Is Israel ready to attack Iran?

It looks like war with Iran is becoming more of a possibility.

I've thought that the chance of some military action against Iran by the end of the year is about 50/50. Today a high-ranking Israeli minister said that Israel would attack Iran if they did not give up their nuclear program.

The word came from Israel's transportation minister Shaul Mofaz. Usually a nation's transportation minister doesn't make military decisions, but in previous administrations Mofaz has served as Israel's defense minister, so it’s safe to assume he knows a few things about how the military operates. Mofaz said that international sanctions have failed to stop Iran's civilian nuclear program, which Israel claims is a cover for a military program to build nuclear weapons.

Tough talk between Iran and Israel is nothing new. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is notorious for his calls for Israel's destruction. I think now though there could be more will on the Israeli side to take action, and for a reason that actually has little to do with Iran.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is in a lot of hot water these days, with several investigations into charges of corruption in his administration ongoing. One recent poll put Olmert's approval rating at a mere 3%. Considering that these polls usually have an error rate of plus-or-minus three or four percent, it is technically possible that absolutely no one in Israel approves of the job Olmert is doing.

So what better to rally folks around the flag than with some decisive military action? Yes, it sounds like the plot for the movie "Wag the Dog", but these things do happen. And Israel has been talking about striking Iran for quite awhile now, viewing the idea of Iran building nuclear weapons as an existential threat to Israel. For his part Ahmadinejad holds up Iran’s nuclear program as a key source of national pride, so it’s unlikely that he would be willing to give it up anytime soon.

Israel successfully ended Iraq's quest for nuclear weapons with a bold series of airstrikes in 1981, so they have gone down this road before. Olmert's thin grasp on power makes me think its a little more likely today that history may repeat itself.