Israel's Resolve to Take Out Hezbollah Questioned
by Chad Groening and Bill Fancher
August 3, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A Pentagon advisor and military analyst says he does not think Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is willing to do what is necessary to ultimately destroy Hezbollah, which one Middle East analyst says poses a very real threat to the U.S. and the rest of the world. Lt. Col. (U.S. Army, Ret.) Bob Maginnis has been monitoring the progress of Israeli forces as they have conducted operations against Hezbollah inside Lebanon. The combat veteran is confident that Israel has the resources to rout the terrorist -- if the Jewish nation is willing to do so.
"I have no question that Israel can beat Hezbollah," Maginnis says. "The question is whether or not Israel is willing to take what necessary actions are associated with disrupting and destroying Hezbollah. They can't just do it from the air. There are series of bunkers and fortifications all the way up to the northern part of the Bekaa Valley," he continues, "[and] you can't see deep into these bunkers."
So Maginnis believes the Israelis must send ground troops all the way to the northern part of the Bekaa Valley in order to root out all the terrorists. "It's a matter that only ground troops are going to be able to distinguish good from bad and the exact locations for a lot of these things," cites the military veteran. But he is not optimistic Olmert and his cabinet are willing to do that.
"Politically, it's becoming more difficult," he acknowledges, "and so I really am not as optimistic at this point as I'd like to be, because I don't see that they're willing to move in with the force that's necessary to, once and for all, remove Hezbollah and the threat that they pose to Israel and the region."
And many Americans are also asking "Can Hezbollah carry out the threats it's made against the United States," says Josh Block of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. To which he answers, "Yes."
"This is the 'A Team' of terrorism," says Block, referring to Hezbollah, "and they are certainly capable of carrying out attacks here in the United States. That's why the FBI and other law enforcement agencies spend a lot of time tracking Hezbollah cells here in the United States."
Block says "there's no question" that Hezbollah operates terrorist cells in the U.S., Europe, South America, Africa, and all over the Middle East. Leaders of the terrorist group have threatened to unleash those cells in various places, including the U.S., if Israel continues operations against it in Lebanon.
Chad Groening and Bill Fancher, regular contributors to AgapePress, are reporters for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.