“Show me four or five states with more firepower than Hezbollah: the US, China, Russia, Israel, France, the UK,” said Gantz, who was a senior commander in 2006 when the Lebanese resistance group fought a bitter campaign against the Israeli army, the British newspaper The Independent reported on Tuesday.

More recently Hezbollah fighters have been carrying out a successful campaign on behalf of the Syrian government against the foreign-backed militants in the country.

Gantz, however, was making the point that Hezbollah remains the biggest threat to Israel and it has likely improved its capabilities since 2006, particularly as a result of its Syrian experience.

“The bad news from our point of view, is that while Hezbollah is fighting on three fronts... it is also amassing experience which we will one day face,” he said.

The Syrian civil war will last at least ten years, Gantz believes, while Hamas, and Hezbollah, stock up with weapons and remain determined enemies across Israel’s borders.

Referring to Iran, he said, “It has not given up on its nuclear vision… And it is important to prevent [acquisition] of this capability, whether by force or without it.”

Last week Gen Gantz and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon announced that the Summer’s ‘Home Front Drill’, to prepare the population for missile attack, was being cancelled. This was due, they said, to lack of funds; but the decision was widely viewed as an indication that there will no Iran action in the near future.

There is also general consensus here that the US and the West are in no mood to start another conflict with what has been unfolding in Ukraine and the ongoing bloody strife in Syria.

BA/BA