Israeli Walla News: Washington wants a calculated escalation against Hezbollah

The Israeli website Walla, which specializes in security affairs, said that despite the United States’ public opposition to a comprehensive war with Hezbollah, it supports the Israeli policy of escalation against this party to achieve military pressure that opens the way to a diplomatic understanding that ends the conflict in the north and allows the residents to return to their homes.

The website said - in a report by Barak Ravid - that senior American officials warned that this escalation tactic is extremely complex and could get out of control and end in a comprehensive war, and they recommended not launching a ground invasion and avoiding heavy bombing of civilian areas.

But these people - the site adds - expressed support for the escalation policy despite Washington's "public" concern about a comprehensive war, because the American administration actually hopes that military pressure on the party will result in a diplomatic solution.

American officials have publicly expressed their satisfaction with the assassinations of prominent leaders in the party, especially military commander Ibrahim Aqil, who Washington says was involved in the attacks on its embassy and US Marines in Beirut in 1983 and 1984, respectively.

The rate of assassinations

But the US administration warned that the increasing pace of assassinations and attacks could lead to an open war that would not serve Israel's goal of returning tens of thousands of residents of the north to their homes.

The Israeli writer said that the United States and Israel are trying to separate the Gaza Strip from the northern front, but months of diplomatic activity have not yet been able to persuade Hezbollah to end its attacks before a ceasefire in the Strip.

Senior US officials, including Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and President Joe Biden's advisers Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein, held extensive talks in Israel last Saturday and Sunday.

Israeli officials told their American counterparts that the goal of Israel's attacks was not to start a full-scale war but rather to "de-escalate" to achieve an understanding that would return the residents of the north to their homes regardless of the ceasefire in Gaza.

This view is shared by Washington, which has warned, however, of a complex "balancing" process that could at any time get out of control and end in a full-scale war.

tactical disagreement

Last Friday, McGurk (Biden's adviser) described the dispute with Israel as "tactical," saying it was about how to calculate escalation against Hezbollah.

An American official told the Israeli website that Washington wants to keep the door to a diplomatic solution open, and therefore wants Israel to refrain from steps that might close it.

Other officials acknowledged Washington's weakness in influencing the Israeli military decision.

It is noteworthy that the Lebanese Hezbollah was subjected last week to two Israeli cyber attacks in which dozens of its supporters, fighters and civilians were killed, not to mention thousands of wounded, which it responded to by intensifying the bombing of northern Israel, and Israel responded with unprecedented raids since the beginning of the war, in which two prominent leaders of the party were killed, including the leader Aqil, who Israel says was supervising the plan to storm the Galilee.

Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah acknowledged that the two cyber attacks represented a "severe blow" but vowed to continue supporting the Gaza front, saying that attacks on Israel would not stop unless the war on the Strip stopped.

Source: Israeli press