Israeli Official: Iran and Its Proxies Greatest Existential Threat to Israel

Avi Dichter, former head of Israel's Shin Beth domestic intelligence service speaks during
Lior Mizrahi/Getty

The Jerusalem Post reports: Citing Iran and its proxy terrorist organizations, Hamas and Hezbollah, as the greatest existential threats to Israel, former Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head and current chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Avi Dichter (pictured), said the Middle East is undergoing “tectonic movements.”

“We used to have three enemy countries: Syria, Jordan and Egypt,” said Dichter Monday during an international press briefing at The Israel Project’s headquarters in Jerusalem.

“We signed a peace treaty with Egypt and Jordan, and today we have four enemy countries – Syria, Lebanon, the Gaza Strip, which has an army of terrorists, and Iran, an enemy state.”

While Israel has historically engendered a robust level of deterrence against hostile neighbors by winning several damaging wars, he contended that a recently empowered Iran, aided by its allies, now poses the most imminent danger to Israel’s security.

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