Historical Context
Hezbollah was founded in 1985 by Subhi al-Tufayli, a Lebanese senior Shi’ite cleric and a politician. The organization has headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon, and belongs to the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc, the political wing of Hezbollah in Lebanon’s Parliament.
Hezbollah means the ‘Party of God,’ and is recognized by a number of countries as a terrorist organization. It is also recognized as a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party with its own military force.
Since 1992 this militant group has been led by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah*.
*Nasrallah was eliminated by Israel on Friday afternoon, September 27, 2024, during Israel’s “Northern Arrow War” with Hezbollah.
Editor’s Note: Initially written by Moshik Kovarsky, bought to print by Nurit Greenger *Moshik Kovarsky is an Israeli entrepreneur, investor and a public opinion shaper.
Iran Proxy
Emphasizing the gravity of the situation with this terror group, Iran’s proxy Hezbollah that basically hijacked Christian Lebanon, and the developments in its current war with the State of Israel, here’s an opinion from an Israeli.
*This commentary was written prior to the confirmation of the elimination of Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
Explaining Threats Against Israel
“Yesterday, I sat down to explain to my 18-year-old grandson that we are living in historical, biblical days.”
For over 20 years, Israelis have lived under the threat of Hezbollah’s 150,000 missiles, aimed at the country from the north, which could basically turn Israel into a heap of ruins.
Eighteen years ago, Israelis experienced the trauma of the 2006 2nd Lebanon War, which caused severe attacks on the Israeli home front from the City of Haifa northward. The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) also suffered significant losses during their entries into and exits from Lebanon territory.
Turnaround
And in just one week, at the end of September 2024, everything has turned around.
Israel is now acting wisely and thoroughly. Starting with the unprecedented operation, carried out by an unknown entity, blowing up Hezbollah beepers and other communication devices, leading to highly successful targeted assassinations of Hezbollah’s top command, in the heart of Beirut, culminating with relentless attacks on the organization’s staggering targets, accumulated over years, updated, in real-time, by intelligence sources on the ground.
While not lessening the suffering of the residents of northern Israel, which has been under fire since October 8, 2023 and who have been displaced for almost a year, Hezbollah’s response appears to be far weaker than the assessments received from various former officials.
An important question is, whether Hezbollah is holding back its fire or have its capabilities been diminished and limited?
Consider this: You may say that Hezbollah is indeed hesitant to strike Tel Aviv because it would lead to a massive response in Dahiya*. (*The militant group’s stronghold in Beirut and where Hezbollah followers gather on special occasions; an area that was severely bombed by Israel in the 2006 2nd Lebanon War). Yet, why isn’t Hezbollah launching the precise weapons the organization supposedly possesses, that could overcome Israel’s defense lines, and aim them towards strategic air force bases?
So far, Israel with its superior technology successfully intercepted all of Hezbollah’s barrages fired at such locations.
My assumption, Israel’s air force has managed to neutralize many of Hezbollah’s capabilities. Also instilled confusion, shock and fear in the heart of an organization that was once defined as the most powerful terrorist group in the world. Hezbollah is now appearing to be a shadow of its former self.
Hamas and Hezbollah
Over the years Israel saw Hamas as a weak and easy to overcome terrorist organization and thus failed its intelligence operations in the Gaza Strip.
On the other hand, seeing Hezbollah as an enemy to dread, Israel’s intelligence in Lebanon was undoubtedly precise.
Several comparisons that have been relied upon for years have crumbled last week.
The comparison to Gaza: what Israel’s intelligence has most likely done in Lebanon over the past decade is what it failed to do in Gaza, and the results are evident today.
More so, it is irrelevant and there is hardly any room for comparison to the 2006 war. Israel’s home front is now much better protected, allowing the country’s decision-makers to act judiciously and in a structured manner.
Israel’s intelligence and strike capabilities have also improved dramatically since 2006. Worthy of noting here, at that time, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, a novice, acted hastily and irresponsibly. Whereas now, the steering wheel is in the experienced hands of Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Hamas and Hezbollah Estranged From Each Other
Here Israel’s brave soldiers must be mentioned and then the effect that is rarely discussed shows how successful Israel has been in this war this past year.
Hamas in Gaza isn’t lifting a finger for Hezbollah. Not even one mortar shell in support of Hezbollah. Hamas is essentially neutralized, rather insignificant, wallowing in the catastrophe they brought upon themselves. They will continue to suffer if and when they raise their heads. A tremendous achievement for the IDF and its commanders who led the war.
Exactly one year ago, the world was listening to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). He primarily focused on an agreement with Saudi Arabia, an expansion to the Abraham Accord.
Israelis were optimistic but also naively blind. At that time, in Gaza’s labyrinth tunnels, the final aspects of the horrific massacre of October 7, 2023 were being planned.
Ironically, after a year of much blood, fire, and smoke, Israel is much closer to such an agreement with Saudi Arabia that will change the region for the better.
The reason, the restoration of Israeli deterrence, which suffered a terrible blow a year ago. The subjugation of Hamas, the stunning assassinations, and now, the crushing blows to the “Party of Satan,” as the Sunnis refer to Hezbollah, tell the Sunnis with whom it is wise to ally with, and against the threatening Shiite axis led by Iran.
No Surrender
To all those, inside and outside Israel, who tried to convince Israelis that the surrender deal, known as the farce ‘hostage deal,’ would lead to a regional peace, it is quite the opposite. Such a ‘deal’ would bury any chance for an agreement with those who would see Israel as weak and defeated.
Today, Israel has returned to being in the right direction.
It is amazing to watch videos on social media by Arab users, mostly Syrians, praising PM Netanyahu as “the avenger of the Syrian children.” They call him ‘Aryeh’ (Lion); a regional leader. Arab leaders have not yet grasped the shift in sentiment and still react with their habituated condemnation reflex.
It all depends now on Israel’s success. The more successful it is in this conflict, the greater the admiration and desire to seek shelter beneath its wings will grow.
In Conclusion
As I told my grandson, born between the 2005 Gush Katif disengagement from Gaza and the 2006 2nd Lebanon War, who now began to contribute to his homeland: “we are in amazing, undeniably historic moments.”
The panic TV and radio channels miss all this. They sunk in chronic defeatism, in a campaign of hatred and envy towards PM Netanyahu, a great, stubborn wartime leader, a modern Winston Churchill of WWII type.
PM Netanyahu, under tremendous pressures from within and without, has guided the State of Israel through a sea of constraints this year to a week of great military achievements. I do not remember such achievements since the June 1967 Six Days.
With the last killing of Nasrallah, in a streak of other Hezbollah leaders and commander eliminations, the IDF began to restore its regional primacy while also steadily reinstating the Israeli public trust in it that was greatly eroded after the October 7, 2023 poor response to Hamas invasion and massacre of so many Israelis in southern Israel.
As the Ancient Bible Quotes:
Psalm 29: Verse 5: “The voice of the Lord breaks cedars; the LORD breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.”
Verse 11: “The Lord gives strength to His people; the Lord blesses His people with peace.”
