Carolien Roelants 16

Deze informatie verzwijgt Carolien Roelants van de NRC: 

'Israeli study exposes fallacy of Iran threat

The Israeli Air Force has been ordered to prepare for a military showdown
with Iran.
A new Israeli assessment rejects oft-stated claims that Iran poses a
missile threat to Israel and suggests the country's rocket program to have
other objectives.

After years of branding Iranian rockets as "an existential threat" to
Israel, the former head of the Israeli military Arrow missile project, Uzi
Rubin, noted in a recent report that Tehran has garnered missile know-how
"to defend, deter and influence".

Rubin said Iran's ongoing scientific advancements and military
breakthroughs show that the Tehran government would stop at nothing to
protect the Iranian people in the event of war.

According to the former security official, Israel's Air Force is
counterbalanced by Iran's state-of-the-art missile program. "Missiles are
an equalizer, balancing the superiority of Israel's air force," he
observed.

Tal Inbar, the head of the Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic
Studies who co-authored the assessment with Rubin, noted the "noncontinuous
progress" in Iran's missile project but doubted that it would pose an
actual threat to Israel's existence.

He, however, added that Iranian missiles would be capable of traveling
3,000 kilometers in the near future, a prospect he deemed 'concerning'.

The study comes only a week after Israeli Air Force (IAF) reservists who
operate the ballistic missile destroyer, the Arrow, and the surface-to-air
missile, Patriot, were ordered to spend one day a week on duty to prepare
for a future military showdown with Iran.

Israel, in recent years, has strived to portray Iran's missile program,
space research and nuclear activities as a "menace" and has thus managed to
draw up a case for war against the country.

This is while Tel Aviv is widely regarded as the sixth-largest nuclear
power in the world and the sole possessor of an atomic arsenal in the
Middle East. Israel reportedly houses at least 100 bunker-busting bombs,
which come in the form of laser-guided mini-nukes with the ability of
penetrating underground targets.

During the Kennedy administration, Israel allowed American inspectors to
make visits to its Dimona plant, but investigations eventually came to a
halt in 1969 when former US president Richard Nixon secretly endorsed Tel
Aviv's atomic arsenal.

In the early 1970s, Israel had already developed missiles capable of
delivering nuclear warheads to most countries in the region, including Iran
and Russia.

For years, senior Israeli political, military and intelligence figures have
threatened to bomb Iran's nuclear infrastructure out of existence, but the
prospect of go-it-alone Israeli air strikes has significantly risen since
Benjamin Netanyahu took up the baton in Tel Aviv.

Netanyahu's hawkish policies during his previous prime ministerial term
(1996-1999) have been described by The Economist as a "calamity" for the
peace process. 

Zie: http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=94435&sectionid=351020202