Israel has the ability to strike at terrorists no matter where they are, Gen. Aharon Yariv, former chief of Israel Intelligence, said in an interview in Yediot Acharonot. The interview was given after Yariv announced his retirement as special advisor to the Prime Minister for counter-terrorist activities in order to run as a Labor Party candidate for the Knesset.
Yariv said that there has been a recent decline in morale among Arab terrorist groups which he said numbered 14,000 men. He said that terrorists had missed 37 out of 48 Israeli targets abroad.
However, Yariv said Israel must take a serious view of the murder of Col. Josef Alon, the Air Attache at the Israeli Embassy in Washington. But he added, “We can rely on the American authorities to take all the measures necessary to expose the murderers.” Yariv denied there was a security failure in Washington.
On the Middle East situation in general, Yariv, said the state of no war, no peace could continue for a generation and perhaps more. “While the Arabs are presenting a theory of continuous battle with Israel we have to present a counter theory of continuous Israeli strategic effort so that the Arabs will understand we are strong enough so that the conflict will never be resolved by force,” he said.
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