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WAR FOOTING
Sun man Tom Newton Dunn witnesses Israel prepare for another full-blown war after Iranian attack on its troops
As Israel prepares for its 70th birthday on Monday it is also preparing for another full-blown war.
“ALL these missiles are pointing at us, and they’re not carrying candy,” Major General Yoav Gallant told me.
The battle-hardened Israeli security cabinet minister leant forward to make sure I heard him clearly.
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“If they fire them at us, we will send Hizbullah and the Iranians back to the Stone Age.
"It will take them 50 years to rebuild their countries.”
Israel is preparing to celebrate its 70th birthday on Monday.
It’s also preparing for another full-blown war.
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With Syria the chaotic playground of all of the region’s superpowers, the Middle East has again become a powder keg ready to blow.
I’ve spent the last three days in Jerusalem, talking to Israeli security chiefs and politicians.
It’s clear the generals disagree with their ministers over whether Donald Trump was right to pull the US out of the Iran nuclear agreement on Tuesday night, fearing the uncertainty over what comes next.
But all are united on who is responsible for the explosive clash in the early hours of Thursday morning.
And it's nothing to do with Trump.
At the heart of the new tension is Iran’s stockpiling of a mighty arsenal of 130,000 missiles across southern Syria and Lebanon, and just what they plan to do with them.
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Nobody thinks the 20 short-range rockets fired at Israeli soldiers manning Syrian border observation posts will be the last.
The temperature rises yet further next week, as the US President carries out the controversial move of his embassy from Tel Aviv to the disputed city of Jerusalem on Monday, to celebrate Israel’s big birthday.
The following day, angry Palestinians mark ‘Nakba’ – or ‘day of catastrophe’ – when thousands were forced from their homes in 1948.
The terror group Hamas, who run Gaza, plans to march 100,000 Palestinian civilians to the Gaza border fence and break into Israel.
The IDF will respond with live fire.
If that isn’t enough, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan also starts next week.
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“There will be bloodshed for sure,” Amos Harel, Haaretz newspaper’s security analyst told me.
“The only question is, how much.”
A lot now depends on the next decision of one man, the long-standing commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, Major General Qasem Soleimani.
Fanatical Soleimani answers directly to Supreme Leader Ayotollah Ali Khamenei, and is known as “Iran’s Rommel”.
Will he get the memo, from the pounding his troops took from Israel’s F16s, and pull them back home?
Or will he not be able to refuse the chance to hit back at the Great Satan itself by targeting Jerusalem with his missiles on Monday?
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Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son in low Jared Kushner will be there for the new embassy’s opening.
Others are more optimistic, believing Ayotollah Khamenei will be forced to reign in Soleimani and there will be no more escalation for now.
Iran is already in the midst of a currency crisis, and will not want to risk a full economic collapse that war with Israel could trigger.
Though Teheran may back off for now, it’s long term threat will only worsen – whether it restarts its nuclear weapons programme or not.
Israeli hawks are warning that Teheran’s missile programme is not just a problem for the Middle East.
It’s new medium-range ballistic missile, the Khorramshahr, already has a range of 2,000 kilometres.
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Rapid work is suspected to be under way to extend that to 4,000 kilometres – making them very much Western Europe’s problem too.
Israel’s former UN ambassador Dore Gold told me: “You will have a dilemma in the UK in the next five years too.
“What will you do when the Iranians are able to hit London with a nuclear warhead?”
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