While the world was mesmerized by Israel’s ingenious and audacious penetration of the communications systems of Iran’s terror proxy Hezbollah, exploding thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies, killing and injuring many terrorists, a significant event happened just hours before.
Israel’s cabinet officially added a third goal to its war efforts — the safe return of 60,000 Israeli citizens who were evacuated from their homes in Israel’s north to protect them from the unprovoked and almost daily aerial attacks initiated by Hezbollah beginning the day after the October 7 Palestinian massacre of Israelis in the south.
Over the last 11 months, the terror group has fired 8,500 rockets on northern Israel in a war of attrition designed to erode Israel’s resources and make Israeli territory uninhabitable. Civilians and soldiers have been hit by Hezbollah’s drones and rockets, while entire cities in northern Israel have been abandoned, farmland left uncultivated and children displaced from their schools.
No nation would tolerate this challenge to its sovereignty. No state can accept its citizens becoming refugees in their own country and its territory turned into a no-go zone. The U.S. would not tolerate such a situation for even a single day.
Iran-funded Hezbollah poses a far more formidable threat than Hamas in Gaza. Its arsenal of over 150,000 rockets and missiles is capable of hitting critical Israeli infrastructure including airfields, military bases and oil refineries as far south as its port of Eilat. If left unchecked, it could render large portions of the country uninhabitable.
Israel has not been passive. Its counterstrikes have killed Hezbollah fighters and destroyed munitions.
However, Hezbollah's deep entrenchment across Lebanon, with supply lines to Iran, makes it impossible for Israel to eliminate the danger to its citizens merely through limited actions along its border. Therefore, Israel's strategy has expanded, targeting Hezbollah operatives and installations across Lebanon.
While Israel initially hesitated to expand operations in the north due to its full-scale war in Gaza, Jerusalem’s campaign there has transitioned into a counter-insurgency war of attrition against the disorganized remnants of the Hamas military, with the IDF (Israeli military) needing fewer personnel and weaponry in Gaza. This is allowing Israel to focus on the north.
In a major intelligence coup on August 25, Israeli forces demolished thousands of Hezbollah's long-range guided missiles, drones and rockets aimed at central Israel, including Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion Airport, just minutes before they were to be launched.
Israeli fighter jets and helicopters flew multiple sorties into Lebanon, destroying nearly all projectiles without suffering any casualties or equipment losses. The success of this mission highlights Israel’s mastery of intelligence gathering, its ability to penetrate Hezbollah’s air defenses, pinpoint the exact location of thousands of individual rockets and drone launchers and preemptively eliminate them.
Israel also recently conducted a successful aerial and ground operation in Masyaf, Syria, where its special forces blew up an Iranian-Hezbollah weapons factory buried deep inside a mountain. Constructed similarly to Iran’s nuclear sites, this success demonstrates the IDF’s ability to destroy such fortified underground installations from the inside.
Consider the Masyaf operation together with Jerusalem’s response to Iran’s large-scale attack against Israel last April. Israel executed a limited precision strike on a radar site on a military base in Isfahan near Iran’s nuclear facilities, sending a clear message that it can penetrate Iran’s air defenses undetected at will.
Hezbollah’s arsenal has long been considered a key deterrent against Israeli attacks on Iran. Israel’s ability to weaken Hezbollah paves the way for potential strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, which pose an existential threat to the Jewish state and the free world.
Israel did not initiate hostilities with Hezbollah. For almost a year, the country has shown restraint in the face of relentless attacks. Diplomacy has failed to get Hezbollah to move forces away from the Israeli border and cease firing on Israeli civilians.
Israel must return its people to their homes whatever the costs and despite the extreme pressure not to do so from a Biden-Harris administration willing to sacrifice Israel’s national security to placate its domestic political base and Iran.
The IDF is now focused on degrading Hezbollah’s war machine capabilities across Lebanon. The potential for a regional conflict remains high, especially should Iran get involved, but Israel has demonstrated both the will and capability to confront these threats head-on.
Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi suggested that Israel has “many more capabilities” that have yet to be employed in the fight against Hezbollah. These words indicate that Israel’s military campaign is far from over.
This is a dangerous moment, but if Israel succeeds in neutralizing the threats from both Hamas and Hezbollah, the power dynamics of the entire Middle East could change, benefiting the Jewish state, America and the world.
Ziva Dahl is a senior fellow with the news and public policy group Haym Salomon Center. Ziva writes and lectures about U.S.-Israel relations, U.S. foreign policy, Israel, Zionism, Antisemitism and BDS on college campuses. Her articles have appeared in such publications as The Hill, New York Daily News, New York Observer, The Washington Times, American Spectator, American Thinker and Jerusalem Post. Read Ziva Dahl's Reports — More Here.