IDF Continues to Prep Iran Strike

 Israeli defense minister: ‘We have to look out for ourselves’

BY: Abraham Rabinovich for The Washington Free Beacon

JERUSALEM—Israel’s political leadership has ordered the Israel Defense Forces to continue preparations for a military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities despite the interim agreement arrived at last November between Teheran and Western nations, Ha’aretz reported today.

Three Knesset members who attended parliamentary briefings by senior army officers said the order had come from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon. The cost of these preparations, whose nature was not spelled out, would be at least $2.9 billion this year, they said.

Ya’alon, who in the past had opposed an Israeli pre-emptive strike, said this week that Israel could not rely on President Barack Obama to lead an action against Iran if negotiations fail. He cited the Ukraine crisis as an example of the administration projecting weakness. “We have to look out for ourselves,” he said in a lecture.

Netanyahu, in an address before a pro-Israel lobbying group in Washington earlier this month, said that Western willingness to let Iran continue to enrich uranium “would open the floodgates” to its development of nuclear weapons. Said Netanyahu: “That must not happen. And we will make sure it does not happen.”

The Knesset briefing was given by deputy chief of staff Maj. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot and Brig. Gen. Agai Yehezkel, a planning directorate official.

Knesset members asked them whether there was justification in expending billions in view of the ongoing negotiations aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear program. In reply, the officers said they had a clear directive from the political leadership, namely Netanyahu and Ya’alon, to continue readying the armed forces for a possible attack on the nuclear sites regardless of the negotiations.

Meanwhile, Israel is urging the American administration and a number of senior congressmen to approve the sale to Egypt of 10 Apache attack helicopters. An Israeli official said the helicopters are crucial to Cairo’s fight against Jihadi fighters in Sinai.

Many in Congress oppose renewal of American military aid to Egypt until the army there transfers power to an elected civilian government.

There has been close cooperation between Israel and the military leadership in Egypt since the ouster last year of President Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood. A delegation of senior Egyptian officers and officials of the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs visited Israel last week for talks with Israeli counterparts.