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Could Northern Arrows liberate Lebanon from Hezbollah?

Could Northern Arrows liberate Lebanon from Hezbollah?

To our Lebanese neighbors: Israeli troops have finally entered southern Lebanon after some 12,500 projectiles – rockets, rockets and drones – were fired from your country at the Jewish state since last October. Some 60,000 Israelis from the north were displaced and dozens killed, including 12 Druze children who were playing soccer on a Saturday afternoon.

That raid followed a two-week campaign to humiliate Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed terrorist organization that has ruined your state and made your life hell. Let me be clear: the Israelis are fighting extremely cautiously. We have tried to avoid this conflagration for 18 years – and we have nothing against the Lebanese people. But ask yourself: What would you do if you were us?

In this spirit of friendship, as a historian, I propose to rename the disputes in northern Israel. The IDF codenamed the 1982 war “Operation Peace for Galilee.” it became known as “The Lebanon War.” This made the 2006 operation the “Second Lebanon War” and this, unfortunately, the “Third Lebanon War.”

Instead, the 1982 conflict should be called “The War with the PLO State within the State” or simply “The PLO War” to be catchy. The 2006 conflict was supposed to be the “First Hezbollah War,” which Hezbollah began with the murder of three Israeli soldiers and the kidnapping of two reservists. This makes this conflict the “Second Hezbollah War” or more specifically the “First Iranian War”.

Technically, these were “military operations” because war means a violent conflict between two states. That explains our sympathy for you. In 1982, the Palestine Liberation Organization dominated southern Lebanon, brutalizing it and undermining Lebanese stability. I don’t need to tell you how many Lebanese suffered when the Palestinians took over and devastated parts of their homeland. Subsequently, Hezbollah’s cancer spread so deeply into your country that Lebanese sovereignty became a joke.

Smoke rises over Nabatea amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, seen from Marjayoun, near the border with Israel, September 25, 2024. (Credit: REUTERS/KARAMALLAH DAHER)

“We are not at war with you.” “We are at war with Hezbollah”

This is why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu keeps telling the Lebanese people, as he said at the UN, “We are not at war with you.” We are at war with Hezbollah, which has hijacked your country and threatens to destroy ours .” And that is why I hope that in the event of a decisive Israeli victory, the international community will support you courageously and creatively and empower new Lebanese leaders to restore your country’s sovereignty, dignity and prosperity.

Here the international community can finally justify itself. Instead of shouting “ceasefire, ceasefire” every time Israel defends itself, the French and Americans should use their close ties to Lebanon to root out the terrorists and gangsters who are draining your country. With moral clarity and courage around the world, most Lebanese may soon thank us for freeing them from Hezbollah’s grasp.

This breakthrough in Beirut could also be the formula for a turnaround in Tehran. Israel is ready to attack Iran. Although as an American historian I believe that America should take the initiative to show “not to mess with America or its allies,” perhaps America and the world can effectively follow suit.

The mullahs know they are weak. Since the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988, they have expanded their influence through proxies while trying to keep conflict away from Iranian soil. If Israel humiliates them, the international community should encourage internal Iranian dissidents to try to overthrow the regime from within.

Admittedly, although I hoped for peace everywhere, I could not write a similar letter to my Palestinian neighbors – and neither could most Israelis. We know that on October 7, hundreds of Gazans also went on the rampage, following the better-trained Hamas terrorists, including Palestinians who had worked in the kibbutzim they had looted.

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We have long observed Palestinians happily handing out sweets as Palestinian terrorists murder Israeli children, women and men. We read the polls showing the high percentage of Palestinians in Gaza, the disputed territories and worldwide who support the sadism of October 7th. And we hear the bloodcurdling cry of the Palestinians justifying the mass murder of Jews on campuses in the inner city districts: “Globalize the Intifada!” and “From the river to the sea!”

Like your parents and grandparents, older Israelis once called Lebanon “the Switzerland of the Middle East” and Beirut “the Paris of the Middle East.” Lebanon never played a major role in Israeli demonology. In the mid-1970s, most would have bet that Israel would make peace with Lebanon long before it made peace with Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco – or negotiated with Saudi Arabia.

Tragically, first the PLO and then Hezbollah destroyed your country. Even after the Second Lebanon War, er, the First Hezbollah War, Hezbollah treated the international community with as much contempt as it did the Lebanese people. In 2006, a UN Security Council resolution called for Hezbollah to withdraw its troops from the Israeli border. Instead, these terrorists spent 18 years fortifying their fortifications along the border – and in tunnels below – amassing over 150,000 rockets, all purchased to kill Israelis.

In the American television series “The Sopranos,” Tony Soprano, a crime boss, causes an old friend, Davey, who owns a thriving sports store, to accumulate serious gambling debts. Gangsters quickly raid Davey’s store, stealing what they can and using this once-legitimate business as a cover for nefarious activities.

When his business goes bankrupt, Davey asks Tony, “Why did you let me do that?” Tony’s answer combines his folksiness with menace: “Well, I knew you had this business here, Davey. It’s in my nature. The Frog and the Scorpion, you know? This is how a guy like me makes a living; This is my bread and butter!”

Similarly, Hezbollah terrorists have invaded your country, hiding behind Lebanon’s legitimacy and its parliamentary system to wreak havoc. It is also in their nature. That’s why we need your help to explain to the world that the first step on our shared path to freedom from these psychopaths begins with the international community guaranteeing a comprehensive defeat of Hezbollah – and Iran. It’s definitely for us. But also for your sake.

The author, a senior scholar in Zionist thought at the Jewish People Policy Institute, is an American presidential historian. His latest book, “To Resist the Academic Intifada: Letters to My Students on Defending the Zionist Dream,” was recently published.