Avner Shalev

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Israel to Iran: Do you get the picture?

When it comes to sending signals, a picture is worth a thousand words. And lately, Israel has been sending a lot of signals, and using specific kinds of pictures to get its message across.

Just over the past week, the Israeli defense establishment has released the following pictures of its set pieces:

The Ministry of Defense has released pictures of an Arrow 3 anti-missile defense system test. [Message to Iran: We can hit your long-range missiles, your threats of massive rocket attack have been noted and we're prepared].

The Israel Air Force released pictures of its “IAF pilots train against realistic enemy simulations.” [Message: We know what you've got around your nuclear sites, see? We've even built little mock versions of your systems].

Then the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit released photos of The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States Military, General (****) Martin E. Dempsey, at Yad Vashem [Message to Iran: Israel takes your threats of annihilation seriously and has brought the commander of the US Army to Yad Vashem to make that point to him - just so that he knows we're not kidding when we say 'Never Again']

And by the way, don’t believe those reports of tension between Israel and the US. Clink.

Before that was the release of images of the first IDF Paratrooper Brigade practice jump in 15 years. [Message: The IDF has more tools in its box than just air strikes and is not squeamish about sending a large amount of crack troops deep into enemy territory].

All of these events [bar Dempsey's visit to Yad Vashem] could have been conducted in secret, as many other security operations routinely are. There is no doubt that they were made public as part of a wider campaign to send messages about Israel’s military preparedness regarding a strike on Iran’s nuclear program. The question is: do the Iranians get the picture?

Tagged: Arrow missile, chairman of the joint chiefs, IDF, IDF Paratroopers, Iran, Israel, Israel Air Force, joint chiefs of staff, missile defense system