Although the anti-Israel protests surrounding the Democratic National Convention have been smaller and better contained than expected, they have still brought out thousands of people—people who burned an American flag, charged police officers, and engaged in other mayhem. Ruth R. Wisse describes the “all-purpose ideology of grievance and blame” that motivates these hooligans, and that motivated the persecution of Jews in the 20th century:

Anti-Semitic coalitions powered the rise of Nazism. For the past half century, anti-Zionism has done even better, forging Pan-Arab-Islamist coalitions in the Middle East, at the UN, and within the Western democracies themselves.

This ideological war against the Jews and Israel differentiates it from other current conflicts, like the equally evil Russian invasion of Ukraine: little Israel is the proxy for mightier America. No intersectional campus coalitions celebrate Russia’s atrocities in Ukraine; no Russian thugs pursue Jews in Brooklyn, or burn Ukrainian flags with America’s.

That’s because anti-Zionism is the ideological arm of the civilizational struggle against what is left of the free world, with the United States as its ultimate target.

Below, today’s newsletter will return to some other reflections on the one-year anniversary of the outbreak of the current war, but first something must be said of its recent progress. Israel has kept up its aerial and ground assault on Hizballah, and may have already killed the successor to Hassan Nasrallah, the longtime leader it eliminated less than two weeks ago. Matthew Levitt assesses the current state of the Lebanon-based terrorist group, which, in his view, is now “a shadow of its former self.” Indeed, he adds,

it is no exaggeration to say that the Hizballah of two weeks ago no longer exists. And since Hizballah was the backbone of Iran’s network of militant proxies, its so-called axis of resistance, Iran’s strategy of arming and deploying proxy groups throughout the region is suddenly at risk as well.

Hizballah’s attacks put increasing pressure on Israel, as intended, only that pressure did not lead Israelis to stop targeting Hamas so much as it chipped away at Israel’s fears about the cost of military action to address the military threats posed by Hizballah.

At the same time, Levitt explains, Hizballah still poses a serious threat, as it demonstrated last night when its missiles struck Haifa and Tiberias, injuring at least two people:

Hizballah still maintains an arsenal of rockets and a cadre of several thousand fighters. It will continue to pose potent military threats for Israel, Lebanon, and the wider region.

How will the group seek to avenge Nasrallah’s death amid these military setbacks? Hizballah is likely to resort to acts of international terrorism, which are overseen by one of the few elements of the group that has not yet lost key leaders.

But the true measure of whether the group will be able to reconstitute itself, even over many years, is whether Iran can restock Hizballah’s sophisticated arsenal. Tehran’s network of proxy groups—from Hizballah to Hamas to the Houthis—is only as dangerous as it is today because of Iran’s provision of weapons and money. Whatever Hizballah does next, Western governments must prioritize cutting off Tehran’s ability to arm and fund its proxies.