In unique use of public media, IAF allows Lebanese TV network to film inside secure base and interview Air Force commander in bid to send Hezbollah a clear, direct threat.

By Roi Kais

A Lebanese network was given rare and unprecedented access to an Israeli Air Force base as part of a larger attempt to send Hezbollah a message.

IAF commander in Lebanese report

A reporter from Lebanon’s LBC interviewed Ramat David Air Force Base commander, as well as Captain Avihai Aderi, head of Arab media at the IDF Spokesperson Unit.

At the beginning of the report, the Lebanese network focused on attempted to reach an agreement regarding Syria: “While world power are at the Geneva II conference to find a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis, head of the Ramat David Air Force Base sends a threatening message, warning against the continued transfer of strategic arms from Syria to Hezbollah, threatening that his army will work to prevent arms’ transfer.”

Ramat David base in Lebanese report

The air force unit commander – who like all IAF pilots and commanders must remain unnamed and masked – said in the rare interview that “We are closely following attempts to smuggle arms from Syria to Lebanon and attempting to prevent it from reaching Hezbollah.”

He further noted that “Hezbollah has begun receiving the type of weapons that are superior to those of independent and neighboring countries and we must prepare for such a scenario.”

Aderi, the Arab language IDF spokesperson, told LBX that “Hezbollah has turned 200 villages in southern Lebanon into munitions caches, using them to threaten the Israeli home front. The IDF cannot let Hezbollah to harm Israelis so easily.”

Eventually, the message the IDF was panning on sending Hezbollah was made crystal clear: “The IDF understands that the arrival of such strategic arms to Hezbollah in Lebanon will be what sparks the next war.”

Yoav Zitun contributed to this report

View original Ynet publication at: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4480509,00.html