According to the Wall Street Journal, despite receiving windfall funding from the United States and other Western countries over the past two decades, the Lebanese army is too weak to stand up to the terrorist group Hezbollah and is already mired in conflict. It is said that this is making the country even more nervous.

Hezbollah has been one of the main actors stirring up chaos in the Middle East over the past year, launching routine attacks against Israel and increasing the threat to U.S. forces in the region. The Lebanese Armed Forces, which is separate from Hezbollah, has been unable to contain the terror group despite receiving more than $3 billion in funding from the United States and Western countries since 2006. According to In the Wall Street Journal. (Related: President Trump reportedly told Prime Minister Netanyahu that Israel needs to end the war in Gaza by the time he takes office)

“It’s one of the weakest militaries in the Middle East,” Amal Saad, a political analyst at Cardiff University, told the Journal. “That’s part of the reason for the rise of Hezbollah in the 1980s: the Lebanese army was unable to stand up to Israel,” Saad said, referring to Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon. The Lebanese army is hostile to Israel.

Part of the problem is that the Lebanese army is likely to have fewer personnel than Hezbollah. The military has only about 60,000 active personnel, but a former Hezbollah leader claimed the terrorist organization had nearly 100,000 fighters. However, this number is disputed, and there are estimates that put it even lower.

Still, the Lebanese military does not have a significant air defense system, lacks advanced missile capabilities, and has only five fighter jets in its entire fleet. Hezbollah has access to tens of thousands of rockets and drones, but parts of its arsenal have been destroyed by Israeli forces in recent months.

Hezbollah also wields considerable power in the Lebanese language. politicsEven if it is not the official governing body of the country. Hezbollah has multiple officials in the government and has been successful in disrupting government activities, including elections, since the group was founded after the 1982 Israeli invasion.

In an effort to cripple Hezbollah’s capabilities, Israeli forces have launched new incursions across the Lebanese border in recent months, but so far the scale of the operations has been limited. According to WSJ, the Lebanese army has withdrawn from the border due to fears of a conflict with Israeli forces, which have advanced technology and equipment.

The United States knows that the Lebanese army has largely failed on several fronts. However, according to the Journal, funding will continue as this is one of the only ways to maintain some degree of stability in Lebanon at this time.

“Today, more than ever, the Lebanese army has a decisive role to play,” French President Emmanuel Macron said at a world summit in France, according to WSJ. Plans for approximately $200 million in funding for the Lebanese army were announced at the summit.

The United States under the Biden-Harris administration continues to play a key role in funding the Lebanese army, but will provide some military aid amid concerns it could end up in the hands of Hezbollah. There is some hesitation about this.

It’s a difficult line to balance, especially given that the military is currently embroiled in the turmoil of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

“The Lebanese Army is the only military alternative to Hezbollah,” said Samy Gemayel, leader of the historically Christian Lebanese Party. “It should be strengthened. Without it, Hezbollah would have controlled the entire country.”

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