Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Sunday that the Israeli army should create a security zone in southern Lebanon should Hezbollah not heed an Israeli ultimatum to withdraw from the border area. He also called on the security cabinet to order a permanent military presence “in all of the Gaza Strip.”
While on a visit to Israel’s north, the far-right leader of the Religious Zionism party said that “the war must end with Hezbollah’s total military defeat. It must be presented with an ultimatum to stop firing and withdraw its forces… and if [Hezbollah] doesn’t fully comply – the Israeli army must launch a defensive attack … deep in Lebanese territory, including a ground incursion and an Israeli military takeover of the southern Lebanon area.”
Regarding Gaza, Smotrich said that the IDF must have a permanent military presence in the Strip. Military outposts, he added, should be erected “in the north, center and south of the Gaza Strip, to prevent a situation in which Hamas rebuilds its military infrastructure and [reasserts] civilian control.”
What world is this dude living in? IDF is trying and failing to occupy Gaza as we speak. The same IDF that currently cannot stop Hezbollah from creating a buffer zone inside Israel, but he somehow wants to play uno reverse. Is he so deluded he doesn’t remember what happened in 2006 when Israel tried to launch a ground offensive to occupy South Lebanon? The nuts have* taken over the nuthouse in Israel it would seem.
He expects to drag the US into the war and do the heavy lifting.