Israel Matzav

IDF exposes Hezbullah arms caches in south Lebanese villages

I was so tired on Thursday morning that I didn't really appreciate what I was posting. I'll let the JPost editorial page explain what I didn't do a very good job of explaining on Thursday. The IDF has risked its intelligence sources to disclose to the public in advance where Hezbullah is hiding weapons and ammunition among the Lebanese civilian population.

The IDF this week declassified sensitive intelligence information on Hizbullah’s rearmament campaign in south Lebanon. Detailed aerial photos, videos and maps show how the terrorist organization is again ruthlessly preparing to use Lebanese civilians as human shields, as exemplified by its deployment in one Shi’ite village – el-Khiam – located just 4 kilometers from the Israeli border. There, Hizbullah has embedded its weapon caches, bunkers, command-and-control centers and missile stockpiles – and stationed its armed personnel – in and alongside hospitals, mosques, schools and homes.

By making this sensitive information public, Israel runs the risk of revealing its intelligence-gathering procedures and giving Hizbullah the opportunity to adapt. Nevertheless, that risk was taken, as part of a laudable new IDF strategy geared toward confronting Israel’s rapidly changing military challenges.

...

THIS WEEK’S release of information shows Israel trying a new tactic. When pictures of war casualties in Lebanon or Gaza are relayed across the world and Israel is accused of disproportionality, few have been willing to listen to Israeli efforts at explaining the context. Now, Israel is adopting a preemptive approach – warning the world, ahead of a feared new conflict, of Hizbullah’s diabolical strategy.

According to Prof. Asa Kasher, an expert on military ethics and the author of the IDF’s code of ethics, Hizbullah’s deployment among civilians is “a violation of the spirit of the Geneva Convention.” Israel’s hope is that its newly revealed information will gain international attention, and it will be appreciated that it is Hizbullah’s leaders who are violating international law, not the IDF.

There is also the hope that the residents of the 160 southern Lebanese villages caught up in Hizbullah’s web may register their concern, one way or another, about living next to an arms cache or a missile stockpile now that they know that the IDF likely has it targeted.

In June, Brig.-Gen. Yossi Heiman, head of the IDF’s Strategic Planning Department, presented evidence of Hizbullah’s immoral deployment to UN officials. UNIFIL commander in Lebanon Maj.-Gen. Alberto Asarta Cuevas was also briefed.

With the UN dominated by states that are both hypercritical of Israel and unwilling or unable to make moral distinctions between democracies and dictatorships, it is highly unlikely that any significant public acknowledgement of Hizbullah’s moral abuses will be forthcoming.

But the IDF is right to make the effort. Indeed, it needs to broaden its outreach, and ensure that this information is made available as widely as possible – to the media, no matter how unenthusiastic the reception, and in smaller briefings for key politicians and officials.

I wonder if this will rate a 5-page spread in the New York Times like the story they did this week on tax exemptions for donations to organizations that help the 'settlers.' Somehow I doubt it. In fact, I haven't seen this story anywhere else except on the IDF Spokesperson's blog from which I took it.

Go back here and follow the links and you'll find out much more.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:09 AM