June 29, 2008: The recent Israeli Air Force exercise over the Mediterranean, widely discussed as practice for a strike on Iranian nuclear weapons development facilities, were probably something else. This exercise was followed by a large bump in purchases of F-16 spare parts (even larger than the increase that followed the 2006 air campaign in Lebanon.) Now the Israelis have increased the fuel purchases in a big way, indicating a desire to stockpile lots of aviation gas.

Unmistakable signs of preparations for an air strike on Iran? Probably not. This looks more like an Information War operation, intended to put some fear into the hearts of anti-Semitic Iranian leaders who insist that someday, somehow, they will destroy Israel. The Iranian leadership consists of a group of Islamic clerics, most noted for their corruption, paranoia and ruthless efforts to hold onto power. Not the kind of people you can have a normal diplomatic dialog with. So the Israelis appear to have developed a new message the Iranian tyrants would comprehend.