Ha’aretz: “When Defense Minister Amir Peretz took office four months ago, Hezbollah and the missile threat were at the bottom of the priority list senior IDF officers presented him, Peretz says. In private conversations over the past few days, Peretz said officers did not tell him there was a strategic threat to Israel, and did not present him with all relevant information about the missile threat.”
While I certainly didn’t have “all relevant information” about the missile threat, just from glancing at Ha’aretz more or less daily I was aware of that there was a strategic threat to Israel from Party of God missiles. Indeed, it was difficult to read any article about a possible Israeli or American military strike on Iranian nuclear sites that did not mention that the POG had thousands of missiles, including some long-ranger missiles, aimed at Israel that Iran could potentially use to retaliate. If Peretz was indeed ignorant of this threat, or at least sufficiently unconcerned about it never to ask for a briefing from the military about it, even if they didn’t volunteer information, he should resign in disgrace. I read today that Peretz’s approval rating is down to 28%; many Israelis seem to have concluded that as a defense minister, Peretz would make a great labor union boss (which is what he was until recently).
UPDATE: Noah Pollack argues that Israel and the U.S. may have achieved their main objective in the Lebanon campaign, to neutralize the missile threat to Israel in case of a U.S. attack on Iran.
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