Yoav Limor
Israel Hayom, Mar. 16, 2023
“This policy of engaging in transnational activity has been a characteristic trait of Hamas policy in recent years.”
There is broad consensus within Israel’s intelligence community that the upcoming festival of Ramadan, due to commence in exactly one week’s time, will be even more volatile than usual this year.
There are many and varied reasons for this: the current wave of terrorism in Judea and Samaria that has been ongoing now for more than a year, the ever weakening ability of the Palestinian Authority to govern effectively, the lack of communication between Israel and the PA security forces, the incessant attempts by a variety of elements to foment violence on social media, as well as the profound internal crisis in Israel, which has caused a number of elements in the region to think that Israel is currently more fragile than ever.
Secretary-General of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah testified to this last week when he said that Israel will collapse before it reaches its 80th birthday. Over the years, Nasrallah has proven to be a renowned and highly successful master of the ability to play on Israeli domestic sentiment; though, in recent years he has lost some of this “charm” and has often opted to voice empty slogans.
This has had a lesser effect on Israelis, mainly since Nasrallah – as he remains holed up in his bunker deep underground in Beirut – is perceived as somebody who tends to “talk the talk” quite a lot but is less inclined to “walk the walk”.
Having said that, it is probably advisable to take his latest statement slightly more seriously. Last year, Nasrallah decided to raise the stakes on the eve of the signing of the maritime border deal to delineate the exclusive economic zone between Israel and Lebanon. He did so in an attempt to score points from the success or to prepare the ground for a potential escalation in the event of failure. Since then, he has calmed down and has returned to focusing his attention on the internal affairs of the collapsing Lebanese state, but now, once again, he has returned to his pet subject – Israel. … [To read the full article, click here]
