Israel buoyant after killing Nasrallah, mulls risky Lebanon ground invasion
After the killing of the Hezbollah chief, Israeli security chiefs disagree on a potential ground incursion into southern Lebanon.
TEL AVIV — After the euphoria in Israel following the killing Friday of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, security chiefs disagree on whether a ground invasion into Lebanon would be a smart move or a catastrophic one.
Israel is on a roll. Not since the 1967 war, when it defeated the Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian military forces aligned against it, has Israel’s air force chalked up such a string of unprecedented military achievements as it did this month against Hezbollah.
It took six days at the time. Fifty-seven years later, it took about six weeks for Israel to knock the strongest militant organization in the world into disarray, its leadership decimated by back-to-back assassinations, its communications compromised by sabotage and its missile arsenals damaged.
״Nasrallah committed the sin of arrogance, hubris, everything related to his attitude toward us," a senior Israeli military source told Al-Monitor this week on condition of anonymity. "He failed, just as we failed on Oct. 7 in underestimating Hamas. He underestimated our capabilities and did not believe in our intentions. He did not understand that Israel changed on Oct. 7, that the days of containment were over, that it was willing to pay a price and go all the way. Ultimately, he paid for his hubris with his life."
