Opinion | Israel’s New Hezbollah Strategy
Category: Op/Ed
Via: vic-eldred • 3 months ago • 3 commentsBy: Opinion by The Editorial Board / the WSJ
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Israel appears to be pursuing a new strategy to deter a broader war with Hezbollah. Instead of tit-for-tat exchanges, it will make clear to the Iran-backed militia the damage it will suffer if it continues to fire missiles at Israel’s north.
That’s the conclusion we draw after a week of strikingly effective attacks on the Hezbollah war machine in Lebanon. The latest, on Friday, was a targeted strike on Hezbollah’s Beirut stronghold of Dahiyeh.
Israel says it killed Ibrahim Aqil, the commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force, as well as some 10 commanders with whom he was meeting to plan attacks. Since Israel’s July assassination of Fuad Shukr, Hezbollah’s military chief of staff, Aqil is believed to have become the group’s de facto military chief.
Aqil also had a $7 million U.S. bounty on his head for two 1983 truck bombings that killed more than 300 people at the U.S. Embassy and Marines barracks in Beirut. For years, he commanded Hezbollah’s operations in Syria, helping dictator Bashar al-Assad massacre his own Arab people and building a close relationship with Russian forces. These are the kind of people Israel is fighting.
Hezbollah has tasked its Radwan force with Operation Conquer the Galilee—think Oct. 7, but in Israel’s north and publicized in advance. President Biden has said that he’s committed to preventing another Oct. 7-style attack, and Israeli strikes like this are the way to do it. Israel has broken the familiar pattern with Hezbollah to launch deterrent attacks such as the sabotage of Hezbollah pagers.
Iran’s terrorist axis has taken serious blows, and the region is on edge. On Friday Hezbollah fired 200 rockets at Israel, but it has to be considering its options. If its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, chooses to escalate, he now knows his Beirut bastion won’t be immune. His organization has been compromised, which means he may also be at risk.
A full-scale war could destroy Lebanon and carry risks for Israel too. It could also hurt Vice President Kamala Harris politically and help the Trump campaign. Mr. Nasrallah could end up facing Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu for several more years. That is a prospect neither he nor his Iranian bosses want.
Israel made clear for 11 months that it didn’t want this fight with Hezbollah. Even as 8,500 Hezbollah rockets forced the depopulation of Israel’s north, it limited its responses. But diplomacy went nowhere as Mr. Nasrallah tied Hezbollah’s actions to a Gaza cease-fire. This has mortgaged the future of Lebanon to the priorities of Hamas’s Yahya Sinwar.
Even the Biden Administration has now recognized that Mr. Sinwar doesn’t want a deal, the Journal reports. Maybe Mr. Nasrallah would like to have a word with him? One way or another, Israel is going to return its 60,000 displaced northern citizens to their homes.
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The State Department's concerns about escalation are starting to look like appeasement. None of the parties involved want full scale war, and Iran fears another Trump Presidency.
No one fears that fucking moron former 'president' convicted felon rapist and traitor.
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