General (Res.) Amos Gilad, who served as head of the security-political division in Israel’s Defense Ministry and head of the Military Intelligence research division, and currently heads the Institute for Policy and Strategy at Reichman University in Herzliya, on Sunday told FM103 that the Iranian axis and threat are intensifying, and Hezbollah chief Nasrallah is prepared to launch aggressive actions.
Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah sent a message to Israel this weekend, saying: “You are not the ones threatening war, we are the ones doing it, and any such war will include all of Israel’s borders.” He also warned that “any wrong action in Palestine, Syria, or Iran, could lead to a major war.”
General Gilad supported Major General Aharon Haliva, commander of the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate, who said last week: “With Hassan Nasrallah, after the mistake he made in 2006, there is the beginning of a perception that he can start stretching the equations against the State of Israel. The event of the terrorist at the Megiddo junction is not a one-time story, unfortunately, and Nasrallah is close to making a mistake that could degenerate the region into a major war. He is close to committing this mistake from Lebanon and Syria.”
In mid-March, a massive roadside bomb exploded near the Megiddo Junction in central Israel, so massive, that it damaged a car on the other side of the highway, wounding the vehicle’s Israeli Arab driver. According to the IDF, the terrorist who infiltrated the Israeli border from Lebanon to carry out the bombing attack at the Megiddo Junction climbed a ladder over the security fence along the Israeli-Lebanese border (Released for Publication: Megiddo Terrorist Climbed a Ladder to Breach Northern Israel Security Fence).
“The head of Military Intelligence said that Nasrallah’s audacity and the weakening of our deterrence as we saw in Megiddo, they must have spawned the plan to bring us into conflict with the Palestinians,” Gilad told FM103. “It took a while before [the Israeli security apparatus] said that Hezbollah was behind this, and it should be added to the strengthening of the Iranian axis. The head of Military Intelligence defined the threat. Hezbollah is an extension of the Iranians, and the Iranian axis is getting stronger.”
“The problem is not the discourse on whether Nasrallah is afraid or not. He is ready for much more aggressive actions with the potential to flare up war. It doesn’t mean he’ll open fire on us this month, it could take another year.”
Gilad also suggested that the current state of the judicial reform is adding to Israel’s perceived weakness – not because of its content, but because of the deteriorating relationship with the US over it. The Arabs perceive President Biden’s refusal to meet with PM Netanyahu as an Israeli weakness.
The head of Israel’s National Security Council Tzachi Hanegbi told Channel 13 on Saturday night that while it’s true that relations between Biden and Netanyahu are not good, at the same time, the relationship between the Pentagon and Israel’s security apparatus has never been better, and involves frequent visits in both countries, to review both countries’ strategies regarding Iran.
The leaders of the United States Central Command, in charge of rapid response in the Middle East, Central Asia, and parts of South Asia, are regular guests in Israel, according to Hanegbi.
