheap oil though, so mission accomplished!

I can sort of understand Iranian reluctance to trust and cooperate with the US.