The long-feared escalation of cross-border rocket and missile attacks between Israel and Hezbollah — that began after Israel launched a brutal air and ground assault on Gaza following the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel — has been building for months. The latest spiral of violence began after Israel’s July 30 assassination of a Hezbollah commander and a mid-September covert Israeli operation that blew up thousands of pagers and walkie talkies carried by the Lebanese militia group’s members and civilians, killing 40 and injuring some 3,000.
Growing concern that the region was on the brink of an all-out-war were bolstered after Israel launched 650 airstrikes against 1,600 Hezbollah targets across Lebanon on Sept. 23, killing more than 500 people as of Sept. 24, the deadliest day for the country in nearly 20 years. After Israel sent automated calls and texts to civilians directing them to evacuate Lebanese cities and towns, tens of thousands fled their homes.
As Israel’s indiscriminate deadly attacks on civilians in Gaza continued, an IDF spokesperson when asked, did not rule out a future ground invasion of Lebanon. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Jennifer Loewenstein, former associate director of Middle Eastern Studies and senior lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who lived in and reported from both Beirut and Gaza. Here she talks about the consequences of a regional war and what steps the U.S. could take to pressure Israel to accept a ceasefire in Gaza and de-escalate its deepening and dangerous conflict with Hezbollah.
JENNIFER LOEWENSTEIN: Hezbollah began its cross-border attacks on northern Israel as a support front for the people of Gaza. When the Gaza War began, if you can call it a war, Hezbollah in solidarity began firing rockets over the border. This caused approximately 60,000 Israelis in the north to have to leave to be evacuated southward. And at the beginning of this attack in October of last year, Benny Gantz (Israeli opposition party leader), (Israel Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu and others wanted immediately to attack Hezbollah.
Apparently, the United States did put pressure on them to stop, to not do that. But since then, there’s been back and forth attacks between the IDF and Hezbollah. What people don’t realize is that 83 percent of those rocket attacks and barrages of missiles have come from Israel and that in south Lebanon you have over 100,000 people who, before today, had to leave their homes.
You have basically what one reporter called a “dead zone” being created in south Lebanon. And this is being created because Israel basically has been saying to Lebanon and Hezbollah that they want Hezbollah to withdraw north behind the Litani River so that the residents of northern Israel can go back and feel safe.
And, as one writer said, “It would be easier to move the Litani River south than to make Hezbollah withdraw north.” In other words, it’s not going to happen. Now, just to put into some perspective the events of today, people were saying that this is the heaviest bombardment that Lebanon has experienced since the war in 2006. But in fact, that’s not true. This is the heaviest bombardment in Lebanon since the Lebanese Civil War of 1975 to 1990.
That should give people an idea of how heavy this bombing was. Most of the targeted sites have been Shia areas. That’s because Hezbollah is a Shia political party as well as a militia. And Israel considers it probably its most threatening foe in the Middle East, next to Iran.
SCOTT HARRIS: Jennifer, President Biden and his administration have been totally ineffective in its dozens of calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and a de-escalation of tensions between Israel and Hezbollah over these many months. But Biden has refused to apply any pressure on Netanyahu in Israel by threatening to withhold U.S. military aid for Israelis’ gross human rights abuses in Gaza.
And, of course, these pending charges of war crimes that are being committed in Gaza. What do you think is holding back the Biden administration from really confronting head on, Benjamin Netanyahu? His approach to all these conflicts is a military solution rather than diplomacy. He seems to think that because he’s got this military might at his disposal, that that’s the only tool he’s going to use to settle the problems in that part of the world.
JENNIFER LOEWENSTEIN: You know, it’s very easy for people to look at this scenario and say that somehow Israel is controlling the United States. I don’t see it that way. Biden’s, you know, demand and his people in his government demanding a ceasefire, I think that’s a charade. Yes, they want it in an abstract sense.
But they could get a ceasefire tonight. It could happen tonight if Biden wanted it, if the administration wanted it. The fact is, they don’t. The U.S. wants to maintain its hegemony in the Middle East and Israel is the spearhead of the United States empire, of U.S. imperial power, whether people want to hear those words or not. That’s the fact. The United States wants to maintain its role as a global superpower and as the superpower that has most of its control in the Middle East.
And Israel is basically conducting U.S. policy. Maybe not the way the administration in Washington really wanted it, but they’re still doing it. So the Biden administration is sitting back and they know exactly what’s going on. They see exactly what’s happening. When the Biden administration, for example, blames Hamas for the failure to reach a ceasefire, it’s a joke because it’s not Hamas that is blocking a ceasefire deal.
It’s Israel. Every time Hamas has come out and said, “We accept this.” Netanyahu ups the ante. “Well, now we have to control the Philadelphia corridor.” “Well, now we need to have a buffer zone within Gaza.” Well, you know, it keeps going on like this.
That doesn’t bother the Biden administration. They’re fine with it. Israel is the dominant regional superpower. The United States is the global superpower. And the two are working in tandem. So even though the United States may not like all of Israel’s methods, it’s not about to withdraw support because Israel is ultimately doing what it wants. “It” being the United States as well.
Listen to Scott Harris’ in-depth interview with Jennifer Loewenstein (27:06) to hear more about the unprecedented pager attack Israel unleashed on Hezbollah and Lebanese civilians. See more articles and opinion pieces in the Related Links section of this page.
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