Ground forces are expected to contribute much more
than in 2006, when Israel relied mainly on the IAF, which would entail much
more intense urban warfare.
ED note: LEST WE FORGET:
Every place whereon the sole of your foot shall
tread shall be yours, from the wilderness, and Lebanon, from the river
Euphrates, even unto the hinder sea shall be your border…Deuteronomy 11:24
…From the wilderness, and this Lebanon, even unto
the great river, the Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the
Great Sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your border…Joshua 1:4
The upcoming
‘war against Hezbollah’ is about invading and stealing MORE LAND in pushing
Israel’s borders out to where they are described in the Old Testament.
April 9, 2012
Almost
six years after the Second Lebanon War, special Israeli units are preparing to take
part in mass incursions into Lebanon if another round of fighting with
Hezbollah breaks out. Just as important, they are being trained to heed the
legal implications.
Officers
say the Israeli Air Force would destroy targets like training bases and rocket-launching
pads within a few days, based on the intelligence gathered by the Israeli
Defense Forces. But this would not be enough, so a ground offensive would be
necessary.
“When
you stick an [Israeli] flag [on enemy territory], there’s no question who won,”
says a high-ranking officer who requested anonymity. “You need to seize a
geographic space. This is the only way the concept of victory can be
established.”
The
IDF has been trying to improve its performance if hostilities resume, but so
has Hezbollah. The Shi’ite organization has built fortified lines with
underground command posts and improved operational capacity. Its rockets are
hidden in better-camouflaged launching pads.
The
ground forces are therefore expected to contribute much more to the war effort
than in 2006, when Israel relied mainly on the IAF. This would entail much more
intense urban warfare, with many civilians caught in the crossfire, and the
attendant legal implications.
“Everything
that we’ve seen with the flotillas, Operation Cast Lead and the implications in
terms of international law have left a strong impression on us,” says Lt. Col.
Sahar Abergil, commander of the special elite unit Yahalom. That unit
specializes in bunker warfare and is likely to carry much of the military burden.
“I
hope we’ll take [international law] into account during the fighting,” Abergil
says.
Yahalom
soldiers, along with the men and dogs of the IDF’s Oketz canine unit, finished
a long training session last week.
“It’s
not patrols or raids on Palestinians we’re simulating here, but a full-fledged
war,” says Oketz’s commander, who gave his name as Sivan.
One
of Oketz’s main tasks is to distinguish between militants and uninvolved
civilians.
“Our
dogs know how to spare civilians and home in on terrorists,” says Sivan, a
captain. “How do they? That’s our secret.”
When
closing in on a house where the enemy is thought to be hiding, the soldiers
must order everyone to exit. Those who don’t come out are considered suspects,
and the dogs soon get an order to attack.
According
to Abergil, “Our goal is that the dogs won’t take on civilians. “That’s why we
include pretend civilians in our drills, to show the soldiers that there are no
hard-and-fast rules.”
He
says the soldiers also discuss moral dilemmas that may have legal
ramifications. For example, they are expected to cope if a woman wearing a coat
and a little boy approach their post.
“Do
they open fire? Do they shout? Do they wound them? Our soldiers understand that
it might be a terrorist cynically exploiting a 5-year-old boy, and they’re
supposed to try to find indications,” says Abergil.
“Could
she be deaf? Or maybe blind and she’s being led by the boy? The army’s
encounter with a civilian population is never simple, and there’s no way to
master it fully. We’re trying to instruct the soldiers to use their discretion
and common sense. At the end of the day, this is war.”
Jews called in Christ: Alfred M. Lilienthal
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