Shin Bet chief: Iran trying to hit Israeli targets in response to attacks on nuclear scientists
Yoram Cohen tells audience at a closed forum in Tel Aviv that Iran's Revolutionary Guards are working tirelessly to attack Israeli targets abroad in order to deter Israel.
By Barak Ravid Tags: Shin Bet Iran Iran nuclear Gaza Hamas Islamic Jihad Egypt West Bank Israeli Arab Israel settlements Palestinians Mahmoud AbbasIran is trying to strike Israeli targets around the world in a bid to stop the assassinations of its nuclear scientists, the head of the Shin Bet security service, Yoram Cohen, said Thursday.
Lecturing at a closed forum in Tel Aviv, Cohen said that Iran believes Israel is behind the attacks on its nuclear experts, which have killed four scientists since November 2010. "It doesn't matter if it's true or not that Israel took out the nuclear scientists," Cohen said. "A major, serious country like Iran cannot let this go on. They want to deter Israel and extract a price so that decision makers in Israel think twice before they order an attack on an Iranian scientist."
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Shin Bet head Yoram Cohen |
| Photo by: Nir Keidar |
Cohen said Iran was working very hard abroad through the Iranian Revolutionary Guards to hit Israeli targets.
"Over the past year three serious attacks were thwarted that were on the verge of being carried out," the Shin Bet head said. "In Turkey against the general consul in Istanbul; in Baku, Azerbaijan; and two weeks ago in Thailand."
Israel's main dilemma in the coming year, Cohen added, was how to stop Palestinian terror groups in Gaza from obtaining rockets that could reach the metropolitan Tel Aviv area, but without becoming embroiled in a large-scale military action in Gaza.
Cohen said the terror groups' main goal was to increase the range of their missiles to the greater Tel Aviv area, as well as their precision and the size of their warheads.
Cohen said missile experts from abroad were now in Gaza helping Hamas and Islamic Jihad increase the range of the missiles, but conceded that this put Israeli security experts in a difficult place.
Cohen also said that over the past 18 months, Iran has distanced itself from Hamas and invested more in Islamic Jihad in Gaza, because the Iranians "realized that Hamas has political considerations."
The situation in the south has grown worse due to conditions in Sinai, said Cohen. "It's no problem to shoot from Sinai at Israeli planes or ships," he said. "At the moment, Egypt can't take control of the situation because of internal difficulties."
Israel is "in a dilemma over what to do if squads are spotted that are about to attack us from the area of a country with which we have a peace treaty, but has been having difficulty implementing their sovereignty," Cohen said.
During the hour-long lecture, Cohen also discussed the attitude of the security establishment toward Israel's Arab community.
"They are not a fifth column and we don't consider them as such," Cohen noted. "We relate to them as a Palestinian public that identifies with their brethren in Judea and Samaria."
Cohen presented statistics showing that over the past year, there had been only three terror attacks in which Israeli Arabs had been involved, and that Israeli-Arab involvement in terror has declined.
"Their involvement in terror is not great," Cohen said. "We arrested 20 to 30 Arab Israelis last year, as opposed to 2,000 Palestinians from Judea and Samaria. The problems with Arab Israelis are complex, but they are not security problems. They are alienation, integration, employment, poor municipal management, crime and drugs.
"The ideological leadership of the Arab public in Israel," Cohen continued, "is much more extreme than the public, and sometimes pulls in directions with which the public does not identify."
Cohen said another group that feels growing alienation from the state is the faction in the religious public that has lost confidence in its leadership. Cohen said these were a few dozen extremists, mainly from Yitzhar (referring to a West Bank settlement ).
"They have decided to take the road of terror," Cohen said, adding that "because they can't harm the government and the Israel Defense Forces, they lash out at Arabs and [their] sacred symbols. To their mind, the worse it gets, the more the government will have to think before it destroys a shack in a settlement. We treat this as terror."
Cohen said the Shin Bet was trying to deal with Jewish terror "in the best way possible," and noted that the past two months had seen a significant decline in violence by the group.
With regard to the Palestinians, Cohen said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas did not want to negotiate with Israel, because Abbas believes the current government will offer no more than what he had received from previous regimes.
"They see what the boundaries of the prime minister's flexibility are and who makes up the coalition, and they know the maximum this government will offer will not reach their minimum," Cohen said. Therefore, he added, the international community was focusing its efforts on preventing escalation between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
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right?
Just ask yourself why the US troops have left Iraq in such a hurry?they have another task in Iran!imagine that!
it is possible the regime may change.the iranian people are very angry indeed. their money is the equivalent of kleenex tissue.while salaries are ridiculous.
can't trust you folks.
I have read many times for actions of Israeli forces :"retaliation"
... you reap as you sow
Unfortunately Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah will work together in the near future to try to attack Israel and so Israel must do whatever is necessary to protect and preemptively attack this crazies.
but don't you think taking out scientists is going a bit too far?
Because of internal concerns, Egypt can't manage the terrorists in the Sinai? Internal concerns have nothing to do with it. Egypt cannot send military forces into Sinai without the permission of Israel. Egypt respects and honours her treaties.
Who thought that Israel could attack others, and remain untouched themselves? Israel reaps what it sows.
Best des RI ed as rumors.
Wow. That was a pretty good analysis. For once I agree with an Israeli politician or whatever you want to call him.
Needs to get another job. Apparently, he hasn't noticed that it's his own ilk doing the attacking.
A fair statement. That is why it is essential to get bodies like the ICC and ICJ involved. Their determinations will resolve this matter once and for all.
It seem only fair that when you attack them, they counterattack.
Pretty much sums up what the Palestinians have been up against. Being occupied, having your land stolen, and being ethnically cleansed from that land has its consequences. Some call it terrorism. I see it as resisting by the only means available.
I'm sorry Mr Cohen, to the Iranians it matters a great deal, and rightly so.
Quite understandable. The difference between the 2 countries is Israel acts and Iran talks. This situation though is likely to change in the very near future.
Think what *you* would do if you were tasked with the job of retaliating. Heck, you'd find out the next University physics conference where an Israeli professor is a keynote speaker, and you'd tell your man to shoot that dude stone-cold dead. There is no way that Cohen - or anyone - could prevent that short of banning all overseas travel by all Israeli university professors.
the terrorists that have occupied and subjugated iran have been exporting terror for over thirty years. these shia terrorists have murdered, tortured and raped their own people. this holocaust denying terror regime has stated on numerous occasions that their ultimate goal is the destruction of the jewish state of israel. to further their goal, the terrorists of tehran have armed, trained and financed their proxies, hezbollah, hamas, islamic jihad with hundreds of thousands of missiles. the shia terror regime has an irrational hatred of israel and of jews in general. the shia terrorists had already blown up innocent jews by the hundreds in argentina. the terror regime of iran had first introduced itself to the world by occupying the american embassy in tehran and taking hostage its diplomats. this regime has violated every law known to the international community of nations. it has gone beyond its borders to murder, kidnap, blow up. the shia terror entity has violated the sovereignty of numerous nations with the sole aim of exporting its vile apocalyptic vision and imposing it on other peoples.
so how may wars did Iran start in the last 60 yrs and how many did Israel? How many countries did Iran occupy? Open your eyes for once and realize that Israel is the aggressor and terror entity not Iran
The US does not do whatever it wants so shut the Hell up.
Yoram Cohen could have said that it was none of Israel's doing, I wonder why he didn't?
Israel and the US will always be implicated when something happens in Iran. No matter who is responsible, so he saved his breath to say that.
We know that Israel is concerned about Iran’s nuclear program – not because it presents an existential threat but because it will jack up Iran’s clout in the region. Israel would end up pitting itself against two Muslim regional powers when the thought of one drives her nuts. All this is perfectly understood. But these endemic public statements that lack depth and are creative with the facts – they sound altogether artificial. Even as the US has laid down by diktat on how to approach the Iranian issue, Israelis official, specially the military, cannot lay off the subject. It is a conjurer’s trick, but I don’t think their target is the West, which has already made up its mind. It must be the Israelis. They are being doused with the fear information, which they love to suck. Dear Israelis: Your government is up to something nogood, and it is trying to distract your attention by talking about Iran. Be careful. Salaam/Shalom
The Herzliya Conference. All that fawning goes to their head, you see, and that makes the Israeli leadership monentarily forget that they are small fry....
Israel will do the same, or worse, if the roles were reversed. Infiltrating other countries to kidnap and kill, breaks international laws, and deserves some retaliation. Israel opened the door for such a response.
Valentine's Day chocolates and roses?
There is no doubt that the goal of Iran, a country composed of fools and fanatics of all kinds, is to build a nuclear arsenal, and logic tells us that these weapons in the near future, will be used to destroy Israel and exterminate the Jews, fulfilling exactly what they said! It is also logical that they will attack the U.S. and its interests around the world, whom they call "the Great Satan" ... Only one attack never before seen on the Iranian military infrastructure, completely destroying all its troops, vehicles, ships, submarines, aircraft, military bases and launchers nearby islands, you can rid the world of this malignant tumor. The use of the mother of all bombs, the B-53, a powerful nuclear weapon, will surely destroy these nuclear power plants. Only a fool does not realize that a country would ever spend millions of dollars in building nuclear power plants within the Rocky Mountains, with nothing to hide! It is obvious that this terrorist state is hiding their illegal activities of the UN and the eyes of the civilized world ...
Israel should be allowed and Iran not. I wonder who the real war monger in the area is?
The knowledge and sophistication of this poster is made clear by the reference to the B-53, a plane that only exists in his or her imagination.
You are trying to say here that Iran is going to make a stupid move, but you know well Iran plays chess. How about this? One week after the first assassination occurred, a "14 year old" lit Israel on fire during a "hookah accident".
Reading this front page - at 02.30 - you can hear the war drums. We are being carried along on a wave of war that is getting bigger as each day and each headline comes and goes - and it is taking us inexorably on and on towards a conflagration with an outcome that is unclear and will be immensely costly to everyone. If there ever was a time for the people of Israel to stand up and shout, it is now. Stop this before it is too late!
Propaganda of war is in full swing, enemy was invented, population was scared and brainwashed. Leaders are eager to start the madness of destruction and murder. How tragic, how criminal, how stupid.
is protecting the Israeli embassy and working against the Mujahideen is a traitor to Turkiye and traitor to Islam.
You remind me of a more than a few of my Turkish friends throughout the years, very great people, but very nationalistic of both their country and their faith.
we have soldiers inside Israel waiting for the word to be activated, if we wanted you "deterred" we would simply tell our brothers in Holon to get to work...