TEL AVIV — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used an annual doomsday drill here to reiterate warnings that a looming deal between world powers and Iran will pave the way for nuclear weapons and could put billions of dollars in the hands of extremist, terrorist-supporting leaders in Tehran.
During a visit Tuesday to the Israeli military's Homefront Command — coordinator of a five-day national emergency preparedness exercise called Turning Point 15 — Netanyahu flagged the growing threat of increasingly capable Iranian-supplied rockets and missiles.
"When it comes to Israel's security, I rely first and foremost on ourselves," Netanyahu said against a backdrop of first responders and top officials, including Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon and Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff.
The approaching agreement with Tehran will not only pave the way for "Iran to have many atom bombs," Netanyahu said, but will enable it to use "the billions that will flow into its coffers" to continue to arm Israel's enemies with rockets, missiles and other weaponry.
"Therefore, we will do all we must to ensure Israel's security, and we'll continue to defend the homefront and Israeli citizens, as we are doing in this exercise," he said.
A day earlier, Ya'alon, Israel's defense minister, used a similar photo opportunity to impress upon Israel's neighbors that the drill was an annual pre-planned event not directed at a particular country or terrorist organization.
When asked if messages of calm were sent to Hezbollah or the Syria regime — both of them Iranian clients, and both of them fighting multiple insurgency groups throughout Syria — Ya'alon replied: "Until now, there was no need to send calming messages, but here I am now saying this is only a drill."
Ya'alon acknowledged that the five-day drill, which began Sunday, contributed to tension beyond Israel's northern border, where thousands of military perso
nnel and first responders have been operating.
"They know this is an exercise and apparently they are following it, but there are no signs of miscalculations ... and if there is a need, we will send messages of clarification," he said.
Mega Attacks From Multiple Fronts
This year's Turning Point drill involves extreme scenarios of mass casualties due to rocket and missile salvos launched along multiple fronts. In parallel, emergency authorities are training to deal with a string of national emergency events, including leaks of hazardous materials, power outages and disruption of services due to coordinated cyber and terrorist attacks.
Col. Sigal Tidhar, head of the public preparedness department of the IDF Homefront Command, said this year's drill involved not only government institutions, local authorities and key industries, but hundreds of thousands of households and accounting for millions of citizens.
"Every year, we try to involve greater numbers of the public at large. We want to ensure there is maximum participation to prepare them for new and evolving threats," Tidhar said. "This year, we developed maps and programs to educate civilians as to where the protected areas are, where they should go when the siren sounds, and what instructions they need to follow ... whether they are at school, at work, wherever."
In a June 2 interview, Tidhar declined to discuss casualties or detail the scenarios driving this year's drill, yet insisted they far eclipsed threats experienced in last summer's Gaza war.
"I won't go into numbers, but we're not talking Protective Edge scenarios," Tidhar said of the more than 4,500 Gaza-launched rockets launched that took aim at the Israeli homefront during last summer's 50-day war. "We're talking multifront scenarios that are much more expansive, and for which we have developed various plans of action that we keep in the drawer."
In a June 1 address at Tel Aviv University, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak credited government efforts at enhanced preparedness and multiyear programs to deploy a multi-tiered active defense network against the rocket and missile threat.
Nevertheless, Barak — who was Netanyahu's defense minister during his second coalition government — insisted that readiness and preparedness could not compensate for lack of diplomacy and or frayed ties with the United States.
In an indirect nod to strained relations between Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama — particularly over the looming Iran deal, but also over paralysis of the two-state Israel-Palestine peace track — Barak said: "In the end, a strong IDF will ensure the physical security of Israel. But this must be done through strong relations with the United States. We need to take diplomatic steps that — when combined with the IDF-security steps — will help us achieve the maximum."
Email: bopallrome@defensenews.com
Opall-Rome is Israel bureau chief for Defense News. She has been covering U.S.-Israel strategic cooperation, Mideast security and missile defense since May 1988. She lives north of Tel Aviv. Visit her website at www.opall-rome.com.
