By Donald H. Harrison 

SAN DIEGO, Calif.—Nothwithstanding its victory in the recent Palestinian elections, Hamas is far from being Israel's major military concern, says Israeli Reserve Brig/ Gen. Yehiel Gozal, who now serves as national director in the United States of the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces.  A far greater threat—on which Israel is spending considerable resources to counter—is Iran's determined effort to become a nuclear power, he said.

Israel welcomes any effort by the United Nations Security Council to attempt to deny Iran the capability of producing nuclear weapons, Gozal  said in Shabbat speeches at two San Diego synagogues and during a post-havdalah talk at a private home. 

However, there may come a time when Israel feels that the deadline to insure its safety has been reached, and may therefore have to act alone against Iran, Gozal stressed in speeches Friday, Feb. 3, at Congregation Beth Am, and on Saturday, Feb. 4,  at Tifereth Israel Synagogue and at the home of philanthropists David and Orly Perez.

Gozal said the IDF has been devoting major resources to the development of contingency plans involving its intelligence service, special forces and air force for dealing with the dispersed underground sites where Iran is believed to be developing its nuclear program.  

While Israel hopes economic sanctions will be leveled by the world body to force Iran to give up its nuclear armament program, if such a diplomatic effort fails, Israel knows from the experience of Jews in the Holocaust that it cannot depend on any other country to guarantee Israel's continued existence, Gozal said.

Asked at the gathering at the Perez home whether the United States had sold "bunker-busting" bombs to Israel to deal with Iran's underground nuclear facilities, Gozal simply smiled and said that he could not talk about such matters.


Orly and David Perez are presented a printed version of a Torah by Israeli Reserve
Brig. Gen. Yehiel Gozal in appreciation of their support of the Friends of the Israel
Defense Forces.  The Perezes hosted a reception for Gozal Saturday evening, Feb. 4. 

As for the Hamas parliamentary victory in the Palestinian territories, Gozal said it helps to clarify the situation for members of the Israeli military when they know that the people they are dealing with are sworn enemies.  "Now we know that the official government of the Palestinians are terrorists," said Gozal.  Should it become necessary, the IDF therefore will be able to take more direct measures against the Palestinian government then it could in the past, he said.

Turning to the situation on Israel's northern borders, Gozal said that the Hezbollah in Lebanon—which he described as part of the long arm of Iran—is more troublesome to Israel than Syria.  The latter country, he said, poses far less a threat than it did 15 years ago.  This, he added, is because Syria became part of the U.S.-led coalition in the 1991 Gulf War and came to better understand the extent of Israel's military power..

He said that Syria's young president, Bashar al-Assad, had put out some peace feelers to Israel, which were unproductive because Assad, at the same time,  was permitting terrorists to go across its border to Iraq to fight against American forces.

With worldwide pressure on Iran mounting, Gozal said he anticipates Iran's client Hezbollah forces in Lebanon will attempt to provoke more and more incidents against Israel in an effort to cement a military alliance with the Hamas-led Palestinians.

The briefings Gozal gave to his three San Diego audiences were preludes to the main "business" portions of his  speeches—to acquaint potential donors with the mission of the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces to raise money to help improve opportunities and conditions for Israeli soldiers.

Registered in the United States as a charitable organization, the F.I.D.F. raises money for scholarships and other projects intended to benefit the soldiers on a personal level.  Gozal promised that if a listener were to donate $4,000 for a scholarship, an Israeli soldier will receive the full $4,000 without any deductions for administrative expenses.

Gozal said other F.I.D.F. projects include sending combat units to Rest & Relaxation centers for a week; supporting wounded soldiers in their physical and mental recuperation; sending the children of soldiers killed in battle to summer camps in the United States, and building athletic facilities and synagogues f or the soldiers.  

Traveling with Gozal  were Capt. Shirine Bitton, who heads an office that looks after the social welfare of soldiers in the Golani Brigade, and  Lt. Yanir Gatnio, who commands a platoon stationed on the front lines in Hebron.

Bitton, 25,  said she heads a staff of 26 female officers whose responsibility is looking after the social welfare of the 5,000 members of the Golani unit.   Among these soldiers are some who are orphans or whose parents still live in other countries.  Having no families to care for their welfare, these soldiers are regularly visited by members of  Bitton's social welfare office, and are helped with a variety of problems, including obtaining apartments.

Gatnio, 22, said he was an example of the kind of soldier that the F.I.D.F. helps.  He said that he has not seen his father since he was 5 years old when the father moved away.  When he was only 6, his mother was killed in a car accident.  Since then he had lived with an uncle, who sent him to a government-subsidized boarding school, and with his grandmother.  F.I.D.F. helped him, he said.  In the platoon he commands,  there are four soldiers who also have no families, and  now, he added, "I can help them."

Perez, who became well known in San Diego and around the nation after he personally organized a relief effort for victims of Hurricane Katrina—chartering planes to fly food and supplies to America's flood ravaged Gulf Coast and to bring refugees to San Diego—appealed to more than 50 guests at his home to give generously to the fund. He urged guests to send back contribution envelopes distributed for that purpose, adding  that he would match all donations given in response to Gozal's appeal up to $18,000.

Some projects have higher price tags, including educational centers for between $500,000 and $2 million, sports centers and cultural centers for at least $1 million each, mobile gymnasiums for $32,000; recreational mobile clubs for $20,000.  The mobile synagogues cost $18,000.

In San Diego, Daniel Brodsky  serves as F.I.D.C. chapter president, and his wife, Nina, chaired the event at the Perez home.  The San Diego chapter  may be reached at (858) 794-7018. Miri Nash, executive director of the Western Region of the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, has offices in the Marina del Rey area of Los Angeles,and is reachable at (310) 305-4063.  Gozal's office is in Manhattan, phone number (212) 244-3119. More information about the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces may be obtained via its website, www.israelsoldiers.org.