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Eizenkot: Reports of tensions in North ‘virtual reality’ | Israel | Jerusalem Post.

While threatening to use disproportionate force in the event of a new conflict with Hizbullah, OC Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Gadi Eizenkot downplayed recent media reports regarding Israeli plans to attack Lebanon.

OC Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Gadi Eizenkot
Photo: Channel 2

“Reports in the media about tension in the North is a virtual reality that has no grounds in reality,” Eizenkot said during a conference at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, while adding that the IDF was “continuously upgrading and improving its capabilities.”

Eizenkot’s remarks came one day after Likud Minister Yossi Peled said that another war with Hizbullah was inevitable.

On Saturday night, the Prime Minister’s Office also distanced itself from Peled’s remarks and issued a statement that Israel “is not looking for any confrontation with anyone. Israel is interested in peace.”

Eizenkot said that the IDF’s working assumption was that Syria has transferred all types of arms, missiles and weapons in its arsenal to Hizbullah.

“Hizbullah is different today than in 2006,” he said. “It has significantly increased its missile capability and can operate from deep inside Lebanon and penetrate deep into Israel.”

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Eizenkot said that he believed the IDF had the “moral” right to disproportionately attack Hizbullah strongholds inside Lebanese villages in Southern Lebanon if Israel was attacked by the Iranian-backed guerilla group.

In an apparent reference to UNIFIL claims that Hizbullah was no longer present in southern Lebanon, Eizenkot said that it was building up its forces and storing its weapons inside the 160 Shiite villages in southern Lebanon.

“There are holes in UNIFIL’s mandate since it cannot operate in built-up areas,” he said, while stressing that the peacekeeping force has hindered Hizbullah’s ability to move freely along the border with Israel.

“Hizbullah is the one that is turning these areas into a battleground,” Eizenkot said, adding that during the Second Lebanon War in 2006, Israeli warnings to the civilian population allowed senior Hizbullah leaders to escape, including Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah.

Earlier in the day, outgoing UNIFIL commander-general Claudio Graziano denied that arms had been smuggled to Hizbullah in southern Lebanon.

Speaking to Army Radio, Graziano instead criticized Israel for violating UN Resolution 1701, citing IAF forays into Lebanese airspace. The resolution ended the Second Lebanon War and bolstered the UN presence in southern Lebanon to ensure the prevention of renewed conflict between Israel and Hizbullah.

“There are Israeli violations of 1701, and this undermines the credibility of UNIFIL and the Lebanese army,” Graziano said. “Even if Israel says that the flights are a vital step meant to prevent smuggling and provide intelligence, they are a violation of state sovereignty, and furthermore, humiliation.”

In Israel, there are assertions that Hizbullah is getting stronger and continuing to smuggle weapons from Syria and Iran. Proof of this, sources in Jerusalem are reported to have said, include the explosion six months ago of a weapons cache only ten kilometers from the Israeli-Lebanese border in the town of Hirbat Salim – weapons said to have originated in Syria.

During the Army Radio interview, Graziano took issue with the Israeli assessment, insisting that weapons had not been smuggled into southern Lebanon. Graziano did not similarly criticize Hizbullah and he stressed that in recent years there have been no incidents of violence between UNIFIL forces and Hizbullah.

A Beirut cabinet minister was quoted as saying Sunday that the situation in Lebanon was similar to that which preceded the IDF invasion in 1982.

The minister, Ra’azi Eloraidi, called for Lebanese unity in dealing with the “Israeli threats.” He added that the Lebanese people should not be made to pay the price for the Iranian nuclear issue.

Against the background of reports of anxiety in the North, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon reiterated during a meeting in Jerusalem Sunday with Michael Williams, the UN’s special coordinator on Lebanon, that Israel had no interest in an escalation of tensions with Lebanon or Hizbullah.

“Our first and foremost interest is to preserve the quiet and stability in the North,” Ayalon said. “Therefore we should work together with UNIFIL and the Lebanese army to stop arms smuggling and violations of UN Security Council Resolution 1701.”

Ayalon said that the continued violation of 1701 and the smuggling of arms from Iran and Syria to Hizbullah were the central threats to stability in the north.

Williams, according to Ayalon’s office, welcomed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s statement Saturday night distancing himself from comments Minister without Portfolio Yossi Peled said that same day regarding the inevitability of another military conflict with Lebanon.

The two men also discussed Ghajar and various proposals for an Israeli pullback from the northern part of the town, which straddles the Lebanese border.

Prior to meeting Ayalon, Williams met Foreign Ministry director-general Yossi Gal, who has been leading the Israeli team negotiating with UNIFIL over a possible withdrawal from the town, which straddles the Lebanese border. Discussions with UNIFIL have centered on how UNIFIL forces would be deployed in and around Ghajar – following an IDF pullback – to prevent Hizbullah from infiltrating men or arms into Israel through the village.

The government has reportedly approved a plan to turn over control of the northern half of the village to UNIFIL. No physical barrier would be built between the northern and southern parts of the village, but rather UNIFIL would patrol both the northern half and the perimeter.

Jerusalem Post staff contributed to the report.

This entry was posted on January 25, 2010 at 9:09 AM and is filed under Iran / Israel War. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.