Israeli Official: Iran's Technological Gap with Israel is Decreasing

The head of the Israeli military intelligence agency has stated that his country and Iran are in a "technology war" and that Iran is making significant advancements to close its technological gap with Israel. General Herzi Halevi made these remarks on Thursday, November 7, during a closed meeting in Tel Aviv. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Sunday, November 10, that Halevi added that the distance between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Israel in technology is "rapidly" decreasing, and as Iran progresses, Israel's superiority becomes "limited." According to Haaretz, Halevi said, "If you ask me whether there will be a war between Israel and Iran in the next ten years, my answer will surprise you: this war has already started and is ongoing." Halevi noted, "Our engineers (Israel) are at war with their engineers (Iran), and this war will significantly expand in the future." He added that the nature of this "very important" war is over "information, equipment, and the military capabilities of the opposing side." He stated, "Israel currently has the upper hand, but Iran is quickly catching up to us." Halevi attributed the increase in the number of universities and students in Iran, which has "increased twentyfold" since the revolution, to the enhancement of Iran's technological capabilities, stating that in the past 36 years, the number of universities and students in Israel has only increased three and a half times. Halevi's remarks regarding internal Israeli issues, according to Haaretz, also included comments on the recent security crisis in Israel, stating that if the speed at which videos of knife attacks by Palestinian assailants against Israeli citizens are shared on social media had been present during the Palestinian Fedayeen attacks on Jews during Israel's War of Independence, the independence war "would never" have led to the establishment of Israel. Halevi remarked that if in 1948 Jews had seen what the Fedayeen were doing to the fighters of Israel's independence, they would not have been willing to continue the war. According to Haaretz, Halevi also mentioned that he recently canceled an intelligence exercise that was supposed to take place in the Israeli army due to receiving a letter from a low-ranking officer in intelligence unit 8200; he did not provide further details on this matter. Several soldiers from this unit have written in open complaints in recent years that the missions assigned to them contradict Palestinian human rights, and they have refused to carry out orders. Haaretz reported that, unlike his predecessor, Aviv Kochavi, Halevi has not had a media presence during his year in charge of military intelligence, making his candid remarks on Thursday "unusual" and "interesting."