Don't Be Fooled. Zionist Leaders Have Always Wanted to Control Southern Lebanon
In a timeline from 1918 to now, historian Zachary Foster shows Zionists and Israeli leaders have wanted to occupy, annex, and dominate Lebanon since long before the existence of Hezbollah.
On Monday, Israel’s ultranationalist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared, “the Litani River must become our new border with the State of Lebanon.”
His remarks come amidst a mobilization of some 400,000 reserve soldiers, up from Israel’s previous limit of 280,000, as the country enters its fourth week of fighting in Lebanon. His dream appeared to come one step closer to reality when Israel announced on Tuesday that it was occupying the area from its border to the Litani River.
But Smotrich, who also presides over Israel’s apartheid regime in the West Bank, is not alone in his call to expand Israel’s borders. He follows in the footsteps of Israel’s most decorated leaders, including David Ben-Gurion, Moshe Dayan, and Menachem Begin, all of whom sought Israeli control over Lebanon.
Israel’s current offensive marks the country’s 10th ground invasion of Lebanon since 1948, and comes in the wake of the November 2024 ceasefire deal between Israel and Lebanon, upheld by Hezbollah until March 2, violated 15,400 times by Israel, killing more than 370 people.
Meanwhile, “Greater Israel” fever is spreading across Israel. The Israeli academic Omri Abadi has made a Biblical case for retaking south Lebanon because of its Israelite and Jewish history. “Uri Tzafon,” an ultra-right Israeli activist group, is pushing for Jewish settlement in Lebanon while Israeli journalists and pundits demand that their leaders conquer the country’s south and stay there.
As a historian of Palestine, I’m reminded of Israel’s century-long quest to dominate Lebanon, one that long pre-dates Hezbollah’s existence. And while Israel’s masterplan for Lebanon has changed significantly over the decades, as have the reasons for the invasions, as well as the sectarian identities of Israel’s adversaries, the drive to occupy, annex, and dominate Lebanon has remained unchanged.
This is a brief timeline of that history – from 1918 to the present: