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Israel Isn’t Attacking Lebanon; It’s Stopping Hezbollah
People take shelter during an air raid siren, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, in central Israel, Oct. 1, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
Iran’s recent launch of 182 ballistic missiles against Israel was ill-considered and despicable, but its motive was understandable. Iran was trying to reassure its middle east proxies that it would avenge the recent assaults against Hezbollah, Iran’s primary agent within its “ring of fire” (Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis in Yemen, Shiite militias in Iraq) that Iran has nurtured to accomplish the destruction of the Jewish State.
Less understandable to me, but just as infuriating, has been the Western media’s willingness to mischaracterize and distort events surrounding Israel’s new efforts to stop Hezbollah and its allies.
If you listened just to CNN and NBC (two sources I sometimes consult), you would think that Israel’s “expansion” of the northern front against Hezbollah was intended simply to expropriate sovereign Lebanese territory, and to abuse and harass the many thousands of civilians being displaced pursuant to Israeli evacuation notices preceding what are portrayed as indiscriminate bombings.
This myopic ascription of motivation and blame to Israel ignores critical background, including the continuing, malevolent role of Hezbollah in creating an existential threat to Israel’s well being and survival.
Under Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah formed a state within a state. His terror organization created the world’s largest private military, and dedicated itself to the liquidation of Israel via participation in the Iran-inspired ring of fire surrounding Israel.
In south Lebanon, bordering Israel, Hezbollah engineered an elaborate tunnel network full of terrorist infrastructure and installed approximately 100,000 missiles, rockets, and drones. This fearsome armament of south Lebanon violated not only the wishes of the nominal Lebanese government, but also the 2006 UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the last Hezbollah/Israel war.
That resolution imposed a demilitarized zone south of the Litani River — within 16 miles of the Israeli border. Hezbollah nonetheless amassed massive armaments and military infrastructure in that area, thumbing its nose at the official Lebanese army and at UN soldiers acting as a peace-keeping force along the border.
Hezbollah’s array of terrorist infrastructure has proved to be much more than a lurking hazard. Following Hamas’ murderous incursion into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, Hezbollah joined the Hamas effort to pummel Israel, this time by using south Lebanon as a launching ground for missiles and drones aimed at Israeli communities and military encampments in northern Israel.
Since October 8, 2023, Hezbollah has fired more than 10,000 rockets, killing at least 51 people and damaging a multiplicity of structures in northern Israeli towns like Kiryat Shmona, Metulla, and Sefat.
Approximately 100,000 Israelis have been compelled to evacuate without any hope of returning to their homes in northern Israel, so long as Hezbollah occupies southern Lebanon. Hezbollah is also waging war against Lebanon itself, and has effectively taken over the country — including assassinating a Lebanese prime minister in 2005 for opposing Hezbollah.
This critical context behind Israel’s current assault on Hezbollah has been ignored or glossed over by the media, in its almost exclusive focus on the distress of Lebanese civilians being displaced from the border area near Israel and from suburbs of Beirut like Dahiya which had become a Hezbollah stronghold.
Indeed, the caretaker Lebanese governmental administration has been helpless in coping with the many thousands of civilians seeking refuge from recent Israeli strikes. Government sources have utterly failed to supply adequate shelter and supplies. But again, the media largely ignores the massive role that Nasrallah’s Hezbollah has played in crippling and destabilizing what had been the democratic state of Lebanon.
Hezbollah, an anti-democratic fundamentalist entity, has employed its private militia to intimidate both the nominal Lebanese parliamentary government and the official Lebanese army. Hezbollah has thus blatantly violated UN Security Council Resolution 1559 that called for disarmament of private militias in 2004 in order to facilitate Lebanese sovereignty.
Hezbollah has also prompted political paralysis in Lebanon’s government for over two years by vetoing (on grounds of religious identification) candidates for the head of government. Again, Nasrallah’s effort to Talibanize Lebanon has undermined and depleted Lebanon’s resources and functioning. Lebanon’s floundering, dysfunctional government stems from that usurpation of Lebanon’s sovereignty, not from Israel’s recent incursions.
Concern and relief for the hardships of Lebanon’s displaced civilians is surely warranted, just as is relief for the displaced residents of northern Israel. But the world and its news sources cannot ignore the insidious role Hezbollah has played in creating the current chaos and distress.
Norman L. Cantor is Emeritus Professor of Law at Rutgers University Law School where he taught for 35 years. He also served as visiting professor at Columbia, Seton Hall, Tel Aviv University, and Hebrew University of Jerusalem law schools. He has published five books, scores of scholarly articles in law journals, and, more recently, numerous blog length commentaries (often on Israel/U.S. relations) in outlets like The Jerusalem Post, The Times of Israel, and The Algemeiner. His personal blog is seekingfairness.wordpress.com. He lives in Tel Aviv and in Hoboken, NJ.
The post Israel Isn’t Attacking Lebanon; It’s Stopping Hezbollah first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel’s Yuval Raphael Advances to Grand Final of 2025 Eurovision Song Contest
Yuval Raphael from Israel with the title “New Day Will Rise” on stage at the second semi-final of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest in the Arena St. Jakobshalle. Photo: Jens Büttner/dpa via Reuters Connect
Israel’s Yuval Raphael advanced to the grand final of the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest after a stunning performance of her song “New Day Will Rise” in the second semi-finals on Thursday night in Basel, Switzerland.
The 24-year-old, who is a survivor of the Oct. 7, 2023, Nova music festival massacre, performed an emotional ballad in English, French, and Hebrew that was written by singer and songwriter Keren Peles. The results of the semi-finals are based solely on public vote.
Ten acts from the second semi-final advanced to the grand final, including performers from Armenia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, and Malta. Raphael will compete in Saturday’s grand final against those acts and the qualifiers from Tuesday’s semi-final. They include performers from Albania, Iceland, Estonia, Portugal, Poland, Sweden, Ukraine, Norway, San Marino, and the Netherlands. Also competing in the grand final is the Eurovision “Big Five” — Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, France, Italy – and Switzerland, which was last year’s winner.
Unlike in the semi-finals, the results of the grand final are based on a combination of the televote and the jury vote, in which professional juries from all 37 participating countries vote for their favorites. Last year, a Eurovision jury member from Norway admitted that he refused to give points to Israel’s representative, Eden Golan, because of his personal resentment toward Israel’s military actions in the Gaza war.
There have been a number of public calls, including from national broadcasters and former Eurovision contestants, to have Israel banned from this year’s competition because of the country’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip targeting the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
During a dress rehearsal for the semi-final on Thursday afternoon, audience members booed at Raphael, whistled, and waved oversized Palestinian flags. Under rules of the competition, all flags are allowed but there are limitations on the size. The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, which is organizing this year’s Eurovision events, said in a released statement that the audience members with the oversized flags were escorted out of the St Jakobshalle arena by security personnel.
The 2025 Eurovision Song Contest grand final will take place on Saturday night in Basel’s St Jackobshalle arena. The detailed results of the second semi-final will be revealed after the grand final.
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Iran, Europeans Hold Nuclear Talks, Agree to More, Diplomats Say
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi attends a press conference following a meeting with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, Russia, April 18, 2025. Photo: Tatyana Makeyeva/Pool via REUTERS
Diplomats from Iran and the three European parties remaining in a moribund 2015 nuclear deal met in Istanbul on Friday, Iranian and British officials said, their first round of talks since the US began nuclear talks with Tehran in April.
The talks between senior diplomats from Iran and Britain, France, and Germany – known as the E3 – took place as US President Donald Trump pushes for a deal to limit Iran‘s nuclear program. On Friday he called on Iran to move quickly after he said his administration had put forward a proposal to Iran.
An Iranian source close to the negotiating team said Tehran has yet to receive the US proposal, “but Oman has got it and will hand it over to Tehran soon.”
The European powers are not part of current negotiations between Iran and the United States, the fourth round of which ended in Oman on Sunday. A new round has not been scheduled yet.
However, they have held repeated talks with the Iranians most recently in March where they discussed how they saw the parameters of a deal to replace the 2015 accord.
The three powers have sought to coordinate with Washington notably on whether and when they should reimpose UN sanctions against Tehran – known in diplomatic circles as the “snapback mechanism” – if no agreement is reached.
That coordination has not been easy with European diplomats bemoaning a lack of clarity in US policy on its negotiations with Tehran.
Iran and the Europeans agreed to hold further talks if needed, Iran‘s deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi said on X on Friday.
“Iran and the three European countries are determined to maintain and make optimal use of diplomacy,” Gharibabadi said. “We will meet again to continue the discussions if necessary.”
British diplomat Christian Turner said on X that Iran and the E3 shared a commitment to dialogue and that they agreed to meet again, without giving a timeframe.
Under the terms of a UN resolution ratifying the 2015 nuclear pact, the three European powers have until October 18 to trigger the snapback mechanism before the resolution expires.
According to diplomats and a document seen by Reuters, the E3 countries may do this by August if no substantial deal can be found by then.
Relations between the E3 and Iran have worsened over the last year despite sporadic meetings, against a backdrop of new sanctions imposed on Tehran over its ballistic missile program, its detention of foreign citizens and support for Russia in its war against Ukraine.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met the equivalent of national security advisers of the E3 powers also in Istanbul on Friday to discuss Iran and Ukraine, a US official said.
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Israel Strikes Yemeni Ports, Warns That Houthi Leader Is a Target
Illustrative: Smoke rises in the sky following US-led airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, Feb. 25, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Adel Al Khader
Israel struck Yemen’s Red Sea ports of Hodeidah and Salif on Friday, continuing its campaign to degrade Houthi military capabilities and warning that the Iran-backed terrorist group’s top leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, could be targeted if attacks on Israel persist.
The Houthis have continued to fire missiles at Israel in what they say is solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, although they have agreed to halt attacks on US ships.
Israel has carried out retaliatory strikes in response, including one on May 6 that damaged Yemen’s main airport in Sanaa and killed several people.
On Friday, the Israeli military said the ports of Hodeidah and Salif were being used to transfer weapons, reiterating its warnings to residents of those areas to evacuate.
Residents in Hodeidah said they heard four loud booms and saw smoke rising from the port following the Israeli strikes.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a joint statement they would hunt down the Houthis’ top leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi.
“If the Houthis continue to fire missiles at the State of Israel, they will be severely harmed, and we will also hurt the leaders,” they said, adding that al-Houthi could join the list of terrorist figures killed by Israel, such as Hamas’s Yahya Sinwar and Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah.
The Houthis are part of Iran’s so-called “Axis of Resistance” against Israeli and US interests in the Middle East, alongside Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. About 60 percent of the Yemeni population lives under their control.
Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, the Houthis have launched dozens of missile and drone attacks toward Israel, most of which have been intercepted or landed short.
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