A devastating war between Israel & Hezbollah is on the horizon
By: Elias Bejjani*

February 08/2010

*Israel is preparing to invade Lebanon with massive ground troops.
*Israel will not spare any kind of weaponry, including phosphorous and cluster bombs.
*Israel is secretly evacuating its northern region residents.
*Israel intends to create a new security zone inside Lebanon, south of the Litani to enhance her long term occupation.

While the war of words is escalating around the clock between Israel on the one side and Hezbollah and Syria on the other, analysts in the Middle East and Europe strongly believe that war is inevitable and will break out within a few months.

In this scary context, senior Lebanese sources told the Saudi daily Al-Okaz that Hezbollah has announced emergency readiness in all areas of the country where it operates. Senior figures of the organization were asked to exercise greater caution in their movements amid fears they would be targeted by Israel. Hezbollah’s leaders are bragging that they are capable of defeating, humiliating and destroying Israel’s war machine.

Meanwhile, the verbal sparring between Jerusalem and Damascus continued over the weekend, even if in lower tones. The official Syrian newspaper Tishrin said in an editorial that "the threats from Israel make it clear that it intends to initiate a new war whose limits are unknown." The editorial added that "death and destruction may occur if Israel responds to the logic of some of its leaders, in whose veins flows crime. Damascus is ready for any path that Israel chooses, whether it is peace or war." The editorial's author is the newspaper's editor-in-chief, who wrote that the "logic of war and threats is the dominant logic in Israel. Talk of peace is chatter void of substance that is mere media propaganda. There is no real political decision for peace in the Zionist entity, despite promises of this, on the basis of restoring rights to their rightful owners."

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem last week threatened that an Israeli attack against Syria would be total war. His Israeli counterpart, Avigdor Lieberman, warned that Syrian President Bashar Assad and his family would not remain in power as a result of the next war.

In a report written by Hamid Ghoriafi, Middle East analyst and journalist, that was published today by the Kuwaiti Daily Al-Seyassah, Ghoriafi drew a very dim picture for the whole situation and predicted a very devastating imminent war that will be according to the Israelis the last one with on their northern borders. Below are some excerpts from this report:

*Reliable European intelligence reports in London unveiled on Monday an extensive secretive Israeli ongoing operation to evacuate hundreds of families living in the Galilee settlements adjacent to the border with Lebanon to safer locations inside Israel, especially west Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and surrounding areas. These families are transported by trucks and buses and priority is given to families with many children, the elderly and the physically disabled. The evacuees' houses are put under the control of the Northern Military Command for reasons not yet known. "

*A German report that was recently distributed to those concerned in the European Union capitals revealed that there is a serious Israeli military intention to reoccupy the former border strip inside Lebanon with a distance of 5 to 6 kilometers. This strip was known as the "security zone" before the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon in May 2000. Initially it was established in the aftermath of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and occupation of her capital in 1982. The aim was to create a semi-demilitarized zone along the area of Lebanese Christian and some Shiite villages that are scattered near the Israeli border in a bid to safeguard the Jewish settlements from shelling and infiltration.

*The same intelligence report quoted Israeli Defense Ministry sources saying that their military engineers have finished putting designs for building two military airports inside the Lebanese “new security zone", which will stretch temporally up to the Litani River in the early stages of the war. This area has been under the control of the UNIFIL troops since 2006. Israel expects that the UNIFIL troops will withdraw in case the war breaks out. The first airport will be built on the middle and eastern region boundaries towards Shabaa Farms, Mount Hermon; and the second in the western sector region towards the coastal town of Naqoura.

All technical and logistic equipments required for the erection of these two airports are already in locations situated behind the front lines of the Israeli army that is extensively present on the northern border. Analysts say that this kind of preparations gives the impression that Israel is definitely planning for a long-term occupation to the south Litani area. The Israeli occupation accordingly will not endonce the coming military operations cease."

*The report quoted the Israeli defense sources saying that the war will actually begin in the northern region of the Litani Rriver and all though the Bekaa Valley and eastern Lebanese mountainous areas that separate Syria and Lebanon because the presence of Hezbollah in the south of the Litani is no longer as heavy as it was in 2006. The UNIFIL troops took control of this region after the 2006 war. The report disclosed that the backbone of the coming Israeli war will be based on two plans:

The first plan is for extensive jet plane aerial bombardment of Hezbollah's scattered military weaponry caches and missile bases with phosphorus and cluster bombs, replicating the kind of devastation the southern suburbs of Beirut (Hezbollah's ministate) suffered during the 2006 war.

The second plan is to execute for the first time, air-landing operations behind Hezbollah's lines after weakening and destroying its bases in the south, Bekaa Valley and Beirut.

These two plans in contrast to the 2006 war aim to practically occupy many Lebanese areas and locations as was the situation in the 1982 invasion led by Ariel Sharon, who occupied Beirut and its surrounding mountainous and coastal areas.

*British sources claimed that another European intelligence report prepared by the UNIFIL French contingent in southern Lebanon revealed that the Israeli army command has made ready another SOS war scenario to deal with Syrian and the Palestinian troops who might cross from Syria and enter the Bekaa Valley equipped with advanced anti-aircraft missiles to hunt the Israeli jets. The scenario speaks about Israeli war inside Syria in a bid to completely destroy these troops. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem last week threatened that an Israeli attack against Syria would lead to total war.

The report said that 60% of the Israeli air force has already been put on full alert and is well prepared for action on the first day of the coming war in an extensive attack on the Lebanese. Israel is planning to fulfill all its objectives and finish the war within a few weeks. The remaining 40% of the Israeli air force will be ready to join in swiftly and effectively if the Syrian army gets involved.

The same French report added that Israel is determined to make this war the last one on her northern borders. The Jewish military command will not spare any advanced and destructive kind of weaponry that is stored in its caches. Hezbollah will not be the only target within the Shiite regions that are under its control, but also the Lebanese army, all Lebanese institutions and infrastructure. Israel is well convinced that Hezbollah is in full control of the Lebanese government and accordingly its army will not spare the country's infrastructure as was the situation in the 2006 war. Israel is planning to end Hezbollah the same way it ended the PLO in the 1982-1983 war.

*Click Here to read the Arabic report
http://www.10452lccc.com/h.geriafi07/hamid8.2.10.htm

*Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com
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