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PERHAPS it’s not surprising that amid the latest eruption of conflict in West Asia, Israel’s aggression against Lebanon tends to be viewed as a sideshow. After all, whereas the abortive US-Israeli effort to effect regime change in Tehran, mainly via bombardment, was something of a novelty, Israel has routinely intervened in or invaded Lebanon over the past 50 years.
The hostile urge goes back further. David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, informed his military commanders in May 1948: “Our aim is to smash Lebanon, Trans-Jordan and Syria. The weak point is Lebanon, for the Muslim regime is artificial and easy for us to undermine. We shall establish a Christian state there, and then we will smash the Arab Legion, eliminate Trans-Jordan; Syria will fall to us. We then bomb and move on and take Port Said, Alexandria and Sinai.”
Six years later, Ben-Gurion and Israel Defence Forces (IDF) chief Moshe Dayan worked out a plan to persuade a Lebanese army officer to declare himself a saviour of Maronite Christians, whereupon Israel would invade, establish a friendly Christian regime, and annex the territory south of the Litani river. Though not yet accomplished, at least a part of that mission is still on the Zionist agenda.
