Retired Israeli General: Any Attack on Hezbollah and Iran Will Lead to Regional War… We Cannot Fight Battles Without US Support

Israeli reserve Major General Yitzhak Brick said on Wednesday that any preemptive attack on Hezbollah and Iran would immediately lead to a regional war, which Israel cannot wage without relying on the United States.

This came in an article published on Wednesday evening by the retired Major General Yitzhak Brick on Channel 12 website, under the title “Israel is rushing into a regional war in which it depends completely on the United States”.

Fears of a full-scale regional war are growing after Israel assassinated Hezbollah’s senior military Commander, Fouad Shukr, in an airstrike on Beirut on July 30, and the assassination of Hamas’s political bureau chief, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran on July 31, in an attack attributed to Israel despite the latter not claiming responsibility for it.

Iran and Hezbollah pledged a strong and effective response to the assassination of Shukr and Haniyeh, while regional contacts and moves continue to calm the situation and prevent the escalation of the situation in the region.

Brick began his article by saying, “In the past few days, we have heard from people who haven’t yet absorbed the worrying situation of the Israeli army, that Iran and Hezbollah must be attacked preemptively, before they respond and attack us”.

“Unfortunately, these people don’t take into account that any preemptive attack on Hezbollah and Iran will immediately lead to a regional war,” he continued.

If Israel launches a preemptive war, its population centers, power stations, gas and transportation platforms, industrial infrastructure and Israeli army bases will be subjected to daily attacks by thousands of missiles and drones, Major General Yitzhak Brick said.

He stressed that “the Israeli army doesn’t have the ability to respond to a regional war, neither in defending these national infrastructures and others, nor in the ability to defeat Iran, Hezbollah and their proxies”.

He continued, “Some will answer me that in any situation after Iran and Hezbollah respond (to the assassination of Haniyeh and Shukr), a regional war may develop in any case, and our preemptive attack will give us a kind of progress and an important advantage in the regional war”.

He said, “To them I say that a preemptive strike will certainly lead us into a regional war, while Iran and Hezbollah’s responses, if simple, won’t necessarily drag us into a regional war”.

“In any case, the Israeli army alone doesn’t have a winning answer to a regional war even if it breaks out after we launch a preemptive attack, and therefore the Israeli army needs the help of the United States,” he continued.

He stressed that since Israel’s dependence on the United States is absolute, Israel’s steadfastness in a regional war depends absolutely on the United States.

Brick concluded, “Israel doesn’t have the ability to withstand the war alone and win in the face of the depletion of the Israeli army”.

He said that US President Joe Biden prevented Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from launching a preemptive strike, and told him that if he did so without US approval, he would not stand by Israel in a regional war that would erupt in the wake of the preemptive strike that the Israeli army might launch.

He said, “Netanyahu didn’t fully take into account the difficult repercussions that would follow his decisions, the latest of which was the assassination of the two senior leaders in Hamas (Ismail Haniyeh) and Hezbollah (Fouad Shukr) at an inappropriate time”.

“Assassinations weren’t only useless at the time, they ignited a huge fire in the Middle East,” Brick said.

“In addition, as I understand it, Biden instructed Netanyahu that if there are minor reactions from Hezbollah and Iran that don’t harm Israeli citizens, Israel shouldn’t respond to them in order to avoid escalation… Even if Israel decides to respond, it should respond with a balanced response that does not lead to further escalation,” he continued.

“In my estimation, Biden also told Netanyahu that only if Hezbollah and Iran’s responses crossed red lines and Israeli citizens suffered severe harm would the United States launch a severe attack with Israel against Iranian and Hezbollah military and economic targets, even if it led to a full-scale regional war,” he added.

Brick stressed that Israel, in its current situation, is completely dependent on the United States for its survival.

He concluded his article by saying, “From now on, if Netanyahu doesn’t obey President Biden, we will be left alone in the war, even though the Israeli army doesn’t have the ability to win it completely”.