Israel takes the war to its enemies

Last month, astonishing reports appeared in the media of thousands of Hezbollah soldiers being blown up by their own communications devices. Although Israel, following its usual policy, did not take responsibility for the attack, most observers immediately assumed it to be a cyberattack by Israeli intelligence. Frankly, there was never any doubt about who did it. When the dust settled, there were reports of dozens dead and thousands wounded, including hundreds in critical condition. Hospitals were overwhelmed, and it is safe to say the entire terrorist organization was in shock.

This event signals a new aggressiveness in the Israeli approach to Hezbollah. Combined with the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Iran, and the killing of numerous high-ranking Hezbollah members, this event represents a new approach on Israel’s part. Gone is the old policy of a low-key, tit-for-tat response to terrorist attacks. An element of unpredictability has been inserted into the equation.

Former Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman recently tweeted out six principles for a new defense doctrine: “1. End containment policy. Forceful response to any violation or attack, regardless of how small. 2. Every conflict must end with [a] clear Israeli victory, no question who won or lost. 3. Immediately shift the fighting to enemy territory in any future conflict. 4. [Israel Defense Forces] will not passively allow any terror group to build up military power. 5. Favor preemptive strikes any time a potential conflict emerges. 6. Israel must always ensure munition stockpiles for 45 consecutive days of fighting, even in case of multi-front war.”

What Lieberman is proposing is a shift in policy from not losing to decisively winning and from responding to whatever they do to preemptive strikes that keep them from doing it. Since the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the Biden administration has tried to hold Israel back and avoid a wider war with its weak appeasement policy. But appeasement only emboldens the enemy, and so the war has devolved into one of attrition controlled by Israel’s enemies.

Hezbollah has been firing rockets and drones into populated areas of northern Israel since Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with Hamas. On July 27, a rocket attack on the village of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights killed 12 Druze children. More than 60,000 Israelis have become internal refugees after being forced out of their homes in the north of the country near the Lebanese border by Hezbollah rocket attacks.

With last month’s cyberattack using pagers, Israel appears to have turned the tables and struck a powerful psychological blow against Hezbollah and Iran. Hezbollah operatives had been warned not to use their cell phones for fear of Israelis tracking and targeting them. They switched to pagers, and then they blew up. They switched to two-way radios, and then those blew up. They resorted to an in-person meeting and the IDF bombed the bunker in which they met. Hezbollah is now in disarray and losing leadership at an alarming rate.

Israel has excellent intelligence on Hezbollah’s leaders and their movements, and can, apparently, eliminate key personnel almost at will. This was demonstrated graphically when, in late July, Israel eliminated Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh right under the nose of the Iranians in Tehran and took out Hezbollah’s second in command, Fuad Shukr, in Beruit, as well.

Wars end when one side begins to despair of gaining more by continuing than by surrendering. Only when one side loses the will to fight is there a chance of a sustainable peace emerging out of the conflict. As long as Iran and its proxy groups believe that success is just around the corner and all they have to do is hang in a bit longer, war will continue and any cease-fire will just be a chance for the aggressors to rearm and prepare to fight again.

On Sept. 16, the Israeli war Cabinet added regaining security for the citizens of Israel in the north as an official goal, which likely means an invasion of Lebanon is increasingly likely. But Israel has already taken a big step toward peace by inflicting a heavy psychological blow on Hezbollah.

What negotiations, concessions, and tolerance cannot achieve, a powerful and decisive blow to the military capabilities of the enemy might well achieve. Many Hezbollah soldiers must be lying in hospital beds wondering why Hassan Nasrallah has let this low-intensity, pointless war drag on for nearly a year. What has Hezbollah achieved? Seeds of doubt must be planted in the minds of the terrorists that they can ever hope to attain the great victories they talk about with such certainty. Only when Israel’s enemies lose the ability to believe in final victory will peace have a chance.