| DAILY ALERT |
Sunday, September 29, 2024 |
|
News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
Hizbullah confirmed on Saturday that Hassan Nasrallah, who led the group for more than three decades, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Friday, saying Nasrallah "has joined his fellow martyrs." The Israeli military said it carried out a precise airstrike while Hizbullah leaders were meeting at their headquarters in Dahiyeh, south of Beirut. The IDF said Ali Karki, the commander of Hizbullah's Southern Front, and other commanders were also killed. Iran announced Saturday that Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, 58, who the U.S. identified as the deputy commander for operations in Iran's Revolutionary Guard, died in the same airstrike. (AP-Washington Post) President Joe Biden said Saturday: "Hassan Nasrallah and the terrorist group he led, Hizbullah, were responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade reign of terror. His death from an Israeli airstrike is a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis, and Lebanese civilians." "The strike that killed Nasrallah took place in the broader context of the conflict that began with Hamas's massacre on Oct. 7, 2023. Nasrallah, the next day, made the fateful decision to join hands with Hamas and open what he called a 'northern front' against Israel. The United States fully supports Israel's right to defend itself against Hizbullah, Hamas, the Houthis, and any other Iranian-supported terrorist groups." (White House) Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin spoke twice with Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant on Friday about events in Lebanon. The Secretary expressed full support for Israel's right to defend itself and its people against Iranian-backed terrorist groups. Secretary Austin stressed that the U.S. is determined to prevent Iran and Iranian-backed partners and proxies from exploiting the situation or expanding the conflict. The Secretary made it clear that the U.S. remains postured to protect U.S. forces and facilities in the region and committed to the defense of Israel. (U.S. Defense Department) Q: We're told that in Israel's recent operations against Hizbullah, they don't run these operations by the White House. What do you make of that? Gen. Keane: "I don't think they need to....Let's face it, the United States, with some exceptions, has left Israel on its own. They micromanaged how to run their operations in Gaza. They pulled back giving them the weapons they needed, to get their attention not to conduct a campaign against Hizbullah in Lebanon. They've been pulling them back." (Fox News) Gunmen in Gaza riding in three cars intercepted Islam Hejazy, Gaza program manager at HEAL Palestine, on Thursday and sprayed her vehicle with dozens of bullets. (Reuters) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
The Israel Air Force has repeatedly attacked Lebanese heavy machinery sent to rebuild six military border crossings to Syria, damaged in previous strikes, in order to prevent Hizbullah from rearming with Iranian weapons. The IDF also informed Lebanon officially that it would not allow cargo planes arriving from Syria and Iran to land at Beirut's international airport. On Saturday, the IDF breached communications at the control tower and warned against allowing an Iranian cargo plane to land, under threat of attack. (Ynet News) Israeli fighter jets eliminated Hizbullah's drone unit chief Muhammad Hossein Sarur in Beirut on Thursday, the IDF said. The attack targeted a specific floor of a multi-story building in Beirut's Dahiyeh suburb. Sarur oversaw numerous drone and missile attacks on Israeli territory and was a project leader in drone production. (Jerusalem Post) A missile launched from Yemen was intercepted by the Arrow defense system outside Israeli territory on Saturday, the IDF said. This follows another missile launch from Yemen on Thursday night. (Ynet News) The Israel Defense Ministry announced on Thursday that the U.S. has agreed to up its defense aid to Israel by an additional $5.2 billion. "This substantial investment will significantly strengthen critical systems such as Iron Dome and David's Sling, while supporting the continued development of an advanced, high-powered laser defense system currently in its later stages of development," the ministry said. "These efforts aim to maintain Israel's qualitative edge in the region and support ongoing military operations." The ministry underscored "the strong and enduring strategic partnership between Israel and the United States and the ironclad commitment to Israel's security, particularly in addressing regional security threats from Iran and Iranian-backed militias by ensuring Israel's overall capabilities." (Jerusalem Post) Israel must be stripped of UN membership, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told the UN General Assembly on Thursday. "We are going to submit an application to the UNGA on this matter," he said. (Jerusalem Post) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
Hizbullah The 2006 Israel-Hizbullah war ended with a UN-brokered ceasefire. Security Council Resolution 1701 called for militias, including Hizbullah, to be disarmed and removed from areas south of the Litani River, about 18 miles north of the border. The resolution emphasized the need for the Lebanese government to exert control in their own country. Needless to say, none of this happened. The area south of the Litani is now bristling with ordnance provided to Hizbullah by Iran. Israel justifiably points out that the last time they agreed to a ceasefire, the terms were broken. In 2006, Hizbullah had no intention of observing the deal any more than it has of doing so now. The question the international community needs to address is what is Israel supposed to do if enemies on its borders continue to fire missiles into its towns and villages? The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is utterly ineffectual as a barrier to Hizbullah's authority in southern Lebanon. Without guarantees that Hizbullah will stop firing missiles into northern Israel, where 80,000 residents have been displaced, it is hard to see the conflict abating. (Telegraph-UK) Former White House senior adviser Jared Kushner said on X on Sunday: "September 27th is the most important day in the Middle East since the Abraham Accords breakthrough. I have spent countless hours studying Hizbullah and there is not an expert on earth who thought that what Israel has done to decapitate and degrade them was possible." "This is significant because Iran is now fully exposed. The reason why their nuclear facilities have not been destroyed, despite weak air defense systems, is because Hizbullah has been a loaded gun pointed at Israel. Iran spent the last forty years building this capability as its deterrent." "Anyone who has been calling for a ceasefire in the North is wrong. There is no going back for Israel. They cannot afford now to not finish the job and completely dismantle the arsenal that has been aimed at them. They will never get another chance." "Hizbullah's massive weapon cache is unguarded and unmanned. Most of Hizbullah fighters are hiding in their tunnels. Anyone still around was not important enough to carry a pager or be invited to a leadership meeting....Failing to take full advantage of this opportunity to neutralize the threat is irresponsible." "This is a moment to stand behind the peace-seeking nation of Israel and the large portion of the Lebanese who have been plagued by Hizbullah....The right move now for America would be to tell Israel to finish the job. It's long overdue. And it's not only Israel's fight. More than 40 years ago, Hizbullah killed 241 U.S. military personnel, including 220 Marines. That remains the single deadliest day for the U.S. Marine Corps since the Battle of Iwo Jima." "Over the past six weeks or so, Israel has eliminated as many terrorists on the U.S. list of wanted terrorists as the U.S. has done in the last 20 years." (X) By ordering the strike on Hizbullah General Secretary Hassan Nasrallah while attending the UN General Assembly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu underscored Israel's independence from the global consensus that has resolved not to confront terrorists but rather to appease them. Israel's attack also shows that almost everything U.S. and other Western civilian and military leaders have believed about the Middle East for the last 20 years was simply a collection of excuses. Securing a nation's peace has nothing to do with winning narratives, or nation-building, or balancing U.S. allies against your mutual enemies for the sake of regional equilibrium. Rather, it means killing your enemies. Taking down officers demoralizes a force. Wiping out its chain of command cripples it. With Nasrallah and virtually all of its senior command dead, Hizbullah has been decapitated. Wars are won by killing the enemy, above all, those who inspire their people to kill yours. The Biden administration says the Israelis can't reach their goals through force and the only way forward is through diplomacy. The fact is that U.S. diplomatic assurances regarding Hizbullah are worthless. After UN Security Council Resolution 1701 in 2006 stipulated that there were to be no armed personnel or weapons south of the Litani River, other than those of the Lebanese government and the UN peacekeeping force, Hizbullah's presence and capabilities in south Lebanon have only grown. (Tablet) Today, Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah is dead, as is much of Hizbullah's senior leadership. Nasrallah made two strategic mistakes: grossly underestimating Israel and overestimating the abilities of his patron, Iran. Hizbullah possesses a vast arsenal of missiles and rockets, but its weapons haven't inflicted any significant damage on Israel so far. "While Hizbullah is acting like an army, they are no match for Israel in terms of firepower, in terms of air power, in terms of intelligence and in terms of technology," said Fouad Siniora, who served as Lebanon's prime minister when Hizbullah and Israel fought a war in 2006. Iran has relied on Hizbullah's missiles and rockets as a deterrent against any potential Israeli attack on its own nuclear program. "It's very much part of Iran's own defensive doctrine and its main tool of deterrence against Israel," said Michael Horowitz, head of intelligence at the consulting firm Le Beck International. "Hizbullah was built to defend Iran." Inside Lebanon, Hizbullah has lost the aura of invincibility. Hizbullah is also risking its standing within Lebanon's Shiite community, especially as residents of mostly Shiite areas in the south and the Bekaa Valley are fleeing their homes because of Israeli airstrikes. "Hizbullah's war has backfired, large parts of the South are destroyed, and hundreds of thousands of Shiites are on the road or basically refugees in their own country," said political analyst Michael Young. (Wall Street Journal) I entered a vast tunnel, stretching from an opening in the Galilee region of Israel deep into the bowels of the earth. The tunnel, discovered by Israeli forces and promptly sealed off in 2019, was half a mile long, 260 feet deep, and took 14 years to build. It ended in a wall of rubble where the IDF had blocked the pathway leading to Lebanon. Had the tunnel not been discovered, Israel suspects it would have been used to launch a surprise assault on the north, perhaps to capture hostages and take them back to Lebanon. The tunnel offers a glimpse of the type of enclosed, difficult territory Israeli troops will be facing with a possible ground invasion of Lebanon. Israel estimates that the tunnel network stretches for hundreds of kilometers. Hizbullah recently published footage that showed a truck mounted with rocket launchers passing through long, winding tunnels. The propaganda clip also features Hizbullah troops driving on motorcycles through tunnels. In light of a potential ground offensive, Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror, a former Israeli national security adviser, said Israel's "biggest mistake" was not taking decisive action against Hizbullah earlier, even prior to the 2006 war. "Israel was addicted to the quietness and was not ready to make any efforts to prevent Hizbullah from building its military capabilities." He said Israel now has two goals: to guarantee Hizbullah won't be able to carry out its own version of Oct. 7 in the future, and to damage Hizbullah's military capability to such an extent that it won't be able to deter Israel in the future. (Telegraph-UK) The Oct. 7 Hamas Massacre Israel Police data released on Thursday revealed 27 children between the ages of 0-17 were shot and burned alive on Oct. 7, 2023. The report described the recording of a girl at a kibbutz near the Gaza border who was on a call with the police emergency center while being held by a terrorist. She begged the terrorist to let her go, saying she was just a child and had school the next day. The terrorist shot her to death. Her burnt remains were later located. The evidence was gathered from CCTV cameras, testimonies from hostages and ZAKA volunteers, Hamas terrorists' body cameras, and social media posts. "That children were burned, shot and murdered alongside their parents is a proven fact. Children witnessed their parents being murdered and we found a scene with a pile of bodies from the same family more than once," said Commander Dudi Katz, cyber unit chief of the Israel Police special investigations unit Lahav 433. Katz described a photograph of a baby who was murdered alongside her father who tried to protect his family. Another case was the tragic story of the Taasa family from Netiv HaAsara where the father, Gil, threw himself on a grenade that terrorists had tossed into their home to save his children. In a video, "We identified a child around six or seven years old whose body was burnt, but his face remained intact. His glazed expression indicated that he had been burned alive," Katz recounted. (Ynet News) "Surviving October 7th: We Will Dance Again" (BBC Two) is pieced together from footage recorded by Hamas killers and their prey. "It's like seeing a horror movie with your own eyes," remembers one survivor. Except that they're the ones filming the horror. "I'm filming so that I believe it myself," says one teenage boy. The most chilling clip was caught by a student who hid in a bunker crammed with nearly naked corpses, all murdered by Kalashnikov. The image is over in a blink, but that split-second collapses the distance between the Nova Festival and Auschwitz. The subject of Yariv Mozer's blistering documentary is terror: raw, pure, uncut, as it happened and as it is traumatically relived by those who saw and felt it. (Telegraph-UK) Israeli Security In recent years, Israel tried nearly everything to avoid a large-scale confrontation with its enemies. Billions of shekels were funneled into Gaza in a bid to pacify the terrorist group; thousands of Gazans were allowed to work inside Israel; and trade restrictions were eased. Military operations were narrow and carefully restrained to avoid a wider escalation. Yet, as the events of Oct. 7 showed, when a terrorist organization is driven by a deep-seated desire for your annihilation, no amount of money, economic opportunities, or limited military action will suffice. Hamas's mission was the destruction of Israel. Nothing else mattered to its leaders. This reality must guide Israel's response to calls for it to pause its strikes against Hizbullah. Stopping the fight now would only ensure another war within a few years. We know this because every war with Iran's proxies over the last 25 years has always just been the precursor for the next. We reach a ceasefire, pass UN resolutions, and convince ourselves that this time it will work. But it never does. Hizbullah must be weakened to the point that it can no longer pose a serious threat to Israel - neither with rockets nor with cross-border raids. Victory is the only path to long-term security. The writer is a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) and a former editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post. (Jerusalem Post) For almost a year, we tolerated the attacks from Hizbullah without provocation from our side. It has fired on us incessantly, causing casualties and widespread destruction. Tens of thousands of residents from quiet communities in the north have left their homes, and for a year now they have been refugees in their own country. No more. Our patience has run out. I'm asked about the loss of innocent civilian lives. In response, I present the dilemma: a criminal is aiming a weapon at your daughter and he is hiding behind an innocent person. What do you do? Will you let your daughter die just to avoid harming an innocent bystander? For me, the answer is clear. Your family's lives come first. Israel did something no army has done before: it warned the Lebanese to distance themselves from the homes where Hizbullah's missiles and ammunition were stored so that they wouldn't be harmed when the IDF destroyed the weapons meant to harm our children. If any Lebanese are hurt, then it is Hizbullah's fault. I asked, what do you think will happen if Israel lays down its weapons and stops fighting? Will the Arabs be impressed by the gesture and lay down their arms too? We know exactly what will happen. Only when the Arabs lay down their weapons will there be peace; when Israel lays down its weapons, it will cease to exist. Europe is tired of wars. But we're all in the same boat. Those who attack us hope to bring down the entire West. Those who understand this, support Israel because they are patriots of their own people. Even today, it seems we must be a light unto the nations, showing how to fight absolute evil and not surrender to it. Perhaps our role is to awaken the West to the fact that this era of freedom in human history may come to an end if we are not willing to fight for it and pay the cost - as heavy as it may be. The writer is a former Israeli ambassador to Italy. (Israel Hayom) First Hamas, now Hizbullah: in a matter of months, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has decapitated the two most powerful terrorist organizations in the world. Rather than rejoice, however, the West has offered at best lukewarm support, at worst ostracism and obstruction. Once again, Israel has transformed defeat into victory. Iran, which is responsible for unleashing the present conflict, has suffered a strategic defeat. And Israel-haters everywhere have been reminded that those who attack the Jewish people will not escape unscathed. Israel has ignored the hostile global consensus and carried on exercising its right to self-defense. It has routed two terror organizations which between them had more men under arms and bigger arsenals than many sovereign states. Whether judged by military prowess or humanitarian scruples, the IDF is the most formidable fighting force on earth. Rather than preaching to the Israelis, we in the West should admire their daring, emulate their creativity, and learn from their example. Like any nation state, Israel is not perfect, but it has survived and flourished in a dangerous region by its own efforts. (Telegraph-UK) How the World Views Israel When it comes to Israel, the UN isn't interested in easing tensions on Israel's borders as much as it is in rewarding terrorism and demonizing the Jewish state - for standing up for itself. For defending its people in a war on seven fronts, orchestrated by the Islamic Republic of Iran, a Shiite supremacist empire hellbent on achieving regional dominance, not diplomacy. Tehran's proxies - Hizbullah in the north, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen, Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria, and terrorist cells in Judea and Samaria are Tehran's attack dogs, unleashed to sow death and chaos. The Palestinian resolution approved by the General Assembly last week, calling for sanctions and an arms embargo against Israel, was designed to sabotage real peace efforts by shifting attention away from condemning Hamas for triggering this 11-month war. Rather than focusing on condemning Hamas for perpetrating the single greatest massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust, the UN circus once again adhered to a predictable, virulently anti-Israel script. The writer is Israel's Permanent Representative to the UN. (Fox News) Rather than concentrating on dismantling Hamas - an organization whose ideology is rooted in hate and violence - the international community is increasingly putting pressure on Israel, its democratic government, and its right to self-defense. How has such a distortion of morality taken root within Western society, that blinds so many to the recognition of evil, allowing them to draw moral equivalence between a nation fighting to eradicate those who perpetrated the worst carnage since the Second World War and the terrorists who purposely targeted civilians in the most vicious and barbaric way? In Western societies, we have seen an alarming rise of movements that paradoxically affiliate themselves with Islamist fascism while claiming to fight for justice and equality. Some feminist movements, for instance, stand in solidarity with Islamist groups that impose subjugation on Muslim women. Similarly, LGBTQ+ activists - whose existence would be annihilated in Hamas-controlled societies - are demonstrating in favor of Hamas. The irony is inescapable: The very people who would be among the first to suffer under Islamist extremism are the ones supporting it with the greatest fervor. The world today faces the scourge of Islamism - a violent, expansionist doctrine that thrives on intolerance. Yet, instead of standing shoulder to shoulder with Israel in the fight against this dangerous ideology, a disturbing number of Western nations and movements fail to realize that the same venomous forces targeting Israel today will inevitably target them tomorrow. (Los Angeles Jewish Journal) The inhuman brutality of the Oct. 7 atrocities, the ongoing torture and murder of the hostages, and the exile of thousands of families from their homes will remain deeply embedded on the consciousness of the Jewish people. In addition, the grotesque displays of hypocrisy and immorality from the leaders of the world's democracies and the international community, at levels far beyond those imagined by the greatest cynics, will accompany these memories. Once again, the Jewish people have discovered that we are alone and abandoned in a hostile and irrational world. Jews were among the founders, leaders and primary funders of Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. They embraced the creation of the UN Human Rights Council, and later, the International Criminal Court, ostensibly based on the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals. But these organizations and the principles they claim to advance have been systematically hijacked by Jew-haters. The writer is founder and president of NGO Monitor and professor emeritus at Bar-Ilan University, where he founded the Program on Conflict Management and Negotiation. (Jerusalem Post) When Israel looks for friends in Europe, it doesn't spend too much time looking towards Ireland. Ireland only established somewhat grudging diplomatic relations with the Jewish state in 1975 and didn't open an embassy in Tel Aviv until 1996. This political indifference bordering on open hostility is mirrored in Irish media and academic circles. Being avowedly anti-Israeli is the go-to position for Irish progressives to the point where it has become the last socially acceptable prejudice. (As an interesting aside, the Irish jury gave the Israeli entry during this year's Eurovision no points, while the Irish public gave it 10.) When attending the UN General Assembly in New York last week, Irish President Michael D. Higgins was asked about the criticism he received for sending a letter to new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. The letter congratulated Pezeshkian's election victory in July and said that Tehran had a "crucial role" to play in achieving "peace" in the Middle East. Yet rather than simply explain that the note was a diplomatic nicety, he decided to allege a conspiracy instead, blaming the Israeli embassy in Dublin for circulating the letter. Higgins's trip down the conspiratorial rabbit hole had all the tropes we have come to expect - the all-powerful cabal of Jews apparently have access to the protected diplomatic documents of a sovereign nation. There was just one problem. The source of the incriminating leak of the letter was actually the Iranian government, which reposted it on its official social-media account. The writer is a columnist for the Irish Independent. (Spiked-UK) Wall Street Journal editor Adam Kirsch's latest book, On Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence, and Justice, is about a concept that's become trendy over the past decade. The toxic ideology glorifies Hamas and wants to see Israel wiped from the map. He notes that, "In America, in Australia, in Canada, 99% of people are in the category of settlers: everyone who's not an indigenous person. That includes recent immigrants and people descended from slaves. You're saying the problem is not with a few people but with everyone." Yet in countries where the vast majority of the population is considered a "settler," there is no practical way to "decolonize" an entire country. With one exception: the Settler Colonial movement has seized on Israel as a nation where an idealized indigenous movement might actually succeed in driving out people whom Settler Colonial studies sees as "illegitimate" - the Jews. Calling Israel a colonialist state is nonsensical: there has been a Jewish presence in the land since ancient times. Jews began moving to present-day Israel in large numbers legally while it was ruled by the Ottoman Empire; and Arabs continue to live in modern-day Israel in large numbers and retain their customs and language and freely exercise their religion. The dismantling of Israel has emerged as a central tenet in Settler Colonial studies. Every single societal problem is related to the false notion that Jews are illegitimately occupying Palestine. "Israel is the only place in the world where there's an active conflict involving what's thought of as Settler Colonialism," Kirsch explains, whereas a violent overthrow of the non-indigenous populations of the USA, Canada or Australia is virtually impossible. The fact that this necessitates supporting Hamas, whose stated goal is killing all Jews, is immaterial. "Young people today who celebrate the massacre of Israelis and harass their Jewish peers on college campuses are not ashamed of themselves, for the same reason that earlier generations were not ashamed to persecute and kill Jews - because they have been taught that it is an expression of virtue." (Aish) Antisemitism Last fall I served on Harvard's Antisemitism Advisory Group. It went so badly that I wound up as a witness in Congress's investigation of Harvard. No one in the advisory group argued against free speech. Students can chant "globalize the intifada" all they want. But why is Harvard full of screaming racists? The Harvard course catalogue and events calendar frequently feature "Palestine" and "decolonization." But students need to dig deep to find a course or lecture mentioning that Hamas and Hizbullah are proxies of Iran, or that Israel has been fighting a multifront war against Iran for decades. Academia doesn't seem to attract many courageous people. The tenure process encourages conformity, and students also perform to conform. When Harvard and its academic departments are invested in the bogus story in which the villains are Jews and the heroes are federally-designated terrorist organizations, there's no incentive for anyone to disagree. (Wall Street Journal) Observations: Netanyahu to UN: Israel Chooses Reconciliation between Arab and Jew over Iran's Unremitting Aggression (Prime Minister's Office) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the UN General Assembly on Sep. 27, 2024:
|
|