Haim Tomer, former head of the Intelligence Division and Space Department at Mossad, does not seem optimistic about the survival prospects of the occupation state from a wide-scale war in the region, given his negative assessments of continuing the fighting in Gaza, expanding the campaign in the north, and ignoring the broad lines proposed by US President Joe Biden, all of which pave the way for the worst scenario the state could find itself in.
In an extensive interview with “Israel Today,” Tomer admitted that “engaging in a wide-scale campaign in Lebanon at this time, after eight months of fighting in Gaza, will significantly increase the risk to the occupation state’s ability to continue its functioning as an economic, social, and international player, and the public must understand that a comprehensive war poses a threat to the Zionist vision of Israel.”
The Neglected North
He added in an interview translated by “Arabi21,” “We are facing a terrifying scenario where thousands of Hezbollah rockets are launched to paralyze the entire state for continuous weeks, including the Haifa port and military airports in the north, and perhaps extensive parts of the state face a fate similar to Kiryat Shmona and the abandoned Galilee, amidst much destruction, especially cities like Akka, Tiberias, Haifa, and possibly even Tel Aviv, meaning we are facing a threat on a scale we have not experienced before because Hezbollah has created a threat we did not imagine, and our army has no response to it.”
He continued, “Fighting on multiple fronts means that Israel’s enemies possess accurate missiles capable of detonating gas fields in seconds, and we have no response to Hamas and Hezbollah, especially the number of drones that the party possesses. Our air force is no longer free to operate over Lebanon due to the detection system provided by Iran to the party, so there is no reason to underestimate Hezbollah’s tactical and military capabilities.”
He emphasized, “They have tactical intelligence information better than Israel’s, or at least not less than what we have, and it is not certain that our developed systems know how to respond.”
He affirmed, “The party is capable of attacking us with 100-150,000 warheads, and it can launch 1,500 missiles daily in the first days of the battle, and after ten days, we can barely scratch 10% of their arsenal. If such a scenario occurs, we will not have a complete answer, which requires us to understand that our enemies on various fronts, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, have developed underground combat tactics, and they have a higher combat capability than before.”
Biden’s Plan
He explained, “Israel is debating between two important options, each with a crucial meaning for it. We are at a historical crossroads, which is not only an ideal scenario but also a disaster. The first is to accept Biden’s plan to freeze the fighting in Gaza, then freeze it on the northern front, release some of the detainees, and buy time.”
According to Tomer, “The second scenario is to engage in a wide-scale war, and after eight months of fighting, the army is exhausted, which requires the state to understand that it must stop the war and create an end scenario in Gaza, something that the leadership did not deal with correctly.”
He warned, “The world sees Israel, especially in the United States and Europe, as weak in the eyes of its enemies in the region, and weak in itself, as it did not succeed in repelling the seventh of October attack, and it is not succeeding today in the war on Gaza.”
He added, “It is clear to everyone that there is a major disagreement between Washington and Tel Aviv, and there is reservation in the Biden administration towards Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, and accumulated anger and the result is that the occupation suffers great damage to its international status, and the difficult relations between Biden and Netanyahu will deteriorate after the latter’s expected speech before Congress.”
Occupation Status Affected
He revealed that “Israel’s affected status around the world also fails it in its non-secret war against Iran. Our international status at the strategic level has been greatly damaged, and we currently do not have an alliance against Iran, and thus we lose the partnership with the various countries that joined the international alliance.”
He considered that “promoting the slogan that we will eventually triumph is a stupid idea because we have been in a state of war for eight months against Hamas, a relatively small organization that has not been properly assessed, and we still have not been able to defeat it, although we delivered a major and severe blow to it, we did not succeed in doing so. Instead, the movement managed to fully control Gaza and was not deterred by the army’s operations from launching rockets towards the south.”
He concluded by saying, “The result is that we have no strategic achievement in Gaza, and there is a danger of turning into a broader war in Lebanon led by Iran, especially with the highly developed types of missiles we will face on the battlefield, and the army has no answer to the drones, which urgently requires accepting Biden’s plan because the determination to fight and claim that we will eventually triumph is foolishness, and it will lead us to destruction.”
