Daniel Byman
Hezbollah, Iran’s proxy in Lebanon, has joined the war against the United States and Israel, launching missiles and drones at Israeli military sites in response to the assassination of Iran’s supreme leader and other senior officials. Israel promptly responded by killing Hezbollah’s intelligence chief and bombing Hezbollah positions in Lebanon. On Tuesday, Israel sent more ground forces into southern Lebanon and warned 80 villages to evacuate.
Israel’s fight against Hezbollah will not be easy. Hezbollah remains deeply embedded in Lebanon, and the dysfunction of the Lebanese army and political system stands in the way of defeating the group. Hezbollah is adapting to war by promoting new leaders to replace those who have fallen and decentralizing its military operations. The group also still has rockets, drones, and missiles to launch and can likely mount overseas terrorist attacks, as it has in the past. Israel has fought Hezbollah for over 40 years—sometimes with on-again, off-again strikes and in other cases with massive bombings and limited invasions of Lebanon—and the group, while battered, survived.
No comments:
Post a Comment