BY DEBKAFILE—
Tehran has begun capitalizing on its allies’ two perceived victories: Bashar Assad’s success in seizing Idlib from rebel hands and the Palestinian Jihad Islami’s triumphal missile assault from Gaza.
The Iranians are now moving forward with plans to match the Palestinian assault on southern Israel with an offensive on the north from Lebanon. This is reported by debkafile’s exclusive sources in the wake of a visit paid by high-ranking Iranian and Hizballah officials Wednesday morning, March 14, to the Lebanese-Israeli border region opposite Metulah, Israel’s northernmost town at the tip of the Galilee Panhandle.
The Iranian group, led by Ali Akbar Javanfekr, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s spokesman, arrived in a heavily guarded convoy at the Fatma outpost opposite Metulah for its rendezvous with Hizballah military intelligence officers. Once there, they kept moving around near the Lebanese-Israeli border fence. At times, they came up close and examined the Israel Defense Forces’ ongoing work for fortifying the border fence and upgrading it from a boundary marker to a military barrier able to withstand terrorist incursions into the Galilee panhandle. The Iranian visitor, Javanfekr, commented in the hearing of our sources: “The Zionists can build any wall they like, whether of concrete, iron or plastic, but we and Hizballah will knock it down, like Israel itself.”
He pitched his voice loudly enough to carry across the border. His words were taken by top Israeli commanders as a blunt threat of a missile offensive on similar lines to the Gaza confrontation – only this time instead of Jihad Islami in Gaza, Hizballah would be entrusted with shooting missiles from Lebanon. Word of this threat spurred Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to sharpen his tone in his speech to the Knesset later Wednesday and declare, “We shall strike Iran even if our American friends object.”
He was further irked by a decision by US President Barack Obama and visiting British premier David Cameron, reported by debkafile’s Washington sources, to intensify their efforts for holding Israel back from striking Iran’s nuclear facilities. Netanyahu therefore stressed once again that Israel would decide for itself the best way to pre-empt a nuclear Iran. No sooner were his comments broadcast, when Washington announced that Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Andrew Shapiro would be traveling to Israel forthwith. He will no doubt try and clarify how far Netanyahu really means to go.
And I don’t blame Israel one bit for standing for its own survival. I just find it so hard (as a Canadian) to understand why the whole world is fighting to get rid of Israel. Why can’t people and countries understand that Israel is a G-d given land, and as human beings, we can never conquer against Him. My prayer and my heart cries out to G-d almost daily for His protection over Israel, but more than anything that Israelis would realize that they need to turn whole heartedly to Him. Only then will they be protected against the onslaught of the world.
Nina M. Lawrence
I’m with you 100% Nina. G-d’s covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was an “Everlasting Covenant”. and G-d is true to His word wether we believe or accept it or not. G-d said it so that settles it.
Israel has the sovreign right to protect itself. In the Book of Esther 8:11 it says … The king’s edict granted the Jews in every city the right to assemble and protect themselves; to destroy, kill and annihilate the armed men of any nationality or province who might attack them and their women and children,[b] and to plunder the property of their enemies.