Defense Minister Katz: Time is right to hit Iran
Israel's incoming Defense Minister Yisrael Katz declared conditions are optimal for targeting Iran's nuclear program, citing recent successful Israeli airstrikes and broad national consensus.
Late Monday night, incoming Defense Minister Israel Katz said that the diplomatic, operational, and tactical situation for attacking Iran's nuclear program has never been as doable, realistic, and likely as it is now.
Katz noted how two previous Israeli strikes on Iran this year - which were actually counter-attacks following massive attacks by Tehran on the Jewish state on April 13-14 and October 1 - have made it clear how superior the Israeli Air Force is to even the most advanced aspects of the Islamic Republic's air defense systems.
"There is an opportunity to achieve the most important goal - to thwart and remove the threat of destruction hanging over the State of Israel...Today, there is a broad national and defense establishment consensus that we need to thwart the Iranian nuclear program, and there is an understanding that this is doable - not only on the security front, but also on the diplomatic front," said Katz.
Despite Katz's statement, many officials, including former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, had called for the air force to strike Iran's nuclear program on October 26.
Instead, the Air Force was ordered by the government to strike about 20 ballistic missile production and air defense sites in Iran.
At press time, Katz's office had not responded to an inquiry about whether there really was a readiness by Israel to strike Iran's nuclear program, given that the government chose not to on October 26.
No ceasefire
In addition, the new defense minister said that there would be no ceasefire with Hezbollah until it commits to remaining North of the Litani River in Lebanon, but also not until Israel secures the right to enforce that Hezbollah promise with military force as well as the right going forward to attack attempts to smuggle new weapons to Hezbollah.
Although the IDF has for years been attacking weapon smuggling attempts focused on Syria, its war between wars on that issue started too late to prevent Hezbollah from - until the current war - growing its rocket arsenal to around 150,000 rockets.
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