His supporters urged him to do it and his weird offer of a nuclear umbrella set him up to do it. So it's not exactly a surprise that he's going to do it:

One Israeli official who should be busy during the presidential reign of Barack Obama is Shaul Horev, director general of Israel's Atomic Energy Commission. The new president and his choice for secretary of state, New York Senator Hillary Clinton, intend to revive international arms-control efforts... Israeli officials... are anxious about the erosion of their country's deterrent capability... Obama and Clinton promised that arms control would once again play a central role in American diplomacy... Last Sunday, Jim Hoagland, who writes a column on foreign affairs in The Washington Post, wrote that Obama should learn from president John F. Kennedy and call for worldwide nuclear disarmament. Hoagland's columns generally express the consensus of the U.S. foreign affairs establishment. Kennedy was the last American president to have tried to stop the Israeli nuclear project.

By "international arms-control efforts" lets be clear that they mean the new ostensibly neutral French campaign that - as an objective matter - is aimed directly at Israel. Because it's not as if the US is actually confused about Israel's nuclear program. They've got spies to see through that particular fog.

But follow the beauty of this bait and switch. For a decade the excuse was that the West could drag its feet on Iran because - worst case - Israel would establish a nuclear deterrent viz. a viz. the Islamic regime. That was Chirac's argument a year ago and it was Fallon's argument just this week...

Israel is one of the strongest countries in the Middle East and needs to stop giving in to a "fear factor" with regard to the prospect of a nuclear Iran, Adm. (ret.) William Fallon, the former commander of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. Adm. (ret.) William Fallon. In Israel for a regional security conference at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Tel Aviv, Fallon told the Post that he could not understand why Iran would even contemplate using nuclear weapons against Israel unless the country wanted to be destroyed. "Do they wish to go away?" he asked, insinuating that a nuclear attack on Israel would elicit a devastating response.

... until now Iran is within months of going nuclear and suddenly diplomats want to erode the Israeli deterrent. Because that will make Iran stop cheating on obligations that they're cheating on for reasons that go far beyond Israel.

Remember that time when the Republican Presidential candidate repeatedly insisted that Israel's nuclear deterrent was not up for negotiation but 77 percent of American Jews voted against him anyway? Good times.

References:
* US Foreign Policy Experts To Obama: Take Away Israel's Nuclear Deterrent [MR]
* Obama: Since We All Know That Engagement With Iran Won't Work, How About A US Nuclear Umbrella For Israel? [MR]
* Will Obama press Israel to allow nuclear inspection of Dimona reactor? [Ha'aretz]
* French Disarmament Efforts Train Sights On Israel's Deterrent [MR]
* New book: US spies on Israel's nuclear program [JPost]
* Chirac belittles Iran bomb threat, then retracts [MSNBC]
* Former US admiral: Don't fear Iran [JPost]
* Exit Polls: 77% Of American Jews Confirmed Social Scientific Finding About How They're Total Morons [MR]

Previously:
* IAEA Aiding Covert Syrian Nuke Program By Building Overt Syrian Nuke Program
* Brzezinski: Israeli Campaign Against Iran Will Detonate US-Israel Relations
* Carter Advises Assad: Sit Tight, Wait For Obama