(JNS) - When assessing the comments made earlier this week by Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, who warned against the return to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, it is useful to envisage two red countdown clocks.

The first is counting down the time left until Iran is able to break through to nuclear-weapons production capability.

Iran does not have to build an atomic bomb to reach the status of a breakout state. It merely needs to come within "striking distance" - close enough that it can make the decision to take the final steps in the nuclear bomb-making process...