Mojtaba Darabi, researcher and journalist
As dawn broke over the rugged hills of southern Lebanon, a convoy of cars surged forward, their horns blaring in a symphony of homecoming. Lebanese families, long displaced by the Zionist regime's aggression, raced back to their villages shortly after a cease-fire took effect at 4:00 a.m. local time on Wednesday. Windows rolled down, hands waved the yellow flags of Hezbollah, signaling both relief and defiance.
In one stirring scene captured on video, a man in southern Lebanon climbed a pylon to lower a Zionist regime's flag that had been hoisted during the hostilities. The collective voice of those returning was unified: "This is our home."
Amid the jubilant celebrations, a cleric clutching a Hezbollah flag, his eyes reflecting a mix of joy and determination, declared, "This flag will not fall from our hands; it has never fallen to the ground and never will. Thanks to the blood of the martyrs, the wounded, the veterans, the prisoners, and all the people, this flag has always been raised."
But just across the border in northern occupied territories, the atmosphere couldn't be more different. The Zionist settlements remained deserted. Despite the cease-fire, the Zionist settlers have not yet returned to their homes near the frontier. Gabi Naaman, the mayor of the northern city of Shlomi, noted the stark contrast. "Our residents are continuing to stay away from the border region for now," he said. Fear and uncertainty linger — a fear instilled by Hezbollah's resistance.
Zionist media outlets have voiced frustration and disbelief at the images of Lebanese returnees. One outlet reported the frustration among the Zionist settlers upon seeing scenes of Lebanese villagers reclaiming their homes while settlers of northern occupied territories are still unable to return. Zionist social media users raised a troubling question: "If we delivered a decisive blow to them, why are they returning while we are not?"
This juxtaposition raises critical questions about the recent cease-fire agreement. Why did the Zionist regime, despite its claims of military superiority, accept terms that seem to leave its northern settlers in limbo?
Dennis Ross, a senior analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former U.S. envoy, believes the ceasefire in Lebanon resulted from the Zionist regime's "desire not to get stuck in the mud of Lebanon."
The protracted conflict risked becoming an unwinnable quagmire, with high costs and no clear exit strategy. To understand this, one must examine the developments on the ground. Despite Netanyahu's assertions that the regime had set Hezbollah back "tens of years" and that the Resistance Front "was not the same as before," the reality tells a different story. Hezbollah's missile capabilities demonstrated that it could accurately target deep inside the occupied territories whenever it chose, challenging the Zionist regime's calculations.
The Zionist regime's military officials have offered candid assessments. According to reports, Tamir Hayman, the head of regime's Military Intelligence Directorate, acknowledged that the army failed to achieve all of its goals during the recent conflict. He emphasized the resilience and adaptability of Hezbollah Resistance fighters, stating that through bold combat against the Zionist regime's army, Hezbollah fighters embodied the notion that "it is on the battlefield alone where equations are established."
The economic impact within the occupied territories has been significant. Businesses in Haifa, well south of the Lebanese border, experienced a 90 percent drop in income during October 2024. "People are not coming out onto the streets, and the situation in Haifa is worrying and far from simple," said one shop owner.
The fear extended beyond immediate border areas to even south of Tel Aviv as a result of Hezbollah's defensive capabilities, which has heightened the Zionist regime's concerns.
This time, instead of hundreds of thousands displaced from the northern regions, the potential displacement of millions was on the horizon. Continuing the aggressions in Lebanon threatened to make no place in the occupied territories feel truly safe, exacerbating fears of mass reverse migration.
Such anxieties are not unfounded. Last April, following a Zionist regime's attack on the consular section of the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Iran conducted punitive actions against Israeli-occupied territories using hundreds of drones and missiles launched from Iranian soil. Ronen Bergman, a journalist with close ties to the Zionist regime's intelligence, Mossad, quoted an informed official who said, "If they had filmed [the internal discussions of the authorities] and broadcast it on YouTube, today there would be four million people in Israel trying to find a way to escape from here."
These realities stand in stark contrast to Netanyahu's declarations of victory. Presenting the cease-fire deal, he lauded what he called the regime's "unprecedented achievements" over the past year of a seven-front war.
Imam Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, addressed the regime's failures in a meeting with Basij members on Monday. He stated, "The stupid Zionists imagine that by bombarding people's homes, hospitals, and places where people are gathered, they're the victors. No, no one in the world considers that to be a victory." Imam Khamenei emphasized that the enemy has not and will not be victorious in Gaza and Lebanon despite its egregious war crimes.
Mayor Naaman of Shlomi reflected the fear gripping Zionist settlers. "Everything we were shown testifies to the fact that the next round [of war] is ahead of us, whether in a month, two months, or ten years," he said. A survey reported by the Zionist media indicated that 70 percent of Zionist settlers living near the border with Lebanon are considering not returning to their homes.
This sense of insecurity touches on deeper issues of identity and belonging. On one side of the border, Lebanese families return to ancestral lands, their connection to the soil unbroken by displacement. On the other, there are settlers who have no roots in this land and have forcibly seized it from the Palestinians.
When Mayor Naaman says, "As of now, there’s no plan to return home," the word "home" carries different weights. For the Lebanese, it is a birthright steeped in generations of heritage. But for the settlers, it is a place that no longer provides peace for them because they took away the Palestinians' habitat.
Edward Said, the esteemed Palestinian intellectual, once reflected on this dichotomy: "We were the people dislodged from the land. We were the indigenous inhabitants who were thrown out to make way for a Jewish state."
(The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Khamenei.ir.)
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