We support you, but really… who cares…

   In the days following the assassination of Ahmad Jaabari, the fighting between Hamas and Israel raised an interesting question: why does Hezbollah stand aside and does nothing to support its brothers in Gaza?

   On Wednesday, November 14, 2012, Israel assassinated Ahmed Jaabari, the head of Hamas’s military wing, as a response to the increasingly massive rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip in the last few months. Shortly after the assassination, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) retaliated by intensifying the rocket attacks and extending the range of fire to include Tel Aviv – more than 75 kilometers (46 miles) from Gaza. The two sides are still at war, sirens are currently heard in many Israeli cities and unfortunately, and there seems to be no end to the current conflict.

   A day after the assassination Hezbollah condemned the “barbaric Zionist Aggression on Gaza” and called it “a desperate attempt to break the will of the resistance.” The organization also urged the Arab League to carry their responsibilities and stop the 'genocide' imposed on Gaza through 'Israel's' siege, shelling, killing and destruction.” Hezbollah’s official websites in Arabic and English (http://www.moqawama.org/) and its television station, Al-Manar, provide information on the fighting almost on a daily basis. It has been confirmed that Hezbollah transferred a large amount of long-range rockets to Hamas after Israel destroyed most of Hamas’s reserves over the last few days. However, what is more important is what Hezbollah did not do.

   Hezbollah did not send fighters to Gaza to assist Hamas in fighting against Israel. The organization indeed declared its support for Hamas, as expected, but called on the Arab world to take action rather than taking action by itself. Hezbollah’s most effective assistance to Hamas would be to fire rockets across Israel’s northern border - diverting Israel’s attention from the southern to the northern border, dividing its military force, and weakening Hezbollah and Hamas’s shared enemy. Hezbollah did none. Why?

   Since the assassination of Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan mid-October, Hezbollah is fighting for political survival in Lebanon. Its political enemies from the March 14 coalition claim that Hezbollah and its representative, Prime Minister Najib Mikati, are responsible for the assassination and should resign. A few weeks after the assassination, Prime Minister Mikati is still in office and President Michel Suleiman is trying to convince all parties to agree to national dialogue in order to establish a unity government with the opposition.

  Moreover, Hassan Nasrallah, as he has proved in the past, prefers to be the initiator of his own wars rather than a second front in another conflict. The time isn't right for Hezbollah to open a front with Israel, and Hezbollah must preserve its arsenal for the right time, even though solidarity with Hamas is important.     

   In addition, the Lebanese Army (LAF), which has taken more responsibility after the assassination, and U.N. peacekeeping force UNIFIL, have been patrolling the areas near the border with Israel to maintain security and prevent Hezbollah or radical Palestinian groups from exploiting the Gaza fighting to fire rockets into northern Israel to trigger Israeli retaliation.

   In the end, Hamas, PIJ and other cooperating terrorist organizations in the Gaza strip stand alone. The Arab world, including Hezbollah, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, condemn the Israeli retaliations and support Gaza morally, but doing nothing more at this point, each country and entity for its own reasons. They don't want a part in the war with Israel – it's Hamas's war – not theirs.

Sources: Lebanese and Israeli press