Israeli general plots war with Iran
By Harry de Quetteville
LONDON SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
Published August 27, 2006
JERUSALEM -- Israel has appointed a top general to oversee a war against
Iran, prompting speculation that it is preparing for possible military
action against Tehran's nuclear program.
Maj. Gen. Elyezer Shkedy, Israel's air force chief, will be overall
commander for the "Iran front," military sources told the London Sunday
Telegraph.
News of the appointment comes just days before a United Nations
deadline expires for Iran to give up its nuclear program, which Western
governments fear will be used to produce atomic weapons. Despite Iran's
offer last week to engage in "serious talks" on the matter, Israel fears
even more than other Western nations that the offer is simply to buy
time for Tehran to secure all the technology it needs to build the bomb.
"Israel is becoming extremely concerned now with what they see as
Iran's delaying tactics," said Israeli Iran analyst Meir Javedanfar.
"[The planners] think negotiations are going nowhere, and Iran is
becoming a major danger for Israel. Now they are getting ready for
living with a nuclear Iran or letting the military take care of it."
The prospect of Israel "living with" a nuclear Iran appears remote.
Last week, Giora Eiland, Israel's former national security adviser, told
reporters that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would "sacrifice
half of Iran for the sake of eliminating Israel."
Mr. Ahmadinejad "has a religious conviction that Israel's demise is
essential to the restoration of Muslim glory, that the Zionist thorn in
the heart of the Islamic nations must be removed," Mr. Eiland said.
Gen. Shkedy, who was appointed to the role two months ago, will
coordinate intelligence gathered by Israel's foreign spy agency Mossad
and military sources, in order to draw up battle plans. Then, during any
war with Iran, he will command the campaign from a "hot seat" in the
Israeli army's headquarters in Tel Aviv.
"It's natural that Shkedy is nominated to this role, because the
air force is Israel's only force that can reach and sustain a military
operation against Iran," said Uri Dromi, a former air force colonel and
military analyst.
"Everyone is playing with dates and time frames, but the list of
options is becoming shorter," he added. "I think we have one year open
[to launch military action]. Israel will have to decide."
Officially, Israel stresses that it does not want to take the lead
in tackling Iran and that a massive campaign of air strikes would be
best led by the United States, which has forces in Iraq that are much
closer to Iranian targets.
Gen. Shkedy's appointment to the Iran command role was made by
Israel's chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, in the run-up to this
summer's Lebanon war but emerged only last week.
Gen. Shkedy, 49, is the son of Holocaust survivors and has a
picture in his office of an Israeli F-15 flying over Auschwitz.
The father of three makes no bones about the Iranian threat to Israel.
"Ahmadinejad is trying with all his might to reach a nuclear
capability. There's no argument about his intentions," he said in an
interview two months ago, about the time of his appointment.
"This ... nuclear weaponry can come to constitute an existential
threat to Israel and the rest of the world. My job is to maximize our
capabilities in every respect. Beyond that, in this case, the less said
the better."
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