Military leaders for the nation of Israel announced early Tuesday that its awaited ground invasion of neighboring Lebanon had begun. The move follows weeks of targeted attacks, many of them taking out top leaders of Iran-funded Hezbollah, the militant group across Israel’s northern border that has sent rockets into Israel since Hamas attacked it with a violent massacre in the south last Oct. 7.
U.S. President Joe Biden’s repeated calls for a ceasefire, the latest coming last week, have gone unheeded by Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel – America's most significant ally in the Middle East – will finish the job, Netanyahu has said.
The job includes making it safe for roughly 60,000 Israeli citizens to return to their homes in the north, he says.
The destruction of Hezbollah is the second phase of the war but should not be the finish line, said U.S. House Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Florida) as a guest on Washington Watch Monday. The time is now for Israel to strike Iran, he told show host Tony Perkins.
“This is the time not only to eliminate the threat off Israel’s northern border. This is a moment to reset the calculus in the Middle East,” Waltz said.
All indications are that Netanyahu intends to push Israel’s fight without help from the U.S. or anyone else. “Clearly, Israel has made the decision that ‘we’re going it alone,’” Waltz added.
With the Biden administration constantly urging Israel to hold back, the U.S. has not been informed of these precision strikes in advance, Waltz said. “But the strategic victory lies in Iran,” he explained.
Without an attack on Iran, according to the Florida lawmaker, Israel has merely “bought itself time” before it’s forced to defend itself again. “As long as Iran is flushed with cash, they will help Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis rebuild,” he argued.
Waltz contends the real attack on Iran needs to be financial as well as physical, and that requires help from the U.S. Removing the war-making capabilities of the Iranian government would benefit Iranian citizens as well as Israel.
“It may take a matter of years now instead of months because of Israel's victory," Waltz conceded, "but they've essentially bought themselves time until we deal with Tehran – and that means drying up their cash and helping the Iranian people who are seeking freedom.”
The incredibly successful airstrikes have put Hezbollah in disarray and paved the way for the Israel Defense Forces on the ground.
Last hours for Nasrallah
Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, was killed last Friday when more than 80 tons of bunker-busting bombs were dropped on his fortified hideout, according to Israel’s Channel 12 via The New York Post.
The Israeli outlet said Nasrallah, 64, likely died in “agony” when toxic gases filled the room in which he was hiding. There were no visible wounds when his body was recovered.
The IDF scored another big hit Monday, taking out the leader of Hamas’ team in Lebanon. Fateh Sherif was killed Monday in an airstrike on the al-Bass refugee camp in Southern Lebanon, according to Fox News.
Sherif was an employee of the United Nations aid group UNRWA. An UNRWA spokesperson told Fox News that Sherif had been placed on administrative leave without pay since March and was under investigation by the group for his “political activities.” However, Sherif remained an employee of the group.
“UNRWA is supposed to be helping civilians in Gaza with food, water, the basic necessities of life. It’s not supposed to be helping terrorists,” Daniel Cohen, news director for Real Life Network, told Perkins. “Israel found computers, entire server systems in tunnels under the UNRWA facility. It’s unbelievable.”
Before the killing of Nasrallah and Sherif, Israel struck Hezbollah with a complex operation that involved explosives placed in pagers and hand-held radios. Roughly 50 Hezbollah operatives were killed, thousands injured.
These precision attacks have been an impressive turnaround for Israeli intelligence.
The Hamas attacks in October caught the Israelis off guard “and were a 9-11 type failure on Israel’s part," according to Waltz.
"I think they've learned from that. Now for them to actually go in on the ground in southern Lebanon is going to be much easier for them because Hezbollah has just been wiped out in terms of its of its leadership.”
A ceasefire call is an insult to Israel, Waltz said.
The Hezbollah attacks would be “the equivalent of Americans pushed off of our border, getting rocketed and hit with artillery shells every day. We wouldn't stand for it, neither should the Israelis,” he said.
“Again, those are just tactical victories. They're important ones [but] the strategic one is in Tehran,” Waltz said.
Isarel’s ally needs to step up
Israel really needs help from the U.S. for the strategic one, but serious involvement from the U.S. may require an election victory for Donald Trump in November.
“America has to step in, shift policy on Iran, go back to maximum pressure as President Trump had in place,” Waltz said.
Biden has been wrong “almost every step of the way” and has been straddling the fence between uncommitted voters, Cohen argued.
“The United States has been hampering Israel’s efforts to defeat Hamas and eradicate radical Islamic terrorists that are bent on destroying the Jewish state,” he said.
