Former US Army officer says 'Israel' risking disaster in Lebanon
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Harrison Mann, the US military officer who resigned over the Gaza war, says "Israel" risks a disastrous war against Hezbollah for political reasons.
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A damaged Israeli military position targeted by Hezbollah is seen on the top of Mount Hermon in the Israeli-occupied Golan heights on June 26, 2024 (AP)
Harrison Mann, the most senior American military officer to resign over Gaza so far, said that there is a great danger that "Israel" will launch a war with Lebanon's resistance, Hezbollah for internal political reasons.
In May, Harrison Hann, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency resigned in protest over the US support for "Israel", which, according to him, had “enabled and empowered” the killing of Palestinian civilians.
During an interview with The Guardian, Mann said, “We know specifically that the Israeli prime minister must continue to be a wartime leader if he wants to prolong his political career and stay out of court, so that motivation is there."
He maintained that "Israel" was fully aware that preemptive strikes against Hezbollah's lethal arsenal would be ineffective since the rockets, missiles, and artillery were sunk into the hilly Lebanese topography.
Instead, he stressed how he thinks "we can be very comfortable assessing that bombing civilian centers as a way to compel the enemy is clearly an accepted and shared belief in the IDF and Israeli leadership. We’ve just seen them do it in Gaza for the past nine months."
However, he pointed to what he called "limits of strategic thinking and planning," as such a plan would backfire since Hezbollah would unleash a barrage of missiles in response.
He noted that Hezbollah has the "ability to at least partially overwhelm Israel’s air defenses, strike civilian infrastructure around the country, and inflict a level of destruction on Israel that I’m not sure Israel has really ever experienced in its history – certainly not in its recent history."
Unable to eliminate Hezbollah's weapons in the air, the IOF would undertake a land attack into southern Lebanon, resulting in scores of Israeli casualties, Mann warned. He speculated that the shelling of Israeli-occupied territories would subsequently force the US under Israeli pressure to become more involved.
'Israel' preparing for offensive on Lebanon in July: Israeli media
"Israel" claims it will begin an offensive operation on Lebanon in the second half of July unless Hezbollah ceases its fire, the German Bild reported on Monday, citing diplomatic sources.
Lebanese Islamic Resistance group Hezbollah has repeatedly said it will not halt its attacks unless "Israel" ends its ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Lebanon and "Israel" have been at war since October 8, following the Al Aqsa Flood operations and the occupied forces' intense bombardment of Gaza, leading to Hezbollah launching a support front for the Palestinian people.
Despite the United States' support for "Israel", the Biden administration has strongly urged the occupied forces not to go to war with Lebanon, since it would be catastrophic for both sides and could potentially ignite a regional war.
Meanwhile, former Iranian FM and Head of Iran's Strategic Council on Foreign Relations Kamal Kharrazi in an interview with the Financial Times that if "Israel" launches an all-out war against Lebanon, it would risk triggering a regional war in which Tehran and the Axis of Resistance are prepared to support the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon - Hezbollah, with all means to confront the Israeli aggression.
In the interview, he explained that “There would be a chance of expansion of the war to the whole region, in which all countries including Iran would become engaged,” adding that “in that situation, we would have no choice, but to support Hezbollah by all means.”
