Senior defense official: Deterrence working, but al-Qaida now on border

Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amos Gilad, director of political-military affairs at the Defense Ministry, played meteorologist on Monday, comparing Israel’s current security situation to a weather forecast with “clear and sunny skies” and “threatening storms in the distance.”

 

The senior defense official spoke at the Herzliya Conference, an annual convention held at the IDC Herzliya college that brings together leading security and policy experts for a series of debates and speeches.

 

In his keynote address, Gilad said that the Lebanon frontier with Israel was enjoying relative calm, even with “200,000 rockets aimed at us from Hezbollah.”

 

But in Syria, where a four-year civil war is raging on, the situation is ever-volatile. Eulogizing “the death of Syria,” Gilad said President Bashar Assad only rules a third of the country de facto; southern Syria is currently dominated by al-Qaida, and the North by Islamic State. “There is nothing there and it has no future.”

 

Read More: Senior defense official: Deterrence working, but al-Qaida now on border – Arab-Israeli Conflict – Jerusalem Post