Defense Minister Yisrael Katz opened this morning (Thursday) the "Economic Campaign" conference of the National Headquarters for Economic Combating Terrorism at the Defense Ministry, with the participation of Shin Bet head David Zini, Mossad head Roman Gofman, incoming head of the General Staff Yurai Matslavy, and other senior figures in the defense establishment.
Minister Katz explained in his speech why, from his perspective, the economic campaign against Iran is at a critical point.
""The regime in Tehran has built a regional terror machine for decades based on a constant flow of resources to its proxies throughout the Middle East," said Katz. "Instead of investing the state's resources in improving the lives of Iranian citizens, in developing the economy, in infrastructure, in education and healthcare - the Iranian regime has chosen to invest in terrorism.".
""Every dollar that goes into the ayatollahs' coffers is a dollar that has become a ballistic missile in Iran, a drone in Lebanon, a rocket in Gaza, and a UAV in Yemen.".
""Every dollar that reaches Iran is a dollar that could find its way to Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis and the rest of its terrorist proxies.
""Therefore, the economic campaign against Iran is one of the most important battlegrounds for the security of the State of Israel. Therefore, we must not be satisfied with what we have achieved so far and we must increase financial pressure in all sectors.".
Regarding the efforts to strengthen the State of Israel in space, he said: "The Prime Minister decided to add 350 billion shekels to the defense budget over the next decade - above the defense budget - to build the force. This is a leadership and practical decision that is based on trust in the economy that has been built and also on the ability to produce here blue and white, perhaps except for airplanes, almost everything else.
""One of the goals that the Prime Minister and I have outlined, and I have guided the IDF, is the issue of space. Space is the place where the territory you hold down there has no meaning, the size of your population has no meaning, and many other things have no meaning - and that is the goal that has been set. Not just being in space, not just being able to protect what we put there and thwart what others put there - but to act from there downwards: both in disruption, which will be quite early, disruption of systems and also in kinetic attack.".
He added: "We are now recruiting the best minds. Today, no country has the ability to attack from space, and therefore, if I defined for the defense system the need to be in first place in terms of attack, if we achieve this ability - it will guarantee us an advantage in deterrence, attack, destruction and all other things against enemies with large resources.".
