Tensions between Hezbollah in Lebanon and Israel are higher than usual these days, due to threats being made by the Iranian-backed terror organization to launch attacks on Israel’s Karish offshore gas rig in the Mediterranean Sea. According to Hezbollah’s latest “equation,” the threats will be realized if Israel activates the rig before coming to an agreement with Lebanon on maritime borders, in United States-mediated negotiations.
For the past three months, Hezbollah and its Secretary-General, Hassan Nasrallah, have released an unending stream of threats, as well as ideological and religious justifications for violence, including passages from the Koran about God assisting “Muslims that fight injustice,” according to reports produced by the Alma defense research center in northern Israel.
These tensions are just the latest chapter in Hezbollah’s 40-year history, which began when Shi’ite Lebanese operatives founded it in 1982 with Iranian backing, following Israel’s invasion of Lebanon that same year.
“There is no equivalent for such massive support over so many years for any other terror organization by a state in modern history,” said professor Boaz Ganor, founder and executive director of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Herzliya.
In assessing Hezbollah’s achievements and failures, Ganor told JNS that while Hezbollah has steadily grown stronger over the past four decades and has many achievements to its name, “one must remember that it did not do this by itself, but rather, due to it being an Iranian proxy.”
Source » jns