IDF CHIEF: IRAN'S STRIKE ON ISIS NOT AS IMPRESSIVE AS THEY CLAIMED
BY
YONAH JEREMY BOB
JUNE 20, 2017 22:22
Eisenkot rejects politicized criticism of IDF regarding new Palestinian housing.
IDF chief of staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot . (photo credit:MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Iran's missile strike on ISIS in Syria earlier this week was not as impressive as Iran claimed, IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot said on Tuesday.
"Their achievement was less than what was reported in the media. The strike manifested something, but it was far from a direct hit or what they have said," Eisenkot told the Herzliya Conference.
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He said that Iran is striving "to get more accurate rockets" which is "all part of their push for hegemony" in the region.
Regarding the ISIS June 7 terror attacks in Tehran which brought about Iran's Sunday retaliatory missile strike on ISIS, the IDF chief said "the terror attacks were possibly part of the price for Iran's interventions in Sunni states, with ISIS and with al-Nusra."
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Moving on to the Iran nuclear deal which Eisenkot has previously said has the positive effect of giving Israel a breather from the Iranian nuclear threat, he warned that the breather is only for a "short period.”
“The world must keep Iran from becoming the next North Korea. It must work hard to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon."
He said, “Iran feels its regional power giving Hezbollah $800 million per year…and $70 million per year to Gaza.”
Eisenkot also briefly waded into the massive political battle that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, Education Minister Naftali Bennett and others have been fighting over the cabinet approving thousands of new housing units for Palestinians in Area C of the West Bank.
With some on the Right attacking the IDF for facilitating the new Palestinian units, Eisenkot declared unequivocally that the, “IDF must remain the army of the nation,” rejecting “criticism which has not been substantive,” but expressing a readiness to “absorb and learn from…criticism which is substantive.”
Next and despite an extensive discussion of Iran, Eisenkot emphasized that, “Hezbollah is the greatest threat to Israel. It has built tens of thousands of rockets…also it has received advanced Russian weapons…Every four to five houses in South Lebanon hides” weapons.
He also connected Qatar’s expulsion of elements of Hamas to potentially negatively impacting Hezbollah and Lebanon. He warned Lebanon from giving Hamas another perch for troubling Israel. Eisenkot said that Lebanon should remember the internal chaos and Israel’s intervention in Lebanon decades ago after Palestinian terrorists were expelled from Jordan, made their way to Lebanon and increased attacks on Israel from Lebanese territory.
Analyzing the current dilemma facing Israel as it and the Palestinian Authority pressure Hamas in Gaza by reducing how much electricity it receives, he said, “we have an interest in Gaza having 24 hours of electricity per day,” but also do not want to pay for electricity which Hamas uses to attack Israel.
Eisenkot also surveyed a number of other security challenges and mentioned that Israel’s defense doctrine and technologies against rockets and tunnel threats were the most advanced in the world.
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/ID...ISIS-not-as-impressive-as-they-claimed-497455
