The Dahiya Doctrine

In my Sunday blog entry, "Mounting Tension on Israel's Northern Border", I noted that Israeli Major General Gadi Eizenkot, GOC Northern Command, had stated that reports of tensions in the North have no basis, but that Hezbollah has rearmed itself notwithstanding UN Resolution 1701.

Eizenkot, however, also made it plain that should there be a war, Israel, facing 40,000 Hezbollah rockets, will have no choice but to destroy weapons caches and bunkers hidden in Lebanese residential areas, notwithstanding inevitable U.N. condemnation:

"Hizbullah is the one that is turning these areas into a battleground," Eizenkot said. "I hope this will restrain them - but if not, we need to explain to ourselves and to others that this is something Hizbullah has brought upon itself since it is building its combat zones inside these villages."

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1263147969888

Israel's survival could soon be on the line, and this was an explicit warning from Eizenkot. The Israel Defense Forces learned a valuable lesson from the Second Lebanon War and is placing Tehran, Damsacus and Beirut on notice that they will make short shrift of any attempt on the part of Hezbollah to engage in asymmetric warfare.