Israel: On Ground Updates - July 10, 2008

Israel:
On Ground Updates
Attack on Iran Unavoidable?
Thursday, July 10, 2008

The BBC News website brings us this report and it starts off like this... Although Iran's latest missile tests have grabbed global headlines, Western observers may have learned little they did not already know about the scope and potential firepower of Tehran's arsenal... Analysts suggested that the tests were staged in an effort to reinforce the message that Iran was ready to hit back if Israel or the US - or both - launched any kind of military strike on its nuclear facilities...
Read the full report at link below...
Iran's arsenal of missiles

* AFP.Google.com reports... A defence analyst said on Thursday that Iran had apparently doctored photographs of missile test-firings and exaggerated the capabilities of the weapons... Iran on Wednesday test-fired nine missiles -- including a Shahab-3 it said was capable of reaching Israel -- angering the United States amid fears that the standoff over the Islamic republic's contested nuclear drive could lead to war... Photographs published on the Iranian Revolutionary Guards website showed four missiles taking off from a desert launch pad... But one of the missiles had apparently been added to the photograph using elements from the smoke trail and dust clouds from two of the other missiles...
Read the rest at link below...
Iran 'doctored' missile test-firing photo

* Telegraph.co.uk has this take on the news today... Israel's defence minister warned Iran his country was ready to act if threatened, as Tehran test fired another salvo of missiles capable of hitting the Jewish state... Ehud Barak said that while military action was a last resort, his country had proved in the past it would not hesitate when "its vital security interests are at stake."...
Read this report in full at link below...
Israel will not hesitate if threatened, defence minister says

* AP.Google.com has this report... Israel's defense minister hinted Thursday that Israel was ready to attack Iran's nuclear program, saying it didn't balk before "when its vital security interests" were at stake... Defense Minister Ehud Barak's allusion to Israel's 1981 airstrike on an unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor came at a time of intensified tensions between Israel and its archenemy, Iran... Tehran launched war games and tests of a long-range missile this week after saying Tel Aviv would be "set on fire" if Israel were to attack Iran... "Israel is the strongest country in the region and has proved in the past that it doesn't hesitate to act when its vital security interests are at stake," Barak told a meeting of his Labor Party... But he quickly tempered his remarks, noting that "the reactions of enemies ... need to be taken into consideration as well."...
Read the full report at link below...
Barak hints at Israel's readiness to strike Iran

* Israel Ministry Of Foreign Affairs has this report up today...
Behind the Headlines: Israeli measures against Hamas in the West Bank

Image by MFA - Taken from Visual Material Confiscated from Hamas Daawa Institutions