HEZBOLLAH PROVOKED THE CONFLICT WITH ISRAEL - Israel has no choice but to enter Lebanon and push Hezbollah behind the Litani River
By: Joseph Puder
Friday, September 27, 2024
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1701 was intended to resolve the 2006 Lebanon War. The resolution called for a full cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah; the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon to be replaced by the Lebanese army; the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) deploying to southern Lebanon; no armed forces other than UNIFIL and the Lebanese military south of the Litani River, which flows about 29 km (18 mi) north of the border; and the disarmament of all armed groups, including Hezbollah. The resolution emphasizes the need for Lebanon's government to fully exert its control and, calls for efforts to address the unconditional release of abducted Israeli soldiers.
The UNIFIL peacekeepers have been unable, or unwilling, to restrain Hezbollah (Lebanese terror organization and Iran’s proxy currently in control of Lebanon) from shelling and rocketing northern Israeli communities. The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) have been working in cahoots with Hezbollah. In fact, the LAF, which was supposed to control the border with Israel, has forfeited its role as the army of all the Lebanese people. Instead, it enabled Hezbollah, the Shiite militia/party/terror group, to bring the Lebanese people into a punishing conflict - not of their choosing. The majority of the Lebanese people, including the Christian groups, Sunni-Muslims, Druze, and even many Shiites, have decried the irresponsible behavior of Hezbollah.
Lebanon’s Maronite Patriarch, Bechara Rai, lashed out at those who are actively trying to destabilize the country from within, a reference to Hezbollah and Iran. He said, “There are factions in our society that wish for Lebanon to be a vacant land, where they can implement their plans without the interference of a state, laws, or a constitution.” Hezbollah has built a state within a state. With a militia estimated to be larger than the Lebanese army, its own banking system and welfare institutions and, even its own supermarkets, Hezbollah has hijacked Lebanese politics and public life.
Israel would much prefer a diplomatic arrangement to de-escalate the conflict with Hezbollah which would allow the tens of thousands of Israelis to return to their homes in the north. But Israel is also prepared to raise the “cost” for Hezbollah. Unfortunately, many innocent Lebanese civilians might pay with their lives and properties for Hezbollah’s determined and continual aggression against Israel. One has to be clear: it was Hezbollah that initiated attacks on Israel on October 8, 2023, a day after Hamas (Sunni-Muslim) terrorists invaded Israel, murdered 1200 Israelis (mostly civilians) and kidnapped 250 Israelis – holding them as hostages in Gaza’s tunnels. There was no military engagement between Israel and Lebanon. Israel only retaliated after its communities in northern Israel (Upper Galilee) were being attacked.
Israel’s government and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) High Command are fully cognizant of the fact that precious human lives, both Israeli and Lebanese, might be lost in an Israeli land incursion into southern Lebanon. That is why Israel has been engaging with Hezbollah in a “ping-pong” like exchange of fire. Hezbollah fires rockets and drones on Israeli cities and villages, destroying homes, orchards chicken coops, and fields with crops, as well as killing and injuring Israeli soldiers and civilians. Israeli jets strike Hezbollah’s rocket arsenals and terror squads ready to fire on Israel. This war of attrition cannot go on indefinitely. The removal of 60,000 to 80,000 Israeli civilians from their homes in the northern Galilee invalidates the very Zionist raison d'être of Jewish settlement in the land of Israel. Apparently, the Biden/Harris administration does not understand the implications involved.
Washington expressed its opposition to an Israeli ground invasion of Lebanon. A US senior official has suggested that “We obviously do not believe that a ground invasion of Lebanon is going to contribute to reducing tensions in the region, to preventing an escalatory spiral of violence, and that’s in part why we are so focused on utilizing this week to explore these ideas and see if we can develop this off-ramp.”
Iran wants its proxy Hezbollah to continually harass Israel with a war of attrition using the war against Hamas in Gaza as a pretext and condition for ending its war of attrition against Israel. Neither Iran nor Hezbollah can dictate to Israel its existential objectives, and ending Hamas’s threat to Israeli civilians is an existential imperative. Iran is obviously fighting Israel without a cost to itself. It is Lebanese and Palestinian blood being spilled on behalf of Iran. Yet, the Biden/Harris administration wants to restrain Israel from acting on its vital interest, while at the same time seeks to possibly renew nuclear negotiations with Iran. The Ayatollahs of the Islamic Republic are eager to engage the Biden/Harris administration in such negotiations, and thus perhaps, compel the US to stay neutral when the Ayatollahs decide to attack Israel.
Israel is left with little choice but to enter southern Lebanon, pushing Hezbollah beyond the Litani River, demilitarizing the area and enforcing Resolution 1701, which the UN and the US failed to do. Professor Uzi Rabi, director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University, pointed out that, “At the end, I don’t see that there is going to be any alternative to a ground operation.”
Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in a televised speech appealed to the Lebanese people, telling them that Israel is not at war with them but with Hezbollah. Israel would naturally prefer a diplomatic solution; however, the aftermath of the 2006 Lebanon War has shown that diplomatic initiatives have not restrained Hezbollah and Iran. UNSC Resolution 1701 was grossly violated by Hezbollah, and another UNSC resolution would have the same result. Defeating Hezbollah militarily (and Hamas in Gaza) on Lebanese soil will establish Israel’s deterrence, bring quiet to Israel’s northern border, and return the displaced Israelis to their home.