THREAD: Israel's actions in Lebanon do not embody the Dahyeh Doctrine but rather, the Gaza Doctrine, as starkly demonstrated by Netanyahu’s ultimatum yesterday to “free” Lebanon from Hizbullah or “face destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza.” The key distinction between the two doctrines lies in the Gaza Doctrine's genocidal and ethnic cleansing aims, which are now beginning to manifest in Lebanon. But unlike Gaza, Lebanon's deep social and political divisions are being exploited by Israel to fuel internal conflict and use it as an additional strategic tool. 1/
Given the Sunni community's sympathy towards Gaza and the Resistance, Israel is focusing on right-wing Christian political leaders and primarily Christian host communities, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Shia are seeking refuge. Rather than the unrealistic goal of defeating Hizbullah internally, Netanyahu’s rhetoric is aimed at bogging down Hizbullah in a protracted internal war, provoking right-wing Christians and others to take up arms and fuelling broader anti-Shia violence. 2/
This genocidal, ethnic-cleansing discourse against the Shia was also evident in former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett’s almost comical claim last month that “many Shia in Lebanon have a unique revenue stream: In their home they have a special ‘Rocket Launcher Room.” This accusation implicitly frames the entire Shia community as a legitimate target for Israeli attacks. The same discourse was echoed by Israeli Channel 14, which displayed photos of Israel’s hit list of predominantly Shia leaders, including Iraq’s Ayatollah Sayyed Ali al-Sistani, a globally revered Shiite religious figure who holds no position or role in the Resistance Axis. 3/
The dehumanization of the Shia community by mainstream, right-wing Christian figures and affiliated media, as well as liberal “independents”, parrots Israel's rhetoric, casting them as "foreigners" or "Iranians," and accusing them of embedding fighters among displaced civilians and hiding weapons in homes. Some have seized on this war to tacitly endorse collaboration with Israel in efforts to disarm Hizbullah. This narrative has been crafted over years, beginning with the Beirut blast in 2020, when the racialization of the Shia, and the spread of phrases like "they don’t look like us" became commonplace. 4/
Alongside inciting Christian parties to take up arms against Hizbullah, Israel is also working to heighten fears within Christian and other host communities sheltering displaced Shia. This includes amplifying baseless claims that Shia are hiding weapons in their homes, striking mixed-sectarian areas where Shia have sought refuge, targeting buildings housing refugees, and even threatening landlords who are renting flats to displaced Shia. Although all sects, including Christians, have generally been welcoming to displaced Shia, there have been numerous reports of landlords and tenants evicting Shia families, and businesses refusing to serve them in grocery stores and other services due to these growing fears. 5/
Israel's ultimate strategic objective appears to be to encourage Christians to form their own cantons, a long-held ambition of right-wing Christian parties like the Lebanese Forces and the supposedly more "centrist" Kataeb. This would effectively push the Shia into isolated, homogeneous territories that could be turned into kill zones, similar to what was done to Gazans—trapping them in areas marked for systematic extermination. 6/
The overwhelming majority of Shia already see Hizbullah as a protector against the existential threat posed by Israel, but now they will rally even more strongly behind it, viewing it as their only defense against this new danger from a right wing threat which has a history of massacring Palestinians in Lebanon. 7/
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