Israeli president hints that Israel will attack Iran if Obama’s overtures fail.

Last month, Israeli President Shimon Peres contradicted President Obama’s groundbreaking message to Iran by urging the Iranians to overthrow their government. Meanwhile, Obama emphasized his willingness to work with the current Iranian leaders and underscored his view that regime change is not a goal. Now, Peres is ratcheting up more bellicose rhetoric. During a radio interview yesterday, he said that Israel is poised to attack Iran if Obama’s “overtures to the Islamic republic fail to bear fruit”:

“Ahmadinejad recruits forces against us, but there are also forces against him,” Peres said. “What happened in Egypt created a fierce opposition and we must unify all his opponents – the Sunnis and the Europeans, as well as those afraid of nuclear weapons and terror.”

Peres went on to say that he hoped Obama’s call for dialogue with Ahmadinejad would be heeded, but warned that if such talks don’t soften the Iranian president’s approach “we’ll strike him.”

Peres did add a caveat. “We certainly cannot go it alone, without the US, and we definitely can’t go against the US. This would be unnecessary,” he said. “Israel would be utterly crazy to attack Iran,” International Atomic Energy Agency Mohamed ElBaradei said recently. “I worry about it. If you bomb, you will turn the region into a ball of fire and put Iran on a crash course for nuclear weapons with the support of the whole Muslim world.”