Dichter: We failed to deal with tunnels, simple rockets
In interview, minister of internal security lays out Israel's failures, but also mentions achievements
According to the minister, in the last six years, the organization that Iran has put together began moving south towards the Israeli border. "Hizbullah is a division of the Iranian army, as far as we know. It is trained and funded by Iran. It's an Iranian organization operating on Lebanese soil. Hizbullah is the first division that Iran founded together outside its borders."
Minister Dichter added that in the last six years, Iran attempted to establish Hamas in a similar structure to that of Hizbullah. "It has to do with the establishment of an Iranian infrastructure on Lebanese soil in preparation for a fateful day. In this war, Hizbullah used strategic weapons. Nasrallah should be asked 'what have you done for Iran? What have you done with the weapons in order to bring about the release of Samir Kuntar?'"
'Atomic bomb in Iran, existential threat to Israel'
In a meeting with reporters in Jerusalem, Dichter also commented on the fact that 75 percent of the rockets launched towards Israel landed in open areas. "Hizbullah did not intend on shooting them towards open areas, the matter simply testifies to the oranization's limited capabilities." He claimed that Hizbullah attempted to kidnap soldiers on two occasions in the last several months – both attempts were thwarted by the IDF.
Despite Hizbullah's failures, he also addressed those of Israel. "In the last five years, we failed on two central issues in the fight against terrorism: The first being the tunnels and the second being 'simple' rockets, that is Qassam and Katyusha rockets. Both of which we need to take into serious consideration, and both are methods which are simple but which create significant damage."
Regarding Iran, Minister Dichter said that "an atomic bomb in Iran is an existential threat to the State of Israel. Iran is viewed as a country without limits, and rightly so."
