Israel test-fires missile as Iran debate rages

JERUSALEM, (Reuters) – Israel test-fired a missile  from a military base today, two days after Prime Minister  Benjamin Netanyahu warned of the “direct and heavy threat” posed  by Iran’s nuclear programme.
The noon launch near Tel Aviv, which had not been announced  in advance, coincided with a week-long surge of speculation in  local media that Netanyahu was working to secure cabinet  consensus for an attack on Israel’s arch-foe.
Netanyahu’s office declined comment on the reports, which  were unsourced and unconfirmed, and which some commentators  suggested might be disinformation designed to jolt war-wary  foreign powers into stepping up sanctions against Tehran.
The Defence Ministry described the launch from Palmachim  base as the test of the propulsion system of a missile on which  it declined to elaborate.
“This is an impressive technological achievement and an  important step in Israel’s advances in the realms of missiles  and space, which has been a long time in the planning,” Defence  Minister Ehud Barak said in a statement.
Israel Radio’s military affairs correspondent, who is  regularly briefed by top officials on defence matters, said a  “ballistic missile” had been launched. The term generally  applies to long-range missiles for delivering warheads.
Israel is widely assumed to have such weapons, known as  Jerichos, as well as Shavit rockets for putting satellites into  orbit. It has also, with U.S. help, been upgrading its Arrow  aerial shield, which uses interceptor missiles to shoot down  incoming ballistic missiles above the atmosphere.
The missile fired from Palmachim flew at a high angle  skyward, witnesses told local media several minutes before the  Defence Ministry formally announced the launch.
Dan Meridor, minister for nuclear and intelligence affairs  and a member of Netanyahu’s eight-man inner cabinet, played down  the relevance of the launch to Israel’s view on Iran.
“The two things are separate,” he told Army Radio.
Meridor lambasted as “unconscionable” a flurry of newspaper  and television discussions, triggered by a front-page report in  the biggest-selling Yedioth Ahronoth daily, about the  possibility that Netanyahu and Barak were secretly planning,  against the counsel of their security chiefs, to attack Iran.
Three other members of the inner cabinet similarly denounced  the Israeli media on Wednesday. None denied the speculation  outright, and one minister, Benny Begin, accused former defence  officials of leaking classified information.