IDF Drills for War with Hezbollah and Gaza - By Raphael Poch - http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/42890/idf-drills-for-war-with-hezbollah-and-gaza/#6mcH3gtfqLw307z7.97
"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." (Jeremiah 29:11)
The IDF is planning a drill that will simulate a "nightmare" scenario of blanket missile attacks emanating from both the north and south of Israel on a scale so large that the Iron Dome missile defense system would not be able to combat it.
According to a report in Israel National News quoting sources in the Defense establishment who wish to remain anonymous, Israel could suffer over 4,000 casualties in the first few days of such an attack. It is currently estimated that Hezbollah possesses over 100,000 missiles of various sizes that are currently stockpiled in Lebanon and intended for use against Israel in a future conflict.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a warning during a special briefing held for journalists last week. "Iran is seeking to cover Israel with intense fire. In Lebanon, the Iranians are inserting the most advanced weapons in the world, and strengthening Hezbollah, so that it can hit any spot in Israel." Netanyahu was also quoted in Makor Rishon saying, "They are trying to build a second front in the Golan, and of course, in Gaza."
Former Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ehud Barak also spoke out regarding Hezbollah's ability to attack Israel and inflict heavy casualties should Israel be unprepared in a future conflict.
"Our rival [Hezbollah] is serious, and we have no room for smugness on any front. We must not be smug and take our superiority as something that is self-evident and supposedly God-given. Superiority is the result of serious work. We have not really dealt with 100,000 rockets, and we have not started to deal with the matter of their accuracy. When the rockets are accurate, it is not more of the same thing. It is something completely different."
Barak continued by encouraging the government to increase its level of preparedness. "The country has no choice but to reach conclusions. One cannot deal with this challenge by deploying [missile defense systems] in all of the places from which missiles can be fired. These things are very expensive: Iron Dome and Magic Wand, Arrow and Super-Arrow are expensive projects.
"One cannot exaggerate the importance of safeguarding security," he went on, "and one cannot exaggerate the earth-shaking shock that can take place when it turns out that we did not prepare and we did not understand the urgency and practicality of challenges of this sort, and the need to translate clear thought to conclusions, and we will find ourselves [in a situation where] citizens suddenly discover that one cannot walk slowly and lackadaisically to the bomb shelters, knowing that nothing can happen, as we did during Operation Protective Edge. These things must be done now; we must not wait."
The IAF recently concluded a drill which included a battle plan for the Air Force and IDF to evacuate between 1-1.5 million Lebanese civilians should a war with Hezbollah ensue. While the IDF believes that it is unlikely that Hezbollah will attack Israel at this point, since they are entangled in supporting Bashar Assad in Syria, the Air Force drill, as well as the nightmare scenario, are being held in case such an attack still occurs. The plan for Israel to evacuate the Lebanese population is to prevent large amounts of civilian casualties on the Lebanese side of the conflict. The evacuation is supposed to take only 24 hours, following which Israel would conduct large scale aerial bombardment and a ground offensive, wiping the area clean and destroying thousands of military targets that Hezbollah has set up inside population centers.
Thousands of US paratroops head for Iraq - Tehran braces for onset of ISIS terror attacks on cities - http://www.debka.com/article/24654/Thousands-of-US-paratroops-head-for-Iraq-Tehran-braces-for-onset-of-ISIS-terror-attacks-on-cities
The United States this week began transferring to Iraq and Gulf bases elite units of the US 82nd Airborne Division. debkafile's military sources report that the first batch of 500 officers and men will be deployed in Baghdad and the Kurdish republic's capital of Irbil, followed by another 500 in July and 250 in December. Altogether, by the end of 2015, the US will have posted another 1,250 officers and men to augment the American force already present at a base near Habbaniya in the western Iraqi Anbar province. This force, roughly the same size as the incoming contingents, came from the US 3rd Division's Combat Team which set up the base six months ago to train Iraqi troops to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant - ISIS. By the end of the year, therefore, the number of US troops on the ground in Iraq will rise to several thousand. Our military sources define their mission as being to intensify raids on ISIS commanders, command centers and bases and striking columns on the move. Their operations will draw on the successful attack mounted by SEAL commandos on May 16 in the heart of the Islamist stronghold in eastern Syria. The group's chief of finances was killed in that raid and, according to American sources, the troops carried off a rich intelligence trove of digital and telephone data on the Islamist State's tactics and structure. The 82nd division has abundant experience of combat in the Iraqi arena. Between the 2003 US invasion and up until 2009, its members fought in critical engagements, especially in Anbar province, which ISIS has made the it's main depot for large military concentrations and a launching pad for attacks across Iraq. The figure of 3,000 American soldiers in Iraq understates the case by far. A much larger pool of combat forces is available close at hand for inserting into the cycle of war on ISIS. Posted in Jordan just across the border from Anbar is a sizeable number of US special operations forces, and air units of F-16 fighter bombers and UH-60 Black Hawk assault helicopters. Their numbers have never been released. Another several thousand troops are stationed in Kuwait. The Pentagon therefore has a reserve force present and available for a directive to go into action, oncef a decision for the US military to step into combat against the Islamists in Iraq and Syria is confirmed by President Barack Obama. All these units are geared to fighting in the two arenas in the framework of the 82nd Airborne Division. This week, too, the Pentagon started pumping new weapons to the Iraqi army under the US commitment of $1.6 billion from the Iraq Train and Equip Fund - ITEF - to equip its units with appropriate arms for combating ISIS. Tuesday, June 9, ISIS appeared unfazed by the United States inching ever closer to a direct confrontation. Iranian cities included Tehran were placed on terror alert, debkafile's intelligence and counter-terror sources report, after intelligence discovered that the Islamic State had started sending squads of terrorists and lone suicide bombers to execute Baghdad-style terrorist attacks on urban areas in Iran. ISIS tacticians were said to be so encouraged by their success in blowing up two Shiite mosques in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province in recent weeks that they decided to have a go at Iranian cities too. Also Tuesday, ISIS claimed in a new video that it had come up with a new strategy for taking Baghdad, not to conquer, but to "liberate" the Iraqi capital. |
Israel's Druze dilemma: To arm imperiled Syrian Druze community or open door to a flood of refugees - http://www.debka.com/article/24656/Israel's-Druze-dilemma-To-arm-imperiled-Syrian-Druze-community-or-open-door-to-a-flood-of-refugees-
Israel has a unique, historic commitment to its Druze citizens and so the dangers besetting more than half a million of their Syrian brethren on Jabal Druze, 88 km from its border, and 38 km from Jordan, confronts the Netanyahu government with a grave dilemma. Israeli Druze leaders are pressing the government to provide Jabal Druze towns and villages with weapons for their defense against the enemies closing in on them: The Syrian-Hezbollah army; the Syrian opposition coalition including the Nusra Front - now in control of large parts of southern Syria; and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant - ISIS, which has sent a small force up to the eastern approaches to the mountain.
At a reception for the visiting Chairman of the Joint US Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey Wednesday, June 10, President Reuven Rivlin said: What is going on just now is intimidation and threat to the very existence of half a million Druze on the Druze Mount, which is very close to the Israeli border."
Officials in the Pentagon denied that this issue had come up in Gen. Dempsey's talks during his farewell visit to Israel this week, although Syria had been discussed. One official remarked: "It's the Druze who are asking everyone to arm them. The Druze in Israel have been raising it with Israel with the US, with Jordan - everyone."
debkafile's military sources note that this dilemma is the hardest Israel has faced since the Syrian conflict began more than four years ago. Sending arms to the Syrian Druze would mean abandoning the consistent policy of abstaining from direct involvement in that war. It would moreover entail setting up new machinery for establishing, training and arming a Druze army of 20,000 to 30,000 fighting men.
But by withholding support, Israel would make itself responsible for whatever befalls the beleaguered Syrian Druze community, including possibly mass executions by Islamic extremists for their unique faith.
Also taken into account is the proposal Tehran, Damascus and Hezbollah put before the Druzes this week: to build them an army and provide it with weapons, against a pledge never to raise arms against Syrian President Bashar Assad or his troops.
No other strings were tied to the offer. The Druze army would not be given any tasks other than to defend Jabal Druze and its hundreds of small towns and villages.
Druze acceptance of Tehran's proposition would have the effect of strengthening Iran's hold on Damascus and weakening the Syrian opposition forces fighting in the south, with no guarantees about where this equation would end up in terms of new threats to Israeli security.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon and IDF Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Gady Eisenkott, are being intensely lobbied by the leaders of Israel's Druze community, some of them high-ranking officers in IDF and Border Police units, to come to the aid of their distressed Syrian brethren. They hold up their valuable contribution to the Jewish state's national security as deserving of Israel's reciprocation to step up when their community is in peril.
No one is saying this, but the awareness is there that the many Druzes serving in Israeli combat units may decide to simply cross the Golan border and take up arms in defense of Jabal Druze.
The Syria community's plight is complicated by the sharp internal division among its leaders: One group urges taking up the Iranian offer; a second would rather join forces with the Syrian rebels; and a third, wants to stick to their long-held neutrality in the Syrian arena.
The Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, once accepted as such by the entire community, urges Jabal Druze inhabitants to throw in their lot with the rebel groups fighting to topple Assad.
Some Druze sources claim that Israel has promised admission to any fleeing Druze reaching the Golan border fence, an assurance also offered by Jordan. This is not confirmed by any official in either government.
However, it is hard to see how Israel can bar its border if thousands of Druze refugees were to stand at the fence and demand shelter - any more than Jordan could. This may still happen - even if Jerusalem and Amman were to decide to supply the Syrian Druzes with weapons.
Hezbollah battling IS on Syria-Lebanon border, Nasrallah says - http://www.timesofisrael.com/hezbollah-battling-is-on-syria-lebanon-border-nasrallah-says/
Terror group head says dozens of IS fighters, several Hezbollah men left dead in clashes, vows to see fight through
The head of Lebanon's Hezbollah movement announced Wednesday that the powerful Shiite militia had begun to fight the Islamic State jihadist group along the rugged Syrian-Lebanese border.
"The battle with Daesh in Qalamoun has begun, in the eastern (mountain) chain and on the Syrian-Lebanese border," Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech, referring to IS by its Arabic acronym.
He said fierce clashes had left dozens of IS fighters dead, and that Hezbollah had lost men, without specifying a number.
"They (IS) began the fighting, but we will continue the battle," Nasrallah said.
Hezbollah has intervened militarily in Syria on behalf of President Bashar Assad, saying it is protecting Lebanon from the threat of jihadists in the neighboring country.
IS has made a series of major gains in Syria and Iraq in recent months, one year after it declared an Islamic "caliphate" over areas under its control.
Nasrallah vowed Wednesday to see the fight with the jihadists through.
"I assure you that defeat will come to these men. It's a matter of time, and we are not in a hurry," he said.
Hezbollah's official television station al-Manar, which aired Nasrallah's remarks, had earlier broadcast video footage of bodies lying on rocky terrain, saying they were IS fighters.
"These are fighters' corpses and the spoils that the resistance (Hezbollah) has seized during clashes outside the town of Ras Baalbek," a town near Lebanon's border with Syria, the channel said.
Nasrallah said Wednesday that Syria's army and Hezbollah were in control of Qalamoun's major mountains and hills after defeating IS's jihadist rival and al-Qaeda's Syria branch, al-Nusra Front.
The joint Hezbollah-Syrian army offensive to clear the border area of rebel militias began about a month ago, and Nasrallah has included updates on the assault in numerous televised speeches since then.
Israel concerned about U.S. arms to Gulf states to deter Iran - http://news.yahoo.com/israel-concerned-u-arms-gulf-states-deter-iran-122848809.html
Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon voiced concern on Tuesday that Washington's supply of advanced arms to Gulf Arab states to deter Iran could eventually challenge Israel's U.S.-backed regional military supremacy.
"Even if there are not now any hostile designs (among them) against us, as we know in the Middle East intentions are liable to change. The capability will without a doubt be there and this must be prepared for," he said.
Setting the stage for talks later in the day with General Martin Dempsey, the head of the U.S. armed forces, Yaalon spoke at a security conference of a need to maintain Israel's "qualitative edge" as it seeks increased defense grants from Washington.
"The Gulf states are arming themselves, mainly with Western, American weaponry, in the understanding they will need defensive capabilities to contend with the new Iran situation," Yaalon said, referring to international talks on curbing Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
"This of course challenges us, too, and here there is enormous importance to preserving what is called the State of Israel's 'qualitative edge' in the face of this regional arms race," he said at the annual Herzliya strategic conference near Tel Aviv.
Washington uses "qualitative edge" as the rubric for ensuring Israel gets better U.S.-produced weaponry than its potential adversaries.
Israel, widely assumed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, sees the proposed Iranian nuclear deal as insufficient to deny Iran the means of making a bomb.
It says that relief from sanctions would allow it to give more funds to Shi'ite allies battling Sunni Arabs in various parts of the region. Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful.
But Gulf Arab leaders share Israel's concern and U.S. President Obama pledged on May 14 that in the event of a threat to them, the United States would consider using military force for their defense.
Many Gulf states already have sophisticated U.S. weapons in their arsenals are along with Washington are looking into the possibility of upgrading their missile defense, cybersecurity and counter-terrorism capabilities.
Netanyahu: Palestinians Setting a 'Perfect Trap' for Israel - http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/196424#.VXW-YpuUDSd
The PA is deliberately refusing to negotiate in order to portray Israel as the aggressors, PM states in meeting with Czech Republic FM
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with Czech Republic Foreign Minister Lubomír Zaorálek on Monday, shortly after the latter told Israeli media that he would push for Israel to pursue resuming peace talks to take advantage of strategic partnerships with neighboring Arab countries.
"We have a deep friendship between our peoples, between the Czech people and the Jewish people," Netanyahu began. "It goes back a thousand years."
"It goes back also 67 years when we were fighting for our independence, and we'll never forget the timely and invaluable assistance from the Czech people as we were fighting for our very life," Netanyahu added, referring to vital Czech arms provided to the nascent Jewish state when others refused to help.
"We have since established relations," he continued. "We have two robust, vibrant democracies that are cooperating with each other, and this visit is an expression of that cooperation, including the working holiday agreement that we have just concluded, which I think will enable Israeli students to get to know the Czech Republic better and Czech students to get to know Israel better, and to earn a living while they're doing that, which I think is a very nice idea."
Netanyahu added that, in his view, the two countries have shared values.
"I think we have an enhanced partnership," he said. "It is reflected and is developed through meetings like this, but also through G2G meetings that we regularly do."
"And I for one would like to carry this to another plane, because we're moving into a technological world, and the world belongs to those who can create competitive advantage by adding value to their products and services," he noted. "There's only one way to add value to products and services as your wages rise, and that is by technology."
"The Czech Republic has technology. Israel has technology, lots of it," he continued. "Together, we'll have more of it for the betterment of our peoples, and for the prosperity of all."
The Prime Minister then addressed the purpose behind the meeting: a discussion of regional issues.
"Our goal is prosperity, peace and security," he said. "That's a difficult order in the Middle East which sees states collapsing before our eyes."
"Syria no longer exists; Iraq no longer exists; Libya no longer exists; Yemen no longer exists," he continued. "And every one of those places that collapses sees the emergence of militant Islam, either the Shi'ite variety led by Iran or the Sunni variety at the moment led by Daesh, by ISIS, and of course with its Sunni competitors."
"In this environment, Israel wants to achieve a durable peace," he declared. "This peace means that we do not want to see a repetition of what happened in Gaza, what happened in Lebanon."
"We left Lebanon - Hezbollah came in. We left Gaza - Hamas came in. Both are supported by Iran."
"We cannot afford to have that happen a third time," he warned. "But we don't want a single unitary state. We want two states for two peoples: a Jewish state, a Jewish nation state - Israel, living in peace with a demilitarized Palestinian state."
Netanyahu noted, however, that the current situation does not engender that vision.
"Unfortunately, the Palestinians don't negotiate," he said. "They ran away from negotiations. They ran away from [former Prime Ministers Ehud] Barak; they ran away from [Ariel] Sharon; they ran away from [Ehud] Olmert; they ran away from me."
This, he said, is intentional.
"It's a perfect trap, Foreign Minister," he said. "What they do is they refuse to negotiate, refuse to deal with the framework of John Kerry, in the White House, run to Hamas, which calls for our destruction, go to the UN and try to get sanctions on Israel."
"They refuse to negotiate and then try to get boycotts on Israel for there not being negotiations which they refuse to enter," he added. "Catch 22."
"And Israel is being blamed. There is talk of labeling products on Israel, there's talk of UN Security Council resolution demands on Israel. This will push peace further and further back. Because why should the Palestinians negotiate when the UN will give them everything without negotiations?"
"I think this cycle has to be stopped," Netanyahu urged. "I think we have to get back to direct negotiations without preconditions. I think it's important that the international community stop giving the Palestinians a free pass. They're engaging in BDS, which calls for the elimination of Israel."
Netanyahu rejected any arguments legitimizing the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement.
"People tell me, you know, the BDS movement really wants, all they want to do is get Israel back to the '67 borders," he stated. "Well, here's what one of the leaders of the BDS says: 'The real aim of BDS is to bring down the State of Israel. Justice and freedom for the Palestinians are incompatible with the existence of the State of Israel.'"
"BDS tries to conceal this bigoted agenda behind an elaborate smokescreen, and they exploit the language of human rights while they deny the right of the Jewish people to independence and sovereignty," he continued. "And I think this lie has to be exposed for what it is. It's a rejectionist extremist Palestinian position in which there is no room for Israel in any borders."
He then turned to Zaorálek directly.
"I know, Foreign Minister, that you stand with me in opposition to this extremist agenda," he said. "I want you to know that we are committed to a solution of two states for two peoples."
"We are committed to negotiations. It's about time that the focus was placed on the Palestinians and they should be told: 'Are you committed to a solution of two states for two peoples? Are you committed to open-ended negotiations, that is, without preconditions? Are you committed to peace?'"
"We are committed to peace. We hope they will be too. And if we negotiate we might actually get it."
"I look forward to discussing these and many other issues," he concluded.
Another rocket attack challenges Israel's military planners to tackle ISIS and Hezbollah inroads in Gaza - http://www.debka.com/article/24650/Another-rocket-attack-challenges-Israel's-military-planners-to-tackle-ISIS-and-Hizballah-inroads-in-Gaza
The IDF's automatic air strikes Saturday night, June 6, against Hamas training camps evacuated in advance - following the third rocket attack from the Gaza Strip in two weeks - indicated that Israel had run out of answers for the new escalation less than a year after last summer's war. This time, after a rocket struck Ashkelon, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon also shut the Kerem Shalom and Erez border crossings, except for "humanitarian traffic" and only temporarily "until the security situation settled down."
But Israeli officials have carefully avoided fingering "Islamic State" or "Al Qaeda" as responsible for the rocket fire - referring only to "rogue organizations locked in a power struggle with the ruling Hamas." Israel continues to name Hamas as the only destination for reprisals. Indeed, Amos Gilead, politic coordinator at the Defense Ministry, stated in the Meet the Press radio broadcast Saturday: "Our deterrence is powerfully effective. Hamas understands this and is doing everything it can to prevent the [rocket] fire."
Three hours later, red alert sirens sounded across Ashkelon and the Lachish districts, warning civilians to run for shelter to avoid casualties.
Israel has vowed zero tolerance and a swift response to any repetition of the rocket raids that threatens to keep a large populace in shelters for yet another summer. But the truth is that Hamas has no answer for ISIS's descent on the Gaza Strip, any more than the rest of the Middle East to the Islamists' inroads on Syria, Iraq and Egypt.
Months ago, the "Omar Haddad Platoons", which claimed the last three rockets attacks, and other extremist Salafi groups operating in the Gaza Strip, hooked up with neighboring Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi as the "Sinai Province of the Islamic State."
This organization is now run by ISIS officers smuggled through Jordan into Egyptian Sinai and across the Rafah border into the Palestinian Gaza Strip.
The Islamic State is not the only terrorist group to have infiltrated its officers to Gaza. The Iranian-backed Shiite Hezbollah followed a similar route from Lebanon.
DEBKfiile's military and intelligence sources report that Hezbollah officers in the Gaza Strip have established a new pattern in Yemen and Iraq - and now in the Gaza Strip, where it has formed a new Palestinian militia of dissident Islamic Jihad factions at odds with the group's leadership which has fallen out with its sponsors in Tehran.
It was this new militia which fired the long-range Grad missiles at Gan Yavne on May 27, while the Islamic State's "Omar Haddad" followers were responsible for the June 3 attack on Netivot and the rocket strike against Ashkelon Saturday. None caused casualties or damage.
However, the tiny Gaza Strip has acquired the dubious distinction of being the only patch of land in the Middle East where the Sunni ISIS and the Shiite Hezbollah terrorists operate simultaneously though separately against the same two declared foes: Hamas and Israel.
This situation is no less volatile than it is in Iraq, Syria or Lebanon given these groups' innate tendency to constantly change sides and escalate their violence. It cries out for both Israel and Egypt to step in without further delay.
Ashkelon mayor Itamar Shimoni said Saturday that Israel's government was facing "the moment of truth." Residents, he warned, would not be "held hostage" to internal Palestinian struggles and urged the government to curb the trickle of rocket fire before the situation deteriorated.
However, the situation facing Israel's military planners today is not the same as it was last summer. The terror infrastructure Hamas built over many years in Sinai has been taken over by ISIS, and its control of the Gaza Strip is slipping, as yet more radical and violent organizations eat away at its authority and seize control of the rocket offensive against Israel.
Bombing empty Hamas training centers is more than ever an exercise in futility. A repetition of summer's campaign against Hamas would not serve any useful purpose: ISIS and Hezbollah are a threat of a different order and will not be affected by this plan of operation.
Binyamin Netanyahu at the head of a new government, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon and the new Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gady Eisenkott are still looking for a formula for deterring the new adversaries.
There may be no easier options than to start from scratch with good intelligence on the new terrorist organizations and the use of special operations fighters for pinpointed raids of their strongholds and leaders. Building and planting a new infrastructure for this strategy takes time. Purely defensive tactics, including Iron Dome anti-rocket batteries, are not the answer. And indeed the batteries deployed Friday did not stop the rockets fired the next day.
BE SURE TO CHECK OUT MY ALL NEW PROPHECY AND CREATION DESIGN WEBSITES. THERE IS A LOT TO SEE AND DO..........
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.