The recent visit of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah to the Bekaa Valley and his meeting with other prominent figures from his party is striking for its timing, form and content.
Crucially, it reflects how much importance the party places on the war Lebanon is fighting with ISIS and the Nusra Front on its mountainous eastern border, even though that battle may be less virulent than Hezbollah’s historical conflict with Israel.
Although it is not the first time that the party’s secretary-general has left his residence to go to the Bekaa Valley in spite of the associated security risks – he visited the area during the battle for Qusair last year – this trip is a significant final step in a series of actions Hezbollah is taking to control current events.
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Lately, the party believes Israel is trying to exhaust it by pushing it into another confrontation with ISIS and the Nusra Front in the southern Shebaa Farms and Arkoub villages, possibly by giving safe passage to rebel groups who have seized control of the Syrian part of the Golan Heights.
Hezbollah knows that uniting Nusra and ISIS into one front fighting Hezbollah and opening other fronts in the south would be a game-changer that would work to Israel’s advantage.
By keeping the party busy with new front lines – from the south to the northern Bekaa Valley – it would prevent it from attacking Israel or trying to involve it in other battles.
The party used the Oct. 8 operation in the UNIFIL-monitored Israeli-occupied Shebaa farms, which saw Hezbollah members detonate mines underneath an Israeli patrol, to send different messages to the various sides in the growing conflict.
Perhaps the most striking aspect of this operation was the diplomacy and field mobilization by UNIFIL, which swiftly made calls with various Lebanese leaders in order to assess the situation. More than anything, UNIFIL is worried about its peacekeepers being kidnapped, something that has happened before in the Golan.
Through the Shebaa operation, Hezbollah was confirming its right to attack Israel, according to a politician who is close to the party.
Hezbollah “is not trying to find excuses to fight with Israel, the game rules are clear and we won’t let Israel change the conflict’s form – which is primarily about combating Israeli occupation – by letting in takfiri groups coming from Qunaitra,” the source said.
“Regardless of how other people interpret it, the Shebaa operation was a reply to intimidation by the chief of general staff of the Israeli army, Benny Gantz,” he said.
