By Sheba Digital Report 
Israel’s ground offensive in Lebanon entered its second week. Meanwhile, Israeli forces’ war in the region has entered its second year.Calls for a cease-fire have been intensified by airstrikes in Beirut last Thursday night and Israel’s shelling of UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon for a second day on Friday.
Meanwhile, a new Israeli attack has begun on the Jabalia refugee camp, north of the Palestinian Gaza Strip. However, the international community continues to call on Israel to end the Gaza war.Israel’s allies are also calling for restraint as Israel prepares to respond to Iran’s missile strikes last week.
Despite all this, Israel is moving forward in its own way. Ignoring those pressures and calls. Behind this stubbornness of the country are mainly three things – October 7, Benjamin Netanyahu and the United States.
Despite the continued attacks by Israeli forces in Gaza and Lebanon, the destruction, calls for a cease-fire by the international community, Israel continues to go its own way. Ignoring those pressures and calls. There are three things behind the country’s stubbornness—October 7, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the United States.
About the month of January 2020. Iran’s General Qasem Soleimani landed at Baghdad Airport in Iraq from Damascus, Syria, on a night flight one day. He was the head of the Quds Force, a special wing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. This force manages Iran’s military operations abroad.
The main enemy of the Quds Force is Israel. To achieve this goal, the force is working to arm, train and finance its proxy forces in Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and elsewhere. Qassem Soleimani was considered to be the most influential person in Iran after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
As soon as Soleimani’s convoy left the airport, he was killed on the spot by a missile attack from a drone.
Israel helped with intelligence in this attack. The drone was from the United States. The order to kill Qasem Soleimani was given by then US President Donald Trump, not Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In a later interview, Donald Trump said he expected a more active role from Israel in the attack on Qassem Soleimani.
Netanyahu praised the killing of Soleimani. It is believed that if Israel directly participated in this killing, he feared that a massive attack would be launched against the country. The attack was by Iran, not by its proxy forces in Lebanon and Palestine.Israel continues a shadow war with Iran to avoid direct war. However, both sides are aware of keeping the shadow war within their own bounds due to the fear of other countries getting involved in a larger regional war.
Just four years later, in April of this year, Benjamin Netanyahu himself ordered Israeli warplanes to bomb Iranian diplomatic buildings in Damascus, Syria. Two Iranian generals were killed in the attack along with others.
Following this, Netanyahu approved the killing of Fouad Shokar, the top military commander of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, in Beirut last July.
Before this, another scenario was staged on October 7 last year. On that day, the Palestinian independence group Hamas launched an unprecedented attack inside Israel. The bloodiest attack in Israel’s history was a reflection of the country’s political, military and intelligence failures.
Meanwhile, the US Joe Biden administration is giving Israel hundreds of billions of dollars in arms aid. On the other hand, Israeli attacks continue to kill people in Gaza. The US administration suffered a political image loss due to the massive loss of life and the unspeakable plight of the residents of Gaza.The United States has been trying to establish a ceasefire in Gaza for many days in the face of widespread criticism and international pressure.
Israel chose to escalate the conflict with Hezbollah this summer while continuing the war in Gaza. In this case, the country did not wait for the approval of its close ally, the United States.
Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, Netanyahu, has learned from his more than 20 years of experience that US pressure cannot be completely avoided, but he can somehow contain it.He knows, especially in this year of the US presidential election, the US will not take any action that could derail him (Netanyahu).
What will Israel do now?
Israel is now determined to continue the war. It’s not just because the country thinks it can ignore international pressure. Rather, behind it is the issue of its ability to withstand external threats since the October 7 incident.
Israel assassinated Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas, while he was a guest in Tehran during the war; Killed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrullah and several top leaders of the organization. Also killed senior Iranian officials stationed in the diplomatic area in Syria.
In response to these incidents, Iran-backed Hezbollah fired more than 9,000 missiles, rockets and drones at various cities in Israel. Ballistic missiles attacked Tel Aviv. Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen are not sitting down either.They also launched missile attacks on various cities in Israel. Although most of these attacks have been prevented by Israel with the help of the United States.
And Iran has directly attacked Israel not only once but twice in the last 6 months. They used more than 500 drones and missiles in the attack. On the other hand, Israel has started an invasion of Gaza as well as Lebanon.