The US military chief is in Occupied Palestinian Territories to discuss and watch the two sides’ ongoing military maneuvers, the largest-ever such joint drills. the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Armed Forces, Martin Dempsey met with the Zionist regime’s War Minister, Ehud Barak in Tel Aviv on Sunday. The drills, dubbed the "Austere Challenge 2012" (AC12), are joined by 3,500 US personnel and 1,000 Zionist troops and are to last for some three weeks. Barak said "We are glad to have General Dempsey here visiting the Austere Challenge exercise, joint exercise, of a significant magnitude...”. The Zionist minister also asserted, "Security relations between the United States and Israel are deeper and stronger than they have been in many years." The US, Zionist regime’s oldest and strongest ally, provides Tel Aviv with annual military assistance of about USD three billion.