Barack Obama will have to invest significant resources and time to defuse the Iranian bomb programme crisis peacefully

Nearly a year has passed since Israel's former intelligence chief Meir Dagan said that a strike on Iran's nuclear installations would be a stupid idea, unlikely to achieve its objectives, but certain to set off a regional war. In that time, virtually all of Israel's opinion formers have coalesced around the view that a war with Iran is inevitable. This was stoked not only by Iranian-sponsored actions such as the bombings against Israeli diplomatic targets in Bangkok, New Delhi and Tbilisi, but regular statements by the Israeli defence minister, Ehud Barak, and prime minster, Binyamin Netanyahu.