Northern exposure: 9 things to know for December 6
1. Plan of attack: Details are emerging about what the Hezbollah terror group planned to use a series of tunnels dug under the Israel-Lebanon border for, at least according to the Israel Defense Forces.
- A senior officer — unnamed, natch — told a gaggle of journalists Wednesday on a closely watched tour of the only tunnel uncovered so far that Hezbollah’s plan was to use the tunnels for a surprise infiltration to blitz the northern town of Metulla and part of the Galilee panhandle.
- According to Haaretz’s Amos Harel, the IDF thinks Hezbollah planned to quickly take control of communities or military positions while targeting whatever reinforcements were dispatched to respond.
- “The tunnels were supposed to allow companies from Hezbollah’s Radwan special forces unit to enter Israel undetected,” he writes. “From there, they were to spread out, take key positions and begin employing snipers and anti-tank missiles against the IDF. Immediately after the shock troops invaded Israeli territory using the tunnels, as their assault was detected, more forces would breach the border fence. Metulla is a desirable target to Hezbollah, accessible only by a single, relatively steep road. At the same time, according to assessments, additional companies of militants were to use other tunnels to enter Israel before spreading out and occupying strategic points along the ridges south of the border, in an effort to stop Israeli troops from advancing northward.”
2. Battle of wits: While the IDF is releasing much information, it’s also being particularly cagey about how much it knows, and Hezbollah is remaining silent as well.
- On Wednesday night, one Israeli TV outlet briefly mentioned what the IDF thinks the extent of the tunnel infrastructure was, but the information was quickly pulled down by the military censor.
- Hezbollah has yet to respond with an official statement or anything of the like yet. According to Hadashot news, this is because it wants to try and figure out what exactly Israel knows first.
- According to Israel Hayom’s Yoav Limor, Israel thinks the tunnels may have extended all the way west to the sea “where the tunnels would also be used for kidnapping soldiers and escaping back into Lebanon,” and indeed, Hezbollah published information Wednesday claiming that the IDF is now operating in areas to the west of Metulla.
3. Hezbollah’s bad, you dig? Israel in the meantime has launched its own PR and diplomatic blitz to get the world behind it and against Hezbollah.
- As of Wednesday evening Israel time, only Russia and the US had weighed in to offer support for Israel respectively. Then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a chat with UN chief Antonio Guterres and since then some European states have weighed in to back Israel.
4. Playing Beirut: There also appears to be an Israeli effort underway to convince the Lebanese to push out Hezbollah.
- “The uncovering of the attack tunnel exposes [Hezbollah head Hassan] Nasrallah as someone unconcerned about sacrificing Lebanon on the altar of Iranian interests,” Israel Hayom’s Oded Granot writes, citing a Lebanese journalist who warned Wednesday that Hezbollah was “dragging all of Lebanon into its tunnels.”
- In Yedioth, former national security adviser Giora Eiland gives five reasons why Lebanon may force Hezbollah to actually disarm or get out: a. Shiites are not the majority b. Most Lebanese are worried the group will drag Lebanon into war with Israel c. The 30-year-old group is in financial straits because of its time fighting in Syria, and its own pension crisis d. The group now has a stake in Lebanese politics that it may not want to risk by fighting a war and lastly Russia doesn’t care enough about Lebanon to back Iran’s proxy there.
5. ‘Israeli sham’: For now, though, Lebanon seems mostly nonplussed or dismissive about the Israeli operation.
- On Wednesday, Parliament speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah, said Israel had offered no proof of the tunnels.
- An editorial in Lebanon’s English-language Daily Star calls the operation “another Israeli sham.”
- But Prime Minister Sa’ad Hariri, no fan of Hezbollah, says simply that there’s no reason for tensions to escalate so long as Israel stays on its side of the border.
- “The developments on the southern border must not represent a reason for any escalation, and this is what Lebanon wants and is seeking with all the international and friendly sides concerned with this,” he’s quoted saying by Naharnet.
6. Hungary and the Holocaust: Israel’s Channel 10 news reports that Israeli diplomacy may also be directed at fighting a Hungarian initiative to open a new Holocaust museum that critics say diminishes the Hungarians’ role in persecution of the Jews.
7. Cop out: Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan is under fire after Moshe Edri dropped out of the race for police chief, following yet another controversy.
8. Non-kosher bagel with smear: An even bigger political scandal (not really) was sparked by a gossipy report in Hadashot news that aired reported quotes from Walla News owner Shaul Elovitch to associates, in which he complained about Netanyahu trying to wield control over the site.
9. Tuna prices smell fishy: In a bit of news you can use, Haaretz’s Sami Peretz tried to pop the top off the mystery of why canned tuna has gotten so much more expensive in recent years, despite the removal of a tariff that had dded several shekels onto each container.
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