Middle East

Is Israel Preparing for War Against Hezbollah?

04/07/2017

By Alastair Crooke

BEIRUT — How does Israel read the Middle East these days? Few details on its national security strategy are explicitly and publicly expressed. But at the annual Herzliya Security Conference in mid-June, it was possible to read between the lines of officials’ speeches and form a fairly accurate picture of the way those officials interpret the Middle East.

The gist of the Israeli Defense Forces’ analysis came from Major General Herzl Halevi, the chief of the IDF’s military intelligence directorate. As with most political speeches, the substance lies with just a few enigmatic words.

“I’m going to say this with all due caution, but there has never been an army that knows as much about its enemy as we know about Hezbollah,” the intelligence chief said. “But still, the next war will not be simple, it will not be easy.”