By Al-Ahed News
The apartheid “Israeli” entity has been eying the extraction of natural gas from the Karish gas field for months now. However, the extraction has been delayed from September to mid-October. “Israeli” officials and media say the reason for the delay is unclear at present.
According to the entity’s so-called Energy Minister Karin Elharar, the possible delay was due to the complexity of installation operations. While the reason for the delay seems to be technical, it nonetheless dissipates to some extent tensions that have been building up, following various warnings by Hezbollah Secretary General His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah against “Israeli” drilling.
In His Eminence’s speeches at different occasions, Sayyed Nasrallah always makes sure to send the “Israelis” a stern warning for violating Lebanon’s sovereignty by air, land and sea.
Sayyed Nasrallah has always repeated that Hezbollah would not sit idly if the “Israeli” entity continued its plans of extracting natural gas from the platform near Lebanon’s maritime border.
To the “Israelis”, Sayyed Nasrallah’s warnings are not void. “He [Sayyed Nasrallah] is calculated, credible, plays by the rules, sticks to his promises,” a senior “Israeli” intelligence source told the Al-Monitor earlier this year in discussing the entity’s assessment of the Hezbollah and its leader.
During his speech after the annual Ashura march this year, Sayyed Nasrallah again warned the “Israelis” and their US allies that Lebanon and the Lebanese “can no longer tolerate the looting of their wealth”, stressing readiness for all possibilities. “Let no one try us, let no one test us, let no one threaten us!” Sayyed Nasrallah warned.
Forty years on, and Hezbollah has transformed from being a modest Lebanese Resistance group to one of the most developed ones that possesses sophisticated armaments, precision guided missiles that can hit anywhere in the “Israeli” entity and advanced drones that can either strike or gather intelligence.
The “Israelis” have conceded to this fact. And “Israeli” media has lately said that “‘Israel’ listens to [Sayyed] Nasrallah’s ‘threats’ and put off extracting gas under technical pretexts.”
“Lapid says that he wants a signed agreement, but currently it seems that ‘Israel’ is listening to [Sayyed] Nasrallah’s threats and is not extracting gas despite the announcement,” political analyst and correspondent of the “Israel's” Channel 13, Udi Segal stated.
This being said, it is obvious that the “Israelis” do not want war, but they are willing to do whatever it takes to reach a deal on what they call the demarcation of the disputed maritime border and gas extraction for the Karish gas platform.
Though, “Israelis” are still suffering from a political turmoil and their COVID-stricken economy has yet to recover, so increasing tensions that might ignite a war with Hezbollah doesn’t seem to be the best idea “Israeli” military or political officials could come up with.
To save face, the “Israeli” entity alleged that it had a number of chances to assassinate Sayyed Nasrallah over the years but chose not to, former “Israel” Navy commander Maj.-Gen. [ret.] Eliezer Marom claimed on Wednesday.
“I, for a long time, have thought that ‘Israel’ needs to say clearly to [Sayyed] Nasrallah ‘if you threaten the gas fields and, God forbid, dare to carry out some missile attack or anything, we will respond severely... and we will hit you, too, the moment that we will be able to’,” Marom told in an interview with Galey “Israel” radio.
“I don’t want to get into details but I will say that we had more than one opportunity to hit [Sayyed] Nasrallah over the years and we didn't do it. So, he should not test us,” he added. “But now, when he's put a gun on the table and is threatening ‘Israel’ and its ‘sovereignty’, [we could].”
Ironically, the retired Navy commander is shaky when it comes to expectations of the Resistance group. When asked if he thought Hezbollah would conduct provocations even if an “agreement” is reached between Lebanon and the “Israeli” entity concerning the maritime border, Marom responded that “it’s hard to know what to expect with Hezbollah.”
"Remember that when we withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, there was no reason for Hezbollah [to exist] – that's it, it was over. We exited Lebanon, we closed the gate on the fence, and suddenly they ‘invented’ the Shebaa Farms and then the conflict continued; the Resistance continued,” added Marom, pointing to the “Israeli”-occupied Lebanese farms in the southern village of Shebaa.
With 100,000 well-trained fighters and sophisticated weapons, Hezbollah set forth the deterrence equation – “as long as there is an aggression, there will be resistance” – meaning that as long as an inch of Lebanese land is still occupied, there will always be resistance.
To make a long story short, the “Israeli” entity today considers Hezbollah its most serious immediate threat, estimating that the resistance group has some 150,000 rockets and missiles aimed at it.
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