Retired IDF Chief of Military Intelligence Major-General Amos Yadlin says the State of Israel needs to develop the capability to deal with a nuclear threat independently, because there may come a day when we may not be able to rely on anyone — not even our closest friends.
Speaking to journalists Wednesday afternoon in a telephone briefing organization by Media Central, Yadlin said that he believes the decision to initially ask the United States to attack the nuclear reactor that was under construction by North Korea “was a mistake.”
The United States turned Israel down flat.
“In the case that it will lead to a war,” Yadlin said, “Israel can deal with Syria independently and doesn’t need any help.”
Yadlin, who today is Executive Director of Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), said Israeli military forces are well within their comfort zone fighting against regional neighbors. It’s when the Israeli forces are tested against those bigger and stronger than themselves that the questions are raised.
“If you go to farther ranges, and to a stronger and bigger country, coordination between the U.S. and Israel is much more important,” Yadlin said.
The comment underscores the important of the Juniper Cobra 2018 joint military exercise taking place between Israeli and American forces here in Israel — and its relevance as a “dress rehearsal” for a possible future confrontation with Iranian forces and/or their proxies.
However, even with that assistance being offered, at the end of the day, Yadlin emphasized, “Israel should think that there will be cases that she will be left alone — and should develop the capability to deal with [a] nuclear threat by itself, independently.”
Nothing could possibly demonstrate the truth of that statement more than Israel’s experience with the Obama administration during the 2014 counter-terror war in Gaza, Operation Protective Edge.
When Israel began to run out of replacement parts for its Iron Dome anti-missile interceptor defense system, and a few other military items, including Hellfire missiles, the IDF ran into a major roadblock.
On August 14, 2014, the Wall Street Journal reported that a supply of Hellfire missiles was placed “on hold” by the White House who instructed the Pentagon and U.S. military submit every single Israeli request for scrutiny at the White House on an individual basis.
In order to force Israel to slow down its attacks on Gaza — even though they were self-defensive in nature — the Obama administration slow-walked its military parts resupply process — right in the middle of the war — to its supposed “closest ally in the Middle East, with whom it [had] an unbreakable bond.”