Halevy: Iran can't destroy Israel

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
"It's not possible for Iran to destroy Israel," former Mossad chief Ephraim Halevy said Tuesday. "I don't believe the existence of Israel is in question. I don't believe we could be erased from the face of the world," Halevy told the Hadassah Women's Zionist Organization and the World Zionist Organization's solidarity mission, gathered at the Neurim youth village near Netanya, where hundreds of Ethiopian children from the North have been taken in for the duration of the war. While acknowledging that Iran is a threat, Halevy assured his audience that Israel has the capability to prevent itself from being eliminated. Referring to the link between Iran and what is happening in Lebanon, Halevy said that if Hizbullah were crippled, it would dent the threat posed by Iran. Convinced that hostilities between Hizbullah and Israel would intensify in the days to come, Halevy was nonetheless confident that Israel would be victorious. "In the end, we will emerge successful," he said. "But we have to make sure that our enemies will not be able to project the image that they are similarly successful. This is very important for Israel's deterrence image," Halevy insisted, adding, "We must engrave in the mind of the enemy that it has suffered a serious setback."