December 17, 2007 (LPAC)--Assistant Secretary of State for Nonproliferation John Rood arrived in Israel for talks concerning Iran's nuclear program and the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate report. He will meet with Israeli Foreign Ministry Director Aharon Abramowitz as well as officials from the Defense Ministry, the Mossad, and the Foreign Ministry's Strategic Affairs Department.

In Israel, forces allied internationally with the Cheney war party have denounced the recent NIE, which said that Iran suspended its nuclear weapons program in 2003, while those who see hope in the recent Annapolis peace conference, including Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, are proceeding more cautiously.

In this light, Ha'aretz, the Israeli daily, reports that Olmert rebuked Public Security Minister Avi Dichter for his statement that the NIE report could bring about a war like the October 1973 war.

"I ask ministers to stop making declarations about Iran and the American intelligence report," Olmert said at the Sunday cabinet meeting. He added that the cabinet makes policy therefore "there is no place for personal declarations by this or that minister on this sensitive and complex issue. Such declarations do not help in waging the struggle against the Iranian nuclear program and they do not help our relations with the U.S. This matter must be handled with extreme caution."

Nonetheless, while refusing to comment on the NIE report, saying it was "an internal American issue," General Benny Gantz, who takes up a position this week as Israeli military attache in Washington, in an interview with the Jerusalem Post warned those who belittle the Iranian nuclear threat. General Gantz is quoted as saying, "The world understands Iran is a problem since countries are holding talks and imposing sanctions ... but I am not sure that it understands the severity of the problem and its urgency...."