Israel vs. the “Axis of Resistance”
During the week of Passover, we saw rocket attacks on Israel from both Lebanon, Gaza, and even from Syria. While the American media had trouble connecting the dots to make sense of these attacks, for most Israeli analysts the root cause was clear. The serious security challenges facing Israel can be understood by looking at what is called the “Axis of Resistance” that is coordinated and funded by the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Iran’s Middle East agenda is not a secret. The strategy is to surround Israel with an “Axis of Resistance.” These are Iran’s terror proxy forces that include Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iranian militias in Syria. Iran uses these proxies to “export the Islamic Revolution” and arms them for “resistance” to the very existence of Israel.
The timing of the Hamas rocket attack during Passover was not coincidental. As we saw on the news, the tensions in Jerusalem were manufactured by Iran and its proxies under the slogan of the false accusation that “Al Aqsa is under attack.”
The Al-Aqsa Mosque is one of two Muslim holy sites on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Anyone familiar with Jerusalem knows that Muslims are guaranteed freedom of worship by Israel in the mosques.
The only thing that the Israeli police won’t permit is for extremists to stockpile weapons inside the mosque. It was that confrontation that generated the images that went viral on the news and helped to promote the false narrative that “Al Aqsa is under attack”, and this during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Hamas used this false narrative as an excuse to fire rockets into Israel from both Gaza and Lebanon. What was new in this round of fighting was the presence of Hamas in Lebanon.
It was Hamas that fired the 34 rockets at northern Israel from Lebanese territory on April 6th, specifically at our friends in Western Galilee. Israeli analysts believe that this was done with the permission of Hezbollah, which controls southern Lebanon, and in coordination with Iran.
This was the first time we have seen massive rocket fire on northern Israel since the 2006 Lebanon war.
Sarit Zehavi and Tal Beeri, two former IDF intelligence officers, recently wrote, “In our assessment, the extensive rocket fire from Lebanon on April 6th, led by Hamas-Lebanon’s military infrastructure, could not have taken place without some operative support from Hezbollah.”
The growing coordination between Hamas and Hezbollah actually began two years ago. Middle East expert Jonathan Schanzer brought attention to this dangerous trend in an article in Foreign Policy Magazine.
In September 2022 he wrote, “In the wake of the May 2021 Gaza war between Israel and Hamas, reports in Israel suggested that Iran helped the terrorist group out of a Lebanon-based nerve center or joint operations room.”
Given the fact that Hezbollah in Lebanon already has a vast arsenal of rockets makes the growing coordination with Hamas, under the guidance of Iran, an even more dangerous situation.
Over the past decade, Iran has succeeded in supplying Hezbollah with a massive arsenal of more than 140,000 rockets. Moreover, Iran has been working to upgrade these rockets into precision-guided missiles. In addition, Iran has been working to build production facilities inside Syria to manufacture precision-guided missiles to supply to Hezbollah. Over the past several years, the Israel Air Force has carried out repeated attacks to destroy these facilities.
With this regional context in mind, the growing coordination between Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran under the “Axis of Resistance” creates a dangerous situation for Israel. Until the international community holds Iran accountable for its deadly agenda, peace between Israel and its neighbors will continue to remain a distant dream.
Bob Feferman
Community Relations Director
574-233-1164 x1815
RFeferman@TheJewishFed.org