Expect many more rounds of fighting after Gaza war, IDF Northern Command chief warns -
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Expect-many-more-rounds-of-fighting-after-Gaza-war-IDF-Northern-Command-chief-warns-389745 Israel must expect many future rounds of fighting with its enemies, the head of the IDF's Northern territorial Command, and former head of Military Intelligence, Maj.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi has warned.
Speaking to an annual meeting of the 188 Armored Corps Brigade on Sunday, Kochavi said Operation Protective Edge - the 50 day war against Hamas last summer - was "one round of fighting, and many more will follow it." His comments were made available by the army on Monday.
Col. Tomer Yirfrah, commander of the 188 Brigade, also spoke at the meeting, and addressed recent security incidents in the north. "Recently, winds of war blew around us, and the brigade is fully prepared."
Recent combat training has focused on the soldiers' mental capabilities, Yifrah added. He cited the fact that the brigade won the Ground Forces training award in 2014.
The event was also attended by the head of the IDF's Storm Formation, Brig.-Gen. Itzik Turgerman. He heads a conscripted armored division that operates under the Northern Command.
The comments came a day after IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz said Israel's northern border villages must be better defended against guided missile threats.
Gantz's comments followed a Hezbollah Kornet missile attack last week on IDF vehicles that were two kilometers away from the Lebanese border, which killed two soldiers.
Hezbollah now has long-range attack capabilities "even from kilometers away," radically altering the danger it can pose to border villages with virtually no warning, Gantz warned.
Gantz said that in the past one could count on observing movement on the border above ground to anticipate attacks, but that the new long-range capabilities and attack tunnels have changed that.
He added that the northern front could not be allowed to ignite and become a greater threat.
Gantz, who is set to be replaced this month by Maj-Gen Gadi Eisenkott after his four-year term as IDF Chief of Staff comes to an end, made the comments at a conference in memory of former IDF chief Amnon Lipkin Shahak at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya.
Is war between Hezbollah and Israel inevitable? - By Michael Williams - http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2015/02/04/is-war-between-hezbollah-and-israel-inevitable/
The delicate status quo, which has ensured peace between Hezbollah and Israel since the 2006 war, is rapidly unravelling. After that war, both Hezbollah and Israel subscribed to a deterrence theory, which stood the test of time. Until two weeks ago.
Now, tensions between the two sides are at their highest since the last ceasefire. Indeed, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Monday that a third Lebanon war is now inevitable.
On Jan. 18, an Israeli helicopter gunship hit a convoy of vehicles in the Syrian province of Quneitra. The attack killed six Hezbollah operatives, one of whom was Jihad Mughniyeh, the son of Imad Mughniyeh, who was assassinated by Israel in an operation involving the Israeli Mossad and the CIA, as the Washington Post revealed last week.
The hope on the Israeli side must have been that Hezbollah would not seek immediate retaliation for the Jan. 18 attack. It was not to be. On Jan. 28, Hezbollah attacked an Israeli convoy in broad daylight in the Shebaa Farms, an area long occupied by Israel but claimed by Lebanon. Two Israelis were killed, a major and a sergeant of the Israel Defence Forces.
This escalation is happening at a time of important shifts in the relationship between Iran, Hezbollah and Israel.
One development, of concern to Israel, is the deepening of relations between Hezbollah and Iran in recent weeks. One day before Hezbollah's attack on Israeli forces, Hezbollah's leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, met with the Iranian Major General Qasem Suleimani, the legendary commander of the Iranian al-Quds force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Although the two men had met many times before, this is the first known meeting in Lebanon that has been publicized.
The meeting was all the more remarkable because of the publicity given to it. Suleimani paid respects to Hezbollah fighters killed by Israel and also visited the grave of Jihad Mughniyeh.
Hezbollah has also declared, in a recent statement, that it no longer recognizes the rules of engagement with Israel that were mediated, on an informal basis, by the United Nations in order to prevent clashes. Hezbollah's declaration is a tacit rejection of the de facto understanding between the two bitter foes that has existed for years and has, up until now, ensured peace.
In a defiant statement after Hezbollah's attack, Nasrallah reiterated Hezbollah's rejection of previous the rules defining Hezbollah's policy towards Israel. It was this status quo that had, for example, allowed for the group to negotiate a swap of its prisoners in exchange for Israeli war dead in 2008. In a clear departure from the past, where Hezbollah would not take revenge on Israeli attacks, Nasrallah stressed that the group has the right to respond in any way or time it deems fit.
"If Israel is banking that we fear war, then I tell it that we do not fear war and we will not hesitate in waging it if it is imposed on us," he continued. "We did not hesitate in making the decision that Israel should be punished for its crime in Quneitra even if it meant going to an all-out war," he revealed, an admission he may regret.
"The Israeli people discovered that their leadership put them on the brink of war, jeopardizing their economy and security," he added in the wake of the operation. "Israel learned that it should not test us again given the Quneitra strike and Shebaa Farms operation," he warned.
Not surprisingly these are not the conclusions that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government in Jerusalem are likely to draw.
There has been a dangerous deterioration in Israel's strategic position because of the open boast by Nasrallah that it is now fighting Israel not only from the Blue Line with Lebanon, but, also, on Syria's frontline with Israel in the Golan. In other words, Hezbollah's front with Israel now extends from the Mediterranean all the way to the disputed Golan on the Syrian border. Israel is unlikely to leave a threat like that unanswered. Moreover, Israel never shrinks from retaliation when its soldiers are killed, and especially when one of them is a middle-ranking officer.
But the strategic options before Netanyahu are limited. A further strike at Hezbollah will lead to a major war that would probably eclipse that of 2006 in its severity. Moreover, the prime minister will be conscious of the fact that elections are to be held in Israel on March 17. He may not want become embroiled in a war right now for that reason.
Despite these difficulties, some new realities would work in Israel's favor. Netanyahu knows that, unlike during the 2006 war, Hezbollah would not find much support from the Arab world in the eventuality of a conflict with Israel. Deep sectarianism between Sunni and Shi'ites across the region means that few Arab states would be upset today by an Israeli offensive against Hezbollah, the stalwart defender of the hated Assad regime.
Hezbollah, in other words, is playing a dangerous game. It may yet find itself wishing to return to the days of stability and peace, which it is abandoning with such troubling rapidity.
Islamic Republic Confirms Hezbollah, Palestinians in Possession of Advanced Missile Technology - By Lea Speyer -
http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/29060/iran-gave-advanced-missile-tech-hezbollah-palestinian-terrorists-middle-east/#2cM0AM7BJEXhwryu.97 "Very soon my anger against you will end and my wrath will be directed to their destruction." (Isaiah 10:25)
The commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp's (IRGC) missile division confirmed on Monday that his country has provided Hezbollah and Palestinian terror groups the technology to build short and mid-range ballistic rockets.
IRGC aerospace force commander Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh boasted that information was also passed on to the governments of Syria and Iraq on how to locally produce military grade rockets.
"The IRGC's Aerospace Force has developed to a stage in the field of missile industries that it can mass-produce different types of short and mid-range missiles," Iranian FARS news quoted Hajizadeh as saying.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran has helped Iraq, Syria, Palestine and the Lebanese Hezbollah by exporting the technology that it has for the production of missiles and other equipment, and they can now stand against the Zionist regime, the ISIL [Islamic State] and other Takfiri [apostate] groups and cripple them," Hajizadeh said.
Israeli defense and intelligence officials have voiced their concerns over the years of the growing capabilities of Middle East terror groups, thanks to the sponsorship of the Islamic Republic.
Access to mid-range missiles by Hezbollah, Hamas and other terror groups that operate near the vicinity of Israel would put the entire country within striking distance of an attack. Last month, Hajizadeh announced that Tehran will "accelerate" the arming of Palestinian terrorists in Judea and Samaria to help carry out attacks against Israel.
Aside from providing terror groups with the technological know-how to build rockets, Hajizadeh also said that Iran was developing its own radar and drone technologies that will, in the future, be exported to its allies.
A recent report exposed the first satellite images of what is believed to be the first Iranian missile that is capable of launching a spacecraft, or carrying a conventional or non-conventional warhead. The missile, which measured near 88 feet long, is said to be able to reach "far beyond Europe."
Israel has vowed that it would not allow Iranian sponsored weapons and technologies to fall in the hands of terrorists, especially Hezbollah. Over the last three years, amid the civil war raging in Syria, the IAF has reportedly carried out a number of airstrikes on weapons convoys headed to the Lebanese terror organization.
Last month, an IAF strike killed six Hezbollah operatives and their Iranian counterparts in the Quneitra region, near the Syrian side of the Golan Heights. Among the dead was a senior Hezbollah commander responsible for terror operations against Israel and decorated Iranian general Mohammed Ali Allahadi, who is said to have been advising Hezbollah on future war efforts with Israel.
Hajizadeh's comments come in the wake of reports of a strengthening of alliances between Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas. Following the 50-day war between Israel and Hamas, the Gaza-based terror group is reaching out to its "big brothers" to provide more financial and military aid to carry out attacks against the "Zionist enemy."
Hamas Renews Alliance with Iran, Hezbollah to "Destroy Zionist Enemy" - By Raphael Poch - http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/28967/hamas-pleas-with-big-brothers-iran-hezbollah-to-save-terror-group-middle-east/#jebJfzsm6LuedYK6.97
The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." (Genesis 6:5)
In a recent plea to help further their goal of destroying Israel, Hamas reached out to their two "big brothers", Iran and Hezbollah. The Gaza-based terror group asked for more military supplies and an increase in financial aid to carry out more terror attacks against the "Zionist enemy."
Senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar formally asked the two radical Islamic powers to help them in their fight against the only democracy in the Middle East.
According to the Iranian Fars News Agency, al-Zahar told Al-Manar TV over the weekend, "We stretch our hand of cooperation for materializing the Palestinian cause, because Palestine is an essential issue and more efforts should be put into it."
He noted that Hamas needs Iran's further financial and arms aid to continue its "resistance" against the Jewish state and "destroy the Israeli occupation."
Using a somewhat different tactic than direct confrontation against Israel, al-Zahar called on Hezbollah to ready "Palestinian refugees" to take up positions outside of Israel's borders in order to be prepared for an armed struggle with Israel.
The request came just weeks after deputy chairman of Hamas' political bureau Mousa Abu Marzouk hailed Iran for its long-term and permanent support for the terrorist group.
Last week, Hamas met with political leaders of Hezbollah in Beirut to discuss cooperation between the two groups. Doha-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal is expected to visit Tehran in the next few weeks to further cement the alliance.
No one immune from Israeli preemptive strikes, says PM - http://www.timesofisrael.com/no-one-immune-from-israeli-preemptive-strikes-says-netanyahu/
In strongest hint yet of IDF's responsibility for Jan. 18 Golan attack, Netanyahu tells cabinet Israel will 'continue to act'
Israel will continue to preempt enemy plans against the Jewish state, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Sunday, all but publicly confirming the country's involvement in an airstrike in Syria last month that left at least seven Hezbollah and Iranian operatives dead.
"We have proven that nobody is immune from our intention to foil attacks against us. Thus we have acted and thus we will continue to act," he said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.
The comments constitute the strongest hint yet by a senior Israeli official that Israel had carried out the January 18 strike on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights that killed six Hezbollah fighters and an Iranian brigadier general, Mohammed Ali Allahdadi.
Hezbollah and Iran have spent the weeks since the strike threatening grave consequences for Israel.
On Wednesday a Hezbollah cell fired five anti-tank Kornet rockets at a convoy of IDF infantry commanders driving along the northern border, killing two soldiers and wounding seven.
"Today the cabinet will be briefed on recent events on our northern border," Netanyahu said at the start of the meeting. "On Friday, the defense minister [Moshe Ya'alon] and I visited our soldiers who were wounded in the terrorist attack on the northern border. I was very impressed by their determination and their desire to rejoin their comrades at the front and defend our country."
The exchanges of fire on the northern border last month highlighted Iran's growing role in the Syria conflict and, through its proxy Hezbollah, on Israel's northern border with Lebanon.
Israel was witnessing "Iran's attempts to open another front against us on the Golan Heights, in addition to the front it is operating against us in southern Lebanon," Netanyahu said Sunday.
Lebanese media reported over the weekend that a top Iranian general met with Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah late last month in the wake of the January 18 airstrike.
Qassem Soleimani, the shadowy chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps' Quds Force, also visited the graves of Hezbollah fighters killed in the Golan Heights strike.
Among the dead in the Golan strike was Jihad Mughniyeh, son of the late Hezbollah military chief Imad Mughniyeh, who was wanted in Europe and the US for terror activities and was assassinated in Syria in February 2008 in an operation believed to have been conducted by Israeli and possibly other Western intelligence agencies.
BE SURE TO CHECK OUT MY ALL NEW PROPHECY AND CREATION DESIGN WEBSITES. THERE IS A LOT TO SEE AND DO..........
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.