Drumbeats of War - One If By Land, Two If By Sea
The curious Neptune Thunder joint artillery drill conducted by UNFIL forces and the Lebanese Regular Army was reported in the previous post with speculation about what it meant.
I did mention that the big guns fired their live rounds seaward.
I did not mention that Lebanese mainstream news said, “The targets were located at sea in order to limit noise to any inhabited area,” because that was so obviously not the real reason.
I also did not mention that Lebanese Navy ships and the UNIFIL Maritime Task Force were around the target site, ostensibly to keep other boats from being hit by the long-range shells. I did not mention this because I simply did not get the real significance of it
Now there is surprising new information that may shed some light. But we need to go the long way around in order to get the bigger picture. First, some significant land-based developments.
According to mainstream news across the Middle East, Hamas has created a single military command for all 13 major Palestinian resistance/rejectionist groups in Gaza. This is a tremendous coup for Hamas, something rarely accomplished in the Middle East, or anywhere else, for that matter.
Iranian official press reported that Hamas spokesman Abu Obaida said, “The factions (in Gaza) agreed that all means are open to the Palestinian resistance to deal with Israel in the coming phase.”
Israeli sources interpreted his remarks to mean that ‘the new policy of expanded attacks may well rain missiles on Tel Aviv.’
Hamas is said to get the bulk of its weapons and funding from Iran, through Syria.
As you may remember from previous posts, Syria and Lebanese Hizballah recently created a single headquarters for all their land, air, missile… and sea forces.
Friday morning local time, well-informed Israeli sources said that the Syrian-Lebanese Hizballah joint command has decided to turn its attention to the Mediterranean, and at some point start sinking Israeli warships.
The S-LH joint command has congregated what could be the largest battery of sophisticated shore-to-ship missiles in the world on their Mediterranean borders… which directly adjoin Israel’s Mediterranean border. They have substantial numbers of Syrian seaborne assault helicopters. There are highly trained Syrian and Hizballah marines. All the forces share intelligence about Israeli naval movements.
So now the LRA-UNFIL sea shots make some sense… but not completely. Actually, there are some pretty interesting unanswered questions.
Who would they use their joint artillery against if Lebanese Hisballah fired missiles at Israeli ships?
The live-ammunition practice rounds were aimed at seagoing targets. Not land-based facilities.
UNFIL forces are supposed to be neutral… aren’t they? Yet they have been training regularly with the Lebanese Regular Army. And the Lebanese Regular Army has been moving closer and closer to Hizballah in recent days.
Much is up in the air; much is still unknown. But there has been significant consolidation of command and control among the forces arrayed against Israel, and significant movement toward a shooting war.
And today is Jerusalem Day.
Maybe it would be an especially good time to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
As Psalm 122 says,
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May they prosper who love you.
Peace be within your walls, prosperity within your palaces.”
For the sake of my brethren and companions, I will now say, “Peace be within you.”
Because of the house of the LORD our God I will seek your good.
