Hezbollah's day-by-day power gain worrying Israel

Now Tel Aviv is taking a new course, plainly warning Moscow to stop backing its regional friends. Jonathan Schanzer, the vice president of the research at the Foundation of Defense of Democracies which is largely known for its anti-Iranian and pro-Israeli stances, has warned Russia if it does not halt its backing for Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, it should expect repetition of the Six-Day War.

The Six-Day War took place between June 5 and 10, 1967, during which the Israeli regime inflicted heavy losses on Egypt and Syria, the two key regional allies of the Soviet Union at that time. Despite the fact that the two countries' armed forces received training and weapons from the Soviets at the time, Tel Aviv in less than a week managed to occupy further Arab lands including Palestine's West Bank and Gaza, Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, and most importantly Syria's Golan Heights.

The Israeli occupation of new Arab territories later played a crucial role in the region’s geopolitical transformations. The Soviet Union’s failure to support its Arab allies led to Moscow’s power reduction and validity loss among its allies in the region. Taking advantage of the successes in battle against the Arabs, the Israeli regime tried to paint its army as invincible across the whole region.

Showing off the speedy Israeli win in this war, Schanzer writes that “fifty years later and history looks set to repeat itself. Russia’s allies are again provoking the Israelis, who may ultimately see little choice but to strike first. The ensuing war, Israel warns, could, like the Six Day War in 1967, fundamentally change the region."

“The theater this time is Syria, but the precipitating factor for the next conflict — believe it or not — isn’t Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons against his own people. It is Iran’s most lethal proxy, Hezbollah,” Schanzer continues.

The Israeli concerns about Hezbollah's day-by-day power gain are coming while they expected and even planned that the Lebanese movement will weaken after its involvement in the Syrian conflict against the terrorist groups fighting the Syrian government, and so become vulnerable in the upcoming war against Tel Aviv. But things do not go as the Israelis wish. The resistant movement has up to now shown that it holds unmatched potentials to turn the threats into opportunities. Not only it did not become a fragile military body but also it displayed flair to adjust to the newly arriving regional developments and become one of the most effective regional actors. The Lebanese movement now holds precious experiences as it continues fight against the militants shoulder to shoulder with the powerful classic Russian army.

Tel Aviv officials are now more than ever feeling the risks as Damascus and its allies have joined their forces and pushed back the Western, Turkish, Arab, and Israeli-backed armed groups on the Syrian battlegrounds, and at the same time administered the peace process in favor of the Syrian government. The Israelis try to take some Syria-related steps including diplomatic work and even striking Hezbollah positions inside Syria to make sure that their implacable enemy will not reach its objectives to a large extent, or at least steer clear of seeing the southern Syria become another southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah at home managed to deal a working blow to the Israeli forces during the 2006 war, and for the first time forced them to retreat from an Arab country without any preconditions.

However, the Israeli measures have so far failed to check the resistant movement’s strength gain, nor did they manage to create gaps between Russia and Hezbollah. This is the main drive behind the direct Israeli warning to Moscow, to make it remember the past in hope of its intimidation.

As he closes his note, Schanzer says that “Vladimir Putin’s foray into Syria has been described as an attempt to resurrect Russia’s past. But Soviet actions in the Middle East contributed inexorably to the Six Day War and its own weakening in the region. Russia risks repeating the mistakes it made a half century ago, mistakes that still have a profound impact on the region today.”

The Israelis and their fans are boastful of their win over the two Arab armies in the Six-Day War while they appear to have forgotten that they lost the 33-day war of 2006 against a small Lebanese guerrilla movement that is active in small-size area like its bastion southern Lebanon. This was when Russia did not have the back of Hezbollah.

The Israelis are supposed to look back to the few years ago, to 2006, rather than moving back to remote years of about half a century ago. They need to well remember how Hezbollah fighters prevented them from re-seizing even a single inch of Lebanon's territory despite an unceasing and heavy bombing campaign during 33 days, and instead launched surprise ground and sea counterattacks to destroy the Israeli regime’s myth of invincibility.