in sunday's "new york times" magazine israeli journalists ronan bergman wrote, i quote, after speaking senior israeli leaders and chiefs of the military and the intelligence, i have come to believe that israel will indeed strike iran in 2012. how, end quote. how do you assess that likelihood and the response from iran if that happens, that might be forthcoming? >> well, the, our hope is that the sanctions, particularly those which have been recently implemented, would have the effect of inducing a change in the iranian policy towards their apparent pursuit of a nuclear capability. obviously this is a very sensitive issue right now. we're doing a lot with the israelis, working together with them. and of course for them this is, as they have characterized it, an existential threat but this is an area that we're very, very concerned about and would be pleased to, because of the sensitivities, would be pleased to discuss in greater detail in closed session. >> well the vice chairman and i have just met this past week with the director of mossad. so it is a classified meeting but we do know