By beating the Syrian army 17th reserve division for control of the Euphrates, Islamist militias have removed the last gap in al Qaeda’s 1,000-km chain of command from northern Baghdad to eastern Damascus, including Syrian Golan on Israel’s border. Any “conflagration” in Syria could quickly spread to Lebanon, Iraq or the Golan; a violent incident in Egypt could spill back and forth into Libya, Israel or Algeria. “The threats have not gone, only assumed new shapes,” said IDF chief of staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz.

The Syrian and Israeli armies have been on a high state of preparedness for two months ready a) for Assad to pay Israel back for its attack and b) for Israel to strike weapons transfers to Hizballah in Lebanon. Israel meanwhile imposes no-fly zones over three Syrian borders.

“Israel will do all it can to prevent Iran from re-arming Hamas after its losses in our Gaza operation,” said Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz Sunday, Nov. 25.
But debkafile intelligence sources learn that Saturday, Nov. 24, just three days after the Gaza ceasefire, three Iranian missile engineers managed to steal into the Gaza Strip. They reached Gaza from their Lebanese base on false passports through Sinai and one of the smuggling tunnels blasted in the Israeli operation and repaired by Hamas.

Israel has given Damascus a final warning that a military response would be forthcoming if its fighter aircraft infringed the airspace over the Golan demilitarized zones, debkafile reports. The warning, further ratcheting up border tension, was relayed through the UN Disengagement Observer Force in an effort to contain any spillover of the Syrian civil war across Israel’s border. It applied to any ordnance flying across the border and the entry of Syrian forces to the Golan demilitarized zones.

Gulf rulers led by Saudi Arabia say that by packing up its bags and leaving, the US military abandoned Iraq the country to an Iranian power grab led by Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and released its sectarian demons. They are therefore determined to go it alone against Iran.

The Cairo media's highly colored accounts Monday, Aug. 30 of 1,500 Egyptian commandos and tanks supposedly raiding Jihad Islami and al Qaeda cells in Sinai are pure fiction, debkafile's military sources confirm. Israeli forces along the Gazan and Egyptian borders down to Eilat stand at the highest level of preparedness for a Jihad Islami group which left the Gaza Strip for Sinai on Aug. 24 to strike. The terrorists now hold the initiative thereby sapping the IDF's deterrent strength.

The message Adm. Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint US Chiefs of Staff, brought Israel Sunday, Feb. 13, was that the 1979 peace accord with Egypt is not in jeopardy. He tried giving this assurance to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Gen. Benny Gantz - who became Israel's 20th chief of staff Monday. Both sides ignored Egyptian opposition leader Ayman Nour's comment: Camp David is finished. Gen. Gantz has the job of overhauling the IDF for five fronts.

Israel's new chief of staff Maj. Gen. Benny Gantz is saddled with might task of rebuilding Israel's armed forces from scratch to fit the potential menace posed by the upheaval in Egypt. Ashkenazi worked closely with Washington to attune combined US-Israel military resources to possible combat with Iran.