Israeli Army Chief Does Not Rule Out Future 'Fighting in Lebanon'
Outgoing Israeli army chief of staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz was optimistic that Hizbullah would not launch an attack on the Jewish state soon but did not rule out a future war.
“We don’t expect war to be initiated against us in the coming year, but there could be a deterioration as a result of specific events” as occurred in the Gaza Strip, Gantz said in interviews published in eight newspapers in the past days and over the weekend.
“Neither Hizbullah nor Hamas currently want to start a war with us. Our enemies face other challenges at the moment, but the instability is such that I can’t promise that we won’t be fighting in Lebanon in 2015.”
Gantz will leave his post in four months. But he made sure to warn that Hizbullah would do well to learn from the capabilities demonstrated by the Israeli military in the recent bloody campaign on Gaza.
Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan "Nasrallah sees that the Israeli society didn't break apart and was ready to pay the price (in Gaza), and that we know to do in Lebanon what we did in Gaza," warned the Israeli army head.
While the Arab world is busy with wars and fights against terrorism, the common enemy remains Israel, reminded Gantz.
"Our enemies are currently busy with other problems, but who is next in line for all of them? Us!" stated Gantz. "If Hizbullah weren't busy now doing what Iran tells them to do in Syria who is their fixed enemy? Us."
Hizbullah has sent thousands of fighters to Syria to help troops loyal to President Bashar Assad fighting rebels seeking to topple him.
In the same interviews, Gantz defended the Israeli army's performance during the latest aggression on Gaza, noting that the strategic objectives of the operation were not “the occupation of Gaza or the collapse of Hamas.”
During the 50-day war, Israel launched several thousand airstrikes and unleashed artillery barrages at what it said were Hamas-linked targets in Gaza, flattening entire neighborhoods. Hamas fired thousands of rockets and mortar shells at Israeli communities during the fighting.
Gantz said that the militant group suffered military setbacks during the war, but that Israel can only secure long-term quiet on its border with Gaza if "an economic anchor backs up what was achieved in the fighting."
"We need to permit the opening of the strip to goods," Gantz was quoted as saying. "In the end, there are 1.8 million people there, with Israel and Egypt surrounding them. These people need to live."
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