1) At the INSS, Orna Mizrahi lays out the changes that need to be made to a UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon.
“According to the mandate, the government of Lebanon, with UNIFIL’s assistance, was supposed to prevent the presence of any armed forces south of the Litani River, other than the Lebanese Army. Over the years, however, UNIFIL’s freedom of movement became heavily restricted by Hezbollah, and its soldiers were not allowed to move around without permission from the Lebanese side. In contrast, Hezbollah operatives were able to travel south without any impediment, where they then prevented UNIFIL from accessing the areas they had taken over, using these locations to amass weapons to attack Israel in a future war.”
2) At UANI, Dror Doron explains why ‘Diplomatic efforts in Lebanon must aspire for a long-term change’.
“With no monopoly over the use of force, no control over its borders, and no capacity to fulfill its essential civilian functions, Lebanon is practically a failed state. The existence of Hezbollah as a hybrid state/non-state actor in Lebanon, which receives substantial external support in the form of arms and funds from Iran, is a critical element of the dysfunctionality of the Lebanese state institutions. […]
In Lebanon, Hezbollah and its accomplices and political allies have actively prevented for years any change or reform of the state institutions, as the country’s weak and limited capabilities are crucial for the organization’s ability to function as a “state within a state,” or as some analysts claim, “a state over a state.””
3) Tal Beeri explains how ‘The Land Border Crossings Between Syria and Lebanon are Hezbollah’s Oxygen Pipeline and a Central Instrument in Its Rehabilitation’ at the Alma Center.
“Hezbollah’s Unit 4400, whose last two commanders were eliminated by Israel, is in charge of smuggling through both official and unauthorized borders. The unit is in charge of physically smuggling weapons, essential equipment, money, and products to Hezbollah in Lebanon, including oil. Unit 4400 has direct communication with necessary personnel from the aforementioned governmental institutions. They assist it to smuggle across the crossings, if not out of ideological motivation, then frequently in exchange for payments and/or favors.”
4) The FDD’s Emanuele Ottolenghi analyses the significance of Beirut’s airport for Hizballah.
“Despite the trappings of state institutions formally running Lebanon’s transport and travel infrastructure — airports and ports authorities, airport security, customs, and a ministry of public transports — Hezbollah officials control or have heavily infiltrated them, thereby enabling Hezbollah’s activities rather than preventing them.
For years now, Hezbollah has suborned the airport to its needs: Drug shipments from Latin America go unchecked through security and customs, before they reach lucrative Middle East markets in exchange for a fee paid to the Hezbollah officials who clear the illicit merchandise. And weapons shipments have come in regularly from Iran, before being offloaded and stored nearby.”
5) The CST has published a report on ‘Antisemitic Discourse in Britain in 2023’.
“On Sunday 26 November, the Campaign Against Antisemitism organised a march against antisemitism in central London. With an estimated 100,000 people attending, it was the largest British gathering against antisemitism since the Battle of Cable Street in 1936. In the run-up to the event, BBC staff working in news and current affairs were told they had to adhere to existing guidelines on not participating in public demonstrations or gatherings about controversial issues, including antisemitism. This upset Jewish employees at the corporation, and in the end dozens defied the guidelines and attended the march. One anonymous member of staff said: “BBC News romanticises Hamas and its supporters and sanitises their deeds and objectives, a consequence of which is a rise in antisemitism and has the audacity to tell its Jewish staff not to protest about it.” Another commented: “On the one hand they are saying that they’re not impartial on racism and staff don’t need to be but for some reason that we do need to be impartial on anti-Semitism. We can only assume that where this racism is concerned, Jews don’t count.””
6) MEMRI reports on statements made by a Hamas official.
“In an October 24, 2024 appearance on Al-Manar TV (Hizbullah-Lebanon), Osama Hamdan, a member of the Hamas political bureau, stated that the October 7 attack represented the first step in the campaign to eliminate the “Zionist entity” from Palestine. He emphasized that Hamas is not focused on repeating the events of October 7, but rather on advancing to the next phase, which he described as “larger, more profound, and more important.” Hamdan further asserted that “Israel has no future in the region.””
