Hezbollah's Border Reach Shows Why No Settlement Is Possible Without Lebanese Sovereignty
A commentary on a recent border incident near Moshav Margaliot says the northern frontier is not an abstract line, but a narrow, steep and vulnerable strip where a few hundred meters can separate surveillance, sabotage or infiltration from an Israeli civilian community. It argues that any attempt to approach or damage the border fence is not a minor provocation, but a test of Israel’s new security concept in the north.
The piece says Lebanon is sovereign only on paper in the south, while Hezbollah still holds real power there through weapons, fighters, infrastructure, local ties, fear and sectarian loyalty. It stresses that the key question is not whether Israel wants to be in southern Lebanon, but who can actually stop Hezbollah or its operatives from reaching the fence. If the Lebanese Army can do that, the situation changes. If it cannot, and Beirut cannot exercise real sovereignty, Israel will continue acting on its own, not out of territorial ambition but because waiting could be too costly.
The article says any future arrangement must be judged by practical control of the area between the villages and the border, including preventing uncoordinated movement, dismantling underground infrastructure, stopping weapons smuggling, overseeing reconstruction, and limiting nighttime movement toward the frontier. If Hezbollah remains the answer to those questions, then there is no settlement, only a temporary pause before the next incident.
Israel, it says, should keep talking with Lebanese actors who want to restore state sovereignty, while continuing to strike Hezbollah’s capabilities, supply routes, reconstruction zones and underground network. The author rejects the idea that Hezbollah is inevitable, saying its power can be eroded and its reach toward the border reduced. The goal of the security buffer is not victory for its own sake, but to create conditions in which the Lebanese state, not Hezbollah, begins to return to the south.
