By Kit Klarenberg – Apr 15, 2026
Kit Klarenberg argues that Hezbollah’s battlefield resilience has derailed “Greater Israel” ambitions, exposing Israeli overreach and strategic exhaustion. “Israel’s” war reveals a recurring pattern of miscalculation, where military escalation produces diminishing returns for Tel Aviv.
On April 8th, the Zionist entity struck a demonic blow to the heart of Beirut, dropping 1,000 pound bombs in densely packed residential areas, killing untold civilians and injuring many more. One of Lebanon’s most dire mass-killings since the end of the 2024 Israeli aggression on the country, it marked the resumption of “Israel’s” avowedly genocidal invasion. With bombs raining down apace even as rare in-person talks between the pair are being carried out, Zionist Occupation Force-backed settlers are moving quickly to establish a permanent presence in the country’s south.
Whatever abrupt pause in the war on Iran is sustained by duelling blockades of the Strait Of Hormuz must be viewed in the context of the Zionist entity’s longstanding determination to annex Lebanese territory, in service of ‘Greater Israel’. Tel Aviv’s criminal incursion ignited March 16th, Orwellianly dubbed by officials a “targeted ground operation against key targets.” It was not until 10 days later that major news outlets deigned to call it an invasion.
On March 23rd, Tel Aviv’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich – a self-proclaimed fascist – made “Israel’s” objectives unambiguously clear. He urged the ZOF to formally annex southern Lebanon. Since then, over a million people have been displaced, thousands killed, and civilian infrastructure razed en masse. While a significant chunk of the country is now occupied, the cost for Tel Aviv was substantial. Unrelenting Hezbollah fire produced heavy casualties and record equipment and vehicle losses, including 21 Merkava main battle tanks in a single day on March 26th.
On April 2nd, Israeli media openly advertised the impending ceasefire in the war on Iran. It was revealed the Zionist entity was preparing to intensify its air campaign against Lebanon, due to the enormous damage inflicted upon the ZOF by the Resistance. Tel Aviv reportedly planned to “[reduce] the current focus on Iran,” in order to support “Israeli ground forces attempting to seize Lebanese territory.” Were it not for hell being unleashed from the skies, the ZOF would currently be in big trouble.
On April 5th, the ZOF’s Northern Command chief admitted Tel Aviv had grossly overestimated damage inflicted upon Hezbollah during its October 2024 invasion of Lebanon. The entity’s political and military chiefs had long claimed the Resistance faction was obliterated by the illegal intervention. The ZOF estimated 70 – 80% of Hezbollah’s rocket capabilities were destroyed during the 2024 war. This reverie was comprehensively shattered by hundreds of the group’s projectiles targeting Tel Aviv daily, throughout the Zionist-American war on Iran.
No wonder that conflict is now on hold. Hezbollah remains a redoubtable adversary, which can independently, and in tandem with its Resistance comrades, thwart Tel Aviv’s annexation of Lebanese territory, and permanently expel Zionist settlers from northern Palestine. This wreaks havoc with “Greater Israel’s” construction, which Benjamin Netanyahu openly yearns to be his enduring political legacy, and literal ‘get out of jail free’ card. Hence, southern Lebanon must be annexed, and Hezbollah neutralised. But attempting to do so will, as before, end in fatal catastrophe.
‘Forced Expulsions’
In June 1982, Zionist militants invaded Lebanon, ostensibly to drive Palestinian freedom fighters away from the entity’s claimed northern border. Quickly, it became apparent ethnic cleansing, massacres, and land theft were the ZOF’s true goal. As a declassified July 1983 US National Intelligence Council assessment noted, ultra-Zionists then as now were calling for all-out annexation of Lebanon’s south. Which is precisely what temporarily came to pass, until Hezbollah drove the ZOF out decisively in 2000. Along the way, obvious lessons weren’t learned by Tel Aviv.
The Council correctly predicted the ZOF would create a puppet state in the south, to fulfill “some day-to-day governing tasks,” while “real power will remain in Israeli hands.” Despite judging the costs “of semi-permanent occupation” to be “not inconsequential,” they were perceived as “manageable”, due to the entity’s “proven track record” of suppressing “unrest” in territory it illegally occupies. “Forced expulsions, use of local surrogates, and ruthless counterintelligence operations” by the ZOF were forecast, which the NIC believed would negate “increasingly” hostile local opposition.
“If, as expected, the IDF gets a handle on the guerrillas in the next six – 12 months, domestic unease will decline,” the NIC concluded. This assessment couldn’t have been more wrong. Unmentioned by the Council, Hezbollah was quickly founded following the Zionist entity’s invasion. Inspired by the Islamic Revolution and assisted by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, the group rapidly gained in strength, spreading revolutionary fervour among Lebanese citizens of every faith, until forcibly purging ZOF militants from Lebanon outright in May 2000.
Hezbollah’s success – repeated with an unprecedented battering of Zionist invasion forces in 2006 – inspired new generations of Resistance fighters, including Hamas. Today, the faction is the most popular and potent political and social force in Lebanon, embraced by citizens of every faith. Bashar Assad’s fall also did not, contrary to widely-held assumptions, make it remotely difficult for Iran to equip and coordinate with Hezbollah. A failure to comprehend these inconvenient truths has led the Zionist entity into disastrous ruin in Lebanon, yet again.
On March 27th, ZOF chief of staff Eyal Zamir issued a grave warning during a security cabinet meeting. Namely, “Israel’s” military “is going to collapse in on itself,” due to “mounting operational demands and a deepening manpower shortage,” which could rapidly prove catastrophic. Already, an infantry battalion intended to be deployed to Lebanon had been redirected to the West Bank, to “keep the peace” as armed settlers carry out violent if not murderous attacks on Palestinians. The ZOF would’ve struggled to field further forces there.
Then on April 3rd, the ZOF openly admitted “its goal of disarming Hezbollah…is unrealistic, as it would require the military to launch a full-scale invasion of Lebanon,” which it wasn’t able to wage. In other words, Hezbollah was undefeated, and Lebanese territory couldn’t be stolen. Having been engaged in perpetual, multi-front war since October 7th, 2023, the exhausted Zionist entity lacked the muscle to achieve its Lebanese goals while also targeting Iran, dangerously contrary to intelligence, military and political forecasts.
Hezbollah’s Chief: ‘Lebanese Resistance Will Not Surrender, The Battlefield Will Speak’
‘Living Room’
“Israel” was so ruinously overextended attempting to wage war on the Resistance – without Ansar Allah even having fully joined the fight – it was reportedly considering an extraordinary, desperate solution. Namely, inviting Syria’s MI6-installed extremist government to battle Hezbollah. Ahmad al-Sharaa’s regime is maintained in power exclusively via a brutal, repressive domestic security and military apparatus. Forces could not be deployed in sufficient numbers to counter Hezbollah without risking major domestic upheaval. However, Israeli outlet Maariv reported on April 5th that this novel solution was being seriously considered:
“Only two actors want to fight Hezbollah – Israel and the new Syrian regime headed by al-Sharaa. According to Israeli officials, this is an intersecting interest, even if not an alliance in the classical sense. As far as Israel is concerned, this is a regime that hates Hezbollah, sees it as an enemy, and may actually become a partner of interests in the Lebanese arena…Understandings between Israel and Syria will be formed.”
Under the auspices of these “understandings”, the ZOF would “take over southern Lebanon, while the Syrians will act in northern Lebanon against Hezbollah.” However, the Empire reportedly “very much [preferred] not to reach such a scenario.” After all, it would be a deeply hazardous Faustian bargain, imperilling al-Sharaa’s already brittle rule. While he and his army of ISIS fighters may detest Hezbollah, the overwhelming majority of Syrians reject an alliance with “Israel” at a time when local Resistance elements are growing in strength.
A key source of al-Sharaa’s domestic unpopularity is his relentless, servile quest for cordial relations with Tel Aviv. Behind-closed-doors talks that began upon his December 2024 seizure of power culminated this January with the signing of a “joint mechanism”. Through it, Syria and “Israel” were to share intelligence, and peaceably resolve grievances old and new. This astonishing capitulation by al-Sharaa laid the foundations for formal normalisation of relations between the two, which successive Syrian governments steadfastly refused ever since “Israel’s” creation.
However, during al-Sharaa’s flying visit to London in late March, he revealed how despite positive “direct and indirect dialogue,” the Zionist entity “changed its mind at the last minute,” and normalization remains unforthcoming. The reasons for this sudden change of heart weren’t stated. One explanation could be that for all al-Sharaa’s eager subjugation of his country and government to “Israel”, he opposes Netanyahu’s insatiable expansionism. In September 2025, al-Sharaa cautioned other countries in West Asia could be affected by Tel Aviv’s deranged “Greater Israel” designs.
With Hezbollah supposedly dismantled, and Syria at last transformed into a doting Anglo-American puppet state, “Greater Israel” could be advanced without hindrance – or so Netanyahu thought. In reality, the “great opportunity” about which he boasted from the Golan Heights following Bashar al-Assad’s fall has become a dangerous trap. While al-Sharaa’s contempt for Hezbollah makes for a marriage of convenience, relying on Syria to deal with the group would inevitably boomerang on both parties spectacularly.
As history old and new amply shows, the Empire and its Zionist proxy underestimate Ansar Allah, Hezbollah, Iran, and the wider Resistance at their immense peril – but persist in doing so. Over and again across decades, the same failed strategies have been applied without success, and aren’t subsequently revised. The Empire’s crushing past defeats by the Resistance are spun as victories, and/or promptly forgotten about. All along though, in the real world, the Zionist-American military machine is ever-weakened, and Palestine’s long-overdue liberation grows irresistibly closer.
Kit Klarenberg
Kit Klarenberg is an investigative journalist exploring the role of intelligence services in shaping politics and perceptions.
