[gregbot]

>a small village less than three miles from the Israeli border which had turned into a battlefield during Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah in 2024.

Classic New York Times style writing. This sentence should say “Israel attacked this village as part of its invasion of southern Lebanon and Hezbollah defended it”

Imagine if this whitewashing were done to Russia: Karkiv, a small city 10 miles from the Russian boarder which had turned into a battlefield during Russia’s campaign against Zelenski in 2022”

[YeGoblynQueenne]

Well, Hezbollah is not defending anything, all they do is shoot rockets and lately fly drones. That's because they don't really have the capability to do anything else, they're a militia up against a fully modernised army and they are forced to fight in an asymmetric manner and so on. One does not simply "defend" territory with irregulars.

I understand that they are in a difficult position for a force that wants to place itself as the legitimate resistance to an invading army, in fact that's the same situation that Hamas finds itself in but with a more obvious occupation (it's not clear to most people that parts of Lebanon are under Israeli occupation, or at least contested).

But what's the end result of fighting? Death and ruin. Nothing else. For Hamas, they had their little "triumph" in October 7 23 and then they lost half of Gaza and the other half is a wasteland. How is that "defending" anything, either the territory or the people? The same thing is happening in Southern Lebanon, and Hezbollah are just as incapable of doing anything to stop the IDF advance as Hamas were in Gaza. They can't defend a thing.

If we are to have any sympathy for the cause, if not the tactics or the ideology, of terrorist resistance groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, we have to also understand that their struggle is hopeless. Violence is clearly not the way for them to win, because the force they are fighting has all the violence. Non-violence is also not an answer because the force they fight has all the violence. They're screwed, quite bad, and there's no way out.

I think it's clear they don't fight to defend anything, just because there's nothing they can do and they might as well go down fighting, or they'll go insane. Or more insane.

[YeGoblynQueenne]

I just wanted to clarify the above comment so I'm not misunderstood: no, I have no sympathy for Hezbollah, or their cause. I think they're bloody idiots who have caused untold death and destruction, and now the loss of South Lebanon, for entirely ideological reasons, and for no practical purpose.

[oldandboring]

You write well and you mean well but what's actually hopeless is trying to use logic with the people who post these kinds of articles and crawl out to comment on them. They're never going to view these conflicts dispassionately, seek out or absorb objective facts or explanations that challenge their preconceptions. They're motivated by an animus toward Israel they nearly all seem to lack toward any other country, they hold Israel to a standard that no other country is actively held to, and yet their worst nightmare is being called antisemites.

[YeGoblynQueenne]

Thanks, but I posted the article above.

Also to be even more clear: while I recognise that Hamas and Hezbollah are terrorists I am not on the side of Israel, either. Israel is a militaristic, belligerent nation that seems to have convinced itself that the only answer to all its problems is to be in a constant state of war against all its neighbours. Prime Minister Netanyahu recently compared Israel's future to Sparta; I'm from Athens. And I'm a peacenick and an anti-nationalist on top of that. The ideology promulgated by Israel's ruling class is against everything I stand for, everything my history and my culture has taught me is sane, and reasonable, and productive.

Anyway when two people (or more, as the case may be) are fighting a war, the last thing that those who wish for peace must do is take a side. Taking a side can only encourage the belligerents to fight even more, because now they have supporters for their cause (safely, from a distance, without skin in the game, but supporters). Again, war is against everything I am for, and so I must stand against war and not on the side of anyone fighting a war.

As to being antisemitic or holding Israel to a special standard, we can talk about Iran, and Russia, and the US, and China, and Darfur, and Nigeria, and everything else that's rotten and makes me angry in the world right now if you want, but of course this discussion is about Israel's use of technology in its current campaign in Lebanon.

Sorry to disappoint you.

[AuthAuth]

Its not up to Hezbollah to defend it. Lebanon is not asking Hezbollah to do this.

[specproc]

Israel are stealing land, ethnically cleansing and flattening villages.

Hezbollah, whatever you may think of them, are the main security actor in the South. Why should they not defend their civilian population?

[hersko]

I don't think it's "stealing land" when you have to invade your neighbor to stop rocket attacks on your cities.

[specproc]

Entire villages no longer exist. These are people's homes.

The rocket attacks come because Israel periodically invades, as it is now.

It has murdered UN peacekeepers, journalists, medics, aid workers, and so many civilians. And this is before what it does internally.

It is utterly transparent that land is being grabbed, up to the Litani. Next will come settlers.

There is no justifying this flagrant aggression, nor the countless atrocities Israel has committed in the last few years.

You should be ashamed.

[hersko]

The day after October 7th, Israel was attacked from Lebanon. Israel has every right to do what it is doing to secure its northern border. Any country on earth would do the same.

[xg15]

Why did the Lebanese army not defend it then?

[citrin_ru]

Hezbollah at least recently was much stronger than Lebanese army and even nowadays Lebanese army afraid to challenge Hezbollah. Concept of a powerful non state actor is something many people in the west refuse to acknowledge.

[petre]

Mainly because Lebanon is a failed state with arguably non state actors (Hezbollah being an Iranian proxy) doing the "defending". Which is not real defending but pestering Israel with attacks and drawing more punitive action.

[thisislife2]

It's a country with two power centres and two national armies. Thus, "divide and rule" politics works exceptionally well there and no one should be surprised their lack of political unity is working against them. While the Lebanese army has no love for the Israelis they are acting under US pressure and advise to not get involved as Hezbollah is taking the brunt of the attack, which the US and some Lebanese political actors hope will hope weakens it enough and eventually lead to its merger / absorption. It's an idiotic way to think of, ofcourse, because there is no guarantee that the US and / or Israel are likely to stop the war (or their ethnic cleansing / genocide), or stop making political demands on Lebanon once the Hezbollah is gone. The loss of Hezbollah fighters will mean Lebanon's military actually becomes weaker.

[petre]

They're not defending anything, not even their families. They're only struggling in an ideological war. Randomly firing missiles at Israeli civillians and drawing punitive action from Israeli leadership, which is all too happy for another reason to blow them up and invade.