Once again, the Israeli failure to grasp the nature of
Hezbollah has caused a failure to grasp the predictable results in the new clash.
Any new war between Israel and
Hezbollah would raise the risk of a wider conflict in the Middle East, where Iran has defied US attempts to force it to renegotiate a 2015 nuclear deal it reached with world powers.
While some tried to trivialize the whole affair as a crisis within the Druze community, a sober analysis of the dynamics and outcome reveals a major setback for
Hezbollah and friends.
Fighters are being furloughed or assigned to the reserves, where they receive lower salaries or no pay at all, said a
Hezbollah employee with one of the group's administrative units.
In November 2018, a Paris court found Mohammad Noureddine and several of his associates guilty of drug trafficking, money laundering, and engaging in a criminal conspiracy to finance
Hezbollah. (6) The result of an international joint investigation involving seven countries, the conviction marked the first time a European court specifically found defendants guilty of conspiracy to support
Hezbollah.
While
Hezbollah continued to transform its strategy, the IDF was slow to respond.
Nearly 1,000 Lebanese civilians were killed which Israeli officials tried to blame solely on
Hezbollah. However, a detailed 249-page investigation report of the Human Rights Watch, released in September 2007, made Israel responsible for the civilian killings due to its indiscriminate airstrikes.
The administration's counter-Hezbollah campaign is an interagency effort that includes leveraging diplomatic, intelligence, financial and law enforcement tools to expose and disrupt the logistics, fundraising and operational activities of Iran, the Qods Force and the long list of Iranian proxies from Lebanese
Hezbollah to other Shia militias in Iraq and elsewhere.
The fighting began a week ago when the Lebanese army, and
Hezbollah together with the Syrian army, launched separate but simultaneous offensives against the Islamic State enclave straddling the border.
The Americans seem to be ratcheting up the pressure on
Hezbollah through law enforcement actions and vis-Ei-vis Iran.
Hezbollah had transported the craft to a safe location for inspection, according to Al Manar.
A TOP commander of Lebanon's militant
Hezbollah group has been killed in Syria.
