Ten Years on:

Israel Better Keep Quiet

Rasa - Despite losing the 2006 Lebanon war, some Israeli army commanders foolishly promise “another victory”, describing how the next war against Hezbollah could unfold, and how “ferocious” and “terrible” it will be!

News ID: 422745

Date: 16 August 2016 - 22:52

RNA‌ - As if they won that war, they even go ahead to promise far worse for Hezbollah and the civilians of Lebanon. This is silly. Even in Israel that war is widely viewed by Israelis as a military failure. If indeed Israel did defeat Hezbollah that time, then why didn't they stay there like the last time that they continued occupying Lebanon for 20 years, and why have they been scolding their army for a decade since the 33-day war of the Summer 2006; yet if they still insist that they won the Summer war, then what Hezbollah has become today should be to their liking.

On the contrary. Ten years on, Hezbollah has been transformed. It is now a regional military power, a cross-border strike force, with thousands of soldiers hardened by five years of fighting on Syrian battlefields - in alliance with Damascus, Tehran and Moscow.

Hezbollah troops are now using in combat some of the most sophisticated armaments available, such as fourth-generation Kornet guided anti-tank missiles. They pilot unmanned aircraft and fight alongside artillery and tanks. They have taken terrorist-held villages with Russian air support.

In 2006, Hezbollah fought a guerrilla war against an invading army. Today, Hezbollah enjoys both conventional and asymmetrical warfare capabilities. Ten years ago, Hezbollah fired some 4,000 short-range missiles at Israel. Today, it has over 100,000 missiles, including tens of thousands of accurate mid-range weapons with larger warheads capable of striking anywhere in Israel.

As maintained by Israeli military commanders and analysts, Hezbollah now poses a far greater threat to Israel than it did 10 years ago. Not only is Israel unable to win the next war, Hezbollah will not lose it. That's why Israel Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot calls Hezbollah Tel Aviv’s “main enemy”. He knows better than anyone else that Hezbollah’s arsenal of rockets and the overwhelming retaliatory response serves as a dual deterrent. This powerful reality keeps many Israelis awake at night.

All this plus rocket rooms, drones, weapons caches, underground compounds, command posts, anti-tank positions, tunnels and launch pads, as well as many other military installations along the Lebanese border should be more than enough for Tel Aviv to keep quiet.

The message is implicit though: Hezbollah hasn't lost its lustre and another war could be more devastating and humiliating for the usurper regime. There will be a mutual exchange of bombing and destruction too. As maintained by Hezbollah Leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, “The leaders of Israel understand that the resistance has the ability to cover the entirety of occupied Palestine with missiles. We must keep this capability because it acts as a deterrent for the third Lebanon war.”

Meaning, Hezbollah is no longer a group or an organization. It is an army, a formidable army whose members are fighting the Real War on Terror in Syria.  Hezbollah is not afraid of Israel either. It has no intention to lose the Syria war, just as the way it has every intention to win the next war with Israel.

Long story short, the formidable army of Hezbollah is more than ever ready for any war with Israel. It has what it takes to project force and stand toe-to-toe with Israel’s formerly boasted “invincible” army. Just like the 2006 war, the Syria war has emboldened Hezbollah and sharpened its military skills. There is no going back.

R111/108/C/