The rhetoric coming out of Israel related to the possible attack on Iran is not only escalating, but becoming decidedly split, as key former officials caution against starting what would be an extremely ugly war and members of the current government push for the conflict.

The latest hawk on the war is President Shimon Peres, who made his career as a somewhat less hawkish than normal Israeli leader but today insisted that the world would soon need to attack Iran, and insisted that “it is time to stand behind the promise that was made to us” in following through with starting such a war.

At the same time, former Mossad Chief Ephraim Halevy urged the government to back off its threats on Iran, saying the nation doesn’t pose an existential threat to Israel and that starting a war would have negative repercussions on the entire region for the next 100 years.

The threats to attack Iran are very old threats, and Israel has been harping on the possibility of starting the war for over a decade now. At the same time, the rhetoric seems to be growing of late, with next week’s IAEA report in Iran expected to include plenty of vague statements that officials could use to try to justify a war.