Military Intelligence: "In the next year, Israel will encounter a more unstable regional environment than in the past"
Date: 27/08/2012, 2:57 PM
Author: IDF Website
The IDF Military Intelligence Directorate's annual situation assessment was presented today (Monday, August 27) to Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz and the General Staff Forum.
The annual report is intended to brief the IDF's senior leadership on strategic and operational regional developments and to identify key regional threats and opportunities, based on the Intelligence Directorate's assessment of the regional situation. This assessment is a basis for decision-making at the national and military levels, as well as for the IDF's future operational plans.
"The annual intelligence assessment presented to you today is the result of a long, thorough, and comprehensive process of collection, work, and research, led by the Research Division and relying on all of the collection systems and capabilities that the Intelligence Directorate has and those that were developed in the past year," Head of the Military Intelligence Directorate Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi said at the beginning of the presentation.
"We predict that in the next year, the State of Israel will encounter a regional environment that is more unstable, tense, and Islamist than in the past," he later explained. "An environment dealing with a series of crises – regional and domestic – which raises the threshold of sensitivity of all the players and may lead – even without advance planning – to flare-ups."
The annual intelligence assessment was formulated by the Research Division of the Intelligence Directorate and approved by the Head of the Intelligence Directorate. It is based on the intelligence-gathering capabilities of the Military Intelligence Directorate and other intelligence bodies, as well as on the thorough analysis conducted within the Research Division. Following the approval of the Chief of Staff, the assessment will be passed on to the political establishment.
Lt. Gen. Gantz is expected to speak later today, summarizing the assessment's findings regarding the next year.