Israel ‘won’t be destroyed’

Israel is strong enough to absorb any retaliatory missile strikes should it decide to launch an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, defence minister Ehud Barak said yesterday.

Mr Barak said no decision had as yet been made to bomb Iran, but played down the consequences of an Iranian counterattack.

“If we arrive at a war against our will, there won’t be 100,000 dead or ten thousand dead or a thousand dead and Israel won’t be destroyed,” he said. But he dismissed reports that premier Benjamin Netanyahu had already decided to attack Iranian facilities as “delusional”.

He said: “[Israel] has not yet decided to embark on any operation.

“War is not a picnic. We want a picnic. We don’t want a war.”