With Help From Major Itamar Ben David
A damaged car and street in the deserted northern Israeli town of Metula, near the border with Lebanon, on March 19, 2024 [JALAA MAREY/AFP via Getty Images]
Iowa Public Radio touches on the thoughts of my friend Major Itamar Ben David when they announce, “For Israelis near the Lebanon border, war with Hezbollah feels inevitable.” To explain IPR’s headline, a look at what prompted such a prediction is necessary. ABC reports that northern Israeli towns such as Meduallah, which is surrounded by Lebanon on three sides and which usually has 1,500 residents, are essentially ghost towns due to the ongoing bombing by Hezbollah of southern Lebanon. Israeli checkpoints deter vehicles from driving too close to the border, as well. Soot blankets much of the northern area due to the many forest fires that have been sparked by the constant rockets. Iowa Public Radio reports, “The Israeli military intercepts a majority of them, but even those interceptions cause explosions and the sparks and shrapnel rain down on the dry brush and trees that cover the hills.” The population of Kiryat Shmonah (which literally translates to “Town of Eight”), Israel’s northernmost city, has plummeted since the October 7 attacks. The name of Kiryat Shmonah is in remembrance of the eight Jewish militiamen who were led by Joseph Trumpeldor during the Franco-Syrian War; Trumpeldor died in the 1920 Battle of Tel Hai. The town was later established in 1949 and declared a development town in 1953. Initially, immigrants from Yemen and Romania filled the town, and later immigrants from Morocco added even more flavor. But Kiryat Shmonah’s storied past, along with the lives that city inhabitants have established, has had to be set aside for now. All told, the Wall Street Journal reports that about 60,000 Israelies have had to leave their homes near the northern border due to rocket threats (and of the 60,000 people, 40% plan never to return). Some people even fear that Israel’s cities on the northern border will be uninhabitable for years to come. In fact, the northern border with Lebanon is as intense and even more dangerous than the southern border with Gaza; and Hezbollah will not relent until Israel ceases attacks in Gaza. Hezbollah launched 60 rockets at northern Israel just last Sunday, in which four people were injured, including an American citizen. But Hezbollah isn’t like a traditional enemy and their fight isn’t about supporting the Gazans (nor is the objective of another antagonist, the Houthis, to support Gaza), but rather they’re acting as proxies of Iran to support Iran’s interests in the region. Israel always returns fire after attacks in the north; however, tactical tunnels exist in Lebanon as well. The threats are there. In fact, Ben David finds it hard to imagine there not being an all-out war with Lebanon in the near future. He joins other voices who agree that Israel will consider its option to use “non-conventional weapons” if its citizens are targeted. Israel will have no other choice, he asserts. Iran’s main goal is to take over the Middle East, and then the entire world. Israel stands in the way of that goal. In Islam, and in Judaism as well, there is no separation of church and state, such as con- stituted in the foundation of America, Ben David tells me, even though many Americans do in fact vote aligned with their religious beliefs. In the Middle East, Religion plays a “massive” role in politics.
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