US defense secretary Robert Gates
said Tuesday night, April 27: "Hizballah has far more rockets and missile than
most governments in the world." He and Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak were
talking to reporters after their talks in the Pentagon. Military sources did not
see his as high commendation for Barak's achievements as defense minister. All
he had to contribute on this occasion was: "We do not intend to provoke any kind
of major collision in Lebanon
or with Syria, but are watching closely these
developments."
Gates went on to accuse Syria and Iran of
"providing Hizballah with rockets of ever-increasing capability," adding, "This
is obviously destabilizing for the whole region and we're watching it very
carefully.
Both defense chiefs seemed to think that careful watching would somehow erase
the hostile buildup of deadly hardware. In fact, Barak's comment told
Iran, Syria and Hizballah they had nothing to fear from
continuing their "carefully watched" buildup, even though Syria took it a
step forward this month. As debkafile's military sources reported last week, Syrian instructors
have trained two Hizballah brigades in the use of mobile Scud missiles which
carry one-ton warheads. It does not matter if those missiles are moved
physically across the border to Lebanon, because those brigades can operate them
against Israel at short notice from either
side of the border.
Our Washington sources
report that Syrian president Bashar Assad, under heavy pressure from Washington to keep the Scuds out of Hizballah's hands,
explained to the Obama administration through diplomatic channels that as long
as they were kept inside Syria, the Scuds must be seen as a defensive and
deterrent weapon against a possible Israeli attack on Lebanon and Syria. He thus
placed on Israel the onus for any future
outbreak of hostilities.
Gates' accusation of Iran
and Syria Tuesday was the
administration's way of telling Damascus that it does not buy that message.
Unlike the United States,
Israel has a ringside seat
for watching the rockets and missiles pile up just across its 70-kilometer long
border with Lebanon. Gates' comment - and even
more Barak's assurance - gave Syria and the Hizballah space to carry on
building a mighty arsenal, which is aimed at only one country, Israel.
Barak as defense minister, prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and
Israel's security chiefs need to explain how Hizballah was allowed in the four
years since the 2006 war to pile up tens of thousands of rockets and missiles,
which in volume and sophistication have already overtaken the weaponry that
battered northern Israel then and which have extended their reach to all parts
of Israel.
"Careful watch" - without corresponding action to interrupt the
massive flow of weapons shipments constantly smuggled in from
Syria to Hizballah - is a
repeat of the misplaced self-restraint which invited the Hizballah to launch the
last Lebanon conflict in the summer of
2006. Dragging Israeli and its homeland into war in the summer of 2010 would
serve the political and military interests of Iran, Syria and Hizballah well. It would
generate a Middle East crisis overwhelming enough to focus international efforts
on calming the situation, so distracting the world's attention Iran's arrival at
the critical stages of its nuclear bomb program and its drive for sanctions
against the Islamic Republic.