Recently, the Israeli newspaper "Maariv" reported that former Mossad Chief Yossi Cohen said, "Israel knows the whereabouts of Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and can assassinate him at any moment if it wishes." What does this mean? If true, what prevents Israel from carrying out the assassination? We ask retired Brigadier General Khaled Hamada for his opinion on this statement. He responds: It is intelligence talk, which might be true or might be false. This threat remains without value and is merely a display of strength, as every figure that is assassinated has a replacement appointed the very next day since individuals do not threaten the project. The Israelis continuously target individuals, one after another; just days ago, they killed a leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Aleppo, and before that in Damascus, and prior to them, other leaders, including Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force, and prominent Iranian nuclear scientists, according to MTV.
Despite the drums of war beating at the frontlines and the escalation currently dominating military battles, Hamada doubts that a war will erupt in the near future. In his conversation with the MTV website, he expects that we will not face a total war before the Gaza battle concludes or a settlement is reached, and before the American elections are over, considering that "war requires an American decision that is not currently available," according to him.
Hamada believes that the Israeli escalatory rhetoric amid the ongoing conflict is normal; however, the United States is the one distributing roles between Iran and Israel and assesses the outcomes of war before it begins, as was the case in the July 2006 War, and this time has not yet come. For Hamada, war is inevitable, and it will occur, but not in the near future. He clarifies that the fundamental conditions for the outbreak of a major war are not currently present, neither in terms of the American decision nor within the electoral landscape that poses an obstacle to it. Whether distant or near, it seems we are doomed to wars, which, despite their brutality, are executed in the name of others on our land... and no one suffers but us, according to MTV.
