Israeli analysis: Israel plans to use massive force against Lebanon

Sunday October 05, 2008 23:03 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

According to statements by Israeli military analysts, another attack on Lebanon by Israel would look much like the last one: massive civilian casualties, environmental ecocide and millions of cluster bomblets left unexploded throughout the country.

Lebanese neighborhood before and after Israeli bombing in 2006

Israel was widely criticized for its 2006 invasion of Lebanon in which an estimated 1,000 of the 1,200 Lebanese casualties were civilians. Israel suffered around 130 casualties, about half of which were civilians. However, Israel's main ally, the United States, did not criticize Israel's violations of international human rights conventions and instead rewarded the Israeli army with a gift of thousands of additional of cluster bombs after Israel began to run out after several weeks of non-stop bombardment of Lebanon.

Israeli Northern Command General Gadi Eisenkot in an interview Friday with the Israeli daily 'Yedioth Ahranoth', laid out what he called the 'Dahiyah Doctrine', in which Israel would take the example of the Beirut suburb of Dahiyah, which was flattened by thousands of Israeli bombs in the 2006 invasion, and expand that strategy to the entire nation of Lebanon.

Eisenkot stated, "We will wield disproportionate power against every village from which shots are fired on Israel, and cause immense damage and destruction. From our perspective, these are military bases. This isn't a suggestion. This is a plan that has already been authorized."

In addition, two other senior Israeli military figures recently published articles outlining the same doctrine. Colonel (Res.) Gabriel Siboni published a paper through Tel Aviv University's Department of National Security Studies in which he stated, "As soon as the conflict breaks out, the IDF [Israeli military] will have to operate in a rapid, determined, powerful and disproportionate way against the enemy's actions. This strike has to be carried out as quickly as possible, through prioritizing strikes at its assets, rather than chasing after launch sites. Such a response is likely to be remembered by decision makers in Syria and Lebanon for many years, thus deepening deterrence,"

Major General (Res.) Giora Eiland, former National Security Advisor, also recommended massive air strikes against Lebanese civilian areas in a recent article. He said that Beirut should be attacked much more than in the last war (tens of thousands of pounds of bombs were dropped on Beirut in the last war), and that the Lebanese army should not be excluded from the attacks.

The last war against Lebanon was sparked by the ambush of four Israeli soldiers on the Israel-Lebanon border. Hezbollah, the main fighting force in Lebanon, contends that the soldiers had crossed over the border into Lebanon, and were thus in violation of international borders. Israel continues to insist that the soldiers were on the Israeli side of the border, despite evidence to the contrary.

The seizure of the soldiers provoked a massive response from Israel, which immediately began to bombard civilian areas throughout Lebanon, and used ground troops to invade across the border. Despite the full-force attack by the Israeli army, the fourth largest in the world, the Lebanese fighting force Hezbollah managed to repel the attack, and within a month Israel was forced to retreat and admit defeat.

As to the current threats, Hezbollah officials were quoted as saying, "Israel is wrestling with its many problems and has no capability to start a war over Lebanon," dismissing the threats as empty provocations.

israel | lebanon war | news report saed at imemc dot org