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Lisa Liel

‘It’s not Hezbollah, dummy’

Every single statement out of the IDF or the government that refers to the depopulated wasteland of the north and the constant acts of war preventing our people from returning and rebuilding refers to “Hezbollah”. Hezbollah is threatening us. Hezbollah is firing rockets at us. Hezbollah is a threat to us.

Is Hezbollah attacking us in the north?

No.

Hezbollah is one party in the Lebanese Parliament. It is a fully accepted part of the Lebanese political structure. Hezbollah forces are Lebanese forces. Hezbollah is not making war on Israel, Lebanon is.

We’ve had this problem in the south, with the government insisting that the problem is not the “Palestinians”, but rather Hamas. That’s not the truth, either. Enormous numbers of non-Hamas Palestinians participated in the Oct 7 mini-Holocaust. Possibly more of them than actual Hamas combatants. It was non-Hamas Palestinians from whom we rescued 4 of our kidnapped citizens last week. The idea that Hamas is some sort of foreign entity occupying the Palestinians and acting in a way that goes against what they all want is delusional.

Similarly, the idea that Hezbollah is some sort of foreign entity occupying the Lebanese and acting in a way that goes against what they all want is delusional.

Those Lebanese who do not want Hezbollah making war from Lebanese terroritory can show that by taking up arms against Hezbollah. Those Palestinians who do not want Hamas and Fatah and the Islamic Jihad making war from Palestinian-occupied territories can show that by taking up arms against those groups.

But they don’t.

They don’t, because they’re satisfied with their representatives making war against us.

They don’t, because we will maintain the fiction that they aren’t actually making war against us.

They don’t, because they can get away with it.

Israel needs to make it clear that the enemy in Gaza and Judea/Samaria is not Hamas, and not any other specific group, but the Palestinians themselves, who as a nation are devoted body and soul to the utter obliteration of Israel. Those who doubt that can ask Palestinians these two questions:

  1. Are you willing to accept a sovereign Jewish state of any size, anywhere between the river and the sea?
  2. Are you willing to abandon the “right of return”, which would give some 5.7 million Arabs around the world the right to move to Israel within the Green Line and thereby end Israel as a Jewish state?

Those who think that Palestinians who speak about peace mean the same thing we do when we use that word have not asked these questions, or if they have, they have allowed the people they ask to dodge the questions without actually answering them.

About the Author
Lisa Liel lives in Karmiel with her family. She works as a programmer/developer, reads a lot, watches too much TV, does research in Bronze/Iron Age archaeology of the Middle East, and argues a lot on Facebook.
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