Israel vs Hezbollah
IN her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention last week, US presidential candidate Kamala Harris vowed to always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself. This right, abused to the hilt time and again by Israel, has brought West Asia to the brink of a regional war beyond Gaza. The Israeli military has carried out ‘pre-emptive’ strikes against what it said were ‘terror targets in Lebanon’ after claiming that Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah was preparing to fire missiles and rockets toward Israeli territory. Hezbollah has rejected the allegations but has responded with retaliatory strikes. Israel has brought it upon itself after it killed senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in an airstrike in the Lebanese capital Beirut last month.
Tel Aviv is also being blamed for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, even as Iran has renewed its threat to launch a retaliation. Unfortunately, Israel’s persistent belligerence, bordering on recklessness, is not getting the international flak it deserves. The United Nations has merely warned against ‘escalatory action’, describing the barrage of attacks as ‘worrying’. In the US, former President Donald Trump has confined his potshots to ‘Sleepy Joe’ while warning that World War III is not too far away. The Biden administration has certainly not helped matters by letting Israel get away with one provocative move after another.
Israel’s actions have put a question mark on the efforts to resume talks aimed at wrapping up a hostage release and truce deal in Gaza. Lebanon, which had managed to hold its own in a month-long war with Israel in 2006, will find the going tougher this time in view of its prolonged political and economic crises. Israel, which fears there is an enemy behind every tree and beneath every rock, must be made to see reason as its military overzealousness is a threat to global security and stability. But the all-important questions is: Who will bell the cat?
