The September 17-18 bombings against Hezbollah and its means of communication—pagers and walkie-talkies previously purchased and distributed by the militia party—were logistically spectacular. Beyond any moral consideration, they demonstrate once again the power and inventiveness of the Israeli special services.
Even though — as is often the case — these attacks have not been claimed by Israel, their origin is not in doubt. The Mossad imprint is obvious, and the official denial by Israeli President Isaac Herzog on September 22, in the midst of a heavy exchange of fire on both sides of the Lebanese-Israeli border, fools no one.
By simultaneously blowing up thousands of devices in the hands of Hezbollah members, the aim was, beyond the deaths and injuries, to demoralize and even terrorize Hezbollah and its supporters… and even, beyond that, Lebanese society as a whole.
Which makes it, strictly speaking, an act of terrorism.
Philosopher Michael Walzer, author of notable works on Jewish thought and the notion of “just war,” believes in New York Times of September 21, that “these explosions are very likely war crimes — terrorist attacks carried out by a state that has a history of condemning terrorism against its own citizens.”
“War crimes” which, beyond the members of Hezbollah (not all fighters, since this militia itself designated as terrorist by Western states… also acts as a recognized political party on the Lebanese scene), injured or killed innocent bystanders, including a 9-year-old girl.
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Was this act of violent destabilization, both material and psychological warfare, designed to disrupt the enemy’s internal communications, planned as the immediate prelude to a broader attack on Lebanon?
A hypothetical attack, including a military reoccupation of southern Lebanon, which has been widely discussed in the Israeli media in recent weeks…
The possibility was raised by The Orient-The Day and other media outlets in the region. According to this version, Hezbollah agents were discovering the truth… which would have precipitated the triggering of the explosions — originally planned for a future time, to be determined.
The sequence that followed does not really confirm this hypothesis. New “selective assassinations” on September 20 in Beirut (a high-ranking Hezbollah military officer, his assistants, plus a few civilians mowed down once again by Israeli missiles, in a populated district of the capital). And for several days, the exchanges of fire have intensified; the escalation at the border is serious.
But we have not yet tipped into total war, even if the UN Secretary General expressed concern on Sunday that Lebanon could become “another Gaza”. The opening of a “second front”, Israel-Hezbollah, is a specter that has been hovering over the Middle East for almost a year in the wake of October 7.
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Talking about “Israeli terrorism” in such an episode helps to call into question the official “narrative” of Israel’s leaders on Lebanon, as well as that on Gaza.
It must be said and repeated that the accusation of “genocidal intentions” among certain Israeli leaders is not absurd – and deserves examination – when the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, affirms that “the only solution is the mass deportation of the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip”, and that the same character encourages the Jewish settlers of the West Bank to go, weapons in hand, to empty villages of their Arab inhabitants in order to occupy them afterwards.
Did you say terrorism?
But we must be able to say, at the same time, that the attack of October 7, 2023 is a historic peak of hatred and terrorism, the worst ever suffered by Israel, 800 civilians massacred (in addition to 300 or 400 soldiers) with sadism and jubilation. That the resurgence of anti-Semitism, in the West and elsewhere, is a hideous by-product of the evil sequence that followed… but which was perhaps just waiting to come out.
We must be able to say that Hamas is, yes, a terrorist organization, of fundamentalist, homophobic and misogynistic religious inspiration. An organization led by a leader, Yahya Sinwar, who, just like the “enemy brother” that Benjamin Netanyahu has perversely become de facto, has every interest, from his tunnel, in the war continuing ad infinitum.
We must be able to say that Hezbollah is a Shiite brother of this terrorist Hamas, with nuances of course. It does not want an all-out war and plays a dangerous game at the limits, while the Israeli enemy constantly tests its supposed “red lines”.
Its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, multiplies his boasting and simulated anger, but knows that he would be held jointly responsible for a new destruction of Lebanon.
It can even be said that Hezbollah has become Lebanon’s misfortune. That this party-state, this party-militia, enslaved to a foreign power – Iran – crushes the official Lebanese state and exercises a de facto hegemony, even a tyranny, over the rest of the country.
The Sunnis and Christians, who together represent a majority of Lebanese, are fed up with this confrontation and subjugation. They do not like Israel very much, and even less its bombings. They will take their blood to the victims of the exploded walkie-talkies, without asking them what their religion is.
But if the smooth-talking Nasrallah leads them into an all-out war against Israel, he will remain, in their eyes, guilty forever.
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