Daily Alert Archives

While Hizbullah and Israel Are Fighting, Is Lebanon Imploding?

(Jerusalem Center for Foreign Affairs) Col. (ret.) Dr. Jacques Neriah - In September 2024, Israel began an offensive against Hizbullah, which had been attacking Israel with rockets since Oct. 8, 2023. The IDF campaign is designed to enable the return of 80,000 Israelis who had been forced to abandon their homes. Within a few months, Israel had succeeded in decapitating Hizbullah, eliminating most of its field commanders and killing its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and his supposed successor, Hashem Nasr el Din. The restraint that Israel had shown since the end of the Second Lebanon War in 2006 was replaced by intensive bombardments throughout Lebanon and by a ground incursion that erased 29 Lebanese villages, destroyed almost 40,000 apartments, and displaced more than 1.5 million inhabitants of southern Lebanon. Some 400,000 Syrian refugees who had fled to Lebanon with the outbreak of the civil war in Syria returned to Syria. Despite the destruction, parts of the Christian and Sunni parties and most of the Shia community are still siding with Hizbullah. At the same time, Lebanon is struggling to survive as a state. As always, the Lebanese seek foreign intervention and aid to save them from themselves. There is only a slim chance that any ceasefire agreement would be honored because of the unwillingness of any Lebanese administration to fight Hizbullah. The writer, a special analyst at the Jerusalem Center, was formerly Deputy Head for Assessment of Israeli Military Intelligence.
2024-11-17 00:00:00
Full Article