At the beginning of June Israel launched a five-day long military defence exercise. "Turning Point 3", the third such manoeuvre since the war on Lebanon, mobilised a broad range of state agencies, from the army and security services to local authorities, hospitals and emergency services. The aim was to increase preparedness in the event of a multi-pronged attack against Israel. The main goals of the exercise included testing the ability of the army and civil defence agencies to respond to missile assaults and the ability of medical and emergency relief agencies to respond to disasters and epidemics. It was also intended to raise the level of coordination between the army, police and emergency services, train the political and security affairs cabinet in emergency decision-making and test internal communications and data systems. And if one focus of the exercises was a partial call-up of reserves in the event of a war on the northern front, another was in the opposite direction, aimed towards Gaza, as scenarios involving missile strikes and other military actions were explored. The undeclared, or tacitly understood, aims of the manoeuvres were to train to meet the demands of at least three scenarios. Scenario one: a regional war on several fronts, involving assaults from Hamas, Hizbullah and Syria in coordination with suicide bombings and widespread rioting among Arab citizens within Israel. In addition to the partial mobilisation of reserves and emergency responses to incoming missile fire, the exercises included the firing of dummy missiles in the vicinity of the nuclear reactor at Dimona, a chemical factory and oil refinery in Haifa, and around dams. The political implications of including Arab citizens of Israel as a possible source of threat in this year's exercises should not be ignored. They will certainly not be lost on Arabs living in Israel. Scenario two: responses to a possible Israeli strike against nuclear facilities in Iran, a subject raised during Ehud Barak's recent visit to the US. Exercises in this context involved air-raid warning systems, organised evacuation into bomb shelters, and the use of masks and other preventive devices against any emissions from unconventional weapons. Scenario three: Israeli escalation on the Gaza front capitalising on lessons learned from its last incursion. So what was new in this respect? There was the use of new communication technologies and simulated missile strikes causing the destruction of building and requiring emergency rescue responses. Psychological warfare against enemy forces and propaganda and psychological defence operations were also tested. The exercises were hardly a secret. Some 2,700 sirens went off around Israel as everyone, from officials to ordinary civilians, practised what they would be required to do in the event of aerial assault. The manoeuvres were intended to simulate a war climate, but what kind of war? Some Israeli analysts could not help but observe that these national "defence" manoeuvres were training in offensive not defensive strategies.
