"The Israelis have one eye on the calendar because of the pace at which the Iranians are proceeding both to develop their nuclear weapons capability and to do things like increase their defenses," Bolton said.

"They're also obviously looking at the American election calendar. My judgment is they would not want to do anything before our election because there's no telling what impact it could have on the election."

Referring to Israel's ability to destroy the Iranian nuclear program, Bolton said the key was to break Iran's control over the nuclear fuel cycle. "That could be accomplished for example by destroying the uranium conversion facility at Esfahan or the uranium enrichment facility at Natanz," he said.