Huge Beirut strike leaves West powerless as Israel chases victory

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Huge Beirut strike leaves West powerless as ******* chases victory

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The ******** reportedly targeted Hezbollah’s leader

It is time to stop talking about the Middle East being on the brink of a much more serious war. After the devastating ******** ******* on what it said was the Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut it feels as if they’re tumbling over it.

It was a huge series of blasts, according to people who were in Beirut. A friend of mine in the city said it was the most powerful she had heard in any of Lebanon’s wars.

In the hours after the ******* ******** media reported that the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was the target. Social media channels and TV stations were full of speculation about whether he had been in the building that was targeted and whether he had survived.

As rescue workers searched for survivors in the rubble, Hezbollah’s silence on the matter redoubled the speculation.

It was not the end of ******** air force’s ******** missions for the day. The ******** military announced that it was continuing to ******* Hezbollah targets.

Earlier in the day there were hopes, admittedly faint ones, that *******’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was at least prepared to discuss a proposal for a 21-day ceasefire. It came from the US and France and was backed by *******’s most significant Western allies.

But in a typically defiant and at times aggressive speech to the UN General Assembly in New York, Netanyahu did not talk about diplomacy.

*******, he said, had no choice but to ****** savage enemies who sought its annihilation. Hezbollah would be defeated – and there would be total victory over ****** in Gaza, which would ensure the return of ******** hostages.

Far from being lambs led to the ********** – a phrase sometimes used in ******* to refer to the ***** Holocaust – *******, he said, was winning.

Watch: BBC correspondent records moment air strike hits Beirut

The huge ******* in Beirut that occurred as he finished his speech was an even more emphatic sign that a truce in Lebanon was not on *******’s agenda.

It seemed more than feasible that the ******* was timed to follow up Mr Netanyahu’s threats that ******* could, and would, hit its enemies, wherever they were.

The Pentagon, the US defence department, said it had no advance warning from ******* about the raid.

A photo released by the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem showed him at a bank of communications equipment in what looked like his hotel in New York City. The image’s caption said it showed the moment that he authorised the raid.

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Netanyahu reportedly authorised the airstrike from his hotel room in New York

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended the policy he has worked on for months. He said there was still room for negotiation. That assertion is looking hollow.

The Americans have very few levers to use against any side. They cannot, by law, talk to Hezbollah and ****** as they are classified as foreign ********** organisations. With the US elections only weeks away, they are even less likely to put pressure on ******* than they have been in the last year.

Powerful voices in the ******** government and military wanted to ******* Hezbollah in the days after the ****** attacks last October. They argued that they could deal their enemies in Lebanon a decisive *****. The Americans persuaded them not to do it, arguing that the trouble it might set off across the region offset any potential security benefit for *******.

But in the course of the last year Netanyahu has made a habit of defying President Joe Biden’s wishes about the way ******* is fighting. Despite providing ******* with the aircraft and ****** used in the raid on Beirut, President Biden and team were spectators.

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Workers dig through the debris for survivors following the latest strike

His policy for the last year, as a lifelong supporter of *******, was to try to influence Netanyahu by showing solidarity and support, delivering weapons and diplomatic protection.

Biden believed that he could persuade Netanyahu not just to change the way ******* fights – the president has said repeatedly that it is imposing too much suffering and ******** too many ************ civilians – but to accept an ********* plan for the day after that rested on creating an independent ************ state alongside *******.

Netanyahu rejected the idea out of hand and has ignored Joe Biden’s advice.

After the ******* on Beirut, Blinken repeated his view that a combination of deterrence and diplomacy had staved off a wider war in the Middle East. But as events spiral out of US control, he is not sounding convincing.

Big decisions lie ahead. First of all, with or without Nasrallah, Hezbollah is going to have to decide how to use its remaining arsenal. Do they use try to mount a much heavier ******* on *******? If they don’t use their remaining rockets and missiles in storage, they might decide ******* will get around to destroying even more of them.

The Israelis also face highly consequential decisions. They have already talked about a ground operation against Lebanon, and while they haven’t yet mobilised all the reserves they might need, an invasion is on their agenda. Some in Lebanon believe that in a ground war Hezbollah could negate some of *******’s military strengths.

Western diplomats, among them *******’s staunchest allies, were hoping to calm matters, urging ******* to accept a diplomatic solution. They will now be looking at events with dismay and also a sense of powerlessness.

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