A 31 August New York Times front page headline announces, 'Nuclear Report on Iran Puts Israel in a Box.' The Washington Post and Wall Street Journal offer similar articles on interior pages, with teaser blurbs on the front page. The Times piece begins:
JERUSALEM — For Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the International Atomic Energy Agency on Thursday offered findings validating his longstanding position that while harsh economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation may have hurt Iran, they have failed to slow Tehran's nuclear program. If anything, the program is speeding up.
But the agency's report has also put Israel in a corner, documenting that Iran is close to crossing what Israel has long said is its red line: the capability to produce nuclear weapons in a location invulnerable to Israeli attack.
With the report that the country has already installed more than 2,100 centrifuges inside a virtually impenetrable underground laboratory, and that it has ramped up production of nuclear fuel, officials and experts here say the conclusions may force Israel to strike Iran or concede it is not prepared to act on its own.
Whether that ultimately leads to a change in strategy — or a unilateral attack — is something that even Israel's inner circle cannot yet agree on, despite what seems to be a consensus that Iran's program may soon be beyond the reach of Israel's military capability.
The Times describes reactions in the US and reports that many inside the Israeli government, 'along with independent analysts, say the status quo is not sustainable,' and that unless 'the international community finds new ways to apply diplomatic pressure, or the United States issues a clear ultimatum to Iran about its intentions to act militarily, they say, the chances of an Israeli attack this year will climb.' On the 'jump' page inside the 'A' section, the Times amplifies the news by adding the article 'Report Details Progress By Iran at Nuclear Bunker.'
Besides a news article, the Washington Post carries the editorial 'Iran at the brink.' Here's the final paragraph:
Tehran's refusal to negotiate seriously and its continuing buildup of nuclear capacity is ... steadily increasing the danger that the Middle East will be engulfed by a new war — one that could interrupt oil supplies, damage the global economy and exacerbate the sectarian conflict already underway in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. An optimistic view would be that Iran is playing a familiar game of brinkmanship. If so, there may not be much more time to step back.
Steven T. Corneliussen, a media analyst for the American Institute of Physics, monitors three national newspapers, the weeklies Nature and Science, and occasionally other publications. He has published op-eds in the Washington Post and other newspapers, has written for NASA's history program, and is a science writer at a particle-accelerator laboratory.
