The Lebanese War: A Tragedy, Not an Opportunity

It is galling to hear some policymakers in the United States, Israel, and elsewhere suggesting that Israel’s devastating strikes on Hezbollah and Lebanon have created “an opportunity to put Lebanon on a better path.” First and foremost, this is grossly insensitive to a serious situation. Thousands have already been killed, large parts of Beirut have been destroyed, and a quarter of Lebanon’s population has been internally displaced without adequate shelter, food, or services.

The toll continues to mount. To suggest that anything good can come out of this massive human tragedy is shameful.

Such a view is not only offensive to the victims, it is also akin to putting “ashes in the mouths” of those who have lost loved ones and are living in mourning. This mentality is dangerously naive because it ignores the lessons of history. Let us recall how, faced with similar nightmares in 1982 or 2006, we were told that these nightmares would also be opportunities. Each involved Israel’s excessive use of force. In each case, Israel said, “its enemies will be defeated and a new day will dawn.”

Ultimately, each case only resulted in a more turbulent situation with a more ferocious enemy emerging from the ashes it left behind. The reason for this is that all of these conflicts were rooted in real grievances resulting from injustice, which led to the emergence of resistance movements.

Instead of addressing and resolving these grievances, Israel, with the full support of the United States, has seen force as the only acceptable solution. What it has essentially said is, “Once we punish them and crush them into submission, everything will be fine.” This approach has not worked before, and it will not work now. At the heart of these deep-seated grievances is the historical injustice to which the Palestinian people have been subjected. Former US President Bill Clinton described this injustice eloquently when he told a group of Palestinian leaders that he knew their history of “dismemberment, dispersion, and dispersion among nations.”

For the Lebanese who have embraced Hezbollah, the grievances include their enduring anger over Israel's hostile occupation of southern Lebanon for more than two decades, which has displaced tens of thousands of Lebanese.

None of this is to say that Palestinian militant groups or Hezbollah haven’t made serious mistakes in their attempts to address the grievances of their constituencies. Rather, it is to say that the effort to violently eliminate these groups is shortsighted at best, and is not a solution because it does not address the roots of the grievances that make these groups attractive in the first place.

This is a recipe for disaster. Finally, ignoring Israel’s responsibility for its actions that have caused so much pain at the heart of the problem, and refusing to pressure it to change course, only guarantees that grievances will morph into more violent forms. That is the case today. Israel is committing grave violations in Gaza, while violent operations are ongoing throughout the West Bank.

Meanwhile, as Hezbollah launched rockets into Israel in support of Gaza, Israel now turned its attention to systematically eliminating Hezbollah’s leadership and cadres. In both Lebanon and Gaza, Israel sought “total victory” without regard for civilian casualties or damage to the broader society and its infrastructure. Seeing Iran as the primary backer of both Hezbollah and Hamas, Israel took it a step further by attacking Iranian positions and assassinating Iranian allies in Lebanon, Syria, and Iran itself, bringing the Middle East to the brink of a devastating regional war. While the United States expresses concern about the risks of expanding this war, it has done nothing to deter Israel’s actions. We have set red lines that Israel continues to cross, expressed concern about civilian casualties that Israel ignores, and repeatedly offered ceasefire proposals that Israel rejects. Meanwhile, we provide Israel with advanced, devastating weapons and unlimited diplomatic support.

The result is Israeli impunity, more Arab victims and suffering, and a Middle East that is farther removed from addressing the root causes of the conflict. When the fighting ends, the grievances will be greater than ever. If history is any guide, what we are likely to see in the coming years is a Hamas 2.0, a reconstituted Lebanese movement that holds a grudge against Israel and those it feels betrayed, a well of anger and bitterness toward Israel and the United States, and a region that is more unstable than it was. But despite all this, this tragedy holds no chance. The fact is that there is only one thing we can be certain of: Israel’s wars in Lebanon and Gaza will not end well.

Instead of naive fantasies about opportunity, the only logical step is to end this conflict now. For that to happen, the United States needs to “take responsibility” and demand that Israel “stop,” and back it up by halting arms shipments. Only then can we begin to address the humanitarian cost and alleviate some of the suffering. Only then can we begin to assess what steps must be taken to address the grievances at the heart of this tragedy. This is not an opportunity, it is a responsibility.