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Report: U.S. Scales-Back Military Exercise with Israel, Affecting Potential Iran Strike


The following is a TIME Exclusive:

Seven months ago, Israel and the United States postponed a massive joint military exercise that was originally set to go forward just as concerns were brimming that Israel would launch a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. The exercise was rescheduled for late October, and appears likely to go forward on the cusp of the U.S. presidential election. But it won’t be nearly the same exercise. Well-placed sources in both countries have told TIME that Washington has greatly reduced the scale of U.S. participation, slashing by more than two-thirds the number of American troops going to Israel and reducing both the number and potency of missile interception systems at the core of the joint exercise.

“Basically what the Americans are saying is, ‘We don’t trust you,’” a senior Israeli military official tells TIME.

The reductions are striking. Instead of the approximately 5,000 U.S. troops originally trumpeted for Austere Challenge 12, as the annual exercise is called, the Pentagon will send only 1,500 service members, and perhaps as few as 1,200. Patriot anti-missile systems will arrive in Israel as planned, but the crews to operate them will not. Instead of two Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense warships being dispatched to Israeli waters, the new plan is to send one, though even the remaining vessel is listed as a “maybe,” according to officials in both militaries.

READ FULL ARTICLE: TIME



3 Responses

  1. אין לנו אל מי להישען אלא על אבינו שבשמים
    The rope is tightening. But what are the secular Israelis mostly concerned about right now? Making it very difficult for the Bnei Torah, draft deferals are becoming alot harder to just got. And the Avrechim, buchrim are being treated disrespectfully. And they are still talking about Drafting the Charedim, removing an additional source of shmira. Are the really insane?
    And the American government is also losing its zchusim by threatening to cut off support this way.

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