Drunk with power, Israel's 'victory' opens the gates for war without end
The media in Israel reacted to the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah with euphoria.
On Channel 12's "Meet the Press", Amit Segal and Ben Caspit raised a glass of arak to mark Nasrallah's death. Paz Robinson, Channel 13's reporter, distributed chocolates in Karmiel. Channel 13 is considered left wing.
Channel 14's flagship programme, The Patriots, opened with singing and celebration led by presenter Yinon Magal. Nadav Eyal wrote in Ynet:"[Nasrallah's] assassination is an event on a regional, historic scale."
The media’s delight was matched by politicians of left and right.
Yair Golan, leader of the Democrats Party and former head of Meretz party who was once regarded as the most leftist mainstream politician in the country, was delighted with the assassination.
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He wrote on X: "The assassination of Nasrallah is a huge and important achievement. A new era has begun in the Middle East."
A political spectrum that had become deeply polarised over the return of the hostages from Gaza has reunited over the victory Israel believes it has achieved in wiping out the leadership of Hezbollah.
Yair Lapid, leader of the opposition, wrote: "Let all our enemies know that whoever attacks Israel will die."
A new era?
Flush with success, the Israeli army published a video of the jets taking off from Hatzerim air base in the Negev desert, which included radio communications between an airforce commander and pilots.
"You’ve delivered a show of victory here, I believe," Major General Tomer Bar, commanding officer of the Israeli Air Force, can be heard saying in the clip distributed to journalists. "Well done. Immense pride." A pilot responds: "We will reach everyone, everywhere."
Nor was this enough.
Haaretz reported that the Israel military were pushing to invade southern Lebanon, quoting military sources as saying they had to seize the moment of Hezbollah’s shock and disarray following the last two week’s blows, before Iran has the chance to replenish its stocks of missiles.
Elsewhere it was reported that three army units, nearly 3000 men, had been dispatched to the West Bank.
War on three fronts, and Israel was winning each one of them, the whole country seemed to think. What a way to end a year of gloom and military setbacks in Gaza.
Israel thinks that a golden opportunity has been presented to it by an outgoing American president in Joe Biden, who is patently failing to restrain it.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has now defied Biden three times - on reoccupying Rafah, on accepting a ceasefire in Gaza with Hamas, and now on opening a new front in Lebanon.
And he has got away with it each time.
Netanyahu was expected to be on the defensive before the United Nations General Assembly last week. Not a bit of it. He blazed defiance. Netanyahu raised his middle finger to his chief armourer and ally. And Israel cheered him on.
The result of America’s refusal to cut all arms supplies to Israel has consequences: there are now no obstacles to its killing spree.
There are no boundaries.
No red lines
Israeli pilots and drone operators do not have to think about how many civilians could be killed by a missile aimed at an alleged target. The decision to assassinate has recently been delegated to regional army commanders, whose authority has been considerably expanded.
To save time, there is no referral up the chain of command. All civilians, in Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank are targets.
The taboos about killing children have disappeared. There are no boundaries or red lines in this war. Israel can starve a nation, it has used torture and rape routinely in its prisons, and it can celebrate.
There are no boundaries or red lines in this war. Israel can starve a nation, it has used torture and rape routinely in its prisons, and it can celebrate
Israel is thought to have killed 300 people in its strikes on four blocks of flats over the Hezbollah command centre, most of which would have been civilians, and the international community is mostly silent.
Drunk with power, Israel is under a profound delusion. Perhaps its biggest to date.
Decimating its leadership and senior commanders has not, and cannot kill Hezbollah itself, nor stop a new generation of fighters coming forward, who will not feel the restraints of the previous generation.
Nor can Israel guarantee who comes next. Until now, Hezbollah has not targeted civilians and was not interested in engaging in a big war with Israel.
Their attacks were designed to demonstrate Hezbollah’s military capacity, not to inflict terminal blows. Hezbollah also said their conflict would end the moment a ceasefire was agreed in Gaza.
This restraint is almost certain to disappear. Hezbollah has no choice. Its policy has been made for it. Like Hamas, like Gaza, Hezbollah is now engaged in a conflict in which its enemy not only wants to push it out of its main heartland, but to destroy it altogether.
This now has become an existential war for Hezbollah.
A huge price
What next? This is a question that Israel rarely asks itself at times like this. Nor does it learn from the history of this bitter conflict.
This long history of political assassination, designed to terrorise and to deter, has not included a single instance where decapitation has resulted in the death or retreat of a militant group. Hezbollah is duty bound to revive and strike back.
In demonstrating its power and in brandishing its sword, Israel has created a generation of youth in the Arab world who one day will seek vengeance.
All military power has limits. The only way for Israel to gain security for its people will be to go back to the negotiating table and end the occupation. Otherwise all they will have done is to open the door for war for generations to come.
Israel can turn parts of Lebanon into Gaza. It can reoccupy southern Lebanon and northern Gaza. It can destroy homes and countless lives. It can make war with the whole region. But it cannot ignore the main source of the conflict which is the Palestinian national cause.
Palestine is the issue that Israel, no matter how many wars it wages, will never be able to escape. And future generations of Israelis will pay a heavy price for the suffering their country has inflicted on Palestinians and Lebanese for decades to come.
Today Israelis are celebrated their achievements in Lebanon. But victory comes at a huge price.
Israel’s "achievement" has been to kill around 1000 Lebanese in a week, 50 of whom are children. It has normalised death and shed the last vestiges of humanity.
The images of destruction in Gaza and Lebanon will stick in the collective consciousness: Israel can only give life to its national mission by taking more and more lives of those subjected to its rule.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
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