WikiLeaks quotes IDF chief: Iran could hit Israel within 12 minutes
Gabi Ashkenazi told U.S. officials in 2009 that Israel was preparing for war against Hamas, Hezbollah and that rocket threat against Israel is 'more serious than ever.'
By Haaretz Service Tags: Hamas Hezbollah Iran Gabi Ashkenazi IDF Israel newsIsrael Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi reportedly said in 2009 that Israel would have only between 10 and 12 minutes of warning in the event of an Iranian missile attack, AFP on Sunday quoted leaked U.S. cables as saying.
According to the cable authored by the American embassy in Tel Aviv, Lieutenant General Ashkenazi told the American delegation led by Missourian Congressman Ike Skelton that Iran possesses some 300 Shihab rockets that are capable of reaching Israel within minutes, leaving Israel with very little time to mount an effective defense.
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A Saegheh ground-to-sea missile is fired by Iran's Revolutionary Guard during a military maneuver, April 25, 2010. |
| Photo by: AP |
Despite the danger that Iran poses to Israel, the cable states that Ashkenazi was more worried about the military capabilities of fighting forces closer to home, specifically Hamas, which controls Gaza, on Israel's western border, and Hezbollah, which maintains a strong military presence in southern Lebanon, on Israel's northern border.
According to the French news agency AFP, Ashkenazi's statements were published in an article in the Norwegian-language newspaper Aftenposten, which has access to all of the U.S. embassy cables released by WikiLeaks.
Ashkenazi is supposed to have also told the American delegation on November 15, 2009 that Israel was preparing for a large-scale war with Hamas or Hezbollah.
"I am preparing the Israeli army for a large scale war, since it is easier to scale down to a smaller operation than to do the opposite," Ashkenazi said. "The rocket threat against Israel is more serious than ever. That is why Israel is putting such emphasis on rocket defense."
Ashkenazi said that he believes Hezbollah to possess 40,000 rockets, while U.S. officials put the number at closer to 50,000 rockets. "Hamas will have the possibility to bombard Tel Aviv, with Israel's highest population concentration," Ashkenazi reportedly said.
Although approximately 1400 Palestinians, many of them civilians, were killed during Operation Cast Lead, Israel's incursion into the Gaza Strip in December 2008, Ashkenazi vowed that the next round of fighting in Gaza would entail an even greater cost in human life, saying that Israel would not again accept "any restrictions on warfare in populated areas."
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And even without any blunder, misinterpretation or off-target shelling,even so it is impossible for Israel to defende herself in an 100% surgical way, that is guaranteed. It's sad, it's aggravating, and it's what Iran through its proxies are forcing Israel to confront.
Not for israel not for its multiple enemies either. Every side is well prepared for the D-Day. If Israel beleives that it can win the net war in33 days, it will be making a fatal mistake. The next war will involve in a direct way, Hizbollah and eventually Hamas, supported actively be Iran and Syria and indirectly morally supported by Turkey and some European countries and most likely Russia and China. America will put all its weight to pass fresh U.N. resolution but it will not be easy. If this coming war does take place and hope not. It will be followed by major changes in the M.E. Egypt and Jordan will be shaken hard as they will be perceived as supportive of Israel and the Islamists will make major gains. The other wild card is Iraq, Which side it will take. It might open its borders for the passage of the Iranian national guards. Let us wait and see.
in the first gulf war, israel should have said that any missile coming from iraq will be considered nuclear, and will be retaliated in a similar way before it hits the ground. (and also should have followed through). if they had done so, there would be no issue with missiles today because the arabs would understand the threat still stood. BUT - it can still be done. we do not know if Iran has nukes. it is very likely that they have at some point purchased them from n. korea. Thus, israel MUST announce that in the case of any missiles coming from Iran, israel will assume they are nuclear and respond accordingly (ie nuke back). A public announcement to rattle the news will make the concept of launching long range missiles from iran a much scarier prospect for the iranians.
in order to fool the Americans 12 minutes is nonsensical, there's nothing that can travel from Iran to Israel in 12 minutes let alone he's been dismissed and we know how loosy he's been in his office
Anything less than 12min, then Iran should be more afraid of Israel. Syria,Lebanon, Gaza will have less than 3 min, they should be really afraid.,
They would obviously not launch a major attack from their homeland. However they would obviously launch one from Lebanon, and it is clear they are preparing for that. The question is how dependent the pending attack from Lebanon is on Iran.
Yet another example of how top Israelis have the chutzpah to argue in public that international law doesn't apply to them. Well, in this case you've publicly stated you intent so if you do target civilians, you will be indicted as a war criminal.
Israel was less than five minutes from thermonuclear annihilation by six P-5 missiles onboard a Soviet Project 659 missile submarine.
Iran is the current bogeyman presented to Israeli society. In the past, it has been Iraq, Hizbollah, suicide bombers, Arafat, etc. It is always someone or something. Israelis feel comfortable in the "victim" role. Much less so in their role as conqueror and occupier. To give credibility to this role, Israel needs Iran to be posed to launch a nuclear strike on Israel. Never mind that Iran has no nuclear bombs and no history of starting wars, Israelis have the enviable talent of believing anything they want to believe no matter what the facts.
As Mark Lincoln points out, this cable is CODEL. These are the usual Israeli scare tactics, fed into the veins of vane US Congressmen knowing full well they will be blindly believed. Israel will continue to confiscate Palestinian private property and national Palestinian land. Don't you worry one bit.
Wikileaks: 'Iran can attack Israel within 10-12 minutes.' Sounds like the rubbish the UK Parliament was told about Saddam Hussein and the 45 minute warning - we were told - before Iraq's missiles carrying WMDs would start to rain down on London. Absolute rubbish and military spin in the run-up to war.
Nothing is new under the sun. Terrorists continue to terrorize.
"It's not 1967 anymore" But the wheel has been turning round,& in a little while it will have rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreached
maybe according to your leftist idea we should give away more than half of stradegic land of israel to prevent it is that right
That the Settlements offer a defense against Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles? See you psychiatrists if you are.
You should give back all the occupied land. "The strategic land of israel" is a fiction used to mask the occupation and the settlers' greed.
and the alternative is what Gideon, to forge ahead with more land theft and dispossessions? I'm just curious.
Making peace with the Palestinians will be lest costly and threatening to Israel than not. The consequences of war, in the North, South, or East will fall much more heavily on a small nation like Israel.
Say what??
has this got to do with the falklands
Seeking peace won't solve all of Israels problems, but it will begin a process which, in the end will solve many of Israels problems. The main issue will be to regain the confidence and goodwill of the international community. Israel cannot stand alone against their enemies, but that is the road Israel is on at the moment. There are still those in Israel that believe that all their problems can be solved by killing people. Apparently they did not notice that this philosophy has gotten Israel where it is today, and, in fact, this is producing ever diminishing returns. Although Israel has profitted so far by avoiding peace, the time is near when Israel will profit by seeking peace. It seems unlikely that Israelis will grasp this concept.
You assume that Israel is the one holding up the peace process. Last time I looked, Israel has a long history of negotiating for peace with its neighbors and permanently giving up land for it (sometimes in exchange for nothing).
Israel wants peace, its hamas, hezbollah that dont want peace.
On the occassions Israel "negotiated for peace", this was because they were forced into it by America. Nothing ever came of such negotiations. If you are referring to the Gaza withdrawal, that had nothing to do with peace. Sharon clearly stated when he evacuated the Gaza settlements, it was for security reasons. The small number of Gaza settlers (less than 10k) required a disproportionatly large number of IDF security. Even with this larger security the Gaza settlers were more at risk. In evacuating the Gaza settlements, Israel gave up no land or control. Gaza became a big open air prison camp with IDF as the gate guards. There were some greenhouses which were sold to the Palestinians, but they were given nothing. Israel has never, ever, in a million years "given" anytyhing to the Palestinians. This is not Israels style.
How can you make peace with that which is not interested in it?
Palestinians don't want peace either
I
Read what EU rep Moratinos said about Taba. Read what Prince Bandar had to say. You seem like a person who is literate; therefore ingorance is no excuse
Iran threaten Israel very existence. What land does ISrael have that belongs to Iran..NONE. irAN THREATENS because it can. Hamas threatens because it has not yet been crushed, Hizbullah threatens because a decisive war has not yet been fouhgt Same with Syria and Iran. All these state actors and non state actors threaten and want a war because they have yet to have a full scale war dropped on them. Israel will suffer its loses, but \Damascus, iran, Hizb and hamas will get a pasting the likes they never thought would happen. While Iran does not yet have nukes, Israel does, and that is a huge eq
Let's forget about the Islamic fundamentalists who want to wipe out the "infidels" of Israel for a moment. When we negotiate with Abbas, we negotiate with a man without authority. The neighboring Arab countries are run by dictators, or puppet democracies- like Lebanon. When our enemies realize we won't be slaughtered again as a people, and when our enemies live in real democracies- call me.
I have some anti-psychotic medications I would like to prescribe for you. The Jewish people have been without the goodwill of the international community for the past 2 millennia. What makes you think a peace agreement with the Palestinians would change anything? For example, despite dozens of requests to the UN to condemn Hamas' qassam rockets, the 'international community' only responded once Israel was required to take action on its own.
A long history of negotiating, but not actually making peace. Only the hated Jimmy Carter was able to bring Egypt and Israel together 30 years ago. Bill Clinton brought Jordan and Israel together 15 years ago. With those 2 threats "neutralized", Israel decided that settlements and occupation were more important than peace. You're move!
Israel has a long history of illegal settlements, forced evictions and blatant theft of Palestinian land. While this expanionism continues peace will remain elusive
Unless you agree to peace I will kill you threat is not going to work is it? Even if Israel did surrender on that basis then what do you think would happen next? The peace would not last because the ultimate aim is not peace but to eliminate Israel.
The Pals can accept the Jewish state and peace can prevail
Israel can return all stolen land, accept a Palestinian State and peace can prevail.
What are you talking about? You must live on another planet! Hamas is calling for the destruction of the Jewish state, launching rockets constantly on civilian territory. What about the Palestinians behavior makes you think this is true? There is absolutely no basis what-so-ever for your comment. Utter ridiculousness.
accepted the nation of Israel. Can you imagine your PM would be urging negotiations with the PA if they hadn't?
It takes also 10 to 12 minutes to deliver many atomic and hydrogen bombs to Iran, and they dont have any defenses for that, the only thing they have are the missiles they bought from Korea and China. it it two ways.
Unfortunately, many of their defenses are suffering a viral infection. And chicken soup won't help!
Those gripped in paranoid delusions ignore the reality that those running Iran do not wish to be incinerated.
The term CODEL stands out as a warning. CODEL means Congressional Delegation. Congressional delegations are folks taking a tour on the expense account and mending political fences. They are fed what they want to hear, and what Israel wants heard. Often nothing but twaddle, pablum and propaganda. One should also understand that Ike Skelton was just defeated by a member of the religious right who's competence is composed of being a former High School home economics teacher. Such is the caliber of America's House of Representatives. Mr. Ashkenazi of course was citing the performance of a missile which is not operational, has no significant warhead and is not particularly accurate. . . . but at least Ashkenazi is educated enough to comprehend ballistics and is aware of the warning time that US DSP satellites could provide. he is also aware that such a Iranian Shehab-3 launch would be within the capabilities of Israeli Arrow II block 3 interceptors as was proven in 2005. That was 4 years before Ashkenazi chose to thrill Ike Skelton with his tale of imminent peril. One must put on a good show for the visiting VIPs.
may suit your agenda but not the reality. Israel stands in the way of Shiite domination of the ME,spoils your story does'nt it.
Did the army thugs feel like they had any restrictions during the bloody and violent 'operation Cast Lead'? They were backed by the war criminals policitician leaders at the time. This statement is awfully cynical if understood as an assessement of that operation, and actually consitute a threat of a tabula rasa in Gaza. Shame.
by saying "someone else did bad things too". So it's ok for me to kill someone because someone in my town is a murderer? Whatever you need to tell yourself to justify your slaughter of civilians, but it's still murder.
The guy who chose the target teaches college now. The Embassy was ringed with Barbed Wire and looked military.
This is why Israel MUST give up it's Nuclear weapons. How else can Iran destroy it without committing suicide in the process?
Sorry it still doesn't makes any sense to you .Your logic is reversed. "This is why Israel will never give up her WMD" If Israel falls then the rest of the ME will fall with her. Thats a given you can take it to the bank
There is no left to speak of following the betrayal and actions of the Palestinians, just right, extreme right and central.
... while living on stolen Pal territory...
Israel has an army and is it clearly identifiable (uniforms). Therefore Israel must restrict itself only to the same restrictions that her enemies will use - that is to say - if they attack Tel avis - civilian area - targettin civilian population, then Irael should respond in ther same way wilth all her force. Hamas knows very well what it will get back if the hit Tel Aviv, so don't then cry about proportionality.
Declaring in advance that you are going to commit war-crimes will not beaccepted as an excuse at The Hague.
Give up territorial ambitions in Golan and Palestine and rockets become neutralized ( Gaza withdrawal doesnt count since it wasn't a withdrawal as much as making it a prison)
Iran doesn't give a damn about the palestinians or Syria. Now and again they make occasional excuses but if Israel did do all those things Iran would not make peace. Iran wants to be the 21st century ruler of the region which is why they are investing so heavily in their military and developing nukes. The Gulf states are terrified of Iran but even they don't pretend that it has anything to do with the Israel / arab conflict. There are no peace plans on the table for dealing with Iran so peace is not an option. These are two different conflicts and require different solutions.
There is simply no evidence to support your claim of 'give up something' and Arabs will stop attacking you. They've been attacking Israel (and Jews before Israel) as far as one can remember (look up Hebron massacre of 1929 for example). This notion that attacks started after 1967 'occupation' is simply a lie.
Has a range of 80-250km. Who is going to carry it the last 1500 km? Can they run fast enough to deliver it in 11 minutes? What was their sprint times in the last Olympics?
mossad better have agents that are tracking the family of iran leader at all times. make it clear that they will all suffer horrible deaths if israel is attacked. wont be as simple as a bomb or a bullet like with the olympic terrorists.
to react to Russian missiles. Plenty of time to go and headbang the wailing wall
This time around the US President is not the type to ract strongly and protect the Brits like the US has for over 150 years.
We already have only like 60 seconds warning if Hamas attacks. Thank you Hamas for keeping us trained!
is a euphemism for attacking and killing civilians...
they are all combatants
When the Hamas murderers launch a war against Israel's civilians from their own civilian areas, they shouldn't expect immunity. They will all get what they deserve if they start another war, and all the Goldstones jumping up and down won't help them.
No civilians? That cuts both ways. In fact, they are not all combatants and anyone harming civilians without due attention to GC 4 and other Rules of War is likely to be tried at The Hague for war-crimes.
There are more people killed in the USA every year from fireworks that the GREAT THREAT caused by candy rockets fire by the hamasses
Neighbouring?
Ashkenazi is talking about the IDF adopting the Hamas Code of Ethics since morality is inconsistent with IDF practices any more.
So 12 minutes , that's mean just the time to go to toilet drink and go to Mamad not to go to keep your child to school . Just one more reason to make peace quickly with the pals Mr. Prime Minister, let isolate Iran and Hamas .
lets nuke them first and be completely done with them
They are such nice friendly people.
Israel get send out several missiles into iran during the 12 minute wait.