e-mail this to a friend

printable version

» 04/24/2012 18:06
ISRAEL
Israel ready to strike Iran, Lebanon, Gaza, says Israeli Armed Forces Chief of Staff
Lt Gen Binyamin Gantz spoke to Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth. This will be a crucial year. As Iran’s nuclear threat must be stopped, Israel is preparing for a possible conflict.

Tel Aviv
(AsiaNews/Agencies) – Israel is ready, if necessary, to strike Iran, Lebanon
and Gaza, Israeli Armed Forces Chief of Staff Lt Gen Benny Gantz said in an interview
with top Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth.
For him, the year 2012 will be critical to halt what Israel and much of the
international community believe is an Iranian nuclear arms programme. “We think
that a nuclear Iran is a very bad thing, which the world needs to stop and
which Israel needs to stop-and we are planning accordingly,” Gantz said on the
eve of Israel’s 64th anniversary as a state.

An attack against
Iran’s nuclear plants has been openly discussed in Israel for years. In the
past few months, papers have carried both pro- and anti-attack views.

For the Jewish
state and much of the international community, Iran’s nuclear programme has a
hidden military component. Conversely, Tehran has always claimed that it is
peaceful in nature.

For now, the
United States has kept to a diplomatic strategy, coupled with ever tightening
sanctions.

“Our
intelligence assessment asserts that given the strategic reality and
instability in the region, the chance of deteriorating to a war is higher than
in the past,” Gen Gantz said in the interview. “There are no indications of
war, but the chances of the situation deteriorating into one are higher than in
the past.”

In view of a
possible wider conflict, Israel’s Defence Forces are preparing to respond to
threats from Lebanon and Gaza as well.

“I can’t promise
no missiles will be landing here. They will be falling, many of them. It won’t
be a simple war, neither on the frontlines nor ion the home front,” he said.
“However, I don’t advise anyone to test us on this front.”

e-mail this to a friend

printable version

Editor’s choices

ISLAM – FRANCE Abdennour Bidar: Mohammed Merah, a monster created by Islam’s illness by Samir Khalil SamirA great French Muslim philosopher asks whether salafist violence – like that which killed the children of Jewish school in Toulouse – is not a symptom of something deeply wrong with the Muslim tradition. A religion that has closed in on itself. To renew Islam today, the challenge of modernity and humanism must be accepted. “Who will have that courage? Who will take this risk?”. The analysis of Fr. Samir Khalil.

VATICAN Pope: May the Risen Christ give peace and hope to persecuted Christians and the Middle EastThe Easter message, Benedict XVI: “If Jesus is risen, then – and only then – has something truly new happened, something that changes the state of humanity and the world”. Last night, during the vigil “with regard to material things, our knowledge and our technical accomplishments are legion, but what reaches beyond, the things of God and the question of good, we can no longer identify. “

BANGLADESH Ex imam convert to Catholicism almost killed by Maria GomesMuslim leader first becomes Presbyterian abroad. After meeting a Catholic woman, he marries her and converts to her religion. Back in Bangladesh, he is totally rejected by his community. Despite the violence and social banishment, his faith remains strong: “I believe in Christ. I welcomed him” for “he is my saviour”.