Israel has to destroy Hamas and Hezbollah

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

by Patrick Cooper

Had Hezbollah attacked Galilee in northern Israel whilst Hamas terrorists were raping and murdering civilians on October 7, the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) would have been hard-pressed to prevent a far greater massacre. 

Patrick Cooper 

The threat from an American carrier force arriving off the coast dissuaded the Iranian proxy from invading. They were content to resume their missile campaign against the kibbutzim and remote military installations. The Israeli government had time to call up their reserves and commence the offensive in Gaza.

At the conclusion of the Israeli-Hezbollah war in 2006, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice saw fit to build up the strength of the Lebanon Armed Forces (LAF) and intelligence service, the Internal Security Force, in the deluded belief they would be able to control Hezbollah and force it to withdraw from the border. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nazralah, has not only the LAF but the government, parliament and Supreme Court in the palm of his hand. Hezbollah never withdrew from the Lebanese border with Israel, despite the UN’s Resolution 1701 which Israel had been forced to accept.

Obama built on this policy by positing the theory that instability in the Middle East arose from the superior strength of Israel and the Sunnis. In rebranding Iran and its proxies, the Muslim Brotherhood and Hezbollah, as “rational” and “pragmatic”, he believed that the US could reach deals with them. His CIA chief, John Brennan, insisted that Hezbollah had moved on from being a purely terrorist organisation. The JCPOA nuclear deal with Iran was merely an extension of this point of view.

Antony Blinken’s recent diplomatic tour around the Middle East was a continuation of America’s policy of weakening Israel’s position and strengthening that of Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah. He wants Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, to accept a deal in which Israel would give up sovereign territory on its northern border with Lebanon to Hezbollah in return for the latter’s agreement to withdraw from that border. The only force that could ensure Hezbollah complies is the IDF, which America will not countenance.

Blinken is continuing to push the “two-state solution” to the current war in Gaza, in which he sees a moral equivalence between the suffering of the hostages and the Palestinian people. Israel has to ensure humanitarian supplies reach the Palestinians, who must be allowed to return to their homes in northern Gaza as soon as possible. Ultimately, Blinken sees the Palestinian Authority (Fatah) resuming its leadership of the territory.

During his visit to Israel, Blinken consulted with Minister Benny Gantz, leader of the leftist opposition party, who had agreed to form an emergency unity government with Netanyahu following Hamas’s massacre of Jewish civilians on October 7. If Netanyahu accepts Blinken’s deal, this will be unacceptable to his nationalist Religious Zionist partners on the right who will exit the coalition. Gantz is making noises about leaving too.

Blinken’s ultimate aim is to topple Netanyahu’s government. This would weaken Israel and empower the totalitarian dictatorship that is Iran and its proxies, Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Israel must plough its own furrow and destroy both Hamas and, ultimately, Hezbollah once and for all. Israel is an independent nation and the only democracy in the region. It has the strength and the armed forces to achieve this.