On the Palestinians: ‘In the end they’ll find consensus – us’

The IDF chief also addressed the threats and missions Israel and the army are faced with.

Regarding the Palestinian arena, he noted: “The solution to the Palestinian issue seems distant. The Palestinian system is in a situation of anarchy, especially in Gaza, as opposed to in Judea and Samara, where we are physically present. In Gaza there is anarchy.

There is not ‘king’ to take the law into his hands and make order.

"There are internal wars that find an escape route through us. In the end, they won’t fight a civil war but will settle on a consensus – and that is us,” he warned.

Halutz reiterated warnings that the Palestinians were smuggling large quantities of weapons into Gaza. He said Palestinians were linked to a smuggling chain that goes from Damascus and Tehran all the way to the Gaza Strip.

As for Syria, Halutz said he considered Syrian President Bashar Assad as having his “right foot in the hot water of a war and his left foot is in the cold water of peace.”

“We need to be alert to the fact that the capabilities Syria is building are a bad dream compared to what we saw with Hizbullah. They have rockets systems that could hit the home front, if there is a confrontation. They have an army which we tend to belittle, but I suggest to take it seriously. The Syrians understand and harbor part of the terror operating against Israel – they stand behind Hizbullah, Hamas and the Jihad.”

Halutz also addressed the Iranian threat and the danger ambushing Israel. In Iran there exists “the combination of fanatic ideology and the strong will to attain nuclear weapons. And their flag is the desire to destroy Israel. We can’t remain indifferent; we need to look at things from a temporal perspective. We need to be ready for this insane possibility. This is a real, unequivocal threat, and they’ve already declared their intentions.”