Israelis call on pilots to disobey orders

• Tweet

JERUSALEM, Aug. 16 (UPI) -- Hundreds of Israelis have signed an online petition, urging Israel air force pilots to disobey orders if instructed to bomb Iran, officials said.

The petition, signed by more than 400 people, comes amid rising speculation an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear sites is imminent, The Times of Israel Web site said.

The Physicians for Human Rights sent a letter to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak objecting to an attack on Iran, Ynetnews.com said.

"You are preparing the ground for an attack or offensive, washed out words for the worst word of them all -- war. Such a strike, surgical as it may be, is expected to be followed by all-out war, the price of which, it is claimed, will be paid in hundreds of fatalities," a portion of the letter published by Ynetnews.com said.

Israeli media Thursday quoted Michael Oren, Israel's ambassador in the United States, who said even if an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities succeeds only in setting back their program, it will be worthwhile.

U.S. Jewish blogger Richard Silverstein meanwhile published on his blog Tikun Olam (Repairing the World) details of a document outlining an Israeli strike on Iran. He said he received the document from a former Israeli government minister who received it from a senior Israeli army officer.

The document, which was translated from Hebrew into English, said the Israeli attack will start with a "coordinated strike, including unprecedented cyberattacks," which will paralyze the Iranian regime and its ability to know what is happening inside the country, taking down Internet, radio, telephones, television and communications satellites.

Israel will then fire hundreds of ballistic missiles at Iran, and Israeli submarines "deployed near the Persian Gulf" would fire "high explosive ordnance equipped with reinforced tips designed specially to penetrate hardened targets."