While Israel’s performance against Hezbollah in the past week has been amazing, the only solution to the problems the country is facing is to deal directly with Iran.
There is a story told in the Talmud of the passing of a great rabbinical sage. His many students tore their garments at the passing of their teacher. After the burial, the students sat to eat near a river. Naturally, they began to discuss Torah subjects. At one point, they reached a sticking point regarding the ruling in Jewish law on a certain topic. No matter how hard they tried to come to a resolution, they could not. Then, one mentioned that if their late teacher had still been alive, he would have solved their problem in a jiffy. The rabbis tore their clothes again at the realization of losing their teacher and guide.
Maybe we should rend our garments because we lack Eisenhower, Napoleon, MacArthur, Grant, or Washington. Israel had an amazing week last week against its implacable foe, Hezbollah. The exploding beepers and walkie-talkies killed minimally dozens and seriously wounded thousands. AOC and Hezbollah honcho Hassan Nasrallah bellyached that not all of the devices were necessarily in the hands or on the bodies of the terrorists. Maybe their kids were playing with it when it went boom. A recent report claims that Israel detonated each device individually and was aware if the owner was alone or with other people. Never have so many combatants been killed and seriously wounded, with so few civilians harmed in a modern urban battleground. The thinking was out of the box and out of the stratosphere. The beauty is that it was Nasrallah’s idea to move backward to beepers as he felt cell phones were too easily hacked and tracked. He has nobody to hang in downtown Beirut for being the guy who suggested beepers for the terror group. And then Israel blew up a meeting of the top Radwan commanders in Beirut, killing 16 terrorists. Since then, Israel has been pummeling Hezbollah positions on the ground, including many ready-to-fire rocket launchers. Even so, these actions will not be enough to destroy Hezbollah.
Hezbollah is facing challenges with its leadership and its methods of communication. During the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Syrians and Egyptians were communicating via landlines that Israel could not penetrate. So, a Mossad agent was sent to blow up a military cable running off the coast of Beirut. When he arrived at the spot, there were two cables, and he could not figure out which one was right. So he pushed them close together and wrapped the explosives around both. After the detonation, the Arab generals had to use radio communications that the Israelis could intercept. Also, the Lebanese lost their telephone cable for calls to Europe.
Hezbollah would very much want Israel to enter the country on the ground. They have tunnels that are far more sophisticated than those of Hamas. Also, they have a home-field advantage. Even if Israel could push Hezbollah above the Litani River, the terrorists could fire over the buffer zone and into northern Israel. They would also terrorize the soldiers in the buffer zone as they did before Israel ditched southern Lebanon under Ehud Barak. No matter how hard Israel hits Hezbollah, they can’t make it go away to the point where over 100,000 residents of the north of the country would willingly and safely return home. If Hezbollah decides to stop firing on its own, Israel will be pressured to lay off to make for “quiet.” The terror group would be given years to replenish its leadership and weapons stocks at that time.
If Napoleon were around, he might suggest to Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu that he needs to be like JFK. The turning point in the Cuban Missile Crisis came when the young president gave a nationally televised speech from the White House: any attack from Cuba would be treated as a direct attack from the USSR, with a full retaliatory response against it. Kruschev got the missiles out, and Castro, two decades later, was still furious that he removed the weapons without even consulting the Cuban dictator. Why hasn’t Iran sent a volley of projectiles against Israel for the killing of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran? They understand that the possible Israeli response would destroy their oil sector, their military, and their nuclear facilities. Israel has to announce that any attack from Hezbollah or the Houthis starting this Wednesday will be considered a direct attack by Tehran, and Israel’s response will be against the Islamic Republic. There can be no quieting of Hezbollah or the Houthis without Tehran being taken out of the equation. It is a unique time when these terror organizations have only one supplier: Iran. In the past, many Arab potentates would have also been providing weapons, but times have changed. If Israel can incapacitate Iran and/or help its people get rid of its dictatorial leadership, then the client terror groups will be left high and dry. However much Ireland and other European states hate Israel, they will keep their hatred to the UN and not provide weapons in the place of the mullahs.
And while we are bringing back dead generals, I would imagine that Ike would ask Bibi why he is feeding his enemies in Gaza. Eisenhower was a genius of logistics and for this reason was catapulted over dozens of other high-ranking officers to be given the command of the landings in Normandy. Israel is still feeding the Gaza Strip, and as Abu Ali Express has pointed out on Telegram, Hamas’ grabbing of the aid trucks is one of the most potent levers of power that they hold over Gazans. Even with most of their leaders killed, the Egyptian border cut off, and much of the Strip looking like a set from Death Wish, Hamas is still firmly in control Stop the aid and let an internal revolt end Hamas from within. If the West gets fussy about no food going into Gaza, then Israel must demand release of abductees for food trucks: one hostage a day for continued flow of food.
Nasrallah’s move to low-tech has precedence in the region. In 2007, Israel saw satellite images of a Syrian nuclear reactor approaching completion. They were in shock as they knew nothing about the program. With Ehud Olmert wanting to bomb the site, George W. Bush demanded evidence. Israeli commandos took samples of earth from around the building, and it contained low levels of radioactive elements. Israel bombed the site, and one knew that it had hit pay dirt when the first country to denounce the attack was North Korea: they were the ones building the reactor based on their own designs. The Israelis missed the program because Bashar Assad decreed that all communication on the program be on paper and with trusted delivery people. There were no electronic communications on the subject. Hamas did something similar when they broadcast to channels that they knew that the Israelis monitored, that life was wonderful in the Strip, and that there was no need for any violence against Israel. And on 10/7, Israel paid the price for believing them.
Israel will have to deal with Iran if it wants to quiet the multiple fronts of Lebanon, Yemen, Gaza, and even Iraq. When the sugar daddy can no longer supply money and weapons, then Israel can destroy these groups for good.