Monday, September 23, 2024

09/23 Links Pt1: Sorry, Israel Won’t Be a Sitting Duck; The Democracies Betray Israel at the UN; Israel’s dangerous bet on deradicalization

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Sorry, Israel Won’t Be a Sitting Duck
Terrorism, according to some of America’s esteemed defense officials and intellectuals, is when you jump out from behind a bush and yell “BOO!” at an unsuspecting passerby. Campfire ghost stories, snake-in-a-can, rollercoasters—terrorism, terrorism, terrorism.

All these things make people afraid, maybe even momentarily terrified, and are therefore terrorism—it’s right there in the word!

“This is going right into the supply chain,” former CIA chief and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said about Israel’s targeted pager plot against Hezbollah soldiers in Lebanon. “And when you have terror going into the supply chain, it makes people ask the question, What the hell is next?”

Philosopher Michael Walzer has a slightly different, but equally ridiculous, objections: “Yes, the devices most probably were being used by Hezbollah operatives for military purposes. This might make them a legitimate target in the continuous cross-border battles between Israel and Hezbollah. But the attacks, which killed at least 37 people and wounded thousands of others, came when the operatives were not operating.”

The first sentence in that quote establishes that the operatives were, by definition, operating. So when Walzer then states two sentences later that the operatives were not operating, one wonders why an editor at the New York Times would not have saved Walzer from himself at his moment of greatest need.

Since such objections to the pager plot are no longer merely coming from figures like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, we must ask: Why are folks making imbecilic, self-refuting arguments in public, where people can see them?

The answer is that we are witnessing the latest chapter in a long-running attempt to delegitimize any offensive military act carried out by Israel. And as absurd as these recent arguments may seem, they are quite dangerous if they catch on. They are being deployed for the express purpose of disqualifying Israel’s policy of targeted attacks, very much including targeted assassinations.

Put simply: They are defending a random Hezbollah operative today to prevent the death of Hassan Nasrallah tomorrow.

There’s a long history of forcing Israel to be a sitting duck, pressuring it to not defend itself unless there are enemy forces on Israeli territory.
Ruthie Blum: News flash for DC: Diplomacy gets you slaughtered
On ABC’s Sunday program, “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby acknowledged sheepishly that Hamas is holding up a deal with Israel that would see the end of the war in Gaza and the release of at least some of the hostages.

The fact that something so obvious requires repeating is beyond outrageous. Nevertheless, it’s made necessary by the choir of voices blaming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin (“Bibi”) Netanyahu for the absence of an arrangement with Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar and his army of mass murderers.

Asked by Stephanopoulos whether it’s true that the “Gaza ceasefire talks have gone cold,” Kirby replied: “I would say that we are not achieving any progress here in the last week to two weeks; not for lack of trying. But it doesn’t appear like Mr. Sinwar is prepared at all to keep negotiating in good faith, especially after he murdered six hostages in a tunnel … execution-style. So, it doesn’t appear as if he’s willing to move this forward.”

As they always do when someone in the American administration fingers the real culprit, Israelis on the side of the spectrum that believes in the government’s war goals promptly highlighted this admission. It’s one of the arguments they use to counter claims by the “anybody but Bibi” protesters that Netanyahu is at fault for not playing ball with the so-called “mediators” in Washington, Cairo and Doha.

In their enthusiasm to illustrate, once again, that even U.S. officials are accusing Hamas of being the stumbling block, these pundits failed to focus on the language of Kirby’s interview—and on the rest of its disturbing content.

Let’s start with his referring to this bloodluster, famous for killing Palestinians with his bare hands, as “Mr. Sinwar.” Talk about an ill-deserved honorific, to put it mildly.

Worse, it indicates utter cluelessness about the character of the Middle East, in general, and Sinwar’s identity, in particular. He’s not a “mister.” He’s a monster who revels in being hailed as such. It’s the source of his power over the people he terrorizes, both his own and Israel’s.

Then there’s Kirby’s delicacy in describing how “it doesn’t appear like Mr. Sinwar is prepared at all to keep negotiating in good faith—especially after he murdered six hostages in a tunnel … execution-style.”

When, one wonders, did he ever negotiate “in good faith?” Executing the starved, abused hostages his operatives and “civilian” supporters tortured, raped and kidnapped on Oct. 7 was par for Sinwar. Kirby’s use of the word “especially” constituted an apologetic clarification for the mere suggestion that the Hamas chief might not be as reliable a partner for powwows as the U.S. government had imagined.
Into the fray: Inverted morality, the eclipse of good by evil
A perverse concern
Therefore, it would be reasonable to assume that Hamas’s position on how Israel should respond to the pernicious procession of war crimes perpetrated against it—and how to redress them—would be irrelevant, especially for those who profess to subscribe to a credo of sanctifying “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Yet astonishingly, what we are seeing is just the reverse: A perverse concern for Hamas’s demands—and the welfare of their malign adherents—is now not only dominating the debate on the fighting in Gaza but also largely determining attitudes toward the negotiations on the release of the abductees held in captivity by the Islamist thugs.

The treatment of the illegally kidnapped Israelis has been bestial, and the conditions they are being held in are below sub-human. They are denied even the most minimal levels of sanitation, nutrition and medical treatment and have had no access to, or care by, international humanitarian organizations such as the (hopelessly biased and inept) Red Cross. They are being incarcerated incommunicado deep in dank, damp dungeons, cut off from any contact with the outside world, certainly from family and friends.

Given the heinous nature of Hamas and its utter disregard not only for international law and elementary norms of human decency but for any semblance of accepted behavior in civilized circles, no merit can or should be ascribed to their demands.

Grotesque endeavors
The organization and its aberrant adherents must be hounded mercilessly—hellfire and brimstone relentlessly rained down on them. The grotesque endeavors to justify its barbarism should be repudiated and ridiculed.

Any sign that its inhumanity could be accorded any gains will only induce further inhumanity.

That is an outcome that cannot be countenanced.


‘Hezbollah’s Hostages’: A Former Sex Slave Tells Her Story
Welcome back to Hezbollah’s Hostages, the animated video series that each week brings you the stories of brave people—in their own voices—risking their lives to resist the tyranny of the terror group in Arab lands.

Last week’s episode, “The Combatant,” told the story of a Hezbollah fighter who became a voice of resistance. Today, we present the story of Alya, a happily married, 20-year-old woman living in the city of Raqqa, Syria, who caught the eye of a Hezbollah operative. The story of her abduction and enslavement in “Episode 2: The Sex Slave” sheds unprecedented light on Hezbollah’s sex- and human-trafficking operations, which prey on the very people it claims to protect.

Recall that Hamas raped and abused the women it took captive after invading southern Israel in a single, terrible day. Now consider that Hezbollah has enjoyed such power for decades in its native Lebanon and for years in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen.

Hezbollah enslaves women en masse to fund its war machine and enrich party elites. The U.S. Treasury Department has sanctioned two senior Hezbollah financiers whose crimes include sex trafficking: One ran a prostitution network of predominantly Syrian women in Lebanon, and the other smuggled Gambian women to buyers in multiple Arab countries.

“The senior leadership of Hezbollah hides behind a facade of piety,” observes American University of Beirut historian Makram Rabah, who writes about today’s episode in a separate essay. “It uses a wide array of religious fatwas—legal rulings—to justify the sexual enslavement of Alya and other young women, among the many crimes for which the group has never been held accountable.”

Alya is the first victim of Hezbollah’s massive human trafficking operations ever to come forth. She is breaking her silence and speaking out to encourage other women to come forward. Through Hezbollah’s Hostages, produced by our partners at The Center for Peace Communications, she is being heard far and wide.


Israel’s dangerous bet on deradicalization
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a man of considerable intellect and experience, shaped by his background as the son of a renowned historian. He is undoubtedly aware of the complex and often brutal history of antisemitism that has plagued the Middle East.

Despite this, Netanyahu’s recent statements seem to reflect a dangerous optimism about the potential for deradicalizing the Muslim enemy in our midst, specifically, the Arabs in Gaza. While his intentions are undoubtedly rooted in a desire for peace and coexistence, his approach appears increasingly disconnected from the harsh realities on the ground and more focused on appeasing the Western world.

Former President Donald Trump recently stated that if elected, he will work towards deporting jihadi sympathizers from the United States. Trump believes that to keep America safe, he must deport jihadi sympathizers. Shouldn’t Israel work on deporting terrorists, and those supporting and advocating for the annihilation of the state as well?

The idea that radical elements within an enemy Muslim population can be reformed or deradicalized is a dangerous delusion. Netanyahu’s statements suggesting that peaceful coexistence with a de-Nazified Muslim population is feasible seem to ignore a painful historical and contemporary reality.

The Muslim Mufti of Jerusalem—Haj Amin al-Husseini—in the 1930s and 1940s met with Adolf Hitler and partnered with the Nazis in a bid to annihilate Jews, showcasing the deep-rooted antisemitic currents that run through some segments of Muslim ideology. And that has nothing to do with the establishment of modern-day Israel, Jewish settlements, or Jews living in their ancestral and biblical lands in Judea and Samaria.

The concept of Palestinian national identity offers no real potential for deradicalization. As spoken about by former Soviet Union intelligence officers, the Palestinian national identity was invented by the Soviets in the 1960s as a tool to undermine the Jewish people and the destruction of the State of Israel. From a young age, Arab children in the Gaza Strip, as well as Judea and Samaria are taught in schools sponsored by the U.N. Relief Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and encouraged by their parents to aspire to martyrdom by killing Jews.
DeSantis: Two-state solution ‘stepping stone’ to end of Israel
The two-state solution long backed by successive U.S. administrations and the international community to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a “canard” that Palestinians view as a “stepping stone to the destruction of Israel,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said on Friday.

“It’s important for us in the United States to be very clear-eyed about what it means to be a strong ally of the State of Israel, and that means we should not embrace the canard of a two-state solution,” the Republican told the Israeli American Council summit in Washington. “That is not seeking to have peace. They are seeking that as a stepping stone to the destruction of the Jewish state, and that is not acceptable!”

In his address, the staunchly pro-Israel governor, who has cracked down on violent university demonstrations against Israel in the Sunshine State and fought against the boycott of Israel, said that chants of “From the River to the Sea” common at the protests were calls for genocide.

“What you’re seeing on these college campuses, no question, is a lot of virulent antisemitism, a lot of hate. When you say, ‘From the River to the Sea’, you are chanting in favor of a second Holocaust. That’s what that means.

“I do think some of these students are just ignorant. I don’t think they even understand what they’re talking about. You hear some of them talking about ‘End the occupation of Palestine’. And I just think they need a little history lesson: There has never been a Palestinian Arab state!” DeSantis continued.

He then offered a crash course in Israel 101.

“Prior to the First World War, you had hundreds of years of occupation under the Ottoman Empire. It was not a Palestinian Arab state. Then you had the British Mandate for Palestine. Then you had a Partition Plan from the U.N.—Jewish state and Arab state,” DeSantis said.

“The Jews accepted the state and founded Israel. The Arabs rejected the state and they went to war to try to eradicate Israel, and they lost. And they went to war again and they lost in 1967 and 1973 and throughout the intifadas, and so on! That land historically has no stronger connection to any group of people except the Jewish people. It goes about thousands of years. Read your Bible!”
US hostility, Israel’s undermining and a ‘Post-Israel Middle East’
While internal cohesion is exploited, Israel’s external military strategy is deliberately compromised. The Iranian regime, empowered by the lifting of U.S. sanctions and billions in financial infusions, is accelerating its pursuit of a nuclear weapon.

Simultaneously, Israel is being pressured by the U.S. administration to refrain from decisive military action against Iran and its regional proxies, such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

An example of this strategy is the pressure Washington has placed on Israel to withdraw from the Philadelphi corridor, the critical border zone between Gaza and Egypt. This would sever Israel’s control over Hamas’s weapons supply routes, enabling the terror organization to resupply and regroup unimpeded. The Philadelphi axis is Hamas’s vital lifeline, and without control over this area, Israel cannot fully defeat Hamas. The U.S. administration’s insistence on this withdrawal, coupled with delayed military aid, just extends Israel’s conflict with Hamas and distracts from the most dangerous threat posed by Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

As Israel endures internal strife and external distractions, Iran continues its advance towards nuclear capability. The lifting of sanctions and tens of billions in cash infusions from Washington have strengthened Iran’s ability to support its regional proxies—Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and other militant groups throughout the region. The U.S.-brokered agreement between Israel and Hezbollah in 2022 under then-Prime Minister Yair Lapid granted the terrorist organization significant economic and territorial concessions in northern Israel, further amplifying Iran’s regional influence and leverage over Israel.

These dual strategies of empowering Iran while weakening Israel from within are aimed at shifting the balance of power in the Middle East. The American administration’s overt hostility towards Israel, combined with covert efforts to bolster Iran and its proxies, underscores a grander agenda: one designed to bring about a “Post-Israel Middle East.”

A leaked document, “Preparing for a Post Israel Middle East,” despite disputes over its authenticity, offered insight into the strategic goals behind these actions. It reportedly outlined a vision where destabilizing Israel is seen as central to achieving a new regional order. It suggested that key powers within the United States are working towards a scenario where Israel ceases to exist as a viable state, replaced by a geopolitical landscape more favorable to its adversaries.

In sum, these actions represent a calculated, multi-faceted campaign designed not only to undermine Israel’s sovereignty but to strategically empower its enemies and weaken the Jewish state to the point of potential collapse.

This administration represents the most hostile in American history, actively working with deeply ingrained influences within Israeli society and levers of power, undermining its stability and sovereignty while simultaneously injecting oxygen and steroids into Iran’s octopus. If Israel does not recognize and counter these covert strategies, it risks being overwhelmed by internal disintegration and external threats. The urgency for decisive action is critical, as Israel’s survival hinges on its ability to resist foreign manipulation and maintain its defense against looming existential dangers.
US comic Bill Maher says Harris should ‘shut up’ about Israel
Iconoclast comic Bill Maher on Friday vented about US Vice President Kamala Harris’s policies on Israel and the conflicts it is embroiled in, advising the Democratic presidential candidate to “shut up” if she doesn’t have anything better to say.

Maher, hosting a panel discussion during his HBO political talk show “Real Time,” referred to remarks Harris made last week about the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip that began on October 7 when the Palestinian terror group attacked Israel.

“Here’s what Kamala Harris said this week about what we should do when the war is over,” Maher began, quoting: “No reoccupation of Gaza, no changing of the territorial lines of Gaza, and an ability to have security in the region for all concerned in a way that we create stability.”

“I feel like if that’s what you have to say, don’t say anything. Just shut up,” he said.

“I mean, everybody who talks about Israel these days is just so full of shit.” Maher continued. “None of us want children to die. None of us want this war to go on, but it’s not addressing what the problem is.”

“People keep saying Israel has the right to defend itself, and then whatever Israel does, they object to it,” he said.


Elliott Abrams: The Democracies Betray Israel at the UN
Last week, the United Nations General Assembly voted 124 to 14 (with 43 abstentions) to demand that Israel cede all “Occupied Palestinian Territory” to the “state of Palestine.” The resolution includes calls for member states to impose various boycotts and sanctions on Israel and to ensure that their own populations adhere to them. As Elliott Abrams observes, if Israel were to follow the text, it would have to withdraw even from the Old City of Jerusalem, leaving the Jewish population to be driven out, murdered, or worse. Abrams examines the votes of the “the nice, decent, democratic U.S. allies.”

Many abstained, including Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom. They understood that this was a completely one-sided, unfair, and unrealistic resolution but nevertheless lacked the guts to vote no. Not only the Israelis lose from these abstentions; so does anyone who thinks the United Nations might ever play a more useful role in the Middle East. (The one piece of good news here was that India abstained; ten years ago it would certainly have voted yes.)

But worse, far worse, were those Western democracies who actually voted for the resolution. They include Belgium, France, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, and Spain. They have voted to remove Jews from the Old City. They have indulged a great expression of anti-Semitism, and agreed to apply to Israel standards of conduct that are applied to no other nation. They voted yes on a resolution that does not mention Hamas, Palestinian terrorism, or the Israeli hostages. This is a hall of shame.
Guterres stands by UNGA resolution calling for Jews to be removed from Old City of Jerusalem
Prior to the U.N. General Assembly’s vote on Wednesday calling for Jerusalem’s Old City, Judea and Samaria to be free of Jews, António Guterres, the global body’s secretary-general, told reporters that he would back implementation of the resolution should it pass.

The Palestinian-drafted resolution, which passed by a 124-14 margin with 43 abstentions, is meant to give force to the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion in July, when the U.N. high court in The Hague declared Israeli presence to be illegal in any area over the 1949 armistice line.

JNS asked Guterres’s spokesman Stéphane Dujarric during a press briefing on Thursday whether the secretary-general now backs the resolution, calling for the Old City in Jerusalem to be Judenrein, which he said he would report.

“He’s the secretary-general of the U.N. If there’s a resolution that passes and that asks him—clearly requests him to do something, he will do so, because those are the instructions he receives from member states,” Dujarric told JNS. “That’s what happened, and he encourages member states to respect the resolutions that are passed.”

‘Defined as settlers’

JNS noted that the resolution mandates “evacuating all settlers” within a year and that the United Nations defines settlers as Jews living beyond the 1949 armistice line, including those in Oslo Accords-defined Area C of Judea and Samaria, and in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Dujarric denied that is the case. “The language supports an end to the occupation, which is what the secretary general and previous secretary generals have always called for,” he said.

“Those Jews living in the Old City are defined as ‘settlers’ by the United Nations,” JNS clarified.

“He has called for an end to the occupation, and he has called for the end of settlements,” said Dujarric before taking another reporter’s question.

The resolution lost support from some countries, which said it went well beyond the contours of the U.N. court’s advisory opinion. It also bans arms sales to the Israel Defense Forces of any equipment that would be expected reasonably to be used in the territory over the 1949 lines and calls for a boycott of all products produced by Jews in those areas.
UNRWA demands immunity after October 7 accusations - Hillel Neuer responds
After accusations that UNRWA employees were directly involved in Hamas's October 7 attacks on Israel, UNRWA is now demanding immunity

'If they're found guilty, UNRWA shouln't step in and shield these accused terrorists,' UN Watch's Hillel Neuer says


Hillel Neuer on NewsNation: "We’re seeing the U.N. Elevating Dictatorships to High Positions"



Iranian-backed Shi’ite forces in Syria could play weighty role in war
The presence of tens of thousands of Iran-backed Shi’ite military-terror operatives in Syria was recently brought to the public’s attention following reports that Houthi Yemeni fighters were making their way to the country, as part of preparations to attack Israel.

The Islamic Republic has worked diligently to entrench its military position in Syria, providing support to various Shi’ite militias, including Hezbollah, which has been trying to build terror bases in the south, and militia members from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria itself, among others. These efforts are part of Iran’s broader strategy to surround Israel with bases of attack across the Middle East.

On Sunday, the IDF’s international spokesperson, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, acknowledged the threat but told JNS that the military was not aware of any dramatic new developments in Syria in this context.

“Iran has been backing and funding terror all across the Middle East— Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen, Judea and Samaria,” he said. Shoshani added that while “we’re facing that terror,” there is nothing significantly new in the past 24 hours or so.”

An i24 report from Sept. 15 said that Yemeni Houthi fighters arrived in Syria, with the intention of moving towards Israel’s border in the Golan Heights. The report cited a Houthi source as stating, “This is a prelude to a new phase of escalation against Israel.”


Former CIA director: Israel pager attack 'a form of terrorism'
Former CIA director Leon Panetta called Israel's targeted pager attack on Hezbollah terrorists last week "a form of terrorism" in an interview on CBS on Sunday.

Asked whether he thought Israel should be condemned for the operation, he said, "The nations of the world need to have a serious discussion about whether or not this is an area that everyone has to focus on because if they don't try to deal with it now.

"Mark my words, it is the battlefield for the future," Panetta added.

"The ability to place an explosive in technology that is very prevalent these days, and turn it into a war of terror. I don't think that there's any question that this is a form of terrorism," he continued.

Pager operation will have repercussions - Panetta
He also noted his worry in the interview, describing the pager attack operation as something "that has repercussions. And we really don't know what those repercussions are gonna be.

In addition to the former CIA Director, Panetta also had served as the US Secretary of Defense.


Macron says France stands by Lebanon, calls to deescalate, doesn’t mention Hezbollah
French President Emmanuel Macron addressed the Lebanese people in a video message in recent days in which he said France stands by Lebanon, while urging the country to back away from war with Israel, as hostilities between the Jewish state and the Hezbollah terror group continue to escalate.

Macron made no explicit mention of Hezbollah in his Friday comments, or its part in the spiraling situation.

This past week saw attacks on the terror group that included the widespread detonations of Hezbollah communication devices, in actions widely attributed to Israel; and an Israeli airstrike on a building in a Beirut suburb that killed multiple senior Hezbollah commanders. Lebanese officials say the attacks also killed civilians, including women and children.

For its part, Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets at northern Israel in that time span.

“Lebanon is struck by grief and fear, grief for all the civilian victims of this week’s attacks,” Macron said with French and Lebanese flags behind him.

“While your country continues to overcome trials, Lebanon cannot live in fear of an imminent war. And I tell you very clearly, as I have told everyone, we must reject this as an inevitability,” Macron continued.

“I had the opportunity to speak with your leaders, and also with the key players in the crisis, from Israel to Iran. I told them that Lebanon must be preserved and war avoided. And it is also up to your political leaders to act in this sense, and that is what I told them. A diplomatic path exists, it is demanding, and it is the one that France wants to trace for Lebanon with all its partners.”

Macron said France was working on a diplomatic solution because of its values and “fraternal feelings” for Lebanon. “We are doing so clearly and by telling the truth to everyone, Israelis, Iranians, international and regional partners, Lebanese leaders,” he said, adding that “no regional adventure, no private interest, no loyalty to any cause whatsoever deserves to trigger a conflict in Lebanon.”
Borrell: Israel ‘spreading terror’ by targeting Hezbollah chiefs
Outgoing E.U. foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has condemned last week’s attack on Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, saying that the targeting of mobile communication devices used by the terror group aimed “to spread terror in Lebanon.’’

At least 37 people were killed and more than 3,000 wounded when first pagers, then walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah terrorists exploded in two waves of attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Lebanon and Hezbollah say Israel carried out the attack, but Jerusalem has not claimed responsibility.

Hezbollah’s “military wing” has been on the E.U. list of proscribed terrorist groups since 2013.

“The indiscriminate method used is unacceptable due to the inevitable and heavy collateral damages among civilians, and the broader consequences for the entire population, including fear and terror, and the collapse of hospitals,” said Borrell on Tuesday.

“Even if the attacks seem to have been targeted, they had heavy, indiscriminate collateral damages among civilians: several children are among the victims. I consider this situation extremely worrying. I can only condemn these attacks that endanger the security and stability of Lebanon, and increase the risk of escalation in the region,” said Borrell in the statement.

The following day, Borrell issued a similar statement on the new series of explosions across Lebanon. “Whoever is behind these attacks aims to spread terror in Lebanon. I join U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk’s assessment of the incident and the call for an independent investigation,” he said.
CAIR, which blamed Israel for being attacked on Oct. 7, calls for Lipstadt to be fired for beeper ‘joke’
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which blamed the Jewish state for being attacked on Oct. 7 and which the White House removed from its national strategy on Jew-hatred, called on Sunday for the Biden administration to fire Deborah Lipstadt as U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism.

Lipstadt, a Holocaust historian, was asked at the Israeli-American Council annual summit in Washington, D.C., to respond to global perceptions that Israel is weak after Hamas carried out its terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7.

“Do you want a beeper?” Lipstadt asked, drawing applause from the audience. (Footage of the exchange, and critical response to it, has drawn hundreds of thousands of views on social media.)

CAIR stated that the U.S. envoy celebrated “Israel’s recent state terrorism in Lebanon that left a number of civilians, including children, dead or injured.”

“Special envoy Lipstadt’s callous remarks are not only disgusting but also dangerous. At a time when our nation’s government claims it is working to de-escalate tensions between Israel and Lebanon, her flippant celebration of state-sponsored terrorism undermines diplomatic efforts to prevent a broader war in the region,” stated Robert McCaw, CAIR’s government affairs director

“Joking about the loss of innocent lives, especially children, is a disgrace and should have no place in U.S. foreign-policy discussions,” he added. “It sends a message to the world that the U.S. government condones or even celebrates the slaughter of Arab and Muslim civilians. This is not just immoral; it’s irresponsible.”

CAIR drew extensive criticism for its call to fire Lipstadt.

“How about they fire whoever consulted CAIR to develop a White House antisemitism strategy,” wrote Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “Have we ever learned who did that?”


Dearborn Residents Memorialize a Hezbollah Terrorist Killed By a Pager
While normie Michigan voters have been lulled into an apathetic sleep on the issue of the Israel-Gaza war, the Biden Administration and Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign continue to extend olive branches to the radicals in Dearborn and make visits to kiss the mayor’s posterior.

But wait, there’s more. In a stunningly clever and targeted operation of counterterrorism, thousands of pagers exploded last week in Lebanon, killing a large but unverified number of Hezbollah terrorists. No government has taken responsibility yet, though several news agencies have reported that Israeli officials have indicated they were behind it. In no time several left-wing Democrat politicians began complaining on Twitter and condemning the Israeli government.

But less than two days after the explosions, something even more shocking and politically problematic occurred. A celebratory memorial was announced for one of the alleged Hezbollah terrorists killed in the pager operation titled “In the memory of the late martyr Fadel Abbas Bazzi” to take place at the Islamic Institute of Knowledge in Dearborn on Sunday. Bazzi’s real funeral was held on Thursday in Lebanon as documented by Reuters, however social media posts and Dearborn associated websites indicate he has family in Michigan, including an uncle in Dearborn.

I suspected there’d be no intrepid members of the media covering this memorial to a terrorist, and I was right. During my two hours at the event I didn’t see any local Detroit print or television media present. Of course that makes sense. An event such as this makes the Democratic coalition look bad at a time when Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, are working exceptionally hard to appear moderate and pro-American to suburban voters who are generally pro-Israel and negatively repulsed by radical Islam and antisemitism. Sign for Islamic Institute of Knowledge with text reading "Du'a Kumayl program thursdays maghrib prayer"

Dearborn Police were on hand to protect the event from outsiders. Some of the attendees were quite obviously keeping a sharp eye for counter-protesters. Just hanging around the area resulted in someone near the main entrance taking my photo. Ohhh, you got me.

Regarding the event itself, about 300 attendees entered the mosque prior to its 3 p.m. start, but most interesting were the demographics. Several men attended, but the overwhelming majority was female, seemingly between the ages of 30 and 50. Of the men that did attend, most were between 50 and 60 years of age. I counted very few young adult males.


Israeli Air Force hits 1,300 sites in Lebanon as Hezbollah pummels northern Israel
Israeli Air Force fighter jets conducted massive airstrikes on Hezbollah targets across Lebanon throughout the day on Monday to prevent the Iranian-backed terror army from firing rockets across the border.

As of Monday evening, the IAF had attacked more than 3,100 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.

Alongside an earlier update, the army published a video of Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi approving the attacks from the military’s underground command room at the Israel Defense Forces headquarters in Tel Aviv.

IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari warned that the IAF strikes would continue in the immediate time frame and criticized Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, accusing the terror leader of “dragging Lebanon and the entire region into escalation.”

Addressing the possibility of ground maneuvers in Lebanon, he said that “we will do whatever is necessary to return residents [of northern Israel] to their homes. We have detailed plans, which we have presented to the political leadership.”

Hagari on Monday morning warned Lebanese civilians living along the border that Hezbollah was using their homes to store weapons and that for their safety they should evacuate immediately.

He also revealed during the press briefing that terrorists had recently attempted to launch a cruise missile from a civilian residence, which was thwarted, providing documentation of the preventive strike.

The cruise missile was a DR-3 model with a flight range of 124 miles (200 km.) carrying a warhead of up to 661 pounds (300 kg.), according to the IDF.

“I have recorded a clear message for all residents of Southern Lebanon—in the past few hours, we identified an intention to attack Israel, and soon we will strike,” said Hagari.
IAF targets Hezbollah No. 3 Karaki in Beirut
Israeli Air Force fighter jets conducted a targeted airstrike in Dahiyeh, the Hezbollah stronghold in southern Beirut, the military announced.

The attack targeted Ali Karaki, Hezbollah’s No. 3 man. He is the terrorist organization’s highest-ranking remaining “military” commander following Friday’s targeted killing of Ibrahim Aqil.

It was not immediately clear if Karaki was killed or wounded.

In an official statement issued three hours after the strike, Hezbollah claimed that the top terrorist was still alive and “moved to a safe place.”

Karaki heads Hezbollah’s southern front, which is responsible for the Iranian-backed terrorist army’s cross-border attacks on Israel. He reportedly had been chosen by Hezbollah to succeed Aqil.

Karaki is also a member of Hezbollah’s top “military” organization, the Jihad Council, which is subordinate to the Shura Council and under the direct control of Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.

According to Lebanon’s Al Mayadeen channel, which is affiliated with Hezbollah, at least three missiles were fired at Karaki’s location and several people were wounded in the assassination attempt.
Haifa’s hardened locals shrug off Hezbollah’s escalation
Having spent most of Sunday indoors following the explosion of a rocket outside her home near Haifa, Nicole Ir decided to treat her daughter to some shopping in the nearby Kiryon, one of Israel’s oldest, largest and most visited shopping malls.

When they arrived, however, Nicole and Carolina, 9, had to stand in line for 30 minutes. Because of Sunday’s escalation in rocket fire from Lebanon, management had limited to 100 the maximum capacity of visitors to the sprawling shopping center, which normally has thousands of shoppers at any time.

Those waiting dismissed or ignored the warnings by the security staff that it was unsafe to congregate at the entrance.

“That’s right. So let us into McDonald’s already!” one man told the security guard loudly, in a Russian accent, drawing chuckles from the rest.

The scene captured a widespread sentiment in Haifa’s environs, where previous conflicts and decades in Hezbollah’s crosshairs have inspired a defiant resilience in locals. They are unimpressed by the terrorists’ threats and confident in Israel’s ability to triumph.

Locals wait to enter the sprawling Kiryon shopping mall, where security guards limited the maximum capacity to 100 following rocket fire from Lebanon on Kiryat Bialik, Israel on Sept. 22, 2024. Photo by Canaan Lidor/JNS

Ir, 42, moved to Kiryat Bialik with her family only two years ago from Petah Tikvah near Tel Aviv. Over the past year, her daughter has “become used, sadly, to the emotional strains of living under rocket threat,” her mother told JNS outside the mall. Nicole’s 18-month-old baby, meanwhile, “cries incessantly when the sirens go off,” she added.

On Sunday, Nicole’s family was among the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who huddled together in safe spaces due to a major rocket barrage launched by Hezbollah, one of hundreds of such barrages since Hezbollah began attacking Israel in support of Hamas on Oct. 8. As in previous cases, Sunday’s attacks triggered Israeli strikes in Lebanon, as Israel and Hezbollah teeter on the edge of all-out war.


Defense Minister Gallant: Tens of thousands of Hezbollah rockets destroyed
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday night revealed that the IDF has in recent days destroyed tens of thousands of Hezbollah rockets, a potential strategic game-changer for the Lebanese terror group.

Gallant's estimate was a major jump over earlier estimates which had been under 10,000 rockets destroyed.

Despite the success, pre-war Hezbollah had over 150,000 rockets.

The tens of thousands of Hezbollah rockets destroyed occurred in southern Lebanon and deep in the Bekaa Valley.

The show of force is double the largest number of attacks the IDF has carried out against Hezbollah in a single day, even during the major new strikes since Thursday of last week, and is around 10-20 times what large attacks by the IDF on Hezbollah looked like prior to last month.

These strikes follow warnings from IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari on Monday afternoon for Lebanese civilians to evacuate Bekaa Valley; social media posts showed several explosions across the valley.

Hezbollah has much longer-range strategic weapons in the Bekaa Valley because it is farther from the border with Israel, making collecting intelligence about the weapons and attacking them more difficult.

While the impact of Hagari's warning may be to cause a mass evacuation from the area, the IDF did not say that the whole area must be evacuated, rather focusing on residences where weapons are hidden.

However, given that the IDF has accused Hezbollah of hiding weapons in every three to five houses in parts of Lebanon, the impact of Hagari's threat could be a mass evacuation.

Further, Hagari pushed back on global criticism of rising Lebanese casualties and the IDF decision to target civilian areas, saying that the videos of large explosions circulating on social media prove that Hezbollah hid powerful weapons in civilian areas which caused secondary explosions.


Hamas takes unusual step to hide Sinwar's disappearance
Israeli intelligence officials estimate that the messages published over the last two weeks, allegedly from Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, were not written by him, according to a report by army radio station Galatz on Monday.

These include a message sent to Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, the Houthi leader, and the President of Algeria. According to the report, although the messages were signed in Sinwar’s name, they were actually written by another figure within Hamas.

Israel is also investigating the possibility that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar may no longer be alive. This theory has been raised by several experts in the Military Intelligence Directorate (Aman), who specialize in the Palestinian arena. However, there is currently no concrete evidence to support this claim.

Meanwhile, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) disputes this theory, believing that Sinwar is still alive. According to this theory, it is possible that Sinwar was killed during an IDF operation without public disclosure.

In the background of stalled hostage negotiations—due to a wide gap between the parties' positions that mediators have been unable to narrow—and efforts to prevent an Israel-Hezbollah war, a secret alternative plan has been forming between the sides.


Israel 'left' with ‘one choice’ in Hezbollah confrontation: Sharren Haskel
Israeli MP Sharren Haskel has warned Israel unfortunately can’t “avoid” a war with Hezbollah.

“For 11 months, Hezbollah has been attacking Israel with rockets,” Ms Haskel told Sky News host Sharri Markson.

“No matter how much pressure the international community is putting on Hezbollah including France and the United States … unfortunately Hezbollah is not interested.

“We are only left with one choice which is full confrontation.

“Hezbollah is not leaving us many options.”


The Commentary Magazine Podcast: Just and Unjust Blabbermouths
Hosted by Abe Greenwald, Christine Rosen, John Podhoretz & Matthew Continetti
Today’s podcast does not look favorably on chin-scratching arguments about how the beeper and walkie-talkie attacks against Hezbollah somehow violate the “laws of war.” Also, what’s with attacking pollsters for reporting poll results you don’t like?


Jack Carr: Top Hezbollah Commander Killed in Israeli Strike on Beirut
In this exclusive report, I dive into the breaking news of a top Hezbollah commander being killed in an Israeli precision strike on Beirut—a move that echoes the shadow war on terror. This strike takes place against the backdrop of my new book, Targeted: Beirut, where I explore the devastating 1983 Beirut bombing and its lasting impact on the region. Just like in the book, this event shows how these conflicts, born decades ago, continue to shape the balance of power in the Middle East. Tune in as I break down the operation, the implications for Hezbollah, and what this means for the ongoing war on terror.


Israel Now News - Episode 530 - Eugene Kontorovich



Irish president accuses Israel of circulating his congratulatory letter to Iranian president
Irish President Michael D. Higgins has accused Israel of distributing his congratulatory letter to new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian shortly after his election in July.

A copy of the letter, in which Higgins conveyed his “best wishes” for the new Iranian leader’s presidency and expressed condolences for the death of his predecessor, the hardline Ebrahim Raisi, was shared on social media at the time and prompted a number of politicians to criticise Higgins for “kowtowing” to a despotic regime.

During a press conference in New York on Sunday, Higgins said he believed Israel was behind the publicisation of the letter, telling reporters: "You should ask where the criticism came from and how the letter was circulated and by whom and for what purpose.”

The letter, which was first posted publicly by the Islamic Republic’s embassy in Dublin to its website on the 26th July and also appeared to have been posted in a since-deleted tweet with a photo of the letter around that time.

The account for the Israeli embassy in Ireland, didn't post about the letter until 1 August in a post which criticised Higgins for addressing Iran “as a so-called force for stability & collaboration without holding them accountable for their malign actions.”

When a reporter pressed further, asking how Higgins thought the letter got out, he responded with certainty: “It was the Israeli embassy.”

He was then asked how he thinks the Israeli embassy obtained his correspondence with the Iranian president, to which he replied: “I have no idea.”


PreOccupiedTerritory: Rhetoric That Inspires Violence Is Wrong! Unless It’s Pro-Palestine Rhetoric by Rashida Tlaib, Congresswoman, 12h District, Michigan (satire)
Detroit, September 22 – Donald Trump and J. D. Vance have continued their irresponsible, reckless speech even after the atmosphere they created with such talk resulted in two attempts on Trump’s life. Aside from being dangerous, such talk is simply wrong. Well, if it isn’t in favor of Palestinian resistance it’s wrong. No amount of violence on behalf of Palestine could disqualify the cause.

Republicans and conservative in general have long resorted to inflammatory rhetoric that inspires violence. Activists such as Libs of TikTok do the same. But they refuse to take responsibility for that rhetoric, which threatens lives – even their own! – and safety. Anyone who votes for politicians who speak they way Trump and Vance speak automatically support political violence, which betrays all of our fundamental values.

That is, if the perpetrators commit political violence on behalf of ordinary causes. On behalf of Palestine, however, both the violence and the rhetoric that prompted it attain sacred, unassailable status.

Anti-abortion protesters accuse providers of murder, and then someone bombs an abortion clinic; Libs of TikTok posts a clip from a trans teacher, and the teacher’s school gets bomb threats; President Biden tweets that Trump is “a genuine threat to this nation” and “a threat to democracy,” and someone tries to shoot Trump.

Hmm. Maybe that last one is okay, as well. I will have to consider it. Trump is pretty pro-Israel so perhaps it counts as “pro-Palestine” rhetoric.




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