WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon will seek to provide Israel with an additional $70 million in the coming months for its short-range rocket shield, known as the "Iron Dome," Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said after a meeting with his Israeli counterpart on Thursday.

So far, the United States has provided $205 million to support the Iron Dome, manufactured by Israel's state-owned Raphael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. The system uses small radar-guided missiles to blow up in midair Katyusha-style rockets with ranges of 3 miles to 45 miles, as well as mortar bombs.

But top Republicans have criticized President Barack Obama for what they described as inadequate funding of U.S.-Israeli missile defense cooperation in his 2013 budget request released in February amid deficit-reduction requirements.

Legislation moving through the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives would give Israel additional $680 million for the Iron Dome system through 2015, and some House lawmakers are seeking a deal with Israel to share production of the Iron Dome system with U.S. weapons manufacturers.

Obama's fiscal 2013 budget request calls for $3.1 billion in security assistance to Israel, part of a 10-year, $30 billion U.S. commitment, none of which was scheduled to fund Iron Dome.

A message to Assad? 19 countries stage war games in Jordan

On Thursday, Panetta said the Pentagon would seek additional funding for the Iron Dome program over the next three years "based on an annual assessment of Israeli security requirements."

"My goal is to ensure Israel has the funding it needs each year to produce these batteries that can protect its citizens," Panetta said.

'US Navy lit up the sky': Interceptor for Europe anti-missile shield tested

He said the $70 million would be provided this fiscal year, which ends in September.

"This is assistance that, provided Congress concurs, we can move quickly, to ensure no shortage in this important system," Panetta said in a statement after meeting Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak at the Pentagon.

'Unbreakable bonds'
The Jerusalem Post quoted Barak as saying that Israeli-U.S. defense ties had never been as strong as they were today under the Obama administration.

"The U.S. decision to support further enhancing Israel's security is an important demonstration of the unbreakable bonds between the United States and Israel," Barak added. 

The pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC welcomed Panetta's decision, saying it would help Israel better protect its citizens against some 60,000 missiles and rockets amassed at its borders by Hamas and Hezbollah Islamist militants.

As of April, Israel had deployed three operating units of the system, which helped thwart Palestinian rocket salvos during a flare-up in fighting around the Gaza Strip in March. It has spoken of needing a total of 13 or 14 units to protect various fronts.

The system intercepted more than 80 percent of the targets it engaged in March when nearly 300 rockets and mortars were fired at southern Israel, saving many lives, a U.S. Defense Department spokesman said on March 27.

Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

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Charly Diaz Azcue / Getty Images file

Danny Ayalon, Israeli diplomat and politician who currently serves as Deputy Foreign Minister, during an interview on March 18, 2012 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

An Israeli official on Thursday attacked the International Olympic Committee after it apparently refused to allow a minute's silence at the start of this year's games in memory of 11 Israeli athletes and coaches massacred by Palestinian militants in the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon had asked the IOC to commemorate those killed on the 40th anniversary of their deaths.

In his written response, IOC President Jacques Rogge did not specifically address the request of a minute's silence, The Associated Press reported. 

Instead, he said he would personally attend the Israeli delegation's traditional tribute to the victims in London and pointed out that the IOC has officially paid tribute to the victims' memory before. "Please rest assured that, within the Olympic family, the memory of the victims of the terrible massacre in Munich in 1972 will never fade away," Rogge wrote. 

'This tragedy is yours alone'
On Thursday Ayalon said the reply was "unacceptable as it rejects the central principles of global fraternity on which the Olympic ideal is supposed to rest," The Times of Israel reported.

“The terrorist murders of the Israeli athletes were not just an attack on people because of their nationality and religion; it was an attack on the Olympic Games and the international community,” he said.

“This rejection told us as Israelis that this tragedy is yours alone and not a tragedy within the family of nations," he added. "This is a very disappointing approach and we hope that this decision will be overturned so the international community as one can remember, reflect and learn the appropriate lesson from this dark stain on Olympic history.”

IOC spokesman Mark Adams told The Associated Press that the Olympic body takes the issue "very, very seriously," but felt that an event at the Guildhall venue in London was "the most appropriate way to pay tribute to the athletes during the games in London." 

The 1972 Munich Olympics were the first games held in Germany since the 1936 edition in Berlin, and were meant to erase the images of the competition held under the Nazi regime. 

Will $95-million cable car be ready for Olympics?

But in the second week of the Munich Games, eight members of the Black September militant group penetrated the minimally secured Olympic Village and took Israeli team members hostage. A day later, all 11 were dead. 

German police killed five of the eight assassins during a failed rescue attempt. The games were briefly suspended.

The 2005 Steven Spielberg movie Munich gives a fictionalized account of secret attempts by the Israeli government to track down and kill those it thought responsible for the killings.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Raheb Homavandi / Reuters, file

Majid Jamali Fashi, left, appears at his trial at the revolutionary court in Tehran on August 23, 2011.

Iran has hanged a man it said was an agent for Israeli intelligence agency Mossad whom it convicted of killing one of its nuclear scientists in 2010, Iranian state media reported on Tuesday.

Twenty-four year old Majid Jamali Fashi was hanged at Tehran's Evin Prison after being sentenced to death in August last year for the murder of Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, Iran's state news agency IRNA quoted the central prosecutor's office as saying. It said he had confessed to the crime.

The BBC reported that Fashi was accused of being a spy for Mossad and receiving $120,000 for the killing.

Ali-Mohammadi was killed in January 2010 when a remote-controlled bomb attached to a motorcycle outside his home in Tehran went off.

Israel teams with terror group to kill Iran's nuclear scientists, U.S. officials tell NBC News

Tuesday's IRNA report said Fashi had travelled abroad on several occasions to receive training from Mossad before returning to Iran to plot the assassination.

Azerbaijan news site, Trend, said Fashi was 26 years old and had also been accused of drug trafficking.

Yet Western analysts said Ali-Mohammadi, a 50-year-old Tehran University professor, had little, if any, role in Iran's sensitive nuclear program. A spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation said at the time he was not involved in its activities.

'Like Casablanca in World War II': As Iran tensions grow, Azerbaijan becomes den of spies

The most recent attack on an Iranian scientist occurred in January. Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan - a deputy director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility - was killed when a magnetic bomb planted on his vehicle detonated.

The BBC said sources in Iran have accused the government of killing Professor Mohammadi because he was an opposition supporter.

Tehran has accused Israel and the United States of involvement in the killing in order to sabotage its controversial nuclear program. Washington has denied any U.S. role, while Israel has declined to comment. 

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Mahmud Hams/AFP/GettyImages

Relatives of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike flash the victory sign as they celebrate in Gaza City on May 14, 2012 after hearing that the prisoners have agreed a deal with Israel to end their fast in exchange for an easing of their conditions. Most of the 1,550 prisoners on hunger strike have been fasting for up to 28 days to demand an improvement in their conditions, but another seven prisoners have been refusing food for between 53 and 76 days.

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- A deal has been reached with Israel to end a weeks-long high-profile hunger strike by hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, an official said on Monday. 

The prisoners signed the deal Monday afternoon at an Israeli prison in Ashkelon, the Palestinian Minister for Prisoner Affairs Issa Qaraqe said. He did not have details of the deal, and Israeli officials had no immediate comment.

At least 1,600 prisoners held by Israel have been on a hunger strike since mid-April, demanding better conditions. A handful of prisoners have been refusing food for as long as 77 days, and are said to be in critical condition.   

The peaceful campaign had focused attention on so-called "administrative detention," a practice that has drawn international criticism, and raised fears of a violent Palestinian backlash if any of the protesters die. 

AP Photo/Bernat Armangue

Harbiya al-Batall holds a picture of her 33-year-old son Hasan Safadi at their family home in the West Bank city of Nablus May 11, 2012. Hasan Safadi was arrested on June 29 and is held without charges since. Hasan has been on a hunger strike since March 3, 2012.

Fighting Israeli detention, Palestinians resort to hunger strike

Earlier, officials told Reuters that Israeli authorities had balked at the agreement's call for the release of any inmate whose detention term, usually a six-month period that can be renewed by a military court, has ended. 

But they said Israel had agreed under the deal to renew family visits for prisoners from the Gaza Strip and end the solitary confinement of 19 inmates. 

PhotoBlog: 1,200 Palestinian prisoners declare hunger strike

Relatives' visits from Gaza were suspended after Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was captured by Palestinian militants and taken to the Hamas-ruled territory in 2006. He was released in October in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. 

High esteem
Israel says the detentions are necessary because some cases cannot be brought to open court for fear of exposing Palestinian intelligence sources who have cooperated with Israel. 

Palestinians jailed by Israel are held in high esteem by their fellow Palestinians, who see them as heroes in what they term a struggle against occupation. 

The hunger strikers include militants from Islamist Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which reject peace with Israel, as well as members of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah group. 

Two inmates who helped to launch the strike, Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahla of Islamic Jihad, were in the 77th day of their fast on Monday. 

As Palestinian hunger strikers starve, a mother waits 

Last week, Israel's Supreme Court turned down their request to be freed from detention without trial but said security authorities should consider releasing them for medical reasons.

The court said administrative detention "causes unease to every judge" but was a necessary evil because Israel was "constantly fighting terror."

A month ago, Israel released hunger striker Khader Adnan, an Islamic Jihad member, amid concerns he would die. He agreed to end his fast after 66 days in exchange for a promise not to renew his detention. 

On Monday, thousands of people held a rally in Gaza in support of the hunger strikers, chanting "We will give our souls and blood to redeem the prisoners." 

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Saif Dahlah / AFP - Getty Images

Palestinians protesters demonstrate with their hands chained during a procession in the West Bank city of Jenin on Friday in support of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails.

 
NEWS ANALYSIS   

Few people in the West would recognize the names Bilal Diab or Thaer Halahleh. 

After all, they didn’t seek refuge in an American embassy beyond the reach of a repressive government or publicly decry the behavior of America’s adversaries.

However, their names have become a rallying cry for human rights activists, lawyers and millions of Palestinians fighting against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Halahleh and Diab are in custody in Israeli jails and have been on a hunger strike for 74 days as of Friday, protesting what they say is their illegal detention. And now an estimated 1,600 other Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have joined them in refusing nutrition, this time in protest against the way they have been treated while in custody.

In recent days, Halahleh and Diab’s conditions have worsened and their deterioration has once again triggered international debate over Israel’s practice of “administrative detention” and the tools available for Palestinians to protest the policy.

Administrative detention
Israel’s practice of administrative detention allows the military to hold prisoners indefinitely based on secret information without charging them or allowing them to stand trial.  

Israeli officials defend its use as a way to hold Palestinians who pose an immediate threat to the country's security. Israel says they keep the evidence secret from lawyers and the accused because it would expose their intelligence-gathering networks if released.  

In Halahleh’s case, he has not been charged with a crime and he isn’t even aware what evidence is being used to hold him. In addition, an order by an Israeli military judge for him to remain in administrative detention has been extended eight times. 

Over the past year, the number of administrative detentions has nearly doubled, according to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Palestinian human rights, and more than 300 Palestinians remain in Israeli jails under the classification of administrative detention. 

As Palestinian hunger strikers starve, a mother waits 

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev has said administrative detention is "unfortunately a necessary tool" in fighting terrorism.

He has also been adamant that the hunger strikers are dangerous men. “This strike is not about human rights. This strike is being led by hardcore Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The leaders of this strike are people who've been directly responsible for brutal acts of terror against innocent civilians, people who blown up people in pizza parlors in coffee shops on school buses,” Regev said earlier this week, according to the Associated Press. 

Only tool left: starvation   
What’s most fueling the hunger strikes, however, is the sense of hopelessness gripping Palestinian prisoners. 

Many Palestinians believe they have no impartial legal recourse to ensure their rights since their cases can only be tried in Israeli courts. Israel’s Supreme Court rejected the petitions of Halahleh and Diab against their detention on Monday.

Adding to the tension is the fact that many Palestinians have had a family member or friend detained or arrested and held in an Israeli jail at some point since Israel began its occupation of Palestinian Territories in 1967.  

And with no major international media organization spotlighting their case, the prisoners have resorted to the only form of protest they can to draw attention to their plight: their bodies.

This form of protest has become the latest tool adopted particularly by prisoners in the broader Palestinian non-violent struggle against Israel’s occupation.

Non-violence strategy
In recent years, non-violent protests, including marches, acts of civil disobedience, sanctions, boycotts and now, hunger strikes, have become the increasing norm among Palestinian activists demanding their inalienable rights of freedom and justice. However, there are elements within Palestinian society, including Hamas and other militant groups that are considered terrorist organizations by Israel and the U.S., that still advocate armed resistance to the occupation. 

But the increase of the Palestinian non-violence movement has been largely ignored by the West. Despite the fact that for years, Palestinians were promised that their cause would be advanced globally if they would only rejected “terror” and embraced non-violent forms of protest.

Palestinian activists say they are doing that, it’s the global community, they claim which has not lived up to its promises and diplomatically rallied behind their cause.

Like their Palestinian prisoners behind Israeli walls, the broader Palestinian public feels a sense of isolation and hopelessness being heard by the global community. 

International attempts to reign in Israel’s expansion of Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank have failed and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has received less and less diplomatic attention in the face of Arab revolutions and increased tension between Israel and Iran.   

Many observers feel the Palestinian struggle for freedom, and Israel's quest for security, has been held captive to a failed peace process.    

Ignoring the hunger strikes and the Israel-Palestinian conflict amidst the sweeping changes in the region is perilous.  

For a society that revers and holds in high esteem its prisoners, the death of one or many of these prisoners could have broader reverberations and trigger unrest on the occupied Palestinian street. Unfortunately, that would get the attention of many probably for the wrong reasons.

Sebastian Scheiner / AP

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and Kadima party leader Shaul Mofaz shake hands before holding a joint press conference announcing the new coalition government in Jerusalem on Tuesday.

  
TEL AVIV – Love him or hate him, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is proving to be the consummate politician. 

Within a space of 24 hours he surprised Israelis by first announcing early elections – and then astonished them by changing his mind and presenting them with a new government. 

Opposition leaders were outraged. One party leader, Zahava Gal-On, called the move a “mega-stinking maneuver by a prime minister who wants to avoid elections and a desperate opposition chairman facing a crash.”

The centrist Kadima party – the Israeli Parliament’s largest party reeling from defections, a change in leadership and a loss of direction – joined Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition Tuesday to form one of the largest governing blocs in Israel’s history.

'Strong signal to Tehran': Israel forms unity government amid Iran tensions

The combined 94 seats out of 120 in parliament could theoretically give Netanyahu the power to pass any legislation he wants.

The question is: What does he want?             

What’s the strategic goal?
Critics, suffering from whiplash, claim he just wants to stay in power. But others argue he was a clear favorite to win elections anyway.             

So if he seeks to achieve a strategic goal, rather than a short-term political advantage, what is it?            

Israel faces two major internal issues that had triggered the push for early elections, even though the next national election is not due until October 2013. One is what to do about the confrontation with West Bank settlers who continue to expand their homes. The other is how to make the growing ultraorthodox population serve in the military.  That is an especially hot topic since service in the Israel Defense Forces is compulsory for all other Israelis – including women. 

Another key question is how to change the political system to eliminate the power of small parties, which has been Israel’s weakness since its foundation in 1948. Concerns about the economy and the widening gap between the rich and poor is another urgent issue. 

Many argue that a coherent, stable and large government would be freer to reach critical and tough decisions on these polarizing topics.  Of course, in Israel, a strong coalition also translates to being freer to take on the power of the orthodox Jewish parties.       

Iran: To attack or not to attack? 
Externally, there is one overriding question: Iran. To attack, or not to attack? 

Should Israel give American-led sanctions a chance? Or pre-empt the development of an Iranian nuclear weapons program by bombing its nuclear facilities? 

Under the terms of the new deal, Shaul Mofaz, who just became the Kadima party’s leader in March, will become a deputy prime minister and Netanyahu’s stand-in when he is out of the country. 

Israel’s top three leaders are now all security experts: Netanyahu, is a former special forces fighter; Ehud Barak, the defense minister, is Israel’s most decorated soldier; and Mofaz, who was incidentally born in Iran, is a former army chief and defense minister. 

Add Moshe Yaalon, a deputy premier and another former army chief of staff, and Israel’s government could be perceived as increasingly belligerent; or seen from a different perspective, even better able to defend itself.

Gerald Steinberg, a political scientist at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv, said the new coalition “sends a very strong signal to Tehran, but also to Europe and the United States, that Israel is united and the leadership is capable of dealing with the threats that are there if and when it becomes necessary.”

That is the main result of such a wide coalition: the government should be able to push through almost any plan of action, in any field. 

But the question remains: Will Netanyahu use his new overwhelming parliamentary majority to push through much-needed reform? Or just to stay in power? Or, as some fear, to put together wider Israeli support for an attack against Iran?  

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Ammar Awad / Reuters

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, shakes hands with Shaul Mofaz, head of the Kadima party, during their joint news conference in Jerusalem on Tuesday.

JERUSALEM -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called off plans Tuesday for early elections and formed a unity government in a surprise move that could give him a freer hand to confront Iran's nuclear ambitions.

The deal, agreed at a secret meeting overnight, means the centrist Kadima party will hook up with Netanyahu's rightist coalition, creating a wide parliamentary majority of 94 legislators in the 120-seat parliament, one of the biggest in Israeli history.

"A broad national unity government is good for security, good for the economy and good for the people of Israel," said a statement from the prime minister's office, quoting Netanyahu.

At a news conference, Netanyahu promised "serious and responsible" talks on Iran with Kadima, and said the coalition would promote a "responsible" peace process with the Palestinians.

Environment Minister Gilad Erdan said the accord would help build support for potential action against Iran's atomic program which Israel views as an existential threat.

"An election wouldn't stop Iran's nuclear program. When a decision is taken to attack or not, it is better to have a broad political front, that unites the public," he told Israel Radio.

Global powers wary of war
The recently elected head of Kadima, Shaul Mofaz, will be named vice premier in the new government, officials said, adding that the accord would be formally ratified later Tuesday and presented to parliament.

As deputy prime minister in a former Kadima-headed government in 2008, Mofaz was among the first Israeli officials to publicly moot the possibility of an attack on Iran.

A onetime defense minister, the Iranian-born Mofaz has been more circumspect while in the opposition, saying Israel should not hasten to break ranks with war-wary world powers that are trying to pressure Iran through sanctions and negotiations.

Gerald Steinberg, a political scientist at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv, said the coalition deal "sends a very strong signal to Tehran, but also to Europe and the United States, that Israel is united and the leadership is capable of dealing with the threats that are there if and when it becomes necessary."

Israeli officials have said the next year will be crucial in seeing whether Iran is willing to back down in the face of widespread international condemnation and curb its nuclear plans.

Israel has regularly hinted it will strike the Islamic republic if Tehran does not pull back.

Iran regularly dismisses Israeli and Western accusations that it is working on developing a nuclear bomb, saying its program is focused on generating electricity and other peaceful projects. Israel is widely assumed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal.

'A pact of cowards'
The next national election is not due until October 2013 but Netanyahu this month had pushed for an early poll after divisions emerged in his coalition over a new military conscription law. Parliament was preparing for a final vote to dissolve itself and clear the decks for a September 4 ballot while the backroom talks with Kadima were under way.

The accord stunned the political establishment and drew swift condemnation from the center-left Labor party, which had been touted in opinion polls to be on course for a resurgence at the expense of Kadima.

"This is a pact of cowards and the most contemptible and preposterous zigzag in Israel's political history," Labor party leader Shelly Yachimovich was quoted as saying in the media, where commentators hailed Netanyahu's political prowess.

Kadima, with 28 seats, will add significant weight to the coalition, but it remains uncertain how it will get along with religious and ultra-right parties also in the cabinet.

Inter-government relations are likely to be tested swiftly over the issue of settlement building after the high court ordered the government on Monday to demolish five apartment buildings in a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank.

Many of Netanyahu's supporters want him to push through legislation to legalize settlements, such as the Ulpana apartments, which a court has ruled were built on privately owned Palestinian land.

It is not clear if Kadima would support such a move, which would draw international condemnation on Israel. Palestinians say settlement building is jeopardizing their chance to create an independent state. 

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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By Duncan Golestani
NBC News

JORDAN VALLEY -- Faisel Njoom undoubtedly has the best house in Auja. Drinking iced tea in the shade of his garden he talks with pride at being the biggest land owner in the village and the oranges and bananas that he once grew on his farm. Only later, standing in one of his dry and dusty fields in the Jordan Valley, does he become angry.

“Life without water is not a life,” he said as the sun began to set. “This land without water is like all the other deserts. We were born working this land.”

He says he couldn’t keep farming because the irrigation channels to his land began drying up in 2000. He, and many charities, blame the digging of a new well near the Auja Spring, designed to serve a nearby Israeli settlement.

For first time in many years there is water flowing in the spring long after winter has finished because rainfall has increased by a fifth over the last year. Otherwise, the spring would now be dry. Almotaz Abadi, a consultant to the Palestinian Water Authority, explained that, rainfall is the biggest factor contributing to water availability, but the Auja Spring has been adversely affected by other factors, principally the new well.

The reminder of how plentiful water used to be in Auja has reignited resentment -- a feeling shared widely among Palestinians in the occupied territories. The World Bank and international charities accuse Israel of denying enough water to the Palestinians. Ironically, it’s a situation made worse by the Oslo Peace Accords.

The Oslo II agreement in 1995 set up a joint water committee to oversee management of the aquifers in the West Bank. It was supposed to encourage consensus, but a World Bank report in 2009 concluded Israel dominated the process, taking 80 percent of the water resources.  (In recognizing that the Palestinian Water Authority’s powers were severely limited, the report also criticized its management abilities).

Agriculture is key to the Palestinian economy and its third largest employer. But it could be much bigger. The World Bank found that problems with irrigation are holding the sector back, especially when combined with the Separation Barrier cutting off land and access to wells.

Many Palestinians see this water divide as a way of increasing their dependency on Israel. Amnesty International estimates some 180,000 to 200,000 Palestinians living in rural communities have no access to running water. It means many have to buy water from Israeli tankers at high prices.

Israelis complain of water scarcity too. After much persuasion with an armed guard, NBC News was allowed to film inside Yitav, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank. It is indeed a green outpost in the desert, but the settlers say it comes at a high price – which they pay with their utility bills.

Israel’s Water Authority disputes the claims made by the World Bank and other charities. At their offices in Tel Aviv we were shown a map of locations where licenses have been granted for Palestinian wells, but never pumped. “You have to know most of the Palestinian cities in the West Bank have better access to water than residents in Amman, the capital of Jordan,” said Baruch Nager, Head of Water Administration for the West Bank.

Both sides have hydrological data to support their side of the argument, which makes it particularly hard to resolve.

Water is a ‘final status issue’ in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. No decisions will be taken on how control of the water is divided until there is a peace agreement. That, of course, has never looked further away.

JERUSALEM - A former Israeli spymaster has branded the country's leaders unfit to tackle the Iranian nuclear program because of what he called the "messianic feelings" behind their threats to launch a pre-emptive war on Iran.

Other veterans have come out against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak recently, but the criticism from former domestic intelligence chief Yuval Diskin was especially strong.

"I have no faith in the prime minister, nor in the defense minister," Diskin, who stepped down as head of the Shin Bet a year ago, said in a speech partly broadcast by Israel Radio on Saturday.

"I really don't have faith in a leadership that makes decisions out of messianic feelings."

The catastrophic terms with which Netanyahu and Barak describe the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran have stirred concern in Israel and abroad of a possible strike against a uranium enrichment program Iran says has peaceful ends.

World powers have been trying to curb Tehran through sanctions and negotiations that are due to resume next month.

Israel teams with terror group to kill Iran's nuclear scientists, U.S. officials tell NBC News

Although Israel has threatened a pre-emptive strike if diplomacy fails, some experts believe that could be a bluff to keep up pressure on Iran, making it harder to interpret the swirl of comments from the security establishment.

Diskin's remarks came days after Israel's military chief, Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz, said Iran was "very rational" and unlikely to build a bomb in the face of world opposition, apparently undermining the case for a strike.

By using the language of religious fervor that Israelis usually associate with Islamist foes, Diskin appeared even more damning of Netanyahu and Barak, who have often crafted strategy alone and whose relationship dates back to service in an elite commando unit four decades ago.

The former head of Israel's Mossad foreign intelligence service, Meir Dagan, has ridiculed the idea of a strike on Iran.

Diskin, who spoke on Friday, said he was not necessarily opposed to Israel attacking Iran's nuclear sites pre-emptively, though he cited experts who argue that such an action might backfire by accelerating Tehran's quest for a bomb.

Yet going to war was not a job for Netanyahu, a second-term premier, nor Barak, Israel's most decorated soldier, Diskin said.

"I have seen them up close," he said. "They are not people who I personally, at least, trust to be able to lead Israel into an event on such a scale, and to extricate it."

The Prime Minister's Office and Defence Ministry had no immediate response to Diskin's remarks. A Netanyahu deputy, Silvan Shalom, rebuked the former spymaster and sought to assure Israelis that democratic process guided the government strategy.

"Not everyone thinks the same thing. This is not a decision that would be made by two people," he told Israel Radio.

"Ultimately, with all due respect to everyone, the one who is more important on this matter is the military chief of staff," Shalom said, referring to the general whose comments had appeared at odds with the official line.

Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons, but Western nations as well as Israel fear it plans to build a bomb. 

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TEL AVIV, Israel – Celebrating Israel's independence always starts with a bang. Fireworks light up the night sky as families fill the streets.  Starting Wednesday evening and continuing throughout the day Thursday, the country has been covered in overt displays of national pride with flags flying from most homes and cars.

But, as always with Israel, that very independence brings insecurity. This week has been no exception.

The newspapers have carried an array of mixed messages and perceived threats. From increased tension along the border with Lebanon to Israel's military chief saying Iran is unlikely to build an atomic bomb.

But one issue dominates – the changing relationship with Egypt, their southern neighbor, and the vital gas pipeline running between the two countries.

Gas deal terminated
On Sunday Egypt terminated a long-term gas deal with Israel. While politicians on both sides have tried to downplay the closure of the pipeline as merely a business dispute, there is little doubt it's a sign of a relationship coming under increased strain.

The pipeline has been attacked 14 times over the last year, repeatedly interrupting gas flow. Although the deal supplied Israel with 40 percent of its natural gas, experts say the cancellation will have a limited impact.

Professor Eytan Sheshinksi, who teaches at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, said Israel had become used to them.

"I think it will not have serious effect at this time. Shortages were expected this summer anyway," he told NBC News.

As far as Israel Hayom, the popular right-leaning Israeli Hebrew-language daily newspaper, was concermed, it was another example of why Israel should only depend on itself.

"The painful conclusion is, once again, that we have no genuine friends in the region," the paper's analysis wrote. "This is a reminder...that we must first and foremost depend only on ourselves."

Israel expects gas to start pumping from its own huge reserves next year – which many have great expectations for.

"This is extremely important for the country," Dr. Amit Mor, CEO of the Israel’s company ECO Energy Ltd., said about Israel’s push to develop its own oil reserves. “We do not need to depend our energy production consumption on the importation of oil and gas from our neighboring Arab countries or from the international market. We can provide our own resources by ourselves.”

Political repercussions
Another major concern about the failed pipeline deal is what it means politically for Israel. The pipeline was part of a peace treaty between the two countries that was signed by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in 1979. Mubarak of course has been swept from power and long-held resentment at the peace deal is now being voiced publicly. 

The anti-Israel rhetoric is echoed by politicians in Egypt as the country prepares for presidential elections in May. "There is no doubt the peace treaty is unfair to Egyptian side," Mahmoud Ghozlan, spokesman and a senior figure in Egypt's biggest Islamist group, the Muslim Brotherhood, told Reuters.  Although he said all treaties would be "respected.”

On Tuesday Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israel Radio Egypt's Sinai Peninsula is, "turning into a kind of Wild West" with Islamist militants using the open desert border to stage attacks against his country.

Israel may well be celebrating 64 years, but the Jewish state continues to feel its enemies close by.

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Lior Mizrahi / EPA

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to place a wreath during the annual Memorial Day ceremony commemorating fallen soldiers at Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem on Wednesday.

TEL AVIV, Israel – This week Israel is celebrating its 64th birthday, but before the fireworks and parties, Israelis mourn their fallen soldiers.

The ceremonies commemorating the 22,993 soldiers and civilians Israel says have been killed since 1860, when Jews began moving back to the area, started on Tuesday evening. A one minute siren rang out across the country so people would stop all their activities and observe a moment of silence.

The Israeli Army radio found an interesting way to remember some of the fallen, especially the ones who wrote letters and poems. The project is called “Soon We Will Become A Song” and it includes famous singers singing lyrics written by soldiers who have died. The song lyrics are based on writing found in soldiers’ belongings after they were killed.

Ofira Rotem is well acquainted with sorrow and grief.  She served 10 years in the Israeli Army in a unit that was in charge of notifying families that their loved one had been killed during military duty.

In November 1997 her son, Oren, enlisted in the army. Ofira told the army radio this week that she didn’t want to say goodbye to him on the day he enlisted since she would cry and didn’t want to embarrass him.  She said Oren replied, “You're going to come and embarrass me, it's O.K. with me. You're allowed to cry."

Nir Elias / Reuters

Israelis embrace in front of a memorial engraved with names of fallen soldiers from the armoured corps after a ceremony marking Memorial Day in Latrun near Jerusalem on Wednesday.

Two years later, Oren died in an accident while he was still in the service. So this time, friends and officers who had worked Ofira were knocking on her own door with the worst news ever.

Ofira described how she got the news. “It was 9 o'clock in the evening and we were about to go to the cinema. I heard the doorbell and opened the door seeing Moshiko, my commander, standing there. I asked him if it was my son, Oren, and he just nodded."

Ofira says she decided right there and then to cling onto life and bring new life to this world.

On her 47th birthday, Ofira gave birth to twins. "From Oren's death I created the lives of two beautiful babies."

To mark this year’s Memorial Day on Wednesday, Israeli Army radio broadcast a song based on some of Oren’s writings and performed by Miri Masika, a famous Israeli singer.