[sam h]

This just looks like standard-issue brinksmanship to me. Israel isn't committing to anything, just letting Iran know where it stands a bit more forcefully. As the article notes, theres also a domestic political calculus here. Sharon has completely outfoxed the right and Netanyahu's best hope is to shift the debate away from policy vis-a-vis the Palestinians to others like this. Sharon doesn't need to committ to do anything, just to look strong enough to keep this issue from becoming divisive.

The underlying problem with all of this speculation is that its obviously pointless to launch this kind of attack unless you can really destroy the nuclear capability, and its hard to really know if this is possible. Just the fact that they are saying they need ground operations makes me pretty skeptical, though.