Israeli Defense Minister: We Prefer ISIS Over Iran - 0 views
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Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon declared on Tuesday that if he was to choose between Iran and ISIS – “I prefer ISIS.” Speaking at the Institute for National Security Studies’ (INSS) conference in Tel Aviv, Ya’alon sought to clarify that “Iran is our main enemy, after I heard voices saying different things.”
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Tehran, he said, “is a rogue regime with designs on a regional hegemony. Hezbollah is Iran’s proxy, with the ability to declare war. Iran currently has terror infrastructure in place in five continents: Asia, Africa, Europe and both in South and North America.” Th nuclear agreement signed between the Islamic Republic and world powers, the defense minister said, “pushed back the clock from three months to one year. If Iran feels economically secure, it can breakout and produce a bomb even faster.” Ya’alon doesn’t put much stock in the Russians’ ability to retake Syria from jihadists- including ISIS – who took over large swaths of land. “The Russians thought they’d get to the Euphrates River in three months,” he said, noting the Russian army is not reaching its goals and failing to achieve much in the Golan Heights. “There are achievements in the fighting against ISIS – led by the US,” Ya’alon said. “ISIS is suffering serious defeats in Iraq and Syria.” “We believe ISIS will be eventually defeated territorially after the blows it has been suffering, and in light of the attacks on its oil reserves,” he added. The strategy in Syria, he said, should be “to strengthen local forces with ‘boots on the ground,’ like the Kurds are doing.”
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Keep in mind that the Defense Minister in Israel is a political appointee but has little actual influence over the military in important matters. The Israeli military's recently published long-term strategy document does not identify Iran or its "nuclear weapons ambitions" as a major threat. But Israeli foreign policy differs from the military's conservative pragmatism. Israeli right-wingers hae long had a goal of destabilizing and Balkanizing Arab and Muslim nations in the Near East, with long-term imperial ambitions that would include Israel being the major military and economic power in the Mideast and with Israel's borders expanded from the Nile River in Egypt to the Euphrates River in Syria and Iraq, encompassing most of the Arabian Peninsula. The "Ersatz Israel" ambition is derived from passages in the Bible in which God allegedly promised Abraham that his people would have that territory, although different passages speak of varying boundaries. Israel's treatment of native Palestinians is largely the byproduct of that religion-based goal; in the Zionnist viewpoint, Palestinians are latter-day interlopers and sub-humans who have no right to the land, which was supposedly promised by God to the Jews. Establishing Ersatz Israel is the major goal of Zionism.