Gantz addresses Herzliya Conference amid changing Middle East; says conflict in Syria could continue for more than a decade; warns that both Hezbollah and World Jihad elements gaining strength in Syria. IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz
IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz Photo: Courtesy Defense Ministry IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz said Monday that only a handful of states have more firepower than Hezbollah.
Speaking at the Herzliya Conference at the Interdisciplinary Center, Gantz said, “Show me four or five states with more firepower than Hezbollah: the US, China, Russia, Israel, France, the UK.”
Gantz said that Syria was falling apart “like a house of cards,” and no outcome was good for Israel.
“You have two very problematic phenomena happening at the same time. The radical axis led by Iran is getting stronger. Iran is investing a lot in Hezbollah and Syria. At the same time, World Jihad elements in Syria are getting stronger.”
Gantz stated that as long as Bashar Assad remains in power in Syria there is unlikely to be a solution. He said that he envisions “decades of conflict in the Syrian arena, perhaps more.”
The IDF chief outlined the other security challenges facing Israel and the changes the IDF is enacting to face a new type of unconventional military threat.
“On the one hand, the threat of militaries has not disappeared – but under houses and underground there is an attack capability,” he said in reference to Hezbollah’s arms in Lebanon.
Ahead of its next clash with Hezbollah, Israel must be wary of the Lebanese terrorists’ combat experience gained in Syria, Gantz warned.
“Hezbollah, while tied up on three fronts, is gaining operational experience – that we will meet on the front,” he stated.
The IDF chief added however that “Hezbollah knows it would be set back decades by the damage Israel would wreak on it and Lebanon in a future war.”
Gantz said that in Gaza a dramatic armament of mid-long range rockets is taking place as well. However he stated that Gaza also understood the price of war with Israel.
He stated that Iran has not given up its nuclear vision. While a diplomatic solution is preferred to prevent a nuclear Iran that will destabilize the region, force will have to be used if necessary, Gantz added.
@ yamit82:
I was wondering if you would notice, glad your still the same, Soldier. Double entendres: Can Willie Wonk or Will Willie Wonk?
@ honeybee:
Very nice HB thanks. Singer has a nice tush. 🙂
@ honeybee:
I hope the Cancer treatment is effective. Tx has lost his Mother, both older brothers [he is the youngest of seven] a sister and two nieces to Cancer.
@ yamit82:
I am sorry to hear of loss of your children’s Mother, please except my condolences. I know you are facing a very difficult days my thoughts and prayers go with you. I found this beautiful little song on you tube, perhaps you will enjoy it also.
http://youtu.be/LCUv9W0ViRc
honeybee Said:
Next week is a year since my ex passed away and I will join the kids at the cemetery. I was offered a new dog a Mixed Lab 3 yrs old who is with foster care and was maltreated. I told the caretaker I would think about it but I need a few weeks break…
Otherwise I’m fine. Thanks for asking, appreciate it.
Immune Therapy’s Cancer Promise Creates Research Rush
Israeli researchers in on this effort.
This is not big but potentially huge and the Prof I heard today on the news was really exited. FDA promises to fast track approval by august and the Israel could have it available for cancer patients by the end of the year.
@ yamit82:
Thank you, much appreciated.. How are you fairing ?
honeybee Said:
My answer is: Nope!!!!
HOW “NATIONAL GEOGRAPHAPHIC MAGAZINE” TRACED ANCIENT PHOENCIANS DNA (J2) ON MODERN LEBANESE…
EXCERPTS FROM: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0410/fe…
By Cassandra Franklin-Barbajosa
The idea is fascinating. Who among us hasn’t considered our heritage and wondered if we might be descended from ancient royalty or some prominent historical figure? Led by a long-standing interest in the impact of ancient empires on the modern gene pool, geneticist and National Geographic emerging explorer Spencer Wells, with colleague Pierre Zalloua of the American University of Beirut, expanded on that question two years ago as they embarked on a genetic study of the Phoenicians, a first millennium B.C. sea empire that over several hundred years spread across the Mediterranean from the Levant, a coastal region in what is now Lebanon.
The Romans conquered the Phoenicians during the Punic Wars, destroying much of their culture. “In many ways, they’ve been quite enigmatic,” says Wells. “We know they existed, but we know very little about them. Why did they suddenly arise and start to spread around 1200 B.C.? And what impact did they have on other peoples in the Mediterranean? We’ve tried to use DNA, the genetic material we all carry in our bodies, to answer those questions.”
Supported by a grant from National Geographic’s Committee for Research and Exploration, the scientists collected blood samples from men living in the Middle East, North Africa, southern Spain, and Malta, places the Phoenicians are known to have settled and traded. Starting with between 500 and 1,000 well-typed samples, they began looking at the Y chromosome, the piece of DNA that traces a purely male line of descent. The goal was to answer two questions: What was the impact of a group the ancient Egyptians referred to as the Sea Peoples, who apparently arrived in the Levant region about 1200 B.C. just before the Phoenician culture began to flower and expand? And can we use genetics to trace the expansion of the Phoenician empire? What the study has revealed so far, detailed in “Who Were the Phoenicians?” in the October issue of National Geographic, is compelling.
“We’re not seeing a significant genetic influence from elsewhere on the coastal population in what was the Levant region,” says Wells. “The people are very similar to the groups we see inland in Syria and Jordan, for example, suggesting that there wasn’t a huge influx of Sea Peoples or others from outside the area. A cultural shift occurred but not a genetic one. Today’s Lebanese, the Phoenicians, and the Canaanites before them are all the same people.”
The Maronite Christians, who predate the Islamic invasions, claim to be Phoenicians.
yamit82 Said:
Are the Lebanese Arabs or descendants of the Phoenicians ? I await your answer with great anticipation.
No! I do not wish the worst; rather I get the feeling that you, Yamit, are a paranoid anti-Gentile.
I thought that even the Abrahamic covenant only went so far as the Litani.
You are a charmer!
I hope you are right. However, they have fortified bunkers.
Let us hope you are right on Lebanon.
CuriousAmerican Said:
I hope so!!!! The only good Arab is a …..One!!! 🙂
Lebanon belongs to us Jews in any event and it’s past time to claim what is ours.
Re: Missiles from Lebanon, They will have less than an hour to shoot their load before they are all dealt with.
In the end it’s their call and the rain of hellfire that will rain on them is in the end their choice…Firebombing of Dresden and Tokyo are nothing to what will rain on them in the first hour of any serious attack against us.
You christians of little faith!!!!
I get the funny feeling you wish for the worst for us.
“A land which the L-rd thy G-d cares for; the eyes of the L-rd are upon it, from the beginning of the year unto the end of the year.”
Dvarim (Deuteronomy) 11:12
Everyone has known this.
It scares me; because if another war comes, it will not be 6000 missiles in 30 days; but 10,000 missiles in one day.
The only thing that may help Israel is the beating Hezbollah has taken in Syria. But even that is a mixed blessing since the survivors are now combat skilled.
I suspect if another war comes, Israel will have to just nuke Lebanon.
Even, then, the radition fallout on Israel would be catastrophic.
Olmert should have cleaned them out in 2006.
From Barry Chamish
VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBt-LxzXllA
Chamish exaggerate, but he is generally on the mark.
The next war will go very brutal very fast.
Israeli will have to destroy Lebanon.
Job well done by Barak, the Lebanon run away master and Livni-Olmert-Halutz et al with their famous Lebanon II war. High treason could not have been better devised.