Itzhak Brik (right) has warned that Israel is not ready for a multi-front war

Major Israeli general, Itzhak Brik, has made a number of warnings recently: Firstly, that if Israel goes ahead with its desire to conduct mass deportations, the whole of the Islamic and Arab world will be against Israel, and this could revive Arab alliances against Israel. Secondly, Israel is not ready for a mutli-front war, and Turkey could go against Israel using its Syrian rebel proxy. As Brik wrote on Haaretz recently:

Donald Trump’s declaration that some 2 million Gazans need to be evicted to other places around the world, which seems more imaginary than realistic, is turning the Arab world against his statement and against the United States and Israel. It could also bring about further deterioration: the peace treaty with Saudi Arabia could be taken off the table, peace with Egypt could collapse, old alliances between Arab countries against Israel could go back into effect, and more.

…

The army went into atrophy and abandoned Israel’s security in every aspect: no proper security strategy for current and future wars has been formulated, the home front was left unprepared for war, ground forces have been cut and cannot meet the war’s challenges. The IDF has also failed to formulate a defensive and offensive strategy with respect to missiles, rockets and drones.

Due to this lack of security strategy and a misunderstanding of reality among both the military and political top brass, the IDF didn’t purchase the new weaponry needed for a multi-theater war. No surface-to-surface missile corps was established to destroy enemy missile launchers, which would have been more efficient for this task than fighter jets. There should have been a joint national initiative with the U.S. to develop and produce a powerful laser that could hit enemy ballistic missiles, hundreds of times cheaper than the missiles at our disposal (the Arrow, David’s Sling and the Iron Dome). Due to their high cost, stockpiles of these missiles are very small, and in a multi-theater war they would run out within a few days.

Furthermore, a powerful laser is the only device that would be able to intercept maneuverable hypersonic missiles. In addition, a multi-barrel, radar-guided anti-aircraft system, which is highly effective against drones, hasn’t been purchased either. Tens of thousands of intelligence-gathering and attack drones haven’t been purchased, and the ground forces haven’t been increased.

All this is due to a distorted perception among the army’s top brass, which continued the conception of previous wars and built a military force based mainly on fighter jets, whose place in wars around the world is shrinking in favor of drones. In addition, the political and military leadership failed to respond to the changes taking place within Arab armies, which were preparing themselves for entirely different kinds of wars.

The current existential threat to Israel is negligible compared to the future existential threat. Its ground forces are small and incapable of fighting on more than one front, though it will be required to fight on at least five ground fronts simultaneously. When a comprehensive, multi-front, regional war breaks out, the IDF will have to fight against Hezbollah’s Radwan Force, which will have regained its strength, in Lebanon; the extremist and jihadi Islamic State in Syria, supported by Turkey; and pro-Iranian militias on the Jordanian border. Should an uprising occur in Jordan, as it did in Syria, Israel will feel the domino effect, and its position will be significantly more difficult. All of this is due to cuts in the ground forces over the last 20 years.

Israel knows of the rising threat of Turkey since the former Ottoman empire is working to rebirth itself and is now running Damascus in Syria which is right next door to Israel. The Nagel Committee, which was created by the Israeli government to assess problems for the Israeli military, recently declared that Israel must prepare for a potential war with Israel:

Since, as Brik warns, Israel is not ready for a major war, a Turkish-Israeli war will be utterly devastating.