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Israeli Security Officials Warn of Looming Iranian Threat
(Israel Hayom) Yoav Limor - Israel's political-defense echelon is speaking with one voice about the threat posed by Iran. Despite the multiple blows to Iran's interests by Israel's "campaign between the wars," the downing of the American drone and the attacks on Saudi oil facilities (along with Iran's persistent progress on the nuclear track) have shown that Tehran is actually upping its ante. Iran is increasingly audacious in the Gulf, and we can only assume it will act the same against Israel. Over the past two years Iran attempted to attack Israel four times. The current assessment is that Iranian strikes could be direct or, more likely, circuitous: from Syria or from Iraq; via terrorist attack, missile fire or drone strike, similar to the one in Saudi Arabia. Israel has good intelligence about Iran's plans, but it isn't perfect. Israel's physical defenses against these potential threats are solid, but not hermetic. The operational challenge posed by Iran is significant and requires special preparations in the immediate term. It also means Israel must prepare for the consequences: If it sustains a serious blow, Israel could respond on Iranian soil, and this could boil over into a multi-front campaign against Hizbullah, and perhaps elements in Syria and Gaza as well. We mustn't view all this as an indication of impending war. Israel can do quite a lot to prevent it: from intelligence-diplomatic efforts; to major preventative action to disrupt Iran's machinations and exact a steep price; to making Tehran understand that Israel is prepared to go all the way, so that the ayatollah regime knows it will pay dearly if Israel is harmed. The writer is a veteran journalist who has covered Israel's defense establishment for the last thirty years.