Wednesday, September 25, 2024

09/25 Links Pt1: Hezbollah Is Everyone’s Problem; Biden delays delivery of critical weapons to Israel; Should the United Nations Be Abolished?

From Ian:

Bret Stephens: Hezbollah Is Everyone’s Problem
Fourth lesson: Keep the U.N. out of it. In theory, the Security Council’s Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war, empowered a U.N. peacekeeping force to prevent Hezbollah from placing its forces close to the Israeli border. In reality, the U.N. peacekeepers did nothing of the sort, at a cost of billions to U.S. taxpayers.

If the United States or Europeans want to create a buffer area between Israel and Hezbollah, they should deploy their own troops under a NATO flag, or perhaps invite Arab states to send forces. Otherwise, the re-establishment of the Israeli-controlled security zone in southern Lebanon that existed from 1985 to 2000 might, for all the long-term problems it presents, be the least-bad alternative.

Fifth lesson: The proper role for the United States in the crisis is not to seek a diplomatic solution. It’s to help Israel win.

Until Al Qaeda’s attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, no terrorist group had murdered more Americans than Hezbollah. Israel’s strike last week in Beirut, which killed the Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqeel, avenged the 1983 attacks there on the U.S. Embassy and Marine barracks, in which 258 Americans perished. Hezbollah later went on to murder and starve untold numbers of Syrians by helping Bashar al-Assad in the bloody suppression of his own people.

Those crimes should neither be forgotten nor forgiven. Nor can it be in the interests of the West for a terrorist group with burgeoning ties to the Kremlin to maintain effective control of a Mediterranean state while it terrorizes its neighborhood. Beyond Israel’s interests in secure borders against Tehran’s Axis of Resistance, there is an American interest in checking the expansion of what I call the Axis of Repression, a broader group that includes Iran, China, Russia and North Korea.

Which brings us to a sixth lesson: It’s tempting to view Israel’s various battles as regional affairs, distant from America’s central concerns. It’s also foolish. We are now in the opening stages of yet another contest between the free and unfree worlds. It’s a conflict that reaches from Norway’s border with Russia to the struggle of the Iranian people against their own government to the shoals of the South China Sea. It will probably last for decades.

In that fight, Israel is on our side and Hezbollah is on the other. Whatever happens in the days and weeks ahead, we can’t pretend to be neutral between them.
Seth Mandel: Exposing the Hypocrisy of the ‘Genocide’ Propagandists
Since the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, Lebanon’s involvement has been revelatory.

Do anti-Israel protesters on campus care about Palestinians or do they merely hate the Jewish state? If they’re waving Hezbollah flags and chanting support for the Iranian satrapy, they aren’t worried about Palestinians. Do activists want peace or merely the unfettered ability to make war on Israel? If they’re blaming escalation on Israel and legitimizing a third country’s entry into the war Israel didn’t start, it ain’t peace they’re after. Do politicians stand against terrorism or do they stand against Israel? If their definition of “terrorism” includes Israel’s targeted maiming of terrorists, they’re taking a stand against the Jewish state.

Support for Hezbollah or insistence that Israel is the aggressor in South Lebanon immediately exposes one’s bad faith.

The terms commentators use to describe events are also revealing. Since what is happening in Gaza is definitionally not a genocide, why would people use that word anyway? Once again, let events in Lebanon be our guide: If someone calls Israel’s targeted response against Hezbollah terrorists after months of having its own population bombed from South Lebanon “genocide,” we can infer that this person’s application of the term “genocide” to Gaza is just as intentionally dishonest. In general, it’s best not to attribute the worst possible motive to someone in public debate, but anyone who calls Israel’s Lebanon response a “genocide” has only one possible motive. It’s not a multiple-choice question.

“It’s easier to stop sending the Israel government weapons to conduct its genocidal wars than it is to evacuate every American in Lebanon,” posted anti-Semitic congresswoman Rashida Tlaib.

In terms of its effects on public discourse, this is a very unhelpful thing to say. But in terms of its revelatory capacity, this is a very helpful thing to say.

“What is one supposed to do to stop the madness?” asked American University of Beirut professor Mona Fawaz. “People have protested, written letters, advocated, resigned, been fired, camped, lost degrees, filed for court ruling, demonstrated beyond any unreasonable doubt Israel’s genocidal intent, and still, the killing machine is on.”

For an educator, this is a self-discrediting statement. But one suspects this person is motivated by something other than education.

DC think-tanker Yousef Munayyer wanted his audience to know that Israeli figures pointing out Hezbollah’s human-shields policy are “Attempting to manufacture consent for a genocide of Lebanon’s Shia community.”

A morally blind statement? Sure. An innocent mistake? No.

Israel’s operations in Lebanon have been so precise that they have won praise from Tlaib’s fellow Democrats who might otherwise be readily critical of the IDF.
Tehran’s disturbing new reality is that Mossad has infiltrated its Lebanese proxy at the highest level
Heightened paranoia, deepening angst and increasing insomnia. These are the three side effects Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s terror chief, and his patron, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, will almost certainly be enduring from last week’s Hezbollah pager bombings and strikes against elite Radwan commanders, including the killing of Ibrahim Aqil.

As the hangover from these attacks settles, Nasrallah and Khamenei will be awaking to an extremely disturbing reality: Hezbollah, the Iranian regime’s most important proxy, has been infiltrated at the highest levels. This will be their main takeaway – and concern – from what has been described as one of the most successful intelligence operations in modern history.

And while global leaders and the international community now focus almost all their attention on Hezbollah’s external response, for Nasrallah and his master, Khamenei, the internal response will be just as, if not more, important.

Nasrallah knows the attacks on Hezbollah simply could not have happened without internal collusion with foreign security services, not least that of Israel’s Mossad.

As a client of Khamenei, the Hezbollah leader will lean heavily on his master’s lead on how to deal with enemy infiltration. The 85-year-old ayatollah has used three primary methods to oust disloyalty and safeguard ideological commitment: purges, indoctrination and the creation of overlapping counter-intelligence units.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) – Khamenei’s ideological army which controls Tehran’s proxy terror network – has undergone several rounds of purges at the senior levels, the most significant of which took place in 2009, 2013 and 2019.

Following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, all the signs indicate that Khamenei is about to double-down and wage another purge of the IRGC.

Reports have already emerged that “colluders with the Zionist regime” in Iran are being detained, including individuals from IRGC’s Ansar al-Mahdi Protection Unit, which was tasked with handling Haniyeh’s security.

Not only will Nasrallah mimic Khamenei’s methods and trigger an internal purge of Hezbollah, but the Iranian regime’s proxy in Lebanon will likely cede the authority of such purges to Khamenei’s intelligence apparatus.

Increasing ideological indoctrination across Hezbollah is another inevitable outcome from the recent strikes. Indoctrination has been Khamenei’s go-to mechanism to guarantee the IRGC and wider security-intelligence apparatus’ blind commitment to his authority. Each time there has been evidence of disloyalty, Khamenei has responded by increasing indoctrination, which now makes up for more than 50 per cent of training in the IRGC. This system, which Nasrallah will have no choice but to aggressively follow, gives precedence to ideological commitment over qualifications across recruitment and promotion protocols – not least among its senior command structures – and is designed to filter out any signs of subversion.

Finally, we should expect the expansion and duplication of Hezbollah’s counter-intelligence units – a move that is straight from Khamenei’s playbook. Throughout the years, the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader has not only increased the resources of his regime’s security-intelligence apparatus, but he has created multiple counter-intelligence units to spy on each other, such as the Office of Supreme Leader counter-intelligence organisation and IRGC counter-intelligence unit.




War on Hezbollah to continue until safety is restored in Israel’s north, Netanyahu says
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that Jerusalem will not halt its campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon until the 60,000-plus evacuated Israelis can safely return to their homes in the north.

“I cannot detail everything we are doing, but I can tell you one thing: We are determined to return our residents in the north to their homes safely,” he said in a video released by his office on Wednesday night.

“We are inflicting blows on Hezbollah that it could not imagine. We do it with power, and we do it with ruse. I promise you one thing—we will not rest until they come home,” the premier’s succinct statement added.

‘Putting your country in danger’

His remarks came amid reports that the Biden administration is spearheading a new diplomatic effort to end the fighting in Lebanon and with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, connecting both war fronts as part of a single initiative.

The deal is currently being hammered out on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Reuters said, citing Lebanese officials, Western diplomats, a source briefed on the negotiations, and an expert source said to be “familiar with the thinking” of Hezbollah terrorists.

U.S. President Joe Biden told ABC’s “The View” on Wednesday morning that his administration believes that all-out war involving Iran’s terrorist proxies throughout the Middle East can still be prevented with a deal.

“An all-out war is possible, but I think there’s also the opportunity—we’re still in play to have a settlement that can fundamentally change the whole region,” he said, adding that there also needs to be a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Gil Troy: Unconditional surrender: How Israel can create peace
‘Why can’t Israel just stop fighting?” some American friends asked last week. It’s hard being whipsawed by the media’s Sanctimony Cyclone, bombarded by heartbreaking images of suffering Palestinians and Lebanese, amid the constant scolding of big bad Israel from know-it-all CNN analysts and war-weary American politicians. And it’s hard to absorb hostility against “the Jews,” assuming that if only Israel treated Hamas better, life on the Upper West Side would improve.

I always ask: What would America do against similar enemies? Why were you so silent for years as your taxpayer dollars bankrolled America’s justified, prolonged, but bloody wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? And, be specific: how should Israel defend itself?

As the Civil War general William T. Sherman noted, war is hell. Many Blue Americans today lack the stomach for sustained conflict against evil jihadists who would happily mass-murder them, too.

Here’s what distinguishes most Israelis from many anguished American Jews. Israelis – Jewish and non-Jewish – recognize our enemies’ evil. We stopped living in La-La-Land on October 7. Strikingly, eleven months later, it’s too easy from afar to underestimate the evil of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards – and the need to crush them.

Beware: when you live in the Middle East, deluding yourself into believing that your jihadist neighbors are rational or benign might make you feel good – but risks shortening your lifespan. Currently, Hezbollah’s threat from the North is untenable, Hamas is not yet fully degraded and still holds hostages, and Iran poses an existential threat.

Unconditional surrender
We historians recognize this familiar tension haunting democracies at war. The impatient desire to end the fighting quickly constantly pressures politicians and generals. In 1864, months before the Southerners surrendered, many Northerners desperately wanted the war to end; the same happened in 1944 – months before Germany and Japan surrendered. It makes sense. Who doesn’t hate war?

If the Democrat's delusion is that our enemies think just like us, this impatience is their paradox. Ending wars prematurely, while feeling like the anti-war, pro-peace position, usually is pro-war and anti-peace, extending the fighting unintentionally – especially against dictators and jihadists.

As the Civil War dragged on, Ulysses Simpson Grant became Unconditional Surrender Grant, unapologetically. He knew that, to reunite America, the North had to crush the Confederates.

Nearly 80 years later, at the Casablanca Conference, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Allies similarly demanded Unconditional Surrender by the Axis Powers – the Germans, Italians, and Japanese – to end World War II. On February 12, 1943, FDR explained: “We mean no harm to the common people of the Axis nations. But we do mean to impose punishment and retribution upon their guilty, barbaric leaders.”

It’s confusing. We Israelis have buried close friends and relatives. Our kids are fighting this war – or we ourselves are deployed. Such mourning, such fighting, often offers express tickets to pacifism. We should be desperate to end the multi-front war imposed on us – and on one level we are.
Past week has been ‘most difficult’ in Hezbollah’s history, says Gallant
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday held an operational situation assessment at the IDF’s Northern Command headquarters, where he was briefed on operations against Hezbollah targets across Lebanon and defensive measures being implemented amid ongoing rocket and drone fire.

“The past week has been the most difficult in the history of Hezbollah’s existence – especially over the past day,” said Gallant.

“The action taken by the IDF in [the Beirut neighborhood of] Dahiyeh is significant, important and powerful,” he added, referring to the Israeli strike on Friday that killed senior Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil, along with other top Hezbollah commanders.

“We have a [clear] goal – ensuring the safe return of Israel’s northern communities to their homes – and we will take all the necessary measures to achieve it,” said Gallant.

“We will continue using all the means at our disposal in order to achieve our goals, as determined by Israel’s government, and as is our duty to our citizens in northern Israel,” he added.

Last week, thousands of Hezbollah terrorists were wounded and at least a dozen were killed when their pagers and radio devices exploded across Lebanon. Hezbollah immediately blamed the Jewish state’s intelligence agencies for both attacks.
Republican senators say Biden administration is continuing to delay critical weapons from Israel
Republican Senators Tom Cotton (AR) and Mitch McConnell (KY) believe the Biden administration is continuing to delay the delivery of three critical types of military weapons and equipment, according to a letter the senators sent to the White House on Wednesday.

According to Cotton and McConnell, the Biden administration is withholding MK-84 bombs, Apache attack helicopters, and Caterpillar DP tractors.

The Jerusalem Post has reached out to the State Department for comment.

“Despite ongoing discussions between the United States and Israel, your administration has failed to fast-track and approve the sale of Apache attack helicopters,” the letter said.

“Israel requested these helicopters last December, recognizing the increased need given the war in Gaza. That need has only increased with Hezbollah’s escalation in the North.”

Cotton and McConnell said they recently learned Biden is holding up the tractors the IDF uses to clear improvised explosive devices ahead of its troops. The military puts armor on the tractors and uses them to save the lives of IDF soldiers and civilians.

“Further delays will endanger Israeli lives, increase the likelihood that the conflict will escalate further, and harm American national security interests,” the senators said. “It’s far past time to transfer to Israel the capabilities it needs to win.”


Trump briefed on ‘real, specific’ Iranian threats to kill him
U.S. intelligence officials briefed former President Donald Trump on Tuesday about “real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him in an effort to destabilize and sow chaos in the United States,” the Republican nominee’s campaign stated on Tuesday evening.

The “continued and coordinated attacks have heightened in the past few months,” according to intelligence officials, and “law-enforcement officials across all agencies are working to ensure President Trump is protected and the election is free from interference,” stated Steven Cheung, communications director for the campaign.

“Make no mistake, the terror regime in Iran loves the weakness of Kamala Harris, and is terrified of the strength and resolve of President Trump,” Cheung added. “He will let nothing stop him or get in his way to fight for the American people and to make America great again.”

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has not commented publicly on the campaign’s claim.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Republican Jewish Coalition wrote that “the terrorist regime in Iran has worked to assassinate President Trump and former Trump officials, and continues to fund terrorist proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah.”

“So, naturally, the Biden-Harris admin rolls out the red carpet for Iran’s president at the United Nations,” the RJC wrote. “A total disgrace.”


'Pattern of Obstruction': Blinken No-Shows Hearing on Afghan Withdrawal, Defying Subpoena and Prompting Contempt Resolution
Antony Blinken failed to attend a Tuesday hearing on the Biden-Harris administration's bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan, defying a congressional subpoena and setting the stage for him to be the first secretary of state ever held in contempt of Congress.

Blinken was mandated under subpoena by the House Foreign Affairs Committee to testify about the botched 2021 evacuation that brought the Taliban back to power and left 13 American service members dead. He was expected to face tough questions about a recently unveiled congressional report detailing how the United States abandoned a "significant amount of classified information," advanced biometric data, and millions in cash when it fled the war-torn country.

Instead, the State Department informed the committee on Monday evening that Blinken would be a no-show, claiming he is too busy with the United Nations General Assembly in New York City to attend, according to sources familiar with the situation.

"The committee received a letter stating the secretary will not come," said one GOP committee source. "He didn’t provide any other dates for this week, claiming he’s busy with events and gatherings at the U.N. General Assembly. Instead, he offered his deputies—neither of whom worked at the State Department throughout 2021 nor the Afghanistan withdrawal."

Blinken’s decision to defy a congressional subpoena angered GOP committee members, including chairman Michael McCaul (R., Texas), who is now pushing a measure to formally hold the secretary of state in contempt of Congress. If approved, Blinken would make history as the first secretary of state to be held in contempt of Congress, a misdemeanor crime punishable by up to $100,000 in fines and potential jail time. The Biden-Harris administration declined to prosecute Attorney General Merrick Garland after the House voted to hold him in contempt of Congress in June.
Blinken sends defensive letter to House committee subpoenaing him and threatening contempt: Report
Secretary of State Antony Blinken sent a letter to congressional Republicans urging them to walk back their subpoena and reconsider the contempt proceedings.

According to the letter, obtained by Punchbowl News, Blinken said he was “profoundly disappointed” with House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) due to his nonaccommodating stance toward his travel schedule in his capacity as secretary of state. Blinken outlined his communications with the committee and McCaul, saying he spoke with McCaul in August and earlier this month in September “personally sought to reach an accommodation” with the panel.

“As I have made clear, I am willing to testify and have offered several reasonable alternatives to the dates unilaterally demanded by the Committee during which I am carrying out the President’s important foreign policy objectives,” Blinken wrote.

Blinken said he has been busy spearheading “diplomatic engagements on matters of great concern to the American people including the conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan.”
Fight Club: Should the United Nations Be Abolished?
It’s United Nations General Assembly week in New York, which means horrible traffic jams, hotel prices through the roof, and tinpot dictators spending money like there’s no tomorrow. Oh, and one other thing: Speech after speech after speech by world leaders, many of whom will use their time to denounce their host, the United States, and our ally Israel. Is it all a big waste of time and money? Rupa Subramanya says yes—the United Nations needs to be put out of its misery. Eli Lake says let’s keep it around—it can be surprisingly useful to us. Here, they fight it out.

Eli Lake says the UN is a valuable intelligence asset for America’s surveillance state:

I do not come to today’s fight club to defend the United Nations. It is a den of jackals, to paraphrase the late senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Its layers upon layers of bureaucracy have been marked by scandal after scandal. Powerful rogue states like China and Russia retain a veto on any UN Security Council resolution that might criticize their aggression or the aggression of their allies. In nearly every sense, the institution has failed to live up to the high ideals set forth when it was chartered after World War II.

So I understand the urge to be done with the United Nations and convert the valuable real estate in midtown Manhattan into condominiums. But to give the UN the boot would undermine America’s national interests.

To start, the United Nations is a valuable intelligence asset for America’s surveillance state. It’s uncouth to discuss this openly, and technically this kind of skulduggery is a violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. But it’s true. The National Security Agency has the UN’s Turtle Bay neighborhood wired for sound. In 2013 this was confirmed thanks to the publication of documents pilfered by former NSA systems administrator Edward Snowden.

Before you weep for the fate of international law and wail about America’s Big Brother tentacles, calm down: Everybody does it. And when the headquarters of the world’s leading international organization happens to be in our largest city, it’s a built-in advantage. There’s no need for FBI spy catchers to do the intensive work of building a cover and forging false identity papers when the target area is a few blocks in New York City. Plus, every time some tinpot regime needs another Xerox machine or a new router, the FBI or the NSA is there to, er, “modify” the equipment.

This is important when one considers that UN members include state sponsors of terrorism like Iran, which has been credibly accused of smuggling the guns used to murder a Kurdish opposition figure in 1989 through its embassy in Vienna. During the Cold War, the Soviets routinely placed KGB officers inside UN international organizations. In other words, the bad guys abuse diplomatic protections all the time. Sometimes it takes a thief to catch a thief.
The UN protects Hamas because it hates Jews
How depraved to publish such outrageous claims – with no proof, short of libelous innuendo – to authoritatively accuse Israel of systematic genocide and starvation toward the people of Gaza. These false accusations are designed to sully the reputation of what might truly be the most moral and caring country in the world.

The UN should be ashamed of itself for promoting such defamation based on its own small-mindedness, hateful prejudice, and devious maligning of the Jewish people and the state that was established to be a home for God’s chosen who have, throughout history, been the object of scorn and deriding just for being who they are.

How could anyone think that this is not driven by jealousy and pettiness that is based on an angry rivalry of those who are not descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? That is the crux of this conflict, and all of the rage that has been unleashed, especially over the past year, is a byproduct of that unbridled hatred.

None of this is new. However, thinking that eliminating the Jews will improve and enhance the world’s position seems to be a common error that has been repeatedly made throughout history. Ironically, a world without Jews would doom everyone else because humanity would be missing the many advances and breakthroughs courtesy of the Jews, not to mention the moral and spiritual roles that they were meant to fulfill.

A September 18 Jewish News Syndicate article reported that a “Palestinian-drafted resolution was passed by the UN General Assembly, stating that Jerusalem’s Old City, in addition to Judea and Samaria, must be Judenrein (Jew-free) within a year."

No good can come from eliminating God’s chosen, but that is the direction being taken by the UN, which is playing the very dangerous game of blaming the Jews for all that is wrong. Rather than honestly point the finger at Hamas, a monstrous demon-possessed terror group. Instead, the UN seems justified in its complicity to hide and reject the evil so obvious for all to see, pretending as if Hamas is the victim of Jewish aggression.

Why is the UN protecting Hamas? Because they simply hate the Jews. But then, how can the UN hold itself up to the world as anything good or trustworthy? The UN is nothing more than a collection of individuals bereft of any morality, honesty, or clear vision. They have no business professing to be advocates for peace or truth since they have chosen to protect Hamas.

If they cannot be candid and forthright about their motives and dealings, at least we can expose their duplicity in helping avowed terrorists continue their fight against all humanity.
Seth Frantzman: Iran seeks global isolation of Israel amid UN diplomacy and support for Hezbollah
President rejects tensions with Israel
The Iranian president vowed that Iran has not expressed any interest in reducing tensions with Israel. “I emphasize once again that there was no discussion about the necessity of easing tension with the Zionist regime,” Araghchi said in an interview with IRIB’s Channel 3 on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Iran’s president spoke at the UN General Assembly and demanded an end to Israel’s “crimes.”

Other key meetings including a meeting between the Iranian leader and China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Iran’s foreign minister warned Israel not to underestimate Hezbollah. “During a meeting with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in New York on Tuesday, Araghchi condemned the Israeli regime’s attacks on Lebanon and emphasized that if the United States and other allies of Israel do not halt these assaults, they must be held accountable for the consequences,” Iran’s state media noted. Iran is also seeking greater inroads with the Gulf, the spokesperson of Iran’s foreign ministry said.

The overall picture from New York is clear. Iran has had a very successful week of meetings in the city. It has been able to portray itself as a responsible country, rather than be portrayed as the country that prodded Hamas to carry out October 7 and plunge the region into its worst war in many years. The fact is that the Iranian regime is the one creating wars around the Middle East.

Today, the agenda of Russia and China mesh with Iran’s agenda, and therefore Iran is making inroads with many countries, despite its destabilizing role. China and Russia are happy to exploit Iran’s role in the Middle East for their own ends. Russia is waging a war in Ukraine, and China is stoking tensions in the Pacific, for instance. All the stars have aligned for Iran at the UN, and it is exploiting them to the hilt.
UN Watch: Hillel Neuer on Fox News Radio: The U.N. is "rolling out the red carpet" for dictatorships
Hillel Neuer's September 20th radio appearance on The Brian Kilmeade Show on Fox News Radio.


Argentina’s Milei scorches UN for anti-Israel bias
Argentine President Javier Milei criticized the United Nations for what he said was its anti-Israeli bias during a fiery address at the General Debate of the General Assembly’s 79th session in New York on Tuesday.

He called out the world body for systematically voting against the Jewish state, “the only democracy in the Middle East, which protects liberal democracy,” adding that the United Nations has “simultaneously shown a total inability to respond to the scourge of terrorism.”

The libertarian leader also observed that “in this same house, that purports to defend human rights, we have also included bloody dictatorships in the Human Rights Council, including Cuba and Venezuela, without reproach.”

Following the speech, Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon thanked him for supporting the Jewish state.

“I was moved to hear the speech of the President of Argentina at the General Assembly. President Milei, you are a true friend of the State of Israel. In this hall, where we were slandered all day, you showed courage and supported Israel! Thank you!” Danon tweeted along with a video of the exchange.

Milei is a fervent supporter of Israel who has promised to move his country’s embassy to Jerusalem. In July, Argentina designated Hamas an “international terrorist organization” following the Palestinian group’s Oct. 7 massacre.

The 53-year-old president’s first visit abroad after being elected was to the Jewish state in February, where he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.


Francesca Albanese’s Deceptions at Brown
Francesca Albanese, a U.N. special rapporteur, was invited to speak at Brown University on Sept. 16. Her comments were a consistent source of dishonestly, evincing a lack of principles and hostility toward Jews.

Simply highlighting some of the individual distortions from her presentation, “Anatomy of a Genocide: A Failure of the International System?” really doesn’t do justice to the dogmatic anti-Israelism at her core — a hostility around which she carefully arranges, like logs in a firepit, her array of lies, decontextualized facts, and citations of international law. It doesn’t do justice to the distorting feedback loop she’s involved in — bad-faith reports under the U.N. imprimatur, which are then cited by ICJ judges, who are in turn cited by the rapporteur.

And it doesn’t explain the mechanics behind the U.N.’s systemic slant toward extremism. After all, U.N. Rapporteur Albanese, who once insisted that the United States is “subjugated” by the “Jewish lobby,” follows admiringly in the footsteps of U.N. Rapporteur Richard Falk, who went on to write a blurb endorsing one of the most noxious antisemites alive today, Gilad Atzmon, whose ostentatious antisemitism went too far, even for the anti-Israel fringe. Personnel is policy, and this is the personnel.

But the narrow examples of dishonesty at the Brown lecture offer at least a glimpse of the bigger picture. As she has previously, Albanese propped up her big lies of genocide and apartheid with more specific distortions.

In her presentation:
Albanese equivocated to conceal antisemitism: To “push back” against a question about extremism in Gaza, Albanese insisted: “No, there is not such a thing like an idealization of ‘Mein Kampf’ or antisemitism. Actually, I think that there is more animosity against the Israelis and, to an extent, against Jewish people in the Arab world — not necessarily as antisemitism as it is in Europe, discrimination against the Jews because they are Jews.”

A 2009 Pew poll found showed 97% of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza admitting to an “unfavorable” opinion of Jews. (It wasn’t a source of much relief when, two years later, the number dropped to 95%.) A more specific ADL poll in 2014 found similarly high levels of bigotry.

And if Palestinian leaders haven’t idealized “Mein Kampf,” they’ve certainly echoed it. Hamas MP Marwan Abu Ras, for example, explained that Hitler abhorred the Jews “because they are a people of treachery and betrayal.” Such views are also broadcast on Gaza’s Al Aqsa TV.


Top Palestinian Official Says Israel to Experience a ‘New Oct. 7’ Attack From Southern Lebanon
A senior Palestinian official has boasted that Israel will soon suffer another large-scale massacre similar to the Palestinian terror group Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks on southern Israel — except this time the onslaught will come from southern Lebanon rather than Gaza.

The warning from Hassan Khraisheh — deputy speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, the legislature of the Palestinian Authority (PA) — came as tensions continued to skyrocket between Israel and Hezbollah, the powerful terrorist organization based in Lebanon.

“We are living a new Oct. 7, but this time it is not in Gaza, but rather in the north of occupied Palestine, starting from southern Lebanon,” Khraisheh told Quds Press, according to a translation of his comments.

The Islamic Republic News Agency, the official news agency of Iran, also reported on Khraisheh’s comments and translated them a bit differently: “On Oct. 7, we will experience a new one, but this time, not in Gaza, but in the north of occupied Palestine and south of Lebanon.”

Both Hamas and Hezbollah are backed by Iran, which provides the Islamist terror groups with weapons, funding, and training.

It is unclear whether Khraisheh was claiming that another major attack would occur on Oct. 7 or more generally that another onslaught against the Jewish state was coming.

Thousands of Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists invaded southern Israel from neighboring Gaza on Oct. 7 of last year, murdering 1,200 people, injuring thousands more, and kidnapping over 250 hostages. The terrorists perpetrated rampant sexual violence, including torture and gang-rape, against the Israeli people during the attack, the largest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign in Hamas-ruled Gaza aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities. Hamas leaders have vowed to carry out attacks against Israel similar to the Oct. 7 invasion “again and again.”
IDF chief: Military preparing for possible ground op in Lebanon
Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi announced on Wednesday that the military was preparing a possible ground operation in Lebanon to remove the threat posed by Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

“You can hear the planes above us, we are attacking all day. Both to prepare the area for the possibility of your entry [into Lebanon], and also to continue harming Hezbollah,” Halevi told troops during a drill.

“Hezbollah today expanded its [range] of fire. Later today, it will receive a very strong response,” the military leader vowed, referring to the terror group’s launch of a surface-to-surface ballistic missile towards Tel Aviv.

“Today we will continue, we do not stop, we continue to attack and continue to strike them everywhere. The goal is a very clear goal, to return the [evacuated] residents of the north safely,” Halevi declared.

“To do this, we are preparing the [ground] maneuver,” he concluded.

Earlier on Wednesday, IDF Northern Command head Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin said that the army needs to be prepared for a ground invasion.

“We need to change the security situation. We need to be very strongly prepared to enter [Lebanon] in a [ground] maneuver,” Gordin stated.

“We have entered a new phase of the campaign, and we are now in ‘Operation Northern Arrows,'” he said during a visit with commanders and soldiers of the IDF’s 7th Brigade on the country’s northern border.

“The operation began with a significant blow to Hezbollah’s capabilities, focusing on their firepower capabilities, and a very significant hit on the organization’s commanders and operatives,” the military official added.
David's Sling intercepts rocket from Lebanon for first time
The IDF used the "David's Sling" system in an operational interception of a rocket launched from southern Lebanon over the skies of central Israel, Israeli media reported on Wednesday morning.

Despite identifying a single rocket targeting the center of the country, sirens sounded across multiple cities.

“Due to uncertainty about where it will land and risk of interception shrapnel, sirens may sound in more distant places,” former Defense Array System Commander Ilan Biton explained, according to KAN.

The David's Sling system, formerly known as the "Magic Wand," is designed to intercept advanced threats, including ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, aircraft, and drones. The was jointly developed by the US and Israel under the directive of the “Homa” Missile Directorate at the Defense Ministry.

David's Sling is intended to intercept very advanced threats, which is why the cost of each interceptor is very high, amounting to over one million dollars, Israeli media sites explained. About a year ago, the system intercepted a missile launched from the Gaza Strip toward central Israel.

David's Sling is the third layer in the national missile and rocket defense system, above the future laser system "Iron Beam" and Iron Dome, and below the Arrow-2 and Arrow-3 missiles. The system was developed by Rafael and the American Raytheon.

Along the flight path of an aerial threat, there are designated zones where the missile is expected to fall, according to KAN’s report. “Therefore, there are areas along the flight path where a siren may blare for a more distant area,” even though the interception may occur in an earlier zone along the missile’s path, explained Biton.

Hezbollah had intended to target a Mossad base near Tel Aviv, according to a report on Reuters on Wednesday. The attack was in response to Israel’s responsibility for assassinations of Hezbollah leaders, as well as blowing up pagers mid-September.

The missile which triggered the sirens in central Israel fell into the sea off the coast of Herzliya and Tel Aviv, Home Front Command announced.
IDF thwarts Hezbollah strike on Mossad HQ in central Israel
The Israel Defense Forces early on Wednesday intercepted a surface-to-surface ballistic missile fired by Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon at central Israel. The Iranian proxy claimed that the target of the attack was the headquarters of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency.

Sirens were activated across the Gush Dan and Sharon regions, including in Tel Aviv, amid the intensifying conflict with the Iranian terror proxy.

The Magen David Adom emergency service said it had not received any reports of injuries in the attack.

The projectile was reportedly downed by the David’s Sling system, which supplements the defense provided by the Iron Dome, Arrow 2 and Arrow 3.

David’s Sling can intercept “large-caliber rockets, short-range ballistic missiles and other developing threats,” according to the Israeli Air Force.

Footage circulating on social media appeared to show the interception above the Tel Aviv area.

The IDF Home Front Command said there was no change in directives for residents of central Israel, and that schools would open as usual.


Hezbollah rockets wound three
Three people were wounded in northern Israel on Wednesday by Hezbollah rocket fire, one seriously.

One rocket scored a direct hit on Kibbutz Sa’ar in northern Israel’s Western Galilee on Wednesday afternoon, wounding two.

A 35-year-old man was in serious condition and a 52-year-old man in moderate condition, according to the Magen David Adom emergency service. Both were wounded by shrapnel.

United Hatzalah also administered initial treatment to the two victims, with the emergency rescue service organization saying that the construction workers were injured when a building undergoing renovations took a direct hit.

They were taken to nearby Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya after initial treatment at the scene.

A 50-year-old woman was lightly wounded by shrapnel when a rocket hit a barn in the Bedouin village of Bir al-Maksur, located some 9 miles northwest of Nazareth, according to United Hatzalah. Several goats and sheep were also killed.
Drone attack on Eilat wounds two Israelis
Two Israelis were lightly wounded in a suicide drone attack on the southern port city of Eilat on Wednesday night, Israeli authorities said.

The Magen David Adom emergency response group said that its medics on the scene treated two male victims, ages 68 and 28, both of whom suffered “very minor” wounds.

The attack triggered air-raid sirens across Eilat, sending some 60,000 residents, as well as tourists and Israeli evacuees, running for shelter.

The Israel Defense Forces stated that at least two explosive-laden drones were launched at the Jewish state “from the east.”

“A Navy missile ship of the ‘Sa’ar 5’ type intercepted one unmanned aircraft, and the fall of another unmanned aircraft was detected in the area of ​​the city of Eilat,” the military stated.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed Shi’ite militias, claimed responsibility for the attack.


Attention, Media: Israel Is Striking Back After 11 Months of Hezbollah Attacks
On Monday, September 23, hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah escalated as the IDF struck hundreds of terror targets in southern Lebanon and Beirut. Meanwhile, the Iran-backed terror group launched volleys of rockets, missiles, and drones deep into northern and central Israel.

Israel’s strikes targeted Hezbollah’s terror infrastructure, marking the latest in a week-long effort to halt the group’s relentless bombardment of northern Israel since October 8. The operation aims to stop the barrage and enable tens of thousands of displaced Israelis to return home along the Lebanese border.

To minimize Lebanese civilian casualties, the IDF issued warnings through text messages, phone calls, and radio alerts, urging civilians to evacuate areas where Hezbollah hides its weapons.

Yet, despite the precision of Israel’s operations, multiple news outlets ran headlines framing the strikes as indiscriminate, casting Israel as the primary instigator of tensions along its northern border.

For example, The Washington Post’s headline described Israel’s precision strikes on Hezbollah’s terror infrastructure as “Hundreds of Israeli airstrikes pound Lebanon,” while its subheading placed equal blame on both Israel and Hezbollah for escalating the conflict. This framing conveniently ignored that Hezbollah initiated the violence by launching rockets at northern Israel on October 8.


Hezbollah official: 1,500 fighters out of action due to injuries from communication device blasts
An unnamed Hezbollah official tells Reuters that the recent attack on the terror group’s communication devices — widely blamed on Israel — put 1,500 fighters out of commission because of their injuries, with many having been blinded or had their hands blown off.

While that is a major blow, it represents a small fraction of Hezbollah’s strength, which a report for the US Congress on Friday put at 40,000-50,000 fighters.

The terror group’s chief Hassan Nasrallah has claimed the group has 100,000 fighters.

In an apparently coordinated attack, the Gold Apollo branded devices detonated last week across Hezbollah’s strongholds of south Lebanon, Beirut’s suburbs and the eastern Bekaa valley.

A day later, walkie-talkies carried by members of the terror group also exploded.


IDF raids in Gaza Strip kill dozens of terrorists in 24 hours
More than 40 Hamas terrorists were killed during military operations in Gaza over the past day, the Israel Defense Forces said on Wednesday.

Operatives who were killed included commanders and members of “Hamas’s various combat arrays,” including its weapons and rocket division, as well as the terror group’s propaganda unit, the IDF said.

In northern Gaza, the army launched targeted raids in Beit Lahia aimed at destroying terror infrastructure there, according to the IDF statement. During the operation, troops of the Gaza Division located three rocket launchers, one of which was loaded “to be launched immediately.”

Meanwhile, in the central Strip, reservists of the military’s 252nd Division launched several raids in Gaza City’s Sabra and Zeitoun neighborhoods, as well as on the outskirts of Nuseirat. The military said the soldiers located and destroyed several terrorist tunnels in the area.

During operations in areas surrounding Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, troops eliminated Hamas operatives who were operating from a shaft while locating “many weapons” used by the terrorist organization.

On Sept. 12, the IDF declared it defeated Hamas’s Rafah brigade after four months of targeted raids in the city near the border with Egypt.

Troops destroyed some 80% of tunnels located near and beneath the Philadelphi Corridor, the statement noted, using the IDF’s name for the 8.5-mile-long land strip along the border with Egypt’s Sinai Desert. It added that forces continue to discover and destroy underground routes.


Call Me Back: Emergency Episode — OPERATION NORTHERN ARROWS — with Nadav Eyal
Hosted by Dan Senor
To help us better understand the escalating war between Israel and Hezbollah, Nadav Eyal joined us for an emergency episode of the podcast.

NADAV EYAL is a columnist for Yediiot. He is one of Israel’s leading journalists. Eyal has been covering Middle-Eastern and international politics for the last two decades for Israeli radio, print and television news.
Commentary Podcast: Israel vs. Hezbollah: How’s It Going?
Jonathan Schanzer joins us today to evaluate the fast-evolving conflict between Israel and Hezbollah and what Israel’s aims and goals are. Also, why can’t the Biden-Harris administration support its ally’s efforts to end terrorist attacks against it from the north? Too hard? Give a listen.


Activists want ‘elimination’ of the state of Israel
Former Labor Minister Dr Mike Kelly AM says there is no “rational debate” around the ongoing war in the Middle East.

Mr Kelly told Sky News host Sharri Markson that there is “failure” in standing up to propaganda and voices of activism.

“That’s not peace activism, it’s warmongering.

“These people don’t want a ceasefire, they want the elimination of the state of Israel and the war escalated.”


Israel: State of a Nation with Eylon Levy: Understanding the Druze | Inside Look at Arab Minority with Mansur Ashkar
Hosting ‪@MrSachback‬ - The Druze community are a cherished part of Israel’s cultural mosaic, but ultimately difficult to pin down. A religion that splintered from Islam. An ethnic community that crosses borders but never defined itself as a modern nation. An Arabic speaking minority and some of Israel’s biggest patriots.

Mansur Ashkar, a Druze native of Israel. He served as an officer in the IDF’s special forces and was stationed in Gaza before the disengagement. Growing up in a predominantly Jewish town, Mansur’s family roots trace back across the borders of Syria, Lebanon, and Israel. Believing the Jews & the Druze are the prime example that Israel aspires for peace and coexistence. Mansur advocates for Israel and the Jewish community, striving to foster coexistence between Jews and Arabs and amplify Arab voices in support of Israel.




French Far-Left Leader, Long Accused of Antisemitism, Backs Hezbollah ‘Resistance’ Over Israel’s ‘Invading Army’
The leader of France’s largest leftist coalition in government appeared to have declared open support for Hezbollah as the Iran-backed terrorist organization based in Lebanon continued to clash with Israel.

“Mass killing in Lebanon by Netanyahu’s invading army,” Jean-Luc Melenchon posted on X/Twitter on Monday, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “The toll is getting worse by the hour. Full support for the national resistance of the Lebanese.”

Then on Tuesday, Melenchon continued to attack Israel on social media, tweeting, “After the terrorist attacks in Lebanon, Netanyahu inflicts bombings on this country up to 130 kilometers deep! The so-called international community lets it happen. The Lebanese are despised and abandoned. Shame on Europe that looks the other way.”

Hezbollah has been pummeling northern Israeli communities almost daily with barrages of drones, rockets, and missiles from its stronghold of Lebanon, which borders the Jewish state, since the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas invaded southern Israel from neighboring Gaza on Oct. 7.

More than 60,000 Israelis have been forced to evacuate their homes in northern Israel and flee to other parts of the country amid the unrelenting attacks from Hezbollah, which wields significant political and military influence across Lebanon.

The conflict has escalated over the past week, with both sides increasing the scale and intensity of their strikes.

However, Melenchon seemed to single out Israel for criticism, keeping in line with his vocal hostility toward the Jewish state and controversial comments about France’s Jewish community.

France has experienced a record surge of antisemitism in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel. Antisemitic outrages rose by over 1,000 percent in the final three months of 2023 compared with the previous year, with over 1,200 incidents reported — greater than the total number of incidents in France for the previous three years combined.

This year, anti-Jewish hate crimes in France have continued to skyrocket.


UK premier calls for ‘return of the sausages’ in Labour Conference gaffe
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s address to the Labour Party’s annual conference in Liverpool, England on Tuesday was marred by a pro-Palestinian heckler and a mistaken reference to Israeli hostages in Gaza as “sausages.”

After stating that “Every child, every person, deserves to be respected for the contribution they make,” an audience member called out: “Does that include the children of Gaza?”

Resuming his address, Starmer used the incident to highlight what he said were the changes he’d made to the party since it was lead by Jeremy Corbyn.

“We’ve changed the party,” said Starmer, amid applause from the crowd. “While he’s been protesting, we’ve been changing the party, that’s why we’ve got a Labour government,” he added, addressing the heckler.

He went on to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, a return to the two-state paradigm and the release of the hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza, mistakenly calling them “sausages” before quickly correcting himself.

Starmer’s address comes after the British government suspended some military sales to the Israel Defense Forces at the beginning of September, citing a “clear risk” the systems in question could be used by the Israel Defense Forces to “commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law.”




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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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