Steve Emerson spoke with FOX News' Shepherd Smith to discuss Israel's recent military exercises which some perceive as "a dry run for an attack on Iran."  

SHOW: FOX NEWS - STUDIO B (6/20/2008)        

HEADLINE: ISRAELI MILITARY HELD LARGE-SCALE EXERCISE IN MAY    

SHEPARD SMITH: Well a hundred fighter jets, a team of rescue helicopters and to paraphrase one Pentagon official, a message that Israel wanted Iran and the rest of the world to hear loud and clear. It's our top story.

Sources in the Israeli military confirming a massive military exercise last month, while Israel is not saying its mission was a dry run for an attack on Iran, one detail seems especially telling. An Israeli pilot says he was part of the drill, flying about 900 miles west from Tel Aviv across the Mediterranean Sea, and that is roughly the same distance from Tel Aviv to a uranium enrichment plant in Iran. The Natanz enrichment plant. Israel says Iran is trying to use that facility to build nuclear weapons.        

Steve Emerson's here now, Middle East and counterterrorism expert, good to see you.So is this a dry run in earnest or this an effort, a show of military force and capability to try to intimidate or pressure Iran.        

STEVE EMERSON: I think it's both. And there's a third factor also. It's to let the world know and especially the United States that if the West doesn't act, the Israelis will act, so maybe it's a combination of all three. 

Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told an Arab television station that an Israeli military strike on Iran would create a "ball of fire" in the Middle East. 

You can read the FOX News transcript at The Investigative Project for Terrorism. 

(photo: AFP/Getty) 

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