Nasrallah Indignant at Israel’s ‘Act of War’

In his speech urbi et orbi on September 19, the humiliated head of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, admitted that Israel’s “pager attack” had been a heavy blow, but he vowed to fight bravely on. The Israeli sabotage of pagers, and then, we discovered, of walkie-talkies and handheld radios as well, have led to 37 deaths, and 4,450 wounded, in Beirut, the Bekaa Valley, southern Lebanon, and even as far afield as Syria and Iraq, where Hezbollah members must have travelled. Nasrallah said that Israel’s attack had crossed a “red line.” In fact, Israel’s sabotage of electronics, he said indignantly, was “an act of war.”

An act of war? I would have thought that what happened on October 7 was an “act of war.” That was the day when 6,000 Hanas operatives crashed through fences into Israel and proceeded to torture, rape, mutilate, and kill 1,200 Israelis and kidnap another 250. That was an “act of war” by Hamas. But a day later, when Hezbollah started lobbing hundreds of rockets into Israel in an act of solidarity with Hamas, that, too, was an “act of war.” And Hezbollah has been attacking Israel since October 8, 2023, launching more than 7,500 rockets, missiles, and drones since that date. Weren’t those many “acts of war,” or should we see them as one long, continuous, devastating “act of war”?

On August 25, Hezbollah was readying a major attack on a dozen of Israel’s military bases and on Unit 8200 and Mossad headquarters, which are both in north Tel Aviv. The attack was supposed to be retribution for the assassination by the IDF of Fuad Shukr, Hezbollah’s top military commander. But the initial attack was foiled when Israel launched a preemptive strike a few hours before Hezbollah had intended to strike. All of those attacks Hezbollah had planned on military targets were thwarted; no rockets or drones hit central Israel. Despite the IDF’s preemptive strike, Hezbollah managed to launch more than 320 rockets and several dozen attack drones against Israeli civilian centers. They were either intercepted or fell harmlessly in open fields. The IDF performed better. Israel’s Chief of Staff Herzi Hagari said that several thousand rocket and missile launching barrels were destroyed in the preemptive strike.

Wasn’t that Hezbollah strike on August 25 “act of war”?

And what about Hezbollah’s constant bombardment of northern Israel, that soon after October 7 forced 60,000 Israelis to leave their homes? They have been unable to return home because the Lebanese terror group continues to lob rockets into the north, even though the IDF launches still more punishing attacks in retaliation. That is one long “act of war” that so far has lasted more than eleven months. Remember, the IDF has only been responding to Hezbollah’s actual attacks, or to attacks it was just about to launch, as on August 25. Hassan Nasrallah should not be so indignant about Israel’s supposed “act of war” when it is his terror group’s rockets and drones that have forced 60,000 Israelis to leave their homes. Hezbollah has been conducting thousands of “acts of war” since October 8.

Nasrallah, who has no sense of irony, declares that “this criminal act [the pager caper] is a major terrorist operation, an act of genocide and massacre and amounts to a declaration of war.” But he was all in with the “major terrorist operation” of Hamas on October 7, vowing to join the fight to help Hamas withstand Israel’s response. The Mossad was not trying to “terrorize” the civilian population of Lebanon, but only to strike fear in a legitimate target, the Hezbollah combatants. Nasrallah called these stunning acts of sabotage ”genocide” and “massacre.” Perhaps he needs to be reminded that there was no “genocide,” that while there were thousands who were wounded, only 37 people died as a result of exploding pagers or walkie-talkies. Does that number of fatalities sound like genocide to you?

While Nasrallah spoke, several Israeli planes flew low over Beirut, punctuating his speech with sonic booms that must have unnerved his audience. After all, if the Israeli pilots could fly unchallenged over Beirut, they could also conduct airstrikes on Hezbollah sites right in Lebanon’s capital. They could even have taken out Nasrallah himself, as he must be keenly aware. He is in their sites.

Hezbollah long ago crossed every conceivable “red line” in its war to destroy the Jewish state. It wanted a war on its terms: a steady increase in rockets and drones launched against Israeli civilians in the north, 60,000 of whom still cannot return to their homes. But the Israelis are no longer content with simple tit-for-tat retaliatory strikes, even if the IDF’s response has always, and quite deliberately, been a bit stronger than the initial Hezbollah strike that it is answering. No, with the latest stunning exploit by Mossad, Israel has made clear it is preparing the battlefield — by destroying the enemy’s communications — for what is almost certain to be a major war.