Israel security expert: We are not stronger than Iran

Former Israeli Deputy National Security Advisor Eran Etzion warned Israel of launching a war on Iran because Israel is not strong enough, Haaretz reported yesterday.

“[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is constantly harping that our goal is to remove the Iranians from all of Syria, and everyone involved is echoing him,” Haaretz quoted Etzion saying.

“That goal is simply not within our power, and insistence on it is liable to generate a war in what is a very unstable environment, involving Iranians, pro-Iranian militias and Hezbollah, with Turkey also meddling.”

Etzion added: “Something dramatic is happening in Syria: For the first time, there is direct military friction between Israel and Iran.

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“There is now a higher probability than ever before of deterioration into an open war, which could take all kinds of different forms.”

Etzion also said: “If a war between Israel and Hezbollah is something we haven’t yet experienced, then a direct war between Israel and Iran is something I don’t want to imagine.”

About the definition of strength, he said: “The question is how you measure strength… a senior Iranian figure said that Israel should be careful because it has no strategic depth. You really have to go to the basics and look at the geography, the demography and the history.”

“Israel possesses military power, but Iran has tremendous geography, a population of 80 million and a history going back thousands of years. It is a civilisation.”

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