Israel dealt a massive blow to Iran when it killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah Friday – but experts say the country is ready to absorb any likely reprisals in order to quell the looming threats from its neighbors.
Nasrallah, 64, was killed in an Israeli strike on Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut on Friday.
His death, which was officially confirmed by the terror group on Saturday, elicited an immediate wave of shock, celebration and condemnation throughout the Middle East and beyond.
“It was a very tough call, because we are going to get the repercussions,” a senior Israeli official told The Post of the decision to move on Nasrallah.
“But we are playing the long game, because Israel has to exist in the long game. So that’s why we took this action.”
Nasrallah – who led Hezbollah as its sole commander since 1992 – was the “main architect of the noise of death” that Iran was building around Israel, with the ultimate goal of destroying the Jewish State, the official explained.
Israel is determined to avoid a ground war with Hezbollah, and in recent days leadership came to the conclusion that the only way to avoid that was to eliminate Nasrallah.
“He was at the center of the axis,” the insider said, noting that even after Israel destroyed more than half of Hezbollah’s stock of missiles and rockets over the last week or so, “it was clear he was not going to stop.”
Describing him as a “zealot,” the official said Nasrallah was behind building this ‘noose of death’ with infrastructure for a simultaneous ground invasion on many fronts, featuring tunnel networks, armaments hidden in schools and private homes.
Nasrallah and Hezbollah were backed by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who on Saturday urged Muslims in the region “to stand by the people of Lebanon and the proud Hezbollah with whatever means they have and assist them in confronting the … wicked regime” of Israel.
Nasrallah’s death was a major blow for the Iranian regime, which uses Hezbollah, Hamas, and rebel forces in other parts of the Middle East to serve as the front line of its conflict with Israel.
Taking out Hezbollah’s leader could “be a pivot” in the fighting, the Israeli official told The Post.
While Iran can replace Nasrallah, some people are “so powerful, so persuasive, that they are irreplaceable,” they suggested.
“We do not seek a broader war. Iran has to consider what to do,” they said.
Experts agreed that the next phase of the conflict will depend on Iran’s response.
“It was a very impressive operation,” Doron Avital, an Israeli politician who served in the Knesset for Kadima between 2011 and 2013 and who was a commander during the 1982 Lebanon War, told The Post Saturday of the Beirut attacks.
“This is an important juncture and a key crossroads in the fight and it will be interesting to see what follows,” Avital said. “The next phase is figuring out how Iran will respond and what our strategy will be.”
“The Iranians may be thinking now that they’re not as strong as they thought they were. But they have allies – Russia and China,” he continued. “We (Israel) will also have to decide whether to go on land with ground troops or not. This is a very pivotal moment when everyone has to re-evaluate their position in the game.”
“Killing one leader is not a magic solution to the terror we are facing, but eliminating the leadership of Hezbollah is a big step,” Sarit Zehavi, founder and president of Alma Research and Education Center in northern Israel, agreed.
Zehavi spoke to The Post on Saturday in between running to emergency shelters as sirens warned of potential rockets fired at Israel from Lebanon.
“We shouldn’t stop now, however. If we really want to win we have to continue to take them all out. It’s clear that no diplomatic arrangement will help. We need to get rid of them all and all their strategic weapons,” Zehavi insisted.
Jonathan Elkhoury, a Lebanese Christian whose family had to flee to Israel when he was young, told The Post the news of Nasrallah’s killing “to me is one of the happiest days for the Lebanese people.”
“This is one of the most important and transformative days for the Middle East,” said Elkhoury, an independent expert on Lebanon and Israel policy and politics.
“Hezbollah didn’t just terrorize the Israelis, they terrorized the Lebanese as well. When Hezbollah took over Lebanon, they took by force huge territories in the east and the south. Lebanon stopped being for the Lebanese and began being just a holding point for the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
“I’m feeling really optimistic. This is an historic day for Lebanon to start folding down the Islamic Republic’s holding of Lebanon and the Lebanese people.”
Some, however, warned that killing Nasrallah will not be a straight path to victory for Israel.
“Israel’s assassination of Hassan Nasrallah is the climax of this total war that Netanyahu has promised Israelis will bring them ‘total victory,’” Fawaz Gerges, professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics, told NBC News.
“This has proved to be elusive in Gaza and will prove to be more so in Lebanon,” he said.
“Prematurely celebrating the killings of Hezbollah leaders and top operational commanders, Netanyahu and his associates confuse tactical wins with strategic breakthroughs.”
“This moment will be historically seen as Netanyahu’s ‘mission accomplished’-moment in both Gaza and Lebanon,” he predicted, referring to former President George W. Bush’s premature declaration of victory in Iraq in May 2003.
