Al Jazeera reports: Israel has test-fired a ballistic missile capable of reaching Iran, from the Palmachim base, Israeli radio says.
The test of a rocket propulsion system on Wednesday comes amid increased debate around the likelihood of an Israeli attack against Iran’s nuclear programme.
Speculation around the basis for the first missile test since 2008 was heightened after a newspaper commentator had suggested over the weekend that Benyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and Ehud Barak, the defence minister, may have decided without cabinet approval to launch an attack against Iranian nuclear facilities.
A defence ministry statement said that the test-firing “had been planned by the defence establishment a long time ago and has been carried out as scheduled”.
Wednesday’s test-fire, the first in three years, was declared a success.
Though defence officials would not elaborate on the type of missile tested, the military affairs correspondent at Israel Radio, regularly briefed by officials, said a ballistic missile had been launched.
In an address at parliament’s opening session on Monday, Netanyahu repeated that a nuclear-armed Iranian state would prove a serious threat to Israel and the world.
Israel is believed to have a sizeable and the Middle East’s sole atomic arsenal, along with a technologically superior air force.
However, it lacks long-range bombers which could deliver lasting damage to Iran’s distant, dispersed and fortified facilities.
Yet more baloney. Israel has had missiles capable of reaching Iran for nigh on twenty five years. The latest, the Jericho III, which is capable of striking pretty well anywhere on earth (Samson Option anyone) has been arounf for getting on for five years. Since the Israelis can also put a satellite into orbit, the only way they could demonstrate advancement in rocketry is to put a man on the moon and then claim that God gave it to them so that they are going to settle it.
I wonder if the visiting U.S. Congressional groupies last Summer were clued in on the fact that the Israelis had the means to send a few of their missiles toward the U.S. if they don’t get their spoiled brat way? The time has come for the Military to target the Israeli missile and aircraft facilities just in case the idiots go off the deep end! To allow a few crazy madmen to dictate the future of the M.E. and beyond, is more than mere folly, it’s shear madness. They deserve to be locked up in the loony bin.