Breaking Defense


By Arie Egozi


TEL AVIV: While Israel anxiously awaits a Biden Administration, it has
made operational a new command focused entirely on Iran.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Naetanyahu is repeating — again and
again — his intention to stop Iran from achieving a nuclear
capability: “Israel will not allow Iran to have the bomb.”

The IDF says that the new Iran Command is needed to accumulate
intelligence and operational options in one place, to understand how
new weapon systems like the F-35 can be used efficiently should
hostilities with Iran break out, and how new relations with some Gulf
states might change those scenarios.

[Diagram: The map is old but the concepts haven’t changed much.]

The new command will be directly responsible for preparing strike
plans against Iran. In recent years Israel has invested roughly $3
billion in what is dubbed as “getting ready for a war with Iran.”
Details of this investment are highly classified.

The UAE and Bahrain met with Israelis recently and expressed their
concerns about the potential of Iranian aggression, especially is it
develops a military nuclear capability.

The Israeli defense establishment expects that within weeks they will
begin a series of talks with Biden’s inner circle to stop the guessing
and really understand the elected president’s policies relevant to
Jerusalem.

Earlier this month, Iran unveiled a new missile launch system capable
of consecutively launching multiple, long-range ballistic missiles.
Teheran claims the automated launcher was locally developed and
manufactured. With Iran continuing to heavily invest in new weapons,
Israel is getting ready to act.