The Obama administration is softening reported past resistance to a potential Israeli military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. The shift is modest and – inasmuch as the administration’s actual position has been guarded by the highest levels of secrecy – difficult to measure. Nonetheless the IDF’s Intelligence Directorate Amos Yadlin detects it:

“The American stance on an Israeli strike against Iran has changed dramatically recently,” said Amos Yadlin, who served as chief of the IDF’s Intelligence Directorate from 2006 to 2010.

“In 2012 the [Americans’] red light was as red as it can get, the brightest red,” Yadlin said in an interview with Army Radio Wednesday morning. “But the music I’m hearing lately from Washington says, ‘If this is truly an overriding Israeli security interest, and you think you want to strike,’ then the light hasn’t changed to green, I think, but it’s definitely yellow.”

Earlier this year, the Senate unanimously passed a resolution reaffirming U.S. support for Israel if the Jewish state were to take action to defend itself against Tehran.

Yadlin’s comments come during a week when the Wall Street Journal reported on “significant advances” that Iran has made in building the infrastructure necessary to construct a plutonium-based nuclear bomb.

The election victory and subsequent inauguration of revolutionary cleric Hassan Rouhani as president has triggered sharp divisions in the foreign policy community. Rouhani’s gestures toward the need for nuclear negotiations has engendered optimism among some analysts, while other analysts have pointed out that Rouhani has long bragged about using such negotiations to buy time for Iran to lock in its nuclear infrastructure.

[Photo: INSS ISRAEL / YouTube]