Thousands of US Troops Arrive in Israel ! “Largest US-Israeli Exercise in History”: US Troops in Israel for Three-Week Missile Defense Drill !

• “Largest US-Israeli Exercise in History”: US Troops in Israel for Three-Week Missile Defense Drill ! 
  by Jason Ditz, http://www.globalresearch.ca/ 
  The first US troops are arriving in Israel today, part of a build-up for what officials are calling the single largest joint US-Israeli military exercise in history, a drill that will last three weeks and include 3,500 US troops in Israel and Europe.
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  Officials say the drill aims at preparing a multi-front defense against mortar fire, short and long range missiles. The drill was initially planned for earlier this year, but was postponed because of “regional instability.”
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  At the time the drill was being couched as preparing for a possible Iranian retaliation to an Israeli attack, and there was a belief that the postponement was meant to show US opposition to Israel’s initial ambition to start the war ahead of the US presidential election.
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  It isn’t clear, however, how “regional instability” is any less of a factor now than it was in January, and if anything regional tensions seem to be worsening as neighboring Syria implodes in an ugly civil war. Still, with military drills more a diplomatic than a strategic matter, the timing may not be so significant.

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