Just ten days after Israel strategists, intelligence and military were duped by an Iranian stealth UAV launched by Hizballah from Lebanon, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu unveiled his new security doctrine to the Knesset in a speech confirming a general election on Jan. 22, 2013.

Declaring proudly that in all his seven years as prime minister (in two non-consecutive terms), Israel had never gone to war because “the finger on the trigger” was never light although it was firm. This may be counted as his first campaign speech for reelection. It was designed to appeal to voters right, left and center by omitting to enumerate the strategic gains made by Israel’s enemies during those seven years of freedom from Israeli military deterrence.

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1.  Iran’s nuclear bomb program forged ahead and accumulated enough fissile material to build five nuclear bombs without hindrance or fear of attack;

2.  Iran is closer than ever before to conducting its first nuclear test in 2013;

3.  Tehran has stationed the elite Al Qods Brigades of its Revolutionary Guards on two of Israel’s borders, Syria and Lebanon;

4.  The Lebanese Shiite terrorists, Hizballah, have managed to stock up 60,000 assorted rockets which can reach every corner of Israel – a capacity they did not possess six years ago.

5. The Palestinian radical Hamas which rules the Gaza Strip and Iran’s pawn, the Jihad Islami, have accumulated tens of thousand of rockets whose range has been extended from neighboring Israeli locations and towns in SW Israel to Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Ben Gurion international airport. This happened in the absence of preventive action in the years after Israel unilaterally evacuated the Gaza Strip in 2005 under Netanyahu’s predecessor Ariel Sharon.

Under Netanyahu’s watch, the Palestinian terrorist movement spilled over from the Gaza Strip into Egyptian Sinai and hooked up with al Qaeda-linked Salafi cells;

6.  As demonstrated 10 days ago, Iran has given Hizballah UAVs with stealth qualities capable of outwitting Israel’s faulty military defenses;

7.  Iran and Hizballah have for months been waging an international war of terror against Israeli and Jewish targets without paying a price

8. Contrary to international and Israeli media claims that Bashar Assad is on his last legs against the Western-backed Arab effort to break up the Syrian-Iranian-Hizballah axis, that axis is in fact growing stronger day by day and from late September acquired the Palestinian Hamas and Jihad Islami as military partners;

Prime Minister Netanyahu’s assertion, “We have restored security to Israel’s inhabitants, taken firm action and abandoned the policy of restraint,” is therefore not borne out by these eight developments. Otherwise, how come that Iran and Hizballah continue to be on the offensive, risking even an overt act of belligerence such as sending a drone into Israeli airspace, without the slightest Israel response or counter-action?

In contrast, Iran and Hizballah have not stopped crowing over getting away with it.

Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has rewarded Hizballah richly for its feat in three ways:

a)  He gave the go-ahead for a crash program to finish developing a drone capable of carrying a bomb across a distance of 2,000 kilometers and bring Israel within range. It has been given the name of "Hazem," meaning resourceful and wise and Hizballah’s Hassan Nasrallah was promised receipt within six months; b) Each of the Iranian designers and planners of the UAV was given a Porsche car;
c) Nasrallah was handed a check for a million dollars to distribute to the crew working on its launch into Israel.

Iranian security sources reported Monday night that Hizballah will “very soon” publish detailed photographs of Israel’s nuclear reactor shot by the intruder drone.

In the 99 days up to the Israel election, Khamenei and Nasrallah may be expected to test the Israeli prime minister’s new military doctrine to the limit and see whether his finger on the trigger is capable of switching from light to firm.