Israel watches with growing alarm Iran’s headlong rush to acquire nuclear weapons. The Islamic Republic apparently has enriched sufficient uranium to a weapons-grade level of 80%, and could, if it chose, make a bomb “within 12 days.” Additional time — weeks or possibly months — would be needed to make it deliverable as a warhead on a missile. A senior IDF general was recently in Washington to argue for more American support – presumably, both weapons and diplomatic backing — for Israel, should it feel compelled to attach Iran’s nuclear program before a bomb is actually produced. More on that visit can be found here: “Israel seeks US support for IDF buildup as expert predicts Iran strike,” by Tovah Lazaroff, Jerusalem Post, April 13, 2023:
A top defense official sought United States support to bolster IDF forces as a security expert on Thursday predicted that Israel might have to strike Iran within the year to halt its nuclear program.
“We held important meetings to promote significant projects focused on force buildup in the face of emerging security challenges – first and foremost, the Iranian nuclear program,” Defense Ministry Director-General Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Eyal Zamir said.
He spoke after a meeting with US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl in Washington, which took place as Israel remains in danger of an immediate war on one or all of three borders – Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria – after rockets were launched during the last week against Israel from all three fronts.
The IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate informed the upper echelon on Thursday that Israel was closer to war than to a restoration of calm, according to a report in Walla.
KAN News reported that the IDF is strengthening its air defense systems throughout the country, but that in an unusual way, it was orienting Iron Dome batteries in the direction of Lebanon and Syria, rather than keeping them focused more [sic] primarily on Gaza.
Hamas in Gaza does not possess anything like the arsenal of 140,000 rockets that Hezbollah has in Lebanon; Hamas rockets launched from Gaza have yet to kill a single Israeli, and given that Israel needs to husband its Iron Dome batteries, it makes sense to concentrate them on the much greater threat from Hezbollah in Lebanon, and from both Hezbollah and IRGC forces located on bases in Syria
Former national security adviser Maj.-Gen. Yaakov Amidror warned against the dangers that Israel faced, both from Iran and from its two northern borders of Syria and Lebanon, in an interview he gave to Radio 103FM.
“We need to prepare for the war” for which the main component of the preparation would be the ability to execute a long-distance attack, Amidror said, adding that this was particularly important with respect to Iran.
Since Israeli planes would be used to bomb nuclear sites in Iran, the IAF would have to be supplied with refueling tankers in order for those planes to fly all the way to Iran and back. After several years of making requests to Washington, and being turned down, and then, when negotiations for a sale were finally entered into, having to endure more months of delays, Israel was finally able to get the Americans to agree, in September 2022, to sell them four American KC-46A Pegasus refueling tankers. But they haven’t been delivered yet, and speeding up delivery of those tankers was undoubtedly part of the discussion between Major-General Zamir and Colin Zahl.
“It could be that within the next year, we would get to the point where we would have to strike Iran to stop its nuclear program,” Amidror stated.
Israel would do this, even if it had to act alone without the United States, the former national security adviser said, explaining that it would likely receive arms and funding from Washington. The IDF has never relied on US involvement in such a strike and has planned to resolve its own security issues, he said.
“There is no need to change that” kind of self-reliance, Amidror explained.
It is important to the Israelis that they have never called on the United States to fight for it. Money, and weapons – yes, those have been requested, but no American soldiers or airmen have ever been asked to fight for, or alongside, the Jewish state. Israel remains sturdily reliant on its own military.
He also warned against a pending war with the Iranian proxy group Hezbollah in Lebanon.
There would be a lot of damage to the home front in such a war with the Lebanese terrorist group, Amidror said.
Hezbollah has a vast arsenal of 140,000 rockets, hidden all over southern Lebanon within civilian areas. They are ready to be launched into the northern Galilee, opening up another front, and inflicting enormous damage as a way to deflect IDF and IAF resources away from Iran, and complicating Israeli efforts to concentrate on devastating those underground nuclear sites at Natanz and Fordow.
These are “two completely different wars,” but for each one, the IDF has to be “very well prepared” given that they could break out in the next year, he explained.
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