The IDF (Israel Defense Army) is rehearsing scenarios of mass demonstrations and protests combined with guerrilla warfare, which it may encounter if and when it invades Lebanon and takes over villages there. The disclosure was made by IDF officers in a report featured on the IDF’s official website. The report says that the IDF is preparing for the possibility that in a spontaneous reaction to the conquest of a village by Israeli forces, the residents will stage massive riot protests.
May Day demonstration in Beirut, 2013 (Photo: Al Ittihad)
“We are preparing for a similar reality to the one Americans are encountering in Afghanistan,” 7th Regiment Commander, Col. Nadav Lotan, explained recently, according to the IDF Website report. “That is – we take over a village, and the riots begin.” The protests are expected to involve local-level violence “as well as more professional weaponry and tactics.” “These will not be your typical disturbances, of the type we see in Judea and Samaria [The “West Bank” – the occupied Palestinian territories]” Lotan told commanders in an exercise practicing urban warfare. “It is possible rather, that we will see riots that include light weapons fire.” “The longer the IDF stays in the village, the greater the ferment,” explained Lt. Col. Neria Yeshurun, commander of the regiment’s 82nd Battalion.
