Defeating the Iranian-Syrian axis in Lebanon

Israel's current military operations to uproot Hezbollah and to destroy it as a formidable military and terror organisation is not merely an operation against another determined terror group like Hamas in Gaza. Hezbollah has a disciplined, well-trained army with sophisticated weaponry, backed directly by Syria and Iran.

A high-level Iranian official recently emphasised to Western diplomats in London Hezbollah's importance to Iran: "Hezbollah is one of the pillars of our security strategy, and forms Iran's first line of defense against Israel." Walid Jumblatt, the Lebanese Druze leader, shares this perspective: "The war is no longer Lebanon's ... it is an Iranian war. Iran is telling the United States: you want to fight me in the Gulf and destroy my nuclear program? I will hit you at home, in Israel."

Iran's Revolutionary Guards provide the majority of Hezbollah's weaponry, financing, instruction, and strategic command and control. Hezbollah's short- and medium-range missiles are manufactured in Iran and exported to Lebanon via the Damascus International Airport. Iranian officers from the Revolutionary Guards are on the ground in Lebanon, playing active roles in supervising terror actions and training Hezbollah operatives to launch rockets against Israel.

Hezbollah is nothing less than an extension of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Iran has taken a strategic decision to activate Hezbollah terror against Israel in order to preclude the United States and its Western allies from stopping Iran's nuclear development program.

The only way to defeat an insurgency is to first isolate it from external reinforcement. Israel is seeking to cut off Hezbollah from Syria and Iran and isolate it from the rest of Lebanon. Israel must carry out its current military operation against Hezbollah until it is fully neutralised and disarmed. It would be nothing short of catastrophic for both Israel and the international community if diplomatic efforts result in Israel being forced to end its military operation prematurely.

Hezbollah has no red lines

The current war being waged against Israel by Hezbollah and its Syrian and Iranian patrons is in large part the result of Israel's long-time, hands-off policy with regard to the Lebanon-based fundamentalist terror group. Since Israel's overnight unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon in May 2000, Hezbollah built itself into a deterrent military force possessing 13,000 to 15,000 short- and medium-range missiles.

The terror organisation exploited Israel's political preference to maintain the relative quiet for the residents of its northern border communities instead of uprooting the Hezbollah terror infrastructure and risking war. As a result of Israel's skittishness to confront it, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah assessed that he could determine when to launch hostilities against Israel completely on Hezbollah's terms.

Hezbollah - the "Party of God" - has no red lines. Any strategic strike that it can execute, it will execute, limited only by its ability and the conditions permitting it to carry out an attack at any particular moment. In that regard, Hassan Nasrallah lives in his own bubble in which he judges democratic Israel the same way he judges the Lebanese or those in Hezbollah. Nasrallah recently called Israeli resolve "weaker than a spider's web".

Nasrallah's decision to kidnap two Israeli soldiers on July 12 was made partly in reaction to Hamas' kidnapping at the Israel-Gaza border of Corporal Gilad Shalit. Nasrallah said in a speech shortly after the terror attack and kidnapping of the two Israeli army reservists that he wished to negotiate an exchange for Samir Kuntar, a Lebanese terrorist, and other "prisoners and detainees held by Israel". Israeli intelligence assessed that Nasrallah meant he would also negotiate for Palestinians as well, and thereby assume a leading role on the Palestinian issue as well, even ahead of Hamas.

Israel's response

According to Israeli intelligence assessments, Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran were taken by surprise by the sheer magnitude and intensity of Israel's response to the missile attacks and kidnapping. Nasrallah did not understand what causes a democratic country to act harshly when its red lines are crossed and its citizens are threatened, as Israelis are today. Nasrallah never thought that as a result of kidnapping two soldiers, Israel would launch such a far-reaching counter-offensive. He failed to understand that Israel has gone to war because Hezbollah has launched a strategic attack against it, and that Israel views the kidnappings as part of a much greater threat.

Israel's current military operations to uproot Hezbollah and to destroy it as a formidable military and terror organisation is not merely an operation against another determined terror group like Hamas in Gaza. Hezbollah has a disciplined, well-trained army with sophisticated weaponry, backed directly by Syria and Iran.

Iran's role

According to a May 11, 2006, Asharq Al-Awsat report, a high-level Iranian official, who held a closed meeting with a small group of Western diplomats in London, emphasised Hezbollah's importance to Iran: "Hezbollah is one of the pillars of our security strategy, and forms Iran's first line of defense against Israel. We reject [the claim] that it must be disarmed."