Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Iran’s nuclear program: When might Israel attack. - Slate Magazine

"Everyone knows that the Iranians are trying to reach nuclear military capability... they are trying to reach a certain redundancy, or what I call the "zone of immunity."

"It means they reach a situation where, through redundancies, neither Israel and probably not even America can do anything surgically to block it. Once Khomeini reaches this kind of situation, he can be practically assured that he [has] crossed the point of no return and will end up more like North Korea or Pakistan, rather than like Iraq or Syria."

 "Then comes the issue of terror. The Iranians are sponsoring terror among the Baluchi tribe in Afghanistan, among the insurgents in Iraq—they are everywhere. They are trying to raise their profile in Cuba, in Nicaragua, and Venezuela, of course. They have a global aspiration, and the world won't be the same place once they turn nuclear. Whoever thinks that it's complicated to deal with Iran right now, as some think tank leaders are writing: Just close your eyes and think what it will mean to deal with these very same issues once Iran turns nuclear as a result of an absence of political will. It will be much more dangerous, much more costly in terms of human lives and financial resources. And it will become nuclear if the world will not be tough enough to stop it."