42 Years Later, Israel and Lebanon get a Do-Over
Can Nasrallah's elimination bring a new order to the Middle East? Only if past mistakes aren't repeated.
For Lebanon and Israel, time froze on September 14, 1982, the day the Lebanese president-elect and Phalangist military leader, Bashir Gemayel, was assassinated by Syrian agents. The killing of this Christian general sparked a wave of civil violence, culminating in the massacres of Palestinians at Sabra and Shatila by Phalange forces under the watch of the Israelis, who had invaded the prior June, ostensibly to stop rocket fire onto the Jewish communities of Galilee. (Sound familiar?)
Until the killing of Gemayel, everything had gone swimmingly for the Israelis. Sure, there were mass anti-Israel protests all over the world and antisemitism spiked (again, sound familiar?). But Israel opened itself up to some of the criticism by going beyond the initial war aims. Despite his claim of seeking merely a buffer from Palestinian rockets (the incursion was called “Operation Peace for Galilee”), up to the Litani River, General Ariel Sharon led Israeli troops up the coast all the way to Beirut and laid siege on the city. The young, charismatic Gemayel was then installed by Israel as Lebanese leader, creating the Middle East’s second non Muslim-run state and turning an enemy into an Israeli ally overnight.
Simple job. Piece of cake. Nation-Building 101.
Mission Accomplished, right?
This exercise in geopolitical engineering using blunt military force rather than diplomatic delicacy turned out to be a fatal error. The imposed solution had all the subtlety of Sharon himself, larger and louder than life, an oversized bull in a china shop. And it failed. And that failure shaped the region every bit as much as everything that happened after that: Sadat’s assassination, Rabin’s killing, the Oslo Accords, the Intifadas, October 7 and all the wars that have happened, including Israel’s nonstop conflict with Hezbollah itself. That single blast changed everything.
And so has this one.
At long last, 42 years and change following Gemayel’s the killing of Hassan Nasrallah has evened the score and allowed the Israelis and Lebanese people a chance for a fresh start.
Hezbollah has wielded effective control over Lebanon for decades, but now that control may be ending. That cheering heard in the streets of Syria Friday night was not over the deaths of Israelis, but a celebration the death perpetrated by the Israelis.
This weekend’s Beirut blast didn’t just even the score four decades after that other Beirut blast, it reset the board completely.
So now the question, especially for the Israelis but also for the US and Sunni states, is this: What are you going to do with this new chance? Are you going to go all blunt-force trauma like the hubristic Sharon and push the troops up to the Litani and beyond? Are you going to try once again to install the leader of your neighbor? Or is this now a time to negotiate from strength and seek a day-after solution that offers peace and security for all parties, and a return of the hostages?
When Nasrallah’s demise was confirmed, the headlines on Israeli media contained the Hebrew term “Husal” (see photo above from Israel channel 12’s website). The word means “eliminated,” derived from the Hebrew root H-S-L, “to finish.”
For many traditional Jews, that word rings a bell. The concluding section of the Passover Seder begins with a verse from a liturgical poem written in 11th century Germany, “Hasal Sidur Pesach,” which is replete with biblical allusions of hope, redemption and a return to the land. The Seder’s final chapter begins with an assertion that order (seder) has been achieved, allowing for that unabashed, unburdened, visionary cry for the ages: Next Year in Jerusalem!
The Seder is, in its structure, a journey from slavery to freedom, darkness to light, chaos to order and hopelessness to hope. Note also that where the opening section is in Aramaic, the language of exile (ha lachma anya), this passage at the end is in Hebrew, the language of promise.
I prefer this translation, which I find astoundingly resonant right now.
“Thus ends (Hasal) the Passover Seder according to Jewish law - the task has been eliminated. Even as we have merited to follow this ordered ritual, so may we merit to do it again (next year)….Replant God’s ransomed prople, soon, in joy.”
That last verse echoes Isaiah 35:10 and 51:11, passages that reflect so perfectly who we feel right now, praying that this weekend’s turn of events might break the logjam and lead to the return of the remaining hostages to their homes, in freedom, and for the residents of the north and south, a return to their homes too, in joy. As the Isaiah of the Exile proclaimed in 35:10:
As I alluded above, it bears repeating that even before the news was confirmed on Shabbat, they were dancing in the streets of many places Nasrallah terrorized, not just Israel.
Maybe now we’ll be able to see what a truly free Lebanon looks like. Maybe this will unlock long-dormant aspirations in that country, and who knows where else? Arab Spring might have failed, but it showed us that even those suppressed for decades never completely lose that yearning for freedom. Most of all, in Iran itself, the people are watching.
Hezbollah has no leaders left. In an irony too hard to ignore, given the Iranian penchant for the punitive cutting of extremities, many of their their fighters don’t have hands because of the pager explosions. Their leadership’s hands would be tied, if they had any left - leaders or hands. If change can’t happen now, it never can.
And it can. We’ve reached the end of the Seder.
If the Americans and Europeans play their cards right, and the Lebanese people seize this precious opportunity that has been provided them, the clock can be set again to Sept 14, 1982, the date when everything went awry. But this time, Israel has to learn from its mistakes in intrusive nation-building - much as the U.S. learned from its misadventures in Vietnam and Iraq - and take its foot off the gas. No boots on the ground. Please, no battle plans for the Litani. The non-combatants have suffered enough, on all sides. It’s time to go to the table.
Israel can learn from the final act of the Seder - especially given the word seder means order.
Hasal Sidur can mean: When the task is eliminated, we can restore order.
The task, which was in the end necessary, was to eliminate Hassan Nasrallah.
And what did the Israeli army code-name this historic mission? Mivtza Seder Hadash.
Operation New Order (Seder).
Mission indeed accomplished. For part one. The hardest part is what comes after. We found that out in September, 1982.
