17 Mar 2026
https://www.mintpressnews.com/failing-to-destroy-hezbollah-israel-seeks-to-spark-a-lebanese-civil-war/290741/

Surprised by the intensity of Hezbollah's retaliatory attacks against it, Israel
appears to be pivoting to sow internal chaos within Lebanon's borders in a bid
to trigger a catastrophic civil war. An attempted coup against the Lebanese
military's leadership may be the catalyst.

At the beginning of May, the extent of the rocket and drone fire from Hezbollah
at Israeli military targets struck Tel Aviv by surprise. However, the corporate
media quickly constructed a narrative aimed at undermining the capabilities of
the Lebanese resistance group and blaming it for the renewed hostilities, with
the BBC running a headline entitled "Battered and isolated, Hezbollah drags
Lebanon into another war".

Despite this, the Israeli media quickly began to pull apart the concept that
Hezbollah had been defeated, as the intensity of the group's attacks appeared
more intense than they were in past confrontations. "They're selling illusions
to the public," an Israeli senior former security told Yediot Aharanot,
regarding the narrative of Hezbollah's defeat.

One of Israel's leading think-tanks, 'The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism
Information Center' (ITIC), has also admitted that "since the ceasefire at the
end of November 2024, Hezbollah has taken steps to enable it to recover from the
blows of the previous war".

"Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel Katz, and Eyal Zamir promised that the Hezbollah
threat would be completely removed, that it would be disarmed. As you may
recall, Israel failed to disarm Hamas, which is weaker, for two years", wrote
Haaretz's Ravid Drucker, criticising the government's failure to sufficiently
weaken Hezbollah. Instead, he argued that the best off-ramp is to take the
Lebanese government's offer to normalise ties as the smart strategic option.

Cont'd ...