Major-General (res) Amos Yadlin. (Gideon Markowicz/Flash90)

Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amos Yadlin says Israel has the military strength but must use it correctly.

By Aryeh Savir, TPS

“The gravest threat we face is not the third Lebanon war, but the first northern war – simultaneous conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon, Syria, and Iran, which Hamas in the south is likely to join,” warned IDF Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amos Yadlin, former head of the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate.

Speaking while presenting President Reuven Rivlin on Wednesday with the 2019 Strategic Assessment from the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) which he currently heads, Yadlin noted that “Israel of 2019 is a strong country, the IDF is extremely powerful and deters our enemies. The challenge is to take this strength and use it to reinforce the correct policy.”

The INSS research highlights the major political and diplomatic issues facing Israel in the near future. On the list of leading threats by severity, the INSS’s 2019 assessment includes war with all the enemy forces and on all fronts in the north – Iran on the Golan Heights, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Syrian regime – as well as a military conflict in the south with Hamas in Gaza and a deterioration of the situation in Judea and Samaria.

Iran’s military build-up in Syria remains a red line for Israel, which has acknowledged carrying out thousands of attacks to thwart the Iranian entrenchment in the war-torn country.

Iran uses its positions in Syria to transfer weapons and infrastructure to its terror proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah, while attempting to establish another military front against Israel from the Syrian Golan Heights.

The IDF concluded its Operation Northern Shield this week to expose and neutralize Hezbollah’s cross-border tunnels. It detected and destroyed six such tunnels over the course of five weeks of activity.