It's been overwhelming, once again, to watch the news of what's unfolding back home in Israel. Hezbollah's escalating attacks are sadly no surprise. They've been targeting civilians since October 8, and in one horrific instance, brutally slaughtered twelve young Druze children on a soccer field. Hezbollah's genocidal intent toward Israel has always been clear. Yet, what's even harder to grasp is the selective outrage from the public, Congress, and the media over Israel's response.
This outrage defies logic. Israel has gone above and beyond what any nation would in its efforts to conduct precision strikes against Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy deeply embedded within Lebanon's civilian population. Any rational observer can see the stark contrast between Israel's targeted actions – designed to disrupt Hezbollah's command structure – and Hezbollah's indiscriminate rocket attacks aimed at murdering civilians, which have already displaced over 100,000 people.
Take, for example, the recent operation where hundreds of pagers – and later, handheld radios – exploded in unison, taking out jihadists in a coordinated strike. The operation was both clever and precise, targeting Hezbollah operatives who relied on those communication devices. Yet somehow, this has been criticized as an "escalation," a claim that reflects, at best, a moral blindness, failing to see the clear difference between those who perpetrate violence and those trying to stop it.
When it comes to Gaza, critics often argue that Hamas is vastly outmatched by the Israeli Defense Forces, ignoring that Hamas is one of the most well-funded terror organizations in the world. But that argument doesn't even hold when it comes to Hezbollah, which effectively controls much of Lebanon.
Founded by Iran in the 1980s as part of its strategy to expand regional influence, Hezbollah's ideology is deeply antisemitic, with the destruction of the Jewish state as its primary goal. In 2020 alone, the U.S. State Department estimated that Iran funneled over $700 million to Hezbollah. The group has amassed an arsenal of rockets, missiles, and mortars with more firepower than some NATO armies. Hezbollah's reach isn't confined to the Middle East – it operates a vast network across Europe, Latin America, West Africa, and even North America, capable of executing terror attacks on global soil.
This isn't just an Israeli problem. Hezbollah is a threat to the entire world, poised to strike civilians wherever it operates. So why is the world siding with terrorists? And why are calls for a ceasefire only surfacing now, a year after Hezbollah's unprovoked attacks on Israel?
The only conclusion is that no matter how precise and restrained Israel's actions are in defending itself, they will always be deemed unacceptable by those who harbor an inherent hatred toward Jews. Some may argue this view is extreme, claiming they're simply concerned about the potential escalation of violence. Yet these same critics never explain what a "proportional" response should look like when facing an enemy committed to Israel's destruction. They like to claim a superior moral compass but fail to confront the harsh reality of jihadist threats to global civilization.
At the end of the day, anyone outraged over an operation that targets terrorists simply can't stand the sight of Jews defending themselves.
