Like in Gaza, killing Lebanon's civilians is Israel's only goal

After nearly a year of breathlessly watching Israel's genocide in Gaza in a constant state of paralysis and pain, the Lebanese now see Israel deflecting its military failures in Gaza by spitefully lashing out at Lebanon.

One could argue that Israel has always been at war with Lebanon; the UN-brokered ceasefire that ended Israel's war on Lebanon in 2006 is still ladened with unresolved Israeli aggression.

But following Israel's indiscriminate, dizzying, and dystopian cyber-attacks across Lebanon last week, Netanyahu and co. have decided that Lebanon — not just Hezbollah — will pay for Israel's newly updated, if equally fanatical, war 'objectives'.

Like in Gaza, Israel's assault on Lebanon has a singular goal: genocide. This intent has surfaced frequently in Israeli media, with officials declaring they'd "bomb Lebanon back to the Stone Age," which we Lebanese sarcastically respond is already our reality, given the lack of electricity, water, and a functioning government.

Additionally, there are genuine Israeli aspirations to reclaim the territory of the mythical "Greater Israel," as defined by Theodor Herzl, stretching "from the Brook of Egypt to the Euphrates."

What Israel means is that Lebanon will have to pay the price. Not Hezbollah, not those who support them — all Lebanese people. 

Despite the continuous efforts of Western politicians and their media outlets to manufacture consent by labelling indiscriminate Israeli attacks as “precise” and “legitimate,” and praising their “ingenuity,” anyone familiar with Israeli tactics understands that avoiding civilian casualties is far from their goal; in fact, civilians are often their primary target. The more they ruthlessly kill with unchecked impunity, the bolder they become.

Israel's goal is not the elimination of 'terror' — both Hamas and Hezbollah were born out of resistance to the daily terror unleashed by Israel on their communities — but the ethnic cleansing of areas they need to expand their Lebensraum. Israel wants to eliminate Lebanese life, nature, and culture. That is their raison d’être.

Both Palestinians and Lebanese understand that no one native to the land would ever consider destroying it, especially when it has nurtured and sustained us for centuries.

The olive and cedar trees represent endurance and link us to our ancestors, outliving us in body but not in spirit. Israel and its people will never grasp this, viewing our olive trees merely as barriers to their relentless expansion; they see not life, but obstacles.

Israel's war on Lebanon will be a carbon copy of Gaza

As Netanyahu travels to New York to address the United Nations General Assembly, attempting to persuade the world that Israel is conducting so-called 'precision strikes' on Hezbollah — similar to its actions in Gaza, where they label anyone opposing them as Hamas — the reality on the ground will undermine everything he'll say.

In one day, less than 24 hours, Israel had already killed half of the total number of people killed during the month-long 2006 war. And all indications are that Israel is just getting started. Netanyahu and Israel's Chief of Staff have already rejected a US-France-backed ceasefire plan, instructing their troops to fight with "full force" and prepare for a ground invasion. 

It appears that Israel, to satisfy its ambitions, will now implement Dahiye Doctrine 2.0.

This sadistic approach, first employed in the 2006 war, advocates for the use of overwhelming, disproportionate force and the intentional targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure, resulting in billions of dollars in damage to power plants, sewage treatment facilities, bridges, and ports.

Then-General Gadi Eisenkot was so taken with this that two years later he threatened to use it again in any future conflict with Lebanon, "What happened in the Dahiye quarter of Beirut in 2006 will happen in every village from which Israel is fired on...We will apply disproportionate force and cause great damage and destruction. From our standpoint these are not civilian villages, they are military bases. This is not a recommendation. This is a plan. And it has been approved."

Israeli politicians are now preparing the ground for popular support of the Dahiye Doctrine once again. Similar to the genocide in Gaza, ex-PM Naftali Bennett has publicly claimed that Lebanese homes contain Hezbollah rocket launchers, a narrative which aims to dehumanise Lebanese civilians, portraying them as enemy combatants and, consequently, as legitimate targets. 

Gadi Eisenkot retired in 2019, but his promise has since become scripture. The Dahiye Doctrine has been and continues to be fully implemented in the systematic violence in Gaza.

Every tactic from the Gaza genocide playbook — including their clownish hasbara, victimhood narratives, and the implicit and explicit equation of all Lebanese with Hezbollah — is now being employed to devastate what remains of Lebanon and to turn its population against the one force that can protect them from another brutal invasion and occupation.

For decades, Lebanon and Palestine have stood together against a common aggressor, and we will continue to unite until Israel is defeated. Southern Lebanon is part of Lebanon, the Bekaa is Lebanon, and Dahiye is Beirut. They are not separate entities just because Israel claims they are.

But Israel will not prevail. As Mahdi Amel, a Marxist philosopher from South Lebanon, stated in 1982 after the Israeli invasion, "You are the dustbin of history and Beirut is the city of the free. We have vowed to resist you." Now, 42 years later, the Lebanese people are once again ready to resist.

Farah-Silvana Kanaan is a Beirut-based writer and editor for independent Lebanese media organization The Public Source and an independent researcher, dramaturg and creative consultant.

Follow her on X: @farahkanaan

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Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.