Wednesday, November 13, 2024

11/13 Links Pt1: CIA Officer Arrested for Classified Israel Attack Plans; PIJ releases video of Russian-Israeli hostage; UNRWA’s “Palestine Refugee” Hoax

From Ian:

CIA Officer Arrested in Cambodia for 'Deadly Serious' Leak of Classified US Docs on Israel
An overseas CIA officer was arrested Tuesday in Cambodia and charged with leaking highly classified U.S. intelligence on Israel’s military plans for a strike on Iran, according to the New York Times.

The Times identified the officer as Asif W. Rahman. He was indicted last week on two counts of "willful retention and transmission of national defense information" and transported to federal court in Guam to face the charges.

The leaked documents, which showed Israeli military movements in preparation for a retaliatory strike on Iran last month, sparked an international firestorm, with both American and Israeli officials accusing the Biden-Harris administration of working to hamstring Israel’s sensitive operations. One senior Biden-Harris official described the leak as "deadly serious" and part of "a concerted campaign to leak what at least seems to be classified information by anti-Israel elements."

The materials—compiled by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency—revealed Israeli Air Force movements and munitions ahead of the counterstrike, which was delayed as a result. Israel ultimately made good on its promise to strike Iran late last month, destroying large swaths of Tehran’s air defense systems and several military installations.

Rahman held a top-secret security clearance and could access the information as part of his CIA duties. The documents first emerged publicly on a Telegram channel tied to the Iranian regime.

While the leak served to further erode already tense diplomatic relations between the United States and Israel, the Jewish state made clear that it would not be deterred from a strike on Iran as payback for Tehran's two massive ballistic missile attacks this year.

"After we attack in Iran, they will understand in Israel and elsewhere what your preparations have included," former Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant said shortly after the classified documents became public. "Everyone will understand your strength, the process of preparation and training—any enemy that tries to harm the State of Israel will pay a heavy price."

The leak also ignited congressional investigations, with Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) ordering the Biden-Harris administration to brief Congress every two weeks until the leaker was caught.

"This leak is an outrageous betrayal of an ally and a breach of trust that will undermine our relationship with partners for years to come," Cotton said last month in a letter to the White House. "I am deeply concerned as to whether your administration will adequately address this serious security breach."
British cop arrested for supporting Hamas online
Counter-terrorism officers in the United Kingdom arrested a policeman in southwestern England on Tuesday on suspicion of online activity linked to supporting Hamas.

Counter Terrorism Policing South West officers arrested the man in Gloucester, the BBC reported on Wednesday. The officer, who is in his 30s, was taken to a police facility outside Gloucestershire, the BBC reported on Wednesday. It did not say how he expressed or engaged in support for Hamas.

Authorities searched the policeman’s home and vehicle to locate and analyze digital devices, according to Gloucestershire Police Assistant Chief Constable Arman Mathieson.

“The arrest of a serving officer on suspicion of such a serious offense will no doubt cause our communities concern, as it does everyone who works for Gloucestershire Police,” Mathieson told the BBC. “The arrest has been made to allow for a prompt and effective investigation to take place and we must not draw any conclusions at this stage.”

In the U.K., providing support to a proscribed terrorist group, such as Hamas, violates section 12 of the Terrorism Act.

Following the Hamas-led invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, British officials have raised concerns about anti-Israel rallies that may have promoted terrorism, urging that support for Hamas be prosecuted under the full extent of the law.
Canadian teens planned to bomb pro-Israel rally at Parliament Hill
Two Canadian teens who were arrested in December and February planned to bomb a pro-Israel rally at Ottawa’s Parliament Hill, court documents obtained by Global News showed on Tuesday.

The suspects, whom Canadian police have identified only as “young persons,” are “alleged to have formed a plan last fall to violently attack Jewish persons in Ottawa, possibly through the detonation of an explosive device at a pro-Israel rally,” the Department of Justice said.

The assertion that a pro-Israel demonstration was the target of the thwarted terror attack appeared in an application by federal lawyers to withhold sensitive national security information from the criminal trials.

One accused is being charged with possessing acetone, oxidizer and metal ball bearings. All are possible components of homemade bombs.

According to the government’s Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre, the plot was allegedly linked to ISIS, also known by the Arabic acronym Daesh, and was “possibly accelerated” by Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.

“At least one of the individuals was reportedly in contact with DAESH overseas and the arrests occurred during a period of DAESH calls to violence in response to the conflict,” the agency wrote.

The first suspect was arrested on Dec. 15 and charged with conspiracy to murder and “communicating instructional material related to an explosive substance.” Prosecutors also charged him with recruiting a second suspect to “carry out a terrorist activity against Jewish persons.”


Fathom: Are Israel's Wars Just? A Fathom interview with Michael Walzer
Alan Johnson and Calev Ben-Dor spoke to American public intellectual and author of Just and Unjust Wars Michael Walzer. They discussed Israel's wars in Gaza and Lebanon, the charge of 'genocide', and of 'starvation', the pager attacks against Hezbollah operatives, and how to implement Just War theory about the conduct of war when a country is involved in an existential battle against non-state actors.


UNRWA’s “Palestine Refugee” Hoax
The Hamas massacre of October 7, 2023, revealed the extent of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency’s involvement with that terror organization. Israeli intelligence estimates about 1,200 UNRWA workers are Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives. Around 6,000, nearly half of the UNRWA workforce in Gaza, have immediate family that are members of these terrorist groups.

Not only does UNRWA share personnel with terror organizations, but for decades UNRWA has incorporated in its lesson plans incitement, hatred, and even jihad against Israel while indoctrinating students in its extensive educational system. Gazan UNRWA teachers praised the October 7, 2023, attacks on a Telegram chat group set up to discuss working conditions and to share curriculum.1

UNRWA’s former Legal Advisor James Lindsay concluded in his 2009 report, “Fixing UNRWA,” that the organization made no attempt to remove individuals who support extremist positions, taking “no steps at all to prevent members of terrorist organizations, such as Hamas, from joining its staff.”2 A few years later, UNRWA’s assistance to Hamas in Gaza during the fighting in Operation Protective Edge in 2014 was documented.



From its inception in 1950 through UN General Assembly Resolution 302, UNRWA was sustained as a separate entity for Palestinian refugees despite the existence of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the general worldwide UN refugee agency mandated to resettle refugees. This is because UNWRA’s very establishment was meant to serve a propaganda campaign to perpetuate the “refugee” problem to realize the Palestinian “right of return,”3 a right not given to any other refugee population, including the approximately one million Jews exiled from Arab and Muslim lands after 1948. “Return” would mean the erasure of Israel.

Perpetuating a unique and inherited ”refugee” status, handed down from one Palestinian generation to the next, UNRWA exacerbated the conflict. The number of Palestinian refugees has increased from about half a million in 1948 to about 6 million today.

The UNRWA “numbers game” is yet another aspect of its political war against Israel. Long accused of massive corruption, UNRWA established in February 2023 an online “population dashboard” to respond to the criticism. The “UNRWA Registered Population Dashboard”4 was meant to provide transparency, providing a genuine picture of the number of “Palestine refugees” served by the agency. In reality, as the numbers of refugees in Lebanon unequivocally prove, the dashboard merely perpetuates the false figures UNRWA has been presenting to the world for decades.


Google backs UNRWA donation despite Oct. 7 involvment
Google's worldwide employee base, including its Israeli contingent, received a $400 charitable giving allocation on Monday, with the option to direct these funds to organizations from a company-approved list. The inclusion of UNRWA – the UN agency whose operations in Israel were recently suspended following evidence of its personnel's participation in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks – has sparked considerable discussion within the company.

The charitable initiative allows employees to designate their $400 donation to any organization from an extensive list of over 1000 verified charities working across various sectors. The presence of UNRWA and its affiliated organizations on this list was quickly flagged by Israeli employees and pro-Israel staff members in an internal chat channel.

The scale of Google's charitable initiative is substantial, with allocations made to approximately 180,000 employees, representing a potential charitable impact of $72 million. The company has demonstrated strong support for Israeli emergency services since the outbreak of the Iron Swords War, actively encouraging global employee donations to organizations including Magen David Adom, United Hatzalah, and the ERAN crisis hotline. Muhammad Abu Attawi, a UNRWA employee since 2022 and a Hamas Nukbha force commander who led an attack on a bomb shelter near Kibbutz Re'im on October 7. Photo credit: IDF

The controversy emerges against the backdrop of unprecedented legislative action in the Knesset, which last month passed two significant laws restricting UNRWA's operations. The first legislation bars the agency from operating in Jerusalem's Shuafat refugee camp and terminates all its activities in east Jerusalem. The second law establishes a firewall between Israeli government officials and UNRWA personnel, effectively preventing the agency's staff from working in or accessing Gaza.

The legislative framework explicitly prohibits UNRWA from maintaining any presence, providing services, or conducting activities, whether directly or indirectly, within Israel's sovereign territory.

In response to inquiries, Google Israel stated: "Google employees can select from over 200,000 organizations available through the Benevity platform, a third-party provider responsible for validating eligibility for corporate donation programs. These organizations must regularly demonstrate their compliance with the program's eligibility criteria."


How Gaza Casualty Figures Are Being Wildly Distorted
So, the UN report is narrowly alleging that 18% of the total number of those killed in Gaza in the war following Hamas’s Oct. 7th massacre have been verified — with 69 percent of those reportedly being women and children.

Further, not even the UN report claims that all those considered “children” are non-combatants, which the international body defines as those 18 and under.

Since 16, 17, and 18 year olds are used by Hamas and other Gaza terror groups as fighters, the percentage of the 3,588 (which the UN lists as children) who are truly non-combatants is unknown.

This is an important distinction, as the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry doesn’t distinguish between fighters and civilians when they release their periodically updated death counts. Therefore, the number of women and children killed is often used (incorrectly) by the media as a stand-in for “civilians.”

Finally, as an Associated Press study demonstrated, the death rate for women and children in Gaza declined dramatically beginning in April — that is, at the end point of the UN’s six month report on verified casualties. So, it’s extremely likely that a study of war deaths in the territory in the seven months after April would produce a vastly lower ratio of fatalities for women and children.

We’ve complained to the Guardian asking that the headline be amended to more accurately reflect the actual data from the UN report.


Giora Eiland accuses: 'Biden to blame for preventing return of hostages'
Former head of the National Security Council, Colonel (ret.) Giora Eiland accuses outgoing US President, Joe Biden, of preventing the return of the hostages.

"President Biden and his administration are the ones to blame for not bringing the hostages back home," Eiland said last night in an interview with Channel 13 News. He added: "The one who forced Israel to return to two hundred and more trucks a day after the first hostage deal – imposed a death sentence on the hostages and we cannot define it in any other way. This should be said to the Americans to their face."

Regarding the fighting in Gaza, Eiland said that "the correct and simple way is to end the war and remove all IDF forces from Gaza in one deal."

He also said that "those who say 'we need to continue fighting' seem to create a feeling that if we continue to fight we will eventually achieve complete victory, which will not happen. If we continue with the same strategy for another four months, we will be in the same situation as today but with zero hostages alive."

Eiland criticized the IDF's activity in the Dahieh district in Beirut: "Today, the IDF's activity is weak. Why do they need to announce which house they are about to attack in Dahieh? The entire area in the Dahieh neighborhood should be marked. Pressure must be put not only on Hezbollah, but also on the decision-makers in Lebanon."


What the Hegseth nomination means
WHAT THE HEGSETH NOMINATION MEANS. On Tuesday evening, President-elect Donald Trump shook up Washington by announcing that he would nominate Fox News host Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense. “Pete is a graduate of Princeton University and has a graduate degree from Harvard University,” Trump said in the announcement. “He is an Army combat veteran who did tours in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, and Afghanistan. For his actions on the battlefield, he was decorated with two Bronze Stars.” During his years as co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend, Hegseth has focused extensively on military and veterans affairs. This year, he wrote a bestselling book, War on Warriors, in which he decried the new woke military.*

“The military has long been a place for turning mere boys into fighting men not just by teaching them honor and sacrifice but by channeling daring, building strength, and accumulating skills,” Hegseth wrote. “The so-called elites directing the military today aren’t just lowering standards and focusing on the wrong enemy; they are overtly working to rid the military of this specific (essential) type of young patriot. They believe power is bad, merit is unfair, ideology is more important than industriousness, white people are yesterday, and safety! is better than risk-taking.”

The nomination immediately set off an outcry. “Who the f*** is this guy?” said an anonymous defense industry lobbyist quoted in Politico. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who did not serve in the military and chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee’s subcommittee on personnel, wrote on X: “A Fox & Friends weekend co-host is not qualified to be the Secretary of Defense. … I respect every one of our servicemembers. Donald Trump’s pick will make us less safe and must be rejected.” A liberal veterans advocate called Hegseth “undoubtedly the least qualified nominee for SecDef in American history.”

The fact is that despite his impressive qualifications — Princeton, Harvard, two Bronze Stars, and professional success — Hegseth does not have the resume one would expect from a secretary of defense, most notably the management experience to run one of the largest bureaucracies in the world, with an $841 billion budget this year. But Trump clearly wanted a change in direction.
2016: ‘What America Can Learn from Israel’: An Interview with Pete Hegseth
This interview was initially published in 2016. Pete Hegseth was just nominated for the position of Defense Secretary by President-elect Donald Trump. We are presenting the interview again.

Those who love America often love Israel as well. Pete Hegseth is in a singular position to appreciate the shared uniqueness of the two countries.

A military veteran who holds two Bronze Stars and a Combat Infantryman Badge for his service in Iraq and Afghanistan, he is a former CEO of the Concerned Veterans for America and a former chairman of Vets for Freedom as well as a graduate of Princeton University with a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Hegseth writes regularly for National Review and FoxNews.com in addition to being a Fox News contributor and analyst. His new book, “In the Arena,” is an ardent plea for citizen commitment in an era of apathy. And it is an apt description of Hegseth’s enthusiasm as he eagerly entered the arena of Israel advocacy on his recent fact-finding mission to Israel attended by this reporter and organized by Dr. Joseph Frager, Dr. Paul Brody, and Odelya Jacobs.

The Jewish Press: What can you tell us about your background and how it influenced your relationship with Israel?

Hegseth: My parents come from a small town in Minnesota where I grew up as a Baptist. I never met a Jewish person until I went to college. When I did, the first thing I said to him was, “I read about you in the Bible!” It was from there and beyond that I gained a true understanding of Jews. Growing up an evangelical, I obviously had an enormous amount of respect and understanding of the historical resonance of Abraham and religions and how they’re intertwined.

After being in the military and having served in Iraq, I saw other views of the world and started to understand where Israel fits and where anti-Semitism comes from; how it is fostered in higher education and how lack of support for Israel is very indicative of other things. Through meeting wonderful people like Joe [Frager] and leaders in the senate and government, I have come to really appreciate the Jewish heritage and the Jewish state. I understand how geopolitically we are linked and how critical it is that we stand by such a strong ally.

From the perspective of a news commentator, how important is telling Israel’s story in the media?

I learned from serving in the Iraq war that you can’t refute what’s happening on the ground. Truth prevails. But it’s a matter of punching through the overwhelming wet blanket of the leftist mainstream media. I served in Iraq in 2005-2006. I came home from my tour during what looked like the darkest, most difficult days in Iraq in 2006, when the antiwar movement was at its height and when everyone said the war was inevitably going to fail. Yes, there were a lot of problems, but I saw seeds of progress. I saw that we could turn the corner with the right strategy and enough troops. I came back and led an advocacy group to make the case for a new counter insurgency strategy and more troops on the ground. Just so happened that we had a president at that moment who thankfully decided to do the exact same thing.

That taught me that even the overwhelming weight of the predictions by The New York Times and others that we were going to lose can be overcome by a concentrated view backed by a dedicated mission and the willingness to speak truth and then amplify it. But you’ve got to have people in the media and on the ground willing to amplify it. Because you can win on the ground, but if you’re not telling that story at home people will be seduced into whatever storyline they’re being told by news broadcasts and websites. You got to get the facts first so that you can beat the spin second.


Rep. Michael Waltz: The Next Administration Should Reinstate Diplomatic and Economic Pressure to Constrain Iran's Support for Terror Proxies
Naive attempts to engage Iran and prematurely ease sanctions provided Iran with resources to bankroll terror throughout the region and reduced the chance of a nuclear deal. Instead of renewing economic pressure and fully backing Israel's military response to Iran and its terror proxies after the Oct. 7 attacks, the White House restrained Israel and the Pentagon due to overwrought fears of "escalation." Undue passivity only invited more aggression.

In the Middle East, calling for a ceasefire would, in effect, leave Hamas terrorists in power in Gaza. The next administration should, as Mr. Trump argued, "let Israel finish the job" and "get it over with fast" against Hamas.

They should put a credible military option on the table to make clear to the Iranians that America would stop them building nuclear weapons, and reinstate a diplomatic and economic pressure campaign to stop them and to constrain their support for terror proxies. Washington should maintain a military presence in the region.


Who is Trump administration Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff?
President-elect Donald Trump has made another move to fill out his administration with his choice to appoint Steve Witkoff as the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East.

Witkoff is far from an establishment politician or lifetime government worker. He’s been a friend of Trump for more than 20 years and has amassed a real estate fortune, much like the president-elect.

In Trump’s announcement of Witkoff as a critical new staff member, he piled praise on him.

“Steve is a Highly Respected Leader in Business and Philanthropy, who has made every project and community he has been involved with stronger and more prosperous,” the announcement on Tuesday evening said. “Steve will be an unrelenting Voice for PEACE, and make us all proud.”

Witkoff has had prominent speaking roles for the Trump campaign well before joining his administration. The real estate magnate made appearances at the Republican National Convention, Trump’s second Butler, Pennsylvania, rally, and his Madison Square Garden rally.

“I’m not just here as a speaker, but I am a dear friend of the president and someone who had the privilege of knowing President Trump personally, witnessing his strength and commitment to our nation,” Witkoff said at the second Butler rally.

“He embodies the leadership we need in these times for our nation.”

Witkoff was golfing with Trump when a gunman hiding in the course’s shrubs nearly took a shot at the president-elect in Trump’s second assassination attempt. Neither the gunman nor the golfing pair were hurt.

Trump’s friend was also a major donor to the president-elect’s campaign and helped fundraise for him among Jewish donors.

Potentially in return for his work, Witkoff will lead Trump’s inauguration committee along with former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler, dealing with the presidential inaugural ceremony and activities connected with the event.
Huckabee: Annexing Judea and Samaria ‘of course’ a possibility
Mike Huckabee, whom U.S. President-elect Donald Trump nominated on Tuesday to ambassador to the Jewish state, told Israel’s Army Radio in his first interview since the announcement that “of course” the annexation of Judea and Samaria is a possibility under a second Trump White House.

While Huckabee said that he won’t be the one to “make the policy” but rather will “carry out the policy of the president,” he noted that the president-elect “already demonstrated in his first term that there’s never been an American president that has been more helpful in securing an understanding of the sovereignty of Israel.”

Huckabee listed Trump’s first-term accomplishments on behalf of Israel, from moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem to recognizing the Golan Heights as Israeli territory.

“No one has done more than President Trump,” he said.

In January 2020, Trump unveiled his “deal of the century,” a peace plan that would have seen Israel annex sizeable portions of Judea and Samaria, commonly known as the West Bank.

The plan, which was overseen by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, ultimately encountered resistance from both sides of the conflict, including from Jews living in Judea and Samaria. The Yesha Council, a representative body of Israeli communities in that region, rejected the plan given it provided for a Palestinian state.

Huckabee, a Southern Baptist pastor and staunch supporter of Jewish rights to the Land of Israel, said, “On a personal level, this is an extraordinary opportunity to be able to represent my country to a land that I have loved since I first visited there in July of 1973.

“I cannot tell you what a joy it is to be able to serve in this capacity, and I hope that the confidence the president has put in me will be well-founded,” he said.


Israeli assessment: Operation "Days of Repentance" devastated Iranian missile production
The question of Iran's response to the Israeli counterattack on October 26 may have faded somewhat from headlines recently. However, Israel's defense establishment believes that despite the time elapsed, Iranian leadership is still deeply mired in the dilemma of whether and how to react. While the Israeli action did not create fiery images within Iran, it dealt a precise, significant blow to strategic Iranian infrastructure.

Reports so far indicate that Israel targeted Iran's air defense systems—primarily the Russian-made S-300—and its ground-to-ground missile production capabilities. According to assessments in Israel, the Israeli attack damaged solid explosives used in Iran's ground-to-ground missiles, reducing Iran's missile production capacity to around 10% of its pre-strike level.

As a result, until Iran manages to restore its missile production capabilities, it is expected to adopt a more conservative policy regarding its long-range missile launches. While estimates indicate that Iran still holds several hundred long-range missiles that it could launch at Israel, it is unlikely to do so all at once, as the rate of fire also depends on the number of launchers at its disposal.

Moreover, Iran's decision-making factors must account for the fact that Israel's strike on Iran's advanced air defense systems has left the country nearly exposed to another potential Israeli attack. It is likely that the Iranian regime understands Israel still has an extensive target bank within Iran, including oil reserves and, naturally, its nuclear sites. This satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows a damaged large building at the Revolutionary Guard's Shahroud Space Center in Semnan province, Iran, Tuesday Oct. 29, 2024 | Photo: AP/Planet Labs PBC

According to Israeli assessments, Iran could technically reach nuclear breakout capability within weeks, though it has yet to make a final decision to do so and is proceeding cautiously. As is known, Tehran measures its deterrence against Israel not only in Hebrew but primarily in English. Assuming Trump lives up to the expectations placed on him by Israel's government, his term could provide an opportunity to confront Iran's nuclear threat—whether through military action or a credible military threat by Israel and the US that would pressure Tehran's regime to change course.
Katz: 'We won’t agree to just any ceasefire, Hezbollah must withdraw beyond Litani River'
Israel would reject any ceasefire that does not push Hezbollah back behind the Litani River, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday amid reports that such an agreement was near.

"We will not agree to just any cease-fires, we will not take our foot off the gas, and we will not accept any agreement that does not include the achievement of the war goals,” Katz said as he visited the Northern Command.

This includes “the disarmament of Hezbollah, its withdrawal beyond the Litani [River], and creating the conditions for the residents of the north to return to their homes in safety,” Katz said as he laid out Israel’s conditions for such a deal.

Any such agreement must give Israel the right to “enforce” the deal and to “act against any terrorist activity and organization,” he explained.

Roadblocks in Lebanon
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, an erstwhile ally of Hezbollah and endorsed by it to negotiate, was quoted as saying that Lebanon was awaiting concrete ceasefire proposals and had not been informed officially of any new ideas.

"What is on the table is only Resolution 1701 and its provisions, which must be implemented and adhered to by both sides, not by the Lebanese side alone," Berri, who helped negotiate the 2006 truce, told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper.

The US has stepped up its diplomatic activity in the last weeks and is hoping to put a deal in place before US President Joe Biden leaves office on January 20.
Israel hits Hezbollah in Beirut, ‘erasing two decades of buildup’
Israel has destroyed most of Hezbollah’s weapons storage sites and missile production facilities in the group’s stronghold in Dahieh, a southern suburb of Beirut, the Israel Defense Forces said on Tuesday.

In recent weeks, a series of Israeli aerial strikes have been carried out to dismantle the terror infrastructure as part of “Operation Northern Arrows” in Lebanon. According to the army, these sites were established over the past two decades in residential areas, systematically concealed beneath civilian buildings.

Secondary explosions resulted from the strikes, confirming that weapons were being stored at the sites, according to the IDF. The military emphasized that Hezbollah directly endangers the residents of the Lebanese capital by concealing large quantities of explosives under residential structures, often without residents’ knowledge.

In one example cited by the IDF, which it noted Israel had revealed at the United Nations General Assembly in 2020, a primary site was established in the heart of the Choueifat neighborhood beneath a complex of five residential buildings housing around 50 families, 85 meters from a school.

“This site was intended to produce various weapon components, including long-range precision missiles capable of striking anywhere in Israel. These missiles are a central element of Hezbollah’s precision missile project, funded by Iran,” the IDF said.


‘Weakens Its Image’: Experts Explain Why Hezbollah Stopped Announcing Terrorist Deaths Over Past Two Months
Since the war between Israel and Hezbollah began to escalate this September, the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist organization has stopped announcing its casualties through public relations channels. Experts tell The Algemeiner this is likely because of the breakdown of Hezbollah’s command and control structure or in order to help control narratives around the conflict.

Rather than death notices being published by Hezbollah itself — as was the case from October 2023 to September 2024 — terrorist deaths have mainly been reported by open intelligence sources based on funeral notices and social media posts.

Israeli assessments suggest that over 2,000 Hezbollah fighters have been killed since October 2023, said Jason Brodsky, the policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI). This number includes upwards of 1,000 terrorists killed since the situation in northern Israel, which borders Hezbollah’s stronghold in southern Lebanon, began to escalate just under two months ago.

Brodsky’s approximate number is somewhat supported by at least one open-source intelligence gatherer who has identified almost 1,500 Hezbollah casualties as of Nov. 11, 2024, primarily using funeral notices found on local social media channels. This includes about 900 deaths since September. Experts estimate the number of Hezbollah fighters wounded to be three or four times higher than the death count, including the thousands of Hezbollah fighters injured in Israel’s pager attack in September, when communications devices used by the terrorists exploded simultaneously across Lebanon.

Hezbollah is widely considered to have a pre-war fighting force of around 20,000-25,000 militiamen working full-time, with tens of thousands more in the reserves.


IDF strikes Syria-Lebanon border for second time in week, Damascus says
Syrian state media reported on Wednesday evening that Israeli Air Force fighter jets conducted aerial raids in the area of Al-Qusayr, near the Arab Republic’s western border with Lebanon.

Damascus state-run SANA news agency claimed that the country’s air defenses “confronted hostile targets in the skies of the western Homs countryside” in response to what it described as “Israeli aggression.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based war monitor with links to the country’s opposition, reported that the IAF strikes targeted bridges and military checkpoints in the border region.

The Israeli Air Force previously carried out raids on Hezbollah targets in Al-Qusayr on Nov. 5, attacking munitions depots used by the Lebanon-based Iranian-backed terrorist army.

“Hezbollah’s Munitions Unit is responsible for storing weapons inside Lebanon and has recently expanded its activities into the area of Al-Qusayr, near the Syria-Lebanon border,” the military confirmed on X.

Israeli jets also struck terrorism-related targets in Al-Qusayr on Oct. 31, including arms-storage facilities, and command and control centers used by Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force and its Munitions Unit.

On Sunday, Arab media reported that a Hezbollah terrorist commander convicted for the 2005 murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafic Hariri was eliminated in one of the IAF airstrikes on Al-Qusayr.


Six Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon firefight, bringing IDF death toll to 793
Six members of the Israel Defense Forces were killed on Wednesday morning in a firefight with Hezbollah terrorists in Southern Lebanon, while a seventh was moderately wounded, the military announced on Wednesday night.

Five of the slain soldiers were identified as IDF Capt. Itay Marcovich, 21, from Kokhav Ya’ir; Staff Sgt. Sraya Elboim, 21, from Mehola; Staff Sgt. Dror Hen, 20, from Gan Haim; Staff. Sgt. Nir Gofer, 20, from Dimona; and Sgt. Shalev Itzhak Sagron, 21, from Sderot.

All of them served in the Golani Brigade’s 51st Battalion, the army said.

The name of the last soldier killed was not yet approved for publication, local media reported, adding that his family had been informed.

According to Israel’s Ynet outlet, the Golani soldiers were ambushed at short range by Hezbollah terrorists after entering a structure where the army had not yet operated. An hours-long firefight ensued, which ended with at least one terrorist dead and the area falling under IDF control.

The military was said to have launched an investigation into suspicions that the terrorists emerged from an underground terror tunnel and were not harmed in the airstrikes that preceded the ground maneuver.


‘History repeats itself’ as South Lebanon Army veteran, Israeli killed side-by-side
Nir Aloni stood in his backyard early Wednesday morning and held up a piece of the Hezbollah rocket that fell on a warehouse in the adjacent property, killing his next-door neighbors the day before.

The terror group fired dozens of rockets and drones at northern and central Israel shortly before 5 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, striking Ziv Belfer, 52, and Shamoun Najm, 54, in Nahariya.

Belfer lived in a house on the property. Najm was a carpenter who had a carpentry workshop in the abutting warehouse. The two men, who were friends, were together in the warehouse when it suffered a direct hit. They were pronounced dead at the scene.

“There was a loud boom, smoke, and fire,” Aloni’s wife, Tsipi, told The Times of Israel. She said she rushed into the protected room in her house as soon as the sirens went off.

Nahariya residents have 15 seconds to reach a protected area after the sirens go off. A spokesperson for the IDF Home Front Command told The Times of Israel that the sirens “went off in the time they were supposed to.”

“The explosions came 15 seconds after the sirens,” Tsipi confirmed. But Belfer and Najm didn’t reach the shelter in time. Tsipi pointed it out, not too far from the warehouse.

Tsipi said that sometimes they hear the “booms from afar, go into the shelter, and then there’s a siren, which means it has reached Nahariya.”

“Ziv always goes to the shelter,” Belfer’s sister, Avital Friedman, told Hebrew media. “It hurts because if there had been time, he would have gone to the shelter.”


Two injured in Samaria car-ramming attack
Two Israelis were lightly injured on Wednesday night in a terrorist car-ramming attack outside the Arab village of Dayr Qadis, near Modi’in in the Binyamin region of western Samaria, according to initial reports.

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that it received a report of “a car-ramming attack near Dayr Qadis in the Ephraim Regional Brigade.”

According to Ynet, the terrorist ramming took place at the Hashmonaim Crossing near Modi’in Illit, the largest Israeli city in Judea and Samaria.

The terrorist was said to have escaped, and troops launched a manhunt.

On Tuesday, a Palestinian terrorist tried to stab IDF soldiers outside the Arab town of Deir Sharaf, near Nablus in Samaria. No injuries were reported in the terrorist incident.

The day prior, two Israeli soldiers were lightly and moderately injured in a car-ramming attack at a military checkpoint near Bethlehem in Judea. Two terrorists fled the scene but surrendered to Israeli security forces following a manhunt in the Bethlehem area.


PIJ releases video of Russian-Israeli hostage
Palestinian Islamic Jihad released a proof-of-life video on Wednesday of Russian-Israeli hostage Alexander (“Sasha”) Troufanov, who was abducted from his family home during the Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and has been held captive in the Gaza Strip for 404 days.

In the undated video, the third of Troufanov that the terrorist organization has published, he says his age is 28, although he turned 29 on Monday.

In the video, Troufanov says that he and the other remaining captives (there are 101, 97 of whom were kidnapped on Oct. 7 and many of whom are believed to have died) are running out of food and basic hygiene products.

He pleads for the Israeli public to continue to push for a hostage deal and expresses fear of being accidentally killed by the Israel Defense Forces.

The two previous PIJ videos of Troufanov were released in May.

Trufanov is an engineer employed at Annapurna Labs, an Israeli company that was acquired by Amazon in 2015. His friends have tried to get the tech giant to issue a statement about his plight.

During the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre, Trufanov was taken hostage from Kibbutz Nir Oz along with his mother, Yelena Trufanov; his grandmother Irena Tati; and his girlfriend, Sapir Cohen. His mother and grandmother were freed by Hamas on Nov. 29, 2023, at the request of Russian President Vladimir Putin, while Cohen was released as part of a ceasefire deal that same month.


Noa Argamani Marks 400 days Since Oct. 7
Noa Argamani, a former hostage who was released from Hamas captivity, marked the somber milestone of 400 days since the October 7 attacks with a poignant message on her Instagram account.

In her post, she expressed the deep frustration and despair felt by hostages still held by Hamas, highlighting the emotional toll of prolonged captivity.

On Saturday evening, Argamani recounted her own harrowing experience of being kidnapped in Gaza, a traumatic ordeal that ended with her rescue during a military operation. Reflecting on her time in captivity, she wrote, “I can’t even describe to you the sense of frustration I felt while I was still in Hamas captivity.” She emphasized the uncertainty and despair that plagued her as days turned into weeks, questioning whether she would ever return home. “When would it be my turn to go home? Had they forgotten about me? Had they left me behind? These were sentences I said on a daily basis,” she shared.

In her message, Argamani articulated the pain of seeing the days stretch on without resolution. “But the most frustrating moment is when another 100 days are added to the previous 100 days, and that is when I start counting from the beginning again. And even though the counting has started again, the conditions are getting worse and the despair is increasing,” she lamented.

Concluding her post, Argamani turned her focus to the 101 hostages still awaiting rescue. “It is impossible to ignore the fact that for 400 days there are 101 kidnapped men and women waiting for someone to come and rescue them,” she wrote, urging for awareness and action regarding their plight.


Commentary Podcast: Hunting Jews and Restoring the Military
Today's podcast talks about the root causes of the Amsterdam pogrom in Europe and the root causes of the surge in random anti-Semitic attacks in America at the same time. Then we look at the fascinating choice by Donald Trump of Pete Hegseth to run the Pentagon and what Hegseth says about saving the military in his work.


Jonny Gould: Andrew Fox: "Biden and Iran are scurrying their chess pieces into position ahead of what Trump might do"
What is “strategic drift” and why does it threaten Israel’s military progress in Gaza?

How dismantled Is Hamas? How can Israel’s borders be secured so that the people of Sderot, Ofakim and the kibbutzim return home?

Is Israel going to have to build a wall?

In the north, the IDF is capitalising on some remarkable early breakthroughs in the battle to break Hezbollah. What now?

As Yoav Gallant is sacked by Benjamin Netanyahu - again, is that a signal of military progress?

And the Return of President Trump to the Oval Office: what that will mean to Israel’s fight against Iran and its proxies.

These are all questions for my friend, Andrew Fox.

Research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, Andrew served in the British Army for sixteen years, retiring as a Major in 2021

As a senior lecturer in War Studies and Behavioural Science at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, He holds degrees in Law & Politics, Modern War Studies, and Psychology.

It’s always good to speak to Andrew Fox.
The Israel Guys: Iran has CHEMICAL WEAPONS and Attacks Against Jews SKYROCKETING in Europe and America
Jews across Europe and parts of the United States are being attacked in horrific acts of anti-semitism, we’re seeing actual pogroms return, and also Iran might be set to use chemical weapons in their war against Israel.

00:00 Vicious attacks against Jews
5:10 Beautiful Israel Experience
6:36 Israeli warning to Jews abroad
7:27 Iran’s chemical weapons


The Israel Guys: Trump’s SURPRISE Cabinet Picks and What They Mean for Israel
President elect Donald Trump is assembling his administration and in the last 24 hours has announced some of his picks for cabinet positions. Some of whom, have made some shocking statements on Israel. The question is: Who are these people and what does their appointment in the US Government mean for Israel? Buckle up Israel and America, this is going to be a wild ride!




Palestinians: Why won't you accept a two-state solution? (h/t Ken J Brownsher)



Dan Bilzerian 'would bet entire net worth that less than 6 million Jews were killed in Holocaust'
American social media influencer and poker player Dan Bilzerian went on the Piers Morgan Uncensored Show on Tuesday, where he made numerous inflammatory and controversial statements about Jewish people.

Bilzerian has described Hamas as a "resistance organization" and has called its late leader, Yahya Sinwar, "a hero." He also claimed that reports of sexual violence by Hamas were disproven, and when asked by Morgan how they were disproven, he said "he's seen articles that said this did not happen."

Conspiracy theories
Bilzerian went on to baselessly claim that the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy in 1963 was an Israeli Mossad operation and called out Bilzerian's spreading of conspiracy theories and lack of evidence that Israel was responsible for the assassination. He also claimed that Israel killed Libyan politician Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and that the Mossad organized Jeffrey Epstein's island.

"I wasn't there, but everything I've seen, evidence-wise, points to Israel," Bilzerian simply responded.

He believes that Israel has control over the US government and has blackmailed and controlled politicians. Dan Bilzerian on Patrick Bet-David show, August 2024. (credit: SCREENSHOT/YOU TUBE)




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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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