Military history will record Israel’s failure to vanquish Hizbullah in the Second Lebanon War as one of the great strategic blunders in the modern era of warfare. Israel had the golden opportunity to sever Iran’s right arm in the region, but PM Olmert and his military commander Halutz botched it. Olmert would then go on to compound his mistake two years later in Gaza, leaving Hamas - Iran’s left arm in the region - intact. Today, both Hamas and Hizbullah have grown much stronger, and so has their controller, Iran.
Here is a summary of a report from the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. You can read the whole thing right here. It shouldn’t be a mystery why Iran would put this “information” into the news stream now. They’re trying to scare off an attack on their nuclear weapons program by hyping the response. But you be the judge. Even if Iran isn’t bluffing, what would prove more costly, an elective attack before they get the H-bomb, or an obligatory attack after? Failing to act decisively now could be fatal.
In recent weeks Hizbullah leader Hasan Nasrallah held a series of meetings with his top-level military command as well as field commanders responsible for preparing for war with Israel. According to a source close to Hizbullah, Nasrallah's operational directive was that in the next military conflict with Israel, Hizbullah will hit Tel Aviv with missiles at the outset of the war, while also dispatching forces to conquer the Galilee.
Hizbullah forces are being trained to fire at least ten thousand missiles, right at the war's outset, at military and strategic targets such as airfields, military camps, and vital facilities including maritime ones, followed by the firing of rockets from launch sites whose location will come as a surprise to Israel.
The operational plan was formulated in tandem with senior Iranian strategic experts and will include a force of five thousand fighters who have recently trained in Iran, tasked with taking over designated zones in northern Israel including Nahariya, Shlomi, and Carmiel.
It was said that engineering units of the Iranian army had mined areas in the eastern Bekaa Valley that were seen as possible landing sites for Israeli special forces, and that Hizbullah had equipped itself with "smart" Iranian anti-tank missiles that can disrupt the defensive systems of Israel's Merkava tanks.
Nasrallah's recent escalation of public statements stems from heightened fear in Hizbullah that an Israeli and/or American attack on Iran is drawing nearer. As a strategic arm of Iran, Hizbullah sees itself as Iran's first line of defense against Israel.
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Dan Friedman
NYC
Thursday, 3 November 2011
Iran's First Line Of Defense Against Israel..........by Dan Friedman
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3 comments:
If Iran expects war with Israel to be a repeat of the Iran-Iraq War, they are going to be painfully disappointed, and I do mean painfully.
how nice of hezbollah to discuss it plans. quite helpful of them, and quite typical of arab bluster.
in the past the big difficulty with israeli war planning, and execution of battle, has been their reluctance to commit infantry to battle. they do this in order to hold down casualties, a laudable goal.
but, unfortunately, by so doing they end up not accomplishing the primary goal of battle, which is killing and destroying your adversary.
hezbollah, should they actually follow this "plan," (the "audacity" of which is to capture towns on the immediate israeli border, ... , hardly strategic thinking, eh?), then they will goad the israeli's into doing something it should have done years ago.
and, that, plainly speaking, is to destroy their attackers. israeli troops would be fighting an invader on their own territory and to rescue and protect their own citizens.
if israeli infantry has any ferocity to unleash, if israeli war planners will ever be motivated to commit infantry to battle in order to kill their arab attackers, ... , then surely, this will be the occasion.
israel has reacted to arab attacks with a humane restraint rarely seen on the battlefield. if hezbolla/iran/arabs kill israeli's on israeli soil, i think restraint will not be exercised, and israel will slaughter their adversaries w/ biblical zeal.
john jay
milton freewater, oregon usa
Israel has proven itself to be a paper tiger just like the US, allowing state sponsored islamists to kill their citizens in their own countries without utterly destroying Iran in Israels case and Afghanistan/Saudi Arabia in the US case. War without pain to the enemies population only encourages further attacks as this appeasement of the so called innocent is really a policy of allowing the terrorists base to go unpunished or factually rewarded for the attacks. Billions funneled into Afghanistan, huge arms sales to Saudi Arabia and "humamitarian" aid to palestinians is reward in the enemies eyes.
Michael Gene
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