WASHINGTON—Israel has determined that the preconditions are in place to attack Iran this year, according to an Israeli defense reporter who interviewed top officials.

Ronen Bergman, writing this week in the New York Times Magazine, assesses that three preconditions are in place: Israel is able to cause major damage to Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program and is able to withstand a counterattack; Israel has tacit American support; all other methods short of an attack are close to exhausted and this may be the last chance for a successful attack.

Bergman bases his conclusions on interviews with a range of top Israeli defense officials. Notably, two of them—Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Moshe Ya’alon, the deputy prime minister and minister of strategic affairs— speak extensively on the record.

Barak tells Bergman that the opportunity for a successful strike will likely close out this year.

“It will not be possible to use any surgical means to bring about a significant delay” in the nuclear program after that point, Barak is quoted as saying.

Bergman also quotes figures such as Meir Dagan, who just stepped down as chief of the Mossad spy agency, who say that the consequences of a war with Iran would be too grave to merit a strike.