Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was keen to start the public preparedness campaign to ready the population for an all-out war against Lebanon, but it only took one day and a visit to Haifa to start making proclamations about what a disaster it would be for Lebanon.
Gallant detailed how Israel is preparing for war against both near and distant enemies, while declaring that Israel was “already expanding our action against Hezbollah,” clearly a reference to the many, many attacks on southern Lebanon in recent weeks. He further talked about “striking our enemies all over the Middle East,” likely a reference attacks on the Iranian Embassy in Damascus and other sites in Aleppo, Syria.
The point of his comments was clearly to prepare the public for war in Lebanon, saying that it would be “disastrous” not only for Hezbollah, but for the rest of Lebanon. He did refer to the war being a challenge for Israel.
That is noteworthy, because while the US warned of the challenges of opening a second front, and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah doubted such a war could be launched, Israel dismissed these concerns. Indeed, military officials hyped up Israel’s preparedness for a war at any moment.
An incipient war against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon has been raging for months with tit-for-tat attacks. In the background, the Israeli military has been making plans to attack the region, with a primary goal of forcing Hezbollah further north and allowing the displaced public to return home to northern Israel.
The international community has been scrambling to try to preempt the war in Lebanon, attempting to come up with a deal to replace Hezbollah in the south with the Lebanese military. The US has even offered funding to pay for Lebanon’s new deployment in the area.
None of this means war is precisely imminent. Israel reportedly initially set a deadline for the conflict to start at the end of January and then, when that didn’t happen, reset it to during Ramadan, which started March 11. The Defense Ministry conceded that preparation of the public was for safety’s sake and not meant to imply war was imminent.
However, such comments as those about the looming catastrophe for Lebanon, raise a lot of concern about Israel’s timing, especially coming as they do after an awful lot of escalation.
True.
However, Israel will not enjoy such war as well..
And if Iran will decide to intervene directly and not through proxies, the result would be a small scale, mutual assured destruction.
No more Palestinians, no more Iranians, No more Syrians, Lebanese and possibly other neighbors as well.
The Mid East will return to the sands and the world will forget as soon as the new Swifty tour starts.
Israel is tired of existing. Lashing out against everyone is just a way of saying put me out of my misery.
Israeli citizens, living wonderful, carefree lives while on the other side of The Wall there existed a concentration camp is disgusting. Comparison could be made to the movie “Shoah”, when the citizens of the town next to a camp were asked about the camp, how they could enjoy their lives, while saying they did not know what was going on in the camp.
“Carefree lives”-sending their young off to die in wars to protect their borders,worrying about hundreds of thousands of Hezbollah and Iranian missiles firing at them,250,000 people in the north are refugees,foolish terrorists killing them and being killed in turn,the usual poverty of a country with minimal resources.Yeah right.
No,Israel fights for its existence against death worshippers.
Look for “Lavender” to be utilized in Lebanon and other fronts, after its “success” in Gaza.
They’re ready for you Gallanty…! Make their day…!