The journalist and commentator on Arab affairs, Shimrit Meir, who served as political advisor to former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, has written quite a bit in recent times about Israel's need to attack back in Lebanon, and claimed that Nasrallah is waiting for us to be deep inside Gaza, without resources in the north, and then attack, and therefore needs to be preempted.
"I see that we are returning to the mentality of lying and talking too much inside, at the expense of the truth," Meir wrote today on her X (Twitter) account, "Why not finally behave in a mature manner and tell the public what it understands on its own - the time has not yet come for a big war in the North, we are absorbing and that's bad, but the army's resources are not unlimited and we decided that Gaza would come first.
"You can disagree (for example, I think differently), you can have a discussion, but this is a legitimate claim based on truth. Instead, they amazingly return to the lying mentality of before October 7 and explain to us that Hezbollah was actually hit hard, but we just don't understand it."
Hezbollah is undeterred
"What any sane Israeli does understand is that the north is deserted, that Hezbollah is not deterred as the generals claimed at the beginning but is playing wisely and courageously and is only escalating. This is the reality. It has to be dealt with. We can discuss the options, from a major war to a political settlement and everything in between, but instead this uncontrollable movement of suppression and lies to the public.
"We see situation A and we are told that it is actually B. The challenges are very big and we must already realize that we will not last here without the leadership of the state and the military weaning themselves from the culture of lies and repression of the old world."
"As for how it will sound outside," continued Meir, "if you think that Nasrallah is impressed by these empty statements and doesn't understand what he sees in front of his eyes, you probably haven't understood how sophisticated the other side is, and that's a shame.
"Regarding more than a hundred dead: the reason we are impressed by this number is that Hezbollah people have enjoyed immunity as part of the reaction equations until now. Considering the number of the organization's fighters and the damage to Israel: confinement of forces, shutting down the north, solidarity with Hamas, fixing deterrence and perhaps also a territorial achievement for Lebanon in a political settlement at the end of the road - this is not much and above all it does not achieve the minimal purpose which is the cessation of attacks on Israel."