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Source: https://www.wsj.com/opinion/israels-buffer-zone-military-strategy-c01ba1ac?mod=opinion_lead_pos8
Israel's Buffer-Zone Military Strategy
(Wall Street Journal) Jonathan Spyer - Israel's conquest of Beaufort Castle in southern Lebanon from Hizbullah in May was one of the IDF's most complex ground operations in recent years. It involved capturing and destroying a complex system of tunnels, built on Hizbullah's behalf and at Iran's behest by North Korean engineers over the past decade. The IDF operation isn't finished. The June ceasefire between Hizbullah and Israel came with a few Hizbullah men still holed up in two tunnels outside the city of Nabatiyeh, a Hizbullah stronghold. Israel's deployment in southern Lebanon is part of a larger strategy Jerusalem has developed since the massacres of Oct. 7, 2023. It involves establishing Israeli areas of control on borders with territory held by Islamist organizations. Behind the buffer zones now established in Lebanon, Gaza and Syria is a set of ideas that observe a grim reality and provide a concrete and practical response. According to this thinking, Israel is at war against several states and state-backed organizations committed to related versions of political Islam. Where these states or their proxies rule, all diplomacy is an illusion, all politics a distraction. That is because there is no reconciling with these forces, which believe solely in their own advance and their enemies' destruction. The Sunni Islamist axis crystallizing around Turkey, Qatar and Pakistan includes the emergent Sunni Islamist regime of President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Syria. Unlike current U.S. policy, policymakers in Jerusalem look past the public-relations campaigns around the Syrian president. They see the more than 1,700 Druze slaughtered by government and pro-government forces in Syria's Sweida province in July 2025. They see veteran jihadists holding senior positions in the military Sharaa is building under Turkish tutelage. Keeping such power a safe distance from Israeli civilians underlies Israel's thinking and subsequent action. Today, small independent jihadist groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS pose little threat. What matters is state-led formations that profess loyalty to similar ideas, but are far stronger and more sophisticated. The Iran-led alliance is one formation. The emergent Turkey-led axis is another. Israel sees the rise, advance and goals of these formations and seeks barriers against them. At Beaufort, an Israeli officer said: "Being here isn't an option, it's an obligation. Between any Israeli citizen and a terrorist there needs to be a fighter of the IDF." Critics say that leads to forever wars. But as in all wars, both sides get a vote. You may not want to engage in protracted conflicts, but if your enemy seeks your destruction, you should plan and act accordingly. The writer is director of research at the Middle East Forum.