So all those supposed peace overtures from Syria? They’re hollow.
Warning that Israel may face a “Syrian intifada,” a high-ranking officer in Northern Command has told The Jerusalem Post that villages recently built by Syria along the border are planned to be used as “death traps” for IDF troops in Hizbullah-inspired attacks.
Since this summer’s war in Lebanon, Syria, the officer revealed, has invested large amounts of money in replicating Hizbullah military tactics, particularly in establishing additional commando units and fortifying its short- and long-range missile array.
The idea is to draw Israel into an asymmetric war, the officer said, like the warfare the IDF encounters in combat against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as well as against Hizbullah in Lebanon.
Over the past two years, Syria has built a number of villages along the border with Israel, some inhabited and some not. At first, the IDF was not sure of their purpose. But now, following the war, the officer said, it was understood.
“Syria drew motivation from Hizbullah’s surprise success this summer,” the high-ranking officer said. “They now want to copy that type of guerrilla warfare.”
This is on top of the fact that Syria has completely re-armed Hezbullah.
Syria, the officer said, has since the war ended, transferred truckloads of weapons and missiles to Hizbullah. Due to the convoys, Hizbullah, he said, was almost back at its full strength where it was before the war with Israel.
Springtime. I think it will be in the spring.
Hizballah fought an asymmetric war against Israel, but the damage was mostly to the larger Lebanese community, which Hizballah used as a shield.
Now Syria, preparing for the last war rather than the next one, is planning a similar asymmetric strategy. Have the Syrians forgotten that, unlike Hizballah, they have infrastructure at risk?
Halutz’s plan to use air power against guerrillas didn’t work too well, but against Syria with its power plants, military bases, and transportation network, the IAF would be devastating.
Israel wouldn’t need to enter those “villages of death” until Syria had collapsed economically, and its troops dispersed.