Nov 19, 2009 10:29 | Updated Nov 19, 2009 15:37
IDF to join NATO Mediterranean force
By YAAKOV KATZ
The Navy will dispatch a missile ship in the coming months to
participate in a NATO mission to patrol the Mediterranean Sea and
prevent weapons smuggling, Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi
Ashkenazi and NATO Military Commander Admiral Giampaolo Di Paoloa
decided Wednesday night.
NATO chief visits to enlist Israel in Mediterranean mission
Di Paola arrived Wednesday in Israel for a three-day visit as a guest
of Ashkenazi. This is Di Paola's third visit to Israel in the past
four years both in his current position as well as in his last post as
top military commander of Italy.
During their meeting on Wednesday, Ashkenazi and Di Paoloa discussed
ways to upgrade Israeli-NATO military ties as well as the plan to
include an Israeli Navy vessel in Active Endeavour, a NATO mission
established after the 9/11 attacks under which NATO vessels patrol the
Mediterranean to prevent illegal terror trafficking.
The timing of Di Paoloa's visit was considered significant since it
came at a time that the IDF is under increasing criticism in wake of
the Goldstone Report on Operation Cast Lead as well as a decision by
Turkey - a NATO member - to ban Israel from joint aerial exercises.
Since its inception after 9/11, NATO forces have hailed over 100,000
merchant vessels, and boarded some 148 suspicious vessels.
This will be the first time that IDF troops actively participate in a
NATO operation in the Mediterranean Sea as part of the Active Endeavor
maritime counter-terror operation.
The decision to send an Israeli Navy ship was made recently by Defense
Minister Ehud Barak, Ashkenazi and commander of the Navy Adm. Eliezer
Marom. It has not yet been decided which ship would participate in the
operation.
Ashkenazi and Di Paoloa also discussed additional ways to upgrade
Israeli-NATO relations.
Also on Wednesday, Ashkenazi and other members of the General Staff
presented Di Paoloa with the IDF's multi-year plan Tefen. Di Paoloa
expressed his astonishment with the IDF's ability to compile such a
complicated plan. He also noted that NATO and the IDF were facing
similar threats - NATO in Afghanistan and Israel in its war against
Hamas and Hizbullah.
Di Paoloa will visit the IDF's elite Engineering Corps Yahalom as well
as the Air Force's Palmahim Base where he will be briefed on the
Second Lebanon War and Operation Cast Lead.
Abey machod Muhammad Javed Ekbal, this is not a case of "Judo-
Christian (sic) Anti Islam Alliance" - this is a case of democracies
being for each other. Muslim Turkey also joins in such exercises.
As a member of the infamously extremist Jamaat-e-Islami, Muhammad
Javed Ekbal is under the impression that only fanatical regimes like
those in Saudi Arabia deserves support. USA would do well to distance
itself from nations like Saudi Arabia.
In the mean time Muhahammad Javed Ekbal should stop collaborating with
the Lashkars, the Sipahes, the Talibans and the Al Qaedas. He is
making a grave mistake by being lured by the dream of 72 Houris and 28
pearl like boys in Paradise. He'll burn in hell fire for eternity if
he fails to be for democracy rather than for the bigoted ideology of
Jamaat-e-Islami.