Caroline Glick
The likelihood that Hezbollah will start a major war against Israel increased significantly in the wake of its Aug. 6 missile attack.
Hezbollah attacked Israel with 20 missiles because the outcome of Hamas’s offensive against the Jewish state in May convinced Iran’s foreign legion in Lebanon that it would only gain from aggression.
And it worked. All Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah needed were 19 measly missiles to hit the jackpot.
On Tuesday, the Lebanese media reported that the Biden administration intends to transfer $100 million in aid to the Lebanese Health Ministry for assistance in managing the COVID-19 pandemic. Notably, although unsaid in the report, was the fact that Hezbollah has controlled Lebanon’s Health Ministry since 2019.
As to Israel, not only did it barely respond to Hezbollah’s wanton aggression, it joined the United States in loudly advocating on behalf of economic assistance to Iran’s Hezbollah-run colony. In a tour of the border zone with Lebanon, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz restated his desire to give money to Hezbollah’s satrapy to keep the country from collapsing.
The U.S. and Israeli responses to Hezbollah’s aggression taught the terror army important—and dangerous—lessons about how it should advance its interests going forward.
As far as the Biden administration is concerned, Nasrallah learned the U.S. policy of appeasing Iran extends to its proxies, as well. To win over the ayatollahs in Iran, U.S. President Joe Biden and his advisers now believe it is the responsibility of the United States to protect Hezbollah (and Hamas) from Israel. It wasn’t coincidence that stood behind the administration’s decision to tell Arab media outlets that Israel’s decision to give Hezbollah a pass for its aggression was spurred by U.S. pressure.
The administration wanted to send a message to Hezbollah and Iran that Washington has their back. And they wanted to make sure that the Lebanese people and the Sunni Arab states threatened by Iran also understood that the Biden administration now sides with Iran’s terror proxies against Israel and other U.S. allies.
Underscoring the administration’s refusal to consider any policy other than appeasement towards Iran, Bloomberg reported last week that the administration is coming to terms with the fact that Iran will not agree to return to the 2015 nuclear deal. That deal requires Iran to temporarily scale down some of its nuclear operations in exchange for massive economic support and reintegration into the international economy.
In selecting the mass-murdering terrorist Ebrahim Raisi to serve as president, the regime has demonstrated irrefutably that it will not respond cooperatively to U.S. efforts.
This brings us to Israel. According to the Arab media reports, the U.S. demanded that Israel not respond to Hezbollah’s aggression out of a fear that significant Israeli retaliation would make Iran even more unwilling to reinstate its pointless negotiations with the Americans. Israel’s decision to accede to Washington’s pressure showed Nasrallah Israel will take no action to defend itself against Iran or its proxies without U.S. permission.
True, the government denied the report that it stood down due to U.S. pressure. But the Arab media reasonably dismissed the denial. To date, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and his senior partner Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, along with Gantz, have toed the U.S. line on every major effort. They have committed to a “no surprises” policy on Iran that gives Washington veto power over all Israeli actions against Iranian aggression and nuclear operations.
Bennett has also aligned himself with the United States on Hamas and more broadly on the Palestinian Authority. He supports “humanitarian aid” to Gaza. And according to Arab Affairs expert Yoni Ben Menahem, Bennett has even agreed to provide budgetary assistance to the Palestinian Authority and pave the way for a renewal of massive U.S. assistance to the PA despite the fact that the PA continues to pay the salaries of terrorists serving time in Israeli prisons, as well as the families of Palestinian terrorists.
The government has bowed to U.S. and European Union pressure and permitted mass building for Palestinians in the strategically vital Area C of Judea and Samaria, and is significantly constraining Israeli construction in Judea and Samaria communities.
Bennett is even falling into line with the administration on Jerusalem. He supports a “compromise” offered by the Supreme Court on the Shimon HaTzadik/Sheikh Jarrah lawsuit. The lawsuit surrounds the efforts by Jewish owners of buildings in the neighborhood, illegally occupied by Palestinian squatters, to secure physical control over their property.
Siding with the squatters, the Biden administration and the European Union demand that the property rights of the Jews be seized and transferred to the illegal squatters simply because the owners are Jews.
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