Hezbollah Terrorism Must Be Confronted

Democracies and free societies defend the right of resistance to government. Resisting government symbolically and legally is essential for basic freedoms in a country claiming to be a free society. The opinions of citizens matter in the face of an elected government. However, when those political campaigns threaten to uproot the legitimacy of an elected government, the consent of the people is also threatened. Protests, debates, and legal resistance should be tolerated; riots, crimes, and illegal disruption, however, should never be tolerated by society and its government.

In recent months, Israel has been facing crises domestically and outside of Israel. The politically divisive issue of judicial reform has swept the country in months of debate, protests, and civil disobedience. While the important freedoms of democracy are being engaged with, the internal and outside enemies against Israel have also risen. One of those enemies is the terrorist organization, Hezbollah. Hezbollah, unlike other terrorist organizations, is perhaps one of the most powerful forces against Israel and Jews. Hezbollah, founded and headquartered in Lebanon, has been assessed by military experts as more powerful than the official Lebanon army. Domestically within Lebanon, Hezbollah overall has been viewed as a positive force liberating their claimed lands from “Israeli occupation”. As a result of their popularity, Hezbollah’s political rise in Lebanon in recent years has allowed them to seize further national control. Hezbollah’s access to military equipment and aid from foreign countries like Iran and Syria has furthered their goals of “eradicating Israel.”

Hezbollah in recent months has illegally set up military outposts within and on Israel’s borders and launched the biggest rocket attack since 2006. All this remains true in the face of thousands of short-range and long-range missiles on the border of Lebanon-Israel aimed at any city in Israel. The clear rising threat of Hezbollah calls for a heightened sense of military protection from the armed forces in Israel. However, the recent demand for mob rule from anti-judicial reform protesters has allowed a rise of resistance within the army’s civil service. Fighter pilots, special reserve soldiers, and others have all in protest of judicial reform, threatened to boycott army service. This presents obvious dangers for the national security of Israel’s existence. The threat of mob rule that the opposition in Israel has presented with civil service boycotts, road blockages, requests for American intervention, etc. has in addition presented a threat to democratic governance in Israel.

The judicial reform currently proposed in Israel demands equal political realignment between the executive/legislative branches with the judicial branch. The practice of judges appointing other judges, anti-religious rulings, and a pattern of overruling the democratically elected body of the people, the Knesset, set up years of resentment against the judiciary. Demand for elected leaders in the Knesset to have checks on power on the unelected judiciary became a rallying cry for voters. Last year elections were held in Israel, and the majority chose a right-leaning government supporting judicial reform. Consequences of the outcomes of elections are realities within a free, democratic society. The threat to democracy does not come from an elected government voting on judicial reforms used in many Western countries as argued by the Israeli Left, the threat instead comes from political campaigns shutting down the nation’s roads, and economy and threatening Israel’s national security.

Democratic avenues of protesting government decisions are an important check on the power of any ruling class. However, threats to upend national governance are a threat to the idea of democracy itself. In the face of threats like Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas, etc, Israel’s need for military unity is vital for its defense of a democratic Israel. Threatening Israel’s national security with civil service boycotts is a self-inflicting wound to the idea of democracy itself.