Neither Hamas nor Hezbollah are abiding by their commitments to disarm, but Israeli air strikes in Gaza and Lebanon over the weekend quietly met with very different U.S. responses. In Gaza the Trump team complains about Israel’s use of force. In Lebanon it cheers Israel on.
On Saturday morning a Palestinian terrorist crossed into the Israeli half of Gaza and fired on the Israel Defense Forces. No injuries were caused and the terrorist was killed, but Hamas had attacked soldiers eight times already in the preceding week. Israel no longer finds it exhilarating to be shot at without result. Its air strikes in reply killed five senior Hamas terrorists, including a weapons supply chief. A Hamas ministry said at least 21 people were killed in all.
Publicly, Washington backed Jerusalem. But privately, Trump envoys complain that Israel’s responses aren’t “proportional.” They worry the IDF is hitting too hard in response to what the U.S. considers minor Hamas provocations. Why risk the cease-fire, the thinking goes, when Hamas’s bullets missed the mark?
On Sunday Israel carried out a targeted air strike on Ali Tabatabai, Hezbollah’s top military commander, in the Dahiyeh suburb of Beirut. Hezbollah confirmed the death of Tabatabai, who had become military chief of staff after Israel killed his two predecessors in 2024.
A loyal servant of Iran’s proxy axis, active in Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, Tabatabai had a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head. His job of late was to lead Hezbollah’s military restoration, in contravention of the November cease-fire.
In the past, Tabatabai’s killing would have outraged Washington and provoked major fighting with Hezbollah. Now U.S. envoys privately encourage Israel.
For context, in July 2023 Israel was hesitant even to remove two tents Hezbollah had erected across the Lebanon-Israel border for fear of setting off a conflict. Now Israel kills the group’s military leader with little worry for the reply. A battered Hezbollah’s priority is to rebuild, not to incur another ugly defeat.
What explains the differing U.S. responses to Israeli action in Gaza and Lebanon? Time. For months in Lebanon, U.S. envoy Tom Barrack restrained Israel as Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff do now in Gaza. But as the months go by, Mr. Barrack has run out of patience. We don’t blame him. Hezbollah won’t disarm voluntarily and the government in Beirut won’t risk doing it by force. Nobody but the IDF will disarm Hezbollah.
Will Messrs. Kushner and Witkoff come to the same conclusion regarding Hamas? Arab and Muslim states have made clear that their peacekeepers won’t risk their lives to disarm Hamas. And while all the talk is of nation-building, Palestinian terrorists won’t be easily bought off with economic opportunity. That has been tried and failed.
Proportionality doesn’t mean tit-for-tat; it means using the force necessary to achieve a reasonable objective. Israel’s goal, embraced even by the United Nations Security Council, is to demilitarize Gaza. That will involve making Hamas pay a serious price for violating President’s Trump deal. Israel’s post-Oct. 7, 2023, security doctrine won’t give Hamas a pass for poor marksmanship.
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