Hezbollah vs Israel

I’ve been looking into Hezbollah. We’re looking at the political party and armed militants through the wrong lens.

It’s not only Iran providing much of their funding (~70-80%) but money from self-initiatives described here.

They have worldwide tentacles specialising in logistics transport—arms and drugs—and money laundering. I’ll point out here that ‘dirty money’ is only money that governments haven’t got their greedy paws on.

They also have some side gigs in human trafficking, illegal mining, identity theft,  document fraud, cigarette smuggling, digital piracy, casino collusion and stolen luxury vehicles across borders. No evidence has emerged regarding cyber attacks but analysts believe this is Hezbollah’s next step.

Hezbollah has diversified their network revenue streams in Europe, Asia and Latin America since the 1990s. (US Dept of the Treasury) Hezbollah acts as proxy for Iran in Venezuela.

The militant group has targeted Israeli diplomats in New Delhi, Tbilisi and Bangkok as well as storing 8,000 pounds of explosives in Thailand. Bombing of an Israeli tourist bus in Bulgaria. Senegal, Gambia, Malaysia.

Hezbollah assessed targets in the US and Brasil attacks on Jewish targets. They attacked the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires (20 fatalities) and a Jewish community centre (85 fatalities and 200 injuries). Bombed a commercial airliner carrying Jewish passengers, killing all aboard.

Arms and explosive stores are located in Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Honduras and Nicaragua.

Panama, saturating 12 of 20 South America countries. Plots in Azerbaijan, Egypt, Greece, Turkey and West Africa.

Israel really snookered the US into a war on Iran and then leaving the building. They’re expert at making worse enemies out of ordinary enemies.

The transnational funding makes Hezbollah very hard to target. As their primary base in in Shi’a Lebanon uses major weapons such as (150-200,000!) rocket and missile launchers, these are readily identified by satellite imagery.

But Israel doesn’t direct its strikes. Instead, it uses indiscriminate bombing to make enemies of the local population. If Israel really wanted to eradicate Hezbollah in Lebanon, it would require intelligence (Mossad) a house-to-house search (IDF). Israel claims there are miles of Hezbollah tunnels from Southern Lebanon into Israel. So go find them!

But maybe Southern Lebanon is just a land-grab like the West Bank. Is Netanyahu’s crew really so dim, they think bombing of villages is going to stop attacks?

Or maybe Israel just needs an enemy for national unity, a reason for its existence. Being a world pariah doing seem to affect their jingoistic arrogance in the region.

Israel’s only hope is that Hezbollah realises that money is sweet and extremism bitter.

References.

RAND Corporation, Expert Insights

US Committee on Foreign Affairs

al-Hurra

Council on Foreign Relations

Bigger question is , why after all these years are they not better

at defeating their enemy ?

14 hours ago, FlorC said:

Bigger question is , why after all these years are they not better

at defeating their enemy ?

14 hours ago, FlorC said:

Bigger question is , why after all these years are they not better

at defeating their enemy ?

It's hard to beat an enemy that is happy to die for their cause and believes that their God wants them to make war.

Edited May 3May 3 by how241

Just now, how241 said:

It's hard to beat an enemy that is happy to die for their cause and believes that their God wants them to make war.

I meant Hezbollah .

15 hours ago, FlorC said:

Bigger question is , why after all these years are they not better

at defeating their enemy ?

Because war is a business, and the stockholders have high management fees that they enjoy. Who wants to win, same has healthcare, they don't cure disease, simply manage them. Win a war, and no longer need funding for war toys ... or to manage of course.

Defeat the enemy, no profit in that 🙄

Look at the USA, huge defense budget, and no enemies, nobody invading or even thinking about it. Cha ching

Just now, KhunLA said:

Because war is a business, and the stockholders have high management fees that they enjoy. Who wants to win, same has healthcare, they don't cure disease, simply manage them. Win a war, and no longer need funding for war toys ... or to manage of course.

Defeat the enemy, no profit in that 🙄

Look at the USA, huge defense budget, and no enemies, nobody invading or even thinking about it. Cha ching

I was stiil talking about Hezbollah.

They don't have the big defence companies and stockholders.