(May 20, 2022 - Washington, DC) EMET lauds the United States’ upcoming participation in a large-scale Israeli military drill simulating a strike against Iran. According to a Wednesday Medialine article, the US Air Force is slated to conduct midair refueling of Israeli fighter jets in as part of the IDF’s “Chariots of Fire” operation in two weeks.
US Central Command chief Gen. Michael Kurilla landed in Israel on Tuesday to assist with the exercise and meet with high-ranking IDF officials, indicating the United States’ seriousness on this front.
The maneuvers will occur over the Mediterranean Sea starting May 29, the final week of the drill, simulating “striking targets far from Israel’s borders” while also “acquiring new targets…in real time,” according to the Jerusalem Post. It will include almost all IDF units and will focus on Israel’s northern border, the Times of Israel reported.
EMET believes that a credible threat of force against the Islamic Republic of Iran is long overdue as Iran has already made its nuclear aspirations abundantly clear.
Former Majles (Iranian Parliament) member Ali Motahari said outright on Iranian Television (ISCA) that Iran’s original intent for its nuclear activity was not for peaceful purposes, but to build a bomb.
“With regard to what we started… If we could have kept it [a secret] until we performed a [nuclear] test, then it would have been a done deal. Like in Pakistan,” Motahari said in an April interview according to a MEMRI translation.
Said EMET Founder and President Sarah Stern, “For well over a year, EMET has been arguing that when negotiating with a brutal, tyrannical force with hegemonic ambitions such as the Islamic Republic of Iran, there needs to be a credible threat of military force. Nothing resonates quite as well in communicating that message as the strength and might of the US military."
Continued Ms. Stern, "We at EMET would like to convey our gratitude to the US military who are participating alongside the members of the Israeli Defense Force in these joint military exercises. It is in American security interests because the danger of a nuclear Iran might be a threat to Israel and to our Gulf Arab allies today, but it will be a real danger to us here in the US tomorrow. We are grateful that the United States seems to be changing its course from relying merely on negotiations, to signaling that it is contemplating a more realistic Plan B - backing up negotiations with a credible threat of military force.”
About The Endowment for Middle East Truth
Founded in 2005, EMET’s mission is to educate policymakers in Washington and the general public about the importance of Israel to the United States in their common struggle against radical Islam. For more information, please visitwww.emetonline.org. Follow EMET on Twitter and Facebook.
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