HERZLIYA (EJP)--One of the highlights of the first night at the Herzliya Conference was the speech carried by Major General Benny Gantz, the Israeli army’s Deputy chief of staff, and the prominent runner-up to take office instead of Gabi Ashkenazi, the current chief of staff.
In his speech, which portrayed the current affairs on Israel's security and defense state of affairs, Gantz surveyed all of Israel's fronts and challenges, as well as his assessment for 2010.
Acording to him, there is a quiet in the borders between Israel and Lebanon as well as Gaza. “Lebanon should be responsible for the Hezbollah acts, as its credibility in the international arena is high enough to fight any militia in its territories,” he said.
As to the West Bank, the cooperation and relations with the Palestinians “are in the highest level.” “We will continue the efforts to relief the roadblocks in order to help the Palestinian Authority to build its economy,” Gantz said.
Iran, according to Gantz, would become in 2010 the leading threat to Israel's security as well as for the entire region and southern Europe. “We will have the counter response for this challenge”, he said.
In a reference to the Goldstone report on the war in Gaza, which he called a “Trojan Horse”, Gantz said that “we should investigate the problematics of the reports on crimes that were allegedly-executed by the IDF soldiers, yet it cannot be a paralyzing process for Israel's stand in front of terrorists.”