Iran-backed attacks abroad, NY Times analysis

Alisa Flatow
This New York Times analysis of Iranian attacks against Israelis abroad is on point.

The Iranian mullahs learned their lessons many years ago when they ordered the slayings of Iranian dissidents in faraway places. The 1980 murder in Bethesda, Maryland of former government official Ali Akbar Tabatabai and then of dissident Dr. Shapour Bakhtiar.

Bungled and intercepted attacks against Israelis by Iranian agents and their proxies, most notably, Hizbollah, are the most recent evidence, as the Times reports, of how the Iranian strategy has changed.

Interestingly, with respect to the Bulgarian airport attack in July 2012, the US and Bulgarian governments will not go public with their accusations of Iranian involvement in the murders. The Israelis immediately put the blame on Iran.

Where do we go from here? How will Israel, indeed, any country react when its civilians are killed on foreign soil?

Yoram Schweitzer, a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies, said those responsible wanted to see Israel embroiled in fighting with its neighbors. “Precisely for this reason it is best for Israel to adopt a restrained policy and respond at a time of its own choosing,” Mr. Schweitzer said, “in a targeted and covert fashion.”

Is it time for everyone and anyone who has ever worked against the Iranian clerics to duck and take cover?

Read the full report in Murky Plots and Attacks Tied to Shadow War of Iran and Israel - NYTimes.com