Sounds ridiculous, right? Well, Israel is the size of New Jersey, with an even smaller population. But here you have it -- they don't consider themselves a smaller country -- but rather the biggest and best -- but that's not even close to true.
They have a pride problem. They have "stiff necks" as Scripture says.
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel does not want war but can beat any enemy anywhere, Defence Minister Ehud Barak warned on Thursday at a memorial ceremony for fallen paratroopers.
"We do not want war but if we have to, we can win, whoever our enemy is or wherever they are," Barak told the service on the Tel Nof airbase, south of Israel's commercial capital Tel Aviv.
"We can win in every situation, even when the sound of war comes from Syria or when Iran readies its weapons," he said.
Damascus has said its air defences fired on Israeli warplanes that dropped munitions deep inside its territory in the early hours of September 6, but the Israeli government has maintained a total blackout on the operation.
The international press has speculated that Israeli F-15 jets targeted a factory in northern Syria where North Korean nuclear material was stored.
Anonymous defence officials in Israel's main ally the United States have said that a "quick" strike was carried out to send a message to Damascus not to continue supporting Lebanon's Hezbollah, with which Israel fought a war last year.
On Wednesday, an Iranian deputy air force commander said the military had drawn up a plan under which it could bomb Israel if the Jєωιѕн state launched a military attack against the Islamic republic over its atomic drive.