Both Israel and Hezbollah Imagined a Horrid Black Hole and Stopped…

by Andre Vltcheck, …with New Eastern Outlook, Moscow

[ Editor’s Note: After the Hezbollah retaliation for the Israeli assassination attack on its media office in Beirut with two dead, we did not see the launch of an Israeli bombing campaign and massive shelling of the Lebanon border areas, as Israeli tank carriers began bringing invasion armor up to the border.

Nor did we hear or see any hurried evacuations of Lebanese and Israeli civilians from the border area. Why not?



For the Israelis, I can clearly see that starting a war just before the election might not make Bibi too happy. As for Hezbollah, it had conducted a retaliatory attack at a scale expected for the loss of its two members in its media center, a cheezy attack by the IDF, but not as cheezy as shooting stone-throwing children in Gaza.

If any army had done that to Jewish children anywhere, you could have heard the howl around the world. But no one else would do that but the IDF Zios. It was not a good way to put their Israeli supremacism on display. They threw any claim of that away, because if you want to use the name, you have to play the game…be supreme in a way people respect.

The 100 shells the IDF claimed to have fired right after the Hezbollah response were small pyrotechnic shells designed to explode close to the ground to spread phosphorus cinders to burn off vegetation. You can see this clearly in the initial videos that came out.

If the Israelis have a dead general on their hands and a toasted crew from its diesel tank going up in the anti-armor hits, you can rest assure that an investigation would be the first order of business to find who screwed up.

All I saw in print was blaming unknown persons at the base for “selecting” an improper route to take. That of course, was bogus. They took the road they had to take to go in and out of their compound.

Whose fault is it they did not foresee a 4-kilometer away rocket attack ambush from the rear, which is what the Hezbollah attack was, from two positions with about 4 seconds difference in the first and second hits.

These people, on both sides died for nothing really. Both sides are still staring at each other. The lines did not change. And Israel’s no combat experience conscript army is perceived as no match for the seasoned Hezbollah in a traditional ground conflict. 

A shooting war would see Israel’s heavy use of air power, but there is no infrastructure in southern Lebanon, no military bases to attack really. Hezbollah would be underground. If Israel tries to take Lebanese land, it will pay for it dearly with funerals, which the Israel public will not like. The last war with Hezbollah showed that, and they are ten times stronger now.

Nor can Israel bomb Beirut to bits, as in the last war. The world would not stand by and watch like last time. S-400s by the way can reach inside Syria, so they can definitely reach Beirut, if the Russians were of a mind to not let Israel bomb Lebanon infrastructure all over the country, like last time as punishment for killing so many IDF people on the front lines.

And last, the US just asked Yemen for peace terms, after years of Israel watching the Saudi coalition hit the heroic Yemen fighters with every modern weapon in its arsenal. And as the report stated today, Yemen was still able to do missile barrage attacks on Saudi targets. Hezbollah can do more, much moreJim W. Dean ]

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Israel underestimated Hezbollah’s tactics. What else has it underestimated? For what strategic purpose did these Israelis die? Did they stop a Hezbollah armored invasion of Israel? No. They died because of Israel’s assassination attack on the Hezbollah media office in Beirut.

– First published – September 05, 2019

There are rare moments in history, when even the most determined enemies can suddenly recognize the futility of battle. Sometimes, just for a moment or two. Sometimes, for longer. Such moments of sanity may save thousands, even millions human lives. And, such moments are not expressions of weakness or cowardice; on the contrary; they are embodiments of courage.

I want to believe that what happened at the Lebanese – Israeli border in August 2019, was precisely one of those such rare moments of sanity.

It changes nothing in terms of the big, geopolitical picture: Israel is a Western outpost in the Middle East. It is tormenting the Palestinian people, illegally occupying the Golan Heights, bombing Syria, and antagonizing Iran.

But an important point was established: there are limits! Israel will not go ‘all the way’, risking self-annihilation, and the annihilation of the entire region. This fact alone gives a fragile, but at least some hope, for a better future of this long-suffering territory.

What prompts me to write the above?

At the end of August, it appeared that Israel had lost its mind. It attacked, without warning, four countries simultaneously, within just 24 hours: Iraq, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. It used drones full of explosives, as well as fighter jets.

Palestine and Syria have been attacked, regularly, for years and decades. Iraq, still de facto under US occupation, was quite a different story. There, a group of outraged lawmakers, ‘exploded’, demanding the immediate withdrawal of the US, and calling the Israeli attack a ‘declaration of war’.

Lebanon, too, did not remain silent. Israeli drones damaged the media center of Hezbollah in Beirut. They also attacked a communist Palestinian faction in the Beqaa Valley. For years, the Israeli air force has been violating Lebanese airspace, during the bombing raids of Syria. But this time it was different.

Even the Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri, an enemy of Hezbollah, and a man who holds double citizenship (Saudi and Lebanese), protested, asking the United States and France for protection. The President of Lebanon called it out rightly, a declaration of war.

The leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, went live on television, and in a chilling statement promised a ‘measured response’. At that point, it became clear that the entire region could soon be consumed by flames.

During coverage of the event, on both Press TV and RT, I warned against the enormous danger: Israel was attacking every armed Shi’a group in the region, and was only stopping short of attacking Iran itself. A few more assaults like these, and the entire region could explode, dragging into the conflict countries like Saudi Arabia, on the side of Israel, and Iran, on the side of Syria, Palestine and Hezbollah. Realistically, that could lead to the annihilation of entire areas and nations.

In that period of time, I drove to, and managed to enter the border region. I first arrived at the city of Naqoura on the Mediterranean coast, and then drove all the way to the Lebanese border with the occupied Golan Heights, following the so-called Blue Line, controlled by UNIFIL.

At several places on my right, the huge Israeli border wall was now clearly visible. UNIFIL patrols consisted of armored vehicles, manned mainly by indifferent looking Indonesian soldiers. Some were taking selfies, with Israel behind them. For the United Nations, there seemed to be no urgency in the region. In fact, right after the Israeli attacks, the UN began discussing the possibility of cutting the number of UNIFIL soldiers, as well as the UNIFIL budget.

As always when visiting this border, what appeared striking to me was the proximity of Israeli and Lebanese villages; tens of meters only, in some areas.

What followed, was a chilling, tense silence. Then, about one week after the Israeli attacks, Hezbollah retaliated. I was called by a TV station, asked to analyze events. As I spoke, journalists were getting the latest news from the border.

Hezbollah fired anti-tank rockets at an Israeli vehicle patrolling near the Blue Line. It hit an Israeli tank (other reports said ‘armored vehicle’). According to Hezbollah, all Israeli soldiers inside the vehicle either died or were injured. Allegedly, among the casualties, was an Israeli top-ranking commander – described as ‘a General’.

Those who are familiar with Israeli tactics for Palestine and the Golan Heights know that Israeli ‘retaliations’ in such scenarios, include the bombing of civilian targets, and the destruction of houses or entire blocks of houses.

Entire Lebanon held its breath.

This time it became clear that Hezbollah was not going to back down. And Lebanon in general obviously has reached the point when it was ready to confront Israel, if that was what it would take to maintain its dignity.

I spoke to many Lebanese people. They were frightened, concerned, particularly if they had family and children. But they were also surprisingly calm. “If this is what fate brings, then so be it!”

Then, quickly, events became bizarre and confusing:

Israeli newspapers, including the Jerusalem Post, began quoting the Israeli Defense Forces, who were claiming that ‘Yes, an attack against Israel took place, but there were no Israeli casualties.’

Almost simultaneously, Israeli-leaked videos began appearing on YouTube and elsewhere, showing Israeli soldiers carrying injured buddies to helicopters. Later, these very clips were blocked by YouTube itself, for “violating terms and conditions”.

A few days later, the entire discussion generally stopped, at both ends.

Israel ‘retaliated’ promptly. In the most peculiar way, too: it fired around one hundred rockets into Lebanon. But all the rockets landed in fields. No target was hit. Meaning: it was decided not to aim at any targets, considering the Israeli capacity to hit with great precision. More exactly: it was decided to make sure that no target would be hit. In the end, nobody was killed, and no one injured.

As I wrote above, villages, several towns and settlements are constructed right near the border line. Both Israel and Hezbollah have enormous firepower. If they wanted to, they could inflict tremendous damage and losses of lives on each other.

For some reason, they decided not to.

I think, this is what happened:

By attacking four countries simultaneously, Israel miscalculated. Iraq and Lebanon were not ready to accept the humiliation and barefaced attacks against their territories.

There were clear signals sent in Tel Aviv’s direction. And Netanyahu understood.

For days after the Israeli attacks, Hezbollah and Israel faced each other, in chilling defiance, separated only by a concrete wall, and by the inept UNIFIL troops. Both sides were aiming at each other great arsenals of missiles and other weaponry.

One wrong move, and the entire region could go up in flames. One tiny, erroneous move, and who knows how many lives of innocent people would be lost.

I believe, or perhaps I want to believe, that both sides suddenly imagined a huge ‘black hole’ – what of this part of the world could become. They envisioned smoke, destruction and death; inevitable if they would not decide to immediately back down.

At the last moment, they did. They backed down. I don’t know how, who made the decision first. Were they communicating, even coordinating the de-escalation?

It was what, in Asia, we call ‘saving face’.

Shots were fired. Most likely, no one died. Halas!

Was an Israeli ‘general’ killed? I don’t know. Actually, I do not want to know. I am absolutely fine with the outcome: no full war in the Middle East. For now, this is the best we can get.

Of course, this should be just the beginning. The insanity has to end. I am not convinced that it will. But what happened at the end of August 2019 clearly indicates that it could.

Unfortunately, we are living in a world when only strength guarantees survival. If Hezbollah were not as strong as it is now, Israel would most likely not have thought twice – it would have overrun the entire Lebanon, in order to destroy its Shi’a adversary inside it.

But Hezbollah is strong.

And also, we have just learnt that there are at least some ‘boundaries’ which Israel is not willing to cross. In brief: Netanyahu is brutal, but he is not suicidal. For now, Lebanon, Israel and the rest of the Middle East, have survived. For now.

Andre Vltchek is philosopher, novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He’s a creator of Vltchek’s World in Word and Images, and a writer that penned a number of books, including China and Ecological Civilization. He writes especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”

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5 COMMENTS

  1. Right-wing Jew supremacists foment bogus wars with Christians invading in Muslim lands, while Left-wing Jew supremacists shove millions of understandably embittered Muslims into traditionally Christian lands.

    Even if Hitler did everything these (((shysters))) claim he did (he didn’t), he’d still be an amateur by comparison.

    • Pat Kittle ,

      NOBODY Gets Paid to Immigrate as a Refugee using outright Shodowy means …… Nopes Nobody Ever Gets Paid to Move BUT AFTER Your Western Governments have Destroyed all semblance of Normalcy like done in Libya , Syria , Iraq , Afghanistan , Iraq , Somalia Sudan , then in Their World since NOTHING IS LEFT so WHY NOT Move to A Normal place like that of the rich invader ….. it’s kinda like thatr …. to understand it exactly IF THE USA Army give you something it wouldn’t be nice or less than devastating to you and your Property where you are AND Them When Everything is gone You’d be Ready to Move too ….. Time can get You There …… Just 8 Years Ago Syria was a smashing bustling peaceful place and then Senator John McCain Starting creating USA Effects in Syria and the rest you should now undertand better …… With Everything Gone , There IS Absolutely NO Reason to Stay Any Longer ……

  2. Two things that put a very advanced PR stunt into play to my way of thinking. Two remote controlled army vehicles going down a long stretch of road ostensibly filled with IDF personnel is taken out by Hizbollah missiles as repayment in kind for the death of two members by Israeli drones. Is Israeli pride too satanic to entertain the dire humiliation of such a (Hollywood) scenario and avoid a futule war that would likely end in real humiliation even after bombing much of Lebanon back to the Stone Age? That army base at Avivim(?) from where the two personnel carriers emerged is now abandoned, according to RT where a news crew arrived late week to the unmanned border outpost. Something decidedly fishy on the menu of the Eat Crow restaurant, a red herring?

  3. Without Hezbollah, the Middle East would be spotted with Gulags like Gaza, Gulags make total control a cinch.

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