Israel can handle the military wing of Hezbollah, and continue to weaken it, but to remove Hezbollah as a civilian presence will require the cooperation of the Lebanese government. That government needs to wage not just a propaganda campaign, correctly describing the terror group as an Iranian proxy, willing to drag Lebanon into yet another war with Israel at the behest of Tehran. Two-thirds of the Lebanese population — the Christians and the Sunni Muslims — have no love for Hezbollah, and even many of the Shi’a, who have seen the disastrous effect Hezbollah has had on Lebanon, dragging it again and again into its conflict with Israel, caused great damage to the country’s infrastructure, are now willing to abandon it.
Yet the problem is not restricted to Lebanon alone. Hezbollah has provided ideological training to similar terror groups outside Lebanon, including the Kata’ib Hezbollah in Iraq, the Houthis in Yemen, and — even though Assad was toppled and a Sunni regime now rules in Damascus — in Syria, where there are still some Hezbollah-allied groups among the Alawite population.
Hezbollah relies on Iran for both weapons and for money. If the Islamic Republic falls, whether as a result of American and Israeli military action, or because the Iranian people come out to protest yet again, but this time in numbers so large that the regime can no longer suppress them, then Hezbollah will have no access to either. It’s hard to see how it can then continue to resist the combined power of the IDF and the Lebanese National Forces.
Hezbollah is now weaker than at any time in its history, thanks to the IDF. But it still has about 40,000 combatants (down from a high of 100,000), while the Lebanese Armed Forces have 85,000 men under arms, but Hezbollah’s men are battle-hardened and the LAF soldiers are not.
Also, Hezbollah is not just a military force; it is a state within a state, with its own civilian infrastructure. That infrastructure needs to be dismantled, so that everything Hezbollah now supplies to the Shi’a community will become part of what the Lebanese state provides.
Ceasefires with Hezbollah have come and go, and Israel cannot keep accepting these temporary and makeshift arrangements. Not just Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but also Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, a Christian, and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, a Sunni Muslim, desire peace between Israel and Lebanon — a real and permanent peace, and not a temporary cessation of hostilities. At least two-thirds of the Lebanese — the Christians and the Sunnis — are as eager as Israel to see Hezbollah’s combatants disarmed and its “state within a state” dismantled, so that it cannot be resurrected.
The IDF will have to continue for an indeterminate time to occupy and hold the area between the Israel-Lebanon border and the Litani River, and from that redoubt, take on the task of defeating — crushing — Hezbollah as a military force. The Lebanese must do their part, to track and seize Hezbollah’s money, interdict Iranian weapons shipments to the terror group, and monitor, in order to undermine, Hezbollah’s machinations within Lebanese civilian society.
It’s not the time to turn the temperature down — to “de-escalate” the conflict with Lebanon and hope that this latest ceasefire will hold. As soon as Hezbollah senses that the IDF may be turning more of its attention back to the continuing challenges of war in Gaza, in Judea and Samaria, and in Iran, it will be back launching more missile and drone attacks on Israeli civilians from Lebanon. For Zehavi, this result is intolerable. There will likely not be a better time for the IDF to finish the job it started in Lebanon, with Iran now reeling economically, and thus ending forever both Hezbollah’s military threat to the Jewish state and its threat to the cohesion of the Lebanese nation.
Wellington says
I have wondered for a while now about a specific matter, i.e., as bad as the Sunni Muslim world is, and it is awful, is it possible to argue that the Shiite Muslim world is even more awful? Seems this way to me often times. Would welcome any comments.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
It’s like wondering which is more disgusting – 🐈💩 or 🐕💩? I’d say that due to the sheer percentage of the ummah, it’s the sunnis who are more dangerous, the islamic regime in Iran notwithstanding. Just look at the Palis in Gaza: they are very much sunni, not shi’a. Whereas Iran’s population has been de-islamizing particularly over the last decade
What’s the main difference b/w them? sunnis worship just Muhammad, whereas shi’a worship Muhammad, Ali and any particular subset of imams. There isn’t a material difference b/w them, and sunnis aren’t locked on the Rashidun caliphs (of which Ali was the 4th: it’s Ali’s successors that sunnis & shi’a really diverge on). But as the other story about the Paki shi’a imam in London showed, sunnis are pretty happy to unite behind shi’a if the target is infidels – be it American Christians, Israeli Jews, Indian Hindus or others
gravenimage says
Yep.
somehistory says
If an exterminator leaves two roaches alive…
Or two termites…
One female phyton in the Everglades is a hundred snakes too many.
ploome says
Once again it seems like Israel will not be allowed to totally destroy Hezboalla, just like they were stopped in Gaza.
And seems that is what the world wants to gain happen in Iran.
It seems like making a “deal” which muslims NEVER KEEP with infidels, is more important than their utter defeat.
ploome says
Islaam.Com -> Challenges -> Duty of the Muslim Towards These Treaties
Duty of the Muslim Towards These Treaties
Shaykh `Abdul Rahman `Abdul Khaliq
The last chapter from “Verdict on the Treaties of Compromise and Peace With the Jews”
Note: This piece represents the perspective of a Muslim scholar on the peace treaty and is presented here since their perspective is often ignored in the media and is important for the Muslims.
And now comes the most important question, that is: What is the duty today on the Muslim as regards these treaties?
The answer:
(1) The first duty is to firmly believe in their invalidity and that because they contain invalid conditions they were born dead the very day they were given birth to; because it is not lawful for the Muslim to conclude an agreement with the unbeliever for abandoning jihad and abrogating this religious duty, nor for giving up hostility towards the Jews and affirming love and amity for them; for this is leaving the millah. These treaties also contain provisions making it incumbent to screen out such Ayahs of the Quran and ahadith (statements) of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be on him, that declare this enmity towards the Jews.
This undertaking constitutes a collusion with the unbelievers for concealing the Deen and knowledge and for suspending the Ayahs of the noble Quran and ahadith of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be on him, that explain the essence of obligatory relationship with the Jews; and this in fact is driving the Muslims out of Islam and stripping the Ummah of its belief and history.
And since these treaties contain such conditions and stipulate them clearly, they are therefore invalid and it is not lawful for the Muslim to believe in them.
read the rest here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20000816205526/http://www.islaam.com/articles/treaty.htm
࿗Infidel࿘ says
If you are talking about our dear POTUS, ignore him, since none of his decisions are long term. He’ll say one thing one day, do the exact opposite the next, a back flip the following day and so on. So don’t bother pinning him down
On Lebanon, even though Israel has been armtwisted into a “ceasefire” that Hizbullah – it’s only combatant adversary – has rejected, they have rejected the idea of withdrawing from Southern Lebanon. The next Hizbullah attack that happens, they can point to it as a ceasefire violation and resume operations against them
gravenimage says
It’s Not the Time to Turn the Temperature Down in Lebanon
…………………………………………………..
True–I would love to see Hezb’allah eradicated–both for Israel and for Lebanon.