The Military Intelligence Division of the Israeli Army (Aman) saw that the possibility of war breaking out in the region has increased over the past months.
In a report issued on Tuesday and published by Haaretz, Aman considered that the current escalation during the month of Ramadan stemmed from three central developments that led to changes in Israel’s strategic environment. Those include decline of American interest in developments in the Middle East, Iran’s self-confidence through attempts to challenge Israel directly, and increasing instability within the Palestinian arena.
The military editor of Haaretz, Amos Harel, indicated that the cooling of relations with Washington began to affect the military field.
He noted that although the Israeli army boasts of close relations with the US Army Central Command (CENTCOM), the prevailing impression is that the Americans were less enthusiastic about Israel’s sharing of intelligence information and operational plans.
The report considered that the leaders in Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas were not interested in a confrontation with Israel, and they expressed this position in various means and messages.
However, they are taking unprecedented military steps and operations that “could set the region on fire,” according to the report.
In fact, Iran and its proxies believe that the massive demonstrations taking place in Tel Aviv in protest against a plan to weaken the judiciary, tension with the Palestinians, and the disagreements with the US administration, were all signs of Israel’s increasing vulnerability.
While the report underlined that the chances of war breaking out were not great, because “no one wants it”, it stressed that the region could be dragged into war because of the temptations offered by the internal Israeli crisis.
