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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to turn Lebanon into Gaza, in a video posted on social media on Tuesday. The Israeli leader called on the Lebanese people to “take back” their country from Hezbollah and Iran or risk “destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza.”

Israel’s war in Gaza launched after the October 7 attacks by Hamas has been nothing short of devastating.

Israel has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians — mainly civilians — and displaced roughly two million people in the densely populated area, according to the United Nations. Approximately 900 entire families have been wiped out by Israel, with some observers and United Nations member states accusing Israel of perpetrating a genocide against the Palestinians. Nearly 60 percent of buildings in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, according to an investigation by The New York Times.

The Lebanese need not look to Gaza to understand the devastation Israel can bring. Israel has invaded Lebanon three times to combat Palestinian and Lebanese militant forces in the country. It indiscriminately targeted civilian populations and even occupied southern Lebanon for nearly two decades. In 1982, President Ronald Reagan chastised Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin for his military’s siege of Beirut, calling it a “Holocaust.”

Thousands of Lebanese civilians were killed by Israel and Israel-backed forces during the siege of Beirut as well as massacres elsewhere, including in the Sabra neighborhood and Shatila refugee camp.

Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon led to the rise of Hezbollah — a force that, although on the defensive today, has altered the balance of power in Lebanon and the Middle East, forcing Israel’s withdrawal from most of southern Lebanon in 2000.

More than 1,400 people have been killed in Lebanon during Israel’s ongoing operations in the country. The potential for an even greater calamity looms.

That makes President Joe Biden’s call with Netanyahu earlier today extremely consequential. The two men are not on good terms. Prior to today’s call, Biden and Netanyahu had not spoken for months. Privately, Biden has termed Netanyahu a “liar.”

Biden is reportedly looking to restrain Israel from targeting Iran’s nuclear sites. But his administration appears to have embraced Israel’s offensive in Lebanon, seeing it as a strategic opportunity to dismantle Hezbollah, even at the potential cost of tens of thousands of civilian lives.

By comparison, Biden’s predecessor Reagan attempted to use American pressure to get Israel to ease its siege of Beirut. Biden, seen as a man of great empathy, does not appear to possess the same humanitarian impulses when it comes to Arab lives. His successor will have to deal with both the moral and strategic fallout.

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