Peretz dazzled by Navy's 'Star Trek' [pg. 2]

Defense Minister Amir Peretz sailed with the Israeli Navy off the coast on Friday and, after receiving a briefing on the Navy's operations against Hizbullah, said that the missile ship's war room looked like it came from the set of a Star Trek movie. During the visit, Peretz reiterated Israel's long-standing position that it did not intend to attack Syria despite Damascus's repeated attempts to transfer weapons to Hizbullah. Referring to the missile attack two weeks ago on the INS Hanit (Spear) during which four sailors were killed, Peretz said that the attack was "hard and painful" but could not be allowed to impact the Navy's sense of security. "Your self-confidence is a message to our enemies," he told the sailors aboard the INS Eilat. During a visit in the Eilat's Combat Information Center, Peretz was taken aback by the dark room filled wall-to-wall with plasma radar screens and marveled to the soldiers, "It looks like you are serving on the set of Star Trek. This ship has unreal capabilities."