Saturday, September 28, 2024

09/28 Links: Killing Nasrallah; The death of Hassan Nasrallah shows why this is a just war; Defund the UN for its role in enabling terror and antisemitism

From Ian:

Lee Smith: Killing Nasrallah
In the past, Israeli officials warned against targeting the terror chief. They feared it might bring about an even more ruthless leader just as Israel’s 1992 assassination of then-Hezbollah chief Abbas al-Mussawi elevated, in their eyes, the more effective Nasrallah. But what made Nasrallah special, what gave rise to the personality cult around the man whose name means “victory of God,” was his relationship with Khamenei.

In 1989, Nasrallah left Lebanon for Iran, where the 29-year-old cleric was introduced to Khamenei. In the vacuum left by Khomeini’s death, Khamenei was working to consolidate his power, which included taking control of Hezbollah, Tehran’s most significant external asset. He saw Mussawi’s assassination as an opening to put his own man in place, and with Hezbollah’s operations against Israeli forces in Lebanon, Nasrallah’s legend steadily grew. Even Israeli officials credited Hezbollah for driving Israel out of the south in 2000, a singular triumph worthy of the name Nasrallah, a victory against the hated Zionists that no other Arab leader could claim.

But the myth of Nasrallah as Turban Napoleon was dispelled with the disastrous 2006 war which he stumbled into by kidnapping two Israel soldiers. Later he said that had he known Israel was going to respond so forcefully, he’d never have given the order. And yet despite the thousands killed in Lebanon, Hezbollahis and civilians, and the billions of dollars worth of damage, he claimed that Hezbollah won just because he survived. Before his demise, he’d been in hiding since 2006.

Israel’s recent demonstrations of its technological prowess show that Nasrallah survived this long thanks only to the sufferance of the Jerusalem government. Netanyahu and others seem to have hoped the Hezbollah problem would resolve itself once the Americans came to their senses and recognized the threat Iran posed to U.S. regional hegemony. But the Israelis misread the strategic implications of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The George W. Bush administration’s freedom agenda gave Iraq’s Shia majority an insuperable advantage in popular elections. And since virtually all the Shia factions were controlled by Iran, democratizing Iraq laid the foundations for Iran’s regional empire as well as Obama’s realignment strategy, downgrading relations with traditional U.S. allies like Israel and building ties with the anti-American regime. Even Trump, whose January 2020 targeted killing of Iranian terror chief Qassem Soleimani and his Iraqi deputy Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis was far and away the most meaningful operation ever conducted by U.S. forces on Iraqi soil, couldn’t entirely break the mold cast by his predecessors and which the Pentagon protected like a priceless jewel.

U.S. forces are still based in Iraq and Syria to fight ISIS and any other Sunnis the Iranians and their allies categorize as threats to their interests. The detail seems almost like a medieval curse imposed on the losing side in a war. After the Iranians killed and maimed thousands of U.S. troops in Iraq, and helped kill and wound thousands more by urging their Syrian ally Bashar Assad to usher Sunni fighters from the Damascus airport to the Iraqi front, America’s best and bravest are condemned to eternal bondage requiring them to protect Iranian interests forever.

The idea advanced by conspiracy theorists from the U.S. political and media establishment on the left as well as the right that Netanyahu is trying to drag the U.S. into a larger regional war with Iran—a thesis sure to be cited repeatedly in the aftermath of Nasrallah’s assassination—is absurd. The Obama faction, of which Biden and Harris are a part, is in Iran’s corner. Moreover, only a fool could be blind to the fact that the Pentagon way of war, three decades into the 21st century and a world away from the United States’ last conclusive victory, means death for all who pursue it.

If Washington and the Europeans are appalled by Israel’s campaign over the last two weeks, it’s because the Israelis have resurfaced the ugly truth that no modish theories of war, international organizations, or even American presidents could long obscure. Wars are won by killing the enemy, above all, those who inspire their people to kill yours. Killing Nasrallah not only anchors Israel’s victory in Lebanon but reestablishes the old paradigm for any Western leaders who take seriously their duty to protect their countrymen and civilization: Kill your enemies.
Seth Mandel: Iran’s Limits
So what was happening was this: Iran was using Hezbollah to draw Israeli attacks on Hezbollah’s stronghold in South Lebanon, while claiming Israel was attacking Hezbollah to provoke Iran. For the Iranian president to say this out loud was essentially an admission that Tehran won’t sacrifice itself to save Hezbollah or to avenge Hamas’s honor.

To be clear, there are limits to this reticence. Iran has been using its proxies in four different countries to attack Israeli and American targets, and Iran did strike at Israel this summer directly with hundreds of missiles and drones.

Hamas and Hezbollah (and the Houthis and groups in Iraq) are extensions of Iranian force around the Middle East. The assumption was that Iran would intervene before letting any of its proxies get fully destroyed. But what if that’s not the case? It’s not clear at all that Iranian self-preservation extends to those groups, or beyond Iran’s borders at all.

The idea that it’s impossible to, say, destroy Hamas because “you can’t kill an idea” was always preposterous. Hamas can be destroyed. But it’s becoming clearer that there is no reason not to destroy Hamas, because destroying Hamas won’t trigger a wider war with Iran. And Hezbollah is clearly getting worried that they, too, might be considered expendable by the regime.

The answer to this one isn’t clear yet. Iran does not have the same investment in and connection to Hamas that it has with Hezbollah, which is a key arm of its global expansionist militaries. But terror groups don’t last forever, and this one is now into its fifth decade on earth.

That doesn’t mean Iran won’t fight to hold onto its control over territory in Lebanon and Syria and Iraq and Yemen. But no proxy is more important than its principal.

A path to a wider victory is clear: maximum pressure on Iran, along with strong regional alliances, can defeat Tehran in the long run. The West just has to decide if it wants that victory.
John Bolton: Israel has exposed the lie at the heart of Starmer and Biden’s foreign policy
We have all repeatedly dealt fecklessly with Iran’s efforts to create nuclear weapons. But now that the reality of present danger has become crystal clear, quibbling about Israel’s determination to survive is quite unbecoming to the West’s leaders.

Failed and misbegotten diplomacy toward Iran and Hezbollah particularly has helped produce the current conflict. I know personally because of my service as US Ambassador to the UN during and after the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War.

Although the inadequacies of Security Council Resolution 1701, which brought that conflict to a halt, were evident even as the Council was voting unanimously to approve it, recent years have shown it to be wholly ineffective. Resolution 1701’s central objective was to prevent the rearmament of Hezbollah after Israel’s devastating retaliation for combined Hamas-Hezbollah attacks from Gaza and Lebanon (sound familiar?).

To say the least, this UN diplomacy facilitated exactly the opposite result. It did not strengthen an independent Lebanese government, with the backing of enhanced UN peacekeeping forces, to stand against Hezbollah. Instead, Hezbollah in effect took over the Lebanese government.

As with Hamas in Gaza, not until Hezbollah is eliminated will the truly innocent civilians have a chance for representative government.

Today’s real issue is Iran. Far from being eager to aid now-beleaguered Hamas and Hezbollah, Iran is clearly worried it will face direct, devastating retaliation from Israel. Indeed, there were reports even before Israel’s elimination of Nasrullah that Iran was dodging Hezbollah entreaties for Iran to come to its defence.

Iran has been visibly nervous about responding to Israel’s killing of Hamas leader Ismael Haniyah on July 31, and Nasrullah’s exit will only make the ayatollahs more nervous.

The fear that this time Netanyahu will not succumb to American pressure to “take the win,” as Israel did in April after Iran’s unsuccessful missile and drone attack, is clearly chilling Iran’s leadership. As well it should.

While the future is decidedly murky, Israelis undoubtedly remain determined to defend themselves. Too bad the current United Kingdom and the United States governments are not proud to stand with them.


IDF: Hassan Nasrallah is dead
Terror master Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israel Defense Forces strike on Hezbollah’s headquarters in Beirut, the military confirmed on Saturday.

There was no immediate official reaction from the Lebanese government, but a source close to Hezbollah said contact with him had been “lost.”

Several hours later, Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah’s death.

The Israeli Air Force conducted the massive airstrike targeting the headquarters, built underground beneath residential buildings, in the heart of the Dahiyeh district of the Lebanese capital on Friday evening.

The operation to assassinate Nasrallah was named “New Order.”

The commander of Hezbollah’s terror activities in Southern Lebanon, Ali Karaki, was also killed in the attack. Karaki, the Iranian proxy’s No. 3 terrorist, had narrowly evaded an Israeli targeted killing attempt earlier this week.

On Saturday, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was transferred to a location with heightened security, Reuters reported, citing two regional officials.

Beforehand, Khamenei called on Muslims to “stand by the people of Lebanon and the proud Hezbollah with whatever means they have and assist them in confronting the … wicked regime [of Israel],” according to a statement carried by Iranian state media.

“The fate of this region will be determined by the forces of resistance, with Hezbollah at the forefront,” he added.

Khamenei convened on Friday night an emergency session of the Supreme National Security Council to discuss a response, according to The New York Times.

Iran’s embassy in Lebanon condemned the strike on Nasrallah and vowed to “bring its perpetrator an appropriate punishment.

“This reprehensible crime … represents a dangerous escalation that changes the rules of the game,” stated the mission.

In a separate strike, the IDF killed Mohammed Ismail, the commander of Hezbollah’s missile array in Southern Lebanon, the military announced on Saturday. He was responsible for numerous attacks, including Wednesday’s ballistic missile launch at Tel Aviv.

“The is not the end of the tools in the toolbox,” said IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi of the targeted killings. “The message is simple, to anyone who threatens the citizens of the State of Israel, we will know how to get to them.”


‘Strong and determined’: Israeli defense brass hail Nasrallah killing
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant praised on Saturday the targeted killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, saying the terror master directed the murder of thousands of Israelis and foreign citizens.

“To our enemies, I say: We are strong and determined. To our partners, I say: Our war, is your war. And to the people of Lebanon, I say: Our war is not with you. It’s time for change,” said Gallant in a video posted to X.

The Israeli Air Force conducted the massive airstrike targeting Hezbollah headquarters, built underground beneath residential buildings, in the heart of the Dahiyeh district of the Lebanese capital on Friday evening.

The operation to assassinate Nasrallah was named “New Order.”

Also on Saturday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi held an assessment at the military’s Northern Command headquarters in Safed.

“Challenging days are ahead of us,” said Halevi after approving battle plans for “Northern Arrows,” the military’s name for the war against Hezbollah in Lebanon. “IDF troops are on peak alert, on defense and offense, on all fronts.”

“Nasrallah killed Israeli civilians indiscriminately,” added Halevi. “He wanted this war to end with the destruction of Israel, but we made sure that wouldn’t happen. We killed him, and we will get stronger.”

IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari on Saturday described Nasrallah as “one of Israel’s greatest enemies, of all time … [who] posed a threat to Israeli citizens for decades, and his elimination makes the world a safer place.

“It’s not over,” Hagari nevertheless cautioned, as Hezbollah “has more capabilities.”


The death of Hassan Nasrallah shows why this is a just war
Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, was killed last night in an Israeli air strike on Beirut, as part of its ongoing offensive in southern Lebanon.

Nasrallah’s death exposes the glaring omission in most of the media coverage of the conflict. Few outlets seem willing to recognise the fact that Israel faces an annihilationist threat from the Iran-backed terrorist group and its Islamist allies.

At best, media reports will acknowledge that Hezbollah has fired thousands of missiles into northern Israel since 8 October 2023, the day after the Hamas pogrom. This of course is why Israel has had to evacuate 60,000 of its citizens from its northern communities. In rare instances, the media might mention that Hezbollah has flagrantly flouted a UN resolution to stay at least 12 miles from Israel’s border. But Israel’s deeper motivations for its conflict with Hezbollah and allied Islamist groups are rarely taken seriously.

Instead, the media paint a picture of Israel as a malign, irrational actor wilfully slaughtering innocent civilians. This is demonstrated most clearly on Al-Jazeera, an international TV channel based in Qatar. It consistently portrays Israel as indiscriminately attacking Palestinian and Lebanese people, seemingly just for the sake of it. The BBC and Sky are not far behind when it comes to the demonisation of Israel.

The annihilationist stance of Israel’s Islamist opponents ought to be hard to ignore. The absence of discussion about it is one of the strangest aspects of the coverage of Israel’s wars. Hezbollah, literally the ‘party of god’, is very open about its ultimate aim. Its foundational document, the 1985 ‘Open Letter’, states that:

‘Our primary assumption in our fight against Israel states that the Zionist entity is aggressive from its inception, and built on lands wrested from their owners, at the expense of the rights of the Muslim people. Therefore our struggle will end only when this entity is obliterated. We recognise no treaty with it, no ceasefire, and no peace agreements, whether separate or consolidated.’

Here Hezbollah states that its goal is the obliteration of Israel, the ‘Zionist entity’. This is not a statement about Lebanese sovereignty, or a call for Palestinians’ freedom. Hezbollah has no interest in either concept. Rather, it frames its project in terms of the umma, the global Muslim political community.

Although this programme is almost 40 years old, the leaders of Hezbollah have made countless similar statements over the years. In July this year, the late Nasrallah repeated a common Islamist metaphor when he called Israel a ‘cancerous tumour that must be eradicated’.

All of this is in line with the sentiments expressed by other Islamist groups, from Hamas in Gaza and the Houthis in Yemen to their principal backers, Iran. In this, they all follow the precepts of Islamism, a reactionary political movement that first emerged in Egypt in the 1920s. According to one of its foundational ideologues, Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966), Islamists are locked in a struggle against the cosmic Satanic evil of the Jews. He wrote this in a 1950 book tellingly entitled, Our Fight with the Jews. Ali Khamenei, the current supreme leader of Iran, translated four of Qutb’s books into Farsi. Although Qutb was an Egyptian Sunni and Khamenei is Shia, as is Hezbollah, the anti-Semitic core of Islamist politics is common to all of these groups.

Islamists are more than willing to turn this exterminationist theory into practice. Indeed, Hamas’s pogrom in southern Israel on 7 October 2023 was at least partially inspired by a similar Hezbollah plan to attack northern Israel. There is also evidence to suggest that Hezbollah would have launched a ground offensive after the Hamas attack if Israel had not mobilised its reserve forces so quickly.


IDF strikes wreck Hezbollah command structure and firepower
The unprecedented series of blows delivered by the Israel Defense Forces to Hezbollah’s leadership and arsenal has severely harmed the Iranian-backed terror army’s ability to attack.

Recent airstrikes have not only taken out almost the whole of Hezbollah’s command structure but have also strategically crippled its ability to fire rockets and missiles, reducing its planned mass barrages to much smaller attacks.

During a briefing to reporters on Saturday, IDF International Spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani confirmed that the Israeli Air Force’s strike on Hezbollah’s terrorist headquarters in the Dahiyeh neighborhood of Beirut on Friday eliminated Hassan Nasrallah.

The development marks an enormous strategic achievement for Israel. Under Nasrallah’s leadership since 1992, Hezbollah transformed into a formidable force, going from terror organization to terror army, and carrying out attacks across Israel and the world.

“Nasrallah was one of the world’s strongest and most influential terrorists … and he was a real threat with the blood of thousands of people on his hands,” said Shoshani. “Under his leadership, Lebanon became an armed base with advanced precision weapons of various ranges aimed at Israel and in the entire region.”

The underground Hezbollah headquarters complex in Beirut, where Nasrallah and other top commanders operated, has been destroyed. This command center, located beneath residential buildings, was a key site for Hezbollah’s activities.

The IDF has confirmed that alongside Nasrallah, numerous other senior Hezbollah leaders have been killed, further dismantling the group’s ability to function effectively. When Israel’s airstrikes in recent weeks are taken together, the toll on Hezbollah’s command structure appears to be catastrophic for the terror organization.

Israeli strikes have eliminated the following commanders:

Ali Karaki, commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front and second-in-command overall; Ibrahim Qubaisi, head of its Missiles and Rockets Force; Ibrahim Aqil, commander of the elite Radwan Force; Wissam al-Tawil, former commander of the Radwan Force; Abu Hassan Samir, head of the Radwan Force’s Training Unit and former commander of the Radwan Force; and Fuad Shukr, who was the highest-ranking “military” commander in Hezbollah.

Additional terrorists killed include Muhammad Hussein Srour, commander of Hezbollah’s Aerial Command; Sami Taleb Abdullah, commander of the Nasser unit in Southern Lebanon; and Mohammed Nasser, commander of the Aziz territorial unit in Southern Lebanon.

These commanders were pivotal to Hezbollah, and their elimination has resulted in chaos within the group’s command structure.

“Most of the senior leaders of Hezbollah have been eliminated. We believe that has a part of preventing wider attacks,” said Shoshani.

The fate of Hashim Safi al-Din, head of Hezbollah’s Executive Council and potentially Nasrallah’s successor, is unknown at this time.


Biden believes ceasefire still possible despite Israel defying his calls for peace deal
Joe Biden still believes his plans to end the violence in the Middle East are on track despite Israel defying his attempts to broker a peace deal.

The Telegraph understands that the US president insists Israeli assassination of Hezbollah’s leader has weakened the terror organisation enough that a ceasefire deal is still possible.

On Saturday, Mr Biden celebrated the death of Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an air strike on Hezbollah’s underground headquarters just outside Beirut.

“His death from an Israeli airstrike is a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis, and Lebanese civilians,” the president said in a statement.

It came despite reports suggesting Mr Biden had been “humiliated” and “embarrassed” by Benjamin Netanyahu during discussions over Washington’s Middle Eastern peace plans.

The US president told allies that he believed the Israeli leader had engaged in a back-and-forth over a ceasefire despite having no intention to stop the strikes against Hezbollah, Politico reported.

A White House spokesman dismissed the accounts of a potential row between the US and Israel.

Mr Netanyahu had privately told US officials that he supported a pause in the fighting with the Lebanon-based terror group.

But he has publicly rejected a US proposal for a 21-day ceasefire with Hezbollah, and has vowed to continue the fighting.

In a speech at the United Nations on Friday, the Israeli prime minister said his armed forces would not stop hitting targets in Lebanon “until we achieve all of our objectives”.

“I wonder about the timing of Israel’s recent onslaught against Hezbollah and how much is linked to Netanyahu seeing Biden as a quasi-lame duck. This was a small window for Israel to act without any substantive or meaningful pushback from the White House. Perfect storm of factors,” Colin P Clarke, director of research at the Soufan Group, said.

On Saturday, Mr Biden said he wanted to end fighting in both Lebanon and Gaza through “diplomatic means”.

“It is time for these deals to close, for the threats to Israel to be removed, and for the broader Middle East region to gain greater stability,” he added.

It came as Israel killed Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader, in an air strike on the organisation’s underground headquarters near Beirut.
Good riddance Brother of Navy diver killed in 1985 Hezbollah hijacking reacts to Nasrallah’s death
A retired Navy SEAL whose brother was killed by Hezbollah terrorists expressed relief when he heard that Hassan Nasrallah was killed.

“When the sun went down yesterday, the world was a better place with Nasrallah not in it,” Kenneth Stethem told The Post on Saturday, less than 24 hours after Nasrallah, 64, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Beirut suburb.

“Ever since [Hezbollah’s] inception in 1982, Nasrallah and others like him have caused much death and destruction,” he said.

Stethem would know: His brother, Navy diver Robert Dean “Robbie” Stethem, was killed by Hezbollah terrorists during the June 1985 TWA Flight 847 hijacking.

Robbie, 23, was returning from an assignment in Greece when the plane was hijacked by a pair of terrorists who demanded the release of 766 Palestinian and Lebanese inmates held in Israel.

The hijackers initially flew the plane to the Beirut airport, where an “enraged terrorist” beat Robbie before fatally shooting him in the head and tossing his body onto the tarmac, according to the US Navy Memorial.

His face and body were reportedly so badly mangled that he could only be identified by his fingerprints.

“I remember when they came to the door and told us. The sound that came from [our mother] sounded like an animal that had just been hit by a car. Never, never heard screams like that before or since,” Kevin Stethem told The Post of the moment the family learned their son and brother had been murdered.

Stethem planned to break the news about Nasrallah’s death to his father, now 88, on Saturday.

When they last spoke two days ago, as Israel was bombarding Hezbollah, Stethem said he told his father, “Lady karma doesn’t forget, and tonight in Israel, the same people responsible for killing Rob are hearing bombs go off all around them.”

“He’s going to be grateful that [Hezbollah] was damaged as badly as they were damaged,” he told The Post of how he expected his dad to respond to the update.

Stethem’s mother died two years ago, but “she would be very grateful for what the Israelis had the courage to do,” the brother said.


Biden: Nasrallah’s death ‘a measure of justice’ for his victims
U.S President Joe Biden on Saturday praised Israel’s targeting killing of Hezbollah terror master Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, saying the development had brought justice to his thousands of victims.

“Hassan Nasrallah and the terrorist group he led, Hezbollah, were responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade reign of terror. His death from an Israeli airstrike is a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis, and Lebanese civilians,” he said.

“The strike that killed Nasrallah took place in the broader context of the conflict that began with Hamas’s massacre on October 7, 2023. Nasrallah, the next day, made the fateful decision to join hands with Hamas and open what he called a ‘northern front’ against Israel,” the statement continued.

Nasrallah was killed on Friday in an Israel Defense Forces strike on Hezbollah’s underground headquarters in the heart of Beirut’s Dahiyeh district.

The strike was called “Operation New Order” by the IDF.

“The United States fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself against Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and any other Iranian-supported terrorist groups,” said Biden on Saturday. “Just yesterday, I directed my secretary of defense to further enhance the defense posture of U.S. military forces in the Middle East region to deter aggression and reduce the risk of a broader regional war,” the statement continued.

Washington’s ultimate aim “is to de-escalate the ongoing conflicts in both Gaza and Lebanon through diplomatic means,” said Biden. “In Gaza, we have been pursuing a deal backed by the U.N. Security Council for a ceasefire and the release of hostages. In Lebanon, we have been negotiating a deal that would return people safely to their homes in Israel and Southern Lebanon. It is time for these deals to close, for the threats to Israel to be removed, and for the broader Middle East region to gain greater stability.”

Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson (R-La.) also released a statement on Saturday praising Nasrallah’s assassination, calling on the Biden-Harris administration to end its effort for broker a ceasefire and double down on Washington’s support for the Jewish state.

“Hassan Nasrallah’s reign of bloodshed, oppression, and terror has been brought to an end. A puppet of the Iranian regime, he was one of the most brutal terrorists on the planet, and a coward who hid behind women and children to carry out his attacks,” read the statement, co-authored with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.).

“Thanks to the brave men and women of the Israeli military, justice was delivered for Israeli victims of his heinous crimes, their families, and the United States. The world is better off without him,” the statement continued.


The Israel Guys: Israel ELIMINATES Hezbollah LEADER in STUNNING & Brilliant Operation
Israel has effectively defeated Hezbollah. The war possibly may be over, right now, at this very minute. I will say this. I saw an article talking about how Israel was losing the war with Hezbollah. I saw another headline on X saying that it was fake news that Israel had eliminated the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah.

So let’s be clear: Hezbollah’s entire command chain, including their supreme leader, is now dead. Israel has taken over the Beirut Airport, and stopped all Iranian flights from coming to Lebanon, effectively cutting off Hezbollah’s supply chain. Israel has destroyed more than 50% of Hezbollah’s missile launching sites. The bottom line? Israel has completely crippled Hezbollah, Nasrallah has been confirmed dead, and the enemies of God, the Bible, and God’s chosen people are running and scared for their lives.




Israel reportedly hacks Beirut airport control tower, warns Iranian plane not to land
Israel has allegedly breached the communication network of the control tower at Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport and warned an Iranian plane against landing, prompting the aircraft to turn around and return to Tehran, Israeli media reported on Saturday.

According to reports, Israel supposedly hacked into the communications system of the Beirut control tower, warning that it would not allow the landing of a cargo plane from "Qasem Air," Flight No. QFZ9964, as it was approaching for landing.

Lebanon's Transport Minister, Ali Hamieh, stated to the Lebanese newspaper "An-Nahar" that the IDF intercepted the radio frequency of the international airport's control tower and warned that it would attack the airport if an Iranian civilian aircraft on its way to Lebanon landed there.

The minister reported that he quickly intervened and prohibited the landing of that aircraft.

IDF strikes Hezbollah leadership in Beirut
The tension concerning flights from Iran landing in Lebanon is in light of the IDF’s spokesperson’s official announcement that the IDF eliminated Hezbollah’s co-founder and leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, along with Ali Karaki, the commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front, and additional commanders from Hezbollah.

Following the announcement in which the operation’s name was revealed as “New Order,” the IDF Chief of Staff stated, “This is not the end of our arsenal. The message is simple: for anyone who threatens the citizens of the State of Israel - we will know how to reach you."

The IDF further reported that "IAF fighter jets, guided by precise intelligence from the Intelligence Division and the security system, targeted Hezbollah's central headquarters, which is located underground beneath a residential building in the Dahieh area of Beirut. The strike occurred while Hezbollah’s senior leadership was at the headquarters, coordinating terrorist activities against the citizens of the State of Israel."


IDF exposes fake social media profiles that Hezbollah used to gather military intel
The IDF said on Wednesday that it had uncovered at least 17 fake social media profiles operated by the Hezbollah terror group in a plot to gather intelligence on the military.

The profiles, uncovered by the IDF’s Information Security Department, tried to trick soldiers into revealing sensitive information about their location in bases and troop locations, the military said.

The IDF said some of the profiles presented themselves as soldiers, and the Hezbollah operatives, using the fake profiles, would build personal relationships with troops over social media apps with messages, audio recordings, and video calls.

The profiles uncovered by the IDF were: tanya_ohayon_12, ilana.ed, zyzu744, noorr.levi, ohana.norit, nitzanlevi604, annadayan22, natali8karmi, nicole.pz_66, _vanessar.94_, shira._.151, eden_cohen_9, shirashitts, christinadss1256, galavivi7, avilevi_330, and eve_henry89.

The majority of the profiles were still active on Instagram as of Thursday evening.

The case was the latest instance of Israeli security forces uncovering plots by Iran and its proxies to gain Israeli intelligence or recruit unknowing Israelis via fake social media profiles. Hezbollah members march during a funeral procession in the southern suburb of Beirut, September 21, 2024. (AP/Bilal Hussein)

Israeli security forces have also foiled similar attempts by Hamas to use fake social media platforms to gain intelligence on troop movements in Gaza in the last year or recruit Israelis to carry out tasks for the terrorist organization.


We must defund the UN for its role in enabling terror and antisemitism
UNRWA employees, involved in the October 7 massacre, are now exempt from prosecution by virtue of immunity as United Nations employees.

This isn’t some abstract or distant fact – it’s a reality that causes me to react in disbelief and fury.

How can an organization claiming to stand for humanitarian values shelter those complicit in terror? This is not just a failure of the UN, it’s a betrayal.

While UNRWA, tasked with providing aid, has long been suspected of allowing antisemitic rhetoric and extremist ideologies to permeate its ranks,October 7 laid bare the extent of its complicity.

These individuals aren’t just participants in hate; they are active facilitators of violence, hiding behind UN protections that were never meant to shield those responsible for atrocities.

Immunity should be reserved for those committed to peace and neutrality – not for those aiding in acts of terrorism.

The international community must demand that these protections be stripped, and those involved must face prosecution.

There can be no justification for allowing immunity to stand in the way of justice.

The UN has 'no right to exist in its current form'
If the UN cannot be held accountable for its actions, if it cannot ensure that those who foster and perpetuate antisemitism face consequences, then it has no right to continue existing in its current form.

UNRWA and other UN proxies that enable hate under the guise of humanitarian work must be dismantled. The UN’s actions have directly contributed to the rise of antisemitism, and its failure to protect Jewish people is a damning indictment of the institution itself.

The world will probably remain silent but anything less than total rejection of this complicity is a betrayal of the values the UN claims to stand for.

If it continues to shelter those who incite or enable violence, it must be dismantled. It’s time to demand justice for the victims of October 7 and for every Jew left vulnerable by this institutional failure.

In light of the upcoming elections in the United States it is especially critical to emphasize that the US, as the primary financial contributor to the UN, should see no other option but to demand immediate reforms within the organization.

Barring this, the US must demonstrate the consequences of failing to protect all human rights and hold perpetrators accountable.


‘Obscene’: Douglas Murray slams the UN for allowing dictators to ‘lambast’ Israel
Author Douglas Murray has branded the United Nations as “obscene” for constantly allowing dictators to hold the floor and “lambast” democracies like Israel.

“That’s been happening for decades and in part that’s because the dictators like to do that because it takes attention from what they do back home,” Mr Murray told Sky News host Rita Panahi.

“It takes away attention from their own larceny and theft and corruption and much more, and they always use the punching bag of Israel.

“Occasionally, they also use the punching bag of America.”


UN Watch: EXPOSED: The UN's double standards on Hezbollah pager operation
The UN's top officials joined the regimes of Russia, China, Iran in defending Hezbollah terrorists. Then Hillel Neuer took the floor:

“Mr. President,

On 16 June 2000, the UN Secretary-General certified that Israel completely withdrew from Lebanon.

So why is Hezbollah attacking Israel? Why do they have a terrorist army with 150,000 missiles aimed at Israel? Why did they attack Israel on October 8th, joining their fellow IRGC proxy Hamas, and fire 8,00 missiles and drones at Israel?

Because, as they openly say, they seek to destroy Israel.

So when Israel carries out one of the most precise counterterrorism operations in history, exploding thousands of pagers directly on the bodies of Hezbollah fighters, this should be praised by all for its accuracy and proportionality.

Recall that Hezbollah helped the Assad regime murder half a million Syrians. That’s why Hezbollah’s massive army is designated as a terrorist group by the U.S., Britain, France and others.

Hezbollah terrorists are evil and targeting them is legitimate.

Why did UN High Commissioner Turk call on Israel to be held accountable for the attack?

When the evil terrorist Bin Laden was eliminated, UN chief Ban Ki-Moon said: “I am very much relieved that justice has been done to such a mastermind of international terrorism.”

Why is this not the UN response when Israel likewise eliminates evil terrorists?”

(Hillel Neuer addresses United Nations Human Rights Council, September 20, 2024)


UN Watch: Hillel Neuer to UN: “This is not a battle over land, it is a battle of civilization against tyranny”
Mr. President,

Today I come before the United Nations, to address a stark reality: our moral compass is faltering.

The West, once a bastion of justice, now hesitates when good triumphs over evil.

Nowhere is this clearer than in the response to Israel’s recent actions against Hezbollah, a terror group that has wreaked havoc on civilians for decades. Ask the Syrians — they will tell you.

And since October 8th, Hezbollah fired 9,000 missiles at the people of Israel, expelling 70,000 from their homes.

Israel, a small nation of 9 million, has taken a stand against barbarism. Its young soldiers are on the front lines in a battle that once would have united Western coalitions. Yet today, much of the West fails to support Israel in its existential fight against groups like Hezbollah and Hamas—both backed by Tehran, which tramples its own people, and races toward a nuclear bomb.

No less alarming is the West’s response. In Washington, we hear calls to avoid "escalation," while in Europe, the UK’s David Lammy just said climate change is a greater threat than terrorism. Incredibly, some have turned against Israel entirely, condemning its efforts to defend itself.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is not a battle over land; it is a battle of civilization against tyranny. Hezbollah, armed with 150,000 missiles aimed at civilians, must be stopped. To criminalize Israel's right to self-defense, while ignoring the atrocities of its enemies, is a grave injustice.

We must stand with Israel. We must stand for democracy, for the rule of law, and for the right of every nation to protect its people from terror.

I thank you.

(Hillel Neuer address to the United Nations human rights council, Sept. 26, 2024)




The way we were: Netflix’s ‘Kissufim’ an eerily prescient story of kibbutz next to Gaza
When writer and director Keren Nechmad began working on her film about young Israelis living in Kissufim in the late 1970s, the idea that thousands of terrorists could invade the southern kibbutz and neighboring communities and carry out untold massacres was still in the realm of fiction too outlandish for even Netflix.

Six years later, with Israelis marking a year of mourning since the once-thinkable onslaught and still suffering through a wrenching hostage crisis, Nechmad’s film is finally being released, providing audiences in the US and elsewhere with a fresh historical perspective on life in the so-called Gaza envelope.

Nechmad shot the film at the kibbutz in 2021, two years before Hamas terrorists murdered 17 people there and kidnapped Shlomo Mansour, now 86 years old and still held captive in Gaza. In all, some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage in southern Israel in the surprise attack on October 7, 2023, which left Kissufim and other kibbutzim badly scarred and largely uninhabitable.

Back in 2021, Nechmad had set out to tell a version of her father’s story, about a group of young soldiers and German volunteers living in the southern kibbutz on the border with Gaza, around the time when Israel and Egypt signed the 1979 peace treaty.

“My father was part of this group of volunteers in Kissufim. I knew his stories and how much it affected his life,” said Nechmad, during an interview with The Times of Israel.

Auditions for the film were held three years ago, with actor Swell Ariel Or (“The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem”) taking the lead role of Eli, along with Mili Eshet, Yehonatan Vilozny, Erez Oved and others.

The alternately touching and harrowing coming-of-age story was shot in August 2021 at Kissufim, showing the young soldiers frolicking in the pool and with one another, meeting young German volunteers, traveling into Gaza to buy pita and falafel, and sitting on the Mediterranean beach, uneasily, alongside young Gazans.

There’s tension, drama, and eerie prescience in the story being told, as the young soldiers navigate the pressures that have always existed between Israelis and Palestinians living in the region in and around.

The 88-minute film was scheduled to be screened in Israeli theaters last fall, just as the Hamas attack took place on the morning of October 7.

At the time, Nechmad was home in Tel Aviv. She spent the first day in front of the television and on her phone, trying to understand what was happening.

The next day, she joined the public relations war room, an ad hoc effort organized to help families figure out what happened to their loved ones. Nechmad created social media stories and videos that provided content about the tragedy that was unfolding.

“I did it for three weeks. I didn’t sleep at all,” she said.

She and lead actress Or were scheduled to travel to Orlando, Florida, to present “Kissufim” at the Orlando Film Festival, where the film won Best Foreign Feature and Best Cinematography.

“We went, and it was intense to show it at a regular festival, to speak to Jews and non-Jews about what happened, and how this film relates to all of it,” said Nechmad.

During the months after October 7, Nechmad and Or screened the film in Los Angeles and New York, raising money for Kibbutz Kissufim.

It was clear the film couldn’t yet be released in Israel, but then Netflix expressed interest. The streaming giant wanted to release “Kissufim” only in Israel at first, and then expanded it to 15 countries worldwide, finally releasing the film this month.


IDF to give parents recordings of surveillance troops murdered at army base on Oct. 7
The military announced Thursday that it will pass on communication recordings and footage of surveillance soldiers murdered in Hamas’s October 7 massacre to their parents, who had petitioned the High Court of Justice for the documentation.

The Israel Defense Forces said the recordings from the Nahal Oz army base will stretch “from the day preceding the massacre and/or the last shift of each of the female soldiers regardless of the time of the shift,” as the parents requested in their petition.

The measure was approved by IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, the military said.

The decision caps off a nearly year-long struggle by the bereaved families to receive the documentation of their daughters’ final moments before their murder at the hands of the Hamas terrorists.

Attorney Gilad Yitzhak Bar-Tal, who represented the families, lamented that “no recording will bring the female surveillance soldiers back to their parents” but praised the army for sparing the bereaved families from litigation against commanders.

So far, a raw recording taken from the communication equipment used by slain soldier Roni Eshel on October 7 was aired by Channel 12 in March, allowing a glimpse into the last hours of the surveillance troops, who remained at their stations up until the end.

For weeks before Hamas’s onslaught — when thousands of terrorists streamed over the border, killing some 1,200 people and kidnapping 251 more — surveillance soldiers reported signs of activity along the restive Gaza border, situated a kilometer from them.

While the surveillance soldiers provide real-time intelligence information to soldiers in the field, earning them the name “the eyes of the army,” members of the all-female force believe that they weren’t taken seriously due to their gender — an oversight that they say led to the deaths of 15 of their number at their base in Kibbutz Nahal Oz on October 7.

Hamas killed a total of 52 soldiers at the base and kidnapped 10 to Gaza.


US universities that cut deals with anti-Israel protesters are now paying the price
One day before its meeting earlier this month, the University of Washington Board of Regents postponed a highly consequential item that was on its agenda: a vote related to an Israel divestment proposal.

But if the public university in Seattle hoped to curb disruptions at the meeting, it didn’t work.

Protesters, many of them motivated by the recent shooting death of a UW graduate by an Israeli soldier in the West Bank, still turned up to the meeting in droves to argue for divestment. They heckled and shouted down a series of Jewish speakers who sought to implore the university to do a better job protecting its Jewish students from antisemitism.

“We were called ‘genociders,’” Solly Kane, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “And again, we’re just there talking about the experiences of Jewish students who are trying to walk to class and having to walk past an encampment and having to walk past graffiti, which was a regular occurrence this past year at the university.”

The crowd became so rowdy that campus police escorted the regents, and the Jewish speakers, out through a back exit to get away from the scene. One protester unaffiliated with the university was arrested, according to a UW spokesperson.

UW’s outgoing president, Ana Mari Cauce, criticized the protesters in a statement, saying, “The freedom to express opinions fully, while knowing that some will disagree with them, is not a license to intimidate or threaten others.” The board’s outgoing and incoming chairs also condemned the protesters.

“Speakers addressing labor issues and those calling for divestment from Israel had spoken without interruption, but when Jewish speakers opposed to divestment and concerned about antisemitism on campus began their comments, protesters repeatedly interrupted and shouted them down,” they said in a statement.

The result of all the activity: Unable to restore order, the board instead made the unprecedented decision to shut down the meeting altogether.

The incident reflects a new dynamic in campus Israel activism in the United States nearly one year after Hamas’s devastating October 7 attack in Israel and the beginning of the war in Gaza.

Anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian activists, drawing comparisons to campaigns against apartheid-era South Africa, have spent years pushing universities to divest from Israel without much success. Their protests this spring caused several schools, including UW, to cut deals to at least consider divestment, often over heated objections from many Jewish groups. Now, as university boards make good on their promise to weigh the issue, protesters are escalating their activism — even as some are being invited to make presentations directly to university leaders themselves.

But unlike in Europe, no university in the United States has yet opted to divest from Israel.


Wikipedia Editors Title Article “Israeli Apartheid”
Wikipedia editors have renamed an article from “Israel and apartheid” to “Israeli apartheid” following a short discussion over the summer that received little pushback.

A longtime editor who runs a blog called “The Wikipedia Flood” wrote in a Sept. 19 post that in 2023, the article had been titled “Israel and apartheid” and the opening paragraph had stated: “Israel is accused by international, Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups of committing the crime of apartheid under the 2002 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, both in the occupied Palestinian territories and, by some, in Israel proper. Israel and its supporters deny the charges.” Under the “Israeli apartheid” title, the opening paragraph now states: “Israeli apartheid is a system of institutionalized segregation and discrimination in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories and to a lesser extent in Israel proper. This system is characterized by near-total physical separation between the Palestinian and the Israeli settler population of the West Bank, as well as the judicial separation that governs both communities, which discriminates against the Palestinians in a wide range of ways. Israel also discriminates against Palestinian refugees in the diaspora and against its own Palestinian citizens.”

As I’ve previously written, a discussion regarding changing the title of a Wikipedia article is known as a “Requested move” (RM) in wiki-parlance. Wikipedia policy states that an article’s title is usually from the most common name used in reliable sources (WP:COMMONNAME) . The RM discussion started on July 20, a day after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a nonbinding ruling determining that Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem violate international law. Editors in favor of changing the title contended that the ICJ ruling — and how it’s being reported — as well as more scholarly literature using the term “Israeli apartheid” warranted a change.

“The ICJ ruling yesterday by the world’s highest court that this occupation constitutes apartheid was the cherry on the top,” the editor, who posts under the name “Makeandtoss,” who started the RM discussion, wrote. “This move is long overdue, it is time to call a spade a spade.” Makeandtoss pointed to reporting in Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, The Guardian and Financial Times as evidence.

Another editor, “Iskandar323,” contended that the ICJ ruling “confirms the presence of systematic discrimination and racial segregation — affirming the findings of the numerous human rights bodies.” The editor also argued that Google Scholar searches to show that the term “Israeli apartheid” is “very much rooted in scholarly usage.”

Wikipedia is based on consensus, a combination of numbers and argument quality in regards to site policy; usually a supermajority is required for there to be consensus for a change, if the argument strength is equal. Sometimes a closer (an uninvolved Wikipedian in good standing) is needed to render a verdict on the discussion. Because there was barely any pushback to the proposed change, the discussion was closed two weeks later in favor of the “Israeli apartheid” title.

“There was little substantive discussion at all,” The Wikipedia Flood blog claimed. “Not a single editor objected … While the lack of interest in this title change is startling, as is the lack of pushback into the article’s gradual transformation into blatant Hamas propaganda, that’s not really surprising. The pro-Hamas editors are well-organized offsite and, above all, far more numerous than the editors who might oppose them. They can branch out all around Wikipedia and bring their friends with them.”




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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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