Israel is fighting for its life. While the White House remains convinced that it is possible to somehow contain the conflict to Gaza, Israel’s security establishment is nervously looking north to Lebanon, where a second front in the war has already started to open. The 7 October massacre was the first act in a decade-old plan for the Iran-backed ‘Axis of Resistance’ – Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The end goal is not, as it was for Egypt in 1973, to recover lost territory. The goal is no less than the destruction of Israel, either by political or military means.
For months, something has been afoot. On 9 April, the leaders of the Axis met in a Beirut bunker. In the background, there were large portraits of two men: the ‘Father of the Islamic Revolution’, Ruhollah Khomeini, and his successor, Ali Khamenei. Since then, meetings between those factions and Iranian officials have taken place on a monthly basis.
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