[ClearCase_guy]

What happens if the Iranians scuttle their own ship inside the canal? They can blame an Israeli submarine. Then, you have an international act of war by the Jews, and a vital international seaway encumbered to all, at least for a time. Big international outrage at Israel's "unprovoked attack".

I think the payoff for Iran might be enough to warrant scuttling a ship.

[tanknetter]

What happens if the Iranians scuttle their own ship inside the canal? They can blame an Israeli submarine. Then, you have an international act of war by the Jews, and a vital international seaway encumbered to all, at least for a time. Big international outrage at Israel's "unprovoked attack".

IIRC that's what the North Koreans tried to claim when their mini-sub sunk that South Korean corvette - the ROK did it to themselves to provoke an international incident.

Problem is that any sort of forensic investigation WILL demonstrate clearly not only how the ship was sunk (torpedo hit vs. some other method) but also likely WHO did it (ability to trace explosives back to their source).

There's also the fact that the Israelis would have to be nucking futs to try that sort of thing, let alone actually think they could get away with it. And no one believes that the Israelis are nucking futs. They have absolutely NO interest in doing something that shuts down the canal.