IDF ready to attack Tehran’s nuclear facilities if needed, Chief of Staff Benny Gantz says; military constantly engaged in covert, high-risk operations beyond Israel’s borders, he says
Should Israel decide to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, the IDF will be prepared to carry out the mission, Chief of Staff Benny Gantz told Yedioth Ahronoth in remarks published Sunday.
“In principle, we are ready to act,” the army chief told the newspaper in a special interview ahead of Israel’s upcoming Independence Day.
In respect to the Iranian threat, 2012 will be a critical year, Gantz said, adding that “the State of Israel believes that nuclear arms in Iran’s possession are a very bad thing, which the world should stop and Israel should stop.”
“We are preparing our plan accordingly,” he said.
Israel is the only country in the world facing open destruction threats by another state, which is also producing the means to do carry them out, the army chief said. However, he noted, this does not mean that he will be ordering the army’s Air Force chief to strike Iran “now.”
When asked whether Israel faces an existential threat at this time, Gantz said: “The potential exists. At this time, in my estimate, this is not the case.”
‘Higher chance of war’
During the interview, Gantz also addressed special operations carried out by the IDF beyond Israel’s borders, revealing that the scope of such activities has increased significantly compared to the past.
“I don’t think you will find a point in time where something isn’t happening somewhere in the world,” he said. “The level of risk has increased as well. This is not something invented by Benny Gantz. I’m not taking the credit here. I’m simply accelerating all those special operations.”
Regarding the likelihood of a war breaking out this year, Gantz said: “Our intelligence assessment asserts that given the strategic reality and instability in the region, the chance of deteriorating to a war is higher than in the past. There are no indications of war, but the chances of the situation deteriorating into one are higher than in the past.”
The army chief added that in case of a regional war, the IDF will be able to cope with the rocket threat from Lebanon and from the Gaza Strip.
“I can’t promise no missiles will be landing here. They will be falling; many of them. It won’t be a simple war, neither on the frontlines nor ion the home front,” he said. “However, I don’t advice anyone to test us on this front.”
“When (Hezbollah leader Hassan) Nasrallah comes out of his bunker, he’s concerned – and rightfully so. He saw what happened to Lebanon last time, and it won’t be close to what will happen to Lebanon next time,” the army chief said. “I think they understand it well.”
bob hauser & Mohsen Samil,
Here’s something you should know about each other:
Mohsen: bob hauser is german and doesn’t believe his people “repressed the Jews” at all. bob will tell you that it’s just the opposite…the Jews repressed the germans!
bob: Even though you believe that America has no “right to number itself” among civilized nations (like germany), my sense is that Mohsen likes it here in the U.S ., so don’t put us down on this site as much as you do on others.
A question for Mohsen: Did Hamas & Hezbollah get their “sticks and stones” from Iran?
YES IT IS EASY TO KILL THE PALESTINIANS WHO ARE FIGHTING WITH STICKS AND STONES WHILE THE ZIONISTS ARE FIGHTING WITH SOPHISTICATED WEAPONS. THEY SAY THEY ARE READY TO ATTACK IRAN FROM THE AIR AND THINK THAT THE IRANIANS ARE NOT AWARE OF THIS . I SUGGEST THAT THEY STOP THEIR PROPAGANDA AS ITS THE RENEWED SEED OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE THAT THEY WILL UP AGAINST. FURTHERMORE I WOULD LIKE TO POINT OUT THAT DURING THE REPRESSIONS OF THE JEWS IN GERMANY DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR I HAVE SEEN NO PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE OF EVAN ONE JEW LIFTING UP A STONE AGAINST A GERMAN SOLDIER IN ORDER TO DEFEND HIM SELF OR HIS HONOR- BUT THE PALESTINIANS DO THIS EVERY DAY. ” WHO THE COWARD- WHO THE BRAVE?.
Mohsen, you have perfectly stated the truth and its amazing not many people truly see this…..
If you want to see massive desertions, suicides and mutinies in the U.S. army not to mention antidraft riots that will make those during Vietnam look like Tupperware parties, let Israel just try to ask America for help……if Israel attacks Iran, most likely Russia and China will quietly bide their time and wait for the U.S. to even get the look on its face like it might intervene on Israel’s behalf….then look out. World War III and Israel will end up looking like a moonscape because the civilized world, among the nations of which neither Israel nor its lap poodle, America, has any longer the right to number itself, will have had their gut fill of Israel’s arrogance and ego-gluttony and America’s slavish and drooling support thereof.
The “FIRST WORLD SCHURKENSTAATEN” AGAIN AGRESSING THE WORLD WITH STUPID UNNESSESARY WARFARE………THE CRIMINAL STATE OF ISRAEL HAS SINCE LONG…LONG TIME NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND IT NEVER DECLARETE THIS EVIL WEPONS….AND NOBODY MAKE A FUSS…..COME CLEEN…STOP YOUR AGRESSION…IF YOU BEHAVE NOBODY ATTACK YOU….BE REALISTIC….WE NEED NEW LEADERS IN THIS “FIRST WORLD STATES”…..SINCE THE SECOND WORLD WAR THERE WAS JUST GARBAGE……..
Michael Aebi…….