The previously delayed joint US-Israeli missile defense drill has finally begun, with some 3,500 US troops deployed across Europe and Israel to take part alongside 1,000 Israeli troops.
The exercise centers around defending Israel in the event of a multi-front attack from mortar fire, short and long-range missiles. Though officials deny any specific scenario, it is widely seen as preparation for an Iranian retaliation to an oft-threaten Israeli attack.
The drill is expected to last around three weeks and is being called the single largest joint US-Israeli military exercise in history. US troops began arriving in Israel for the drill early last week.
Initially planned for early spring, the drill was postponed indefinitely at the behest of Israeli officials, saying that regional tensions made it an inopportune moment for such an undertaking. How the current moment, with Lebanon in a state of unrest and Syria’s civil war getting worse, is conceivably any less “tense” regionally is unclear.
I don't know if I should laugh, cry, or throw up.
Why Europe? Israel has plenty of enemies on every continent, but what is significant about Europe? US tax-slaves pay dearly with their children's blood and treasure to protect the apartheid state of Israel? What will wake them from their stupor?
Still bad for business. US Presence will only stir unrest and undermine Israel's fragile democratic relations with its neighboring nations. Both the US and Israel advice their citizens against traveling into places like Jordan and have cited caution with travel agencies offering travel tours. Bad for business like the jordan tours department.