Friday, January 17, 2020

Analyst: 'Israel needs to step up its actions against Iranian presence in Lebanon, Syria'

Zvi Yehezkeli, Channel 13's Arab news analyst, said that Israel needs to act with more force on its northern border.
 
The Iranians, Yehezkeli told 103 FM Radio, are trying to change their diplomatic situation.
"Everything you see now in Gaza is is part of the talks between Israel and Hamas, after [Hamas leader Ismail] Haniyeh attended the funeral of Qassem Soleimani," Yehezkeli explained. "I still think that the biggest story this week in the Middle East is Iran. We don't see it really, because they've shut down the internet over there, but this week was a week of great protest, of bloody protest, of protest which said: 'We're not stepping on Israeli flags.""
 
"In every city in Iran, in every university in Iran, there are areas, steps, fields, entries to halls, in which the US flag and the Israeli flag are on the floor.
 
"You should have seen this week the dozens and hundreds of photos coming from there, in which students take off their shoes, walk around, don't step, don't go down steps on which the Israeli and US flags are drawn. It teaches you that something is happening in Iran and we can't see the whole process because the Iranian leadership blocks it. You can see it in videos smuggled out of there, with the bit of internet that's left there.
 
"You see Revolutionary Guards members lighting their Revolutionary Guards membership cards on fire, taking down posters of Soleimani in his birth city of Kerman. The Ayatollahs give clear instructions to kill protesters - they understand that something is happening there."
 
At the end of the interview, Yehezkeli responded to the question of what actions Israel should take.
 
"Israel needs to utilize the harm to the Iranian deterrence and continue its work, to strengthen the war against Iran's existence and their presence in Syria and Lebanon. Israel doesn't just need to continue, it needs to continue with greater strength, since there is now an opportunity. That's why, this week, Israel said that it's going back to its daily work, you might even say Sisyphean work, of chasing the Iranians off our borders."