None of the Israeli newspaper websites have anything except foreign reports currently online regarding the August 21 loading of fuel by the Russians into the Bushehr reactor in Iran. Given the heavy attention to the story by the world press, it is highly unlikely that Israeli journalists would ignore the issue unless they were under a government blackout order. Not one article written in Israel on the subject has been published for three days.
The "Galant affair" has been the focus of a media frenzy in Israel. Tonight, London and Kirshenbaum on Israeli television made the point that this sort of inside political maneuvering is standard operating procedure for the IDF, and that the press’ reaction has been completely blown out off all proportion.
My read is that this is potentially a disinformation campaign to lull the Iranians into thinking that Israel is too busy dealing with internal problems to take action on Bushehr.
There has also been no official response of the Israeli government to this highly important announcement. This may be the occasion for the Tehran Times story saying that "Imminent nuclear plant startup has shocked enemies."
Not a word from the government or the press in Israel? That’s what has happened so far.
John Bolton has been wrong as often as I have been on the issue of Israel attacking Iran’s nuclear program. If the silence coming out of Jerusalem is any indication, this time he might be right. I cannot imagine Netanyahu allowing the reactor to go online unless Israel has some way to neutralize it without causing a Chernobyl-like result. The only way to do that would be through the use of EMP.
My opinion is that either Israel will launch an all-out conventional attack on the entire nuclear infrastructure in Iran prior to the 21st, or it will bide its time until the last possible minute before launching an EMP attack.