Iran’s axis is dying

From the hilltop viewpoint at Misgav Am, Israel’s northernmost kibbutz in the Upper Galilee, the view into southern Lebanon is a panorama of uncertainty. Less than a full day after Assad was finally defeated in Syria, I stand at and look down at the rubble of the Lebanese buildings destroyed in the recent fighting, as close to the Syrian border as the IDF will allow. Beside my feet, spent bullet casings remind me that less than two weeks ago this peaceful spot was a frontline position. The shell of a bombed-out nearby community viewpoint serves as a silent witness to the RPG attacks Hezbollah regularly launched on civilian homes and buildings since it started its war on Israel in October 2023. 

The ceasefire, still fresh and precarious, has brought a fragile quiet to this battered border. Yet the scars of this latest chapter in a much longer war remain. Hezbollah’s repeated rocket attacks, countered by Israeli airstrikes and incursions, turned communities like this into ghost towns, forcing evacuations and upending lives.