Mass devastation in Lebanon is Israel's best deterrence against the powerful Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, former Israel Defense Forces general and national security adviser Giora Eiland said Thursday, warning that Israel's home front would suffer greatly in any confrontation between the two sides.
"Our only way of preventing the next war, and of winning if it happens anyway, is for it to be clear to everyone ... that another war between us and Hezbollah will be a war between Israel and the State of Lebanon and will wreak destruction on the State of Lebanon," Eiland told Israel Radio. "And as no one - including Hezbollah, the Syrians or the Iranians - is interested in this, this is the best way of creating effective deterrence."
Eiland also cautioned that guerrilla group, which has an arsenal of thousands of rockets, would inflict heavy damage on the Israeli home front if war broke out.
Israel last sent its troops into southern Lebanon in 2006, after Hezbollah abducted and killed two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border attack. Tensions between Israel and Hezbollah's Iranian and Syrian backers have stoked expectations of renewed violence in Lebanon.
"Israel does not know how to beat Hezbollah," said Eiland, who served as national security adviser to former prime ministers Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert.
"Therefore a war waged only as Israel-versus-Hezbollah might yield better damage on Hezbollah, but Hezbollah would inflict far worse damage on the Israeli home-front than it did 4-1/2 years ago," he said.
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Retired IDF general: Deterrence is our best option against Hezbollah
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