Israel Isn’t Attacking Lebanon; It’s Stopping Hezbollah

Iran’s recent launch of 182 ballistic missiles against Israel was ill-considered and despicable, but its motive was understandable. Iran was trying to reassure its middle east proxies that it would avenge the recent assaults against Hezbollah, Iran’s primary agent within its “ring of fire” (Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis in Yemen, Shiite militias in Iraq) that Iran has nurtured to accomplish the destruction of the Jewish State.

Less understandable to me, but just as infuriating, has been the Western media’s willingness to mischaracterize and distort events surrounding Israel’s new efforts to stop Hezbollah and its allies.

If you listened just to CNN and NBC (two sources I sometimes consult), you would think that Israel’s “expansion” of the northern front against Hezbollah was intended simply to expropriate sovereign Lebanese territory, and to abuse and harass the many thousands of civilians being displaced pursuant to Israeli evacuation notices preceding what are portrayed as indiscriminate bombings.

This myopic ascription of motivation and blame to Israel ignores critical background, including the continuing, malevolent role of Hezbollah in creating an existential threat to Israel’s well being and survival.

Under Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah formed a state within a state. His terror organization created the world’s largest private military, and dedicated itself to the liquidation of Israel via participation in the Iran-inspired ring of fire surrounding Israel.

In south Lebanon, bordering Israel, Hezbollah engineered an elaborate tunnel network full of terrorist infrastructure and installed approximately 100,000 missiles, rockets, and drones. This fearsome armament of south Lebanon violated not only the wishes of the nominal Lebanese government, but also the 2006 UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the last Hezbollah/Israel war.

That resolution imposed a demilitarized zone south of the Litani River — within 16 miles of the Israeli border.  Hezbollah nonetheless amassed massive armaments and military infrastructure in that area, thumbing its nose at the official Lebanese army and at UN soldiers acting as a peace-keeping force along the border.

Hezbollah’s array of terrorist infrastructure has proved to be much more than a lurking hazard. Following Hamas’ murderous incursion into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, Hezbollah joined the Hamas effort to pummel Israel, this time by using south Lebanon as a launching ground for missiles and drones aimed at Israeli communities and military encampments in northern Israel.

Since October 8, 2023, Hezbollah has fired more than 10,000 rockets, killing at least 51 people and damaging a multiplicity of structures in northern Israeli towns like Kiryat Shmona, Metulla, and Sefat.

Approximately 100,000 Israelis have been compelled to evacuate without any hope of returning to their homes in northern Israel, so long as Hezbollah occupies southern Lebanon. Hezbollah is also waging war against Lebanon itself, and has effectively taken over the country — including assassinating a Lebanese prime minister in 2005 for opposing Hezbollah.

This critical context behind Israel’s current assault on Hezbollah has been ignored or glossed over by the media, in its almost exclusive focus on the distress of Lebanese civilians being displaced from the border area near Israel and from suburbs of Beirut like Dahiya which had become a Hezbollah stronghold.

Indeed, the caretaker Lebanese governmental administration has been helpless in coping with the many thousands of civilians seeking refuge from recent Israeli strikes. Government sources have utterly failed to supply adequate shelter and supplies. But again, the media largely ignores the massive role that Nasrallah’s Hezbollah has played in crippling and destabilizing what had been the democratic state of Lebanon.

Hezbollah, an anti-democratic fundamentalist entity, has employed its private militia to intimidate both the nominal Lebanese parliamentary government and the official Lebanese army. Hezbollah has thus blatantly violated UN Security Council Resolution 1559 that called for disarmament of private militias in 2004 in order to facilitate Lebanese sovereignty.

Hezbollah has also prompted political paralysis in Lebanon’s government for over two years by vetoing (on grounds of religious identification) candidates for the head of government. Again, Nasrallah’s effort to Talibanize Lebanon has undermined and depleted Lebanon’s resources and functioning. Lebanon’s floundering, dysfunctional government stems from that usurpation of Lebanon’s sovereignty, not from Israel’s recent incursions.

Concern and relief for the hardships of Lebanon’s displaced civilians is surely warranted, just as is relief for the displaced residents of northern Israel. But the world and its news sources cannot ignore the insidious role Hezbollah has played in creating the current chaos and distress.

Norman L. Cantor is Emeritus Professor of Law at Rutgers University Law School where he taught for 35 years. He also served as visiting professor at Columbia, Seton Hall, Tel Aviv University, and Hebrew University of Jerusalem law schools. He has published five books, scores of scholarly articles in law journals, and, more recently, numerous blog length commentaries (often on Israel/U.S. relations) in outlets like The Jerusalem Post, The Times of Israel, and The Algemeiner. His personal blog is seekingfairness.wordpress.com. He lives in Tel Aviv and in Hoboken, NJ.

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