Like Hamas in Gaza, the Iranian-backed, Lebanon-based terrorist group, Hezbollah, actively and openly calls for the destruction of Israel. The group has carried out attacks spanning decades that have taken thousands of innocent lives, both in the Middle East and beyond, most infamously its 1994 bombings of Jewish sites in Argentina.

Since October 8, 2023, the day following Hamas’ massacres in Israel, the group began firing rockets into Israel on a daily basis, prompting mass evacuations of northern Israeli communities. And yet, one recent column in The Globe and Mail made the ridiculous claim that it is Israeli retaliation against Hezbollah terrorists that portend a “descent into chaos.”

Bessma Momani, a professor at the University of Waterloo and longtime anti-Israel detractor, in her September 24 commentary entitled: “Israel’s attacks in Lebanon could unleash a Pandora’s box for the region – and for the U.S.,” called for Israel and the United States to back down from the current “escalation” in favour of diplomacy. Never mind that there have been many attempts at ceasefires brokered by the United States, and agreed upon by Israel, only for Hamas to stymie all such efforts in favour of protracted war – a point thoroughly ignored by Momani.

Momani claimed that Israel’s recent operations, in which pagers and walkie-talkie devices belonging to Hezbollah operatives exploded, “will invariably elicit only increased determination among Iranian-backed militias – self-described as the “Axis of Resistance” – to grow their military capabilities.”

A reasonable onlooker is forced to protest – how much more determined can Hezbollah be to destroy Israel? To portray Israel’s recent actions as escalations, as opposed to retaliation or defensive maneuver, is to ignore Hezbollah’s entire history of violently opposing Israel’s existence. Both in rhetoric and in actions, Hezbollah makes it clear time and again that they do not want Israel to continue to exist. Furthermore, they oppose all western influence in the Middle East, and have carried out attacks to this effect all over the world.

Israel is not poking a sleeping bear that may be dangerous if provoked. Israel is engaged in a battle for its very existence that it cannot escape while Hezbollah remains. 

Momani went on to allege how the protests in Israel calling for the return of the hostages and a ceasefire must be viewed against the backdrop of an Israeli government controlled by far-right politicians who want to goad the United States into fighting a war against Iran alongside them. While the Israeli population, Momani claimed, does not have confidence in its prime minister to carry out his plan in this war, the nature of the Israeli government coalition gives him the power to pursue this course of action.

But the point Momani is trying to make is moot. Pointing to fractures in Israeli society is not the same thing as making a coherent argument as to why Israel should not be attacking a genocidal terrorist group calling and working towards its destruction. The precarious hold on power of one political party or another in Israel is irrelevant in the face of the battle for their existence.

Israelis, by and large, want the hostages returned from Hamas captivity, and they want war to cease. But a great number of them also understand the cost of a precarious, false peace that will not last. This false peace benefits only Hamas and Hezbollah as they regroup for their next large-scale attack. Even more importantly, neither Hamas nor Hezbollah has agreed to any kind of peace, temporary or lasting.

Opinion columnists like Momani have spilled tremendous amounts of ink telling Israel what it ought not to do, but they are very short on solutions that would provide any measure of security for Israeli society.

Like so many other commentators of late, Momani points to the effects of Israel’s actions on their relationships with other countries, such as Jordan and Egypt with whom they have diplomatic relationships. But these points, again, are entirely moot. Whether it stands with the United States or alone, or with those other gulf countries or alone, Israel has a right to defend itself, and it must out-maneuver its enemies in order to survive.