Netanyahu and his new Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces quoted today:
AFP - The Israeli military is "ready for all eventualities" as the Arab and Muslim world undergoes "an earthquake," Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday just days after Egypt's regime collapsed.
"An earthquake is shaking the whole Arab world and a large part of the Muslim world and we don't yet know how these things will turn out," the premier said at a swearing-in ceremony for new army chief Major General Benny Gantz.
Tsk, Tsk...politicians...
------------------------------------------------
Another Israeli website known for behind the scenes military analysis, debka.com:
"Friday night, Feb. 11, as Cairo's Tahrir Square rejoiced over Hosni Mubarak exit, Israel counted the cost of losing its most important strategic partner in the region.
Thirty-two years of peace with Egypt leave Israel militarily unprepared for the unknown and unexpected on their 270-kilometer long southern border: the current generation of Israeli combatants and commanders has no experience of desert combat, its armor is tailored for operation on its most hostile fronts: Iran, Lebanon's Hizballah and Syria; it is short of intelligence on the Egyptian army and its commanders and, above all, no clue to the new rulers' intentions regarding Cairo's future relations with Israel and security on their Sinai border."
[But other than that, Israel's military is "ready for all eventualities"...-HM]
"The Israeli Defense Forces are trained and equipped to confront Iran and fight on the mountainous terrain of Lebanon and Syria. After signing peace with Egypt in 1979, Israel scrapped the combat brigades trained for desert warfare, whose last battle was fought in the 1973 war, and stopped treating the Egyptian army as a target of military intelligence. Israel's high command consequently knows little or nothing about any field commanders who might lead units if they were to be deployed in Sinai."
Si vis pacem para bellum, General Gantz...
Israel may have been "at peace" with Egypt, but can you really think they would scrap all ability to respond to their south if it became necessary? Did Israel spend years training for a fight in the Sinai before getting jumped in the Six Days War? Hardly. Even if most of their experienced desert fighters are retired, I know that the IDF has trained with American units from Fort Irwin, and will do just fine if they have to fight in the Sinai again. Besides. We _are_ talking about the Egyptians, aren't we?
ReplyDeleteThe difficulty will be dealing with a strike from Egypt while it is accompanied by incursions from the North and East, as you know it will be. If Iran starts lobbing Scuds or other missiles at the same time, it could get hairy.