Previous joint US-Israel military exercise
In a curious turn of events, a huge joint missile defense drill between Israel and the US, due to have been held in the spring, has been cancelled – or perhaps just postponed, according to some reports.
A major joint Israel-US military drill, which was set to take place in a few weeks time with the participation of thousands of IDF and US army soldiers, has been postponed by at least six months, Ynet reported Sunday
The decision was made by Defense Ministry officials in coordination with the Pentagon.
A number of global media outlets said the exercise will likely take place in the summer – at the earliest.
Israeli officials said the Americans asked to delay the drill so as not to heighten tensions with Iran over its nuclear program and avoid drawing any additional attention from the Arab countries during such a turbulent period.
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The decision to postpone the drill comes after the US condemned last week’s assassination of a nuclear scientist in Tehran and after US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the recent developments in the Islamic Republic.
Ron Ben-Yishai, Ynet’s military analyst, said Washington is looking to defuse tensions in the region following Iran’s military exercise in the Strait of Hormuz and the raid by Iranian protesters on the British Embassy in Tehran.
To me, as an outside observer, Washington’s decision makes little sense. I can understand that the US does not wish to heighten tensions with Iran, but if Iran have already gone as far as holding their own military exercise in the Hormuz Straits, why should the Western Allies fold in the face of Iran’s implicit threats? This American spinelessness is echoed in their condemnation of the assassination of the nuclear scientist in Tehran. Would they prefer that the Iranian nuclear program carried on unhindered?
The Jerusalem Post has a slightly different angle on the story and reports that the cancellation was a joint US-Israeli decision – and yet took everyone by surprise.
Israel and the US canceled a missile defense drill, billed as the largest ever in the country’s history, planned for the spring, senior military officials said Sunday.
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The drill, expected to involve the deployment of thousands of US troops in Israel, was scheduled to last around a week and mark the first time that a top US military commander would participate in the simulations.
The parties were scheduled to simulate missile defense scenarios with the objective of creating a high level of interoperability so that, if needed, US missile defense systems would be able to work with Israeli systems during a conflict.
Officials refused to elaborate on the reasons behind talks to postpone or cancel the drill, but said they were mostly “technical and logistical.”
Talks about postponing the drill took the Americans, as well as the Israeli Air Defense division, responsible for missile defense, by surprise. Just last Thursday, top IAF officers had said that the drill was scheduled for this spring.
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The planned drill had caused tension in the region amid concern that Israel is planning an attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities in the near future, and therefore is bolstering its defenses together with the US.
It is possible that talks about postponing the drill can also be contributed [sic. Did they mean “attributed”?] to increased American concern that an Israeli strike is being planned.
Israel Matzav has an interesting theory:
I suspect that the IDF and military intelligence did not want American troops under Obama looking over its shoulders, and that may have had something to do with the cancellation.
It’s a great disappointment that the drill has been cancelled, but if Israel Matzav’s theory is correct, it is not such a bad thing after all.
Interesting times as usual in the Middle East.
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