Israeli media talk centered around the necessity of launching a limited ground operation deep into Lebanon, while former security officials refused to go to what they described as “temptations of a political settlement.”
Former commander of the Northern Corps of the Israeli army, Noam Tibon, says that Hezbollah is following a strategy of waging a war of attrition, adding, “Hezbollah is ready to continue until it achieves its goal of ending the war on Gaza.”
Tibon pointed out that the air operation in the Second Lebanon War was wonderful, but Israel did not stop at the appropriate moment and began a ground operation that complicated the entire situation, believing that the solution lies in concluding a prisoner exchange deal with the Gaza Strip and stopping the war in the north.
In the same context, Miki Ahronson – a former senior official at the National Security Council – said that a war of attrition would be the worst that could happen, noting that the possibility of involvement in ground entry is great despite its importance.
Former Mossad intelligence director Zohar Balti believes that capabilities built over 20 years “cannot be eliminated in a week, as the war is long-term.”
Balti believes that “Hezbollah is far from broken,” citing the rumors that were raised about the party during the Second Lebanon War, but nothing happened at that time.
In a related context, military affairs analyst Yossi Yehoshua said that army leaders believe that there is no escape from a limited and short ground operation targeting Hezbollah’s infrastructure on the front line and threatening Israeli towns for fear of a repeat of the October 7 attacks.
Knesset member Almog Cohen warned against entering into any agreement with Hezbollah, which he said had not implemented UN Resolution 1701, indicating that there was no difference between the party and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).
In the same context, former Shin Bet official Amit Asa warned against going to a political settlement at the current stage, demanding that the goals of eliminating Hezbollah’s capabilities and pushing it to a situation in which it personally requests surrender and withdrawal to the Litani River be achieved.
On the other hand, former head of the Operations Division in the Israeli army, Yisrael Ziv, says that if Israel stops at the current point in time, Hezbollah will take a long time to restore itself.
He concluded that the present time is the best time to be a starting point for getting out of the war “and not to wait until our luck turns around and we are killed by a multi-storey building being hit.”
In turn, the expert in military intelligence affairs, Yossi Meliman, is inclined to reach a political settlement and not engage in a military ground operation, warning that Hezbollah will launch dozens of missiles.