Lebanon Then and Now

Cal Thomas, Tribune Content Agency on Oct 3, 2024

The year was 1982. I was in Israel when the IDF crossed the Northern border to root out terrorist sanctuaries in southern Lebanon. The government of Prime Minister Menachem Begin called it “ Operation Peace for Galilee.” The deputy press secretary invited me to accompany him into Lebanon.

We went through Tyre and Sidon to the outskirts of Beirut. I saw weapons provided by the Eastern European communist bloc stacked in parking garages, schools, hospitals and other civilian locations. Nothing has changed since then as the terrorists, who are called by different names, but with the same goal, want Israel to bomb those targets, hoping civilians will be killed so Israel will be blamed for “targeting civilians.”

Forty-two years ago, Lebanese civilians cheered the IDF and offered free coffee and Lebanese flags to the troops, even to me.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is right to ignore the pleadings of President Biden for a cease fire and a “diplomatic solution.” He has heard that before and it only allowed Israel’s enemies to re-group for a future attack.

As former Israeli diplomat Yoram Ettinger writes in his newsletter: “Israel fights Hezbollah, which is a global epicenter – second only to Iran’s Ayatollahs – of anti-US terrorism, drug trafficking and money laundering, extending from the Middle East to the American continent. As a proxy of Iran’s Ayatollahs, Hezbollah has proliferated terrorist cells in the U.S. … and has carried out terror assaults on U.S. installations in the Middle East and beyond. Moreover, since the early 1980s, Hezbollah has collaborated with drug cartels in Mexico, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador and Brazil; has trained Latin American terrorists (on their way to the U.S.) … and has systematically attempted to topple all pro-U.S. ‘apostate’ Sunni Arab regimes…”

It is not just in Israel’s interest that Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza be crushed, it is also in the interest of the United States, something too many administrations have ignored. Rather than support Israel’s right to victory over its enemies, those administrations, including the current one, continue with the false belief that terrorists can be appeased by giving them what they want. What they want – and openly say they want – is the eradication of the Jewish state after which they are coming after us and as Ettinger notes, are already on the way. Given our effectively open border, some may already be here.

In 2006, the UN passed Resolution 1701. Its purpose was to end that war between Israel and the terrorists in Lebanon who were then and are now in control of that country. As the Associated Press reported: “(under Resolution 1701) Israeli forces would fully withdraw while the Lebanese army and UNIFIL — Hezbollah excluded — would be the exclusive armed presence south of Lebanon’s Litani River. The Lebanese state was to have full sovereignty over its south. Meanwhile, up to 15,000 U.N. peacekeepers would help to maintain calm, return displaced Lebanese and secure the area alongside the Lebanese military. The goal was long-term security, with land borders eventually demarcated to resolve territorial disputes.”

As with so much else in the region, the resolution eventually became hollow.

Lebanon was once known as the “Switzerland of the Middle East.” Now it has been wracked by war and terrorism, fueled by Islamic fanaticism.

In war, victory should be the only goal, lest the war be prolonged and new ones started. It is worth noting two of the greatest statements about victory by two World War II leaders. In 1943, President Franklin Roosevelt said that war against Germany and Japan would not end until “total victory” was achieved. In his inaugural speech after becoming Britain’s war time leader, Winston Churchill said: “Victory at all costs, Victory in spite of all terror, Victory however long and hard the road may be.”

That now appears to be the goal of Prime Minister Netanyahu. It is the right one for Israel, the U.S. and the West.

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Readers may email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribpub.com. Look for Cal Thomas’ latest book “A Watchman in the Night: What I've Seen Over 50 Years Reporting on America" (HumanixBooks).