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Hizbullah Has Already Opened the Northern Front

(Wall Street Journal) Jonathan Spyer - "We see a steady escalation in terms of the range and variety of munitions being launched by Hizbullah at Israel," IDF Lt.-Col. Jonathan Conricus told foreign journalists on Dec. 18. "We can do the same, if we need to, against Hizbullah that we are doing against Hamas in the south. This may be the scenario that we will need to implement." The briefing took place at the deserted kibbutz of Rosh Hanikra. Only yards from the border with Lebanon, it once was a flourishing community of 1,400 people but was evacuated, along with 27 other communities, following Hamas' massacre on Oct. 7, obliging 86,000 people to leave their homes and become refugees in their own country. More than 1,000 Hizbullah attacks have taken place since Oct. 7 as the Shiite Islamist group maintains a controlled second front to aid Hamas. Israeli forces have killed more than 100 Hizbullah fighters since Oct. 7. Seven IDF soldiers and four Israeli civilians have been killed. Between 1985 and 2000, Israel maintained a security zone north of its border with Lebanon. Now, the zone is on the Israeli side of the border. UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which brought the 2006 war in Lebanon to an end, pledged to keep Hizbullah north of the Litani River. But Hizbullah is deployed today all the way to the border. It now seems that Israel must choose between a pre-emptive action against Hizbullah or effectively ceding the northern border area to Iran's proxies. An IDF reservist at a border outpost told me, "It's a myth that Israel might open a front in the north because there's already a front opened - opened by an organization that's part of the Lebanese government." The writer is director of research at the Middle East Forum and director of the Middle East Center for Reporting and Analysis.
2023-12-22 00:00:00
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