Tensions have ramped up in Israel's northern border over the week as talks of an all-out war between Israel and Lebanon have dominated the public discourse. Iran's terror proxy in Lebanon made several threats, including the release of almost ten minutes of drone footage that documented sensitive areas in Israel, and Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah made several threats, claiming that "no place in Israel will be safe."
I sat down with Jonathan Elkhoury to deep dive into the current situation and the ramifications of an "all out war" between Israel and Lebanon. Elkhoury was born in a small Christian village in Lebanon, and his father was part of the South Lebanon Army, which was bolstered and protected by Israel during the 1982 Lebanon War to maintain stability in the area. Israel and the South Lebanon army worked shoulder-to-shoulder to prevent Hezbollah from gaining power in the territory. Today, Elkhoury is a public diplomacy speaker, advisor, and LGBTQ+ rights activist.
"In my community, we grew up with a sense of protection because we knew that the IDF were our allies and were there to protect us. So when Hezbollah took over in 2000 after Israel withdrew, there was suddenly a huge change because Hezbollah's presence was more visible in the South of Lebanon. They took over our villages. They started intimidating and hurting people, terrorizing us by force to support them. This is essentially what they did in all of Lebanon."
After Israel's withdrawal, Elkhoury's father fled to Israel, knowing that Hezbollah was persecuting anyone involved in the South Lebanon Army. Still, Jonathan, his mother and brother stayed for another year and three months and watched how Hezbollah gradually began to take over the region. "We started to lock our doors, and we couldn't move a lot because Hezbollah created their checkpoints to persecute people who did not support them," says Elkhoury .
Today, Hezbollah has deeply embedded itself in Lebanese society through social, political, and economic infrastructures in Lebanon. Hezbollah operates like a parallel Lebanese government, providing infrastructure, healthcare, education, and even a radio/TV station. Infiltrating these areas of civilian life has allowed Hezbollah to embed itself within Lebanese society the same way Hamas in Gaza has. Given that distinguishing between Hezbollah and Lebanese society has become just as difficult as it has in Gaza, I asked Jonathan how we can appropriately draw the distinction between the terror group and the Lebanese people and where accountability lies.
"A lot of people don't understand that Hezbollah started as a welfare organization that assisted the Shia community in Lebanon that was, at times, persecuted. Over time, Hezbollah became backed by Iran because of shared Shia fundamentalism but assisted the more secular Shia parties in the Lebanese government. After they became an active terror organization, they were able to infiltrate the government through the support of the Shia political movement. Now they have people in the government and are embedded in what is going on inside Lebanese politics."
Hezbollah has more extensive capabilities now and is much more capable than Hamas in fighting a war, as many of their fighters fought in Iraq and in Assad's regime during the Arab Spring to help Assad maintain power against the Syrian rebels. They have also taken over territories in Lebanon completely, with no independent Lebanese military or police officers in those areas. Elkhoury explains that these Hezbollah-controlled territories are strategic because it is how they maintain control over the weapons they receive and the assistance that they get from Iran. One such area is the Beirut Port, where we now discovered that Hezbollah has been storing large quantities of Iranian weapons, missiles, and explosives, an area that is considered the main civilian airport. Just like their friends in Gaza, Hezbollah is taking civilian areas and turning them into combat areas.
It might feel like Lebanon cannot be saved from Hezbollah. Still, Elkhoury maintains that there are a lot of Lebanese politicians, journalists, activists and many different minorities who are opposing Hezbollah involving Lebanon in the war between Israel and Hamas.
My next question for Elkhoury was about how serious he thinks Hezbollah's threats are to Israel and how Israel should respond. "Israel needs to take Hezbollah's threats to full capacity," says Elkhoury, "if October 7 taught us anything, it is that we need to listen to what our enemies are saying. Indeed, Israel might have been shocked at what Hamas did on that black Saturday, but it has always known that Hezbollah has mapped out similar plans in the north, including taking over Kibbutzim and kidnapping hostages.
Elkhoury believes we can escape an all-out war and are still in a position where diplomacy could work. "Israel needs to get more of the international community involved or to pressure Lebanon on stopping Hezbollah into dragging it into an ongoing war." He suggested sanctions against Hezbollah personnel and for people who support Hezbollah within the Lebanese government to enforce UN Resolution 1559 and 1701, which calls for the disarmament of Hezbollah and withdrawal of any foreign forces in Lebanon.
Elkhoury believes that the responsibility falls on the international community to take all measures to restore Lebanese sovereignty, which will reduce Hezbollah's (and the Islamic Republic's) influence and then stabilize the region. An all-out war should be a last resort as it will inevitably lead to higher-scale destruction for both Israelis and the Lebanese people, more than anything that we have seen in the region for quite some time.
