WarSclerotic

The IDF launched Operation Northern Shield overnight Monday to expose and destroy cross-border attack tunnels built by Hezbollah, a proxy of Iran, along the Lebanon border and into northern Israel, the military announced early Tuesday morning.

“The digging of tunnels constitutes a blatant violation of Israeli sovereignty,” said IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Ronen Manelis.

The objective of the operation is to neutralize all Hezbollah attack tunnels which have crossed into Israeli territory. The operation will take place all along the “Blue Line”, the name for the international border between Israel and Lebanon and strictly within Israeli territory.

It will be led by the OC Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Yoel Strick and will include troops from the Combat Engineering Corps, the Intelligence Branch, as well as the Defense Ministry’s Administration for the Development of Weapons and Technological Infrastructure (MAFAT) will take part.

The military stated that a number of areas close to the security fence with Lebanon, including Metula, have been declared a closed military zone and that it has beefed up troop numbers in the Northern Command ahead of all possible scenarios.

While the IDF stressed that it is prepared for any escalation with Hezbollah that could stem from the operation, there are no special instructions for the residents of the North. The IDF updated the heads of local authorities overnight and will continue to be in contact with them throughout the operation.

According to Manelis, the Lebanese government is responsible for all that occurs on Lebanese soil and the digging of the tunnels shows that the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) is not capable of controlling what occurs in southern Lebanon.

“This is also more proof of the grave violations by Hezbollah, which blatantly ignores UN resolutions, especially Resolution 1701, and operates from villages in southern Lebanon, while harming the state of Lebanon and its citizens,” Manelis said, adding that “The Hezbollah terrorist organization, which is behind the digging of the tunnels, continues to operate with the support and funding of Iran in order to carry out terror activity against Israeli citizens.”

According to the report the tunnels, which have secondary escape shafts, are built with durable concrete and have a 24-hour power supply via underground generators as well as a ventilation system to protect military equipment.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is believed to have taken a warning to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Brussels on Monday for him to deliver to Lebanon: Stop Hezbollah’s efforts to get precision guided missiles, or Israel will do so.

Before boarding his plane, Netanyahu characterized the meeting as “important,” and alluded to the situation in Lebanon.

“We are in continuous contact with our American friends,” Netanyahu said before taking off. “I will discuss with Mike Pompeo a list of developments in our region, and [actions] we are taking together to halt the aggression of Iran and its proxies in the North. We will of course also discuss other issues.”

Netanyahu was accompanied to the meeting by Mossad head Yossi Cohen; National Security Council head Meir Ben-Shabbat; and his military secretary Avi Blot.

Israel has for months been warning against Iran and Hezbollah converting some of the nearly 150,000 missiles believed to be stockpiled by the organization in Lebanon into precision guided missiles by refitting them with GPS systems. Jerusalem has made it clear that this is something it will not tolerate, since these missiles could accurately target Israel’s sensitive infrastructure and population centers.

Netanyahu made mention of this in September during his address to the UN Security Council. “Iran is directing Hezbollah to build secret sites to convert inaccurate projectiles into precision-guided missiles,” he said. “Missiles that can target deep inside Israel within an accuracy of ten meters.”

Netanyahu, who held up photos during that speech of what he said were three of those sites near Beirut International Airport, said that he had a message for Hezbollah: “Israel also knows what you’re doing, Israel knows where you’re doing it, and Israel will not let you get away with it.”

Netanyahu’s trip to Brussels came some 24 hours after the police recommended an indictment against him on charges of bribery and fraud.

The Prime Minister’s Office stressed in announcing the rush trip to Brussels that the meeting was set up last week and originally scheduled for Wednesday, but was moved up because of the funeral for late US president George H.W. Bush, which is scheduled for that day.

Highlighting when the meeting was set up indicated that it was in no way connected to the police recommendations, and seemed an effort to nip in the bud any speculation that Netanyahu was interested in flying abroad on urgent state business to deflect attention from the police recommendations.

On Saturday, Pompeo issued a statement saying that Iran launched a medium-range ballistic missile “capable of carrying multiple warheads.”

“As we have been warning for some time, Iran’s missile testing and missile proliferation is growing. We are accumulating risk of escalation in the region if we fail to restore deterrence,” Pompeo said. “We condemn these activities, and call upon Iran to cease immediately all activities related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons.”

Pompeo said that the test violated a UN Security Council ban on Iranian ballistic missile activity designed to carry a nuclear payload.

Netanyahu, before their meeting, thanked Pompeo for his “firm statements” about Iran’s latest ballistic missile launch.

Pompeo is in Brussels to take part in the semi-annual meeting of NATO foreign ministers.

The founding director of the European Coalition for Israel in Brussels, Tomas Sandell, announced in a shocking video message on Thursday that German Chancellor Angela Merkel waged a campaign to prevent Central and Eastern European countries from moving their capitals to Jerusalem to preserve the Iran nuclear deal.

Sandell said The Jerusalem Post exclusive report in November stating that Merkel called Romanian president, Klaus Iohannis,  to convince him to not relocate his country’s embassy to Jerusalem prompted him to go public.

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Speaking from the European parliament, Sandell said, “what we have found out, something I heard for quite some time already, from Central and Eastern European countries, that would have an inclination to move their embassy to Jerusalem, this is the natural thing for them to do, is that they have received phone calls from Berlin, from Angela Merkel, the chancellor. Basically, this cannot happen under any circumstances.”

He said, “I have spoken to many Germans these last few days in Brussels. They are not aware of this, and all of them would be shocked that all of the countries in the European Union today would want to block an embassy move to Jerusalem, not only for your own country, but for other countries that have the conviction [that] this is the right thing to do, the only country to do would be Germany. This is a big shock.”

He added that “this is something unprecedented. This is not the Germany we once knew. This is not the even Angela Merkel we once knew when she was elected.”

Sandell said many of Merkel’s telephone calls took place to European leaders in April when “many of the nations were seriously considering moving their embassies.”
Sandell said Merkel’s anti-Israel moves have to do with the Iran nuclear deal, which “has been very much supported by Germany, the German government.”

He added that Merkel’s move to block the relocation of embassies was also sparked by “how Germany did not block the marking of Israeli goods from disputed territories” in 2015. He said it was anticipated that Germany would stop the penalties against Israeli products. Germany instead implemented “this counterproductive measure” to punish Israeli goods, said Sandell.

Germany and the EU singled out only Israeli goods from one territorial conflict in the world to penalize the Jewish state with a labeling system on its merchandise.

He said Merkel’s policy is “of great concern for us who support the Jewish people, support the state Israel.”

He ended his video message by stating the importance of recognizing “Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.”