by Francesco Battistini
For the Jewish state, the great enemy in the north, which receives $700 million every year from Tehran. It has 20,000 fighters, as many reservists, enormous popular consensus (and support from Syria and Russia).
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
JERUSALEM – One night in September, nearly thirty years ago, her firstborn, Hadi, was killed in an ambush. It is said that Hassan Nasrallah locked himself in a room without saying a word. He stayed there until dawn. Then he came out and just said: I am happy to have become the father of a martyr.
A few days later, the Israelis sent him photos of the dead boy and suggested a trade for the bodies of some soldiers: “Keep him,” was the reply, “we have many other Hadis willing to join the fight.”
If it is true that the most dangerous men are those who have only one idea in their head, then beneath the great turban of the Lebanese lies a dangerous spirit like no other. The supreme leader of the Party of Allah, Hezbollah, is a much bigger problem than Hamas. At the time of Hadi’s death, Nasrallah was barely over thirty years old in the Shia nomenklatura. But he did not deviate from the Holy Word that he already preached on Al-Manar television, the lighthouse: We will never accept that Israel exists. Our reason for existing is that Israel does not exist.
During these twenty years as supreme leader, Nasrallah has prayed to us a lot. And worked even harder. Today the result is also recognized by the Israeli Little Satan: Let’s get ready – Defense Minister Yoav Galant warned Joe Biden on Wednesday – these Hezbollah people are ten times stronger than Hamas… (Not true, he corrects him sarcastically Hashem Safieddine , one of the military leaders: We are a thousand times stronger…). Twenty thousand fighters and as many reservists, but there are those who speak of 60,000 or even 100,000 men available (compared to the 160,000 soldiers and 350,000 recalled from Tsahal). The largest terrorist movement in the world (word of the Mossad).
A real army, financed by Iran to the tune of $700 million a year. An arsenal of Sa-6 anti-aircraft missiles, Katyusha-2 missiles and Fajr missiles capable of hitting Haifa and beyond. And then the deadly Iranian drones that were already in use in Ukraine, and the tanks, the special forces, the kamikazes… Even Hezbollah’s counterintelligence is considered one of the most efficient in the Middle East: it has proven this in the killings ( 2005) of the Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who cracked the satellites remotely controlled from Tel Aviv and, above all, rejected the 40,000 Israelis who entered Lebanon in 2006. Hezbollah is a state within the Lebanese state: it relies on well-being and an enormous consensus among the population, on the support of Syria and Russia. But what we do have is faith – Commander Fieddine’s motto -. And God is stronger than you, than your warships and all your weapons.
Nobody knows how badly Hezbollah really wants to intervene. Israel Defense Forces leaders are divided. Some expect a shower of rockets, others expect the reappearance of new tunnels like those discovered in 2019. And some expect Iran to burn Gaza resources that it would rather devote to Syrian or Yemeni concerns. Hamas leaders complain that they feel abandoned by their Shiite brothers in the north and do not think about the rockets fired at Metulla, the anti-tank sites hit, the 12 dead already left on the ground since October 7th and the infiltration attempts beyond the Blue Line, the popular sit-ins… Between the Israelis and Hezbollah, we are testing each other from a distance for now. In the Beirut district of Haret Hreik, where the political head of the movement is based, there is a rumor that they want to spare us this Sukkot war: For the time being, the Iraqi paramilitaries are being preferred to Kataib Hezbollah – on February 7th, the Islamic resistance began supporting in Gaza! – and little more. Hezbollah has always been interested in making its declarations of war, but for now it is silent. Me against my brother – says a Shiite proverb – but my brother and I against my cousin: It is better not to revive certain kinship obligations, the Americans believe, and for this reason Biden called on Netanyahu to have a direct one in the north too to avoid collision.
The newspaper Yedioth Ahronot calls it the Hezbollah dilemma. This has been going on since 1982, and now it’s even worse: in the war in Syria in 2017 – says Ariel Kahana, Israeli historical correspondent – I asked myself why we didn’t attack Hezbollah. They were in trouble. Many were killed or wounded, Nasrallah was fought by his men. We had a great opportunity. Of course we would have paid a high price. But since 2006 we have had to pay for it: Hezbollah’s rockets have become increasingly sophisticated. Instead, nothing was done. Today, in the distant year of 2017. And here we are in the corner. We must understand that if you don’t want them to meet you, you have to meet them first. Because their goal is now clear: in order to destroy us, they want to invade us.
October 20, 2023 (modified October 20, 2023 | 07:13)
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