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Defense Minister Benny Gantz said that he notified US officials during meetings in Washington that he had instructed the Israel Defense Forces to get ready for a strike against Iran. In a briefing with reporters on the sidelines of the Israeli American Council’s national summit in Florida, Gantz said the order he gave was to “prepare for the Iranian challenge at the operational level.”
A senior defense official indicated that Gantz had presented a timeline for when such an attack might take place during his meetings with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The senior defense official said that Tehran is close to enriching the amount of uranium necessary to assemble a nuclear bomb, and that it will be easier to act against the Islamic Republic before it crosses that threshold.
Meanwhile, Israel Defense Forces Maj. Gen. Eyal Zamir said on Saturday said that the Jewish state will act if Iran reaches nuclear breakout status. The former IDF deputy chief of staff said that Tehran would only stop its efforts to acquire a nuclear bomb if it were faced with a clear deterrent threat. The United States has both the will and the ability to act, Zamir said, and Israeli officials would prefer that the United States take the reins on the issue. However, if Washington does not act, “We have the ability to do it,” he said, adding: “I have seen the plans.”
On Friday, Gantz told reporters that the US and European countries are “losing patience,” and are realizing that Iran is trying to drag out the negotiations in Vienna, despite “playing a bad hand.” The defense minister said that the Biden Administration officials he met with were attentive to the Jewish state’s concerns, and that he emphasized that Iran is first and foremost a global problem.
The Israeli Air Force is currently preparing an exercise scheduled for the spring of 2022 that will simulate an attack on targets in Iran, Israeli media have reported. The large-scale drill will see dozens of fighter jets practicing long-range sorties over the Mediterranean Sea, flying distances that represent strike ranges to the Islamic Republic.
News of the drill comes after Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, said in August that the military is accelerating plans for an attack on Iran.
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Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will travel to the United Arab Emirates and meet the Gulf state’s de facto ruler on Sunday in the highest-level public visit since the countries formalized relations last year, Israeli media reported. Israel’s premier is expected to meet on Monday with the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed.
The meeting comes at an important juncture for the countries, which grew closer in the years before the Abraham Accords were signed over shared concerns about the Iranian nuclear threat.
Other than the Islamic Republic, the leaders will also discuss ways to deepen the economic ties between Jerusalem and Abu Dhabi. The countries launched negotiations towards a free trade agreement last month. Trade in goods between Israel and the UAE surpassed $500 million in 2021, up from $125 million in 2020.
In other diplomatic news, Foreign Minister and Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid met with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo. The two men discussed the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip following May’s Hamas-initated 11-day conflict against Israel. Egypt brokered the ceasefire that ended the fighting and is playing a leading role in facilitating the rebuilding of the coastal enclave.
During the Cairo talks, Lapid brought up the issue of Israeli hostages and soldiers’ remains that are being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
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The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) approved 146-7 a resolution that condemned “acts of terror by several extremist Israeli settlers.” The resolution was titled, “Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian territories, including east Jerusalem and the Occupied Golan.”
But while the resolution spoke a number of times about violence by Israeli settlers, at no point did it specially condemn Palestinian terror or violence against Israelis.
The resolution was part of a package of six anti-Israel texts the UNGA approved that condemned Israeli settlement activity, called for a withdrawal from the Golan Heights, and affirmed the work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA).
The text with the largest support was a resolution that called for financial assistance to Palestinian refugees through funds funneled to UNRWA. The resolution passed 164-1, with 10 abstentions. Israel was the only country that opposed the resolution, which is viewed as the most benign of all the texts, despite its affirmation of the so-called ‘right of return’ for Palestinian refugees to the Jewish state by calling for the implementation of paragraph 11 of Resolution 194.
The US changed its voting pattern on the resolution, which the Trump administration had rejected. The White House reverted to the Obama administration’s pattern of abstaining on this text.
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Israel is at the outset of a fifth coronavirus wave, according to Hebrew University of Jerusalem researchers.
In a report submitted to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, and Director of Public Health Services at the Health Ministry Dr. Sharon Elroi Preiss, university researchers called on the government to act to slow Omicron’s spread. By allowing more time to gather information on the recently identified variant, the researchers said the government would be better equipped to come up with an appropriate plan of action.
According to the report’s findings, the current increase in infections is tangible, and for the first time, the virus is spreading across all sectors and age groups. Nevertheless, the researchers conceded they did not know the root cause of the outbreak. They pointed to a number of possibilities, including a decrease in immunity levels, an increase in infections among families with young children, and increased infections at schools.
In their report, the researchers recommended the government act to bring down the reproduction rate so that, should there be a real outbreak of the Omicron variant, hospitals would not be overwhelmed.
Israel decided over the weekend to extend its travel restrictions, including barring all foreign nationals from entry. In a statement issued by Bennett and Horowitz, it was announced that the restrictions would continue until at least December 22.
Under the current requirements, all Israelis returning from abroad must self-quarantine until they receive confirmation of a negative coronavirus PCR test result, while those arriving from high-risk countries are required to isolate at a state-run quarantine hotel until they receive a negative PCR test result.
The statement also said that additional restrictions and incentives for vaccination may be implemented in the coming days.
Recommended Reading
- The Latest Revelations of Israel’s Covert War on Iran – Analysis (Yonah Jeremy Bob, Jerusalem Post)
- Palestinian Authority Textbooks ‘Encouraging Violence’ Found on Teenage Girl When Arrested for Jerusalem Stabbing (Algemeiner)
- Egypt’s Openness to Expanded Israel Ties on Full Display During Lapid Visit (Lazar Berman, Times of Israel)
- Overwhelming Number of Diversity Officers at US Colleges Hold Anti-Israel Views, Study Says (Adam Kredo, Washington Free Beacon)
- Israeli Who Lost Both Hands Aged 13 Takes Gold at World Para Taekwondo Championships (Stuart Winer, Times of Israel)
