Trouble in the North
Hezbollah is at it again. Or, I should say, continuing its activities of the last four decades.
There was a physical altercation between residents of the south Lebanon Christian village of Rmeish and Hezbollah operatives situated in a nearby Green Without Borders1 facility. Lebanese security forces located a cell of suspected ISIS operatives in the south Lebanon village of Bint Jbeil.
(Oddly, Hezbollah is also involved in a propaganda campaign aimed at weakening the resolve of IDF soldiers. I can’t imagine a more wasteful activity. The Twitter accounts of activists affiliated with Hezbollah, such as journalist Ali Shoeib and the Tansikeya website, posted militant tweets to weaken the morale of IDF soldiers. For example, a notice was posted with a caption, in Hebrew, reading, “Say goodbye to your mother,” along with quotes from Ibrahim al-Amin’s article.)
Pretty lame.
Also, with Operation Waking Dawn in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah is collaborating with Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Ibrahim al-Amin, the editor of the Lebanese al-Akhbar and a senior figure in Hezbollah media, described the preparations the organization was making for the confrontation and analyzed the various possibilities for an outbreak of violence with Israel and the United States. He said Hezbollah’s objective was to destroy the IDF, and Hezbollah had capabilities which even Iran did not possess. The article was accompanied by pictures of UAVs and infographics of the kinds of Iranian-made rockets in Hezbollah’s arsenal, along with rocket trajectories and UAV (drone) ranges
Now, you have to remember, the Arab world is overrun with “Baghdad Bob” types, spokesmen that exaggerate the threats to Israel. It’s chest-beating with nothing behind it. One doubts Hezbollah has capabilities Iran doesn’t possess.
Much of the activity from Lebanon sounds like teenage thugs. At the invitation of Lebanese Minister of Culture Mohammad el-Mortada, eight Lebanese government ministers and the secretary of the government toured along Lebanon’s border with Israel to increase public awareness of the southern part of the country. They began at al- Naqoura in the west and drove along the border to the villages of Houla and Adaisseh in the east, where they threw rocks at the Israeli border.
On July 30, there was an altercation between Hezbollah terrorists and locals in southern Lebanon, over cutting down trees near a Hezbollah site. The Lebanese Army tried to intervene and Hezbollah threatened everyone by taking out guns.
Do these things sound like the activities of mature adults? If only the Muslim culture could discipline itself and focus on productive goals, there’s no telling what they could accomplish for their people.
Instead, we have Lebanese government officials throwing rocks at Israelis!
A video uploaded to the social media after the tour showed Walid Fayad, minister of water and energy, and Hector Hajjar, minister of social affairs, throwing rocks at Israel; the video went viral. Many social media users were critical of the ministers, noting that while the ministers were making jokes and having fun throwing rocks at the border, the Lebanese had one hour of electricity a day and 80% lived below the poverty line. On the other hand, Ali Shoeib, who works for al-Manar TV, supported the rock-throwing as “part of the agenda against Israel.”
Unreal. I think this Keystone Cops approach actually moves them farther away from being able to seriously threaten Israel.
As Christians, and as supporters of Israel, we should pray daily for the people in that region. Pray specifically that the people of Lebanon will be touched by the Holy Spirit and will turn from their wicked and unproductive ways, and reach their full potential—which is considerable.