“The UN also condemned the strikes, calling them a “dangerous escalation”, and highlighted the significant civilian casualties and displacement.”

“France described them as “unacceptable”; British officials expressed deep concern over the “escalating attacks”; and the EU condemned them.”

“Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called for the ceasefire to apply to Lebanon, stating that many Australians were worried about the impact on the region.”

“Regional countries including Qatar, Egypt, Pakistan and Turkey condemned the strikes, calling them a “flagrant violation” of Lebanese sovereignty, Al Jazeera reported.”

“Hezbollah, a proxy of Iran that has been armed and financed by it for decades, has been the main target of Israeli attacks.”

“However, Hezbollah only came into being as a defensive response to Israel’s deadly invasion of Lebanon in 1982, when up to 20,000 people, mostly civilians, were killed and tens of thousands more injured.”

“The group didn’t exist before that invasion.”

“Hezbollah’s war of attrition on Israel’s self-declared security zone, established in southern Lebanon, forced the withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in 2000 because although the IDF was militarily superior, the constant losses and attacks by the Shia militia proved to be too high a cost in the end for Tel Aviv.”

“Israel had invaded Lebanon a number of times before Hezbollah’s establishment, mainly in response to guerrilla attacks on northern Israel by the Palestine Liberation Organisation, which was based in Lebanon.”

“But there had been no attacks on Israel for many months before Israel’s 1982 invasion and the excuse given for the invasion was the attempted assassination of Israel’s ambassador to the UK, Shlomo Argov.”

“Long-term strategy”

“Regime change has been part of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan since the mid-1990s when a document, titled A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm, was formulated for him by Washington neoconservatives associated with the erstwhile “Project for a New American Century”, which supported the invasion of Iraq on trumped-up accusations of possessing weapons of mass destruction.”

“The Clean Break strategy outlined the overthrowing of a number of Middle East governments by force and influence – overtly or covertly – including Iran, Iraq, Libya, Lebanon, Syria, Somalia and Sudan.”

“Critics also point out that the US props up its own “regimes and proxies” in the region, including Israel, to the tune of $3.8-billion annually.”

“The US also supports – militarily, economically and politically – repressive, unelected Sunni monarchies in the region.”

“The latest Israeli attacks on Lebanon helped to undermine peace talks between Tehran and Washington, and the US put pressure on Israel to take part in peace talks with Lebanon after the global outcry.”

“However, Israel’s chief negotiator, its ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter, is a right-wing hardliner living in an Israeli settlement in the illegally occupied Palestinian West Bank, Al Jazeera reported.”

“According to Israeli media reports, Leiter was involved with the Jewish Defense League in his youth, a US-based, far-right, pro-Israel group that was classified by US authorities as a terrorist organisation.”

“Al Jazeera further reported that the Jewish Defense League supports the annexation of the occupied West Bank and the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority.”

“It has been linked to several violent attacks on US soil.”

“Lebanon’s priority is a permanent ceasefire.”

“Israel’s priority is the disarmament of Hezbollah, which the Lebanese forces would struggle to do because of Hezbollah’s military superiority, and any escalation between the two could ignite a civil war in Lebanon.”