But will the "game" ever end?
Both sides are arrogantly intransigent and have been for decades. Both sides are guilty of the deaths of many thousands of innocents and we are now so far along in the "blame the other side scenario" that it can never be unravelled without both dealing with unpleasant truths to find anything remotely resembling a long term solution.
That's not quite how things are.
The Palestinians in the West Bank and in Gaza do indeed have legitimate grievances gainst Israel, and
vice versa, leading to a never-ending 'blame game'.
However, Israel has no quarrel with Hezbollah (and the same goes for the Houties in Yemen, BTW). Hezbollah has been attacking Israel incessantly 'in support of the Palestinians'.
Lebanon - as a country - has no territorial demands from Israel, i.e. there is no land dispute between Lebanon and Israel. In fact, a recent dispute over gas-rich waters was resolved peacefully via international mediation.
But Hezbollah does not represent Lebanon or the Lebanese government, instead it is an armed militia that made it their goal to have a fight with Israel from Lebanese soil, much to the dismay of the majority of Lebanese people. Make no mistake about it, the average Lebanese citizen is no friend of Israel, but equally they do not underhand why it is their destiny to be on the receiving side of a conflict between two warring parties (Israel and the Palestinians) that have nothing to do with Lebanon.
And, they do not forget the two Israeli military incursions into Lebanon - in 1982 and then again in 2006 - in both cases, it was to root-out terrorists who attacked Israel, but inevitably these caused much suffering to ordinary Lebanese.
Israel's desire has always been for a 'quiet' northern border. As said, there is no land dispute with Lebanon, and absolutely no reason for cross-border hostilities. The recent spate of violence started on 7th October last year, when Hezbollah was instructed by Iran to attack Israel and start a bombing campaign in support of Hamas's struggle in Gaza.
Since then, thousands of rockets were fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon into Israel, demolishing most of Israel's northern towns, and causing mass evacuation of civilian population on both sides of the border.
In fact, if you follow the news, up to very recently Israel has been desperately trying to reach a diplomatic settlement with Hezbollah through intermediaries, because the last thing that Israel needed in the past 10 months was to open a second front given that its military was already being overstretched in Gaza.
However, for Hassan Nassrallah (Hezbollah's leader) it is impossible to cease hostilities with Israel while the war in Gaza is ongoing, because it will be seen around the Arab world as accepting defeat. For him, it is all about not losing face (and you have to wonder how is this policy working for him now?).
And so the war in Lebanon rages on, with ordinary Lebanese once-again caught in the crossfire.
As for a 'long-term' solution, this can only come when Hezbollah is disarmed and the Lebanese Army takes back control of the country as the only armed military force. Lebanon has a good chance of reaching amicable diplomatic agreements with Israel over all issues, as it did over the gas fields. The Lebanese government and the Lebanese people have zero interest in entertaining an armed conflict with its neighbour in the south, instead they would much prefer to simply express their support for the Palestinians via internationally-acceptable non-violent civilised diplomatic means.
