Israel has recognized initial signs that Iran is recalculating their trajectory in Syria, giving the Jewish State an opportunity to go from the defensive to the offensive, Defense Minister Naftali Bennett said on Tuesday. “I can announce that we are identifying initial signs of loosening and recalculation by Iran regarding it’s plans in Syria. We just started and we will increase. We will go from a defensive concept to an offensive concept – weakening, tiring and erasing the octopus’ head by weakening its tentacles,” Bennett said at the New Tech conference. “For us, Syria is not only a threat but also an opportunity. They are sending forces there to try to establish a presence and try to wear us down, but we can turn the downside into an advantage,” he continued. “We have superior intelligence and operational capabilities, and we are telling Iran clearly: Get out of Syria. You have nothing to look for there.” Israel has warned repeatedly about Iran’s nuclear ambitions as well as aspirations of regional hegemony. Jerusalem has admitted to hundreds of airstrikes as part of its “war-between-wars” campaign to prevent the transfer of advanced weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon and the entrenchment of its forces in Syria where they could easily act against the Jewish state. Bennett also referred to ongoing demonstrations taking place across Iran as well as in Iraq and Lebanon. “The Iranian people are telling the Ayatollahs: ‘stop wasting our money and shedding our blood in [needless] adventures.’ The Iranian people have had enough,” he said, adding that “we in Israel are corresponding with this message. The ground is burning in Iran, the embers are not extinguished, they are glowing.” Last week the IDF released new details of it’s new multi-year plan which will include establishing a new Iran Command as one of the top priorities of Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi’s ‘Momentum’ multi-year plan which aims to obtain a considerable military advantage over Israel’s foes. The new Iran Command will be led by a Major General and will be dedicated and focused on analysing threats posed by Iran and planning Israel’s campaign against the Islamic Republic. It will bolster the IDF’s attack capabilities, including by technological means for the IAF jets to destroy enemy targets, increase the military’s intelligence superiority and expand it’s intelligence gathering on the Islamic Republic including by satellites as well as bolster Israel’s cyber (both defensive and offensive) capabilities. That same day Bennett said that Israel is engaged in a continuous campaign to weaken Iran and to remove its forces from Syria. “We are constantly working to raise the stakes for Iran until we reach our ultimate goal: removing them from Syria. We will continue to prevent an Iranian presence on our northern border,” Bennett said during a memorial ceremony at Kibbutz Dafna in the Galilee. “For generations, we have been constantly fighting the arms of the Iranian octopus in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza, and we have not focused enough on the weakening of Iran itself,” Bennett said, adding that there has now been a change in Israel’s way of thinking. “We are in a continuous campaign to weaken the Iranian octopus. On the economic level, political, intelligence, military, and others,” he explained. “When [an] octopus’s arms beat you, don’t fight back with only your arms, but strangle the head. And so it is with Iran.”Source
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