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How Israel Can Deter Iran

(Ha'aretz) Benny Morris - Hizbullah is said to have 130,000 rockets that could reach all of Israel, with Hamas possessing thousands of rockets that could cover southern and central Israel, including the Tel Aviv area. A possible third front in the Golan Heights could involve an Iranian force made up of Revolutionary Guards and militias under Tehran's control. But there may be a way to avert the scenario of a multi-front war with one simple and blunt statement. The Israeli government should declare tomorrow, immediately, publicly and unequivocally, that if Iran's proxies forced Israel into an all-out war, for any reason, with a massive rocket barrage, Israel would respond immediately and forcefully against Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, Bushehr, Natanz, Qom and Iran's other population centers and strategic targets. Iran would understand that it would pay dearly for an assault on Israel by its proxies. The fear of such a massive Israeli reprisal would make Iran's leaders think very carefully about whether they should dispatch Hizbullah and Hamas and their proxies in Syria on any adventures. Israel's ability to strike Iran is much greater than Iran's ability to strike Israel. And in such a conflict, there is no reason to believe that Tehran would wish to add the U.S. as an active combatant against it. The writer is a former professor of history at Ben-Gurion University.
2019-08-19 00:00:00
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