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Will he? Won’t he? What will Netanyahu do?

Will Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, really launch a full-scale war against Lebanon-based Hezbollah when Israel is still fighting Hamas in Gaza? Of course he will.
Hamas is gravely weakened after losing at least 10,000 fighters killed in a year of fighting in the shattered streets of Gaza and the tunnels beneath them. But it would take at least 20,000 Israeli soldiers to keep the remaining Hamas fighters in their holes.
Israel is also already fighting on a second front in the “West Bank”, where three million Palestinians have been living under Israeli military occupation for 57 years. The current low-intensity war between Jewish settlers and Palestinian fighters has killed only hundreds in the past year, but to contain a “third intifada” would require at least another 20,000 troops.
So why would Mr Netanyahu take on Hezbollah, a more formidable enemy? It completely controls southern Lebanon, next to Israel’s northern border, and it has at least 50,000 full-time fighters plus another 50,000 reserves. More importantly, it has 150,000-200,000 rockets, largely supplied by Iran. Thousands of those rockets are precision-guided ballistic missiles that can reach anywhere in the country. Israel has good anti-missile defences, but they would be overwhelmed by sheer numbers if Hezbollah went all out.
Involving Israel in a full-scale war with Hezbollah and perhaps also with its Iranian sponsor sounds like a disaster in the making. Still, the Israeli PM is a slippery customer. He successfully evaded the blame for being caught off-guard when Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped 250 others last Oct 7. Enough time has passed, and enough Palestinians have been killed in Gaza that the Israeli public has now moved on.
But he also needs to keep the war going. That’s why he promised President Joe Biden to accept a ceasefire five times and reneged on his word just as many times. Mr Biden simply can’t get past his loyalty to the long-gone Israel of his youth, so although he loathes Bibi personally, Israel keeps getting all the weapons it wants. But why does Mr Netanyahu need to keep the war going, and why escalate it now?
Keeping the war going means that Mr Netanyahu’s coalition government doesn’t collapse, and so long as he is a wartime prime minister, the corruption trial that would probably send him to jail is suspended. Escalating now means a big war in the Middle East just when Americans are voting, which should favour Donald Trump, Mr Netanyahu’s friend and ally.
Moreover, there’s always the possibility that a big war with Hezbollah would drag in Iran, which would then probably also pull in the US, which would be Mr Netanyahu’s dearest wish come true.
However, Israel’s northern front has been stable. Hezbollah was firing up to 150 short-range rockets and artillery shells into northern Israel every day, and Israel has been doing the same thing back, but it was mostly for show. A lot of people fled or were evacuated on both sides, but not many were being killed.
Then, about 10 days ago, Mr Netanyahu started ramping it up. First, exploding pagers and walkie-talkies killed, maimed or blinded several thousand Hezbollah operatives and some innocent bystanders, and saturation bombing and shelling of Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and Beirut.
And finally, last Friday, the massive strike using “bunker-buster” bombers on Hezbollah’s underground headquarters in Beirut killed Hasan Nasrallah, its leader for the past 32 years, and an unknown number of other senior Hezbollah officials. This has all been meticulously planned, probably over six months or more. Victory would certainly seal Mr Netanyahu’s redemption and make him electorally fireproof but the project to end Hezbollah is still not assured of success.
The organisation has taken a terrible beating, and so many key people have been killed or put out of action that its response times will probably be slow. But I went in with the Israeli troops as a journalist the first time they invaded Lebanon in 1982, and it didn’t even work very well that time.
There was little serious fighting at first, but as the occupation continued, the resistance grew. Hezbollah was created, Israeli casualties mounted, and after 18 years of ambushes and suicide bombings the Israelis pulled out.
The Israel Defence Forces invaded Lebanon again in 2006, and Hezbollah fought them to a standstill in 33 days. Despite the damage it has sustained recently, it is even better armed and trained today. Mr Netanyahu should not count his chickens prematurely.
Gwynne Dyer is an independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries. His latest book is ‘Intervention Earth: Life-Saving Ideas from the World’s Climate Engineers’. Last year’s book, ‘The Shortest History of War’, is also still available.

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