1701 or 10.07? ‘Israel’ Cannot Tolerate Hezbollah Acting with Impunity at The Border: JP

The number 1701 refers to the UN Security Council Resolution that ended the ‘Israeli’ war on Lebanon in July 2006.

Among that resolution’s clauses is one that states that there are to be no “armed personnel, assets, and weapons” between the ‘Israeli’-occupied Palestinian-Lebanon border and the Litani River except for those of UNIFIL and the government of Lebanon.

The date 10.07, of course, is a reference to the Hamas heroic Operation Al-Aqsa Flood of October 7.

The message of the “1701 or 10.07” campaign is clear: move Hezbollah back behind the Litani River – away from the border, where it observes ‘Israeli’ communities such as ‘Metula’ and ‘Zar’it’; otherwise, it is just a matter of time before what happened in the south on October 7 is replicated by Hezbollah’s Radwan commando force, according to the JP.

Hezbollah has said in the past that it is ready to enter the Galilee and take over the occupied settlements. ‘After October 7, no one can dismiss those threats as empty bluster,’ the JP added.

Regarding the outbreak of the war on Gaza, Hezbollah chose to join by firing mortars, anti-tank missiles, and rockets at ‘Israeli’ occupiers as part of defending the people of Gaza.

The temporary ceasefire in the south to facilitate the release of captives held by Hamas, a truce that Hezbollah has taken upon itself to respect in the north as well, has brought a few days of quiet. With the guns temporarily silenced, however, Hezbollah fighters have once again reappeared directly on the border.

In a meeting Tuesday between leaders of the northern communities and the Zionist military top brass, including Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi, pictures and videos of armed Hezbollah fighters once again right on the border were presented.

This is something that ‘Israel’ simply cannot tolerate.

One of the participants in the meeting, Kiryat Shmona Mayor Avichai Stern, was quoted as saying that he was surprised when he saw photos and videos of Hezbollah fighters on the border ‘in civilian clothes.’

“We were promised that we will no longer see Hezbollah on the border, and that anyone on the border will be shot, but in actuality, they returned,” he said. “What is preventing them from firing a Kalashnikov from the fence at ‘civilians’ in the border communities? After October 7, does anyone have any doubts about the intentions, threats, and capabilities of our enemies beyond the border?”

While it is true that the ‘Tel Aviv’ regime needs to focus on the war inside Gaza – dismantling Hamas’s capabilities and gaining the release of the captives – it cannot permit a situation where Hezbollah, under cover of the truce in Gaza, once again takes up positions directly overlooking ‘Israeli’ settlements in the north.

Those communities have largely been evacuated, and if their ‘residents’ are ever to return, they need to know that Hezbollah fighters are not just a few meters beyond their gates.

That is in the short term.

In the long term, ‘Israel’ – either through military force, diplomacy, or a combination of the two – needs to ensure that UN Security Council Resolution 1701 is honored and that Hezbollah does not have armed personnel, assets, or weapons south of the Litani.

As ‘Metula’ local council head David Azulai said in the meeting with Halevi, “‘Israel’ needs to understand that if Hezbollah is not pushed back beyond the Litani, there will not be a ‘state’ here. We are facing a second ‘War of Independence’ for our existence. Every Arab state, Iran, and Hezbollah are watching us, and if we do not deal with the northern threat, they will see our weakness.”

The ‘Israeli’ military and the government, he said, “have to remove the threat from the northern border.”

We wholeheartedly concur, the JP editorial board concluded.