Posted on Dec 19, 2023
Why Hezbollah and Israel haven't plunged into all-out war
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https://www.npr.org/2023/12/19/ [login to see] /lebanon-hezbollah-israel-hamas-iran-war
When the war in Gaza began in early October, it also broke a 17-year stretch of relative calm across the Lebanese-Israeli border, raising fears of a second front plunging the region into a wider conflict.
In 2006, the killing and kidnapping of Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militia, sparked a 34-day war that killed more than 1,100 Lebanese and 165 Israelis, and heavily damaged Lebanon's infrastructure.
Attacks in the following years were sporadic enough that the United Nations peacekeeping force along the border believed the next step could be a permanent cease-fire.
And then came Oct 7.
When the war in Gaza began in early October, it also broke a 17-year stretch of relative calm across the Lebanese-Israeli border, raising fears of a second front plunging the region into a wider conflict.
In 2006, the killing and kidnapping of Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militia, sparked a 34-day war that killed more than 1,100 Lebanese and 165 Israelis, and heavily damaged Lebanon's infrastructure.
Attacks in the following years were sporadic enough that the United Nations peacekeeping force along the border believed the next step could be a permanent cease-fire.
And then came Oct 7.
Why Hezbollah and Israel haven't plunged into all-out war
Posted from npr.org
Israel
Palestine
Lebanon
Iran
Posted 6 mo ago
Responses: 2
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Hezbollah are preparing for it, though. They have cleared thousands of civilians away from the border, just as Israel has done. It won't take much to make this a 2 front war for Israel, and then the US will step in and we will have a major mess to deal with.
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."Israel has evacuated tens of thousands of villagers from near the border with Lebanon. Tens of thousands of Lebanese have also fled their homes.
While support for Hezbollah is strong in Lebanon, particularly in the largely Shia Muslim south, it does not enjoy universal backing across the country. Lebanon is a mosaic of ethnic and religious groups — and increasingly, citizens who place stability over personal identity. Yet the daily images of Israeli destruction and Palestinians killed in Gaza are swaying public opinion.
Palestinian women chant slogans during the observance of a global day of boycotts and strikes called for by pro-Palestinian activists to demand a ceasefire in Gaza, at Bourj al-Barajneh Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Dec. 11, 2023.
Bilal Hussein/AP
At a rally near the Martyrs' Monument in downtown Beirut on Dec. 11, a small group of women held aloft Palestinian flags in solidarity with a global strike called by Palestinian groups to press for a cease-fire in Gaza. The Lebanese government ordered public offices, banks and schools closed to support the call.
"We all fear war and we are all desperate, but for us now it's the genocide in Gaza that needs to stop," said Dania Dandashli, a psychologist. "We are concerned about the escalation in Lebanon, but if this is going to turn into a regional war, I'm thinking, let it be."
..."Israel has evacuated tens of thousands of villagers from near the border with Lebanon. Tens of thousands of Lebanese have also fled their homes.
While support for Hezbollah is strong in Lebanon, particularly in the largely Shia Muslim south, it does not enjoy universal backing across the country. Lebanon is a mosaic of ethnic and religious groups — and increasingly, citizens who place stability over personal identity. Yet the daily images of Israeli destruction and Palestinians killed in Gaza are swaying public opinion.
Palestinian women chant slogans during the observance of a global day of boycotts and strikes called for by pro-Palestinian activists to demand a ceasefire in Gaza, at Bourj al-Barajneh Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Dec. 11, 2023.
Bilal Hussein/AP
At a rally near the Martyrs' Monument in downtown Beirut on Dec. 11, a small group of women held aloft Palestinian flags in solidarity with a global strike called by Palestinian groups to press for a cease-fire in Gaza. The Lebanese government ordered public offices, banks and schools closed to support the call.
"We all fear war and we are all desperate, but for us now it's the genocide in Gaza that needs to stop," said Dania Dandashli, a psychologist. "We are concerned about the escalation in Lebanon, but if this is going to turn into a regional war, I'm thinking, let it be."
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