Israeli MI Chief: Another War Would Turn Lebanon Into ‘A Country of Refugees’
Haaretz/15 June 2016
Military Intelligence chief Herzl Halevi said Wednesday that another war with Lebanon’s Hezbollah would be much harsher for the home fronts on both sides.
“If there is another war, Israel will recover and rebuild,” Halevi said at the annual Herzliya Conference at the IDC Herzliya.
“We are a strong society, an advanced society. Lebanon will become a country of refugees that will have difficultly recovering, and Hezbollah will lose its political support base.”
Halevi said further that the next conflict may already be in the making because Syria has resumed manufacturing weapons expressly for Hezbollah, contravening the terms of the United Nations-backed ceasefire that ended the Second Lebanon War in 2006.
“Hezbollah has put its hands here and there on ammunition of the sort it hadn’t had access to previously,” Halevi told the conference.
He said that Syrian military industries had resumed weapons production, for Hezbollah, adding that these arms were “not for the fighting in Syria, it is weaponry meant for combat against Israel.”
“The world shouldn’t accept this, it is a violation of Security Council Resolution 1701, passed after the Second Lebanon War, and Israel shouldn’t accept it, either. To a certain extent this could move up the outbreak of another round of conflict.”
Halevi said Iran was also providing Hezbollah with weaponry, which he referred to as strategic arms. He said these transfers were being carried out under the cover of providing aid for the war in Syria, but that some of these weapons are actually being transferred to Lebanon. “This is also something that neither the world nor us should ignore,” he said.
Halevi said the next war would be different from the conflict a decade ago with Hezbollah and the 2014 Gaza war against Hamas and its allies.
“The next war in the north will be essentially different, not just from the Second Lebanon War and Operation Protective Edge, but from the Yom Kippur War and what came before that. In the Yom Kippur War we had a single casualty on the home front from a rocket from Syria,” Halevi said.
“In the next war, it will be a whole different situation. We are stronger than ever in relation to our enemies. We will cope with any challenge. But it’s important to know that the way to achieve this will not be easy or simple. As happens in wars, there will be a price.”
Regarding Israeli intelligence on Hezbollah, Halevi said: “I say with all due caution that I think that never before has an army known as much about its enemy as we know about Hezbollah. But the next war will not be simple or easy.”
Halevi also mentioned the January 2015 incident in which two Israeli soldiers were killed by Hezbollah fire.
“It’s not certain that Hezbollah understood the full potential for casualties in this incident,” he said. “If it had, the response would have been different … and today on the radio we’d be talking about the third war with Hezbollah.”
Halevi said Israel was still clearly the strongest player in the region.
“Maybe because of the Holocaust we still carry this feeling of persecution … but in the region we are perceived as very, very strong, as aggressive and unpredictable and very powerful,” he said. “It’s very important to preserve this asset.”
رئيس الإستخبارات الإسرائيلية: “لم يسبق لجيش أن عرف عن عدوّ بقدر ما نعرف عن حزب الله”!
خاص بالشفاف on 15 يونيو 2016 شفّاف اليوم
قال رئيس الإستخبارات العسكرية الإسرائيلية، الجنرال هرتسي هاليفي في محاضرة ألقاها اليوم الأربعاء أنه إذا نشبت حرب جديدة مع حزب الله « فإن لبنان سوف يتحول إلى بلد لاجئين، وسيفقد حزب الله قاعدته السياسية » في حين أن إسرائيل « سوف تستعيد قواها وتعيد بناء ما تهدّم.. فنحن مجتمع قوي، مجتمع متقدم »!
وحول حزب الله قال هاليفي: « مع كل التحفظ الضروري، فلم يسبق أن عرف جيش عن عدوّه بقدر ما نعرف نحن عن حزب الله »!
وقال أن الحرب السورية أثّرت فعلاً في حزب الله الذي فقد ١٥٠٠ قتيل فيها.
وحذر هاليفي من أن مقدّمات الحرب بدأت فعلاً لأن سوريا استأنفت تصنيع أسلحة معدة خصيصاً لحزب الله، الأمر الذي يتعارض مع أحكام الهدنة التي وضعت حدّاً لحرب ٢٠٠٦.
وأضاف أن « حزب الله » وضع يده « هنا أو هناك على ذخائر لم يكن يملكها في السابق ».
وأضاف أن إيران تزوّد حزب الله بأسلحة « استراتيجية ». وقال أن نقل تلك الأسلحة الإستراتيجية يتم تحت غطاء تقديم الدعم لسوريا، سوى أن بعضاً من تلك الأسلحة يُنقَل إلى لبنان.
“ما زلنا الأقوى”!
وقال هاليفي أن الحرب المقبلة ستكون مختلفة عن حرب ٢٠٠٦ مع حزب الله وعن حرب ٢٠١٤ » مع « حماس » في غزة. وحتى عن حرب « يوم الغفران »، حينما فقدنا قتيلاً واحداً على « الجبهة الداخلية » بصاروخ أُطلِقَ من سوريا ».
وخلص الجنرال هاليفي إلى أن إسرائيل ما تزل أقوى لاعب في المنطقة.
وقال: « ربما بسبب المحرقة فإننا ما نزال نشعر بأننا مضطهدون.. ولكن الناس في المنطقة تنظر إلينا كبلد قوي جداً جداً، وكبلد عدواني ويصعب التنبّؤ برد فعله. ومن المهم جداً أن نحافظ على هذا الرصيد المعنوي الذي نملكه »!