Map Wiping 101

What a difference a change in battlefield priorities, and a steadfast determination to vanquish a deserving enemy, makes. Unlike the slow yearlong quagmire that is Gaza, Israel picked up the pace and is now on a lucky streak in Lebanon. That’s an unfortunate development for Hezbollah. The longtime terrorist group now finds itself in real jeopardy of disappearing as a threat on Israel’s northern border.

Let’s start with the obvious: It’s much easier for the Jewish state to retaliate against terrorists who are not Palestinians. Hezbollah are Lebanese Shiite Muslims. If women and children are being killed by Israel in its war in Lebanon, the world isn’t getting as worked up about it. Only Palestinians are globally precious, for reasons I never quite understood.

Of course, there are fewer civilian deaths in Lebanon to begin with. Unlike many Gazans, however, the Lebanese are not standing around ready to die, either in joyful anticipation of their sexual dalliance with celestial virgins, or some other bountiful bonus for killing Jews or dying in the cause of serving Allah. Their hatred of Jews comes with limits. And besides, many Lebanese Christians and Druze have never had any quarrel with Jews, anyway. 

The main difference is that they are unwilling to sacrifice their children because some Islamist told them it was their sacred duty to do so. Those living in Hezbollah strongholds, which have now become war zones, evacuated their homes with each Israeli warning. 

So there are sensible Muslim parents in the Middle East, after all. Good to know.

Other differences account for Israel’s recent victories in Lebanon, too. Unlike with all that hectoring about the IDF’s tactics in Gaza, the Biden administration, in responding to Israel’s skirmishes over Lebanon, has been mostly measured. Very little, if any, talk of ceasefires, diplomatic solutions and threats to withhold armaments. 

President Biden is an elderly lame duck, and his vice-president, Kamala Harris, is on the campaign trail trying to convince Americans that she has no prior knowledge of the present administration. The fate of the Lebanese is, apparently, of far lesser importance.

Finally, while Hezbollah has built its own tunnel network, it’s not nearly the vast underground network that hides Hamas. Without Gaza’s 500 miles of fortified passageways — some 250 feet below ground! — Israel would have routed Hamas in weeks and rescued many of the hostages.

And that’s why Israel has enjoyed a largely uninterrupted last few weeks hammering Hezbollah straight to hell. A thousand terrorists have been killed. Thousands more lost critical pieces of their anatomy to beepers that went boom. Its elite echelon of commanders have nearly all been eliminated. And best of all, Hezbollah’s clerical leader for the past three decades, Hassan Nasrallah — with all that Israeli and American blood on his hands — was killed in a targeted airstrike.

This has all left Hezbollah with decimated command infrastructures and destroyed communication centers. Half of its stockpile of precision-guided missiles are now gone, having never gotten off the ground. Thousands were already rendered harmless throughout this past year by Israel’s Iron Dome.

Israel did not give the United States advance warning of its escalation in Lebanon. The Jewish state is a sovereign state. It doesn’t need anyone’s permission to defend itself. And Israel already knows that Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, despite their failure to have the hostages released through diplomatic channels, would nonetheless insist that Israel seek a passive political solution and show restraint.

Look how much better things turned out by rejecting America’s weak-kneed advice. 

Hezbollah was supposed to be Iran’s most lethal bad-boy proxy — far better trained and equipped than either Hamas or the Houthis. Now, with each day, they are becoming Iran’s dead boys.

If you’re a Hezbollah terrorist and still alive, now is the time to ask the Squad for a student visa to practice your antisemitism at an American university. For the martyred saps who succumbed to Israel’s aerial ballet, it must have come as a great shock to discover that even in the afterlife, women still rejected them.

With the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre soon upon us, and Israel’s war cabinet seizing opportunities to establish deterrence and return 60,000 of its citizens to their homes in the north, the IDF decided it was time to showcase its qualitative air superiority and put a quick end to Iran’s favorite terrorist proxy.

The significance of the killing of Nasrallah cannot be overstated. By the time Osama bin Laden was assassinated, the War on Terror was nearly over and 9/11 was nearly a decade in the past. Israel assassinated Hezbollah’s honcho just as the real war was getting started. 

Undoubtedly, in the annals of its military history, the effectiveness of Israel’s Air Force in these past few weeks is going to give its counterparts from the Six-Day War a fly for their money.

 With only a handful of Hamas battalions still remaining in Gaza, and Hezbollah degraded to the point of irrelevancy, the contours of Middle East geopolitics are being rapidly rewritten. If and when the smoke ever clears, Israel may eventually get Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords, after all.

With only a handful of Hamas battalions still remaining in Gaza, and Hezbollah degraded to the point of irrelevancy, the contours of Middle East geopolitics are being rapidly rewritten.

That the United States has not properly retaliated against the Houthis for its many acts of aggression against commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea and Suez Canal is truly maddening. Iran could be left without any proxies, forcing the Islamic Republic to fight its own battles — for once! 

Things didn’t go too well back in April when Iran launched 320 ballistic and cruise missiles, and drones, at Israel.  Almost none of them ever made into Israeli airspace, either malfunctioning en route or being detonated, prematurely, by the IDF, along with Arrow 3 and David’s Sling air-defense systems.

Rumor has it that after seeing how Israel dispatched Nasrallah in Beirut and Ismail Haniyeh in the heart of Tehran, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is contemplating gassing-up his Persian carpet and hightailing it to a safer hideaway. He doesn’t want to end up like the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah. Even trash-talking Islamic maniacs can be coaxed into going incognito.

Here’s a lesson to all murderous Jew-haters: If you insist on wiping Israel off the map, you may one day discover that you’re no longer safe in your own lair. 

Gaza was turned into Mars. Soon so, too, will be Beirut. The actual Mars, however, is still available, Ayatollah, if you’re worried about Israel’s wrath.

Thane Rosenbaum is a novelist, essayist, law professor and Distinguished University Professor at Touro University, where he directs the Forum on Life, Culture & Society. He is the legal analyst for CBS News Radio. His most recent book is titled “Saving Free Speech … From Itself,” and his forthcoming book is titled, “Beyond Proportionality: Is Israel Fighting a Just War in Gaza?”