Israel conducts a ground invasion of Lebanon for the second week in a row. Calls for a ceasefire have increased after an airstrike in Beirut on Thursday night and the wounding of UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon by Israeli military fire.

A new attack is taking place in Jabalia, northern Gaza, despite persistent calls for an end to the conflict there. Israel’s allies are calling for restraint as the country prepares for retaliation against Iran. However, Israel will apparently continue to follow its own path and will resist the pressure on him for three reasons, according to the BBC, of ​​October 7, Benjamin Netanyahu and the United States.

It was January 2020 when Iranian general Qassem Soleimani landed at Baghdad airport on a night flight from Damascus. Soleimani was the head of Iran’s notorious Quds Force, an elite, secretive unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps specializing in overseas operations. The group was responsible for arming, training, financing and directing proxy forces overseas in Iraq, Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories and beyond. At that time, Soleimani was perhaps the second most powerful man in Iranafter the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. As Soleimani’s convoy was leaving the airport, it was hit by drone-fired missiles that killed him instantly.

Although Israel provided information to help identify its arch-rival, the drone belonged to the United States. The assassination order was given by then US President Donald Trump and not by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“I never forget that Bibi Netanyahu let us down,” former President Trump later said. In a separate interview, he also suggested he expected Israel to play a more active role in the attack and complained that Netanyahu was “willing to fight Iran to the last American soldier.”

While Trump’s account of events has been contested, it was believed at the time that Netanyahu, who praised the killing, was concerned that immediate Israeli involvement could trigger a large-scale attack against Israel, either directly by Iran or by proxies. of Lebanon and the Palestinian Territories. Israel waged a shadow war with Iranbut each side was careful to keep the fighting within certain limits, for fear of provoking a larger-scale conflict.

Four years later, in April this year, Benjamin Netanyahu ordered Israeli jets to bomb a building in the Iranian diplomatic compound in Damascus, killing two Iranian generals among others.

Last July, the Israeli prime minister authorized his assassination Fuad SoukrHezbollah’s top military commander, in an airstrike in Beirut. The act angered Joe Biden, who began speaking strongly to Netanyahu, according to a new book by Bob Woodward, who claims the US president was stunned that the Israeli prime minister was ready to escalate a conflict the White House was trying to bring. House.

“You know, the perception of Israel around the world is increasingly that you are a rogue state, a rogue state, an actor,” President Biden was quoted as saying.

The same prime minister, described as too cautious by a US president, was later criticized as too aggressive by his successor.

What separates the two episodes is of course October 7, 2023 – the bloodiest day in Israel’s history. What unites the two moments, however, is that Netanyahu is defying the will of the American president.

Israel’s most recent wars ended after a few weeks, when international pressures mounted so much that the United States insisted on a cease-fire.

The ferocity and scale of Hamas’s attack on Israel, the impact on Israeli society and the sense of security, mean that this war will always be different from any recent conflict.

For the US government which dumps billions of dollars worth of weapons on Israel, the deaths and suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza is politically damaging to the government. For America’s critics in the region, the superpower’s apparent impotence when it comes to influencing the biggest recipient of American aid is puzzling. Even as US jets took part in repelling Iranian attacks on Israel in April – a clear sign of how Israel’s security is covered by its greatest ally – Israel continued to fight attempts to change the course of its war.

This summer, Israel chose to escalate its conflict with Hezbollah, without seeking prior approval from the United States.

As Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, Netanyahu has learned from more than 20 years of experience that US pressure is something he can withstand, if not ignore. Netanyahu knows that the US, especially in view of elections, knows that no measures will be taken that will force him to deviate from his chosen path.

Different calculation

Especially with regard to the latest escalation, it would be a mistake to assume that Netanyahu is operating outside the Israeli political mainstream. If anything, the pressure is on him to be tougher to hit harder against Hezbollah, but also Iran. When a draft cease-fire in Lebanon was mooted by the US and France last month, criticism of the proposed 21-day truce came from the opposition and the main left-wing group in Israel, as well as right-wing parties.

Israel is determined to continue the wars of now, not only because it believes it can withstand international pressure, but also because Israel’s tolerance for the threats it faces has shifted since October 7.

Hezbollah has for years stated its goal of invading the Galilee in northern Israel. Now that the Israeli public has become aware of the reality of gunmen infiltrating homes, this threat cannot be contained, it must be eliminated.

Israel’s perception of danger has also changed. Longstanding perceptions of the military red lines in the area have evaporated. Various acts have been committed in the past year that could, until recently, have led to an all-out conflict, dropping bombs and missiles on Tehran, Beirut, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Israel assassinated the head of Hamas while he was a guest of the Iranians in Tehran. It has also killed the entire leadership of Hezbollah, including Hassan Nasrallah. He has assassinated senior Iranian officials inside diplomatic buildings in Syria.

Hezbollah has launched more than 9,000 missiles, rockets and drones against Israeli cities, including ballistic missiles at Tel Aviv. The Houthi in Yemen they have also fired large rockets at Israeli cities, which were intercepted by Israeli defenses as they re-entered the earth’s atmosphere over central Israel. Iran has launched not one, but two attacks against Israel in the past six months, involving more than 500 drones and missiles. Israel has invaded Lebanon.

Any of these may, in the past, have precipitated a regional war. The fact that they haven’t will change how a normally reserved, loathsome Israeli prime minister decides his next move, the report concludes.