Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak instructed the Israeli army on Monday to prepare for an outbreak of regional war, reported The Jerusalem Post Tuesday.
Barak told his generals, in a meeting in Tel Aviv with the weekly General Staff forum, that they had to "bear in mind" that the security situation could deteriorate and lead the entire Middle East into a deadly conflict, the daily added.
Israeli Defense Ministry sources told the paper that Barak's instructions to the Israeli army Chief of General Staff Shaul Mofaz and the rest of the general staff were “not to pull the covers off tanks in the storehouses.” Rather, the instructions were for them to take “the necessary preparations” such as making sure the “army's supplies” were “taken care” of and precautionary measures taken.
"It is the Israeli Army’s function,” the paper quoted one defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity, “ to always prepare for war."
Nevertheless the source added that “now the Prime Minister has simply stressed that there was a greater probability that conflict could break out."
Barak's instructions to his army came as talks with the Palestinians appeared to be going “nowhere,” said the paper, and also followed Iranian threats that Teheran would retaliate if Israel struck at Lebanon or Syria.
The two scenarios which the military sees as most likely are a total collapse of peace talks with the Palestinians and all-out war with the Palestinian Authority.
According to the paper, an Israeli retaliation could easily lead to Egyptian and Jordanian responses against the Jewish state, as well as dispatching of Arab auxiliary forces, including Iraqi attacks.
The second scenario is a quick deterioration on the Lebanon border strong involvement by Hizbollah with Syrian and Iranian encouragement. A decisive Israeli response could result in a large-scale offensive, said the paper.
The Post stressed that Mofaz and other top generals have repeatedly warned over the past couple of months that a serious deterioration in the conflict with the Palestinians as well as along the Lebanon border could quickly mushroom.
On their part, the current intelligence assessment is that the probability for war breaking out is no longer low, according to the daily.
The Israeli army has already moved to deal with this by calling up reserve units to replace soldiers in the standing army who have been deployed in the territories since the violence broke out in late September. Free from routine security duties, the soldiers have been sent back to combat training, said the newspaper.
The Arab armies have closely watched the Israeli army and its progressive build-up with advanced weapons and far superior air force and armor. Senior Israeli intelligence officials have said that except for Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the Arab nations have not tried to reach “parity” with the Israeli army. Syria gave up on that quest over a decade ago.
But they have invested in weapons that would hit Israel's “Achilles heel,” such as surface-to-surface missiles and chemical and biological weapons, the paper concluded.
The outbreak of the recent violence in the Palestinian territories has brought to the Arab mind the return to Holy War or “Jihad” against Israel.
Iraq and Yemen called for Jihad as the ultimate solution to end the Israeli aggression against the Palestinians in their uprising.
However, an emergency Arab summit held in November was a major disappointment to the Arab people because of its failure to take measures against the “cancerous state of Israel,” as referred to by many Politicians in the Arab world – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
