Israel will be “Uninhabitable” in 72 hours of war with Hezbollah : Official warns

On Thursday, Shaul Goldstein, CEO of Noga, which manages and oversees Israel’s electrical systems, stated that Israel is completely unprepared for a war with Hezbollah and the damage such a conflict could inflict on the country’s energy infrastructure.

Goldstein said, “We’re not ready for a real war. We live in a fantasy world, in my opinion,” according to Haaretz.

Israeli media circulated Goldstein’s comments, which sparked controversy before he later appeared to retract his statements somewhat, saying in an interview with the public broadcaster Kan, “I said irresponsible things. I should not have done that.”

Speaking at a conference organized by the Institute for National Security Studies in the southern city of Sderot, Goldstein said Israel would be “uninhabitable” after 72 hours without electricity.

“You look at our entire infrastructure, the fiber optics, the ports—and I won’t go into sensitive matters—we are not in a good situation,” Haaretz reported.

He added, “If (Hezbollah’s secretary-general Sayyed Hassan) Nasrallah wants to take down Israel’s power grid, all he needs to do is call the person in charge of Beirut’s power system, which looks exactly like Israel’s.”

Goldstein continued, saying that Hezbollah “doesn’t even need a drone; he can call a second-year electrical engineering student and ask where the most critical points in Israel are. Everything is on the internet. I won’t say it here, but anyone who goes on the internet can find it.”

Goldstein issued further warnings, saying, “Israel is an energy island, and we need to supply ourselves with energy.”

“The bottom line is that after 72 hours of an outage, it’s impossible to live in Israel.”

He added, “People don’t understand how much our lives here depend on electricity…If the war is postponed by a year, five years, or ten years, our situation will be better.”

Goldstein’s warning drew immediate criticism from Meir Spiegler, CEO of the Israel Electric Corporation, who said Goldstein’s remarks were “irresponsible, detached from reality, and spread panic.”

Both the Institute for National Security Studies and Noga distanced themselves from Goldstein’s comments, with Noga stating that they “do not represent the company’s professional assessments regarding the preparedness of the Israeli energy sector for emergencies.”