Flexing muscles aside, 'Israel' not ready for war with Hezbollah: WaPo

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: The Washington Post
15 Jul 2024 16:31
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The Washington Post says that voices within the Israeli occupation entity are expressing fears that its forces are exhausted and its resources are depleted.

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Fighters from the Lebanese Islamic Resistance group Hezbollah carry out a training exercise in Aaramta village in the Jezzine District, southern Lebanon, Sunday, May 21, 2023 (AP)

While "Israel" says it's ready for any scenario with Lebanon, the reality is that its current situation does not allow it to go to war with Hezbollah, The Washington Post revealed in a report on Monday.

Since October 8, the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon has been conducting operations against the Israeli occupation in response to the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Hezbollah has declared that its strikes are aimed at pressuring "Israel" to cease its war on Gaza, repeatedly confirming that the attacks will cease once the aggression against Gaza ends.

On the other hand, the entity has yet to "eliminate" the Resistance group Hamas, one of the war's alleged goals, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not introduced an exit plan, the WaPo noted.

Meanwhile, keeping in mind "Israel's" failure to achieve its military objectives in Gaza, Hezbollah represents a far greater threat to the occupation entity, the report said. The Lebanese Resistance group stands as a "better-armed and more-professional foe" than the Palestinian Resistance in Gaza, the outlet said, citing experts.

Despite the public threats against the group on the northern border, voices within the entity are expressing fears that its forces are exhausted and its resources are depleted as it continues to fight its longest war in decades.

There seems to be no foreseen solution to the border escalations, the report said.

According to the newspaper, "Israel" has been devising plans for a war on Lebanon for months now.

Former war cabinet member Benny Gantz revealed that following a Hezbollah missile attack that killed two Israelis last week, he and others urged Netanyahu to approve an Israeli incursion into southern Lebanon in March.

However, Netanyahu "hesitated", said Gantz, adding that the premier wouldn't even commit to ensuring Israeli settlers could return to northern settlements by September 1, the beginning of the new school year.

'Worn to the bone'

The Prime Minister “knows that the Israeli public is not prepared for thousands of rockets on Tel Aviv,” a political scientist at Hebrew University stated as quoted by the newspaper. Gayil Talshir said that Netanyahu avoids difficult decisions rather than placing strategic plans, while also surrounding himself with yes-men who lack military expertise.

At least one hundred thousand settlers have fled northern occupied Palestine due to Hezbollah's operations, the majority of whom have openly announced they will not go back unless the Resistance in Lebanon is dealt with, demanding that Hezbollah fighters back kilometers away from the border and stressing that this cannot be done through a diplomatic agreement.

Additionally, in the past nine months, Hezbollah has destroyed and damaged hundreds of housing units and facilities.

"It is only a small glimpse of the destruction Hezbollah would be likely to inflict in a full-scale war," the report said. It added that this will also cause wide power outages.

On Hezbollah forces' manpower and firepower, the newspaper claimed that the group has over "twice as many" fighters as Hamas and "more than four times as many munitions," which include guided missiles.

The former deputy chief of army staff confirmed that Israeli occupation forces are overstretched.

“The reserves and the regular army system have been worn to the bone,” Yair Golan, who is also the head of the Israeli Labor Party, said last month.

Yoel Guzansky, a former official on the Israeli "National Security Council" and now a senior fellow at the Israeli think tank "Institute for National Security Studies," said that the entity is used to fighting short wars.

However, nine months later, the IOF are "exhausted, the equipment needs to be taken care of, the munitions have been used up, and every family in Israel is affected by it," he said.

The researcher warned that an Israeli invasion of Lebanon could be a "trap", which might drag the occupation into yet another war with no clear endgame.

“There is a false belief in Israel that a war there could be finished in a number of days or weeks,” he concluded.