by Steven Emerson
Despite a collapsing Lebanese economy and considerable political turmoil, Hezbollah continues to threaten Israel. These threats must be taken seriously, given that Hezbollah — the Iranian-backed proxy army — has an incredible stockpile of long-range, medium range, and short-range missiles that can reach every square inch of Israel.
I spoke last Friday with the Middle East Forum about the worst-case scenarios for a conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. The possibilities include a surprise attack by Hezbollah, an Israeli pre-emptive strike, an unplanned escalation, and a multi-front war against Israel. The situation is a powder keg, and one false move could set any of these scenarios in motion.
Israelis understood the surprise attack possibility in 2019, when they discovered several well-built tunnels that started more than a half mile inside of Lebanon, but crossed into Israel. Hezbollah could have used them to attack northern Israeli communities, trying to kill as well as take Israeli civilians hostage. This kind of terrorist attack would have sparked a full-blown war.
Israel already lives under constant threat from Hezbollah’s missile arsenal, much of which has been smuggled into Lebanon and retrofitted with advanced GPS guidance systems.
A multi-front war against Israel appears more possible now that Iraqi militias can use Iranian-supplied missiles, which can strike inside Israel.
From the south, Yemeni Houthis now have projectiles capable of reaching Israel’s port city of Eilat along the Red Sea. In Syria, Hezbollah has battle-tested forces capable of attacking, and there are Iranian and Russian weapon systems ready to strike. Finally, Gaza is home to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, two terrorist groups that have been firing rockets at Israeli civilian communities for years. If they all acted together, a five-prong multi-front war against Israel is the worst-case scenario.
In 2019, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah went on Hezbollah’s Al Manar television station with his list of Israeli strategic targets that he wants destroyed during the next war with Israel.
These strategic targets include Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, power plants, water desalination plants, nuclear sites, seaports, gas production facilities and natural gas rigs, petro-chemical production facilities near Haifa, IDF Headquarters/Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv, air bases, naval bases, army bases, military industries, and important financial and commercial centers.
Hezbollah’s arsenal is believed to include 130,000 short range rockets that can travel less than 70 km, about 500 medium range rockets (greater than 70 km and less than 250 km), and about 100 long range rockets (greater than 250 km) missiles. According to a 2018 reportfrom the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), “Hezbollah now possesses more firepower than 95 percent of the world’s conventional militaries, and more rockets and missiles than all European NATO members combined.”
Analysts believe that Hezbollah has between 500-1,000 precision guided munitions outfitted with enhanced GPS guidance systems that can hit every square inch of Israel, with devastating accuracy.
With long range advanced GPS Scud B warheads carrying as much as 2,200 pounds of high grade explosives, these missiles could easily destroy top strategic targets in Israel such as the Dimona nuclear power plant, Ben Gurion Airport, Israeli power plants, Israeli military bases, and sites that could cause massive civilian carnage — all targets that Nasrallah has personally threatened to attack in the next war with Israel. (For comparative damage assessments, the unguided Qassam rockets launched by Hamas carry a payload of only 12 pounds of explosives.)
Additionally, Hezbollah reportedly has several dozen anti-ship missiles, such as the three C-802 anti-ship missiles that they fired at the Israeli Navy ship Hanit during the 2006 war, killing four Israeli sailors.
1 comment:
Isaiah post rapture therefore the BIG DAY just a few days.
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