ing its already impressive accurate
long-range firepower, rebuilding
its neglected capacity for sweeping
armored maneuvers, and honing
coordination for joint ground, sea and
air strikes. Training on all relevant
parameters was increased by an esti-
mated 200 percent.

"Show me your targets and I will
tell you what your military achieve-
ment will be he declared at the
Herzliya Conference.

The Smart Way
According to Ashkenazi, Israel's "smart"
guided missile firepower is at the cut-
ting edge, and in some aspects the
IDF may even be a world leader — for
example, in its ability to pinpoint
targets in the heat of battle and bring
lethal fire to bear within seconds.
Despite the focus on conventional
warfare, the IDF also developed spe-
cific capabilities for terrorist and
missile warfare. This includes a four-
layered anti-missile defense system
starting with the Arrow missile, which
is capable of intercepting long-range
missiles at altitudes of above 50 miles,
to the Iron Dome system for shooting
down low-flying, short-range rockets.
In any future missile war against
Hezbollah in Lebanon, Ashkenazi says
the IDF will apply conventional war-
fare skills, committing ground forces
to attack the enemy in its embedded
positions and considerably shortening
the duration of the conflict.
Perhaps the most dramatic stride
forward made by the IDF over the
past few years is in field intelligence.
If in 2006, its "bank" of targets in
Lebanon numbered approximately
200, today the figure is in the thou-
sands. Ashkenazi insists that fire-
power is meaningless unless there are
targets of high military value.

Wide-Ranging Capability
All this adds up to a military doctrine
that is likely to give the IDF the capac-
ity to wage different kinds of warfare
simultaneously on several fronts:
the so-called Revolution in Military
Affairs, or RMA. Israel sees an edge
here over potential foes: While Israel
has inculcated this sophisticated,
real-time interoperation of accurate
long-range firepower, high-grade
intelligence, command and control,
and joint forces operations, its poten-
tial adversaries have not.
For comparison, the largely
American-equipped and trained
Egyptian army — with some 700,000
troops (450,000 in the standing army
and about 250,000 reserves), 12
ground force divisions, and approxi-
mately 3,400 tanks and 500 fighter
planes — is considered by far the
strongest in the Arab world. Some
of the equipment is state of the art:
Egypt has about 1,000 Abrams Ml
tanks and just over 200 F-16 fighters.
But the Egyptians have not even
begun to incorporate RMA.
"RMA requires a great deal of
training of a very special kind:'
Yiftah Shapir, director of the Military
Balance Project at the Tel Aviv-based
Institute for National Security Studies,
told JTA. "In my view, there are just
two armies who have these capabili-
ties at the highest level: the U.S. Army
and the IDF. And simply buying the
platforms does not give this kind of

at Hezbollah and Hamas (but
aren't both funded by Iran?) and
"the next ayatollah in Egypt" (but
doesn't the Muslim Brotherhood
flirt with Iranian dictators and
proxies?).
The pendulum seems to always
swing back to Iran.
Wikileaks aside, Abbas may have
said at some point that he would
entertain Fatah concessions in
search of lasting border peace; but
he continues to this day his drum-
beat of incitement against Israel
and fudging his true beliefs.
Practically speaking, the pro-
tests in Cairo, Egypt, and Sanaa,
Yemen, have little to do with the
Palestinian desire for statehood.
Still, the winds of Tahrir Square
could well blow into Ramallah's

Manara Square. Writes Weinberg:
"The latter fact only reinforces
Israel's insistence on secure
borders, something that Abbas'
shaky, temporary regime is unlike-
ly to be able to provide."
Weinberg cogently dismisses
the demonizing lie that Israel "is
a cranky, narrow-minded party
pooper because it doesn't feel
the joy of freedom being rung in
across the Arab Middle East."
Which brings us full circle to his
plea to remember that "Iran is the
country actively seeking to export
its radical blend of Islam to Egypt,
Jordan, Lebanon, Yemen, Somalia,
Bahrain, Oman, Iraq, Kuwait and
Saudi Arabia."
"Iran," he writes, "is the coun-
try seeking to foment instability

capability."
Indeed, largely because of the RMA
disparity, Shapir says that in the event
of war between Israel and Egypt, he
would expect a result similar to that
achieved by the American army in
Iraq in 2003.
"The American army in Iraq was
not any bigger than Israel's standing
army. They had only three divisions,
one of which came late Shapir said.
"True, their air force was much big-
ger, but it was mainly because of the
advantages of RMA that they defeated
an army of 21 divisions in two weeks.
I would expect the IDF to achieve a
similar result, perhaps not quite so
easily or with so few casualties."
Not that anyone thinks the
Egyptians will be quick to wage war
on Israel or abrogate the peace treaty
between the two countries. If Egypt
did, at the very least it would forfeit
the $1.3 billion it receives in annual
American military aid.
Moreover, to launch a ground war
against Israel, Egypt would have to
order the American-led multinational
peacekeeping force out of Sinai, the
huge buffer zone between the two
countries. That's something a new
regime would be unlikely to under-
take lightly.
Nevertheless, Israeli gener-
als already are insisting that in an
increasingly unstable region, they
will need more platforms and more
troops. Otherwise the IDF, fighting on
several fronts, could find itself over-
extended.
The change of events in Egypt por-
tends a major argument in Israel over
increasing the defense budget here.

and to undermine the (somewhat
more) pro-Western regimes in the
region."
It is also the country weaken-
ing Fatah's Abbas, who the U.S.
curiously props up as an agent of
peace.
Weinberg goes on, "Iran is
exploiting the festivities in Tahrir
Square to advance its ambi-
tious and self-centered agenda,
not Israel. Iran is the pernicious
opportunist, not Israel."
He's so right: The Jewish state
and the Jewish people must fight
hard to repel the outrageous
thinking that makes Israel "the fall
guy for Western fears of a crum-
bling Middle East."
So yes, let's recalibrate the
focus - back to Iran. F I

Nuclear Iran

Film's Detroit debut nearing.

rom the producers of Obsession and Third
Jihad - Iranium, a new documentary
about the looming threat of a nuclear Iran
and the dangers it poses, will have its Detroit
premiere at 4 p.m. Sunday, March 13, at the
Corners in West Bloomfield.
Iran is the world's leading state sponsor of
global terrorism, to varying degrees supporting
Al Qaida, Hezbollah, Hamas and the Taliban as
well as the Iranian-based Quds force, which has
targeted American forces in Iraq. Its reach is
extended by such proxy states as Syria and its
growing influence in Latin America and with the
drug cartels. The gravity of Iran's nuclear and
hegemonic aspirations was underscored in the
Wikileaks cables from Arab and world leaders.
The film showcases the menace of Iran's
regime through the words of its leaders as doc-
umented in rarely seen archival and news foot-
age woven through with commentary from 23
authorities on Iran, including Iranian dissidents,
an original founder of the Iranian Revolutionary
Guard and U.S. lawmakers.
lranium is narrated by Iranian-born, Emmy-
winning actress Shohreh Aghdashloo. She
starred in House of Sand and Fog and The
Stoning of Soraya M.
Headlining the exclu-
sive screening will
be Clare M. Lopez, a
20-year CIA veteran
and one of the Iran
experts interviewed
in the film. She is a
strategic policy and
intelligence specialist.
She served as execu-
tive director of the
Clare Lopez
Washington-based
Iran Policy Committee. She produced techni-
cal threat assessments for U.S. embassies at
the State Department, Bureau of Diplomatic
Security. Now a private consultant, she is vice
president of the Intelligence Summit and a pro-
fessor at the Center for Counterintelligence and
Security Studies.
Film sponsors include the Zionist
Organization of America, StandWithUs
Michigan, ARMDI Michigan, Friends of the
Israel Defense Forces Michigan, American
Islamic Forum for Democracy, Confederation
of Iranian Students, Alliance of Iranian Women,
Foundation for Democracy in Iran, CAMERA,
Middle East Forum, Hudson Institute, Heritage
Foundation, EMET, Foundation for Defense of
Democracies, Center for Security Policy, Aish
HaTorah and ACT for America.
Admission is $5 at the door. The Corners is
at 2075 Walnut Lake Road, west of Inkster. To
reserve a seat, e-mail Iranium.Michigan@gmail.
corn.

F

February 24 = 2011

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