Hezbollah
No one denies Hezbollah’s sacrifices for Gaza except someone ungrateful.
Hezbollah eased the pressure on Gaza by engaging a large number of Israeli forces on the northern front. However, there are some observations:
• During the first 100 days, Hezbollah avoided targeting direct military objectives, focusing instead on striking lighting and surveillance poles.
I recall reporting news from Hebrew sources about two Israeli soldiers killed in a Hezbollah attack. I received a comment from someone seemingly close to the party denying the report and requesting verification, indicating that Hezbollah was avoiding human losses at that time, believing Israel would respect certain rules of engagement.
• After the assassination of Commander Fuad Shukr, Hezbollah’s response was weak.
• Hezbollah engaged forcefully when Israel changed the rules of engagement, forcing settlers of Kiryat Shmona and northern settlements to evacuate.
This continued until the pager attack, the assassinate Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and the ground invasion.
Why did Hezbollah act as a “supporting front” rather than a direct party in the war?
1. To erase the stain of its involvement in killing Syrians:
Hezbollah stood with the tyrant Bashar al-Assad against his people, a stance opposed by Sheikh Subhi al-Tufayli (Hezbollah’s first Secretary-General), who repeatedly stated that aiding an oppressor against his people is disgraceful.
2. Because Hezbollah knows that if Hamas falls, it will be the next target:
Hezbollah is aware that Israel will focus on it after dealing with Hamas.
3. Iran does not want a full-scale war:
A full-scale war would benefit the Sunni-majority populations of the region, which would disrupt Iran’s strategic plans.
Hezbollah ended its involvement by signing a disgraceful agreement that gave Israel what it wanted:
• Hezbollah’s retreats to behind the Litani River.
• Temporary presence of some Israeli forces in the south without the return of lebonese residents to selected southern towns
• Israel maintaining the exclusive right to bomb southern Lebanon whenever it wishes.
Immediately after the agreement, Sheikh Naim Qassem declared support for Bashar al-Assad, sending forces to Homs to fight Syrian revolutionaries, who crushed them. Upon their withdrawal, remaining Hezbollah forces were targeted by Israeli airstrikes on the Lebanese-Syrian border.
Had Hezbollah didn’t get involved in Syria, the pager attack would not have occurred, the security breach would not have happened, and the party would not have lost its first-line leadership or the support of many Sunnis it had gained after 2006.
Hezbollah and Iran paid the price for the full-scale war they had been avoiding by not engaging in it.