Lawmakers Warned About Israeli Defense Forces’ Readiness Even as Hezbollah Ramps Up War Preparations

As Washington and Jerusalem officials fret over the battle-readiness of the Israeli Defense Forces, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization is accelerating its preparations for war and plotting to consolidate its control over Lebanon no matter the cost.From Washington, the chairman of the American joint chiefs, General Mark Milley, plans to race to Israel next week to learn first-hand about fears that the IDF has been weakened since becoming embroiled in the political turmoil surrounding Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government, Axios reports. “The Israeli army today is in its worst state,” Hezbollah’s chief, Hassan Nasrallah, said Monday. He claims the IDF “doesn’t have a real army achievement, certainly not a mighty and legendary army.”Mr. Nasrallah relied heavily in his speech on the current political turmoil in Israel. Despite his boasting, “there is not necessarily a connection between Hezbollah’s risk-taking and the internal crisis in Israel,” Alma, an Israeli think tank based on the Lebanese border, wrote in a report this week.“The provocations began in the summer of 2022 under Israel’s previous government,” Alma reports, adding that Hezbollah “needs this confrontation” with Israel. Win or lose, Mr. Nasrallah believes war can help him consolidate Hezbollah’s takeover of Lebanon, according to the report. While internal Israeli turmoil is “not a turning point,” it nevertheless enters the Iranian-backed organization’s calculations, Alma’s founder, Sarit Zehavi, tells the Sun. “Nasrallah’s speech was designed to threaten Israel, but also to consolidate Hezbollah’s support inside Lebanon,” preparing the country for a possible war, she says. A recent report by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon documents hundreds of border infiltrations into Israel between February and June. Hezbollah’s provocations, though, are far from new. They include moves by a faux-environmental Lebanese group, Green Without Borders, which has long erected at Israel’s doorstep military posts for Hezbollah. On Wednesday, the Department of the Treasury designated Green Without Borders for sanctions, saying that “the United States rejects Hezbollah’s cynical efforts to cloak its destabilizing terrorist activities with false environmentalism.”Washington fears escalation. “The Pentagon is concerned that the crisis facing the Israeli military could have negative implications for Israel’s deterrence strategy and may encourage Iran or Hezbollah to conduct military provocations that could escalate the situation in the region,” Axios reported Wednesday. IDF reservists are increasingly publicizing their intentions to skip periodic training to protest the Netanayahu government’s drive to reform the judiciary. Current and former top security officials are thus warning that military readiness is eroding. At a classified briefing in the Knesset’s foreign affairs and security committee, top generals warned Wednesday that the IDF is “in a bad spot,” public broadcaster Kan reported. “We need to change the tenor of the political disputes.” While committee members were warned not to leak from the closed-door hearing, comments were widely reported in the Hebrew press. Outlets critical of Mr. Netanyahu claimed the briefers warned that the army is less than fully prepared for a major conflict. More Bibi-friendly outlets heard that for now the army is fully equipped to deal with any attack. Yet, all agreed that the briefers warned of trouble in the IDF’s long-term readiness, especially in units that give the military its edge, such as the air force and intelligence. Those units, more than ground forces, rely heavily on veteran, experienced reservists. According to the popular website Y-net, the IDF brass presented ideas to appeal to reservists to train regularly despite political disagreements. They also urged politicians, especially from Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud party, to avoid criticism over alleged army failures to punish reservists who fail to show up.The politicization is not diminishing. Under American pressure, the previous Israeli government agreed to allow Lebanon to drill for gas in Mediterranean waters that Israel had previously claimed as its own. Mr. Netanyahu has long argued that the agreement was an Israeli capitulation to Hezbollah threats. On Wednesday the first drilling rig was delivered to the area, known as Block 9, by France’s TotalEnergy, which has been contracted to conduct gas explorations there. Earlier Mr. Nasrallah boasted of intimidating Israel and America, claiming Hezbollah “brought back the gas fields” and caying it “will bring back the entire border, and will become a real protector for the Lebanese people.” For now, the response of Israel’s current government to Hezbollah’s provocations has been mute. The defense minister, Yoav Gallant, did, though, travel last week to the border to warn Mr. Nasrallah against incorrectly reading Israel’s internal turmoil. If forced, he said, “we will return Lebanon to the stone age.” According to some sources, General Milley’s trip next week is designed to show Mr. Nasrallah that America has Israel’s back. Others suspect that the Biden administration is using the visit to highlight political divisions in the IDF and to further lean on Mr. Netanyahu.Both readings may be true. Or it might be that the general is merely conducting a farewell tour. He is scheduled to retire in October amid allegations that politicization is weakening America’s own armed forces.

Lawmakers Warned About Israeli Defense Forces’ Readiness Even as Hezbollah Ramps Up War Preparations

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