What Role Does the Lebanese Army Play on the Border with Israel?

Smoke rises on the Lebanese side of the border between Israel and Lebanon after an Israeli airstrike, as seen from northern Israel, November 18, 2023. (Reuters)
Smoke rises on the Lebanese side of the border between Israel and Lebanon after an Israeli airstrike, as seen from northern Israel, November 18, 2023. (Reuters)
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What Role Does the Lebanese Army Play on the Border with Israel?

Smoke rises on the Lebanese side of the border between Israel and Lebanon after an Israeli airstrike, as seen from northern Israel, November 18, 2023. (Reuters)
Smoke rises on the Lebanese side of the border between Israel and Lebanon after an Israeli airstrike, as seen from northern Israel, November 18, 2023. (Reuters)

The Lebanese army has been playing a limited role in the southern border regions ever since Hezbollah decided to support fighters in Gaza by opening Israel’s northern front with Lebanon.

Iran-backed Hezbollah has been clashing with Israeli forces on a daily basis since Hamas launched its Al-Aqsa Flood operation against Israel on October 7. At least 75 Hezbollah fighters have been killed so far.

Along with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), the army is committed to the implementation of UN Security Council resolution 1701. The resolution helped end a 33-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.

The army has been active in preventing Palestinian groups from launching attacks against Israel from southern Lebanon. It has been dismantling rocket launchpads that have been discovered in the fields.

A security source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the army has been carrying out sweeps of border regions in search of rocket launchers.

The presence of the military and UNIFIL has been reassuring to the locals, it added, stressing that the army will remain in its positions and is prepared for “all possibilities”.

Moreover, the source explained that the army is operating with the cover of the government. Hezbollah’s operations are, meanwhile, being covered by the state and ministerial statements.

The actions of the Palestinian factions, however, are a cause for concern, amid fears that their operations could lead to the deterioration of the security situation in the South, it added.

Political and strategic affairs researcher Khalil al-Helou said: “Officially, Lebanon is committed to resolution 1701 and the army is part of this official stance. It is therefore committed to the resolution and will not violate the truce agreement.”

It was Hezbollah, not the army, that has fired missiles at Israel, so the military must not bear the brunt of Israel’s retaliation, he added. “Whoever fired the first shot must shoulder the consequences alone,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

The residents of the South are already suffering the consequences, he noted. The army must not be placed in danger from Israel, especially given that the balance of power is clearly not in its favor. The balance is not even in Hezbollah’s favor seeing as it has already lost dozens of fighters in the clashes.

Moreover, Helou refused to describe the army as a “spectator” in the current developments in the South.

It is implementing resolution 1701 by trying as much as possible to prevent non-Lebanese groups from firing rockets at Israel from Lebanese territories, he went on to say.

This sends a clear message to Israel that the Lebanese state does not want to become involved in the conflict and that it is committed to resolution 1701, Helou explained.

Other roles played by the military include rescuing the wounded and retrieving corpses, he revealed, explaining that Hezbollah cannot do so in the open as it would leave its members exposed to Israeli fire. So, the Red Cross members or army are doing so instead.

Resolution 1701 helped end the hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah during the 2006 war. Israeli troops withdrew from Lebanon and more UNIFIL forces were deployed to the South in coordination with the military to monitor the ceasefire.

It also stipulated that only UNIFIL and the Lebanese army are allowed to be deployed in regions south of the Blue Line and Litani River, which must be free of gunmen.

The resolution has been violated on numerous occasions by both Israel and Hezbollah over the past 17 years. Israel has breached it with its repeated violations of Lebanon’s sovereignty, and it is obvious that Hezbollah has not withdrawn its weapons and fighters from areas south of the Litani.

Hezbollah’s latest round of fighting with Israel has raised several questions about the effectiveness of the resolution and whether the Security Council will issue a new amended version once the fighting in Gaza, and consequently southern Lebanon, ends.



Win the Vote but Still Lose? Behold America’s Electoral College

Voters head into a polling location to cast their ballots on the last day of early voting for the 2024 election on November 1, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Getty Images/AFP)
Voters head into a polling location to cast their ballots on the last day of early voting for the 2024 election on November 1, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Getty Images/AFP)
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Win the Vote but Still Lose? Behold America’s Electoral College

Voters head into a polling location to cast their ballots on the last day of early voting for the 2024 election on November 1, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Getty Images/AFP)
Voters head into a polling location to cast their ballots on the last day of early voting for the 2024 election on November 1, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Getty Images/AFP)

When political outsider Donald Trump defied polls and expectations to defeat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 US presidential election, he described the victory as "beautiful."

Not everyone saw it that way -- considering that Democrat Clinton had received nearly three million more votes nationally than her Republican rival. Non-Americans were particularly perplexed that the second-highest vote-getter would be the one crowned president.

But Trump had done what the US system requires: win enough individual states, sometimes by very narrow margins, to surpass the 270 Electoral College votes necessary to win the White House.

Now, on the eve of the 2024 election showdown between Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris, the rules of this enigmatic and, to some, outmoded, system is coming back into focus.

- Why an Electoral College? -

The 538 members of the US Electoral College gather in their state's respective capitals after the quadrennial presidential election to designate the winner.

A presidential candidate must obtain an absolute majority of the "electors" -- or 270 of the 538 -- to win.

The system originated with the US Constitution in 1787, establishing the rules for indirect, single-round presidential elections.

The country's Founding Fathers saw the system as a compromise between direct presidential elections with universal suffrage, and an election by members of Congress -- an approach rejected as insufficiently democratic.

Because many states predictably lean Republican or Democratic, presidential candidates focus heavily on the handful of "swing" states on which the election will likely turn -- nearly ignoring some large states such as left-leaning California and right-leaning Texas.

Over the years, hundreds of amendments have been proposed to Congress in efforts to modify or abolish the Electoral College. None has succeeded.

Trump's 2016 victory rekindled the debate. And if the 2024 race is the nail-biter that most polls predict, the Electoral College will surely return to the spotlight.

- Who are the 538 electors? -

Most are local elected officials or party leaders, but their names do not appear on ballots.

Each state has as many electors as it has members in the US House of Representatives (a number dependent on the state's population), plus the Senate (two in every state, regardless of size).

California, for example, has 54 electors; Texas has 40; and sparsely populated Alaska, Delaware, Vermont and Wyoming have only three each.

The US capital city, Washington, also gets three electors, despite having no voting members in Congress.

The Constitution leaves it to states to decide how their electors' votes should be cast. In every state but two (Nebraska and Maine, which award some electors by congressional district), the candidate winning the most votes theoretically is allotted all that state's electors.

- Controversial institution -

In November 2016, Trump won 306 electoral votes, well more than the 270 needed.

The extraordinary situation of losing the popular vote but winning the White House was not unprecedented.

Five presidents have risen to the office this way, the first being John Quincy Adams in 1824.

More recently, the 2000 election resulted in an epic Florida entanglement between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore.

Gore won nearly 500,000 more votes nationwide, but when Florida -- ultimately following a US Supreme Court intervention -- was awarded to Bush, it pushed his Electoral College total to 271 and a hair's-breadth victory.

- True vote or simple formality? -

Nothing in the Constitution obliges electors to vote one way or another.

If some states required them to respect the popular vote and they failed to do so, they were subjected to a simple fine. But in July 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that states could impose punishments on such "faithless electors."

To date, faithless electors have never determined a US election outcome.

- Electoral College schedule -

Electors will gather in their state capitals on December 17 and cast votes for president and vice president. US law states they "meet and cast their vote on the first Tuesday after the second Wednesday in December."

On January 6, 2025, Congress will convene to certify the winner -- a nervously watched event this cycle, four years after a mob of Trump supporters attacked the US Capitol attempting to block certification.

But there is a difference. Last time, it was Republican vice president Mike Pence who, as president of the Senate, was responsible for overseeing the certification. Defying heavy pressure from Trump and the mob, he certified Biden's victory.

This time, the president of the Senate -- overseeing what normally would be the pro forma certification -- will be none other than today's vice president: Kamala Harris.

On January 20, the new president is to be sworn in.