Israel attacks Hezbollah: hundreds of victims in Lebanon
Israel has intensified its attacks against Hezbollah: According to Lebanese government authorities, around 500 people were killed in southern and eastern Lebanon on Monday, including many civilians. Israel said it had attacked 1,300 Hezbollah targets in its "Northern Arrows" military operation, and announced further attacks. The media examine various aspects of the conflict.
Neither side has a proper strategy
Israel and Lebanon are both at a dead end, observes columnist Pierre Haski in France Inter:
“None of the actors in this dangerous confrontation has a real strategy. Hezbollah is playing its role as Iran’s spearhead in the Middle East — which requires a military posture rather than diplomacy. But a posture is not a strategy. For its part, the Israeli government doesn’t want to give in to US pressure to agree to a ceasefire in Gaza. ... Israel captured the whole world’s attention with its adventure-movie-like operation ‘explosive pagers’ but is having problems demonstrating that its security would somehow be strengthened by another war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. So this is a total impasse.”
Israel is provoking the next war
Público calls on the international community to stand up to Israel:
“It’s almost absurd to place Israel on the side of terrorism knowing how often Israelis have been the target of this perverse combination of violence and fanaticism that is blind to innocent victims. But both here [in Lebanon] and in Gaza, the Israeli authorities have displayed a cruelty that testifies to the absence of a moral compass. ... It is Israel that is doing everything it can to provoke a new war in Lebanon and rule out any possibility of a negotiated solution. ... The international community must not ally itself with those who systematically violate its laws and prefer to wage war to resolve conflicts.”
Legitimate, but unwise
Der Standard questions the rationale behind Israel’s military strikes against Hezbollah:
“The dilemma facing every Israeli government is that even after a ground offensive — and there have been many — Hezbollah will never be so weak that it cannot re-emerge as a threat. Just the opposite is the case: it was Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon that paved the way for its rise. This time too, Israel’s actions may be legitimate, but they are not necessarily wise.”
Fighting for credibility
The pager attacks have left Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in particular in a very difficult position, says Dagens Nyheter:
“Hezbollah controls Lebanon. It has turned its weapons on Lebanese opponents when necessary. But it avoids internal violence at all costs and exercises its power through its political alliances, mainly through various Christian and Druze groups. Hezbollah has justified the presence of its armed forces by claiming that it is defending the country against Israel and supporting the Palestinians. For this to be credible, Hezbollah must ensure that it can defend Lebanon when things get tough, and not just fend off [individual] Israeli attacks on the country.”
High tech methods don’t make war crimes less criminal
Evrensel criticises the fact that the pager explosions have enhanced Israel’s image:
“For days, Israeli propaganda was fuelled by praise of Israel’s superior intelligence and technological capabilities. But this much-vaunted intelligence operation and technology was a war crime. If this topic is to be discussed in the media, the position should be that Israel has committed a new war crime that should be condemned, that we as an international community should take a united stance against those who commit war crimes, and that those who commit war crimes should unquestionably be brought to justice. Killing people with high-tech methods is not to be praised, but condemned.”
Facing a wave of refugees
The daily newspaper Estia sees new challenges for the EU member states in the eastern Mediterranean region:
“Greece and Cyprus are facing significant geopolitical and migration risks. Following Israeli minister Yoav Gallant’s statements that the war will now move to Lebanon, it is highly likely that Greece and Cyprus will take in a wave of refugees from that country over the winter. The second threat is of a geopolitical nature. Greece and Cyprus have set up Western bases on their territory but they do not yet have a protective shield against missiles that could be fired at them.”
