Kochavi: Region becoming less stable, more Islamist

Military Intelligence chief says the Mideast will face crises and be more prone to unexpected eruptions.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
Aviv Kochavi 390 (photo credit: Screenshot)
Aviv Kochavi 390
(photo credit: Screenshot)
Israel will face a more unstable, tense, and Islamist environment than in the past, Military Intelligence head Maj.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi told IDF Chief of Staff, Maj.-Gen. Benny Gantz on Monday.
The comments were made during a presentation of an annual Military Intelligence evaluation.
“It will be an environment that deals with a series of crises, regional and internal, which raises the level of sensitivity of all players, and which could lead, without prior planning, to an eruption,” said Kochavi.
The annual intelligence evaluation is produced by the the Research Division of Military Intelligence, and is based on intelligence gathering by the IDF and the intelligence community at large. It is designed to create a current regional evaluation and point out strategic and operational challenges. The report will be sent to the government as well.
Last month, during a briefing to the Foreign Ministry, Kochavi estimated that Syrian President “Bashar Assad will not survive the uprising, even if it takes some more time.”
Kochavi expressed his concern that the Golan Heights region might become a terror hotbed, similar to the Sinai Peninsula.
“Recently over 10 infrastructures of deadly terror attacks were dismantled [in Sinai],” he said last month, prior to the deadly terror attack on Egyptian security personnel by al-Qaida-inspired attackers in Sinai, and their failed attempt to subsequently attack Israeli targets.