Hochstein and Hezbollah: Ruthie Blum
https://www.jns.org/hochstein-and-hezbollah/
Amos Hochstein, deputy assistant to the U.S. president and senior adviser for energy and investment, is scheduled to arrive in Israel on Monday, in yet another attempt to block Israel from defending itself against Hezbollah in Lebanon. That’s not how his boss in Washington—whoever that actually is at this point—would characterize the special envoy’s visit, of course.
No, the American administration, now led by out-of-commission figurehead Joe Biden, refers to Hochstein’s efforts as necessary to prevent an “escalation” of tensions between Hezbollah and Israel, and to keep the latter from opening up another front in the current war.
Right.
Naturally, the above was the subject of the weekly Cabinet meeting, which took place mere hours after the Houthis took credit for the assault, and ahead of Hochstein’s latest pointless diplomatic trip.
“We are engaged in a multi-front campaign against the axis of evil led by Iran, which seeks our destruction,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the start of the ministerial gathering. “This morning, the Houthis fired a surface-to-surface missile from Yemen into our territory. They should already have known that we exact a heavy price for any attempt to harm us.”
He went on to clarify, “Anyone needing a reminder in this regard is invited to visit the port of Hudeidah.”
On the other hand, he stopped short of announcing outright that tackling the threat of Hezbollah was now among the government’s official war goals—despite this having been widely reported in the Hebrew press on Saturday night. And the only reason that it didn’t cause a major stir was that the repeated warnings and threats from Jerusalem about a more serious attack in Lebanon than the ongoing volleys of attrition between Hezbollah and the Israel Defense Forces have caused most Israelis to shrug.
Public sentiment has come to alternate between “We’ll believe it when we see it” and “Don’t talk: shoot already.”
“I visited the north,” Netanyahu continued. “I am attentive to the residents of the north. I am talking to them and with local authorities in the north. I see the distress. I hear the cries. The current situation will not continue. It requires a change in the balance of power at our northern border. We will do whatever is necessary to safely return our residents to their homes. I am committed to this. The government is committed to this. And we will not settle for less.”
This will be achieved, he said, “thanks to the bravery of our fighters and from the unity within us, as a united people rising against our enemies to ensure our future.”
One encouraging sign was the report in the Lebanese media that the Israeli Air Force dropped leaflets over Wazani, near the border, urging villagers to evacuate the area by 4 p.m., because “Hezbollah is firing from your area.” Though the IDF subsequently stated that the fliers hadn’t been approved by the top brass—but were the initiative of Battalion 769—the move would suggest that Israel really is gearing up for the very conflict that Hochstein fears, certainly before the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election.
Indeed, if there’s one thing that Vice President (and Democratic candidate) Kamala Harris doesn’t want before voters go to the polls in seven weeks, it’s another full-fledged war against an Iranian proxy bent on Israel’s destruction—particularly on the fourth anniversary of the Abraham Accords, historic peace treaties between Israel and its anti-Islamic Republic Arab neighbors, brokered by Biden’s predecessor and possible successor.
Whether the uptick in rocket-and-drone fire from every direction will cause Hochstein to stay home remains to be seen. Even he ought to realize that his shuttling is an exercise in futility, since whatever he has to say about “de-escalation” can be conveyed over the phone.
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