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In-Depth Issues:
Arab Towns in Israel Targeted by Hizbullah Missiles - Nagham Zbeedat ( Ha'aretz)
Hizbullah has been launching rockets and drones at Kafr Manda and Sakhnin - two Arab towns in northern Israel - damaging homes, cars and commercial properties.
Israel's Iron Dome aerial defense system intercepts the majority of missiles in the skies above them.
Hizbullah claimed last week that its missiles had targeted "Sakhnin's military base for arms development." But there is no military base in Sakhnin.
In September, when Hizbullah rockets targeted Kafr Manda, Arab news outlets labeled the city an Israeli settlement, framing the attack on an Arab town as a successful hit.
Other Israeli Arab towns that have endured Hizbullah missile strikes include Deir Al-Asad, Nazareth, and many others.
Israel: Hizbullah Has Less than a Third of Its Missiles -
Itamar Eichner ( Ynet News)
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told the Israeli Cabinet on Sunday that Hizbullah has less than 1/3 of the missiles it once possessed.
He said Hizbullah has fired more than 14,000 rockets and that Hizbullah's senior command structure has been almost entirely eliminated.
When asked about Israel's munitions stockpiles, Gallant said Israel is working "at full speed to promote domestic production and develop independence" in munitions.
Hamas Blocks Gazans from Evacuating to Safe Zones - Lilach Shoval ( Israel Hayom)
As Jabaliya area residents of Gaza try to heed IDF calls to evacuate to safe zones due to ongoing military operations, Hamas is obstructing their efforts by resorting to violence.
The IDF recorded a conversation between an IDF representative and a Gaza resident who stated: "Hamas members are beating us with batons, blocking our evacuation attempts, and forcing us back from the designated humanitarian zone."
"What are we supposed to do? We want to leave but they're beating us."
U.S. Poll: 81 Percent Support Israel over Hamas in Gaza War ( Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll)
48% of Americans hold a favorable impression of Israel, while 27% said unfavorable, a poll conducted on Oct. 13-15 by Harvard CAPS-Harris found.
Regarding the Palestinian Authority, 14% were favorable and 47% unfavorable. Regarding Hamas, 9% were favorable and 64% unfavorable.
81% support Israel over Hamas in the Gaza war, including 76% of Democrats, 85% of Republicans, and 80% of Independents.
68% said a ceasefire in Gaza should happen only after the
release of all hostages and Hamas is removed from power. 81% agreed that Hamas should not be allowed to continue to run Gaza.
52% say Hizbullah is a terrorist organization, while 11% say it is not. 37% are unsure or don't know.
48% support and 24% oppose Israel's recent strikes in
Lebanon which took out the leadership of Hizbullah.
73% blame Iran for the escalating conflict in
the Middle East, including 66% of Democrats, 80% of Republicans, and 74% of Independents.
Israel: "We Refuse to Bow" to Iran ( Jerusalem Post)
Israeli MK Dan Illouz told the Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly in Geneva on Monday, "Every time the Jewish people stand against tyranny, the world asks us to surrender in the name of so-called peace and quiet."
"We refuse to bow. We refuse to abandon our faith, and we refuse to disappear. Today, once again, we stand firm. Just as Mordechai refused to bow to Haman in ancient Persia, we refuse to bow to the tyrants of modern Persia - the Ayatollah regime in Iran."
"The Middle East stands at a crossroads today. There are two possible futures - one of hope, represented by the Abraham Accords, where Jews and Arabs build a future together, or another of endless war, driven by Iran's ambition and terror."
"I call on the world: choose the path of the Abraham Accords and help us defeat the terror of Iran."
IDF Commando Reservists: "We Believe in What We Are Doing" - Seth J. Frantzman ( Jerusalem Post)
IDF reservists in the Commando Brigade come from all walks of life; some are teachers or electricians, doctors or academics, hi-tech workers and students.
An officer explained: "We left everything for a year, a whole year, and we left that because it's our country....We left our homes because, in the end, we believe in what we are doing."
He spoke about the difficulty he has seen with soldiers who had to put studies on hold for a year. A soldier studying to be a doctor, for instance, may end up missing two years of schooling as the war continues.
Another challenge is that many of them have children at home. He said in his own family his youngest child was only a few months old when the war began.
He said his wife is supportive, and she has told him that the IDF must defeat the enemy so that this will be the "last" war, even if the war is long.
Like many soldiers, he remembered the scenes from Oct. 7. "The things I saw...it reminds me what I'm doing here."
One of the soldiers was in the U.S. and returned to his unit after Oct. 7.
He has spent 270 days out of the past year with the unit.
He said, "It is a lot of work, and you have a massive responsibility you owe to the country and people and parents. This is a responsibility to protect people who can't protect themselves, and you do it for them, and there is massive honor in that role."
Member of Scottish Parliament Expelled from Scottish National Party for "Unacceptable" Gaza Posts ( BBC)
John Mason, 67, a Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Scottish National Party, has been expelled from the party after posting on X that there was "no genocide" in Gaza.
His post also said: "If Israel wanted to commit genocide, they would have killed many, many more."
He later told the BBC's "Good Morning Scotland" that the situation in Gaza was "nothing like" previous examples of genocide.
See also Expelled SNP Party Member Does Not Understand What Policy He Contradicted - Jane Bradley ( Scotsman)
Scottish parliamentarian John Mason told BBC Radio Scotland
on Monday: "I do not think Israel has committed genocide. There's a war going on, lives have been lost, desperately sadly, as they have been in Ukraine, as they have been in every war."
"There is a difference between war and genocide and to say that every war is genocide is not the way we use that word."
He said he felt those on the committee making the decision to expel him had "made up their minds that Israel has committed genocide, no matter what the evidence is."
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
- IDF Finds Hizbullah's Deeply Entrenched Military Infrastructure Just Over the Border from Israel - Isabel Kershner
Hizbullah's entrenchment in forward positions a short walk north of the border with Israel was evidence of its meticulous preparations to invade northern Israel.
The quantity and quality of weaponry that Hizbullah had brought to these forward positions, less than half a mile from the border, proved that when Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah "spoke openly about conquering the Galilee, it wasn't just talk,"
said IDF Brig.-Gen. Yiftach Norkin. Given Hizbullah's strength, such an attack could have been much more devastating than the Hamas-led assault on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Within one square km., or less than half a square mile, IDF forces found about 100 sites used by Hizbullah for tunnel shafts, weapons caches, water stores and supplies, including thermal scopes, blood bags for transfusions and medical kits marked "Made in Iran." The munitions were new and well stored, some with manufacturing dates from last year. (New York Times)
See also Huge Amounts of Hizbullah Military Equipment and Weapons Uncovered in South Lebanon - Yoav Zitun
IDF troops were amazed at the amount and quality of Hizbullah military equipment and weapons they found meters away from the Israeli border town of Metula, as they realized the extent of the danger posed by Hizbullah's Radwan force that was preparing for an invasion of Israel. Troops uncovered hundreds of weapons. They found vehicles filled with gas, armed with heavy machine guns, and packed with combat uniforms, personal weapons, and medical supplies.
(Ynet News)
- Netanyahu Tells U.S. that Israel Will Strike Iranian Military, Not Nuclear or Oil, Targets, Officials Say - Shira Rubin
When President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke on Oct. 9,
the prime minister said he was planning to target military infrastructure in Iran rather than oil or nuclear facilities, according to a U.S. official and an official familiar with the matter. An Israeli strike on Iranian oil facilities could send energy prices soaring, analysts say, while an attack on the country's nuclear program could trigger further escalation and risk a more direct U.S. military role. Netanyahu's stated plan was met with relief in Washington.
The Israeli strike on Iran would be carried out before the U.S. elections on Nov. 5, the official familiar with the matter said, because a lack of action could be interpreted by Iran as a sign of weakness. "It will be one in a series of responses," she said.
Zohar Palti, a former intelligence director for Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, said, "The Iranians have lost every measure of restraint that they used to have....It is Israel who takes the risks" and "knows how to do the job....When we responded last time, they didn't get the message."
While Netanyahu would continue to consult with U.S. officials on Israel's looming strike against Iran, he would not wait for a green light from Washington, said an Israeli official close to the prime minister. (Washington Post)
See also Israel Preparing Counter-Attack on Iran in Full Coordination with the Americans - Itamar Eichner (Ynet News)
- U.S. to Deploy THAAD Missile Defense System to Israel - Helene Cooper
The U.S. is sending an advanced Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system (THAAD) battery to Israel, along with about 100 American troops to operate it, the Pentagon announced on Sunday. The move comes after Iran launched 200 missiles at Israel on Oct. 1. The battery will give Israel another layer of protection to defend against ballistic missiles.
Maj.-Gen. Patrick Ryder said the battery would "augment Israel's integrated air defense system. This action underscores the United States' ironclad commitment to the defense of Israel, and to defend Americans in Israel, from any further ballistic missile attacks by Iran." The U.S. sent a THAAD battery along with other air defense systems to the region weeks after the attacks on Oct. 7, 2023. (New York Times)
See also U.S. Munitions Rationing Drives THAAD Deployment to Israel - Ron Ben-Yishai
Israel's agreement with the U.S. to deploy the THAAD aerial defense system to the country stems as much from an American necessity as it does from an Israeli need.
Israel requires additional American air defenses to counter the hundreds of missiles that Iran could launch when Israel responds to Iran's Oct. 1 attack. The more missiles launched in a single barrage or in a few smaller waves to overwhelm Israel's defense systems, the more launchers, interceptors, and radars are needed. THAAD's capabilities are comparable to those of Israel's Arrow 2.
Iran has attacked Israel twice so far. In both attacks, the U.S. aided Israel in intercepting the ballistic missiles, with support from Sixth Fleet destroyers equipped with the Aegis system stationed in the eastern Mediterranean.
According to American sources, the need to support Israel during two attacks within a few months led to a dangerous depletion of the Sixth Fleet's interceptor inventory. The U.S. military has seven full THAAD batteries for intercepting ballistic missiles. American THAAD missiles have already been deployed in Israel in the past as part of joint air defense exercises. The U.S. also maintains a missile interception command center in Israel, fully coordinated with the Israeli air defense system.
In addition, THAAD's X-band radar provides a significant boost to Israel's ground-based detection capabilities and can also receive data from other batteries in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
(Ynet News)
See also In Iran's April Attack on Israel, U.S. Shot Down 70 Drones and 5 to 7 Missiles - Adam Taylor
In Iran's April 13 attack on Israel, the U.S. used F-15E planes to shoot down about 70 attack drones, while the USS Carney and USS Arleigh Burke destroyers shot down between four and six ballistic missiles. U.S. troops in Iraq used a Patriot missile to shoot down another, officials said. When Iran attacked Israel again on Oct. 1, the U.S. military fired at least a dozen interceptors at incoming ballistic missiles. (Washington Post)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
- Four Soldiers Killed, Seven Seriously Hurt, as Hizbullah Drone Strikes Dining Hall at Military Base - Lazar Berman
Four IDF soldiers were killed and 58 others were wounded, 7 seriously, when a Hizbullah drone struck a dining hall inside a military training base of the Golani Brigade.
The drone had failed to set off any warning sirens.
An initial probe indicated that two drones launched by Hizbullah entered Israeli airspace from the sea and were tracked by Israeli radar. One was shot down off the coast north of Haifa. The second drone dropped off the radar and Israeli forces lost track of it.
(Times of Israel)
See also How Did a Hizbullah Drone Breach Israeli Defenses in Binyamina?
Hizbullah's drone strike near Binyamina on Sunday is believed to be a Mirsad-1, a drone that Hizbullah has deployed for over two decades. It can carry 40 kg. of explosives, has a top speed of 370 km. per hour, and boasts an operational range of 120 km.
In the Binyamina attack, Hizbullah launched multiple drones under the cover of a rocket barrage, a tactic aimed at overwhelming Israeli defense systems. One drone managed to evade detection.
This is not the first time a Mirsad-1 drone has slipped past Israel's defenses. The Alma Research Center suggests that Hizbullah has over 2,000 drones in its arsenal. While Israel's Iron Dome is highly effective against rockets, it has faced challenges in detecting and intercepting small, low-flying drones.
(Jerusalem Post)
- Israeli Policeman Killed, Four Wounded, in Shooting Attack near Ashdod - Matan Tzuri
An Israeli policeman was killed and four others were injured in a shooting attack on Route 4 near Ashdod on Tuesday. The attacker was eliminated. (Ynet News)
- Netanyahu Accuses UN Secretary General of "Making UNIFIL Soldiers Hostages of Hizbullah" - Itamar Eichner
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday made an on-camera appeal in English to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to pull UNIFIL forces away from the fighting in South Lebanon. "Mr. Secretary General, Get the UNIFIL forces out of harm's way. It should be done right now, immediately," Netanyahu said.
He said the IDF had repeatedly asked that UNIFIL move out of the area where fighting was taking place and was repeatedly refused. "Your refusal to remove the troops makes the UNIFIL forces hostages in the hands of Hizbullah....Unfortunately, several European leaders are applying pressure in the wrong place. Instead of criticizing Israel, they need to direct their criticism at Hizbullah which is using UNIFIL as a human shield just like Hamas used UNRWA in Gaza." (Ynet News)
See also Netanyahu: "Time to Remove UNIFIL from Hizbullah Strongholds" - Tovah Lazaroff
Netanyahu told Guterres "to remove UNIFIL from Hizbullah strongholds and from the fighting areas....We regret the harm to UNIFIL soldiers, and we are doing our utmost to prevent such harm. But the simplest and most obvious way to ensure this is simply to withdraw them from the danger zone."
There have been a number of incidents in which IDF fire hit UNIFIL bases, injuring some of the peacekeepers. In one incident, very close to a UNIFIL post, Hizbullah fired anti-tank missiles at Israeli troops. A tank helping evacuate the casualties under fire then backed into the UNIFIL post in Ramyah, destroying the main gate. "It was not storming a base. It was not trying to enter a base. It was a tank under heavy fire at a mass casualty event, backing up to get out of harm's way," said IDF international spokesperson Nadav Shoshani.
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said Sunday, "Hizbullah terrorists are using UNIFIL outposts as hiding places and as places for ambushes. The UN's insistence on keeping the UNIFIL soldiers in the line of fire is incomprehensible." (Jerusalem Post)
See also Two UN Peacekeepers Hurt when IDF Fires at Threat Nearby
Two UN peacekeepers from Sri Lanka were injured on Friday by an Israeli strike near their watchtower in south Lebanon. The IDF troops fired at an "immediate threat" from Hizbullah fifty meters from the UNIFIL post. The IDF said they had warned the UN forces hours earlier to take shelter.
(Times of Israel)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
Hizbullah
- Hizbullah Creates Terror Tunnels Right under the Noses of UN Troops - Douglas Murray
Ever since the 2006 Lebanon war, the UN's peacekeeping force has been worse than useless. They were meant to ensure that peace was kept, but for the past year they have sat useless as Hizbullah fired tens of thousands of rockets from southern Lebanon into Israel. I have seen footage of Hizbullah firing rockets over their heads into Israel. On Sunday, I saw two Hizbullah tunnels whose shafts opened not much more than 100 meters away from a giant UN peacekeeping base and observation point.
How is it possible that the kind of heavy digging needed to create these tunnels could have happened literally right under the noses of the UN? The answer seems to be that they decided not to look. The international peacekeeping force has been a joke for years. There would be no need for another war in Lebanon if the UN had actually done its job for the past 18 years. (New York Post)
- UNIFIL's Failure Means It Must Leave or Reform - Yaakov Lappin
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has utterly failed in its core mission of monitoring Hizbullah's activities in southern Lebanon and enforcing UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which bans non-government military forces in southern Lebanon. Hizbullah's military infrastructure has grown massively over the years - and UNIFIL failed to notice or document this in any of its reports.
Worse yet, Hizbullah has increasingly positioned its military sites near UNIFIL posts, using the peacekeepers as a shield. On Oct. 13, 2024, IDF International Spokesperson Nadav Shoshani detailed a disturbing pattern of Hizbullah attacks launched from positions near UNIFIL posts, a strategy designed to exploit the IDF's reluctance to strike areas near peacekeeping forces. Shoshani recounted multiple incidents in which Hizbullah fire came from areas adjacent to UNIFIL posts, including one event, on Oct. 6, that resulted in the deaths of two IDF soldiers.
The status quo, in which the international community convinces itself that its faux peacekeepers are contributing to stability in Lebanon, should not continue, as it has benefited Hizbullah almost exclusively. (JNS)
Iran
- Iran Spreads Illegal Drugs throughout the World - Lenny Ben-David
In May 2023, a Royal Jordanian Air Force F-16 fighter jet bombed targets in southern Syria. The target was Merhi al-Ramthan, the region's leading smuggler of weapons and Captagon. Ramthan's massive production and smuggling of the addictive drugs to Jordan put him on Jordan's most wanted list. The Jordanian Air Force conducted four more raids against smugglers in early 2024.
Among the groups operating the smuggling network are Iran's Quds Force, Hizbullah, Iranian proxy militias, and elements in the Assad regime, including President Assad's brother, Gen. Maher Assad. Captagon is Syria's largest export, providing as much as $10 billion a year.
Former Jordanian Minister of Information Samih al-Maaytah insists that
"Jordan knows the country that stands behind this. It's Iran that is sponsoring these militias. These are hostile military actions against Jordan on its territory. Smuggling networks have intensified their activities recently to...form a local militia targeting the security services from inside Jordanian territory."
Former Jordanian Ambassador to Iran Bassam Al-Amoush said, "Iran
has tried to infiltrate Jordan in different ways, whether by forming armed organizations within it, by promoting Shi'ite tourism to Jordan, by becoming involved in economic projects there, or by using its militias to smuggle arms and drugs into the kingdom."
Hamas provided its fighters with "little white courage" pills before their onslaught on Jews on October 7, 2023. "Hamas terrorists who carried out the October 7 massacre were found to be under the influence of Captagon, a synthetic amphetamine-type stimulant....The pills were recovered from the pockets of many terrorists."
The writer, former Deputy Chief of Mission in Israel's Washington Embassy, is Director of the Institute for U.S.-Israel Relations at the Jerusalem Center. (Jerusalem Center for Foreign Affairs)
Israeli Security
- Israel's Strategic Goals in the Current War - Prof. Eitan Shamir
Many commentators claim that Israel lacks a clear plan for "the day after" the end of the current war. But Israel is not playing a short-term game. Beyond its declared war goals, Israel is aiming to create a new security reality in the region by weakening Iran and its proxies. This broader goal stems from the understanding that to Israel, this war is existential, and the removal of significant threats from Israel's borders is non-negotiable.
Post-Oct. 7, Israel now understands that it can no longer allow hostile terrorist armies to exist on its borders waiting for the order to invade Israeli territory. When a war is existential, the goal is first to remove the threat and only then to clarify arrangements for "the day after." This is not, after all, the American invasion of Iraq, a war that took place thousands of kilometers from U.S. borders.
In Gaza, the fight against remnants of Hamas, isolated terrorist cells that continue to operate, will go on for many months and perhaps even years. The realistic goal is to hit Hamas hard enough that Gaza does not pose a greater threat than that posed by Palestinian terrorists in the West Bank.
The IDF understands that in Lebanon it is not possible to destroy most of the enemy's forces. It is, however, possible to hit Hizbullah extremely hard. The goal is to bring Hizbullah to the point where it no longer poses a strategic threat to Israel and is unable to carry out a massive invasion of the Galilee. Israel's test will be whether or not it can prevent Iran from rehabilitating Hizbullah. Israel will have to expand the campaign between the wars that it has been conducting in Syria for 10 years. It will now need to include Lebanon for the purpose of disrupting, delaying, and preventing Hizbullah's buildup.
Finally, there is potential for new regional arrangements, including normalization with more Arab countries, if Israel succeeds in significantly weakening the Iranian threat. If Israel can show potential allies major military achievements against a common enemy, it can suggest a political plan that will improve its position in the region - but not before then. For Israel there is no end game, only a long game.
The writer is head of the BESA Center and professor in the Department of Political Studies at Bar-Ilan University. (BESA Center for Strategic Studies-Bar-Ilan University)
Other Issues
- "To Young American Jews Who Turned Your Backs on Our People" - Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch
Judaism teaches: All were created by God, and therefore, all have equal dignity and equal standing in the sight of God. But my strongest affections are for my own people, nation and community. That you feel this special attachment to those closest to you does not imply that you feel nothing towards others. Rather, our tradition insists that the universal begins with the particular.
Everything Jewish begins with Jewish peoplehood. All Jews are responsible one for the other, the Sages taught. If you do not feel this special bond with other Jews, you are emotionally damaged, Jewishly.
The weakening of these bonds is my central concern regarding the future of the American Jewish community. I worry about our young people. We did not intend for some in your generation to turn your backs on our people. We wanted you to be Zionists. We did not intend that our emphasis on tikkun olam - social repair - would lead some Jews to join anti-Israel demonstrations. The supreme leader of Iran sent messages of support and thanks to student protesters. That tells you everything you need to know.
We did not intend for criticism of Israeli policy to lead to detached indifference and a vacuous lack of compassion for the murdered, brutalized, sexually assaulted and kidnapped of our own people. We did not intend that some in your generation give not even a passing thought to the many tens of thousands of our people who have become refugees from their homes.
We did not intend to strip Jewish solidarity, empathy, responsibility and mutuality from your Jewish identity - not only towards Israeli civilians, but soldiers your age who exhibit astonishing courage and remarkable self-sacrifice, many of whom laid down their lives protecting our people in feats of enormous heroism.
The writer, senior rabbi of Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York City, served as executive director of the Association of Reform Zionists of America. (Times of Israel)
View the short video (3:40); View the full remarks (48:39) (Stephen Wise Free Synagogue)
Observations:
- Western ideology and consciousness fail to grasp the depth of a culture that does not accept a Jewish state in its midst. On Oct. 1, just before Iranian missiles rained down on Israel, two armed Palestinians exited a train in Jaffa, adjacent to Tel Aviv, systematically killing seven civilians, including one young woman clutching a baby to her chest.
- The two likely knew they would not survive their rampage to kill as many Jews as possible, but this probably raised their motivation even higher, presenting them with a prize of martyrdom and a place in the hearts of family and community who celebrated rather than mourned their deaths.
- Western minds want to believe that we are all alike, that we all want the same things, and that we all just want peace. It is the same thinking that glorifies "resistance" as legitimate and fails to recognize that internal belief systems are far more responsible for behavior than any external environmental factors.
- The West's noble but naive approach, based on wishful magical thinking, absolves the putative "victim" of any responsibility and assumes that a "fair" solution would solve everything. As with any ideology, this thinking is hard to crack, despite the test of reality.
- A reality where Palestinian leadership rewards terror, with stipends if they survive and subsidies for their families if they are killed. A reality where Palestinians educate children that Jews have no history in the land and have no rights to exist as a state. A reality where Palestinians chose and continue to support Hamas. A reality where Hizbullah and Iran both seek to eliminate Israel.
- The inability to recognize the defining role of ideology in the culture of the Middle East has incapacitated much of Western thinking and has tilted policy towards solutions that impose Western-based values on a culture that views things very, very differently.
The writer is a clinical psychologist and a fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Foreign Affairs specializing in political psychology.
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