00:00Well, the Israelis are still planning to retaliate to Iran's retaliation earlier this month.
00:07You'll remember that the Iranians lobbed some 200 ballistic missiles at Israel on October
00:111st in response to the assassinations of the leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas, as well as
00:15a Revolutionary Guard commander.
00:17Now, initially this was touted as the perfect opportunity for the Israelis to execute an
00:22ambitious strike against Iran's nuclear facilities, but there's a lot more second-guessing going
00:27on in Tel Aviv these days.
00:28The Israelis are grappling with a long list of strategic challenges.
00:32For starters, the Iranian nuclear sites are dispersed all across the country, and the
00:36key facilities are very well fortified.
00:38The main sites include uranium enrichment centers at Fordow and Natanz, and both are
00:43deep underground under many layers of rock and concrete.
00:47A study examining a possible attack on Iran's nuclear program was published in the Bulletin
00:51of Atomic Scientists.
00:52That was back in April, and the conclusion was that the Israelis lack the capabilities
00:56to inflict major damage on Iran's nuclear sites and deprive Iran of its ability to keep
01:02ramping up uranium enrichment.
01:04According to that study, the only way to penetrate these underground targets would be to use
01:08these U.S. B-2 Spirit bombers carrying massive American-made GBU-57A-B bombs.
01:14Now, these are bunker busters that are about six meters long and weigh about 13.2 tons
01:20each.
01:21Of course, that would probably entail direct U.S. involvement, and the White House has
01:25signaled that it isn't quite ready for that.
01:27The Biden administration said that it is opposed to Israel striking nuclear sites in Iran.
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