“Israel’s” Strategy against Hizbullah : News Reports, Steve Austin’s Achievements!

Hassan Ibrahim, al-Intiqad

The strategy of the Zionist enemy against the resistance, particularly in times of no war following July war 2006 until now, has been determined by three fundamental ways:

First, a military willingness and readiness to go into war and achieve its goals, otherwise reduce its losses and its negative consequences as much as possible. Second, broadcasting a tremendous amount of reports and viewpoints that stress on the immunity and might of the "Israeli" army against his enemies, which can be described as the policy of intimidating enemies from the scourge of the next war. In other words, increasing deterrence or strengthening it in order to prevent an outbreak of a confrontation which "Israel" cannot control its timing and conditions. Third, the intensification of intelligence work to compile as much info as possible about the resistance's military and non-military skills, as a necessity and an introduction to engage into any military confrontation, regardless of the setbacks of these endeavors in recent years.
With these three paths, the large number of "Israeli" statements and positions in few recent years could have been understood as follows: threatening to strike Lebanese civilians in the next war, targeting of Lebanon's strategic infrastructure, revealing unprecedented combat techniques in the "Israeli" army, and the constant announcement, whether it's necessary or not, of limited and extended drills done by the army stimulating a war launched against the Lebanese enemy, in addition to the announcement of the regular exercises done by different military units. More often, "Israel" also insists on declaring how much "erudite" it is regarding the resistance's military capabilities and its readiness for war, to show that "Israel's" intelligence efforts are efficient despite all the concerns that have arisen in the past few years after the repeated setbacks the intelligence services suffered. For example, "Israel" announced the activation of a missiles' counter to indicate that Tel Aviv is monitoring the resistance's capabilities, despite the evident keenness of "Israel" that the number of rockets won't be very high not to adversely affect the "Israelis" themselves, which explains why the counter stops at few ten thousand rockets.

This approach was adopted over the past few years, particularly in the wake of the "Israeli" army failure in 2006 in achieving its goals, during a 33-day assault in which "Israel" used all its military, intelligence, and security means, and mobilized all its relations and political alliances to achieve its goals, including Arab and Lebanese parties. It is enough to note that the number of weapons "Israel" shelled on Lebanon surpasses that of 1973 war, despite the fact that the war back then was between huge state regular armies and took place on very large areas of land. It is also worth mentioning that, unfortunately, the western, Arab and Lebanese positions harmonized and matched the "Israeli" goals and endeavors in this war.
This is the working gear of "Israel" at the time of "no war" against the resistance. The non outbreak of the war isn't due to "Israel's" lack of motives or interests, yet it is due to its submission for the win-or-lose logic and the possibility of achieving good results. "Israel's" avoidance of launching the war proves that it lacks the decision, the planning and capabilities.

Those who observe the "Israeli" affairs, notice that in the recent days, particularly since the crisis began in Syria, "Israel" has been silent about the strategy followed since 2006 against the resistance. It was obvious that the option of Syria, i.e. the option of ousting the regime of the Syrian president Bashar al Asad, was an active and effective option that "Israel" can depend on as an alternative option for the war against the resistance. An option Tel Aviv can rely on to achieve the goals contemplated in its war with Hizbullah without any direct military confrontation that it doesn't guarantee its results.

The silence of "Israel" and distancing itself from the components of the 3 dimensional intimidating strategy against the resistance, the announcement of readiness, intimidation, and intelligence gathering, have been going non-stop throughout the last year in order to achieve its goals by other means; betting on the developments of the Syrian arena might be on top of the list. All "Israeli" officials whether political or military, including experts and analysts have expressed their opinion regarding this desired result that says: the fall of Bashar al-Assad regime is a fatal blow to Hizbullah in Lebanon, and to the axis of resistance and opposition, which begins in Tehran and doesn't end in Gaza.
The link between introductions and demands while reviving the "Israeli" strategy towards Lebanon mentioned above, raises a question about the motive the urges "Israel" to re-adopt the old strategy that proved to be a failure in changing the balance of power between them and the resistance.

There are only two variables that emerged in the recent period parallel to the "Israeli" reaction: one, the strong immunity of Syria's regime and the exclusion of its downfall. Two, the Iranian-Western negotiations regarding Tehran's nuclear project and the optimism surrounding these talks.

Indeed, the intimidation and threats strategy of "Israel" has preceded the Western-Iranian talks, which means it is not only consistent in terms of time, but also in terms of meaning and goals. The "Israelis" would have re-embraced their deterrence strategy in case the talks were failing, but they are not. The course of the talks as it shows right now, cannot explain why the "Israelis" are adopting an old renewed approach that's based on the psychological factor, and psychological warfare against its enemies.

"Israel" has no other means but to issue news reports, threats and intimidating stances

As for the results of the Syrian crisis, it is pretty apparent that the regime is steadfast and it's almost certain that it won't collapse, which totally contradicts what "Israel" sought for and bet against throughout the past year.
This means that the re-adoption of the intimidation strategy against the resistance is a direct evidence of the "Israeli" intelligence estimate, which indicates that the Syrian regime will not fall but instead it will be stronger and with time Syria will return to what is was in the past. Yet the "Israeli" intelligence signals note clearly that the "survival" of the Syrian regime will not only bring Syria back to the normal situation it enjoyed once, but to a much more threatening one with regards to "Israel"; it will strengthen its opposition stance and its position in the resistance axis more than the previous years.

So the Lebanese people should be expecting more "Israeli" intimidation, more reports about military achievements, the might of the "Israeli" Army, Tel Aviv winning the next war against Hizbullah and targeting the Lebanese infrastructure and civilians. Some of these reports will be very scandalous, for they will be of negative results, especially the kind of reports that talk about imaginary or old means of combat which were already used by "Israel" and failed. But the observer should be aware that the "Israeli's" side of story isn't dedicated solely to the enemy, but to the "Israelis" themselves and their allies. Such news aim to provide the "Israelis" with missing morale, especially when recruiting soldiers in the army. The reports aim at decreasing draft dodging, and enlisting recruits in brigades that suffer severe shortages, as is the case of armored corps that didn't get any better despite of all the encouraging announcement made in its regard last year after its defeat in July way 2006, and the transformation of Merkava from a safe place into a dangerous one.

In short, "Israel" has no other means but to issue news reports, threats and intimidating stances, and everyone should expect more. Some of these reports are hilarious, for we have not forgotten the reports that were issued after the war of 2006 and talked about the hands and feet of Steve Austin, a Hollywood legend in the 70's, which the "Israeli" army is manufacturing to confront Hizbullah with, in the next war.

Source: al-Intiqad, translated and edited by moqawama.org