BICOM

Head of IDF’s Military Intelligence, Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi yesterday outlined the security threats facing Israel and drew specific attention to the significant rocket threat facing Israeli cities.

Speaking at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) conference in Tel Aviv, Kochavi said that although “The countries around us are busy with themselves,” conventional threats to Israel “have not disappeared.” He noted the “near 360 degree” presence of Islamist terror groups on Israel’s borders, contributing to the existence of around 170,000 rockets and missiles aimed at Israel. It meant that “for the first time in many decades, the enemy has the ability to drop considerable amounts of munitions on the cities of Israel.” Although the number of rockets and missiles had actually dipped due to Syria’s depleting stockpiles and Operation Pillar of Defence in 2012, Kochavi said “The number will rise again.”

Another significant threat to Israel’s security said Kochavi, is cyber-warfare, which he commented will soon constitute “a revolution greater than the creation of gunpowder or the usage of the aerial space at the start of the past century” adding that the possibilities are “nearly limitless, and that is not a metaphor.”

Kochavi also addressed the nuclear threat posed by Iran, saying that its nuclear programme remains at a stage whereby Tehran’s leaders can sprint ahead “to one bomb or more.” His assessment appeared to tally with a report issued by US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to the Senate Intelligence Committee, which was published yesterday. Clapper said that, “Tehran has made technical progress” which “strengthens our assessment that Iran has the scientific, technical, and industrial capacity to eventually produce nuclear weapons. This makes the central issue its political will to do so.” However, he qualified this explaining that the safeguards put in place by the interim agreement between the P5+1 powers (US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany) and Iran “provide transparency” and that any Iranian attempts to produce sufficient weapons grade uranium “would be discovered.”