On Monday at around 10 p.m. local time, Israeli ground forces reportedly began crossing the border into Lebanon. Earlier that day, a reporter asked President Biden if he was informed of Israel’s plans for a ground operation in Lebanon and whether he was comfortable with them.
“I’m more aware than you might know, and I’m comfortable with them stopping,” Biden responded testily. “We should have a cease-fire. Now.”
Israelis don’t agree with Biden. They view Hezbollah, controlled and funded by Iran, as a mortal threat to the country — and believe that the only way to dismantle that threat is for Israeli forces to seize control of the Lebanese side of the border, systematically dismantle Hezbollah’s missile arsenal and destroy its ground forces.
For the past two decades, the Lebanese side of the border has been manned by United Nations troops and units from the Lebanese Armed Forces. Both were charged by the UN Security Council with dismantling Hezbollah.
But the UN forces and the Lebanese military, rather than doing the job they were charged to perform, covered for Hezbollah, which is stronger than both of them.
The UN turned a blind eye and a deaf ear as Hezbollah amassed an arsenal of 200,000 projectiles capable of laying waste to Israel and deployed an army of 40,000 terrorists to southern Lebanon.
Those forces, the Radwan Brigades, comprise veterans of Iran’s terror wars in Syria and Iraq. With the blood of tens of thousands of Syrians and Iraqis on their hands, they are trained to conduct an invasion of the Galilee that would make Hamas’ one-day Oct. 7 Holocaust in southern Israel look like a walk in the park.
Israel has one of the most sophisticated missile defense systems in the world. But it is no match for Hezbollah’s war plan.
That plan — which Hezbollah published in 2018 — entails a coordinated ground and air assault and foresees Radwan brigades conquering Israel’s border towns and cities, as thousands of rockets, missiles, mortars and drones assault them every day, for months.
The plan has the potential to destroy the Jewish state and slaughter its people.
The day after Hamas invaded Israel and brutally slaughtered 1,200 men, women, children and babies and took 256 Israelis hostage, Hezbollah joined the assault with the first of what became daily rocket and missile barrages along the northern border.
Fearing Hezbollah would carry out its promised invasion, Israel quickly evacuated 60,000 residents of the border towns from their homes.
They have lived ever since as internal refugees in hotel rooms, removed from their homes, businesses, farms and communities.
For 10 months, Hezbollah launched up to 20 projectiles at Israel every day. They killed scores of Israelis, including 10 children killed by a missile while playing soccer on a Saturday afternoon.
Hezbollah’s missiles destroyed hundreds of homes, devastating farms and livestock. They have torched forests and nature preserves, causing environmental devastation. And they targeted and hit sensitive military installations along the border.
Over the summer, Hezbollah escalated its assaults. The number of projectiles increased, reaching 50 to 120 per day. The range expanded to the lower Galilee and the Gulf of Haifa.
Clearly, Iran had decided to transform Lebanon into the new center of gravity in its multifront war against Israel after Israel successfully decimated most of Hamas’ military power and seized control over the international border between Gaza and Egypt, preventing Hamas from rebuilding its forces.
Instead of waiting to be invaded again, Israel chose to win the war.
And for the past two weeks, it has been doing just that.
Instead of discussing another cease-fire that will leave Hezbollah intact on the border and in control of Lebanon, Israel has begun to destroy the most powerful terror army in the world — an army controlled by Iran with tentacles that extend throughout Europe, North America, South America and Asia.
If Israel wins, not only will it secure its own borders and citizenry, it will secure the stability of the region and protect the entire world from the scourge of Iranian-backed Islamic terrorism.
If Israel falters, if it wobbles under US pressure and accepts a premature cease-fire, it will remain in mortal danger.
The region will be destabilized and the infrastructure of American power in the Middle East will crumble as every Arab state rushes to make deals with Iran — and with its allies, China and Russia.
It’s obvious why Israel needs to win. Its survival and the lives of its 10 million citizens are on the line.
What is hard to understand is why the Biden administration refuses to back that existential victory.