Exclusive – Former U.K. Commander in Afghanistan: Israel Facing War on 7 Fronts, Arab States ‘Quietly’ Root for Jihadist Defeat

The Jewish state is facing a “hugely complicated” seven-front war against enemies within and beyond its borders — though “virtually all Arab countries” are “quietly cheering” for Israel, according to former commander of British forces in Afghanistan Colonel Richard Kemp, who blamed President Biden for “continuously appeasing” Iran, and called for “the strongest U.S. support for Israel in this conflict,” warning that further American “weakness” could encourage hostile nations to exploit the situation. 

In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, Kemp listed seven distinct “fronts” that Israel is facing as the world sets its sights on a looming ground offensive in Gaza.

“Israel is fighting right now on seven different fronts, even now,” he said. “Obviously, the first one is Gaza; the second one is Lebanon — the intensity of attacks from Lebanon have been so great that they would have provoked an all-out war in any different circumstances; the third one is Syria; the fourth is the West Bank; the fifth is inside Israel itself, although that hasn’t really materialized yet but we did see so previously in 2021 when there was a great deal of uprising among Arab-Israelis against their local communities, police, and the army; and then Yemen, which has been firing drones and missiles towards Israel; and, finally, Iran is a possible future front. 

“That’s seven even if you exclude the international dimension and particularly the media and international efforts to delegitimize Israel,” he asserted.  

Iranian proxies

Noting the cyberwarfare front, which he described as “something a little bit separate,” Kemp argued that Israel has a “massive hugely complicated multi-front conflict already,” and that the “prospect of a major confrontation in Lebanon is pretty high.”

“Whether that’s by Hezbollah’s and Iran’s intention or whether it’s by unintentional escalation there by them is hard to say, but I would say it’s a distinct possibility that we’ll see a major conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon as this situation develops,” he stated.  

However, he remarked, it is unclear how much Tehran is willing to risk losing a critical asset under current circumstances.

“It’s hard to know whether Iran wants that or not because of course Hezbollah is a strategic asset for Iran in as much as it’s sort of intended to deter and then, if necessary, react to a direct attack on Iran,” he said. “So whether they actually do want to escalate this current conflict and, therefore, effectively lose their longer-term deterrence, I don’t know.” 

“It’s impossible to know, but I certainly think it could happen,” he added.  

He also noted that the Jewish State may intentionally choose to confront Iran’s powerful proxies.

“The other aspect to it, of course, is that — I wouldn’t describe it exactly as a preemptive attack because there’s already been attacks against Israel from there — but Israel might decide that the time has come to eliminate that particular threat which it’s been looking at for so many years,” he said.

“And Israel might consider that now is the time to do that,” he added. 

Regarding Hamas, Kemp claimed that even if Israel was to “deal effectively” with the terror group, “that then leads to the extremely important question about what happens in Gaza after that.” 

“I find it hard to imagine any other option apart from Israel maintaining direct control, [meaning] troops on the ground, over at least a major part of the Gaza Strip, if not the whole of it, for a reasonably long term,” he stated. 

In addition, he posited that “virtually all Arab countries want Israel to deal with Hamas.” 

“Regardless of what they say publicly, Hamas is a threat to all of them,” he said, “and countries like Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt and Jordan all fear jihadists.” 

“It’s not just Hamas directly, but the dominant effect of Hamas on the Muslim Brotherhood more widely and other extremists,” he added.

Claiming these Arab countries are “quietly cheering Israel on in this” because they want it dealt with, Kemp suggested they would “also be happy for Hezbollah to be dealt with as well.”

“Because they not only fear jihadists, they also fear Iran,” he explained. “So I think people should take with a big pinch of salt anything that Arab governments say publicly about how horrible Israel is.”

Russia’s role

The former commander who led British forces in Afghanistan in 2003 and later joined the committee supervising the country’s intelligence services, explained that while a global conflict may seem doubtful, a regional one is not: 

“I think certainly a very, very wide-ranging regional conflict can ensue, though I’m not sure that there’s a potential for it to become a global conflict. There obviously is a global dimension to it, and I think, for example, Russia’s got enormous interest in this conflict taking place, and the focus on the Middle East now by the US has certainly already helped Russia as far as the war in Ukraine is concerned.” 

“Not only in that attention is being diverted away from Ukraine but also resources, with at least some of the ammunition stockpiles brought into Israel by the US having been originally destined for Ukraine,” he added. 

Highlighting the “division” that already exists within the US political world concerning the extent to which America should continue funding and supporting Ukraine, Kemp suggested that the current Middle East conflict “disadvantages” Ukraine, with some on the right who don’t want the US to continue supporting Ukraine and who’ve been holding up funding, might well decide to emphasize the need to support Israel — which is a reason not to support Ukraine — and they might use that as leverage.” 

As a result, Kemp expressed his belief that one of the primary effects of this conflict is “to disadvantage Ukraine and to advantage Russia.”

“And I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Russia hadn’t had a hand in triggering this conflict, given their very close relationship with Iran, but also with Hezbollah and Hamas and Islamic Jihad,” he said. 

American weakness

On whether or not the current situation has the potential to escalate well beyond Israel, and perhaps even see China exploiting it, Kemp stated that “it is a distinct possibility, and something that people need to be on the alert for.” 

“I think the way in which this conflict works out is very relevant to that even if it’s not an immediate reaction to it,” he said. “But my view is that the Ukrainian invasion rather occurred almost directly because of Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, which I think encouraged Putin to go into Ukraine thinking that he’s dealing with a very weak American government.”  

“I think that there’s a direct relationship there, and if we don’t see the strongest U.S. support for Israel in this conflict, I think that again could encourage China to act against Taiwan, having seen American weakness,” he added.

Kemp explained that that is just one reason “why it’s so important that the United States maintains and increases the level of support it gives to Israel.” 

“I’m not talking about the U.S. directly fighting in this conflict, say the U.S. air or ground forces fighting it, but America being right behind Israel and not attempting to pull Israel back from the victory that it needs to secure here,” he said.

Though America “doesn’t want to see the war expanding against Hezbollah,” Kemp expressed his doubts as to whether or not that was the “right approach to take” because now may be the ideal opportunity that Israel needs to deal with Hezbollah. 

“Israel certainly needs to deal with Hezbollah at some point, and we’re seeing now the consequences of Israel not dealing decisively with Hamas in the past — and that’s been to a very large degree down to U.S. constraints on Israel,” he said.

“There’s a lesson there for Israel’s reaction to Hezbollah: it needs to be dealt with. It’s a gun to Israel’s head which should be removed and I think it would be a mistake if they didn’t,” he added, though noted the decision should ultimately be Israel’s and the U.S. “should not prevent them from doing so if they decide to.” 

Kemp also refused to rule out that Israel “feels the need to hit directly at Iran,” claiming “there’s no doubt in my mind, despite the U.S. downplaying Iran’s role in this conflict, that Iran’s hands are right behind it.” 

“We all know Iran’s relationship with Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad. We know what Iran wants to achieve as far as getting nukes and I wouldn’t exclude the possibility that Israel sees a need to strike Iran, if nothing else, as a kind of warning to not repeat what they’ve done this time,” he said.

While Israel “can do it alone,” he posited, “it can only do so much alone,” though it “could do enough to provide at least a warning shot.” 

Kemp explained that organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as Iran itself, are “not really rational actors and therefore deterrence doesn’t really work against them.” 

“I think the only thing that works against them is harsh military action, and so Israel might find a need to do that,” he said. 

Though, he clarified, the U.S. is “very unlikely to get involved in that” and therefore it would be “down to Israel.” 

“Particularly, as we’re in an election cycle in the U.S., I think that’s uppermost in Biden’s mind before everything else, and I don’t think it would help him electorally if the U.S. took part in military action against Iran,” he said.

Additionally, with the U.S. likely aiming to deter Israel from taking action against Iran, Kemp expressed concern that the U.S. “might constrain Israel about dealing decisively even with Hamas.” 

“I think we’ve already seen the pressures that have been placed on Israel to allow in humanitarian aid and so forth against their original policy of trying to besiege Hamas in Gaza,” he said. “So, I don’t have any real confidence that the U.S. will give Israel a free hand to do what it needs to do, I’m afraid.” 

“And that’s a major strategic mistake if they do constrain Israel,” he added. 

Kemp pointed to the “fundamental error” of the Biden administration, following on from the Obama administration, which was to “effectively enable Iran to become a nuclear armed state through the JCPOA [Iran nuclear deal], and by Biden’s determination to resurrect that in some form — which is extremely dangerous and is a huge concern obviously for Israel, but also for countries like Saudi Arabia.”

“I think you’ve got to attribute a significant amount of responsibility for a lot of what’s going on now to the Biden administration,” he said. 

“That and the continuous appeasement of Iran, the payment to Iran of billions of dollars of frozen assets, and the distancing of the White House from the current Israeli Government — I think all of that has kind of played into Iran’s calculations in pushing this conflict,” he added.

Last year, Kemp criticized President Biden’s “insane foreign policies,” including the U.S.’s “humiliation” in Afghanistan, its increasing oil dependence on Moscow, and its obsession with “gender pronouns, political correctness, [and] environmentalism,” as he called to support Ukrainian resistance, depose President Putin, and withdraw support for an Iran nuclear deal, all while warning of the increasing Chinese threat. 

He also warned that Biden’s “misguided policies over Iran will help make the world a more dangerous place.” 

Previously, Kemp slammed Biden’s exit from Afghanistan, describing it as the “greatest victory for jihadists,” a “blow for American prestige” — worse than 9/11 — which won’t recover for decades, and “the greatest foreign affairs and military catastrophe since the Second World War.”