Israel And Hezbollah

by PRASHER, G. | Category: Focus | Oct 2006

The conflict which began last June with the kidnapping of an Israeli corporal near Gaza escalated into a ferocious struggle on Israel’s northern border between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah Organisation.

The name Hezbollah means ‘the Party of Allah’. It was founded in 1982 with the objective of expelling Israeli forces which at that time had occupied parts of southern Lebanon. It has become a major participant in the Lebanese political scene, with its elected members of parliament, some of them cabinet ministers. The organisation has built schools and clinics and provided an extensive welfare programme to serve the Shi’ite population living mainly in parts of Beirut and southern Lebanon. Yet it has also maintained military strength, its 10,000-strong militia rated as one of the most competent forces in the Middle East. It possesses a formidable arsenal of rockets, and launchers have been widely dispersed.

Since 1992 Hezbollah has been under the leadership of Sheik Hassan Nasrallah. He notoriously denies that the nation of Israel has the right to exist and shares the ambition to see her destroyed. It was he who recognized the effectiveness of hit-and-run tactics against far stronger Israeli forces during their previous incursion to Southern Lebanon, leading to their withdrawal in Year 2000. In the eyes of the Arab world he became regarded as the first Arab commander who could claim a victory over Israel. Nasrallah and his associates are by no means the first to wish the destruction of God’s ancient people. as illustrated by the 83rd Psalm:

‘They have taken crafty counsel against Your people,

And consulted together against Your sheltered ones.

They have said, "Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation,

That the name of Israel may be remembered no more".’(vv.1-4)

Nor will Hezbollah be the last to challenge Israel’s right to nationhood, as Zechariah chapter 12 makes clear.

Over the years there have been frequent border skirmishes between Hezbollah militia and Israeli forces. However, when two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped by Hezbollah on July 12, it was declared by Israel to be an act of war, and a full-scale onslaught began. The campaign included air strikes, not only on Hezbollah targets, but on the Lebanese infrastructure such as roads, bridges and runways. This was calculated to hinder delivery of more rockets and launchers from Syria and Iran. Sadly, the bombardment affected many residential areas resulting in a high percentage of civilian casualties.

The strength of Hezbollah’s resistance took Israel by surprise. Using longer range rockets than expected they subjected a large area of northern Israel to frequent attack, forcing the population into bomb shelters and disrupting the economy. Israel’s pilots had difficulty in destroying a range of launchers burrowed six yards into hilltops across southern Lebanon. When Israeli ground forces moved into the area they met stiff resistance from the Hezbollah militia.

Sheik Hassan Nasrallah gained fresh prestige in the Arab world from this phase of conflict. The guerrilla war resistance to Israel’s sophisticated armed forces was impressive. He also fulfilled his promise to inflict suffering on Israel by daily rocket attacks on some Israeli cities in reprisal for the bombardment of Lebanon. Yet this confrontation with Israel was costly, causing the death of about 1000 Lebanese people and leaving a million displaced.

The United Nations Security Council met to consider the crisis, and after some delay called for a cease-fire agreement. This proposed an immediate cease-fire and a 15,000-strong international force to help the same number of Lebanese troops to keep a twelve mile buffer zone free of any armed personnel, whether Hezbollah or Israeli. These terms were accepted, if grudgingly, by the contestants, and on August 17 the Lebanese army moved in.

Against the background of harrowing daily images of the suffering caused by this relatively short conflict the divine assurance of Isaiah 9:5-7 shines in glorious hope:

‘For all the armour of the armed man in the tumult, and the garments rolled in blood, shall even be for burning, for fuel of fire.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called ... Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to establish it ... from henceforth even for ever.’ (R.V.)

PRASHER, G. | Oct 2006
Focus