Attack on Golan Heights: escalation on the second front?
Israel and the US are holding Lebanese Hezbollah responsible for an attack on a football pitch in the Golan Heights in which at least twelve children were killed on Saturday. The Israeli security cabinet has granted Prime Minister Netanyahu freedom to decide on a response. The US is trying to mediate between Israel and Lebanon in order to decrease the risk of escalation.
A trap
Israel is being pushed into invading, warns La Repubblica:
“Defence Minister Gallant says it is essential to eliminate the Hezbollah threat once and for all, and a section of the military agrees with him. ... They believe that Iran’s Lebanese allies are pursuing a successful strategy aimed at wearing down the forces of the Jewish state. ... Ultimately, the aim of this manoeuvre is to push the Israelis into an invasion, draw them into the crossfire of the enemy positions and secure the solidarity of the Arab world.”
Ayatollahs pursuing domestic interests
Israel-based political scientist Abbas Gallyamov points on Facebook to a domestic factor in Iran:
“The Iranian Ayatollahs — who are behind Hezbollah — are now more interested than ever in aggravating the situation on the Israeli front. They have just had a modernising reformist elected as president. ... The best way to put someone like that in his place is to have him immediately take a ‘patriotic’ position before he can think about rebelling. That requires war.”
A paradoxical war
De Standaard points out that Druze youths were the victims of the attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights:
“The Druze belong to the Shiite branch of Islam, just like Hezbollah and Iran. In other words, Hezbollah has hit the very land and people it claims to want to liberate from Israeli occupation. ... Israel’s demand for harsh reprisals is being made in the name of victims from the Arab population in the occupied territories.”
The military alone can’t create peace
Israel must do everything to prevent a war on two fronts, urges the Stuttgarter Zeitung:
“For its own security, Israel finally needs a plan for a political solution in the Gaza Strip that can end the war there. ... Once a viable ceasefire has been established there, Israel must neuturalise Hezbollah with a skillful combination of military reaction and political action. The same goes for Israel’s northern border: the military alone cannot establish peace. Hezbollah cannot be destroyed. But it’s questionable whether the Netanyahu government possesses the requisite political wisdom.”
Threat from Hezbollah ignored for too long
The Daily Telegraph angrily points to the double standards in play:
“It is telling that when Israel claims to be targeting Hamas positions in Gaza it is condemned if there are civilian casualties. Yet there are no demonstrations in the streets against Hezbollah or its paymasters in Tehran, another example of the double standards seen in the response to October 7. ... There are some inside Israel who say both Hamas and Hezbollah need to be dealt with if the country is to be secure. Yet the prospect of a war spreading across the Middle East to the Gulf will alarm foreign governments who have turned a blind eye to the threat from Hezbollah for too long.”
Nothing but rhetoric from Europe
So far, only Washington has endeavoured to find a solution to the escalating conflict in the region, writes Sol:
“Iran is keeping Lebanon forever on the brink of war. The only reason they are not going any further is because they are afraid of Lebanon becoming another Gaza. The administration of Joe Biden and Antony Blinken has done everything it can to resolve this war and even this conflict. ... But not a single coherent, sustainable and viable peace plan has come from Europe. Just rhetoric!”
