Lebanon has become Israel’s Vietnam. It’s a quagmire that Israel’s political leaders can’t seem to extricate themselves from — gracefully.
To suddenly pull up stakes gives the Syrian and Iran-based Hezbollah a long-awaited victory. To remain in place means more Israeli soldiers returning home in body bags.
Israel’s military, no matter how large and strong it is, cannot win a fight against Hezbollah’s guerrilla fighters. Hezbollah fights from the basements and alleyways in south Lebanon. Military troops are a sitting target for them.
If Israel tries to go deeper into Lebanon, as it did in 1982, it risks losing more lives and being labeled an aggressor by other nations.
So what can the Jewish state do?
Israel should focus the world’s attention on Syria and its aggressive behavior. What Syria has done to Lebanon is no different from what Iraq’s Saddam Hussein tried, and failed, to do to Kuwait.
Lebanon has become the stepchild of Syrian President Hafez Assad. He sends unemployed Syrians to work in Lebanon. He uses Lebanon’s banking establishment to help support his fragile government. He determines who Lebanon’s political leaders will be.
Israel might find it easier to exit from Lebanon by getting other countries as well as the United Nations to examine what has happened to Lebanon’s sovereignty. In fact, as a face-saving measure Israel could agree to leave south Lebanon if the United Nations agreed to investigate Syria’s role there. At least that would put some heat on Syria.
We shouldn’t be naive enough to think that the United Nations will get Syria to leave Lebanon. But Israel badly needs a pretense to make its own exit.
Israeli forces can protect the border with Lebanon from inside Israel. And they can always initiate air strikes in Lebanon if rockets are fired at northern Israeli towns. Many Israeli generals have said that over and over since 1982.
Israel must turn to a diplomatic solution to save Jewish lives that are being sacrificed all too often on Lebanese soil. Hopefully, the U.S. government can assist in such an effort.