 |
|
Israeli soldiers
|
The drill indicates Israel’s willingness to cause a new conflict by attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities which they admit can ignite an all-out war in the region.
The five-day drill which was launched on Sunday will simulate simultaneous rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip and Lebanon and missile attacks from Iran and Syria.
“We will be exercising the doomsday scenario (Read: Samson Option) of simultaneous strikes against Israel on all fronts and by different means,” Israel’s defense ministry spokesman Shlomo Dror told AFP last week.
Exercise Turning Point 3 will also include simulating chemical and biological strikes on populated centers and a wave of attacks by Palestinians.
Israeli cabinet will also hold simulated meetings to weigh its response to such scenarios.
This is the third consecutive year Israel is conducting such an exercise. Tel Aviv says the war games are defensive in nature.
Lebanese Army however has heightened its security measures along the southern border with Israel to repel possible threats during the Israeli drill.
The Hezbollah movement has also warned Israel against any attacks, saying its fighters are ready to respond.
Israel’s “Doomsday Scenario” military exercises
Global Research | Al Jazeera, May 31, 2009
Israel tests response to ‘doomsday’
Israel will test its response to simultaneous attacks from Lebanon and Gaza [EPA]
Israel has begun its largest-ever defence drill, testing the response of its emergency services to a “doomsday scenario” of missile attacks, bombings and natural disasters.
The five-day national exercise got under way on Sunday, with defence officials playing down any connection to recent and growing tensions with Iran.
The drill simulates simultaneous rocket strikes from the Gaza Strip and Lebanon and missile attacks from Iran and Syria.
It will test the way rescue services deal with attacks, including conventional, chemical and biological strikes against large population centres.
The exercise will also simulate a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings.
“We will be exercising the doomsday scenario of simultaneous strikes against Israel on all fronts and by different means,” Shlomo Dror, a defence ministry spokesman, said last week.
Simulated attack
On Tuesday, air-raid sirens will sound across the country and Israelis must scramble to shelters, in some areas within seconds and others within no more than three minutes.
The code-name Exercise Turning Point Three will also simulate the conduct of rescue and medical services during earthquakes and epidemics.
There will be simulated cabinet meetings in which ministers will weigh their response to the drill’s scenarios. This is the third consecutive year Israel has conducted defence drills.
The manoeuvres began in the aftermath of the July-August 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, which revealed major weaknesses in how Israel dealt with the rocket attacks on its territory.
“The Second Lebanon War revealed that the homefront was not well prepared for war and citizens found it hard to adapt to the special situation,” Dror said.
‘Sabre-rattling’
Jacky Rowland, Al Jazeera’s Jerusalem correspondent, said that while Israel claimed that the drill had “no special significance”, it would likely be seen in the context of “Israel’s sabre-rattling towards Iran and also towards other neighbouring Arab countries”.
“It was only a couple of weeks ago that Prime Minister [Binyamin] Netanyahu was in Washington and he was really pushing the question of Iran and its perceived nuclear threat really to the top of the agenda of his talks with President [Barack] Obama,” she said.
“So, although Israel is saying that this is a defensive drill and it is really practising its ability to defend its civilians against attack from outside, inevitably it has to be interpreted by Israel’s Arab neighbours – and indeed the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank – as a warning, a not so subtle warning, of Israel’s offensive capacities to strike should these circumstances arise.”
Al Jazeera’s James Bays on the Lebanese border with Israel said: “Israel said that this is something that was planned a long time ago. But this side of the border people are very suspicious.
“And that is because of the timing. In just seven days time the Lebanese go to the polls. Opinion polls show that the race is very tight.
“But at the moment, slightly in the lead are the Hezbollah led opposition. Israel has already said that if the opposition becomes the new government they will consider that government the enemy.”
The drill comes just two weeks after the air force wrapped up a four-day exercise testing its ability to defend against strikes from Syria and Iran.
Israel believes Iran is developing nuclear weapons and has not ruled out a military strike on the country in response. Iran says its nuclear programme is only for energy production.
Israeli Air Force Holds All Out War Simulation – Tension With Iran Grows
Project 2012: Predictions Coming True? Nuclear War Begins Soon? Updated
THE THIRD WORLD WAR AND ITS AFTERMATH
ANALYSIS: Netanyahu bringing Israel closer to war with Iran
Israel preparing ‘classic’ war
Biblical Prophesy and the Iraq War: Bush, God, Iraq and Gog
Israel to US: We reserve ‘right’ to bomb Iran
Jordan’s king warns about new Israeli-Arab war in next 12 months
Wake Up Obama: We The People Already Know The Truth
Israeli Air Force sharpening Arrows for Iran
Israel Threaten Iran With Nukes
Lieberman: Wishing For World War III?
Project 2012: Predictions Coming True? Nuclear War Begins Soon? Updated
Maneuvers Suggest Israel Has Concealed Will to Initiate War
Trend Alert: Israel War To Ignite World War III
Netanyahu To The West–Destroy Iran Before Israel Destroys You
War is Coming to Iran and Israel
Zionist Jews Ready To Attack Iran ‘In Hours’
Israeli Professor:’We Could Destroy All European Capitals’
Netanyahu and the NeoCons – A Match Made in Heaven or Tel Aviv?
What’s the Big Deal about the Holocaust?
Ahmadinejad snubs Kouchner threats: Durban II
Gaza Horror: Updated Large Photo Gallery of Gaza Massacre by Israel
Israeli Army T-Shirts Mock Gaza Killings
In Pictures: Israel’s Brutal Attack on UNRWA School in Beit Lahia
Must Read: Torturous Wounds of Gaza: Report by 2 UK Surgeons
Assalamualaikum Wr. Wbr.
Hello from Indonesia. salam kenal
Well, maybe some of us Americans, IF WE DON’T FIGHT THEM HERE, will travel to whereever they declare war and fight the Israeli’s there.
After all, they have conducted a coup against the people of the United States and are placing us under attack as a nation and thus add another war front to your list. We will fight them here or whereever they are trying to empire build off the bodies of innocent children, unarmed civilians and
are trying to steal the wealth of other nations like they did to us.
These aggressions will finally stop going unanswered. They philosophy they have has been outted “BY DECEPTION, WE WILL CONDUCT WAR”. Well, that deception has had the light of day shined on it and its there for all to see.
No more.