Monday, September 30, 2024

09/30 Links Pt1: Phillips: A seismic moment; Hamas Leader in Lebanon Eliminated, Was UNRWA Union Leader; Nasrallah’s Killing Reveals Depth of Israel’s Penetration of Hezbollah

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: A seismic moment
Given how the Americans have been undermining and sabotaging Israel’s defence for the past year, it is fervently to be hoped that Israel is telling the Iran-genuflecting Bidenites precisely zero about what it’s doing.

The west doesn’t realise how this abominable reaction demonstrates that it has now lost the geopolitical plot big time. For while western media and politicians were eulogising a genocidal tyrant and spitting on his designated Israeli victim for not agreeing to commit national suicide, the Arab and Muslim world was reacting very differently.

Although the Islamic death cultists had a meltdown over Nasrallah’s demise, there were scenes of wild jubilation among thousands of Arabs and Muslims.

In Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran Arabs and Muslims distributed celebratory sweets and cakes and danced in the streets to express their unbridled joy at Nasrallah’s removal from this earth and thanked Israel for “getting rid of our garbage”.

In Lebanon, people cheered and clapped, drivers honked their horns and fireworks exploded in the sky in the north-western region where Nasrallah was seen as a key ally of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and was thus responsible for assisting Assad’s brutal crackdown on opponents and helping turn the tide of the civil war in his favour.

A video went viral on Arab social media celebrating Israel's dominance over Hezbollah. Many users dubbed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a hero, referring to him as “the king of the Middle East”. Syrians celebrating in the streets held up a sign reading: “Thank you very much Netanyahu. By killing Nasrallah you light the path of peace”. In a striking reversal of the obscene anti-Jewish hate marches that have been taking place ever since the October 7 pogrom, Iranians gathered outside the Israeli embassy in London to thank the IDF for removing Nasrallah from the world.

Israel has been getting rid of the west’s garbage too, since Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood of which Hamas is the military arm have been attacking western interests for decades through both terrorism and subversion. And of course, Iran is the west’s arch-enemy — and if Israel neutralises the Iranian regime, that will get rid of the most putrid garbage of all.

The Arab and Muslim reaction suggests that Israel’s spectacular military successes have the potential to be a geopolitical game-changer. For what Israel has achieved in Lebanon over the past couple of weeks has illuminated the utter bankruptcy of the approach pushed by America, Britain, France and the rest of the supine and in every sense de-moralised west: that all conflict must be dealt with through negotiation and compromise — and in the great battle between good and evil, you split the difference.

For Israel, this pressure for a negotiated ceasefire was tantamount to offering its throat to an enemy which never stops announcing its intention to remove Israel’s head from its shoulders.

Israel Hayom reported of the American displeasure at Israel’s military adventures:
The officials stressed that diplomacy remains the only viable long-term solution to the conflict, even if military action sets the stage for negotiations.

This attitude has been lethal for the world order and for peace in the Middle East. The Arab and Muslim world respects strength. It regards negotiation and compromise as signals of surrender which incentivise its fanatics to ramp up their aggression. Using diplomacy to deal with non-negotiable fanaticism is an unforgiveable category error.

America’s appeasement of Iran, first by the Obama-Biden administration and then by the Biden-Harris administration, has been catastrophic in signalling to the Iranian regime that it is aiming at an open goal.

That was why the October 7 pogrom happened. It's why the subsequent war has dragged on for a year; it could have been stopped on October 8 had America bombed the Iranian oil refineries, or told Qatar that unless the hostages were released unharmed within 24 hours all relations with Qatar would cease.

But it didn’t do that. Instead it put pressure on Israel to surrender — as Biden is doing even now — and punished it when it refused. As a result, Iran and its proxies believed they were winning.

It’s taken Israel — in extremis — to show the spineless west that sometimes you have to make war to prevent a worse war; that in a war, you only win if the enemy is totally defeated, otherwise the enemy wins; and that you can only win if you fight with that aim in mind.

Israel has achieved more in two weeks against America’s enemy Hezbollah — which has so much American blood on its hands — than the US has achieved in more than two decades.

More significant than that, Israel has now been seen to have faced down America. This will have a dramatic and very deep impact on the Arab world.

The Arabs think that America has abandoned them for Iran — which indeed it has. Accordingly, the Arabs have come to regard America as their enemy. Now they are looking upon Israel — for whom America has also become a lethally false friend — as their brave and valorous defender.

As a result it is Israel, not the United States of America, which is now emerging as the major player in the Middle East and the chief defender of civilised values in the world. That’s quite an achievement. And it’s happened because of the civilisational collapse of America and the west.

Israel’s current celebrations are necessarily muted. More than 100 hostages remain in the hellholes of Gaza. Yahya Sinwar is (presumably) still alive and is still using the hostages as blackmail. Hezbollah and Iran still have many lethal missiles in their arsenals. Israel is still under attack from Yemen, Iraq and Syria — not to mention from within the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria. The head of the snake is Iran. This evil will not be defeated until and unless Iran is neutralised.

Yet despite these manifold dangers, it’s impossible not to feel that something momentous is now unfolding. Rub your eyes. As things stand at present, the line-up is Israel and the Arab world versus America and Iran.

Here in Israel it feels as if this is a seismic moment for the Jewish people, a hinge of history which is opening up a new world order in which Israel will win — because it has no alternative — and the west that so disdains it will lose.
Seth Mandel: Nasrallah’s Killing Was No Mere ‘Decapitation’ of a Terror Group
It’s not inaccurate to say Israel decapitated Hezbollah. But let’s not forget that Hezbollah’s torso was obliterated as well.

The stark warnings from “experts” stand in stark contrast to the celebration from actual civilians in the region, especially with reports that the IDF may have also taken out Syrian butcher Bashar al-Assad’s brother, Maher. Hezbollah played a key role in the Assads’ immiseration of Syria, where over half a million have been killed in the civil war that began when Bashar al-Assad sought to violently quash protests.

As analyst Seth Frantzman summed it up: “Syrian regime destroys Syria with the help of Hezbollah, causing millions of Syrians to flee war to Lebanon; the regime turns Syria into a conduit of Iranian arms going to Hezbollah which leads Hezbollah to attack Israel…then Syrians have to flee again because Hezbollah brings ruin on Lebanon due to Iranian arms.”

The story of this part of the Levant in the 21st century is one of Iranian colonial warlords forcing civilians into a constant state of flight.

Which is why it makes no sense to treat Hezbollah as a “normal” terrorist group when it comes to predicting the effects of Israel’s targeted strikes. It’s an army and an imperial administrator in an empire of blood. Despite what campus bobbleheads in America might say or think, Hezbollah is not a resistance movement. It is the vanguard of an expansionist regime based a thousand miles away in Tehran.

And when an imperial army surrounds you and declares war on you, what’s the proper response? Do you analyze which soldiers and generals and commanders might, based on spurious comparisons with random armed terror groups, be replaceable? Do you refuse to fight back because, throughout history, so many victories have been temporary?

The premise of so much criticism of Israel’s actions seems to be that the Jewish state’s military leaders are sitting around in a bunker with cameras on every single terrorist in the world and choosing when to zap them. The reality is that Israel was invaded less than a year ago, and Hezbollah has since joined forces with the invading army.

That’s what this is: an extensive, multi-front defensive war. People seem confused by the magnitude of Israel’s successes, as if that means the IDF brass are playing a video game. Israel’s impressiveness does not change any of the underlying facts of the conflict. It does, however, suggest that maybe invading armies ought to think twice.
Eli Lake: The Killing of Nasrallah—and the Virtue of Escalation
A day after Hamas launched its pogrom of October 7, Hezbollah began raining rockets and missiles into northern Israel, displacing up to 70,000 Israelis. Nearly a year later, those people have not been able to return to their homes.

With this kind of butcher’s bill, one might think the response from the civilized world upon learning of Nasrallah’s death would be jubilation. But Western leaders have responded with reticence. In this they have revealed their profound confusion about the enemy. It is not a nation-state, a terror group, or even an ideology. From Washington to Paris, they seem to believe the real enemy is escalation.

This united front against escalation began before the strike that killed Nasrallah.

At the United Nations last week, twelve countries—including America, France, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates—presented a plan for a 21-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon without mentioning Hezbollah, the terror army that holds Lebanon hostage. A joint statement reasoned that Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah’s leadership presented an “unacceptable risk of a broader regional escalation.”

President Joe Biden and French president Emannuel Macron later urged Israel to accede to a “settlement on the Israel-Lebanon border that ensures safety and security to enable civilians to return to their homes.” Meanwhile, British prime minister Keir Starmer called on “Israel and Hezbollah to stop the violence, step back from the brink.” An immediate ceasefire, he said, was necessary to “provide space for a diplomatic settlement.”

Even after Hezbollah confirmed that Nasrallah had left this mortal coil, German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock warned that the strikes “weren’t in Israel’s security interests.” Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris made sure to say that Nasrallah’s killing provided justice to his many victims. But they too kept pushing for de-escalation as the way forward. “President Biden and I do not want to see conflict in the Middle East escalate into a broader regional war,” Harris said.

The trouble is that the Middle East is already engulfed in a regional war. The party behind that war—Iran, which funds Hezbollah, Hamas, and other proxies—just suffered a devastating blow thanks to Israel.

Indeed, by refusing to heed the council of Biden, Macron, and Starmer, Israel has brought the Middle East far closer to peace than it was before.


Michael Oren: Turning the tide of war: Israel’s ‘Midway’ moment
Then, finally, Israel reacted. Recalling the “aroused democracy” once described by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Israel brilliantly and fiercely struck back at Hezbollah, killing dozens of its commanders and destroying thousands of its missiles. Friday’s devastating bombing in Beirut, and Nasrallah’s death, left the organization effectively leaderless. Though the terrorists have yet to unleash the full brunt of their most lethal and accurate rockets, their image has been irreparably tarnished.

For that reason, alone, Israel must not agree to a ceasefire that will allow Hezbollah to rearm and rebuild its command structure. In contrast to Gaza where Israel’s stated goal is to destroy Hamas and free the hostages, in Lebanon, the objective is to vastly reduce Hezbollah’s ability as a fighting force and drive it north of the Litani River. A ceasefire that enables Hezbollah to remain deployed along our northern border and resume daily firing at our citizens will not enable tens of thousands of displaced Israelis to return to their homes.

The specter of a costlier conflict with Iran looms, of course, along with tensions with a White House desperate to deescalate at any price. Still, the dangers of failing to continue our counteroffensive against Hezbollah far outweigh those of waging one. At stake is not only the salvation of Israel’s north but its ability to achieve long-term peace and security in the Middle East – in short, to survive.

Six months after Pearl Harbor, at the Battle of Midway, US forces turned the tide against Imperial Japan. Similarly, after roundly defeating the rebels at Gettysburg in 1863, the Union marched on to victory. And not until their triumph at Yorktown, a full seven years after breaking from Britain, was American independence guaranteed.

This is Israel’s Midway moment. In Lebanon, Israel can have its Gettysburg and its Yorktown. The alternatives are the examples of Iraq and Afghanistan, America’s most recent wars that ended inconclusively with ignominious withdrawals. Israel, fighting an existential war on our own borders, must not go that route. Rather, by resisting pressure for a ceasefire that leaves Hezbollah unbowed, Israel can fully restore our deterrence power and regain our regional preeminence. The pain and the trauma of October 7 will surely endure, but the image of an Israel both willing and able to defend itself must never again be questioned.
Israel is performing miracles in the Middle East
One of my teachers at Hasmonean Boys School in the early 1980s was Rabbi Dovid Cooper (of blessed memory). I have vivid memories of him telling us how convinced he was that the events of the Six Day War were miracles, proof of God’s eternal protection of the Jewish people and His support for the state of Israel as the modern day means of our salvation.

I don’t think any of us quite understood then exactly what he was talking about, but his passion, his conviction and his belief penetrated our minds.

The events of recent weeks, and particularly the killing of Hassan Nasrallah, have re-ignited my memories of Rabbi Cooper and his passionate belief in the miracle of Israel. One tiny country founded against the odds, which has survived attempt after attempt by those who were more numerous, better resourced,and better placed to bring about its end.

That’s indeed how it looked during the Six Day War. Egypt and Jordan should have won. The events of the subsequent Yom Kippur War showed both how easy it would be to lose and, again, the miracle of survival.

Yet as the Talmud warns, we should not rely on miracles alone. It was the ingenuity, the creativity, the innovation, the bravery and the grit of Israel, its leaders and its people that allowed us to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in 1973. The tactical brilliance in particular of one Israeli general - Arik Sharon, on the Sinai front. Yet still, as Rabbi Cooper realised, it could so easily have gone the other way. For many of us then and now, this was indeed a modern miracle.

In 2023 and 2024, it seems that providence is with us still. The Hamas pogrom, and the machinations of Iran across seven fronts, seemed to the world to place Israel in a dire situation. For sure, the future is still uncertain. But who can doubt that the astounding events of the last few weeks, culminating in the killing of Nasrallah, equal those astonishing six days in 1967.
Brendan O'Neill: Why is the West so anguished over the death of Hassan Nasrallah?
Even worse is the implicit message in all this handwringing over Israel’s targeting of the terrorists who wish to destroy it. Namely, that it would have been better to leave Nasrallah alone. That the region would be better off – hell, the world would be better off – if Nasrallah hadn’t been killed. Worse horrors will flow from Hezbollah’s destruction than from its continued existence – that’s the hint and whisper of every Western observer who frets over Nasrallah’s demise. ‘Leave Hezbollah be’ is their unspoken cry. That’s easy for a Gentile in the war-free West to say. I dare say these smug vilifiers of the Jewish nation would have a different take if they were suffering Hezbollah’s fusillade of missiles, as Israel is. If their own leafy communities were surrounded on all sides by armies of bigots hell-bent on their destruction – as Israel is.

Think about this: we have an activist set in the West – on our campuses, on our streets, in much of the press – that explicitly calls for the disarming of Israel and implicitly calls for the preservation of Israel’s enemies. Which one minute agitates for the cutting off of weapons sales to the Jewish State, and in the next insists it is too risky and reckless for Israel to take out Hezbollah leaders or Hamas cells, and so, presumably, should leave them be. Take away Israel’s weapons and let Hezbollah live, let Hamas regroup. Shorter version: no guns for Jews but guns for Jew-haters. This is not ‘anti-war’ activism. It is its precise opposite. It is a recipe for racist carnage, for the bloody destruction of the world’s only Jewish state. Rarely has the sinister nature of what passes for ‘progressive’ activism been so starkly exposed.

What has been made most clear by the Nasrallah angst of recent days is that many in the West still do not understand what is at stake in the post-7 October world. They fail to appreciate how serious it is that Israel is being targeted for violent persecution, and dreamt-of destruction, by militant Islamists whose loathing for Jews is matched only by their loathing for the West itself. They cannot see that the clash between Israel and its legion hysterical foes is at root a clash between the values of civilisation and the swirling myopia of barbarism. Between a state that aspires to fulfill the promise of modernity and medieval militants who are anti-Semitic, anti-woman, anti-gay and anti-Enlightenment.

This is what I explore in my new book, After the Pogrom: 7 October, Israel and the Crisis of Civilisation. I revisit, in unflinching detail, how the influential of the West failed the moral test of Hamas’s attack on Israel and ended up making excuses for the pogromists instead of standing with their victims. And I make the case for standing with Jews against Jew hatred, with Israel against Islamism, and with civilisation against religious fanaticism. Who could have imagined that such positions would one day be controversial? And yet, here we are.
Daniel Greenfield: Why didn’t we do this?
And so, Jared Kushner makes this startling point: “And now, over the past six weeks or so, Israel has eliminated as many terrorists on the U.S. list of wanted terrorists as the U.S. has done in the last 20 years.”

Israel’s accomplishments are unquestionably impressive, but that statistic is really due to two decades of U.S. inaction.

Consider stories like these that I’ve highlighted in the past:

“A retired Navy SEAL, whose brother was killed by Hezbollah terrorists, expressed relief when he heard that Hezbollah leader 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 New York Post on Saturday, less than 24 hours after Nasrallah, 64, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Beirut suburb. 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.”

Rob Stethem, a Navy diver, was brutally murdered when Hezbollah terrorists took over TWA flight 847. The Iranian-backed terrorists, one of whom was Imad Mughniyah, beat and kicked him to death.

“They were jumping in the air and landing full force on his body. He must have had all his ribs broken,” recalled Uli Derickson, the stewardess. “I was sitting only 15 feet away. I couldn’t listen to it. I put my fingers in my ears. I will never forget. I could still hear. They put the mike up to his face so his screams could be heard by the outside world.”

Why did we forget this? Why didn’t we pay these bastards back? That’s a question to be asked in D.C.


Israel’s new weapon of mass destruction
As for the impact on the current conflict, it may be pointed out that tactically Israel’s ability to penetrate so thoroughly Hezbollah’s communications will likely hamper its ability to use electronic devices to communicate. They will be forced to conduct face-to-face meetings which will make them more vulnerable. The targeted killing of Hezbollah’s head of the Operations Division and commander of its Radwan force Ibrahim Aqil may already be ascribed to the remote attack. The international news television network France 24 reported on September 20 that Aqil had “just come out of the hospital this morning [after] he had been wounded by his pager.” He and 15 other top Hezbollah commanders, including the “ entire senior command “of the Radwan force, were meeting in a Beirut hideout when they were taken out in a targeted strike by the Israeli Air Force.

Strategically, the Channel 12 report claimed t it t was regarded as “preferable” that the large number of Hezbollah fighters whose devices exploded be badly injured rather than killed, in part because of the immense strain this placed on health services in Lebanon, and by extension the raised domestic pressure on Hezbollah.

More importantly, the deployment of the new Israeli WMD adds to a chain of spectacular Israeli attacks which cumulatively have turned the “balance of fear” in Israel’s favor after the October 7 catastrophe. The introduction of the new capability ignited imaginations all over,r particularly in the Middle East where fantastic thinking and exaggerations are common. (Already, according to Arab media, a member of the Security Committee of the Iranian Shura Council, Ahmad Bahshaish Ardestani, disclosed that the “explosion of the pager devices was one of the scenarios [examined] for the possible killing of [Iranian President] Ibrahim Raisi [whose helicopter crashed last May.])”

Israel is now perceived as a country with perhaps mythical powers, and the ensuing uncertainty and speculation as to what else might be in store for its enemies is a decisive strategic force multiplier. (In a statement released September 24, Hezbollah’s media department said Israeli planes have dropped leaflets in the Bekaa Valley. It said “Please do not open or share the QR codes; they should be disposed of immediately as they are very dangerous. This code can extract all the information on your devices and poses a threat to your safety. We urge everyone to exercise caution.”) In the wake of the Israeli show of deadly technological wizardry, Islamists vow to destroy Israel, as Iran’s Ayatollah Khameini had just urged, which sounds even more hollow than before. In contrast, the self-confidence and morale of Israelis have received a material boost. It may be even argued, that Hezbollah’s senseless and counterproductive aggression paradoxically provides Israel with successive opportunities to demonstrate its unequaled superiority over its enemies.

No wonder the Iranian embassy in Beirut complained that “Israel’s madness has crossed all borders.” On September 22, the same embassy published a post on the X network, in which it wrote that "Israel does not deserve any type of technology. Criminals whose access to the beeper cannot be trusted must not be allowed to possess nuclear weapons. Israel must be disarmed now. Tomorrow will be too late."


Caroline Glick: Israelis believe now is time to attack Iran’s nuclear program
Israelis are almost unanimous in their support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision not to coordinate the airstrike that targeted Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah with the Biden administration in advance of its commission, a new JNS poll conducted by Direct Polls show.

JNS asked, “According to reports, Israel did not coordinate with the United States in advance of it carrying out its operation to assassinate Hassan Nasrallah. Do you think it was the right decision or the wrong decision?

Eighty-three percent of respondents responded that it was the right decision. Nine percent felt it was the wrong decision. Eight percent did not know.

For the past several decades, Hezbollah ground forces and missile arsenal in Lebanon have deterred Israel from attacking Iran. Fearing that Iran would order Hezbollah to attack Israel with daily barrages of thousands of missiles and order its ground forces to invade the Galilee, Israel delayed acting directly against Iran’s nuclear and missile installations.

JNS asked the public whether Israel should now seize the momentum it has gained through its recent strikes on Hezbollah to attack Iran before the U.S. elections. Sixty-two percent of the public answered affirmatively. Twenty-six percent said that Israel should abstain from using its momentum to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities ahead of the U.S. elections. Twelve percent said they did not know.

Finally, JNS asked which candidate for U.S. president Israelis believe will be more sympathetic to Israel’s interests. Sixty-five percent of respondents said Republican candidate Donald Trump would be more sympathetic to Israel’s interests. Just 13% of Israelis believe that Democratic candidate Kamala Harris would be more supportive of Israel. Fifteen percent of respondents said that both would be equally sympathetic to Israeli interests and 7% said neither would be sympathetic to Israel’s interests.
Shin Bet: Iran increasingly trying to carry out assassinations on Israeli soil
Israeli security forces have thwarted several murder plots by Iran and its proxies inside the Jewish state in recent weeks, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) revealed on Monday, noting a “significant rise” in Tehran’s attempts to carry out attacks by recruiting Israeli citizens.

Some of the assassinations that were foiled were in advanced stages of planning and preparation, the agency said.

As part of its plans, Tehran has been attempting to recruit Israelis to harm current and former officials, according to the Shin Bet. The statement noted last month’s arrest of Moti Maman, who stands accused of having met with Iranians and assisting them in planning assassinations, including of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Islamic Republic has been increasingly trying to recruit Israeli citizens on the internet, the Shin Bet said, with Iranian intelligence operatives targeting Israelis on social media as well as through online channels related to cryptocurrency, finance and job posting boards.

Iranian operatives have offered Israelis large rewards for carrying out tasks that include “placing money or phones in various areas in Israel, distributing flyers, painting graffiti, and even setting fire to cars and physically harming people,” according to the Shin Bet statement.

The agency urged the public to “take extra caution in any case where suspicion arises, in accordance with the detailed procedures, especially when the sums involved are large and are not suited to the nature of the requested tasks, or alternatively, if the requested tasks are unusual.

“When such doubt or suspicion arises, one must immediately report this to the [Israeli] security services,” the Shin Bet statement concluded.

Two weeks ago, the agency announced that it had thwarted an attempt by the Iranian-backed Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah to assassinate a former Israeli security official. According to the Shin Bet, the thwarted attack involved a bomb and was intended to be carried out imminently.

The planned attack was foiled “in the final stages,” the agency said, adding that more details could not be published “at this stage.”
Opposition party leaders call for ground invasion of Lebanon
Several leaders of Israeli opposition parties called on the government to order a ground invasion into southern Lebanon, joining the call of other ministers and coalition party leaders after Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday.

In a visit to the northern town of Kfar Giladi, Democrats chairman Yair Golan pointed to a Lebanese village overlooking the Kibbutz and said that the IDF needed to conquer it so that “there will not be a direct line of fire.”

In an interview later on Army Radio, Golan said that the residents of the North will “not be able to return to their homes if the terrorists are so close.”

“A ground invasion of Lebanon is necessary in order to ensure that there is no Hezbollah presence south of the Litani River,” Golan said.

Additionally, in a video statement, Yisrael Beytenu chairman MK Avigdor Liberman called for Israel to “flatten” Lebanese towns near the border and only then begin a ground invasion, since they were full of “mines and tunnels.” According to Liberman, there were “no uninvolved people” left in the towns, and “whoever remained there were Hezbollah members.”

If there is no deal, Israel should invade Lebanon
National Unity chairman MK Benny Gantz also said that if a “strong and trustworthy” deal was not signed soon, Israel should invade Lebanon and “create facts on the ground.” Any deal would require Israeli enforcement in order to ensure that “an army of terror will not deploy on our borders and threaten our citizens.”

“The attack needs to be continued, and the harm [to Hezbollah] should be deepened in a continuous, lethal, and speedy way,” Gantz stressed.

A “war of attrition is not in the state of Israel’s interest,” he added.

The leader of the opposition, MK Yair Lapid, called on the government to announce the diplomatic and strategic goals for the northern conflict.

“In parallel to the operational activity, now is the right time to take a diplomatic step, when we have an advantage, when we are winning,” Lapid said. “Our goal is a hostage deal in the South and a diplomatic agreement that will distance Hezbollah from the northern border,” Lapid added.
Caroline Glick: In first since Oct. 7, Netanyahu’s gov’t wins outright majority in tracking poll
If elections were held today, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition would be reelected, according to a poll published on Sunday evening by Channel 14 and conducted by Direct Polls.

The latest survey found that if elections were conducted now, Netanyahu’s Likud Party would receive 31 Knesset seats, Benny Gantz’s National Resilience Party, 15; Avigdor Liberman’s Israel Beiteinu, 15; Aryeh Deri’s Shas, 15; Yair Golan’s The Democrats, 10; opposition leader Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid, 9; United Torah Judaism, 8; Otzma Yehudit, 6; Religious Zionism, 5; Ra’am, (United Arab List), 5; and Hadash-Ta’al Arab list, 5.

The disparity between Netanyahu’s right-religious bloc and the Lapid-Gantz center-left bloc stands at 61 to 49 seats, with 10 seats polling for two Arab parties.

Since the Sept. 19 poll, Yisrael Beiteinu gained two projected seats, while the ultra-Orthodox Sephardic Shas Party rose by one seat. Gantz’s party lost two projected mandates since the previous Direct Polls survey. Golan’s The Democrats, a party founded some two months ago following the merger of the Labor Party and Meretz, went from 11 mandates in the Sept. 19 poll to 10 now, while Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid is down one seat.

Likud has held 32 seats in the Knesset since the 2022 general election, in addition to the 32 seats held by its right-wing and religious allies.

In head-to-head suitability for prime minister match-ups, Netanyahu now leads Gantz 52%-25%. He leads opposition leader Lapid 54%-24%.

The poll was conducted before Gideon Sa’ar brought his United Right Party, with four Knesset members, into Netanyahu’s government. Sa’ar will serve as a minister without portfolio. His party has not crossed the 3.25% (4-seat) threshold for entrance to the legislature in any poll for the past 10 months, and is polling less than one Knesset seat in the latest Direct Polls survey. Sa’ar’s move increases the size of the governing coalition from 64 to 68 Knesset seats.


Saudi crown prince says he doesn’t care about ‘Palestinian issue’
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a private conversation that he doesn’t care about “the Palestinian issue,” according to a feature article on the war in Gaza published in The Atlantic on Sept. 25.

However, the 39-year-old ruler stressed that the Palestinians are important to the general population of Saudi Arabia, noting the demographics that 70% are younger than him.

“For most of them, they never really knew much about the Palestinian issue. And so they’re being introduced to it for the first time through this conflict. It’s a huge problem. Do I care personally about the Palestinian issue? I don’t, but my people do, so I need to make sure this is meaningful,” he was quoted as saying.

The article by Franklin Foer noted, however, that a Saudi official described this account of the conversation as “incorrect.”

The comments were purportedly made during a visit by Blinken to al-Ula in Medina Province in January, months after the Hamas-led massacre of Oct. 7 and in the context of the Biden administration’s pursuit of a normalization agreement between Riyadh and Jerusalem.

The prince also told Blinken that he was pursuing normalization at great personal risk, including to his own life, citing the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat after he signed a peace deal with Israel.

MBS is concerned about the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is a branch, exacting bloody revenge for a normalization deal.

“Half my advisers say that the deal is not worth the risk,” he said. “I could end up getting killed because of this deal.”

MBS as recently as Sept. 18 publicly conveyed the importance of the Palestinian issue to joining the Abraham Accords, telling the opening session of Saudi Arabia’s advisory Shura Council that “we renew the kingdom’s rejection and strong condemnation of the crimes of the Israeli occupation authority against the Palestinian people,” as quoted by AFP.


Bibi’s War Strategy You Shouldn’t Miss | Jerusalem Minute
After months of being denounced as rudderless by the Israeli left and their allies overseas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to reshape the Middle East is starting to take form.

Taking out Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and other terrorist tyrants across the region seems to only be the beginning. In fact, every day brings with it new surprises that all point towards the Israeli leader's original vision to restore order in this ever-volatile neighborhood.

Join JNS CEO and Jerusalem bureau chief Alex Traiman and Middle East correspondent Josh Hasten as they update you on everything you need to know straight from the Jewish News Syndicate's Jerusalem studios.

They also discuss the aftermath of Nasrallah’s elimination; Israeli security concepts that are being dismantled one by one; Netanyahu’s United Nations address; diplomatic efforts to reach a peaceful resolution in Lebanon; and internal Israeli political changes.


Tom Gross: Brits & other foreigners who refuse to leave Israel’s north: we won’t give in to Hezbollah rockets

Biden Confuses Israeli Strike With Impending Union Strike: 'I'm Supporting the Collective Bargaining Effort'
President Joe Biden on Sunday confused Israel’s weekend strike against Iran-backed Houthi targets in Yemen with the imminent union strike by U.S. port workers set to start Tuesday.

Reporters asked the president for his response to Israel’s Sunday airstrike against the Houthis in Yemen as he walked across the tarmac in Delaware on Sunday.

"I've spoken to both sides. They got to settle the strike. I'm supporting the collective bargaining effort. I think they'll settle the strike," Biden responded, speaking of the International Longshoremen’s Association’s anticipated strike on Tuesday.

Israel’s missile strike came in response to a Sept. 15 attack by the terror group against the Jewish state. Israel targeted power plants and a seaport used to transfer Iranian weapons to the region in a Sunday airstrike, the Israel Defense Forces said. Israel has been at odds with the Houthis since July when a Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv killed one and injured several others.

Biden was speaking of the International Longshoremen’s Association union, which is set to strike across all Atlantic and Gulf Coast ports from Maine to Texas on Tuesday, Oct. 1. The strike is expected to have detrimental effects on America’s supply chain and cost the economy about $5 billion a day, according to a JP Morgan analysis.


In Lebanon, it is the United States that must cease-fire
Today, serving as Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor for Energy and Investment, after his stint as the head of Biden’s Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, Hochstein once again promises to offer a cease-fire deal that will serve to quiet the region, and offer a measure of “security and stability” to all parties in Lebanon.

Reminder for those slow learners. This is the same Hochstein who promised as much with the maritime deal in October 2022; while Hezbollah was salivating at the prospect of newfound natural gas revenues that would supplement (via Lebanon) the tens of billions of dollars – and tens of thousands of missiles – provided by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Those weapons aimed at Israel – the country of Hochstein’s birth – just incidentally.

One must wonder: Did these American negotiators actually go to school to advance their arbitration and mediation skills? We aren’t certain, because Hochstein’s profile is so rich with multiple long-winded previous titles that the only mention of scholarship was as a non-resident Fellow at the Harvard School’s Belfer Center.

Perhaps it is better subject for some future op ed, but one wonders if he (or his US State Department colleagues) ever took time to devote any study of Hezbollah’s ideological manifesto or the charters and political platforms of either Hamas or the Palestinian Authority. It could be quite readily done between breakfast and brunch.

Assuming that the pursuit of true scholarship – or the need to understand the players of the region – Hochstein might engage in a quick study of the Koran. That of course might take a few hours more. But certainly enough to dampen his optimism of an easily brokered cease-fire that would bring either security or stability. Certainly not to the people of Israel.

Hochstein, as a seasoned-foreign policy player, you might rightly assume, is also a strong supporter of the 2-State solution – that illusion which is in essence, a delusion.
IDF special forces conducting raids into Lebanon
Israeli special forces have carried out targeted raids in Southern Lebanon to gather intelligence and prepare for a possible ground incursion, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

The raids have been going on for months and have included entering Hezbollah’s vast tunnel network in advance of a potential ground operation that could launch as early as this week, according to the report.

The Biden administration is applying heavy pressure on Jerusalem not to put boots on the ground in Lebanon, it continued.

According to a report in The Washington Post on Monday, Israel told Washington that a limited ground invasion could start “imminently.”

The planned campaign would be smaller than the 2006 Second Lebanon War and would focus on clearing out terrorist infrastructure along the border to remove the threat to Israeli communities, a U.S. official told the newspaper.

CBS News cited a U.S. official who said the ground assault could be launched “within hours.” Israel’s Security Cabinet, which is responsible for defense-related decisions and composed of senior ministers, was set to meet on Monday night.

ABC News reported overnight Saturday, citing two U.S. officials, that Israel may have begun small-scale cross-border incursions into Lebanon.

The officials stressed that Jerusalem appeared to have not yet decided to send tanks and troops over the U.N.-demarcated Blue Line border.

U.S. officials made similar remarks to CNN overnight Saturday, with the American assessment based on the mobilization of Israel troops on the Lebanese border.

Any such operation will likely be limited in scope, the sources stressed to the news networks.

Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem said on Monday that the Lebanese terrorist army is ready for an Israeli ground incursion.

“Will Israel enter Lebanon? We are ready and prepared to defend it. We know the battle will be long, and we are ready to deal with any situation. We will emerge victorious from this battle. Israel will not be able to reach our military capabilities, and it is going crazy because of this,” said Qassem.
IDF tanks attacking villages in southern Lebanon - Arabic media
IDF soldiers entered southern Lebanon as part of a ground assault on Monday night as the conflict with Hezbollah continues to escalate, AFP reported.

Shortly thereafter, Arabic media such as Al-Jazeera and MTV Lebanon claimed that IDF tanks had entered multiple villages in southern Lebanon.

"This is what they have informed us that they are currently conducting, which are limited operations targeting Hezbollah infrastructure near the border," US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said to the press on Monday, according to AFP.

The IDF has yet to announce or confirm that any such ground invasion, the first IDF ground operation in Lebanon since the Second Lebanon War in 2006, has been launched.

However, the IDF Spokesperson in Arabic, Avichay Adraee, warned residents of Beirut suburbs to evacuate on Monday night.

Shortly after, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari asked the media not to "share reports about the forces' activities, due to the security of our forces. Stick to the official reports only and do not spread irresponsible rumors."

The IDF and the Lebanese army started making moves around 9:00 pm. regarding the imminent Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

The IDF at 8:39 p.m. took additional last-minute concrete measures leading toward an invasion, declaring closed military zones at Metulla, Misgav Am, and Kfar Giladi.

Shortly after, the Lebanese army started withdrawing from several positions in southern Lebanon.

Unconfirmed reports indicated that the IDF opened up with massive tank fire at specific positions in southern Lebanon.


IAF strike kills senior Hezbollah security official in Beirut
The Israel Defense Forces killed another senior Hezbollah commander on Saturday, a day after successfully targeting the terrorist army’s leader Hassan Nasrallah.

According to the military’s statement on Sunday, Air Force fighter jets killed Nabil Qaouk, the commander of Hezbollah’s Preventive Security Unit and a member of the Iranian-backed group’s Central Council, in Beirut.

Qaouk was close to Hezbollah’s leadership and directly involved in promoting terrorist activities against Israeli citizens in recent days, the IDF said.

“Qaouk joined the organization in the 1980s and was considered a central source of knowledge in his field. In the past, he served as the Deputy Head of the Southern Region on behalf of the Executive Council, Head of the Southern Region, and Deputy Chairman of the Executive Council,” the IDF statement read.

“Qaouk frequently appeared in the media, representing Hezbollah before the Shi’ite population and expressing himself on political, military and strategic matters,” it continued.

Qaouk , 60, was listed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.


IAF hits Hamas terrorists embedded in former Gaza schools
The Israeli Air Force has struck Hamas terrorists operating inside command and control centers set up in two former schools in the northern Gaza Strip, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Overnight Sunday, a compound previously known as the Abu Ja’far Al Mansour School was hit, following an attack on the former Umm al-Faham School in the afternoon.

Terrorists used the compounds to plan and carry out attacks against IDF forces and the State of Israel, according to the military.

The IDF emphasized that measures were taken to minimize harm to noncombatants, including the use of precise munitions, prior aerial surveillance and the collection of additional intelligence ahead of the strike.

“This is a further example of the Hamas terrorist organization’s systematic abuse of civilian infrastructure in violation of international law,” the army said, adding that “the IDF will continue to operate against Hamas in defense of the citizens of Israel.”

IDF destroys kilometer-long tunnel in central Gaza

The IDF said on Sunday that Division 252 forces had destroyed a one-kilometer-long (0.6 mile) tunnel in the central Gaza Strip, located in a civilian area near residential homes.

“The tunnel contained several rooms and equipment that Hamas terrorists used for extended stays, as well as weapons,” the military said, providing documentation of the tunnel’s destruction.
Threat of Hezbollah and wider regional war remain after Nasrallah assassination, experts warn
Nasrallah was untrusting and intolerant of any dissent, and made many decisions alone, cultivating his image as the leader accepted by all Shiites while refusing to name or train an heir, according to Zehavi and Beeri.

“The vacuum left in [Nasrallah’s] wake upends all the understandings and equations established regarding Hezbollah,” Valensi wrote.

Hezbollah is in disarray, suffering a blow that is severe and may be fatal, Valensi said: “There is no clear command and control system in place, no directive, and significant operational and tactical difficulties remain.”

By striking at Hezbollah’s strategic missile array and its leadership, the IDF seems to be trying to turn Hezbollah “back from an army to a guerrilla organization” that no longer poses a strategic threat to Israel, Zehavi and Beeri wrote.

Even if Israel damaged 50% of Hezbollah’s missile array, as some estimate, tens of thousands of projectiles remain in the arsenal the group has been building for decades. In addition, Hezbollah has as many as 50,000 operatives and an additional 50,000 in reserves that are loyal to an extremist Islamic ideology, Zehavi and Beeri pointed out.

Iran is likely already trying to rehabilitate Hezbollah and may play an even more significant role in the terrorist group than it did in the past, Truzman said.

“Israel’s actions over the past week have starkly illustrated that Hezbollah is struggling to protect its leadership and esteemed military commanders,” Truzman said. “This has caused instability inside Hezbollah, and it poses a strategic challenge for its patron, Iran.”

Tehran viewed the looming threat of Hezbollah, with its over 100,000 missiles – nearly 10,000 of which were shot at Israel in the past year – to Israel “as a crucial safeguard against potential Israeli strikes on [Iran’s] nuclear facilities,” Truzman said.

As such, Tehran will likely emphasize the urgent rehabilitation of Hezbollah, with a focus on securing the Lebanon-based terrorist groups’ remaining leaders and investigating how Israel was able to penetrate the militia, he said.

Zehavi and Beeri posited that, following the severe damage inflicted on Hezbollah, Israel attacking border crossings through which Iran transferred weapons into Lebanon, and warning against Iranian planes landing in Beirut airport, Iran might seek “to invest in other projects that are already thriving — the Houthis in Yemen and Iran’s entrenchment in Syria.”


The Nasrallah strike: how Israel secretly prepared—and kept air crews in dark until the last minute
Israel has three objectives — “returning the hostages, dismantling Hamas and safely bringing back the residents of the north,” said Brigadier- General Amichai Levin, commander of Hatzerim Air Force Base, the day after Friday’s assassination of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.

“These three remain our focus, despite the current media attention on the northern front.”

The senior officer explained that “the base, the squadron, and the entire IAF continue to operate intensively and significantly in Gaza, but we've reached a strategic point where it became necessary to separate the northern front from the Gaza arena to achieve all our objectives.”

He added: "If we want to return residents to the northern border, the separation between the fronts is critical, to dismantle Hamas and create conditions for the return of the hostages.

"Yesterday, we carried out a historic operation with deep strategic importance that extends beyond Lebanon's borders. Nasrallah's elimination will have a profound impact that will change the Middle East and bring us closer to achieving our war objectives. It was a very complex operation planned for a long time.”

He described the operation as an example of "exceptional co-operation" between the Israel Defence Forces' Military Intelligence Directorate and the air force. "Intelligence and the air force bring unimaginable capabilities to the table," he said.

"Beyond the technical aspect, the operation expresses initiative, audacity, determination and offensiveness that were lacking before October 7, and this is our most important lesson from it. We need to act proactively and offensively against all those who wish us harm—and there's no shortage of them.

“The mission is not over; they continue to fire from the north, the hostages are in Gaza, and we haven't finished with Hamas in the south.”

The strike on Nasrallah was carried out by the 69th “Hammers” Squadron, which has been commanded by Lieutenant Colonel M for several months. He took charge in the middle of the war, having previously commanded an F-15 squadron at Tel Nof Base. M's family is from the north, and his wife is originally from a kibbutz on the border with Lebanon. Her family on the kibbutz has been evacuated.

"The squadron has been operating on a war footing for about a year now, in all sectors, and in the last week has been attacking and defending significantly in the northern arena," M said.

"The formation that flew on the Nasrallah mission was diverse, youth mixed with experience. I and a reservist led the operation. Everything [went according to plan], without hitches—not in the intelligence planning aspect, not in the planes, and not in the execution itself," he said.

“We went out to attack massively, in the heart of Beirut, in Dahiya; we knew who we were going to eliminate," he added.
Espionage changed the game in Israel's war on Hezbollah
According to reporting by the Financial Times, Israel has claimed a major victory in its ongoing conflict with Hezbollah, announcing the successful assassination of the group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah. This development marks a significant turning point in a decades-long struggle, attributed to a dramatic improvement in Israel's intelligence capabilities.

On Friday night, the Israeli military reportedly tracked Nasrallah to an underground bunker in south Beirut, dropping as many as 80 bombs to ensure his demise. An Israeli F-15i pilot boasted, "We will reach everyone, everywhere," highlighting the precision and determination of the operation.

This success follows previous failed attempts to eliminate Nasrallah, including three unsuccessful strikes during the 2006 war with Hezbollah. The recent operation's success is credited to a substantial reorientation of Israel's intelligence-gathering efforts, initiated after the 2006 conflict exposed significant weaknesses in their approach. An apartment block stands in partial ruins after being hit by an Israeli airstrike on, September 30, 2024 in Beirut, Lebanon (Photo: Carl Court/Getty Images)

Miri Eisin, a former senior intelligence officer, explained the shift in Israel's strategy: "You have to define, in that sense, exactly what you're looking for. That's the biggest challenge, and if done well, it allows you to look at this in all its complexity, to look at the whole picture."

Israeli intelligence had for nearly a decade referred to Hezbollah as a "terror army," rather than as a terrorist group "like Osama bin Laden in a cave," Eisin added. This conceptual shift forced Israel to study Hezbollah as closely as it had the Syrian army and led to developing a dense "intelligence picture," detailing Hezbollah's operations, leadership structure, and vulnerabilities.

The war in Syria provided Israel with a wealth of data on Hezbollah. As the group deployed to support Bashar al-Assad's regime in 2012, it became more vulnerable to infiltration. Randa Slim, a program director at the Middle East Institute in Washington, noted, "Syria was the beginning of the expansion of Hezbollah. That weakened their internal control mechanisms and opened the door for infiltration on a big level."

Yezid Sayigh, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center, described how Hezbollah's involvement in Syria affected the organization: "They went from being highly disciplined and purists to someone who [when defending Assad] let in a lot more people than they should have. The complacency and arrogance was accompanied by a shift in its membership. They started to become flabby."

Israel's intelligence agencies capitalized on this opportunity, employing technological advancements, including spy satellites, sophisticated drones, and cyber hacking capabilities. The IDF's 9900 Unit employs algorithms to sift through terabytes of visual data, identifying subtle changes that might indicate Hezbollah activities or infrastructure.

The patience and persistence of Israeli intelligence efforts appear to have paid off. Over the past 10 months, Israel and Hezbollah engaged in cross-border exchanges, with Israel gradually expanding its operations. This deliberate approach may have lulled Hezbollah into a false sense of security regarding the conflict's boundaries.
Nasrallah’s Killing Reveals Depth of Israel’s Penetration of Hezbollah
In the wake of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s killing, Hezbollah faces the enormous challenge of plugging the infiltration in its ranks that allowed its arch enemy Israel to destroy weapons sites, booby-trap its communications and assassinate the veteran leader, whose whereabouts had been a closely guarded secret for years.

Nasrallah’s killing in a command HQ on Friday came barely a week after Israel’s deadly detonation of hundreds of booby-trapped pagers and radios. It was the culmination of a rapid succession of strikes that have eliminated half of Hezbollah’s leadership council and decimated its top military command.

In the days before and hours after Nasrallah’s killing, Reuters spoke to more than a dozen sources in Lebanon, Israel, Iran and Syria who provided details of the damage Israel has wrought on the powerful Shi’ite paramilitary group, including to its supply lines and command structure. All asked for anonymity to speak about sensitive matters.

One source familiar with Israeli thinking told Reuters, less than 24 hours before the strike, that Israel has spent 20 years focusing intelligence efforts on Hezbollah and could hit Nasrallah when it wanted, including in the headquarters.

The person called the intelligence “brilliant,” without providing details.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his close circle of ministers authorized the attack on Wednesday, two Israeli officials told Reuters. The attack took place while Netanyahu was in New York to speak at the U.N. General Assembly.

Nasrallah had avoided public appearances since a previous 2006 war. He had long been vigilant, his movements were restricted and the circle of people he saw was very small, according to a source familiar with Nasrallah’s security arrangements. The assassination suggested his group had been infiltrated by informants for Israel, the source said.

The Hezbollah leader had been even more cautious than usual since the Sept. 17 pager blasts, out of concern Israel would try to kill him, a security source familiar with the group’s thinking told Reuters a week ago, citing his absence from a commander’s funeral and his pre-recording of a speech broadcast a few days before.

Hezbollah’s media office did not respond to a request for comment for this story. U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday called Nasrallah’s killing “a measure of justice” for his many victims, and said the United States fully supported Israel’s right to defend itself against Iranian-backed groups.

Israel says it carried out the hit on Nasrallah by dropping bombs on the underground headquarters below a residential building in southern Beirut.

“This is a massive blow and intelligence failure for Hezbollah,” Magnus Ranstorp, a veteran Hezbollah expert at the Swedish Defence University. “They knew that he was meeting. He was meeting with other commanders. And they just went for him.”


What the Death of Hassan Nasrallah Means for Hizballah
Yesterday, reports emerged that Hizballah had appointed Hashem Safieddine, a relative of his late predecessor Hassan Nasrallah, as its new secretary general, though the Iran-backed terror group subsequently denied this. Hanin Ghaddar analyzes what Israel’s elimination of Nasrallah portends for the organization.

[R]eplacing the charismatic longtime leader will be very difficult. He has become inseparable from the group’s brand, and is identified with successes such as Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000 and the perceived summer 2006 “divine victory” against Israel. Nasrallah served as a father figure for many Lebanese Shiites, who regarded him as their provider and protector. Whoever succeeds him will not have an enviable job, given the eviscerated condition of the group and the likely dark days ahead. Yet the resulting void will provide opportunities for the international community to advocate better leadership for Lebanese Shiites and the entire nation.

Since October 2023, when Hizballah committed to support Hamas’s fight against Israel, its trio of first-tier commanders, Fuad Shukr, Ibrahim Aqil, and Ali Karaki, along with most of its second-tier commanders, have been killed. Given this loss of personnel along with the infrastructural blows and associated weakening of trust, it will be an arduous yearslong task to rebuild the group’s military prowess.

Moreover, Nasrallah himself served a principal role in restructuring Hizballah military activities and coordinating with Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. Thus, the connective tissue between Lebanon and Iran has now been cut.
Hassan Nasrallah’s Critical Mistakes since October 7, 2023
Since Hassan Nasrallah opened his war against Israel on October 8, he made a series of strategic miscalculations that significantly weakened Hizbullah and harmed the people of Lebanon.

His reputation as a wise and effective leader was severely tarnished in Lebanon and across the Arab world, and eroded his credibility, leaving him viewed as a failure.

Nasrallah, the Secretary General of Hizbullah, had long boasted of his deep understanding of Israeli society, its political landscape, and media.

However, since his war began on October 8, 2023, he committed several strategic blunders, especially in his assessment of Israel’s capabilities and responses.

Here are some of his most critical mistakes:

Failure to Act on October 7
Nasrallah’s first major error occurred on the war’s first day, October 7, 2023. He failed to order the “Radwan” forces, stationed on the Israeli border, to invade northern Israel and seize the Galilee region. This could have occurred simultaneously with Hamas’s attack on settlements near the Gaza border. These forces had been training for years for such an operation and were combat-ready, but the order never came.

This missed opportunity could have allowed Hizbullah to score a significant victory over Israel. At the time, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) presence on the Lebanon border was thin, and Hizbullah could have relatively easily occupied parts of the Galilee and captured Israeli settlements and military bases.

Sources suggest that Nasrallah was not informed by Yahya Sinwar of the exact timing of Hamas’s “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation. While he was aware of Hamas’ broader intentions, the lack of precise information left him unprepared.

By the time he recovered from the surprise, the IDF had reinforced its positions on the northern border, and Hizbullah lost the element of surprise. Ignoring Lessons from the 2006 War

Nasrallah’s second major miscalculation was failing to learn from Hizbullah’s experience during the 2006 Lebanon War. Once again, he dragged Lebanon into a dangerous conflict to serve Iran’s regional ambitions. By tying Lebanon’s fate to that of the Gaza Strip, Nasrallah faced harsh criticism both within Lebanon and from the Shiite community from which Hizbullah draws its support.

His actions led to devastation in southern Lebanon, resulting in hundreds of civilian deaths and displacing half a million people, many of whom have flooded into Beirut and other parts of the country.


UN Watch: “Justice delivered to Nasrallah is game changer" — Hillel Neuer on NewsNation
Hillel Neuer on News Nation with: “For 11 months Hezbollah attacked Israel with 9,500 missiles. But the pinpoint explosion of the terrorists' pagers, elimination of their commanders, and especially the justice delivered now to Nasrallah, amounts to a game changer.” Sept. 29, 2024.


Special briefing with Lt. Col. (Res.) Jonathan Conricus | StandWithUs Live
With tensions at an all-time high, join StandWithUs TV for a special briefing direct from Israel, featuring the latest war update from Lt. Col. (Res.) Jonathan Conricus.




Bipartisan cheer for Israel’s takeout of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle welcomed Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and other top leaders of the terror group in its military operations.

Outside of some far-left detractors, word of the IDF taking out Nasrallah and his leadership team in a series of strikes in southern Beirut last week has been met with praise from leading lawmakers, including those who have been critical of Israel’s war in Gaza.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in a statement, “Hezbollah has the blood of hundreds of Americans on its hands. The world is safer and better off without Nasrallah’s terrorism and oppression, and I will continue to support Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorism.”

“The United States and its partners must maintain efforts to ensure Israel’s security, deter and prevent Iranian-backed actors from expanding this conflict, and pursue regional stability,” Schumer added.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) similarly denounced Nasrallah while urging the U.S. to recognize “what it means” to target our enemies abroad.

“Like [Imad Fayez] Mugniyah and [Qassem] Soleimani before him, Hassan Nasrallah authored decades of terror and suffering across the Middle East. Israelis, Americans, Lebanese, and Syrians are safer without him on the battlefield. America should heed this reminder of what it means to impose costs and justice on those who wish us harm,” McConnell said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) put out a joint statement with House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) and House GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) celebrating that “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. 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 read.

The three House leaders called on the White House “to end its counter-productive calls for a ceasefire and its ongoing diplomatic pressure campaign against Israel. Nasrallah’s death is a major step forward for the Middle East, and today’s victory for peace and security should be used to reassert America’s ironclad support for Israel as it fights for its very right to exist.”

Their call to reject a cease-fire was echoed by numerous Republicans speaking out over the weekend, while numerous pro-Israel Democrats joined in the chorus of cheering Nasrallah’s demise.
Arafat's scorn, Hamas alliance: The complex Palestinian ties to Nasrallah
Nearing the twilight of his tumultuous reign, Hassan Nasrallah fashioned himself as the "guardian of Palestine," offering Hezbollah's military might to the cause against Israel.

Yet, the relationship between the leader of the Iran-backed Shiite terror group and the Sunni Palestinians was not always harmonious. While Nasrallah engaged in alliances with various terrorist factions, tensions were particularly pronounced with the Palestinian Authority.

Animosity between Hezbollah's secretary-general and the Palestinian leadership dates back to the era of Yasser Arafat, who died in 2004. In an interview from that period, Nasrallah, when asked about his disagreements with the Palestinian leadership, retorted: "What Palestinian leadership? Yasser Arafat? We do not recognize this leadership, and it holds no legitimacy among the Palestinians."

In another speech, he provocatively questioned: "Why isn't there a Palestinian officer or policeman who would assassinate Arafat and proclaim Arafat a disgrace to the Palestinians?"

"There were never any ties with Nasrallah or his organization. On the contrary, he preferred to insult us, glorify Hamas, encourage them to defeat Fatah and oust them from power. He sought to incite and deepen the rift between Hamas and Fatah," a senior PA official told Ynet following Nasrallah's elimination.

Despite this history, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas issued a succinct condolence message to the Lebanese people on the death of Nasrallah and to the citizens of the country.
Tom Gross: We can see today who is on the right side of history and who is not (not the West’s ‘useful idiots’)
Tom Gross interviewed on Iranian opposition channel ManotoTV, about the death of Hezbollah terror leader Nasrallah.

In the first three hours, this has been watched and liked inside Iran 700,000 times on Instagram:


Iranian FM: Killing of IRGC No. 2 Will ‘Not Go Unanswered’
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday that the death of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps deputy commander Brig. Gen. Abbas Nilforoushan in Beirut on Friday “will not go unanswered.”

Nilforoushan was killed by an Israeli airstrike alongside Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Ali Karaki, the Iranian-backed terror group’s highest-ranking military commander.

“There is no doubt that this horrible crime committed by the Zionist regime [Israel] will not go unanswered,” said Araghchi in a statement addressed to IRGC chief Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, according to Reuters.

Earlier on Sunday, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said that the “axis of resistance,” which includes Hezbollah, Hamas, Yemen’s Houthi rebels and other terrorist groups across the Middle East, would avenge Nasrallah and Nilforoushan’s deaths.

“We will not hesitate to go to any level in order to help the resistance,” the Iranian politician stated, adding that the United States “is complicit in all of these crimes and … has to accept the repercussions.”

Meanwhile, Iranian Vice President for Strategic Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif told state media on Sunday that the regime would retaliate against the Jewish state at a time of its choosing, according to Reuters.

The New York Times reported on Sunday that Iranian officials are divided on how to respond to the assassination of their close ally, with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei saying Hezbollah, not Tehran, would lead the response to the attack.

“It will be Hezbollah, at the helm of the resistance forces, that will determine the fate of the region,” said Khamenei, adding that “Lebanon will make the aggressor and the evil enemy regretful.”


MEMRI: Prior To Israel's Killing Of Hizbullah's Nasrallah, Iran-Backed Iraqi Militia Commanders Declare UAE 'First Line To Be Targeted' In Event Of Escalation, Threaten To Send Forces To Lebanon, Attack U.S. Bases And Other 'Sites'
On September 26, 2024, Abu Alaa Al-Walae, the commander of the Iran-backed Iraqi militia Sayyid Al-Shuhada' Brigades, issued a brief statement threatening the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Al-Walae wrote: "The Islamic Resistance in Iraq views the Emirates as the Zionist entity's forward operating base in the Gulf and as the first line to be targeted by the resistance's fire in the event that full-scale war erupts." He added: "The missiles and drones of the Islamic Resistance, which have nearly reached deep inside the Zionist entity, will have a very easy time reaching the entity's alternate positions in the region."[1]

On the following day, Al-Walae spoke in Baghdad at a "stand-in of solidarity with Lebanon," in which he reiterated the Iraqi resistance's support for Lebanese Hizbullah – as well as Hamas and Yemen's Ansar Allah movement (the Houthis) – and threatened to attack interests of the U.S., Israel, and UAE in the event of escalation in Israel's ongoing conflict against Hamas and various Iran-backed groups.[2] The speech occurred one day before Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's Dahieh.[3]

Noting that the stand-in was organized at the request of senior Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Ali Al-Sistani, Al-Walae declared his group's "complete solidarity with the resistance nations in the region, to defend Gaza, Lebanon, and Yemen" from the attacks of "the Zionist gangs, with the backing and cover of evil, terrorist America." Chanting: "No, no, America. No, no, Israel. Yes, yes, Hizbullah. Yes, yes, Palestine," he declared that the Iraqi resistance will not stand aside in the face of growing escalation in the region and will continue to participate in the battle against "Zionist-American barbarity and criminality." The Iraqi militia leader further asserted that all evidence points to "the inevitable disappearance of the cancerous tumor, Israel, and the defeat of America, the Great Satan, from West Asia."

Al-Walae noted that over the years, the Iraqi resistance has sacrificed "caravans of martyrs" in its conflict with Israel and has achieved "many victories," predicting that "the ummah [Islamic nation] and all free people of the world will achieve a great victory in this battle." Noting that the Iraqi resistance has "defended holy sites in Syria and Iraq," he declared that it will "liberate Al-Aqsa" and "all our usurped lands in beloved Palestine."

The militia leader reiterated the promise he had made to Nasrallah,[4] vowing: "If you lose 1,000 martyrs, we will provide you with 100,000 heroes. This is not an exaggeration or illogical." Declaring that the "Zionist-American enemy" will not succeed in "separating the unity of arenas," Al-Walae reiterated the Iraqi resistance's support for Gaza, Yemen, and Lebanon. He warned regional states and all Muslims that "the danger of Zionist expansion will not stop," and rejected claims that "the resistance wants to draw fire to itself," insisting that "it is actually trying to keep fire away from our country." Insisting that the Iraqi resistance has so far used only 5% of its capabilities, he asserted that the Iraqi militias have the same capacities as Hizbullah and the Houthis.

Al-Walae added: "We expelled the Americans from Iraq in humiliation and failure after ten years of fighting, and we will expel them again from Iraq, Syria, and West Asia … If full-scale war erupts, we stress what we previously said that the Americans are hostages to the resistance factions in Iraq, and that the resistance's capabilities can reach their bases in the Gulf and elsewhere… American and Israeli interests in the region will all be legitimate targets for the resistance factions, especially the Emirates, which we consider the forward operating base of the usurping [Israeli] entity and the first line to be targeted."


Call for apology from Labour MP after social media post taken down
Labour MP and former trade minister Damien O'Connor has removed a social media post he shared online that seems to justify Hamas' 7 October attack on Israel, but he has not apologised.

The ACT Party says O'Connor must formally say sorry or be stripped of his role as Labour's associate spokesperson on foreign affairs.

O'Connor had reposted a video of a speech by retired US Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson on X / Twitter, along with the quote: "Palestinians have every right to do whatever they did on October 7th".

The post was deleted from O'Connor's page shortly before midday Monday.

Earlier on Monday, ACT issued a media release, denouncing O'Connor's actions as "extreme and hateful".

ACT MP Simon Court, perhaps Israel's most ardent defender in Parliament, told RNZ that O'Connor had gone "far too far" by sharing the post.

"Hamas-led Palestinians invaded Israel, killed over 1000 people, took over 100 hostages, committed atrocities on a scale not seen since the Holocaust in World War Two," Court said.

"There is no world in which what Damien O'Connor said is okay."

Court demanded Labour leader Chris Hipkins reprimand his senior MP and remove him from his position.

"[O'Connor] shouldn't be speaking on behalf of one of New Zealand's largest and oldest political parties and saying things that are essentially the promotion of terrorism and a pogrom."

Asked by RNZ for a response, Labour issued a brief statement on behalf of O'Connor, noting that the post had been removed but offering no explanation or apology.


Hassan Nasrallah: Media Lionize The Terrorist With a Bright Smile Who Butchered So Many Innocent People
This profile on Nasrallah by The New York Times, may as well be a love letter. Since its publication, words have been changed to appear vague, but are still rather favorable towards a killer.

He often referred to Israel as “the Zionist entity” and maintained that Jewish people who arrived from other countries over decades should return to their nations of origin, and said that Israel should be replaced by the state of Palestine, with equality for all residents.

But not before the writer was caught portraying Nasrallah as a believer in coexistence for one state for Jews, Christians and Muslims in “Palestine” and a responsible leader concerned with the needs of his people.



Unfortunately, the bizarre obituary did not stop there. It is filled with respectful descriptions of Nasrallah and his popularity amongst the suffering Shiite Lebanese population. Almost as if he was progressive.

He came across as less dour than most Shiite clerics, partly because of his roly-poly figure, a slight lisp and a propensity to crack jokes. He never pushed hard-line Islamic rules, like veils for women in the neighborhoods that Hezbollah controls. Analysts attributed that to his exposure in his youth to many of Lebanon’s 17 religious sects and his desire not to isolate Lebanese outside of Hezbollah’s religious Shiite base.

And publications like Le Monde came out with an obituary describing his features almost lovingly and accentuating his “heroic” nature. It almost seems cool to be Israel’s biggest adversary, and the Middle East’s “object of fascination.”

With his black turban, reserved for descendants of the Prophet, thin glasses and thick salt-and-pepper beard, Hassan Nasrallah has been the face of Hezbollah for over three decades. At the head of this militia dedicated to armed struggle against Israel, which has become a state above the Lebanese state, the Shiite leader has held the fate of the country in his hands, in war and in peace.

But quite frankly, it’s embarrassing to read.

Nasrallah, an evil murderer, was granted obituaries he didn’t deserve. While he may have been seen as a heroic and revered figure by his followers, why should this matter when he has so much blood on his hands over the course of decades?
Syrian analyst: 'Western media ignores Arab celebrations of Nasrallah's death'

Hamas chief in Lebanon, on UNRWA payroll, killed in Israeli strike
The leader of the Hamas terrorist organization in Lebanon, Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin, was killed in an airstrike in the Tyre area in the south of the country, Israel said on Monday.

The Israeli confirmation came hours after the Gaza-based group said that he died in the attack along with several of his family members.

According to the joint announcement by the Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), the Israeli Air Force killed Abu el-Amin overnight Sunday.

“Sherif was responsible for coordinating Hamas’s terror activities in Lebanon with Hezbollah operatives. He was also responsible for Hamas’s efforts in Lebanon to recruit operatives and acquire weapons,” the IDF and Shin Bet said.

“He led the Hamas terrorist organization’s force build-up efforts in Lebanon and operated to advance Hamas’s interests in Lebanon, both politically and militarily,” the statement continued.

Media reports placed Abu el-Amin, his wife, son and daughter at the El-Buss refugee camp in the southern Lebanese coastal city of Tyre when they were killed in the strike.

“The western areas of South Lebanon are Hamas’s main stomping grounds and its operatives there, have been responsible for much of the rocket fire targeting Nahariya and towns north of Haifa,” Ynet reported.

Abu el-Amin was employed by UNRWA
Abu el-Amin was an employee of UNRWA, the terror-linked United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants.

The NGO UN Watch earlier this year highlighted the Hamas leader’s involvement with UNRWA, including his role as the school principal of the UNRWA-run Deir Yassin Secondary School in El-Buss and his position heading the UNRWA teachers’ union in Lebanon, overseeing 39,000 students in 65 schools.
FDD: Hamas Leader in Lebanon Eliminated in Israeli Air Strike Was UNRWA Employee
Latest Developments
The leader of Hamas in Lebanon, who doubled up as a prominent educator employed by UNRWA — the UN agency solely dedicated to the descendants of Palestinian refugees — was killed in an Israeli air strike in the south of the country, Hamas confirmed on September 30.

Fathi al-Sharif was eliminated in a strike on his home near the city of Tyre, a Hamas statement confirmed. According to the IDF, al-Sharif was responsible for coordinating Hamas operations with Hezbollah in Lebanon as well as recruiting new members to the Iran-backed Palestinian terrorist organization.

Al-Sharif’s dual role as a Hamas terrorist leader and as head of UNRWA’s teachers’ union in Lebanon, where he also served as the principal of an UNRWA-run school, drew the attention of Dorothee Klaus, the director of UNRWA’s operation in Lebanon, in February 2023. After Klaus failed to persuade al-Sharif to resign his post, she referred the matter to UNRWA Director-General Philippe Lazzarini, who merely suspended him pending investigation for a period of three months. Al-Sharif was accused of violating the principle of neutrality through his affiliation with Hamas and of traveling to Turkey for meetings with Hamas leaders. UNRWA’s operations are extensively intertwined with Hamas, with several members of its staff in Gaza participating in the October 7 terrorist atrocities in southern Israel. According to the non-governmental organization UN Watch, al-Sharif praised the assault, posting the message “God is the Greatest” on his Facebook page.

Expert Analysis
“Often lost in the fog of this almost one-year-old war has been the fact that a sizable number of the attacks on Israel from Lebanon have been carried out by Palestinian terrorist groups in cooperation with Hezbollah. Hamas, for example, had a 5,000-strong force in Lebanon before October 7, while Palestinian Islamic Jihad had a 600-man unit attached to Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force. That the Hamas leader in Lebanon turned out to be a senior UNRWA figure shouldn’t surprise anyone who has followed how UNRWA and Hamas are joined at the hip in Gaza.” — Mark Dubowitz, FDD CEO

“This is an important reminder that UNRWA isn’t just a terror threat in Gaza. It collaborates with, enables, and supports terrorist organizations wherever it operates. We have sufficient evidence at this point not just for a permanent ban on aid but also for secondary sanctions to cut off the rest of UNRWA’s money flow.” — Richard Goldberg, FDD Senior Advisor

“For years, Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organizations have been active in Lebanon. Specifically, Hezbollah has given support and guidance to Hamas and has integrated Palestinian terrorists into its ranks to carry out attacks against Israel. This collaboration allowed Hamas to leverage its relationship with Hezbollah, effectively establishing a second front in its conflict with Israel. Fathi al-Sharif was a key player in connecting Hamas and Hezbollah to this strategic approach.” —Joe Truzman, Senior Research Analyst and Editor at FDD’s Long War Journal
UNRWA chief denies knowledge that suspended employee was Hamas leader in Lebanon
The chief of the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) on Monday denied knowing that its employee Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin was a Hamas commander in Lebanon and called on states to push back against Israeli attacks on the agency.

El-Amin, the head of Hamas' Lebanon branch, was killed along with family members in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon, the group said on Monday. He had been placed under investigation and suspended from his job at UNRWA in March following allegations concerning his politics, agency head Philippe Lazzarini told reporters in Geneva.

"The specific allegation at the time was that (he was) a part of the local leadership... I never heard the word commander before," he said. "What's obvious for you today, was not obvious yesterday."

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said el-Amin had been on administrative leave without pay since March - "as soon as UNRWA received information about his possible involvement with Hamas at a senior level" - and had never been reinstated.

"As soon as information was received - in this case, from the Israeli government - action was taken," Dujarric told reporters. "Every time UNRWA has received information beyond just a name, action has been taken."

"Anyone who works for the UN and engages in terror, terror-like activity is unacceptable and outrageous and an insult to all UN staff members around the world," he said.

Lazzarini, who briefed press after meeting with UN member states earlier on Monday, said he had asked them to "push back on all the reputational attacks on the agency and the ongoing drafting of bills which could be adopted in Jerusalem."


‘Ridiculous’ to say UNRWA a threat to Israel, Jordan’s FM says
It is “beyond human comprehension” to see the United Nations Relief and Works Agency’s unique mandate, which maintains the refugee status of Palestinians for generations, as a threat to Israel, Ayman Safadi, the Jordanian foreign minister, told JNS last week.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday after a high-level ministerial meeting in support of the beleaguered U.N. Palestinian-only aid and social services agency, Amman’s top diplomat responded to a question about why the Jewish state should be expected to facilitate UNRWA’s existence in Jerusalem and throughout Israel.

UNRWA and other U.N. and diplomatic officials have chastised Israel over pending pieces of legislation to shut down the agency’s operations in Israel, declare it a terror organization and strip its officials of their immunity in Israel. During the war, 222 UNRWA staff have been killed in Gaza, the global body has said.

The U.N. agency has accused Israel of needlessly limiting the entry of humanitarian aid. The Jewish state has documented UNRWA’s failure to retrieve aid in a timely manner after Israeli security cleared it and placed it in Gaza, beside the border.

The agency was the subject of an internal U.N. investigation, which found that nine of its staffers “may” have participated in Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel. The Jewish state says that number is substantially larger.


Commentary Podcast: We Celebrate
Dan Senor joins today's podcast to discuss Israel's series of staggering military and intelligence triumphs over evil this weekend and their long-term ramifications.


Israel Update - with Michael Doran and Gadi Taub: THE FALL OF NASRALLAH: A HISTORICAL HINGE POINT
With the killing of Hassan Nasrallah, Gadi and Mike agree, the war turned in Israel's favor. This masterstroke coming as it did after a long string of impressive military achievements, weakened not only Hezbollah but also Iran, which has failed to respond in any meaningful way. Iran's major move, thus far, has been to threaten the United States. If the Americans would only stop restraining Israel and begin to support its efforts to weaken Iran, this turning point in the war could become a hinge point in history, the beginning of the sharp decline of Iran's Resistance Axis




The Israel Guys: Israel is Winning the War & America is Desperately Trying to Stop Them
Israel is absolutely killing it in destroying their enemies who are hell-bent on annihilating the Jews. Like Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and now the Houthis in Yemen who are feeling the full wrath of Israel’s air force.

Something no one is talking about though is the Biden Administration's attempts to put a full stop to Israel destroying Hezbollah in Lebanon. Just like his attempts in Gaza, Joe Biden is now trying to force Israel into a ceasefire deal with Lebanon now that Israel is actually winning the war. THIS IS ABSOLUTELY CRAZY!




Protesters wave Hezbollah flags at Australian rally
Protesters waving Hezbollah flags who gatecrashed a pro-Palestine protest in Melbourne will be referred to the Australian Federal Police.

The rally in Melbourne formed part of a national day of action for Gaza, with thousands of people also taking to the streets in Sydney and other cities.

A small group with Hezbollah flags – some holding what appeared to be framed photographs of the terror group’s slain leader Hassan Nasrallah – joined the Melbourne event as speeches ended and people began to march.

Nasrallah was killed by an Israeli air strike on Friday, amid escalating tensions in the region.

Victoria Police said the display of terrorist symbols was a commonwealth offence.

“(We) support the right to protest peacefully and had a visible presence at the protest to ensure public safety,” it said in a statement.

“Appropriate referrals will be made to Australian Federal Police as the lead agency concerning prohibited symbols.”

Organisers of the rally told AAP the group was not affiliated with those running the demonstration.

The group was comfortably outnumbered by peaceful protesters showing solidarity with Lebanese and Palestinian communities.

Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah was killed by an Israeli strike in the Lebanese capital of Beirut on Friday, sharpening fears the conflict could widen into a regional war.

Federal Liberal frontbencher James Paterson said the presence of Hezbollah flags at the rally was “disturbing” given it is designated by Australia as a terrorist organisation, and called for police to enforce the law.

Rallies in solidarity with Gaza have been held weekly in Melbourne for much of the past year.

“You stand with Lebanon, you stand with Palestine,” Omar Hassan, from Victorian Socialists, told fellow protesters.

“I want to say that it is a dark day for the people of the Middle East, and it’s a dark day here in Melbourne … but there are reasons to be cheerful and optimistic and hopeful.”


Anti-Israeli protesters in Melbourne put on notice | 7NEWS
The premier is calling on police to track down and charge anti-Israel protesters who flew Hezbollah flags in the city over the weekend.

Politicians from all sides have condemned the behaviour but authorities say they are powerless to stop it.


Why the ABC has come under fire after chilling detail emerged at pro-Palestine rally in Australia
The ABC has been slammed for failing to call out pro-Palestine demonstrators who were mourning the death of the leader of proscribed terrorist group.

Thousands took to the streets in Sydney and Melbourne on Sunday to march in support of Palestine and Lebanon, amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

Among the protesters were groups of young men, many masked, waving the red and green flags of Hezbollah, a political group from Lebanon which has been listed by Australian authorities as a terrorist organisation.

Some protesters held framed photos of Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed by an Israeli air strike in Beirut on Friday.

The ABC's two-minute-long report on the pro-Palestine rally in Sydney failed to mention the support for Nasrallah and Hezbollah.

'He was the mother, he was the father of Lebanon,' one woman, who was wearing a hijab, said.

'He brought comfort, he brought security, when we really wanted answers we turned to him.’

Drew Pavlou, a political activist and prominent critic of China, accused the ABC on X of being 'embarrassingly biased' in airing 'uncritical interviews'.

ABC reporter Brianna Parkins described the protest as 'peaceful' and 'passionate'

One social media user added: 'A new low'.

'We’ve been saying defund the ABC for ages,' a second chimed in.

'This is disgraceful!' a third wrote.

A spokesperson for the ABC pointed out that the criticised segment was 'the third of three stories on the events in Lebanon commissioned for 7PM News bulletins'.

'The other stories, filed by Kathryn Diss and Eric Tlozek from Jerusalem, provided full context on the recent conflict, which included the fact that Hezbollah had fired rockets "deep into Israeli territory", depicted Israelis taking shelter under air raid sirens, Prime Minister Netanyahu calling Nasrallah "not just another terrorist, the terrorist, the central engine of Iran’s axis of evil", and Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant calling Nasrallah a "mass murderer".'

The spokesperson said the journalist in Sydney was 'commissioned to do a self-contained story on the protest' and 'fully attributed the protesters’ comments and did not endorse them in any way'.

'He is a highly valued employee and has the ABC's full support,' ABC Director of News Justin Stevens said.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke blasted those protesters showing 'any indication of support' for a terrorist organisation, and threatened to cancel their visas.




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