On Tuesday, ABC News Reporter Patrick Reevell said that it’s “very dangerous” for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to call on people in Lebanon “to try and push out Hezbollah and sideline them.” Even if communities in Lebanon “may have very difficult relationships with” the terror group.
Reevell said, “[T]his, of course, I think is worth noting, what Prime Minister Netanyahu in his speech announcing the likely killing of Safieddine, he said that — he called, basically, on the people of Lebanon now that they have a chance to, essentially, overthrow Hezbollah and try and take their country back is what he said. He said — also, he basically delivered an ultimatum, he said that this is your opportunity now to take back your country from Hezbollah and save Lebanon from falling into the abyss of a long war and seeing the destruction similar to that in Gaza. Essentially, he’s calling on people here and the different communities to try and push out Hezbollah and sideline them. That is a very dangerous thing to be calling for in Lebanon — in a place like Lebanon, with its history that, of course, was devastated by a very long and very, very bloody civil war, where there are many, many different communities, and who, it’s true, that may have very difficult relationships with Hezbollah, but to try and bet on, essentially, a conflict between these different communities and Hezbollah, is, of course, a very dangerous thing to be calling for. It’s also, I think, quite a doubtful strategy. I think many people who we’ve been talking to here blame Israel for the current war.”
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