US commander visits Israel to finalize missile drill

GOOD TIME FOR A JEWISH SPRING

By YAAKOV KATZ, JPOST

Israel is moving forward with plans to hold the largest-ever missile defense exercise in its history this spring amid Iranian efforts to obtain nuclear weapons.

Last week, Lt.-Gen. Frank Gorenc, commander of the US’s Third Air Force based in Germany, visited Israel to finalize plans for the upcoming drill, expected to see the deployment of several thousand American soldiers in Israel.

The drill, which is unprecedented in its size, will include the establishment of US command posts in Israel and IDF command posts at EUCOM headquarters in Germany – with the ultimate goal of establishing joint task forces in the event of a large-scale conflict in the Middle East.

The US will also bring its THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) and shipbased Aegis ballistic missile defense systems to Israel to simulate the interception of missile salvos against Israel.

The American systems will work in conjunction with Israel’s missile defense systems – the Arrow, Patriot and Iron Dome.

Gorenc came to Israel for talks with Brig.-Gen. Doron Gavish, commander of the Air Force’s Air Defense Division.

He toured one of the Iron Dome batteries in the South and the Israel Test Bed lab in Holon where the IAF holds its interception simulation exercises.

The IAF is planning to deploy a fourth battery of the Iron Dome counter-rocket system in the coming months and is mulling the possibility of stationing it in Haifa to protect oil refineries located there.

The Defense Ministry has allocated a budget to manufacture an additional three Iron Dome batteries by the end of 2012. IAF operational requirements call for the deployment of about a dozen batteries along Israel’s northern and southern borders.

The IAF is also moving forward with plans to deploy Rafael’s David’s Sling missile defense system, which is designed to defend against medium-range rockets and cruise missiles. Rafael recently completed a series of successful navigation and flight tests of the David’s Sling’s interceptor and plans to hold the first interception test by mid-2012.

December 21, 2011 | 4 Comments »

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  1. This increasing embrace by the Americans can be used to claim that with all this additional protection Israel can afford to wait and allow Iran to get nukes. And Israel may also have its hands tied to an America time table.
    The revealing missing element here is not having an American ultimatum to Iran to disarm by a date certain or else face war.

  2. BO is right. History always gives us examples and answers to our problems because the ONE. Constant in history is “”humanity”, men, and our natures have not changed in thousands of years.
    The Americans come in as our “partners”. They in reality will come in as “Trojan horses”. Who do you think will have the final say when it comes to pressing that button?

  3. Israel is moving forward with plans to hold the largest-ever missile defense exercise in its history this spring amid Iranian efforts to obtain nuclear weapons.

    Here’s a little history. The modern names of these countries should be familiar: Persia is Iran; Cappadocia (the Biblical Tubal & Meshech) is in Central Anatolia, in Turkey; Ionia (the Biblical Javan) is the Aegean coast of Turkey, and Lydia is now Western Anatolia, in Turkey. Cyrus was the king of Persia; and Croessus was the king of Lydia, a great king at the time.

    Cyrus II of Persia (Old Persian: KUURUUSHA Kuruš (c. 600 BC or 576 BC–530 BC), commonly known as Cyrus the Great[6], also known as Cyrus the Elder, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire Under his rule, the empire embraced all the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East expanded vastly and eventually conquered most of Southwest Asia and much of Central Asia, parts of Europe and Caucasus. From the Mediterranean sea and Hellespont in the west to the Indus River in the east, Cyrus the Great created the largest empire the world had yet seen….

    The Lydians first attacked the Achaemenid Empire’s city of Pteria in Cappadocia. Croesus besieged and captured the city enslaving its inhabitants. Meanwhile, the Persians invited the citizens of Ionia who were part of the Lydian kingdom to revolt against their ruler. The offer was rebuffed, and thus Cyrus levied an army and marched against the Lydians, increasing his numbers while passing through nations in his way. The Battle of Pteria was effectively a stalemate, with both sides suffering heavy casualties by nightfall. Croesus retreated to Sardis the following morning.

    While in Sardis, Croesus sent out requests for his allies to send aid to Lydia. However, near the end of the winter, before the allies could unite, Cyrus the Great pushed the war into Lydian territory and besieged Croesus in his capital, Sardis. Shortly before the final Battle of Thymbra between the two rulers, Harpagus advised Cyrus the Great to place his dromedaries in front of his warriors; the Lydian horses, not used to the dromedaries’ smell, would be very afraid. The strategy worked; the Lydian cavalry was routed. Cyrus defeated and captured Croesus. Cyrus occupied the capital at Sardis, conquering the Lydian kingdom in 546 BC

    — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_the_Great

    Note that the Israelis and Americans are making the same mistake Croessus and his allies made. They waited until after winter to make their war plans, because armies did not traditionally fight in the Middle East during winter. Cyrus ignored the tradition, and won. In our time, America has fought two great wars in the Middle east, both of them commencing in Springtime — when the climate is more friendly to THE AMERICANS. The Iranians may very well adjust their nuclear program to a most uncomfortable timing.

    Mistakes are best made only once. Learn history, Israel!

  4. …expected to see the deployment of several thousand American soldiers in Israel.

    Ah, the solution for Israel’s problems — Bring in the Romans! How utterly brilliant stupid.