Hezbollah's Tunnels Are Giving A Glimpse On How They Will Wage War Against Israel

Lt. Gen. Kenneth Glueck (ret.), Lt. Gen. Michael Tucker (ret.) and Lt. Col. Geoffrey Corn, The Hill: Hezbollah's tunnels offer sneak peek at looming major conflict with Israel

For weeks, Israeli and Lebanese soldiers have eyed each other uneasily at close range while Israeli engineers neutralize cross-border infiltration tunnels. These sophisticated tunnels, clearly intended to attack civilians, embody Hezbollah’s ongoing efforts to threaten substantial harm to Israel. They are also a reminder of that border’s fragile calm, and the potential for major destruction and suffering that would befall both Israeli and Lebanese civilians in another conflict on Israel’s northern front.

Israel undoubtedly could deal Hezbollah a crippling military blow in such a conflict. Indeed, Hezbollah has no illusion of military victory. Instead, it will seek to delegitimize Israel in the court of public opinion by illegally exposing civilians to harm on both sides of the border and then exploiting widespread misunderstanding about the laws of war.

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WNU Editor: Israel has discovered only 5 tunnels so far. The people I know in Israel are telling me that the real number is problem three of four times what has been found.

Would An Israeli - Hezbollah War Be A Disaster?

Hezbollah parading its military equipment in Qusayr, Syria, November 2016. (Twitter)

Judah Ari Gross, Times of Israel: Even with the Saudis cheering, war with Hezbollah would spell disaster

Amid upheaval in Lebanon, Nasrallah claims Riyadh is pushing Israel to strike his group, but that wouldn’t serve Jerusalem’s interests.

With Saudi-supported Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s surprise resignation last week, and Riyadh’s increasingly bellicose language toward Hezbollah, a formerly quiet ally in Israel’s opposition to the Iran-backed terrorist group has come to the fore.

Saudi Arabia has long seen Tehran, and its proxy Hezbollah, as a central nemesis in the Middle East, competing against it for regional hegemony and global influence. The US, which once played a more active role in the fight against Iran, has scaled back its involvement in the region.

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WNU Editor: I am sure there are many in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere who would love to see such a conflict break-out. But is it in Israel's interest to have such a war? In the current state of the Middle East where war is rampant, it will probably be best for Israel to stay out of it (for now).

Will The Next War In The Middle East Be Between Israel And Hezbollah?

A Hezbollah funeral for one of its fighters killed in Syria. (YouTube/Channel 4 News)

Aaron David Miller, CNN: The next war in the Middle East?

(CNN)The death in Syria last week of Mustafa Badriddine, Hezbollah's top operational commander in Syria, automatically and inevitably raised the fear of another confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah. After all, Lebanese media close to Hezbollah had been quick to accuse the Israelis of killing its storied terror operative.

Hezbollah soon suggested that Israel was not, after all, responsible. Instead, it announced that its man was killed by insurgent groups that the Lebanese Shia militia has been fighting in Syria. Yet while we may never find out the exact circumstances of Badriddine's death, and while the potential for a new and deadly war in the Middle East has, for the time being, been averted, the truth is that an Israeli-Lebanese war that could plunge the Middle East into even greater chaos remains a genuine possibility.

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WNU Editor: I do not see such a conflict happening right now. Hezbollah is focused on the war in Syria, and opening a second front against Israel will only result in a massive Israeli military operation that would seriously undermine and disrupt current Syrian-Russian-Iranian operations against Syrian rebel forces.

Peace Is The Time To Prepare For War

“The interesting issue is how you create a longer gap between the wars,” said Brig. Gen. Herzl Halevi. Rina Castelnuovo for The New York Times

To a Philosopher-General in Israel, Peace Is the Time to Prepare for War -- Jodi Rudoren, New York Times

When he arrived here two years ago to command the Israel Defense Forces in the northern Galilee region, Brig. Gen. Herzl Halevi was certain that Israel’s next war with Lebanon would break out on his watch. As General Halevi prepares to leave his post on Nov. 28, he is even more convinced it will happen during his successor’s tour.

“I don’t think there is the war or the operation that will solve the problem,” General Halevi explained during a recent tour of the border his troops patrol. “The interesting issue is how you create a longer gap between the wars.”

“It’s not going to be a simple one,” he added. “There are no simple wars. We are ready to pay this price to make a very decisive and strong war to make the gap as long as possible.”

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My Comment: I do not envy his job .... he has to have always a mindset that the next war is a "when proposition" .... and not an "if the next war will come". But considering where he lives .... he is probably right.

Why Did Hezbolah Send A Drone Into Israel

The Real Purpose Of The Hezbollah Drone -- Haaretz

Tehran long ago made it clear that hitting the heart of Israel’s nuclear prowess would be a fitting response to any preemptive attack on its nuclear sites.

In taking responsibility for the October 6 dispatch of an unmanned aerial vehicle over southern Israel, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said: "It is our natural right to send other reconnaissance flights inside occupied Palestine..."

Most analysts assessed the operation was a joint Iranian-Hezbollah undertaking. They accepted that the probable motive was intelligence gathering. But Nasrallah's claim may be a smoke screen. The bulk of Hezbollah's weaponry - rockets, Katyushas, etc. - are in effect low-accuracy "statistical weapons," which have been used mainly against Israeli urban centers. Such weapons do not normally require tactical information, let alone real-time intelligence of the kind supplied by advanced UAVs.

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My Comment: It is going to take more than a drone to have an impact on Israel`s nuclear program.