8/6/2019 Guy Bechor_Israel is Back

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Quiet Borders

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Israel is backOur enemies scared of crazy Israel, which finally learned rules ofregionGuy Bechor

We are currently facing an odd situation the likes of which we have not seen for manyyears: Israel s enemies are in panic, or is it paranoia, for fear that Israel will be attackingthem. Hezbollah is convinced that it will suffer a blow at any moment, Hamas is still lickingits wounds, Syria is concerned, and Iran s foreign minister already declared that Israel is anation of crazy people with mad leaders who may launch a strike.

Meanwhile, the frightened Lebanese turned to the UN, to UNIFIL, and to French PresidentSarkozy and asked for France s protection against the terrible Israel. However, theFrench announced that as long as Hezbollah is armed, they will only ask Israel to refrain

from destroying Lebanon s civilian infrastructures and no more than that. All this waspublished by the Arab media.

On the other hand, our borders are quieter than they have been in many years.

So how do we explain this bizarre Middle Eastern paranoia? The IDF is training today as ithas not done in dozens of years. Every day, from morning till night: Tanks, airplanes,helicopters, live-fire drills and soldiers running around. The Lebanese watch this fromacross the border, as do the Syrians, and they are becoming anxious: What are theIsraelis plotting over there? Is there something we don t know?

The Israeli restlessness prompts anxiety among our enemies, and this is good, of course.It s called deterrence. Both Hezbollah and Syria know that the IDF made a leap since thelast Lebanon War and it is now the first military in the world equipping its tanks with anti-missile systems, which are changing the rules of war. The IDF is also equipping itself with

new APCs, advanced airplanes, and amazing technological systems, while Hezbollah andSyria are still stuck in the 80s and 90s.

Moreover, a series of daring assassinations attributed to Israel is prompting personal fearsamong axis of evil leaders. They suspect everyone around them and the confusion isgreat. We should recall that Hezbollah leader Nasrallah has been hiding for three and ahalf years now, and this is quite embarrassing for someone who rushed to declare adivine victory, no less.

Israel here to stayAccording to terror groups, Israel can reach anywhere and has infiltrated everyorganization and each Arab state. The glory of Israel s secret services had been restoredand the fear of them has increased.

So what are people in the region telling themselves? Israel is back. It disappeared for

about a decade and a half of peace, where it was perceived as weak; yet now it is backat full force.

Both the Lebanon War and the Gaza War are having an effect. If in the past Lebanonprompted the Palestinians to launch an Intifada or be daring in Gaza, based on Nasrallah sspider web theory, today the opposite is true. Hezbollah sees the destruction sowed by

Israel in Gaza and it loses the urge to fight us. They look at Gaza and think aboutthemselves.

The Goldstone Report, which claimed that Israel goes crazy when it is being attacked,caused us some damage (which should not be exaggerated) in the world, yet it was ablessing in our region. If Israel goes crazy and destroys everything in its way when it sbeing attacked, one should be careful. No need to mess with crazy people.

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8/6/2019 Guy Bechor_Israel is Back

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Yet what concerns our enemies more than anything else? The insight that Israel, for thefirst time in its history, has learned the rules of the region. Our enemies realize that thedays where Israel conducted itself as a state without honor willing to give in to theadvances of those who deceive it are over. They realize that Israel has matured, learnedthe art of creating deterrence, and that it is here to stay.

Our enemies understand thatIsrael will no longer give in to their advances in exchange for illusions or words. They

realize that it won t be easy for them to control it from the outside or to deploy theirsupporters within it, because they lost the faith of the public. They are starting tounderstand that Israel is stronger than they thought or fantasized of, and this insight affectstheir own self-image and to their great regret, this hurts.

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