Towards the end of the Second Lebanon War, while the fate of IDF soldiers abducted by Hezbollah, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, was still in the fog, the IDF launched a ground operation designed to bring it to the Litani. In the area of ​​the Christian town of Marj Iyun, north of Metula, IDF soldiers encountered a Lebanese army force stationed in the area. It hurried to raise white flags and asked the permission of IDF commanders to evacuate the area.

As part of the Israeli-led folly march, hundreds of Lebanese military and security personnel were then allowed to leave the area. No one in Israel has ever considered the possibility of making this conditional on receiving information about the fate of the hostages or even on their release. After all, the Israeli government has taken the trouble to clarify that the struggle it is waging is against Hezbollah, and not against Lebanon. 

Since then, Israel has remained committed to making an artificial distinction between the Shiite terrorist organization and the Lebanese state that gives it protection and shelter. True, many Lebanese are hostile to Hezbollah, protest against it, and even call for its disarmament. But their weight within Lebanon is negligible. Circumstances have changed, but Israel therefore persists in its determination and does not perceive that today's Lebanon is a country in which there is a symbiotic connection between the state and its institutions and the viper growing in its lap. Hezbollah is represented in the Lebanese parliament and also has representatives in the government, who control some of the key portfolios in the fields of economics and society. The Lebanese government is today responding to Hezbollah's dictates, and the organization is sucking at the whims of the Lebanese system and using it to advance its interests.

One can understand the blindness suffered by the Americans, who still believe that Lebanon and Hezbollah can be separated, while the French or Russian cynicism is superfluous. But it is difficult to understand how Israel became the head of those foxes in its mobilization to defend the Lebanese state in the lap of a Hezbollah nest. Not only must Israel internalize this the next time Hezbollah violates its sovereignty and tries to harm its soldiers; She must also remember that despite the arrogance, the organization fears war because it knows that the price it and its supporters will pay is not commensurate with the damage and casualties it may cause in Israel.

In front of every stray bullet from Syria, Israel charges a price from the only address - Assad's army forces stationed along the border - and sends a clear message to the Syrian ruler. It may be time to do the same in the Lebanese case. After all, the Lebanese army deployed along the border does not prevent Hezbollah's activities in any case, and may even help the organization, thus becoming an address and even a worthy and legitimate target for Israel. Hezbollah is currently at an unprecedented low point, weak and extremely vulnerable. Israel should not shy away from it and certainly not play into its hands, but take advantage of its weakness and impose on it and the Lebanese government new rules of the game in its favor.