Douglas Murray: A Time of War

 When we planned this episode of Honestly, I thought we would be looking back at the past year from a slightly quieter vantage point. We were going to release it on October 7. But quiet is the last thing happening in the Middle East right now.

Hezbollah Provocations Raise Israel-Lebanon Tensions

Video Of The Week -Tense Quiet Takes Hold Along Israel-Lebanon Border -  https://tinyurl.com/4jyu2ej2

For the full Article from BICOM go to https://tinyurl.com/56d9wmtj

 

What happened: Two incidents on the Israel-Lebanon border on Wednesday raised the tension between Israel and Hezbollah.

·        In the first incident several men approached the border fence in the area close to Zarit. According to the IDF, Israel deployed “non-lethal” measures to prevent them from damaging the fence.

·        According to the IDF, “a number of suspects approached the border fence with Lebanon and attempted to tamper with the barrier. IDF forces immediately identified them and employed measures to push them back.”

·        The IDF released surveillance footage showing four people approaching the border fence, and running away after an explosion.

·        According to Lebanese reports, three men thought to be Hezbollah operatives were taken to a nearby hospital in Tyre.

·        In the second incident, a number of suspects approached the security fence in the area near Metulla. They threw rocks and started a fire adjacent (on the Lebanese side) close to the security fence. IDF soldiers fired warning shots into the air, and the suspects withdrew.

Context: Tension has been growing for the last month, since Hezbollah placed two tents south of the Blue Line (inside Israel) in the Mount Dov / Sheba farms area.

·        Israel has so far used diplomatic channels (with the US, UN and France) which led to one of the tents being dismantled.

·        Later on Wednesday, Hezbollah leader Nasrallah made a speech, marking the 17^th anniversary of the start of the second Lebanon war. Nasrallah warned Israel that Hezbollah would retaliate if the IDF were to remove the tent that remains. According to Nasrallah, the tent is inside Lebanon and he is demanding the removal of the fence Israel built around the northern part of Ghajar.

·        Ghajar is an Alawite village, on the Lebanese, Syrian, Israeli border, captured by Israel in 1967. In 1981 it was annexed by Israel and its residents offered full Israeli citizenship. The village’s northern neighbourhood has since expanded into Lebanon. The UN recognises the Blue Line runs through the village, but Israel has built the fence around the northern perimeter to ensure security.

·        Earlier in the week, US envoy Amos Hochstein met with Prime Minister Netanyahu to update on US efforts to deescalate the tension.  It was Hochstein that brokered the Israel-Lebanon maritime agreement last year.

·        Hochstein’s visit has been interpreted as a sign of a dual US approach to Israel. Whilst the Biden administration in unhappy about Israeli government’s domestic and West Bank policies, they have shared concerns when it comes to regional security.

·        As well as the erection of the tents, last week an anti-tank missile was fired close to Ghajar border area.

·        In recent months Hezbollah has set up numerous observation posts, permanent and semi-permanent structures along the border.

·        There is concern that Israel’s enemies interpret the country’s current internal divisions as a moment of weakness and will seek to exploit the security situation.

Looking ahead: US envoy Hochstein is expected to meet Lebanese political leaders in the days ahead, as part of his shuttle diplomacy to reduce tension and avoid a military conflagration.

·        Following the incidents on the border, Defence Minister Gallant said, “Anyone who tests us will get a response. We have a lot to do, and we will know how to do what is needed at the right time.”

·        The IDF believes that Nasrallah will not instigate an all-out war but may be willing to risk several days of fighting, the consequences of which are unknown, but include fears of a wider conflict.                                                                                           

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Angry Lebanese Druze tackle Hezbollah Terrorists

Video Of The Week -Druze Villagers Block Hezbollah launching Rockets https://tinyurl.com/yhcmfxtx

Angry villagers in Chouya accuse terror group of endangering lives by firing from near civilian areas; Lebanon army arrives, confiscates launcher, arrests 4 suspects

 By EMANUEL FABIAN6 6-8-2021

 For the full article go to Times Of Israel - https://tinyurl.com/22wr3c2d  

 Druze residents in a southern Lebanese village halted the Hezbollah crew with its rocket launchers that had fired into Israel on Friday, and detained its members until the Lebanese Army arrived, according to media reports and video footage.

 The group stopped a truck-mounted multiple launch rocket system as it drove through the village of Chouya, the video footage showed.

Some angry villagers could be heard protesting: “Hezbollah is firing rockets from between homes so that Israel hits us back.”

Others converged on one of the Hezbollah members in the truck, shouting, “Who are you, you dog?”

Hezbollah later issued a statement saying that the rockets were fired from remote areas, adding that the fighters were stopped in Shwaya on their way back.

“The Islamic Resistance was and will always be most keen about the safety of its people and avoiding any harm to them through its acts of resistance,” the statement said.

The Lebanese Army later arrived to confiscate the rocket launcher seen in the video and said it arrested four suspects involved in the rocket fire. Media reports said four Hezbollah members were detained.

Reports indicated that the rocket launchers mounted to the vehicle stopped by residents in Chouya were used in the earlier attack, and some of the barrels appeared to be empty.

Nineteen rockets were fired at the Golan Heights and Galilee Panhandle from Lebanon on Friday morning, the Israel Defense Forces and Hezbollah both said.

The IDF said 10 projectiles were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system and six landed in open around Mount Dov. Another three rockets failed to clear the border and landed in Lebanese territory, according to the military. 

The Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group confirmed it had fired the projectiles, its heaviest barrage since the 2006 Second Lebanon War, which it said came in response to recent Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon. “The Islamic Resistance shelled open areas near the Sheba Farms with dozens of 122mm rockets,” it said in a statement carried in Arabic-language media.

Military spokesperson Ran Kochav told reporters on Friday that Israel has “no intention of going to war, but we do not want to turn the Lebanon border into a line of confrontation.”

“The incident shows Hezbollah’s deterrence, as it fired at open areas,” Kochav added.

He also asserted Hezbollah intentionally fired the rockets at open areas. Still, the Iron Dome system was activated to intercept some of the rockets, which is usually only done when projectiles are heading for populated areas, military bases or key infrastructure.

“This is a moderate response from Hezbollah, as to not escalate the situation,” Kochav said.

Rocket fire from Lebanon has been exceedingly rare in the 15 years since the 2006 Second Lebanon War Israel fought against Hezbollah, though it has occurred sporadically. Recent months, however, have seen a slight uptick, with 10 launches aimed at Israel during May’s 11-day war in Gaza, as well as last month, leading to fears among some that the phenomenon could become more common, as has happened in areas on the Gaza border.

The UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, known by its acronym UNIFIL, said Friday the situation was “very serious.”

“UNIFIL has detected rocket launches from Lebanon and return artillery fire by Israel. This is a very serious situation and we urge all parties to cease fire,” UNIFIL said in a statement.

Israel has conveyed to Lebanon via UN peacekeepers that it could intensify its response if calm is not returned to the border.

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Road to an Iranian Attack on Israel

Video Of The Week -Second 'Son of Hamas Leader ' Defects https://tinyurl.com/rpyn2mz

 From BESA, By Prof. Eytan Gilboa 15-11-2019

The full article - https://tinyurl.com/rcu76fl

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Israeli political and military leaders have warned against the possibility of a major military confrontation with Iran, which wants to deter Israel from disrupting its attempts to build military bases in Syria and Iraq and to construct factories in which Hezbollah can convert its huge arsenal of rockets into accurate missiles. This threat is more acute in light of the American failure to respond to recent Iranian provocations in the Gulf. Israel should adopt an aggressive new strategic approach to meet this threat, in coordination with the US and in consultation with Russia.

Military and strategic experts argue that an Iranian military attack on Israel is just a matter of time. American strategic weakness, as reflected in its failure to respond to a series of Iranian provocations in the Gulf, could provide an opportunity for an Iranian attack. The main purpose of such an attack would be to deter Israel from its relentless strikes on the military infrastructure Iran is attempting to build in Syria and more recently in Iraq.

Iran has attacked oil tankers and Saudi oil facilities and shot down an expensive American intelligence drone over international waters. It is building facilities to convert Hezbollah’s huge arsenal of rockets into more accurate and more deadly weapons. It is trying to add a third military front against Israel in Syria and Iraq (the other two are Lebanon and Gaza), and is using the terror organization Islamic Jihad in Gaza to attack Israeli towns and villages in order to sabotage the Egyptian effort to achieve calm there.

Iran is also systematically violating the 2015 nuclear agreement, which was signed by European powers as well as the US.

On November 6, 2019, Iran began to fuel over 1,044 centrifuges with uranium gas at the Fordow nuclear facility. The purpose is to enrich uranium at 20%. For peaceful purposes, uranium only needs to be enriched at 3-5%, and indeed the nuclear deal allows Iran to enrich only up to 3.67%.

It is obvious that Iran would not attack Israel directly from its own territory. It is much more likely to use its proxies in the region. Fortunately, Iran lost some of the element of surprise against Israel as it already used precision-guided cruise missiles against Saudi Arabia.

Israel is preparing defensive and offensive answers to the prospect of an Iranian cruise missile and drone strike. An Israeli strategy should include several key components. First it should reveal Iran’s plan. Then it should threaten direct and massive retaliation and make clear that Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Gaza will pay a heavy price if attacks on Israel originate on their soil.

In the Second Lebanon War in 2006, Israel distinguished between Lebanon and Hezbollah. This distinction did not really apply then, and it certainly does not apply now. If Israel comes under attack from Lebanese territory, it will attack all of Lebanon in response—the Lebanese army as well as Hezbollah. The same is true for Syria. Israel is trying to persuade Syrian president Basher Assad and Russia that if Israel comes under attack from Syria, it is Assad who will pay the price and his regime will be endangered.

Israel should inform Russia of potential Israeli action after any attack by Iran, especially from Syrian territory. Russia hasn’t been happy about exchanges of fire between Israel and Iranian forces attempting to build a base in Syria. Russia has not protested Israeli military actions in Syria and is concerned about the survival of the Assad regime should an Iranian attack originate from there.

Iran’s military leaders often threaten to annihilate Israel or at least destroy Tel Aviv. In view of the growing probability of a direct military confrontation between the two states, Israelis would do well to remember Elie Wiesel’s words: “Better to believe the threats of our enemies than the promises of our friends.”

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Britain’s decision to ban Hezbollah

Video Of The Week - Real City Of David Proves Critics WRONG - https://tinyurl.com/yy2ekcn9

On March 1, 2019, the British Parliament approved the decision to recognize Hezbollah in its entirety as a terrorist organization. According to the decision, any person charged with belonging to or supporting Hezbollah in British territory is liable to imprisonment for up to 10 years. This is a significant decision as up to now only Hezbollah’s military wing (since 2001) and foreign security unit (since 2008) have been designated in Britain as a terrorist organization. This means that from now on, Hezbollah’s political wing, including Hezbollah members serving as ministers in the recently formed Lebanese government, will be designated as terrorists.

Among its reasons for passing the law in Parliament, the British government noted that Hezbollah continues to stockpile weapons in contravention of a UN Security Council Resolution (i.e., Resolution 1701). According to British Home Secretary Sajid Javid, the reason for this step is Hezbollah’s attempts to destabilize the already fragile situation in the Middle East. According to the Home Secretary and other ministers, it is now difficult to distinguish between the organization’s military wing and its political wing, (a distinction) which no longer exists in practice. Therefore, it was decided to declare Hezbollah in its entirety as a terrorist organization (British government website, Home Secretary Sajid Javid’s Twitter account, February 25, 2019).

Hezbollah responded formally to the decision on March 1, 2019, after the British Parliament approved it. Hezbollah vehemently rejected the accusations of terrorism “which the British government had fabricated” and stressed that the organization was a “resistance movement” against the Israeli occupation. The announcement attacks Britain, perceiving it as a “proxy in the ranks of the American patron.” The announcement stresses that Hezbollah would continue to “defend Lebanon, its liberty and its independence.” Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi also issued a statement denouncing Britain, stressing that Hezbollah plays a key role in all aspects of life in Lebanon and that it enjoys extensive support from the people. He added that the decision harmed Lebanon’s stability and disregarded international law (Tasnim News Agency, March 2, 2019).

Hezbollah’s terrorist activity has been going on for 37 years, a long period during which considerable evidence has accumulated about the terrorist nature of Hezbollah, which is the main proxy of Iran’s policy of “exporting” terrorism and subversion. This evidence, which includes extensive and reliable intelligence, is in the hands of the security services of the US, European countries and Israel, which have been targets of Iranian and Hezbollah terrorist attacks for a long time. The separation between Hezbollah’s military wing and its political wing is baseless since Hezbollah’s military-terrorist wing and its political wing are intertwined.  Senior Hezbollah figures made it clear in the past that in their view, it was impossible to distinguish between the military wing and the political wing.  Nevertheless, most European countries still make the distinction between Hezbollah’s military wing and its political wing, contrary to the American position. Britain, on the other hand, maintained a united front with the US position when it declared Hezbollah in its entirety as a terrorist organization and imposed sanctions on it and on anyone who helps it.

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‘Terrorists in Suits’

 Over 100 links revealed between terrorists and BDS groups

For the full article go to “WIN” - https://tinyurl.com/yd8f4f82

 February 3, 2019

The Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy (MSA) released its “Terrorists in Suits” report on Sunday, revealing over 100 links shared between the internationally-designated terrorist organizations Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) with at least 13 anti-Israel BDS promoting NGOs.

Elaborating on a previous report, the ministry reveals how Hamas and the PFLP are utilizing a network of NGOs promoting boycotts against Israel as an additional tactic in their ultimate goal of dismantling the State of Israel. These organizations have successfully placed over 30 of their members, 20 of which have served time, including for murder, in senior positions within BDS-promoting NGOs.

The report documents how boycott organizations and terrorist designated organizations raise finances together, share the same personnel, and showcases that contrary to popular belief, these officials have not abandoned their support for terrorism, but instead, continue to maintain organizational, financial, and active ties with terrorist groups.

Funding from Europe, philanthropic foundations

The Israel-boycott organizations in question were also shown to have received millions of euros in funding from European countries and philanthropic foundations, while gaining access to additional funds through financial, crowdfunding and banking systems.

Examples of terrorists working in support of organizations that promote the boycotting of Israel include Leila Khaled and Mustafa Awad.

Khaled became infamous for hijacking two civilian airliners, Flights TWA 840 and El Al 219, and to this day remains active in the internationally-designated terrorist group the PFLP. She has fundraised for, and promoted, anti-Israel boycott NGOs both in Europe and South Africa. In 2011 she was found to have taken coordinated actions for a terrorist cell planning on attacking sites in Jerusalem. Furthermore, in October 2018 Khaled was quoted in an interview saying, “Palestine will be liberated through resistance in all its forms, first and foremost through armed struggle.”

Awad, is currently serving time for his involvement in several terrorist organizations, including serving as a member of the PFLP and received training from Iranian terrorist group Hezbollah. He also represented Samidoun in Brussels, an organization known for promoting boycotts against the State of Israel and advocating for the release of Palestinian security-prisoners in Israeli jails, including those convicted of murdering civilians in terrorist PFLP attacks.

Connections to Hamas, Islamic Jihad

Another instance includes the BDS National Committee (BNC), the Ramallah-based leadership of the global Boycott movement toward Israel, consists of 28 Palestinian boycott groups. The lead member of this coalition is the Palestinian National and Islamic Forces (PNIF), which includes five internationally-designated terrorist organizations including Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The American fundraising platform Donorbox recently suspended the BNC’s account after finding the group did indeed maintain ties to terrorist groups.

Over the past year, and following MSA activities to expose NGO terror ties, several European countries have announced the reexamination and decrease in funding granted to organizations which promote boycotts against the State of Israel.

The report also showed how members of terrorist organizations operate under the guise of “boycott activists” to gain access, and meet with, senior Western government officials and exert pressure to release convicted terrorists held in Israeli prisons.

Removing the ‘mask’ of the NGOs

The new report aims to decidedly remove the “mask” of NGOs promoting BDS by exposing in an in-depth study the true nature of this scheme, the ministry said.

“Terrorist groups and the anti-Israel boycott campaign have united in their goal of wiping Israel off the map,” Erdan said. “Terrorist groups view boycotts as a complementary tactic to terror attacks. Following the exposure of over 100 links between terrorist groups and leading BDS organizations, I urge all governments and financial institutions to investigate the activities of these BDS organizations, and immediately end all funding and support which they provide to them.”

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When Anti-Zionism Tunnels Under Your House

Video Of The Week - What Is Hezbollah? - https://tinyurl.com/ycf3hhzf

By Bret Stephens -

For full article go to - https://tinyurl.com/ydfd9otk

In 2002, Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hezbollah, was said to have given a speech noting that the creation of the state of Israel had spared his followers the trouble of hunting down Jews at “the ends of the world.” The Lebanese terrorist group has prominentapologists in the West, and some of them rushed to claim that Nasrallah had uttered no such thing.

Except he had. Tony Badran of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies tracked down the original recording of the speech, in which Nasrallah carries on about “occupied Palestine” as the place appointed by Allah for the “final and decisive battle” with the Jews. By “occupied Palestine,” he wasn’t talking about the West Bank.

Sometimes anti-Zionists are — surprise! — homicidal anti-Semites, too.

That’s a thought that can’t be far from the mind of anyone living in northern Israel, where in recent days the Israeli Army has discovered at least three tunnels dug by Hezbollah and intended to infiltrate commandos under the border in the (increasingly likely) event of war. Given the breadth of Hezbollah’s capabilities, the depth of its fanaticism, and the experience of Hamas’s excavation projects in Gaza, it’s fair to assume other tunnels will be found.

What would Hezbollah do if it got its fighters across? In 1974, three Palestinian terrorists crossed the border from Lebanon and took 115 hostages at an elementary school in the town of Ma’alot. They murdered 25 of them, including 22 children.

Another infiltration from Lebanon in 1978 left 38 Israelis dead. Given Hezbollah’s long record of perpetrating massacres from Buenos Airesto Beirut to towns and cities across Syria, it’s a playbook it wouldn’t scruple to follow in a war for the Galilee.

Note: Anti-Zionists are not advocating the reform of a state, as Japan was reformed after 1945. Nor are they calling for the adjustment of a state’s borders, as Canada’s border with the United States was periodically adjusted in the 19th century. They’re not talking about the birth of a separate state, either, as South Sudan was born out of Sudan in 2011. And they’re certainly not championing the partition of a multiethnic state into ethnically homogenous components, as Yugoslavia was partitioned after 1991.

Anti-Zionism is ideologically unique in insisting that one state, and one state only, doesn’t just have to change. It has to go. By a coincidence that its adherents insist is entirely innocent, this happens to be the Jewish state, making anti-Zionists either the most disingenuous of ideologues or the most obtuse. When then-CNN contributor Marc Lamont Hill called last month for a “free Palestine from the river to the sea” and later claimed to be ignorant of what the slogan really meant, it was hard to tell in which category he fell.

The good news is that the conversation about anti-Zionism remains mostly academic because Israelis haven’t succumbed to the fatal illusion that, if only they behaved better, their enemies would hate them less. To the extent that Israeli parents ever sleep soundly, it’s because they know what they are up against. And, to borrow Kipling’s line, they never make mock of uniforms that guard them while they sleep.

The same can’t be said for that class of scolds who excel in making excuses for the wicked and finding fault with the good. When you find yourself on the same side as Hassan Nasrallah, Louis Farrakhan and David Duke on the question of a country’s right to exist, it’s time to re-examine every opinion you hold.

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The Mole inside the Hezbollah Tunnel

Video Of The Week - Hezbollah tunnels reach Israel - https://tinyurl.com/y85mb9zz

How did Israel gain the intelligence information it needed to discover and booby-trap Hezbollah's tunnel and what does that mean for the future?

Dr. Mordechai Kedar, 05/12/18

This week, for the first time, Israel made public its discovery of the tunnel constructed by Hezbollah and reaching into Israel's sovereign territory. This brought to an end a long period during which a large number of Israelis living in communities adjacent to the Lebanese border reported hearing sounds of digging as well as feeling tremors in the walls of their homes.

Attack tunnels are intended to allow for significant numbers of armed infantry bearing weapons, artillery and supplies, to traverse them within a minimal time span, avoiding Israeli lookouts and thereby gaining the element of surprise. An underground passage grants attackers protection from Israeli bombs, while it also means that the war begins on the Israeli side of the border, in the midst of areas populated by civilians. That fact allows for sudden forays and kidnapping.

However, the discovery and neutralization of the tunnel that Hezbollah dug into Israel's sovereign territory is a technological, operational and intelligence network accomplishment, for additional reasons:

1. Hezbollah based its plans for future wars on these tunnels. Nasrallah has not made a secret of his plans to take over the Galilee in the next war, but because Hezbollah has no means of air transport, it cannot land sufficient numbers of armed forces in Israeli territory, and the tunnels were intended as the substitute for an airlift.  By discovering the first tunnel, Israel has eliminated the immediate use of this strategic method, but the IDF believes there are additional tunnels.

2. The discovery of the tunnel has proven to the entire world that Hezbollah is acting in flagrant violation of the Security Council Resolution 1701 which brought the 2006 Second Lebanon War to an end. This resolution forbids Hezbollah any presence in southern Lebanon, but now it has become clear that not only is the terrorist organization in that region, it is also violating Israeli sovereignty. It is obvious once again that UNIFIL has neither the ability nor the interest to carry out the mission it was given by the Security Council and Israel has no reason to assume that the international community will act to ensure its security. This violation of a Security Council decision provides Israel with justification, vis a vis the Israeli public and the world, to attack Hezbollah.

An underground passage grants attackers protection from Israeli bombs, while it also means that the war begins on the Israeli side of the border, in the midst of areas populated by civilians.

3, Israel has the technological ability to discover tunnels dug as deep as 25 meters (27 yards) down into bedrock, a depth equal to the height of an 8 storey building. And Israeli know-how does not end with the discovery of the tunnel: despite the fact that the tunnel reaches only 40 meters (43 yards) into Israel, Israel managed not only to discover it but to position both a camera and explosive charge inside it without Hezbollah lookouts becoming aware of any activity in the tunnel.

4. Hezbollah suspects that Israel succeeded in finding the tunnel by means of intelligence activity, meaning that there is a "mole" within its ranks, someone with access to its most secret information – the location of its tunnels – who is on such a high level of collaboration with Israel that he can provide it with the relevant information without being exposed.  IDF CoS Gadi Eizenkot said on Tuesday that Israel is in possession of Hezbollah's tunnel plans.

In my opinion, from the minute the tunnel's discovery was made public, internal Hezbollah security forces are working feverishly to discover who the collaborator is. People are being interrogated, an insulting experience in itself that does not make for a pleasant atmosphere. Tension is at a high between members of the organization who had information about the tunnel, as each and every one of them automatically is suspected of working with Israel. Fearing that anyone can be the "mole", people are refraining from sharing information with one another.

This situation is affecting the organization's functioning and opens up the possibility that the innocent will find themselves accused. Those falsely accused will not continue as if nothing untoward has happened after they have been suspected of disloyalty, an unforgivable insult to their dedication. No organization can function in a situation of this kind, especially in a case where the organization's entire strategy has to be altered due to fears that Israel has found other tunnels and booby-trapped them as it did the first.

5. Up until Wednesday morning, the time these lines were written, there has been no reaction from Hezbollah. In my opinion, the organization is in a state of utter disarray, with Hassan Nasrallah expected to explain how this debacle occurred. The Iranians are furious because of Nasrallah's failure to adequately develop the tunnel strategy and because of the suspicion that there is a Hezbollah member passing on information to Israel.

6. Hezbollahs' "Radwan" commando unit is the attack force which was to traverse the tunnels, enter the Galilee and conquer Israeli settlements there. Now that the tunnel has been found and booby-trapped by the IDF, both officers and fighters in the "Radwan" unit are afraid that every tunnel they enter is a death trap – not exactly adding to their motivation.

7. The discovery of the tunnel will cause Hezbollah to concentrate on developing its rocket arsenal and especially on honing its ability to pinpoint targets in Israel.

8. The tunnel project cost Hezbollah many millions of dollars, and now all that investment has gone to waste. Hassan Nasrallah is going to have to explain the financial aspect of this failure as well.

9. Despite all this, Israel would be wise not to think that the discovery of the tunnels is a knock-out blow to Hezbollah. That terror organization knows how to overcome difficulties and adapt itself and its operations to changing circumstances. While it is true that the discovery of the tunnel is an impressive achievement, technologically and intelligence-wise, it is not enough to defeat Hezbollah and convince the organization that there is no point in continuing to fight Israel. Hezbollah will remain Israel's implacable and bitter enemy from an ideological standpoint, and more immediately, because it is the long arm of the Iranian Islamic Republic which has sworn to destroy Israel.

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