Glass
3rd January 2011, 05:55 AM
ISRAEL'S army chief told a US congressional delegation in late 2009 he was preparing for a large war in the Middle East, probably against Hamas or Hezbollah, leaked US diplomatic cables show.
''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,'' Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi was quoted as saying in a cable from the US embassy in Tel Aviv.
The document, dated November 15, 2009, was quoted on Sunday by the Oslo-based daily Aftenposten, which said it had obtained WikiLeaks' entire cache of 251,187 leaked US embassy cables.
''The rocket threat against Israel is more serious than ever. That is why Israel is putting such emphasis on rocket defence,'' General Ashkenazi told the US delegation, the cable shows.
The army chief said Iran had about 300 Shihab rockets that could reach Israel and the Jewish state would have only between 10 and 12 minutes' warning of an attack.
Full article (http://www.theage.com.au/world/israeli-general-expects-big-war-20110103-19drx.html)
do you see what I see
''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,'' Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi was quoted as saying in a cable from the US embassy in Tel Aviv.
The document, dated November 15, 2009, was quoted on Sunday by the Oslo-based daily Aftenposten, which said it had obtained WikiLeaks' entire cache of 251,187 leaked US embassy cables.
''The rocket threat against Israel is more serious than ever. That is why Israel is putting such emphasis on rocket defence,'' General Ashkenazi told the US delegation, the cable shows.
The army chief said Iran had about 300 Shihab rockets that could reach Israel and the Jewish state would have only between 10 and 12 minutes' warning of an attack.
Full article (http://www.theage.com.au/world/israeli-general-expects-big-war-20110103-19drx.html)
do you see what I see