While the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are regrouping and preparing for war, Hezbollah movement joined the war from Lebanon and started to launch rockets and missiles at Israeli cities.
In order to free more than 250 civilian hostages, Israeli forces entered the Gaza strip. Only then, Israel's true adversary had revealed itself- It was Iran all along. This very open 'secret' was proven by different attacks perpetrated by Iran sponsored proxies in Iraq and Yemen.
Despite various enemy's attacks and consequently heavy losses, around six months after the war commenced, Israel started to gain momentum in the war by entering to the most dangerous hornets' nests in Gaza, Rafah city.
Ten months later, the tables were turned and Israel has attained the upper hand in the war as more than 90% of Hezbollah and Hamas top leadership was eliminated and the latter lost almost all fighting capabilities.
As we speak the IDF is operating in Lebanon, in the plight of eradicating Hezbollah's terror capabilities.
Israel is facing many challenges in Gaza due to the fact that the narrow strip is actually the most comprehensive fortified zone in military history which has a 500 Kilometer of underground tunnels and Iranian technologies.
Iran is the snakehead, operating tirelessly with the aim to spread terror, extremist ideology and dark perceptions of the world. Iran will not stop. The false notion that Israel is the only target of Iran is fundamentally wrong.
Iran continues to invest fortune on spreading its ideology worldwide, supporting terror, cybercrimes and espionage. The fact that Iran is still a legitimate part to the global community is sad and worrying. An example, is the choice of Naim Qassem as the new head of Hezbollah.
Qassem was designated and sanctioned and was declared 'an International Terrorist'. Under Iran's guidance he will most likely seek to expand Hezbollah's activities globally. Including money laundering, building and supporting terror cells and assisting to wreak havoc in already existing international crises.
Rwanda should take a close look at what's happening in Israel for numerous reasons; Firstly, the threat to Rwanda from its borders is driven from the ongoing attempts of mercenaries to penetrate through and if they succeed, they will not hesitate to act brutally and will not abide by international norms nor laws.
They are motivated by ideology and money, exactly what has happened to Israel. In this regard, Rwanda should bear in mind that terror thrives under two main conditions: resources and lack of strong governance.
Around Rwanda there are lots of foreign actors who are using resources to operate, and using lack of governance to thrive. Everyone in their right minds should be concerned by a potential appearance of a new terror organization to the area and the ongoing Iranian influence in Africa.
Secondly, terrain in southern Lebanon where the IDF is operating does have resemblance to Rwanda's borders.
Furthermore, now is the best time to learn thoroughly the steps the different actors in the war are taking and why these were the measures they choose, because there are people who see the upcoming weeks or months as the stoppage time of the war.
In football Stoppage Time, aka overtime, is the time the referee adds to a game after the official time of the game is over. Here are some recommendations for future research on lessons learned from Israel:
1. There is a lot to learn on the tactical level on how the IDF clears forested and hilly territories from terror elements, and discovers their secret places hidden in the natural environment.
To learn the combinations of infantry and heavy armored vehicles in such places and how they all perfectly synchronized through technology which serves them for many other uses. This is something to research globally.
2. Another topic to research is lessons learned through the intelligence operations, gathering and waving secret war. Israel has eliminated many leaders and high rank members in both Hamas and Hizbollah ranks. These operations could not be successful without tireless and hard intelligence work. According to different foreign press outlets, there are more operations attributed to Israel, like the radio and pagers spontaneous explosions, which whoever perpetrated them did an excellent job covering up its traces.
3. The most important thing to research in this war, is how countries trying to avoid this war escalating into a regional one. All the relevant actors have operated in their own way while keeping the flames of war contained.
Attacks on Hodeida harbor in Yemen, Cyber-attacks, aerial attacks by planes, drones and missiles. Choosing to hurt your enemy by an attack which holds a message, is an art and should be examined and be taught here in Rwanda.
H.E. Einat Weiss is Ambassador of the State of Israel to Rwanda
H.E. Einat Weiss & Aviad Mendelboim
