< HOME  Saturday, July 22, 2006

Israel planned Lebanon assault over a year ago

Matthew Kalman | San Fransisco Chronicle Foreign Service
Friday, July 21, 2006

In the six years since Israel ended its military occupation
of southern Lebanon, it watched warily as Hezbollah built up its military presence in the region. When Hezbollah militants kidnapped two Israeli soldiers last week, the Israeli military was ready to react almost instantly.

"Of all of Israel's wars since 1948, this was the one for which Israel was most prepared," said Gerald Steinberg, professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University. "In a sense, the preparation began in May 2000, immediately after the Israeli withdrawal, when it became clear the international community was not going to prevent Hezbollah from stockpiling missiles and attacking Israel. By 2004, the military campaign scheduled to last about three weeks that we're seeing now had already been blocked out and, in the last year or two, it's been simulated and rehearsed across the board."

More than a year ago, a senior Israeli army officer began giving PowerPoint presentations, on an off-the-record basis, to U.S. and other diplomats, journalists and think tanks, setting out the plan for the current operation in revealing detail. Under the ground rules of the briefings, the officer could not be identified.

In his talks, the officer described a three-week campaign: The first week concentrated on destroying Hezbollah's heavier long-range missiles, bombing its command-and-control centers, and disrupting transportation and communication arteries. In the second week, the focus shifted to attacks on individual sites of rocket launchers or weapons stores. In the third week, ground forces in large numbers would be introduced, but only in order to knock out targets discovered during reconnaissance missions as the campaign unfolded. There was no plan, according to this scenario, to reoccupy southern Lebanon on a long-term basis.

Israeli officials say their pinpoint commando raids should not be confused with a ground invasion. Nor, they say, do they herald another occupation of southern Lebanon, which Israel maintained from 1982 to 2000 -- in order, it said, to thwart Hezbollah attacks on Israel. --->Planners anticipated the likelihood of civilian deaths on both sides.<--- Israel says Hezbollah intentionally bases some of its operations in residential areas. And Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has bragged publicly that the group's arsenal included rockets capable of bombing Haifa, as occurred last week.
Evidence of premeditated war crimes.
Like all plans, the one now unfolding also has been shaped by changing circumstances, said Eran Lerman, a former colonel in Israeli military intelligence who is now director of the Jerusalem office of the American Jewish Committee.

"There are two radical views of how to deal with this challenge, a serious professional debate within the military community over which way to go," said Lerman. "One is the air power school of thought, the other is the land-borne option. They create different dynamics and different timetables. The crucial factor is that the air force concept is very methodical and almost by definition is slower to get results. A ground invasion that sweeps Hezbollah in front of you is quicker, but at -->a much higher cost in HUMAN life<-- and requiring the creation of a presence on the ground."
It's clear that he's referring to Israeli lives, since only their casualties would necessarily increase with a ground invasion. THIS IS DAMNING EVIDENCE THAT ISRAELIS THINK THAT NON-ISRAELIS ARE SUB-HUMANS - their lives don't count.

The advance scenario is now in its second week, and its success or failure is still unfolding. Whether Israel's aerial strikes will be enough to achieve the threefold aim of the campaign -- to remove the Hezbollah military threat; to evict Hezbollah from the border area, allowing the deployment of Lebanese government troops; and to ensure the safe return of the two Israeli soldiers abducted last week -- remains an open question. Israelis are opposed to the thought of reoccupying Lebanon.

"I have the feeling that the end is not clear here. I have no idea how this movie is going to end," said Daniel Ben-Simon, a military analyst for the daily Haaretz newspaper.

Thursday's clashes in southern Lebanon occurred near an outpost abandoned more than six years ago by the retreating Israeli army. The place was identified using satellite photographs of a Hezbollah bunker, but only from the ground was Israel able to discover that it served as the entrance to a previously unknown underground network of caves and bunkers stuffed with missiles aimed at northern Israel, said Israeli army spokesman Miri Regev.

"We knew about the network, but it was fully revealed (Wednesday) by the ground operation of our forces," said Regev. "This is one of the purposes of the pinpoint ground operations -- to locate and try to destroy the terrorist infrastructure from where they can fire at Israeli citizens."

Israeli military officials say as much as 50 percent of Hezbollah's missile capability has been destroyed, mainly by aerial attacks on targets identified from intelligence reports. But missiles continue to be fired at towns and cities across northern Israel.

"We were not surprised that the firing has continued," said Tzachi Hanegbi, chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. "Hezbollah separated its leadership command-and-control system from its field organization. It created a network of tiny cells in each village that had no operational mission except to wait for the moment when they should activate the Katyusha rocket launchers hidden in local houses, using coordinates programmed long ago to hit Nahariya or Kiryat Shemona, or the kibbutzim and villages."

"From the start of this operation, we have also been active on the ground across the width of Lebanon," said Brig. Gen. Ron Friedman, head of Northern Command headquarters. "These missions are designed to support our current actions. Unfortunately, one of the many missions which we have carried out in recent days met with slightly fiercer resistance."

Israel didn't need sophisticated intelligence to discover the huge buildup of Iranian weapons supplies to Hezbollah by way of Syria, because Hezbollah's patrons boasted about it openly in the pages of the Arabic press. As recently as June 16, less than four weeks before the Hezbollah border raid that sparked the current crisis, the Syrian defense minister publicly announced the extension of existing agreements allowing the passage of trucks shipping Iranian weapons into Lebanon.

But to destroy them, Israel needed to map the location of each missile.

"We need a lot of patience," said Hanegbi. "The (Israeli Defense Forces) action at the moment is incapable of finding the very last Katyusha, or the last rocket launcher primed for use hidden inside a house in some village."

Moshe Marzuk, a former head of the Lebanon desk for Israeli Military Intelligence who now is a researcher at the Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Herzliya, said Israel had learned from past conflicts in Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza -- as well as the recent U.S. experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq -- that a traditional military campaign would be counter-effective.

"A big invasion is not suitable here," said Marzuk. "We are not fighting an army, but guerrillas. It would be a mistake to enter and expose ourselves to fighters who will hide, fire off a missile and run away. If we are to be on the ground at all, we need to use commandos and special forces."
Lying, cowardly SOBs.

___________________
Thanks, ReBelle Nation

5 Comments:

At Saturday, July 22, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said...

All the evidence thus far lead us to believe that indeed, Israel has had this little maneuveur planned for Lebanon in general and Hizballah in particular. The Henchmen in Tel Aviv knew that they would face no opposition on the international scene to their scheme as Olmert puts it, " to send Lebanon back 50 years." The US is a partner and has been for a very long time.

Although, some analysts propose that Israel is some of sort of leech sucking the lifeblood out of US foreign policy, in my assessment their relationship throughout the modern era, 1967 onward has been solidified through mutual aid in dominating the world. Indeed, it was Israel that continually gave the US the comfort of plausible deniability in many of its escapades around the globle while it toppled one gov't after another in the developing world to bolster its economy and dominance. The U.S. similarly, enjoys close-knit economic ties with Israel; especially in the monetary sector but more so diversified.

We're talking about elites here where religious and other such nicetiess that keep us, the sufferers, the fodder for their machine at each other's throats, don't mean much and are mere means and photo opts.

Ever since this elite emerged (bankers, insurers and rich merchants)usurping the Nobility and Clergy with the riches made from slavery and colonialization they have maintained this pledge to stay rich at the expense of the same people that started it all--the enslaved and colonized.

I often have my doubts about the omnipotent one, but times like these, when it sends clear visions that don't require long fasts and constant prayer; showing a c;ear picture like Lebanon. A revelation as bright as the midday sun that it's there in the scheme of things. Urging us forward to suck another gulp of oxygen into our lungs and stay alive and resist.

I give thanks to that power, because India, Pakistan, North Korea have fissile bombs but only for which I fear that these bloodsuckers would be even more deadly. They have shown us over and over, that only nuclear weapons can keep them at bay free of their tyranny. Ask yourself, why North Korea is not attacked, while Iraq is thrown back 50 years, a country that was 15th in the global market is now a shadow of its former self.

At any rate, yes, Israel and the US knew all along that this would go down. Syria was maneuvered out of Lebanon to expedite this sinister plot; again using the UN to bamboozle public opinion. Giving grand accollades to the Lebanese, praising them with catchy little slogans developed in think tanks such as the Cedar Revolution and the prototype of Democrazy in the Arab world. They could have used a number of pretexts once the conditions were set on the ground for this lewd affair. There was no one to stop them? Who is to say that Israel didn't provoke the border confrontation? All indications are that Lebanon was moving toward a political solution with Hizballah on UNSC 1559. Israel still holds Shebaa Farms, which Israel contends is Syrian land, while Syria lies on the opposite end of Lebanon. Go figure! Even Syria says Shebaa belongs to Lebanon. I guess it had to be derailed before it was actually implemented; lest they lose this golden opportunity to pounce and take out a competitor in tourist and small manufacturing industries in the area. At the same time be able to keep Shebaa and who knows maybe the Litani river as well. They have been eyeing it for decades to supplement their water supply.

Moreover, the dual-citizenship policy makers that have devised US foreign policy--yes the same geeks that gave us Iraq--only presented to Bush Co. rehashed proposals and papers they wrote for the Israeli gov't 5-10 years prior. Do you see the absurdity?

Anyway, give thanks, because they only make us stronger with their greed and evil ways.

See this earlier post about how information, i.e., news emanating from Israel is strictly manipulated and controled by censors to present the prevailing Israeli view or reporters get, arrested shot, deported, denied entry, tortured, jailed and even killed.

Apparently, even the pretext for decimating Lebanon, that Hizballah violated the Israeli border is questioned in this article and I've seen this account at least two more, one of which was at Asia times.

Here's the link to it.

http://wakeupfromyourslumber.blogspot.com/2006/07/tel-aviv-and-beirut-compared-july-20.html#c115356665825853571

Justice!

 
At Saturday, July 22, 2006, Blogger qrswave said...

Well, Israelis can forget about tourism now.

Finally, they've revealed themselves for the world to see in all their evil glory.

 
At Saturday, July 22, 2006, Blogger ksdrover said...

I mentioned this to you days before it came out in the press qrs. It's becoming painfully obvious what the motives are and their actions can no longer be hidden as they once were.

peace
ksdrover

 
At Saturday, July 22, 2006, Blogger qrswave said...

no they can't.

let's just pray that they do not take out the internet before people have a chance to learn the whole truth.

 
At Saturday, July 22, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Power Point Presentation of Possible Pinpoint Project- Here we go, back to Sales 101, or is it Carnegies' "How to Win Friends and Influence People"? Just spend the last five years since the previous invasion blurting out all the quasi-strategic military options of a TOP-SECRET campaign to launch a second attempt, in order to MAKE IT LOOK LIKE a LEGITIMATE game of G.I.JOE. It's all just pretend, right? Great way to beat the bushes for all that illegal military funding. Leave it to these stupid numb-fucks to leave their shit hangin right out their ass, all to create a NEW DIVERSION from what is really on the table:SYSTEMATIC GENOCIDE That's right, folks, we couldn't pull off OPERATION NORTHWOODS, so we morphed it into a PROJECT for a NEW AMERICAN CENTURY, which paid off handsomely on 9-11! But since everybody and their mother is on to that now, we had to go with PLAN B, Benni Yahoos' copyrighted signed, sealed and delivered "CLEAN BREAK" in the Mideast. Wow !! What divine inspiration ever came to this great EVIL GENIUS! Give us a CLEAN BREAK already, Benni! You already blew the fuck right out of us on 9-11, we were just startin' to get our second wind. Aren't you just about the cat's meow of a WORLD CLASS INTERNATIONAL DUAL-CITIZEN TWO-FACE ISRAELI-AMERICAN MOSSAD SONOFABITCHEN HOMICIDAL MASS HOMICIDAL FUCKIN' MANIAC?? Even bigger than your body buddies BUSH and BLAIR! Are you the really sweet honey pot they were kissin'up about lately? Well now, AIN'T YOU SWEET, gunna KNOCK ME OFF MY FEET? well, I'll tell you (very confidentially) YOU'RE DEAD MEAT, one more time, America- YOU'RE DEAD MEAT, everybody now,YORRRRRR-DEEEEEEED-MEAT!!

 

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