News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) The IDF Chief of Staff, Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, said Wednesday that he "can not promise" that the IDF's fighting power will not be tested soon.

Speaking at an Officers' Course graduation ceremony, Ashkenazi said: "The horizon, if we look at it well, holds both existential threats and numerous challenges to Israel's security. The IDF's calling remains, as it was in the past, securing the existence of the state of Israel. The accomplishment demanded of the IDF [is] decisive victory in any kind of confrontation, or combination of confrontations, that we find ourselves in, and I cannot promise that we will not find ourselves in such a test in the near future."

"We will not be able to withstand all of these things without excellent commanders, both professionally and morally," Ashkenazi said.