By Martin Kear
Netanyahu has pledged to ‘finish the job’ against Hezbollah. It’s a promise he can’t deliver on
Martin Kear, University of Sydney
Israel and Lebanon agreed to a ceasefire three weeks ago. The violence, however, hasn’t stopped.
In recent days, Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 40 people and the military has issued evacuation orders for residents of ten villages and towns in southern Lebanon, where it has established a security buffer zone.
According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this zone is needed to protect Israel from future attacks by the Hezbollah militant group. He said it is “much stronger, more intense, more continuous, and more solid than we had previously”.
Critics, however, contend Israel is adopting the “Gaza playbook” in this buffer zone, mirroring its actions in Gaza after a fragile ceasefire was agreed to last October.
Militarily, Israel is hitting an already-weakened Hezbollah as hard as it can to deplete its capabilities and force it out of its southern Lebanon stronghold.
Israel calls this strategy “mowing the grass”. It has long viewed this strategy as the best way to establish a level of deterrence against Hamas and Hezbollah, which cannot be defeated through conventional military means.
Like it did in Gaza, Israel is also aiming to make the buffer zone uninhabitable for residents. In late March, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz declared:
All houses in villages near the Lebanese border will be destroyed, in accordance with the model used in Rafah and Beit Hanoun in Gaza, in order to permanently remove the threats near the border to northern residents.
As part of this, Israel has destroyed all the bridges across the Litani River, effectively isolating southern Lebanon from the rest of the country. It is also systematically destroying or severely damaging towns, villages and infrastructure in the region.
This “Gaza playbook” has come with a significant human cost. Since this latest conflict with Hezbollah began in early March, Israel’s attacks have killed more than 2,600 Lebanese and displaced another 1.2 million from their homes.
Netanyahu is becoming trapped
Yet, despite achieving many successes against Hezbollah, Netanyahu is in danger of overreaching in his claims to be able to defeat one of Israel’s nemeses.
For decades, successive Israeli governments, particularly those headed by Netanyahu, have convinced the Israeli public that Israel and Hezbollah are engaged in an existential struggle.
Many Israelis now expect Netanyahu to deliver on his promise and finally rid them of this threat forever.
In a recent poll conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute, 80% of respondents supported continuing the fight against Hezbollah irrespective of any possible peace deal between the US and Iran, and even if this created tensions with the Trump administration.
This poses a political threat to Netanyahu as he faces becoming trapped between two opposing realities.
Delivering on a false promise
The first centres on the “mowing the grass” strategy. This strategy has long served as good propaganda and as an exemplar of the government protecting its people. But it was never intended to completely defeat the threats posed by Hezbollah or Hamas.
When it comes to Hezbollah, Israel’s military simply cannot completely defeat a resistance movement that is so embedded in the social, political and cultural fabric of Lebanon. This would require not just a military victory, but the subjugation of its supporters and the delegitimisation of its ideology.
The intention of the “mowing the grass” strategy is to manage the threats posed by Hezbollah and Hamas, not destroy them.
If Israel is able to cause substantial damage to their political and military capabilities – in addition to destroying local infrastructure – the groups are then forced to focus on survival and revival, rather than on threatening Israel.
From Israel’s perspective, this provides some breathing room until the threat reemerges and it is time to “mow the grass” again.
From a political perspective, this strategy also allows Israel to justify its continuous military operations. This has been the cornerstone of Netanyahu’s political revival since the Hamas attacks of 2023, allowing him to maintain a constant sense of crisis that requires ever-increasing levels of violence.
But Netanyahu has changed the narrative, shifting from just “managing” Israel’s conflict with both Hezbollah and Hamas, to “dismantling” the groups and “finishing the job”.
It is clear the Israeli public wants Netanyahu to deliver on this promise.
Trump forcing his hand
The second reality facing Netanyahu is the potential that US President Donald Trump will agree to a permanent ceasefire with Iran that forces Israel to cease its hostilities against Hezbollah.
Since the tentative ceasefire between the US and Iran, Netanyahu has been trying to separate Israel’s conflicts with Iran and Hezbollah. This would allow him to continue the military’s operations against Hezbollah and claim a key strategic victory.
But Iran is demanding that any ceasefire it reaches with the US include Hezbollah.
This places Netanyahu in a bind. If he does agree to a permanent peace deal, this would leave a severely wounded but not-yet-destroyed Hezbollah in place. With Hamas and the Iranian regime also still intact (albeit severely wounded), this would represent a triple disaster for Netanyahu.
The backlash is already starting. Last month, Israeli opposition leader Yair Golan accused Netanyahu of lying:
He promised a historic victory and security for generations, and in practice, we got one of the most severe strategic failures Israel has ever known.
Criticism like this could have a huge effect on the Israeli elections, due before the end of this year.
Netanyahu is desperate to win these elections to forestall his long-running corruption trial. As such, he would be loath to risk breaking with the Israeli public on his promise to finish Hezbollah. However, that may mean breaking with the US and its essential military, political and diplomatic support.
While the “mowing the grass” strategy gave Netanyahu new political life after Hamas’s October 7 attacks, his failure to match his rhetoric to actual results may now prove to be his Achilles’ heel.
Martin Kear is Lecturer in the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney.
R.S. says
It’s important to remember that Hezbollah is not merely a militant group; Hezbollah is a political party, and beyond politics, it runs an extensive social services network, including hospitals, schools, vocational institutions, and charities, primarily in Shiite-majority areas of Lebanon, which has strengthened its local support. So, when Netanyahu bombs hospitals and other social-service agencies to go after Hezbollah, he’s probably right–but at what level of so-called collateral damage?! To eradicate Hezbollah would involve a string of war crimes, something we tend to forget when we hear Hezbollah in our news connected with “terrorism” consistently. And it was largely the same for Hamas in Gaza. Unfortunately, western support for Israel must rely on extensive simplification!
JC says
If I can give you a thumbs down for the comment above, I would. Not because of what you said, but how you phase your statement. Hezbollah is also the same political party that in their mission statement is the goal of destroying Israel and kicking out all of the Jews from the Middle East with their Shiia terrorism. Furthermore, they are Anti-LGBT, Anti-Western Values, and Anti-Women. Fun fact: The Sunni Muslims don’t like them at all!
R.S. says
That’s nonsense, JC. The aim of the Arabic parties of the region is an integrated IsraPalestine with equal rights for all who live there. That’s the meaning of “from the river to the sea.” Arabs and Muslims have lived side by side with Jews in that region from Times Immemorial. It’s merely the Zionist madness that seeks to destroy the peace that had prevailed there for centuries. Maimonides, after having been expelled from Spain, lived the remainder of his life peacefully in Muslim Egypt. Israel is now also making life unbearable for Israeli Arabs. The apartheid regime is Israel’s. How the US won the West is how Israel seeks to win the West Bank at the expense of the indigenous people who live there.
JC says
Oh lord this guy above doesn’t know what he is talking about. None of the statement I stated above was nonsense. If you actually research the positions of Hezbollah, that’s their beliefs. They are super clear that one of their main goals is the destruction of Israel, which they keep repeating after decades.
I know Israeli Arabs, and for the most part they are fine within Israel. I trust their comments more since they live in Israel, not you.
Pierre Tristam says
Let’s concede that Hamas and Hezbollah’s stated goals are the destruction of Israel. Rhetoric is not action. Let’s look at the ground. Who has destroyed whom? It is Israel that denies Palestinians the right to exist, to have a history, to have an identity, to have so much as a flag (Palestinian flags are illegal under Israeli control). JXC’s claims about Israeli Arabs are laughable. They are third-class citizens in their own country who have a fraction of the rights Israelis enjoy, while in the occupied territories of course, Palestinians are enduring worse than Jim Crow. They are terrorized by colonists (“settlers”) and the Israeli military, they are being murdered in droves, and being further erased from existence. I can go on, but arguing with Israeli apologists of terrorism and apartheid is a cause as lost as Palestinian rights. In Israeli eyes, a Palestinian is a “human animal,” as Israeli officials themselves say. Spare me the sanctimony about Hamas and Hezbollah, whose acts, however reprehensible, however criminal–and some of their acts are indistinguishable from crimes against humanity–nowhere approach the genocidal mass murdering of the Israeli army, the genocidal rhetoric of Israeli politicians and a good share of the Israeli public, and the ongoing ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank.
JC says
You happen to know how any Israeli Arabs, I do. I never say their situation is perfect and yes they have biases against them, but if you ask them point blank would you prefer to leave for another Arab country or stay in Israel, almost all of them will say stay in Israel. You should ask yourself this question on why they want to stay in Israel.
Pierre, if you care about the Palestinians so much please first focus on your home country bias against the Palestinians and why the Lebanese refuse to give the Palestinians living in Lebanon any Lebanese citizenship before you keep blabbing about Israel back/forth.
Rhetoric is action, because why would I even attempt to deal to deal with a group of people who goal is the death and destruction of my people? You have to stop thinking like an American and more like a Middle Eastern. For example, why would I even attempt to talk with the government reps of Gaza when they act like barbarians towards my people? https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/12/middleeast/report-sexual-violence-hamas-oct-7-attacks-intl
If they want to act like animals, then they should be dealt like animals. Sorry you don’t like it but you are too American at this point.
Sherry says
Thank you Pierre!
It’s the same with Iran. . . lots of “talk” about killing Americans. Yet, of course after all these years they have NOT developed war machines and bombs to do that.
Why is it that Maga easily excuses all the horrible rhetoric from their lord and master trump, but they cower under their beds and want to bomb the hell out of the Iranian hardliners for “saying” death to America? Geez!
Dennis C Rathsam says
Iran has played this stalling game for many years, I laugh when I see Iran demands this, Iran wont give up there nukes! Iran is in no shape to demand anything! The longer we wait the more, China or Russia will interfear. Now is the time to make Iran pay for all thier dirty deals & killings of Americans. Looks like the new boss, is as dumb as the old boss. Iran wants to play games, with TRUMP. I say let the play, BOMBS AWAY
R.S. says
What stalling game, Dennis? Israel has nuclear weapons galore, according to Mordechai Vanunu, who ratted on them in 1986, was abducted by Israel and spent time in their jails. Neither Israel nor the US have signed the non-proliferation agreement. Iran had signed that agreement. I suspect that we have the culprits all wrong in the region. Iran had admitted weapons inspections; Israel has never and still won’t come clean. Their jails are an abomination; and the country is clearly an apartheid state.
Sherry says
Oh Oh. . . R.S. Trying to “educate” Maga’s indoctrinated only causes massive confusion and hate filled eruptions from some. Unfortunately, you are likely wasting your time.
Tired of it says
If the gutless Lebanese government, people and military had taken decisive action against Hezbollah instead of allowing the group to grow into a dominant force within the country, Lebanon might have remained more stable and sovereign. Israel would not feel compelled to intervene militarily, and far fewer innocent civilians on both sides would suffer the consequences.
e care of Hezbollah on their own instead of allowing them to take over their country, they would be free and Israel would not have to do it for them and innocent civilians would not be killed.
Dusty Boots says
You can always tell when the Transnational Blather Alliance is nervous: Israel starts winning.
That’s what this entire article boils down to. Strip away the academic jargon, the hand-wringing, the moral preening, and what you’ve got is another lecture telling Israel that defending itself too effectively is somehow the real problem.
Notice the framing here. Hezbollah — an Iranian-backed terrorist army loaded with rockets, drones, and fanatics — is portrayed almost sympathetically, like some unavoidable weather pattern. “Oh, they’re deeply embedded in Lebanese society.” Really? Since when did being embedded excuse terrorism? Organized crime is embedded in parts of society too. That doesn’t mean civilized nations are supposed to shrug and surrender.
And look at the language. Israel is “overreaching.” Netanyahu is “trapped.” Israel’s military actions are the “Gaza playbook.” These people never use this language for Hezbollah. They never say Hezbollah is overreaching by firing rockets into civilian neighborhoods. They never say Hamas is trapped by its genocidal ideology. There’s always this assumption that Israel, the democracy, bears all the responsibility while the terrorists get all the excuses.
The article’s big revelation is supposedly that Israel can’t permanently destroy Hezbollah. Well, no kidding. America couldn’t permanently destroy radical Islam either. That doesn’t mean you stop fighting people trying to kill you. This is the fantasy of the academic class: if a problem can’t be solved perfectly and permanently, then resistance itself becomes immoral.
Meanwhile, the people writing these columns are comfortably sitting oceans away from missile fire. Israelis don’t have that luxury. They remember October 7. They remember the kidnappings, the murders, the rockets, the years of being told to show “restraint” while terrorists stockpile weapons on their border.
And here’s the part the article accidentally admits without understanding: the Israeli public overwhelmingly supports continuing the fight. Why? Because ordinary Israelis have figured out something the foreign-policy elites never will — deterrence matters. Strength matters. Survival matters.
But the author wants you to believe Netanyahu’s real problem is political rhetoric. No. The real problem for the global establishment is that Israel refuses to play the role they assigned to it — the passive democracy that absorbs attacks while being scolded by European diplomats and American universities.
The article also tries to paint Trump as the adult in the room pressuring Israel into a ceasefire with Iran. But let’s be honest about what that means in practice: Iran keeps its influence, Hezbollah survives, Hamas survives, and Israel is told to trust “international guarantees.” How many times has that worked in the Middle East? Zero.
This is the fundamental divide. Israel sees Hezbollah as an existential threat. The Western intellectual class sees Hezbollah as a complicated sociological phenomenon. One side lives in reality. The other lives in faculty lounges.
And finally, the article treats Netanyahu’s promise to “finish the job” as some outrageous impossibility. Maybe it is impossible to eliminate every last terrorist. But there’s a huge difference between imperfect victory and surrender disguised as sophistication.
That’s what these pieces always amount to: a demand that democracies lower their expectations while terrorists never lower their ambitions.
And people are finally tired of it.