Yoni Ben Menachem, senior Middle East analyst at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, spoke to Arutz Sheva on Sunday about the exchange of threats between the US and Iran following the elimination of Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani.
In the interview, Ben Menachem expressed concerned over a possible scenario in which Israel would be pulled into the conflict between the two countries.
"Israel is in the picture, because Iran will not miss an opportunity to push us into this story. This weekend, for the first time, senior members of the Revolutionary Guards threatened to attack Tel Aviv and it was quietly ignored in the media, but it is a very serious threat," he said.
"Even though the intelligence assessment in Israel is that the likelihood that Tel Aviv will be attacked by the Iranians is low, there is a question of what will happen if the Iranians’ backs are pushed against the wall because of a strong US military response. In this case, they are likely to try to involve Israel, as Saddam Hussein did in the Gulf War [in 1991] when he fired missiles towards Israel. We should be prepared for this," Ben Menachem continued.
"Iranians have both the intelligence and operational capability to launch missiles and rockets at Israel from Iran, Syria and Iraq and, of course, the Gaza Strip must not be forgotten. The situation there is that Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which are Iran's proxies, are sitting relatively quietly. Israel has sent messages through Egypt that it will not ignore an escalation, and Hamas has sent back messages that it wants to promote calm and does not intend to allow the Gaza Strip to become a site for settling accounts between Iran and Israel."
"However, we do not know the position of the Islamic Jihad and our past experience with them is bad. This organization is much more committed to Iran than Hamas and there are some in Gaza who say that Islamic Jihad leader Ziad Nakhala will not be able to refuse an Iranian request to launch rockets at Israel," Ben Menachem added.
