by Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff
We want the other side to know that ... they will pay dearly," says senior IDF officer • "I don't in any way expect the casualty ratio to be similar. I want things to be as bad as possible for the other side and as good as possible for us."
IDF soldiers returning from
Lebanon, in Aug. 2006. [Archive]
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Photo credit: Reuters  |
Wary of a spillover from the conflict in
Syria, Israel is preparing to take on Hezbollah, which it suspects is
receiving advanced weapons from a distracted Damascus. Israel believes
the Shiite organization also stands ready to retaliate if it carries out
strikes on the nuclear sites of Iran, Hezbollah's patron.
A senior Israeli officer from the Lebanese
front said on Thursday that tensions in Syria "had the potential to
spill over and trigger a confrontation" with Hezbollah.
"We want to preserve the quiet, and we want
the other side to know that if they take a step that necessitates we
exact a price, they will pay dearly," the officer, who declined to be
named, told foreign reporters while overseeing a simulated,
regiment-strength battle with Hezbollah at a desert army base.
Israel could be on the verge of being drawn into the two-year Syrian civil war.
Twenty-one U.N. peacekeepers were abducted in
Syria near the Golan Heights border on Wednesday by gunmen linked mainly
to Sunni Muslim armed opposition groups fighting to topple President
Bashar al-Assad, who follows the Alawite faith derived from Shiite
Islam.
Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Ron
Prosor has also written to the 15-member U.N. Security Council to
complain about tank and mortar shells from Syria landing in Israel,
warning that Israel "cannot be expected to stand idle as the lives of
its citizens are being put at risk."
The desert exercise reflected the enhanced
training of Israeli forces which, combined with the saber-rattling of
the top brass, suggested an attempt to deter Hezbollah by warning that
the next conflict could bring greater suffering for Lebanon.
"The way they behave will have repercussions
on the population and infrastructure of southern Lebanon," the Israeli
officer said, referring to Hezbollah's heartland where Israel suspects
Hezbollah has planted rocket launchers and gun-nests in Shiite villages.
Though sworn to Israel's destruction,
Hezbollah casts itself primarily as Lebanon's defender. It says its
arsenal has been unaffected by the Syrian turmoil and that it is now
capable of paralyzing Israel with long-range rocket strikes, if war
erupts.
Asked if such a war would be more asymmetrical
than in 2006, the senior Israeli officer said: "Yes. I don't in any way
expect the casualty ratio to be similar. I want things to be as bad as
possible for the other side and as good as possible for us."
He said Israel would try to give Lebanese
civilians enough opportunity to evacuate — "such that I hope
non-combatants will be significantly fewer than 40 percent (of
casualties)."
Demonstrating Israeli plans to overrun
Hezbollah-held ground quickly and suppress cross-border rocket salvoes,
the troops who drilled on Thursday dashed across hillocks toward 10 mock
guerrilla emplacements raked with tank and machine-gun fire.
The exercise assumed around 100 Hezbollah
fighters would face off against the 200 soldiers and Israel's heavier
ordnance — an indication of the army's tactics of massive deployment.
The troops were all reservists, ranging in age from their mid-20s to early 40s, and trained to back up the standing army.
One captain, who in civilian life is writing a
doctoral dissertation on Balkan and Caucasus guerrillas, voiced regard
for Hezbollah that was more than merely academic.
"They have grassroots support and they fight
on home turf," said the captain, who gave only his first name, Yiftach.
Though he said he and his comrades were better prepared for war than in
2006, "Hezbollah worries me, to tell the truth."
The regiment's commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Yogev Bar-Sheshet, acknowledged Hezbollah had improved its capabilities.
But he added: "We train all the time for
various possibilities, for scenarios. If we need to fight, be it
tomorrow morning, or in another week or year, we will be the best that
we can be and we will win."
Speaking to high school students last week,
Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, appeared to
acknowledge the dangers Lebanese civilians could face.
"Would it be better to be a citizen of the State of
Israel in the next war or a Lebanese citizen in the next war? Better to
be Israeli citizens," he said.
Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=7827
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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