IDF Operations Head: Threat posed by Iran is not 'fear-mongering'
Speaking to Finance Ministry's Budget Department Maj.-Gen. Aharon Haliva says next year won't be favorable to Israel
By ANNA AHRONHEIMA military vehicle carrying Iranian Zoobin smart bomb (L) and Sagheb missile under pictures of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (R) and Late Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini during a parade to commemorate the anniversary of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88), in Tehran September 22, 2011.(photo credit: REUTERS/STRINGER)
The head of the IDF’s Operations Directorate Maj.-Gen. Aharon Haliva warned Tuesday while asking for a budget increase that the next year will not be favorable to Israel’s security due to the increased threat posed by Iran.“All signs indicate that the next year has the potential to be a negative year from a security perspective,” Haliva was heard saying to the Finance Ministry’s Budget Department in remarks broadcast by the KAN radio.According to the remarks, Haliva is heard saying that the IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi said that Israel’s military has a new front in Iraq before he says there are Iranian Quds forces in the Golan Heights “and that’s not fear-mongering. They’re there.”According to Haliva, while the last few months have been “quiet and secure” for the citizens of Israel, “during those months and the months before that, we have been living in the most complicated from a security perspective and in how we are operating.”Israel has been carrying out a war-between-wars campaign since 2013 in an attempt to prevent Iran and its proxies including Hezbollah from obtaining advanced weapons to use against the Jewish state and from entrenching itself in Syria.But senior defense officials have warned in recent months of the increased threat posed by the Islamic Republic which they say is becoming bolder and more willing to respond to Israeli attacks on Iranian and Iranian-backed militias and infrastructure.According to Haliva, eight missiles were fired towards Israel’s Golan Heights hours after a reported strike “far from Israel’s borders” attributed to the Jewish State during a general staff exercise but “to our luck none crossed into our territory.”“There are threats to our north, east and south,” Haliva continued, adding that fronts are more and more connected, explaining that the day after rockets were fired towards the Golan Heights, another rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip towards Ashkelon during an election campaign speech by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.Haliva then mentioned the “sophisticated” attack on the Saudi Arabian Aramco oil facilities “that managed to evade both American and Saudi defenses” as an example of what Iran is capable of.“Who says it can’t happen to us?”Last week Israel Air Force Commander Maj.-Gen. Amikam Norkin said that the “challenge of air defense has become more complicated. Joining the threat of missiles and rockets are now attack drones and cruise missiles.”He warned that Israel’s missile defense systems, the Arrow, Patriot, David’s Sling and Iron Dome batteries have been placed on alert.Hebrew language media warned several days earlier a series of adjustments had been made to IAF air defense systems in light of the fear that Iran might try to carry out an attack using cruise missiles or suicide drones similar to the October attack against Saudi Arabia.
