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In-Depth Issues:
IDF Says 3,500 Hizbullah Operatives Killed in Fighting - Emanuel Fabian ( Times of Israel)
The IDF estimates that it killed 3,500 Hizbullah operatives in the past 14 months of fighting, and that 7,000 were seriously or moderately wounded who are unable to fight.
The IDF sees Hizbullah as significantly weakened but not destroyed, as it still maintains about half of its basic capabilities.
IAEA: Iran Plans New Uranium-Enrichment Expansion - Francois Murphy ( Reuters)
Iran has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that it plans to install 6,000 uranium-enriching centrifuges at its enrichment plants and bring more of those already in place online, the IAEA said Thursday.
Iran already has 10,000 centrifuges operating at two underground plants at Natanz and Fordow and an above-ground plant at Natanz.
Rebel Forces in Syria Take Most of Aleppo in Surprise Offensive - Jared Malsin ( Wall Street Journal)
Syria's Islamist-led antigovernment rebels poured into Aleppo two days after launching an unexpected strike, eight years after the city fell to forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad.
The rebels also captured territory across the countryside outside of Aleppo, and by Saturday said they advanced on the city of Hama.
Egypt and Israel in Talks to Reopen Gaza's Rafah Crossing -
Summer Said
( Wall Street Journal)
Egyptian officials were in Israel last week to negotiate terms for the reopening of the Rafah border crossing with Gaza, which has been shut since May when Israel launched military operations in the border town of Rafah.
Anti-Israel Protesters Disrupt Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade - Stephen Sorace ( Fox News)
Anti-Israel protesters with signs and banners descended on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City on Thursday, with police removing those who attempted to block the parade route.
The crowd that lined the streets to watch the parade could be heard booing the protesters.
Most West Bank Palestinians Didn't Heed Calls for Third Intifada - Amos Harel ( Ha'aretz)
Immediately after the Oct. 7 massacre, it was believed there might be a third intifada in the West Bank.
The terrorist organizations greatly stepped up their attacks and the army sent in large forces, but the West Bank isn't sliding into active warfare.
The reason? Many Palestinians in the West Bank are very worried that Israel might adopt similar measures as in Gaza, which has been almost totally destroyed.
In conversations with Palestinian security officials over the past year, it's surprising to see a near total lack of emotion regarding Hamas's travails in Gaza.
There's not even lip service; at most, there's a brief expression of identification with the suffering of the Gazans, on whom Hamas has inflicted a national calamity.
Legends Among Us: Moshe Leiter ( Jerusalem Post)
The Legends Among Us podcast, hosted by Rabbi Benji Levy, honors families of those who lost their lives during the Oct. 7 attack and the war that followed.
Moshe Leiter, 39, a decorated soldier and a father of six, was killed leading troops in Gaza. He is the son of Dr. Yechiel Leiter, the incoming Israeli ambassador to the U.S., who was interviewed on the podcast.
Moshe served for 15 years in the Israel Air Force Shaldag commando unit. "He lived the life of someone twice his age," Leiter said.
Moshe guided a trusted team during the Gaza operation. He would tell his soldiers, "Know who you are, know where your friends are, and know where the enemy is."
This is a guiding principle we can all apply to life, Leiter says.
He concluded, "We are fighting not only against Hamas but against a global mindset that blurs the lines between good and evil, truth and falsehood. Moshe and his comrades are our modern-day Maccabees."
"The Australian Government Is Confused between Good and Evil" - Ayelet Shaked interviewed by Anna Pasternak ( Australian Jewish News)
Former Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked has accused the Australian government, led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of the Labor Party, of being "confused between good and evil" after she was denied a visa to travel to Australia, where she had been invited to speak by the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC).
Shaked was last granted a visa to Australia in February 2023.
"It's undemocratic and it has never happened to me before from any other country," said Shaked.
"It is a political act committed against my country, so I'm not taking it personally. I think it mainly embarrasses them and it's disgraceful for them."
"Countries that are allies, like Israel and Australia, cannot do such things. Australia and Israel have a very warm relationship, and we consider Australia as a strong ally of Israel, and it doesn't matter who the government is."
A spokesperson for Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, "The Australian government's decision to deny a visa to former Israeli minister Ayelet Shaked is unacceptable. The decision is deeply offensive and troubling, and will have a negative impact on Israel-Australia relations."
Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said, "The Albanese government must explain why a former minister in a friendly government and someone they granted a visa to only two years ago is now such a threat they must be banned from Australia."
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
- Hizbullah Fighters Retreat North after Truce - Jared Malsin
Exhausted Hizbullah fighters filed past a throng of civilians through Nabatieh, Lebanon, on Thursday, withdrawing northward a day after the ceasefire. As they pulled back, ordinary residents flowed south, past mountains of rubble, returning to homes they had fled.
The Hizbullah men said the fighting had been hard since Israeli ground troops pushed into Lebanon in September. One militant said his unit had been on the front for weeks without reinforcements and at times cut off from contact with commanders after Israeli attacks hobbled internal communications.
A Hizbullah commander said the group planned to withdraw its heavy weapons and fighters from the south, with the exception of those who live in the south, who would remain with light arms. "Those who are not from the villages themselves will have to pull back," he said. Just outside of Nabatieh, a flatbed truck carrying a rocket launcher could be seen driving north, as Lebanese army armored personnel carriers and trucks carrying bulldozers rumbled south. (Wall Street Journal)
- With Trump Returning and Hizbullah Weakened, Iran Strikes a Conciliatory Tone - Farnaz Fassihi
In mid-November, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dispatched senior adviser Ali Larijani to Beirut to urge Hizbullah to accept a ceasefire with Israel. On Friday, Iran held talks in Geneva with European countries on a range of issues, including its nuclear program. This marks a sharp change in tone from late October, when Iran was preparing to launch an attack on Israel.
Five Iranian officials and two former officials said the decision to recalibrate was prompted by Mr. Trump winning the U.S. presidential election. It was also driven by Israel's decimation in Lebanon of Hizbullah - the closest and most important of Iran's militant allies. Together with economic challenges, this forced Iran to recalibrate its approach to one of defusing tensions, the current Iranian officials said.
They said Iran suspended plans to strike Israel following Mr. Trump's election, as the incoming administration began lining up cabinet nominees who were hostile to Iran and staunch supporters of Israel. "The shift in tone is about protecting Iran's interests," said Sanam Vakil, Middle East director for Chatham House, a British policy research group. (New York Times)
See also Some in Hizbullah Say Iran Failed to Come to Their Aid - Susannah George
"Support from other members of the resistance axis, including Yemen and Iraq, was minimal at best," said an individual close to Hizbullah and familiar with the group's thinking. He blamed Iran for not providing more support during the war and said Hizbullah had expected other Iran-backed groups to relieve some of the pressure by ramping up their own attacks on Israel. "Tehran was unwilling to escalate the situation," he said.
Iranian officials have again pledged to fund Lebanon's recovery. But after decades of U.S. and international sanctions, as well as a spiraling currency crisis, it's unclear whether Iran has the resources to rehabilitate swaths of Lebanon.
(Washington Post)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
- IDF Strikes Hizbullah Targets over Ceasefire Violations - Yoav Zitun
The IDF reported Saturday that it had struck multiple Hizbullah targets in Lebanon, citing violations of the ceasefire agreement. In one instance, the IDF said armed operatives were observed loading a vehicle with RPGs, ammunition and other military equipment, which was subsequently hit in an airstrike. Near Sidon, Israeli aircraft targeted rocket launchers at a Hizbullah facility.
Earlier in the day, IDF troops in southern Lebanon discovered Hizbullah arms and munitions hidden inside a mosque. The military also confirmed airstrikes along the Syria-Lebanon border to disrupt the transfer of weapons intended for Hizbullah.
(Ynet News)
See also IDF Strikes Hizbullah Rocket Depot, Launch Sites after Ceasefire - Emanuel Fabian
The Israel Defense Forces said Thursday that it had carried out airstrikes on a Hizbullah rocket facility and two Hizbullah operatives at a rocket launch site in southern Lebanon, a day after the start of the ceasefire. Troops also fired warning shots in a number of cases at suspects who approached border areas that are still off-limits according to the truce.
Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually over two months as Israel ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel says it reserves the right to strike Hizbullah if it violates the terms of the truce. Fighting since October 2023 has resulted in the deaths of 45 civilians and 76 IDF soldiers.
(Times of Israel)
- IDF Continues to Dismantle Hizbullah Infrastructure in Southern Lebanon - Amir Bohbot
Senior IDF officials believe that failing to eliminate Hizbullah's terror infrastructure would allow it to quickly rebuild its capabilities. According to Israeli intelligence, Hizbullah is working to save weapons, technologies, and military equipment by transferring them to the north.
"Anything we don't manage to destroy or transfer to Israeli territory will remain in Hizbullah's hands," a source in the IDF Northern Command said on Sunday. "No one is counting on the Lebanese army to destroy Hizbullah's terror houses and outposts in place of the IDF."
"The moment the IDF is no longer present in southern Lebanon, we rely solely on ourselves - not on UNIFIL or the Lebanese army, even when U.S. oversight arrives. Facing this threat, deterrence is key. Any armed Hizbullah activity in the area must be attacked, even at the cost of escalation," a Northern Command reservist officer said.
IDF engineering work has recently begun along the Lebanese border, focusing on building a new fence, a triple-layered barrier, sensors, and observation systems. Moreover, outposts and bases damaged by rockets are set to be renovated and restored.
(Jerusalem Post)
- Terrorist Shoots at Bus near Ariel in Samaria, 9 Wounded - Elisha Ben Kimon
Nine Israelis were injured, three seriously, on Friday in a shooting attack on a bus near Ariel in Samaria. The Palestinian terrorist was killed.
(Ynet News)
- IDF Intercepts Missile from Yemen Targeting Central Israel - Yoav Zitun
The IDF on Sunday intercepted a missile targeting central Israel launched by the Houthis in Yemen, using the Arrow missile defense system. Sirens were activated in vast areas of central Israel. (Ynet News)
- IDF Eliminates 40 Terrorists, Arrests 100 in Jabaliya in Gaza - Yoav Zitun
The IDF raided a large school complex in Jabalia in Gaza on Wednesday. The operation resulted in the arrest of about 100 Hamas terrorists and the elimination of 40 others - 22 in close-range encounters and another 18 via airstrikes - without any casualties among the soldiers.
(Ynet News)
- IDF Says Rebuilding Can Begin in Damaged Northern Border Communities - Emanuel Fabian
IDF Northern Command head Maj.-Gen. Ori Gordin told mayors of Israel's displaced northern communities on Friday that work can begin toward rebuilding the towns damaged by Hizbullah's attacks in the past 14 months, as a ceasefire appeared to broadly hold. More than 400 homes in Israel were completely destroyed and 500 more require significant reconstruction.
(Times of Israel)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
Hizbullah
- Tehran Envisioned Using Hizbullah to Destroy Israel - Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz
The lesson of Oct. 7, 2023, is that Israel must be uncompromising and proactive when it comes to protecting itself. The fundamentalist regime in Tehran envisions using Hizbullah to destroy Israel and, ultimately, to dominate the region. This can never be allowed to happen.
When the IDF returned to Southern Lebanon, it uncovered another Oct. 7-like attack poised for launch: terror tunnels within sight of Israeli towns ready to unleash hundreds of Radwan terrorists as well as missiles and weapon caches embedded in Lebanese homes close to the border. All of it was set for deployment on command.
Israel must have the operational freedom to act not only against immediate threats posed by Hizbullah forces, but against any force building far from the border. History has proved that only Israel can be entrusted to safeguard the security of Israelis. Israel seeks to coexist with its neighbor to the north. Israel's wars have always been waged against Hizbullah and other terror organizations - never against the people of Lebanon.
The writer, chairman of Israel's National Unity party, was Minister of Defense, 2020-22. (Wall Street Journal)
- The Ceasefire in Lebanon Is a Hizbullah Defeat
Hizbullah abandoned several previously-held ceasefire negotiation positions, reflecting the degree to which IDF military operations have forced Hizbullah to abandon its war aims. Hizbullah's leaders had said repeatedly that it would not end its attacks on Israel without a ceasefire in Gaza.
Hizbullah claimed incorrectly that it defeated Israel.
IDF operations in Lebanese border towns have eliminated the threat of an Oct. 7-style offensive attack by Hizbullah into northern Israel, and the Israeli air campaign has killed many commanders and destroyed much of Hizbullah's munition stockpiles.
Destroying Hizbullah's military organization - which is the only military objective that would prevent all attacks into Israel permanently - was never the stated objective of Israeli military operations. A ceasefire deal, however, will prevent attacks into Israel through diplomatic means.
Hizbullah and Iran can recover from this setback if the U.S. and Israel fail to prevent Hizbullah and Iran from doing so. Hizbullah will almost certainly attempt to reoccupy southern Lebanon. (Institute for the Study of War)
International Criminal Court
- The International Criminal Court's Folly - Eugene Kontorovich
The warrants issued by the International Criminal Court against Israel's prime minister and former defense minister represent many historic firsts. They would be the court's first prosecutions of leaders in a liberal Western democracy, and represent the first time anyone has been charged with the "crime of starvation"; the first time the court has accused a country of war crimes during a defensive war against an external invader; and the first prosecution of a non–member state at the bequest of a member that is not generally recognized as a state.
The warrants also represent something entirely familiar: an international institution, created to serve high and noble purposes, succumbing to the temptation of pursuing an anti-Israel agenda, a phenomenon on routine display at the UN General Assembly and Human Rights Council.
The charges are baseless as a matter of law and fact, issued by a court with no jurisdiction, alleging as crimes things that simply never happened, while ignoring settled international law and practice.
The writer is a professor at George Mason University Law School.
(Atlantic)
- The ICC's Legal Sophistry Won't Bring Peace - David Patrikarakos
The International Criminal Court has, for the first time in its 22-year history, issued arrest warrants for democratically elected politicians. It's hard, though, to see how the warrants stand up as law. Israel is not a member of the ICC and Palestine is not recognized as a state by many. Meanwhile, the Rome Statute that governs the ICC states that any member cannot affect "the rights and privileges" of a third party that is not a signatory.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is accused of the crime of starvation which, according to the Statute, relates to "willfully impeding relief supplies." Yet Israel permits aid into Gaza daily. Food insecurity is not an indication of deliberate starvation; nor can Israel do anything to mitigate the hijacking of aid supplies by Hamas.
We need international law to govern maritime rights and arbitrate on cross-border trade disputes. But on fundamental questions of national self-defense undertaken by people answerable to electorates, the idea that the ICC has the essential competence or legitimacy to be the ultimate arbiter is massively stretching the power that international law should have.
The clash here is about a fundamental understanding of reality. On the one hand, we have those who believe that the bloody and chaotic practice of war can be ordered and adjudicated upon by bureaucrats in Holland.
On the other, we have Hamas's psychopathic barbarities. If the ICC's vision ever had any basis in fact, it died in Gaza. This is the world we are now living in, and it will not yield to delusion or legal sophistry. (UnHerd)
The Hamas Attack on Oct. 7
- Heroic Tales from Oct. 7 - Barbara Sofer
Itzik Kara, 56, father of three, is a nurse, a paramedic, and an administrator at Hadassah Hospital. He's experienced in intensive care, recovery, and surgical nursing. Kara served as a combat medic in the Givati infantry brigade and was previously an ambulance driver for Magen David Adom.
In his spare time, Kara is a volunteer team head for United Hatzalah emergency services.
"By 7:05, I realized that the Hamas Nukhba special forces were inside Sderot. I am the head of a paramedic team, and I had an ambulance parked outside. Nonetheless, at 7:30 the dispatcher at United Hatzalah told me the situation was too dangerous to head south. But...by 7:45 the decision was made to send teams to rescue as many wounded as possible, danger or not."
Kara posted a call for volunteers' help on the Modi'in United Hatzalah WhatsApp group. Sergio Geralnik, 59, and his wife, Caryn Gale, 58, both paramedics, responded, as did Noemi Dray, 27, a nursing student.
At the United Hatzalah office, the four volunteers gathered their equipment and suited up in bulky flak jackets and helmets. Rockets were flying, but they kept on driving and entered Sderot, where a battle between Hamas and the police for the police station was raging. They were advised by local paramedics that it was impossible to get close enough to help.
They got a call from a military vehicle carrying a soldier with a head wound. They inserted an IV, provided oxygen and staunched the bleeding while racing him to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba. They evacuated a second soldier to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon. The team continued all day, picking up and treating the wounded. Hamas sharpshooters were positioned along the road they traveled.
Kara said, "Only on Sunday did I realize what danger we were in on Oct. 7. We were concentrating so hard on caring for the wounded that, even though we saw the murdered bodies and we heard the rockets, we somehow had the ability to ignore them and keep working....All the patients we rescued survived." (Jerusalem Post)
Observations:
- Like many from Lebanon's Shia community in 1985, I joined Hizbullah as a young man, inspired by the revolutionary fervor radiating out of Iran that called for our people to take up arms against Israel and the West. But after seeing Lebanon go through decades of conflict, corruption and spiraling poverty, my vision for my community and country have evolved.
- As an imam of the Shia community in Lebanon, I say that the biggest threat to Lebanon and the Middle East is the radical ideology of Iran's regime. The only way to secure a long-term peace in Lebanon is to actively roll back the Iranian regime's control of our country. Our hopes have been subverted by an ideology that is dedicated to violence and the suppression of freedoms.
- During a visit to Tehran, I heard from Iranian Shia themselves about the lack of freedom and equality in their society, the nepotism and privileges granted to the relatives of the regime and those close to it.
- The revolution has forsaken the people it claimed to represent, and it has dragged its society back into the Dark Ages. In Lebanon, too, Hizbullah has turned what was a beautiful country into a mafia state.
- American and French diplomats should know that the Shia community deserves and desires peace, and to live free from the influence of foreign regimes that force us into an endless and pointless conflict. My call to choose peace over Iran has almost cost me my life on several occasions at the hands of Hizbullah.
The writer is a Shi'ite Imam based in Baalbek, Lebanon.
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