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Source: https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-718054
How to Understand the Iranian Threat
(Jerusalem Post) Dore Gold - Recently, the head of the IDF General Staff's Strategy and Third-Circle Directorate, who is also an Israeli F-35 pilot, discussed in an interview his analysis of the current Iranian military buildup. "A regional superpower is emerging next to us, which constitutes the main threat to the State of Israel and challenges the Israeli security approach many years ahead." He spoke about "a dramatic leap forward in its military capability." Iran wants to remake the Middle East. It had dispatched Shi'ite proxy armies to Syria, with their families, in order to reconfigure the demography of the region as it aspired to convert Syria into a Shi'ite state. It used similar techniques elsewhere, working to expand the Shi'ite population of eastern Turkey. Syria is emerging as part of Iran's strategic system for the region. Iran is using Syria as a location for new missile production facilities, especially long-range, precision-guided missiles. The Iranians have a historical tradition connecting them to Syria and surrounding states. When Shi'ism was established as the state religion in Persia by the Safavid dynasty in 1501, the Safavid Empire included what is today Iran, Iraq and large parts of Syria. Contesting the action of an aggressor is a military mission above all. But it is also a diplomatic operation that must be pursued in parallel. The next Israeli government will have no choice but to act more intensely and consistently in this regard. The writer is president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.