The imperialist force is trapped in a Pandora’s Box of its own choice. The tantrums of a decaying empire highlight that it’s caught between the devil of its own making and a deep sea, the Strait of Hormuz, the trap of its enemy- fully aware of the consequences yet unguarded because of its false vanity and hubris. Cassandra spoke on time but there but the narcissist cared less. Now there is no off ramp, no easy escape from Keres hovering over its head.
In the meanwhile, the dog’s tail is wagging freely. After raising Gaza to the ground it has moved to Lebanon, a land of milk and honey- this is what it means in Arabic- which has been turned into a land of blood and tears. And this time the devil is neither citing scripture to justify its aggression nor the cold-blooded murders.
Operation Eternal Darkness, led by the dark forces, began on April 8th without any warning. In ten minutes the Israel Air Force struck 1,00 times, massacring more than 3,00 civilians, including children and wounding over 1,000. For the oppressed of the world the Day of Judgment has no fixed date, it can happen at any moment.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and by destroying twenty-one Israeli Merkava tanks in 48 hours insouthern Lebanon, the resistance gave an iron-clad proof.
Israel, no different from its mentor, the US, doesn’t give a hoot about peace talks-ceasefire or otherwise. For the countries of the global south, the rules- based order was always disorderly. Nevertheless, the Palestinian genocide has exposed the myth completely. The king is nude and takes orgasmic pleasure in his nudity. This is the irrevocable rule, if there ever was any.
The ceasefire agreement of November 17, 2024 between Lebanon and Israel was a one-dimensional truce, violated by the latter at will. Israel continues to pound southern Lebanon while the Western media remains complacent about frequent violations. The Gaza-like obliteration of villages in southern Lebanon, driving one million people- a fifth of the Lebanese population- from their homes, has become a statistic. In its desperation to control the southern Lebanon up to the Litani River especially the Hula Valley- the area close to its northern border-comprising highly cultivable land, rich in water resources, Israeli guillotine continues to decapitate humanity. The only force standing in the way is Hezbollah, which gave Israel a bitter taste of its medicine by inflicting a disgraceful defeat, in 2006.
French colonialism departed in 1942, leaving few material conditions for Lebanon to become a ‘national’ state in the modern sense. The ruling class failed to establish hegemony over its people, its territory, or its borders for two reasons.”. Firstly, it was a part of Syria, and was forcefully excised from it. Secondly, the concept of Lebensraum, woven into the nature of a settler-colonial state that sought to occupy Lebanon, led to repeated invasions, and the aggression kept it destabilized. The French desire to convert it into a Christian-dominated country failed. The unwritten power-sharing National Pact of 1943 gave Muslims and Christians equal political power in the state affairs. In reality, Muslims had nominal power, which culminated into various sectarian clashes between the two.
In 1982, the Christian Phalangists, backed by the Israeli regime committed the massacre of Palestinians at Sabra and Shatila. Later in the same year, Israel reoccupied the indirectly occupied Lebanon, extending the occupation to Beirut, the Chouf Mountains and the South Lebanon. The night of oppression started in 1978 and continued for 22 years until Hezbollah defeated the Zionist entity and forced it to retreat within its borders.
The defeat in 2006 was ignominious. Finkelstein writes that the Israeli Air-Force which once destroyed the entire Air Force [of opponents?] was not only failed to stop Hezbollah’s rockets but also couldn’t stop its rapid recovery. “Israeli ground forces were badly shaken and bogged down by a well-equipped and capable foe.”
“Israeli deployed 30,000 troops against 2,000 regular Hezbollah fighters and 4,000 irregular Hezbollah and non-Hezbollah fighters, he writes. “the vast majority of the fighters” with whom Israeli troops fought with “were not . . . regular Hezbollah fighters and in some cases were not even members of Hezbollah,” and “many of Hezbollah’s best and most skilled fighters never saw action, ing in wait along the Litani River with the expectation that the IDF assault would be much deeper and arrive much faster than it did. Israel fired 162,000 weapons whereas Hezbollah fired 5,000 weapons -4,000 rockets and projectiles at Israel and 1,000 antitank missiles inside Lebanon.
For Israel, it was a decisive defeat on the political front as well. In a rare change of fortune instead of flouting, Israel supported the UN ceasefire resolution to avoid further humiliation. By liberating Lebanon, Hezbollah became the only liberation movement in the history that liberated a country without taking the control of the Lebanese state.
After its terrorist pager attacks-a vicious crime against humanity- on the people of Lebanon, especially on the members of Hezbollah, widely celebrated by Israel, its western allies and media, the demise of the resistance movement was hastily announced. The killing of Hassan Nasrullah, a blow to the resistance, was the icing on the cake for the Israeli regime. For the US-Israeli nexus the ceasefire of November 2024, apparently sealed the fate of Hezbollah. It went into hibernation.
During US aggression against Iran, Hezbollah stepped out of its hibernation and unleashed several lethal blows on Israel, leaving it in shock and awe. No one -not even its sympathisers and they are many- expected this resurgence from the resistance. For Hezbollah it wasn’t a mere response to aggression but a statement, that resistance never dies; it lives to strike another day.
What was thought to be a cakewalk in Lebanon for Israel became a nightmare. It was greeted with FPVs drones, the kind used in the Ukraine war. Anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs) were the next. Laith Marouf, a Palestinian- Syrian journalist, claims that Hezbollah is considered to be one of the most skilled military forces in the world in the use of ATGMs. Even the Russian military, which developed these weapons, has acknowledged Hezbollah fighters’ proficiency in this area.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and by destroying twenty-one Israeli Merkava tanks in 48 hours in
southern Lebanon, the resistance gave an iron-clad proof. “The bulk of Israeli armour losses occurred in a single engagement between the towns of Taybeh and Qantara, the most extreme losses Israeli armour has suffered in over 40 years”(Force Index,2026). “These tanks are considered as one of the best tanks on the earth” (Isaac Seitz, 2025) “due to their unique front-engine design for crew survivability and its advanced Trophy Active Protection System”.
Hezbollah engages Israelis in rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) combats, and during the last 40 days of war, its fighters have destroyed nearly 200 Merkava tanks, armoured vehicles and Israeli jeeps. To accomplish these missions Hezbollah has deployed its special forces Radwan- the one used in Syria for the counterinsurgency operations- which were never employed against Israel before. One can understand the angst Israel is feeling and its desperation to unarm Hezbollah. The Lebanon army is lightly armed and can neither defend the country nor capable of disarming Hezbollah, hence can be easily overwhelmed by the Israelis. Yet Israel wants to create a rift between the two armed forces to trigger a civil war in Lebanon.
South Lebanon’s topography is helpful for the resistance. Unlike Gaza it has a large territory with mountains and ridges. The Israelis need specific paths, familiar to the fighters, to attack the resistance; hence they become easy prey to the guerrilla warfare tactics, booby traps and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The fighters appear like ghosts, kill and destroy, before vanishing into the mountains.
The incumbent Lebanese premier, Nawaf Salam, has been imported directly from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague. His singular task is to stifle the resistance by disarming Hezbollah both in the parliament and the battlefield. As Pepe Escobar wonders “while Israel’s carpet bombing devastates Beirut and southern Lebanon, instead of focusing on clear diplomatic response, his focus is singular: banning Hezbollah’s military activities and restricting it to politics. This raises a stark question: is the PM disarming Lebanon’s only real military deterrent-while the aggressor is at the gate?
Nawaf doesn’t have an enviable past. The East German embassy in Beirut claimed that he had been recruited by Mossad in 1979. His grandfather Salim Salam allegedly acted as a Zionist agent and sold parts of the Hula Valley – present day Kiryat Shmona- to them.
Israel’s Dahiya doctrine of flattening Lebanon is in process but not the fulfilment of its nefarious design of occupying Lebanon to build Greater Israel. It’s no more than a spider’s web. Hassan Nasrullah knew it as he knew the back of his hand.
The writer is an Australian-based academic and has authored books on socialism and history. His Latest Work: “God’s Republic Making & Unmaking of Israel & Pakistan” is available in Pakistan and on Amazon.com. He can be reached at [email protected]