Hezballah wants a ceasefire in Lebanon
Hezbollah's deputy leader said in comments broadcast on Tuesday that the group backs efforts to reach a ceasefire in Lebanon, and for the first time omitted any mention of a Gaza truce deal as a pre-condition to halting the group's attacks on Israel.
Naim Qassem's remarks were shown on television after Israeli forces began ground operations in the southwest of Lebanon, expanding incursions into a new zone.
Qassem said Hezbollah supported attempts by Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally, to secure a halt to fighting, which has escalated in recent weeks with the Israeli ground incursions and the killing of top Hezbollah leaders.
"We support the political activity being led by Berri under the title of a ceasefire," Qassem said in a 30-minute televised address.
It was not clear whether this signalled any change in stance after a year in which it has said it is fighting in support of the Palestinians during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
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Hezballah started a war with Israel that it now realizes it can't win. It is finding out the downside of being an Iranian proxy fighting a superior force like Israel. It needs a ceasefire much more than Israel does. The Israelis should make stiff demands to agree to a ceasefire.
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Iran’s attack on October 7th – for Hamas is a member of Iran’s Axis of Resistance, not an independent actor sui generis – opened up another front in the world crisis. Iran sought to have Hamas break through to the West Bank, triggering an intifada against Israel. With the IDF overstretched, Hezbollah would have assaulted from the north, a situation forestalled only by rapid Israeli mobilization and stout defense against Hamas’ initial incursion. Since that point, Iran has hoped to tie Israel down in a ring of conflicts. Hamas kidnapped over 240 hostages, placing in opposition Israel’s strategic imperative to eliminate the threat from Gaza with the political demand to recover Israel, and lest we forget, American, citizens. It then activated its proxy network across the Middle East, attacking U.S. bases in the Levant, harassing international shipping in the Bab-el-Mandeb, and threatening Israel from Lebanon. For the past year, Israel has been engaged in a delicate strategic balancing act, seeking to deter Hezbollah in the north as it grinds down Hamas in Gaza. But all the while, international pressure on Israel has mounted, as Iran leverages the Islamist-Leftist partnership to question the Jewish State’s basic right to national security.
Initially, the Biden administration’s response seemed robust. It deployed an American carrier group to deter further Iranian intervention and gave Israel full-throated rhetorical support. This position evaporated by the end of 2023. Since December last year, the U.S. has accused Israel of obstructing ceasefire talks – never mind that a ceasefire on Hamas and Iran’s terms would amount to Israeli capitulation. It has restrained any Israeli attempt to impose cost on Iran in Lebanon. It has accused Israel of reckless escalation for any strategically creative offensive action. It has lifted sanctions on Iran and threatened to impose them on Israel. Most egregiously, it has insisted upon a fantastical two-state solution, ignoring the reality that the structure of Palestinian sovereignty the U.S. sponsored through the Oslo Accords, and the subsequent decay of Palestinian political authority into corrupt mafia-esque autocracy, guarantees a Hamas takeover of the West Bank if a State of Palestine is created today.
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And:
As Oct. 7 Mastermind Yahya Sinwar Resurfaces, Senators Push for Bounty on Hamas Leader's Head
'After 365 days, the State Department has failed to issue a bounty that would help bring these terrorists to justice,' says Ted Budd
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