Wave of top-level Hezbollah killings suggests Israeli intelligence has infiltrated the group.
Hassan Nasrallah Confirmed Dead
The Wall Street Journal reports Israeli Airstrike Killed Hezbollah Leader Hassan Nasrallah
Israel said it killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah with a massive airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs Friday, flattening part of a neighborhood to eliminate the cleric who led the group for three decades and built it into a fearsome foe.
Senior officials from Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were also at the site, people familiar with the matter said. Israel’s military said the strike also killed Ali Karaki, a Hezbollah commander whom Israel targeted earlier this week.
Iranian Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan, a deputy commander in the IRGC, was killed in the Israeli attack targeting Nasrallah, according to state TV. The fate of the others wasn’t immediately clear, but people familiar with the matter said they were also believed to be dead. Hezbollah has lost touch with several senior officials following the blast, some of the people said. On Saturday afternoon, Hezbollah acknowledged Nasrallah was dead.
“His powerful leadership is different,” a senior Israeli official said. “Some people are irreplaceable.” Nasrallah had overseen Hezbollah’s transformation into the world’s most heavily armed nonstate militia and its integration into Lebanon’s political system.
The Shia cleric had found himself increasingly isolated in recent weeks by Israel’s relentless campaign of targeted killings of his most trusted fighters. Israel killed top lieutenant Fuad Shukr in an airstrike this summer on his apartment on the upper floors of a southern Beirut residential building, where he had been summoned by a phone call shortly before. He had eluded the U.S. for four decades.
The strike at Nasrallah at around 6:20 p.m. local time Friday came shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York. “We will not accept a terror army perched on our northern border able to perpetrate another Oct. 7-style massacre,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu’s speech came before a largely empty U.N. chamber, after dozens of diplomats walked out when it was announced that Netanyahu was next to speak. His comment came amid U.S.-led efforts to seek a diplomatic solution before full war breaks out.
Not Just Another Terrorist
AP has some interesting quotes on the Death of Hassan Nasrallah
Nasrallah, linked by Israel to numerous deadly attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets, has been on Israel’s kill list for decades. His assassination is by far the biggest and most consequential of Israel’s targeted killings in years, and significantly escalates the war in the Middle East. The Israeli military said it carried out a precise airstrike on Friday while Hezbollah leaders were meeting at their headquarters in Dahiyeh, south of Beirut.
In his first public remarks since the killing, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s targeting of Nasrallah was “an essential condition to achieving the goals we set.”
“He wasn’t another terrorist. He was the terrorist,” Netanyahu said. “There is no place in Iran or in the Middle East that Israel’s long arm cannot reach. And today you know how much that is true,” he said.
Israel vows to keep up attacks on Hezbollah
Israel’s Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said Saturday that the killing of Nasrallah was “not the end of our toolbox,” indicating that more strikes were planned. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called it “the most important targeted strike since the founding of the State of Israel.” Late Saturday, Gallant’s office said he was meeting with top army commanders to discuss the expansion of military activities along Israel’s northern front.
Any comments on where this leads?
I have no firm opinion.
Fact-Checking What Benjamin Netanyahu Said in His 2024 Interview With TIME
What Netanyahu Said: Regarding Israel’s tacit and direct support for Hamas before Oct. 7, “It’s not only my government. It’s the previous government, the government before me, and the government after me. It wasn’t bankrolling Hamas.”
The Facts: The Qataris began funding Hamas shortly after the Islamist terror group took over the Gaza Strip in 2007. Ehud Olmert was Prime Minister then, but Israel was not directly involved in those initial cash infusions. It wasn’t until 2014, under the approval of Netanyahu, that the Israeli government became directly involved in the financial transfers of $30 million a month. From 2012 to 2018, Qatar funneled roughly $1.1 billion into the Strip, directing the funds to cover humanitarian aid, fuel, and government salaries, according to an analysis provided to Israeli ministers. It’s unknown just how much was diverted by Hamas to build its vast network of underground tunnels and military installations.
Netanyahu’s government was so invested in the policy that when Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas sanctioned Hamas in 2018 and cut off salaries for government workers in Gaza, the Israeli government delivered the money into Gaza through cash-filled suitcases. At the time, Netanyahu’s Education Minister Naftali Bennett opposed the payments, calling it “protection money” that would buy only temporary quiet. Bennett would succeed Netanyahu in 2021, the first Prime Minister in a unity government that lasted nearly 18 months. While Bennett continued to allow Qatari money to fund Hamas, one of his first moves as the Israeli premier was to cancel the cash-filled suitcases sent into Gaza.
What Netanyahu Said: Regarding the impact of that support, “I don’t think it made that big a difference, because the main issue was the transfer of weapons and ammunition from the Sinai into Gaza. That’s what made them—it wasn’t so much a question of money. It was a question of availability.”
The Facts: With the more than one billion dollars Qatar funneled into Hamas’ coffers with Israeli cooperation, the group was able to buy and smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip. “Money is fungible,” Chip Usher, a retired senior analyst for the CIA, told the New York Times. “Anything that Hamas didn’t have to use out of its own budget freed up money for other things.”
What Netanyahu Said: Regarding his reported admission of support for Hamas, “That’s a false statement. I never said that.”
The Facts: Multiple Israeli news outlets reported Netanyahu’s quote from a 2019 Likud Party conference. He also reportedly told the journalist Dan Margalit in 2012 that he wanted to keep Hamas as a counterweight to the Fatah-controlled PA. Others in Netanyahu’s government have explicitly said that the strategy of funding Hamas was to prevent the emergence of a Palestinian State. In a 2015 interview, Netanyahu’s current Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said “the Palestinian Authority is a burden, and Hamas is an asset.”
https://time.com/7010486/fact-checking-what-benjamin-netanyahu-said-in-his-2024-interview-with-time/
MY MEETINGS WITH NASRALLAHThe assassinated Hezbollah chief had a vision for his country“I must confess that I liked Hassan Nasrallah. I had a few long meetings with him that began in the winter of 2003. It was a few months after the US invasion of Iraq, a response George W. Bush and Dick Cheney decided on two years earlier, in the aftermath of 9/11, even though Iraq was led by the secular Saddam Hussein who had no connection to Al Qaeda.” – Seymour Hersch
https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/my-meetings-with-nasrallah?r=5n8p3&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&triedRedirect=true
One less uniform to make. Oh wait, Hezbollah nor Hamas terrorists wear uniforms. Makes it easier to blend in with the people they are ‘protecting’.
Thousands Of Protesters Attempt To Storm US Embassy In Baghdad After Nasrallah KilledThousands of Iraqi protesters attempted to storm the US Embassy in Baghdad’s highly secure Green Zone on Saturday, soon after Hezbollah confirmed the death of its leader Hassan Nasrallah in Friday’s major Israeli airstrike in Beirut.
Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani called strike on Nasrallah “a crime that shows the Zionist entity has crossed all the red lines…
Both US and Israeli embassies across the globe are on high alert given rapidly escalating events in Lebanon. As for the US Embassy in Baghdad, it is one of the most highly protected in the world, given it not infrequently comes under rocket and mortar attack.
The US Embassy in Beirut is meanwhile starting to evacuate non-essential personnel and their family members while it is still relatively safe and possible to get a flight out of the country.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/thousands-protesters-attempt-storm-us-embassy-baghdad-after-nasrallah-killed
Violence begets violence, whether one likes it, or not. It is the most powerful who like it most, as they have the least at risk and the most to gain, or so they believe.
This is exactly what the CIA describes as “blowback”. The US is complicit in the pulverization of Gaza and Lebanon today, much as when the US bombed and starved Muslims in the 1990’s that were Bin Laden’s rationale for the 9/11 attacks. I’d never justify these attacks – but they are inevitable when the US commits horrible evils on other populations. Maybe we should stop committing evil, then people will stop hating us.
“Any comments on where this leads?”
With Hezbollah kills Netanyahu demonstrated that he is not pushover, but ‘tough guy’, ‘true man’, aka person other tough leaders can and should make deals.
This will lead to wave of fist shaking and chest thumping by many arabs, maybe few more episodes of actual military action, then some sort of backstage deals with Israel leadership, then 10 or 20 years of relative peace for Israel until next generation of fighters will attempt to test Western and Israeli ‘softness’ again.
That is how real islamic world works.
U-238 is harder than steel. U-238 and Titanium is even harder. At 600c they burns. U- 238/Ti pellets are bunker busters bombs. The bomb is narrow, spinning at high speed, targeted by laser, optic, or GPS. All u need is a blast after the penetration. Nasrallah was killed by the shock wave of eighty bombs large/small. F-35 carries 4 smaller ones. F-15 the bigger bombs, made in Israel. Drill baby drill depleted U-238 barrels to produce hundreds of safe mini nuclear plants, before China, Russia and Iran sell them to frontier nations.
Not sure what you’re discussing all of this mumbo jumbo.
It’s known that the US has sold at least 100 BLU-109 bombs to Israel.
550 lbs of high explosives. BOOM!
Not sure what you are trying to tell.
U-238 is waste product of Uranium enrichment process. Every nation that process nuclear fuel have gigantic piles of useless U-238.
Pure U-238 is technically radioactive but only very weakly.
Hezbollah, a violence-espousing minority with a private military that’s beholden to a foreign power which puts its interests above Lebanon’s, has captured the Lebanese state, placed it in constant political crisis, made its government extremely inept and corrupt (see results: massive financial crisis, economic depression, Beirut port self-destruction) constantly picks fights with its powerful neighbor with whom it has has no legitimate territorial disputes has now lost its leader.
Well, I won’t shed a tear for him – and many in Lebanon wouldn’t either.
Israel is sending a very strong message to the Ayatollah.
You are within our reach!
zion is a puppet of pax amerika. in fact that land area for thousands of years has been controlled mostly by empires. egypt to ottoman to UK to USA and many more in between those. spoke just yesterday about this with an israeli young woman in my class, and a hasidic jew on nyc subway on ride home…….it’s pretty obvious. and actually the normal course of that region. the sinai is a 100 mile wide small but strategic connection to 3 continents……..africa to asia and europe………….when we abandon Zion they will most likely fail. i’m guessing the chinese will be the next empire to control that region……..but just a hunch. zion is our puppet. nothing more.
last week the puppet zionist cut the marionette’s spider net. Iran palpitations
in the atrial fib can develop to stroke or heart attack, causes by a Bibi clog. They have to change their lifestyle.
In the ME it’s all about power. The Sunnis salivate. They don’t care about the Palestinians. 600K Shia from S. Lebanon and 400K from S. Beirut escaped to the Bekka valley and Syria. The Lebanese army filled the vacuum. Iran might cut its losses, focusing on nukes, the econ and a better relationship with the west. Iran/Israel is 1,000km. The IDF prevents any flow of troops and weapons to Lebanon. Hezbollah is rudderless and blind. Hamas and Hezbollah are in a dead cat bounce. They have to blame themselves. The younger generation will face reality. Within a few years Israeli Arabs will be the IDF’s Scots, Irish and the Burkas. Bibi is a Bismarck.
Ponder this:
Only if Trump wins will we have a sharply different policy in the ME. Trump will likely re-institute the oil sanctions on Iran with even more sanctions. Iran will likely be hesitant to complete their goal for nuclear weapons. If they did try to produce the bomb they must realize that Israel & U.S. forces would act to stop them. This would not happen under Ms. Harris.
After a Trump admin. it’s anyone’s guess what will happen in the ME.
It doesn’t matter if Iran develops a nuke. They can’t make enough to do any real damage before the whole of the country is made radioactive by all the countries that would target any nuke launch they tried. Same with Russia.
Stop worrying about such foolishness.
As if the cloud of radioactive debris will honor national borders.
Which means what?
Wait! You’re literally saying don’t be concerned with a nuclear armed Iran?
Gob smacked beyond belief.
I’m not really any more than I am concerned with nuclear armed NK or Pakistan or India or Russia or China or France or Britain or who knows who else.
Unfortunately Israel is a one nuclear bomb target – and a small one at that. If Tel Aviv was hit by a small (Nagasaki sized) atomic bomb that will be the end of Israel. Of course Israel knows that & Iran may consider that attack to be worth the consequences.
As you stated, who are “…all the countries that would target any nuke launch they tried.” ?
Then how come we are so worried about North Korea? According to your wisdom, we have nothing to fear from North Korea.
Anyway, if Iran develops a bomb it’s unlikely they would do a direct launch. Far more likely they’d try and have Hezbollah / Hamas / Houthi or someone similar smuggle it in and detonate directly. Avoids the possibility of it being shot down.
They are more likely to try to do a biological virus, which is a whole easier to develop and smuggle.
Politically, the powers in Washington have to show worry about almost everything.
It was great when Hitler died, and it’s great that Nasrallah is dead. The world is a better place. Both men were evil and anti-Semitic.
It was great when 34 American sailors of the USS Liberty were killed by Israeli forces. Anyone who disagrees is an antisemite.
Since 1948, we know where this leads.
More decades of civil unrest.
More American tax dollars out the window. Maybe even some more American boys’ & girls’ lives flushed down the toilet like in Iraq.
“It’s hard to use a number to quantify the [valuation] decline because the market is so big,” said Reeves Yan, head of capital markets at CBRE Hong Kong. “But if I have to say, it will not be in terms of billions, it will be trillions.”
The distress in the commercial property market is now bleeding into the city’s financial system, which had HK$570 billion in debt exposure to the sector as of June, according to Hong Kong Monetary Authority data. Banks, long the willing financiers of the overleveraged property industry, have found themselves in a tricky spot with more of their clients teetering on the edge of default.
“No one ever saw this coming,” said Foreky Wong, a founding partner at Fortune Ark Restructuring. “The market was booming back then and these loans were really easy for banks, but now virtually no one wants to provide financing for CRE.”
Banks are now in a precarious position because if they call the loans, their clients will likely default, which could ripple outward and metastasise into more severe problems. Instead, they prefer to work with borrowers to smooth out kinks with the hope that these do not turn sour, according to Sam Wong, an analyst at Jefferies. But this strategy leaves banks with scant wiggle room if Hong Kong’s macroeconomic picture deteriorates further, he said.
“The commercial real estate risk is going to be tough for banks to digest,” he said. “The NPL has not peaked yet for sure.”
https://archive.md/qPCfm
Mainland China will be much much worse….
“We are getting more inquiries from clients, with more expensive properties coming to the market,” said Ho, whose team now oversees about US$10 billion worth of properties in receivership. “It’s a very distressed situation.”
But these kinds of disposals can prove challenging because creditors are reluctant to engage in fire sales, which is an additional drain on liquidity. Cheung Kei Center, a grade A office building that was owned by Chinese tycoon Chen Hongtian, was forced into receivership by Hang Seng Bank early last year. It is still without a buyer.
Despite all the distress, Hong Kong’s commercial real estate market is not likely to spark a systemic crisis akin to what is plaguing China today. It is a much smaller and more mature market, and local developers are more conservative than their mainland counterparts – with lower leverage and greater liquidity.
Iran might cut its losses focusing on nukes the economy and better relationship with the west. Kazan is next.
This action goes on the tab of the US. The MIC sells a lot of overpriced crippled equipment to Arab regimes, but never bunker buster bombs. This privilege is reserved for Isreal.
The damage could be the the Arabs will get their stuff together and start ripping out that donated or paid for communication and other gear, and replace it with Chinese.
How do you control them without surveillance?
Hezbollah needs more pagers.
The Chinese; as in hundreds of competing punters; are preparing SAMs for their Arab so-called “allies.” Being Chinese, they won’t deploy them until they’re extremely unlikely to not be reliably effective enough to also (as in the main goal…) simultaneously checkmate any delusion of “air superiority” anyone wishing to meddle in China’s own neighborhood may harbor. But simultaneously, being Chinese, they’re also moving at darned near America-in-the-50s/60s speed. IOW: The days of some getting off on acting tough, by blatantly violating the airspace of everyone within thousands of miles; and that’s not referring just to Israel; are rapidly coming to a close.
More interesting: What then? One could hope that reliable capabilities in the hands of the likes of some semi-representative Lebanese government; as opposed to Hezbollah like “Death To Israel” cults; would simultaneously curtail the attraction of groups like Hezbollah among the millions of regular people who has thus far been relegated to status as captives and bomb targets for the world’s self promoting clowns to show off on. Xi has personally advocated for Israel within pre ’67 borders. And if anyone will hold sufficient both sticks and carrots to deliver on that, it will be China in a decade or three: When you make effectively everything anyone buys, buy all the resources anyone in the region extracts, and is; literally; a thousand pound Gorilla in a neighborhood; or even world; of little more than aging, wounded midgets, you’ll inevitably have quite a lot of influence.
But: who knows? There could also be so much bad blood by now, that there will be no way to “ever” stop incessant tit-for-tats. In which case, those with options will increasingly leave. “Those with options to leave,” overwhelmingly resolve to Israelis. And not just any Israelis. But specifically the subset most critical to retain for anyone bent on maintaining the delusion; for yet another day of mindless hither-and-yonder terror bombing of everyone within reach; that 1-against-100 (and growing..) fights are somehow realistically winnable, for anything but the shortest of terms.
Eventually the axis of resistance will retaliate with a major missile barrage. I would guess that Israel is running out of air defenses. The U.S. has only so much in its inventory to give Israel.
This is similar to Zelensky’s problem in Ukraine. Both are in a war of attrition they cannot sustain economically or militarily. For both, their only hope is that the U.S. intervenes.
Israel has one thing Ukraine doesn’t have: nukes. This would explain Israel’s behavior — raising the stakes again and again with seeming reckless abandon. Does the threat to use nukes (e.g. conveyed via back channels), explain why Iran has not yet retaliated for Israel’s attack of last August?
There are lots of unknowns and lots of risks between now and the election. Another risk: we have a cognitively impaired President and a Zionist Secretary of State who may be calling the shots. The Pentagon seems to be the only voice of sanity on Ukraine, but not sure about Israel.
“...explain why Iran has not yet retaliated for Israel’s attack of last August?”
Iran has always preferred to use it’s funded proxies (Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis) to attack Israel. Why should they dirty their hands when their proxies can do their work for them?
Hezbollah needs a leader. Hunter needs a job. Problem solved.
Tennessee National Guard Task Force deploying to Middle EastThursday, September 26, 2024
https://www.tn.gov/military/news/2024/9/26/tennessee-national-guard-task-force-deploying-to-middle-east.html
Sept. 26, 2024
Indiana National Guard Soldiers Deploying to Middle East
https://www.nationalguard.mil/News/Overseas-Operations/Article/3917972/indiana-national-guard-soldiers-deploying-to-middle-east/#:~:text=The%20division%20troops%20will%20deploy,multinational%20exercises%20and%20response%20planning
Deployed two National Guard units two days before the strike. The White House says they had no idea. The White House lacks credibility. My question for those who have cheered this strike – was it worth it to get a more militant more aggressive successor who was obviously going to take over soon anyway, in exchange for boots on the ground and American lives…? No amount of war will make things better…they’re not going to be able to kill everyone who opposes them and those populations will soon dwarf that of Israel. And my last point…I have Israeli relatives. They are beginning to make arrangements to leave the country permanently. Peace is the only alternative that would result in Israel’s survival in the long term. This assassination is a step in the opposite direction.
Your bleeding heart is embarrassing.
Not to me. There is no power on Earth greater than the power of the human heart. To shut it down is to destroy oneself from within. My bleeding heart will be there when your time comes. Every one of us will learn the meaning of compassion within the interdependent species that is humankind. Unfortunately, for most, it is both the last lesson, and the most bitter. We all go out the same door.
Incidentally, I am a decorated veteran. The vast majority of those I hear argue for more war, as opposed to peace, chose not to serve.
You keep mentioning that you are a “decorated veteran”.
Is that supposed to confer any special treatment for you? Am I missing something? Should I be kissing your proverbial feet?
You continue to advocate killing, even when it leads to the opposite of the purportedly intended result. Every person I have encountered in my lifetime with an unbridled thirst for military intervention and violent solutions has been unwilling to serve in the military. Their advocacy is not coming from expertise or experience. It is coming from anger. Your comment, in my opinion, is rude and baiting. I don’t begin to respect it.
“…Peace is the only alternative that would result in Israel’s survival in the long term.”
Please explain what Israel can do to make peace with it’s neighbors. Most of it’s neighbors want a one-state solution. I needn’t tell you who would control that state.
That is a monumentally difficult question that I have heard asked since the nineteen sixties. So thank you for implying I would have something to offer when so many have proclaimed peace is not possible there. The late Vietnamese Zen Master known as Thich Nhat Hanh was one of the wisest and most remarkable people I have ever met. What he said still rings in my ears to this day. He said that to have peace, we must first have the capacity to appreciate peace. Everyone looks at this as a conflict and at the potential acts to be taken and positions to be adopted as a process, like a set of instructions. The people involved make a market in war. The value of the conflict is in the billions. Those who profit are well situated to influence those making the decisions that will determine the course of events, whether peace or war. The people who live there have no say in the matter, unless each and every one of them simply sits down in the streets and refuses to fight, as was advocated by Tolstoi, Ghandhi, and Dr. MLK. If you look at comments suggesting my notion of peace in the middle east is a foolish one, I am certain each person making these comments would tell you those three men are great and that their ideas are timeless and to be admired.
If people are to cultivate a capacity to appreciate peace, they will need to become stronger as individuals. Their minds will need to be stronger and their thinking more their own, from their hearts, and not influenced by fear and hate mongering. That overall influence, from the multitudes, is what is required for peace.
This is admittedly a tall order. Yet there is no doubt you and I could walk together into any place where the people on either side live, find commonality, and exchange compassion and goodwill – but for the war mongering, the hate mongering and the propaganda bombarding us into fear and loathing.
I for one believe peace requires greater self knowledge and stronger individual members of the species, physically, emotionally, and psychologically. Unlike others, I believe science strongly supports this potential, and that we have inadvertently weakened ourselves without understanding certain basic notions of how our bodies work. If you take the time to research it, you will find that there is no viable theory for how a human body gets its energy. You will find that we have known the human heart is not, and cannot possibly be, a pump. These are basic to our existence, and they remain a mystery, largely because there seems to be no profit in the answer.
When you see the answers to those questions published, you will witness the dawn of human potential. If you don’t, I will have failed you.
That’s the best I can offer and I apologize for not having more and for not having advanced this further at this time.
What could Israel do? It could dismantle the checkpoints, remove the settlers and leave the West Bank. Allow the Palestinians who lost their homes in Israel to return to them. Stop blocking a Palestinian state in the WB. Stop taking Pali water. Stop destroying their homes in East Jerusalem. And acknowledge its infringement of Palestinian rights. I can’t promise you that will be enough, but it is what justice and morality require. The alternative of continuing to eat away at what remains of Palestine (a “one-state” Jewish solution) will call forth a Palestinian/Muslim response, which regrettably but understandably, will include violence. PS, the Knesset just voted that there would never be a Palestinian state.
” I needn’t tell you who would control that state.”
Same ones who now control South Africa. And India….
It’s still not a 100% given that Israelis can’t finagle Jewish-majority state out of it all, while simultaneously slipping out of the Guillotine before the blade ultimately inevitably falls. The Chinese are starting to take serious interest in the region, and for the next one to five-ten decades, they will have _a_lot_ of levers to pull; with all actors.
If they can keep a lid on the currently built-up animosity for long enough that almost everyone alive; or at least of military age; at some point in the future mainly remembers Israelis as the studios guys down the street who helped cure grandma’s cancer, rather than as a bunch of run-amuck psychos bent on bombing everyone else to pieces just because they temporarily can, eventual victory may still be pulled from the teeth of defeat.
So Israel could have done strategic strikes in Gaza bur choose instead to destroy it – because that meets the needs of the far right who see no place for the Palestinians. Until they re all dead Israel will not stop.
It is Hamas and other extremist Islamic groups that stage photos with children holding assault rifles and teach their children that all Jews are sub-human that fuel the cycle of violence. The atrocities of Oct. 7th – rapes, killing of seniors, stomping and baking of babies – could only be done by people inculcated with hatred. So yes, Hamas needs to be destroyed. The good people of Gaza can help the situation by helping to destroy Hamas.
I’m relieved that Israelis don’t have such hate for the “arabs”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QihoBuGRVwU …
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2019-05-09/ty-article-magazine/.premium/kids-on-tanks-and-selfies-galore-israelis-celebrate-independence-day-at-gun-show/0000017f-dc14-d3ff-a7ff-fdb4b9360000
and that Israelis aren’t “inculcated with hatred” evidenced by their warm embrace of the Palestinians.
“The good people of Gaza” should learn to accept that Israel took their land and continues continues to take Palestinian land in the West Bank… and stop fighting back… and certainly not hate Israelis for having taken it and forcing them into refugee camps.
Israel gave Gaza back, even though they had won it fairly in war, and Hamas immediately went to work digging tunnels and preparing for the heinous Oct. 7th terror attack that featured widespread raping. The people of Gaza made a poor choice in their leadership, and they are now paying the price.
Your original post highlighted arab hate against jews. I pointed out that 1. that hatred was in response to jewish actions against them and 2. jewish hatred is just as intense, just as part of their education as in the other direction.
Now you want to talk about Gaza. OK. 1. you can’t take land in war, per Geneva conventions, 2. Israel “left” by sealing off borders, access to the Mediterranean, control over airspace and imposing a tight blockade. Most definitions of occupation would say Gaza was still occupied after 2005. 3. I can comfortably condemn what Hamas did on Oct 7th (putting aside your exaggerated claims – there was one verifiable sexual assault case, which I condemn). Can you condemn what Israel did to the Palestinians leading up to 1948? The continued annexation of land today, the control over water, airspace, checkpoints, home demolition? The gang rape of Palestinian detainee caught on video and justified by some in the Knesset last month?
Would you extend the logic of “paying the price” to Palestinian response to Israel’s offenses as well? Or do you principles only work in one direction?
Also, did you now that the largest city in southern Israel, Ashkelon, was never Jewish but Philistine? It was then inhabited for more than millenia by the locals, who eventually adopted Islam. Then they were expelled in the 1948 war and became refugees in Gaza. Honest question: what would you have the unjustifiably displaced people do in response to their expulsion?
I encourage you to watch the plentiful videos of extremist jewish settlers, including members of the Knesset, celebrating attacks on Palestinians on Flag Day in Jerusalem or at the “hate wedding”, or see what is taught to Israeli kids.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD8o-L1U6BE
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=944644783524583
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxLDYkX7l9A&list=WL&index=14
Plenty of hate to go around. Look at “your side” before criticizing the other.
The core of the conflict is the demand for a Jewish state in majority Muslim Palestine.
Israelis in general and Netanyahu in particular sponsored Hamas for decades. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2zadQBJj20 It’s evil for Israel to murder babies and justify it over a terrorist organization that Israelis themselves and their elected representatives sponsored.
If we look at it over the years, Bibi Netanyahu is one of the main key people who contributed to strengthening Hamas.”
— Yuval Diskin, outgoing head of Shin Bet, 2013
“I was OC Central Command in 2009, when Netanyahu returned as prime minister. At the time, we were conducting an all-out campaign against Hamas—Netanyahu stopped it all.” — Major Gen. Gadi Shamni, Israeli Defense Forces
“Netanyahu’s strategy is to prevent the two-state option, so he made Hamas his closest associate. On the outside Hamas is the enemy, but in the hidden dimension it’s an ally.” — Major Gen. Gershon Hacohen, Israeli Defense Forces
“You have to say this candidly—Netanyahu wants Hamas on its feet.” — Galit Distel-Atbaryan, Likud Party
“The Palestinian Authority is a burden and Hamas is an asset.” — Bezalel Smotrich, Finance Minister of Israel and chairman of the Religious Zionism Party, 2015
“Yes, Netanyahu prefers Hamas in power. And it works for him.” — Erel Segal, Israeli journalist and Netanyahu confidant
“As far back as December 2012, Mr. Netanyahu told the prominent Israeli journalist Dan Margalit that it was important to keep Hamas strong, as a counterweight to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. Mr. Margalit, in an interview, said that Mr. Netanyahu told him that having two strong rivals, including Hamas, would lessen pressure on him to negotiate toward a Palestinian state.” — Times of Israel
“On Wednesday two weeks ago the head of Mossad… and the head of [IDF] Southern Command visit Qatar on an errand from Netanyahu, and they simply beg the Qataris to keep sending money to Hamas after March 30. The Qataris have said they will stop sending money on March 30. Both Egypt and Qatar are angry with Hamas and planned to cut ties with them. Suddenly Netanyahu appears as the defender of Hamas, as though it was an environmental organization.” — Avigdor Lieberman, former Deputy Prime Minister of Israel, former Israeli Minister of Defense, former Israeli Minister of Finance, and former Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs
“Those who want to thwart the possibility of a Palestinian state should support the strengthening of Hamas and the transfer of money to Hamas” — Benjamin Netanyahu, 2019
Waving the magic wand of geopolitics, you are the Israeli government and public demands all actions be taken to prevent, ever, another 10/7? If Gaza/Hamas exists, the probability of another 10/7 is much higher than zero.
Israel determined to do to Gaza/Hamas what Rome did to Carthage at conclusion of Punic Wars and what Rome did to Israel to prevent future rebellions.
Each side wants to live free of the other on the same piece of real estate – via subjugation, diaspora or genocide of the other.
Only hope is the ascendancy of leaders on both sides choosing a new path for peace/prosperity. (If such leaders arise, they would be summarily assassinated in short order.)
Pray.
You cannot do “strategic strikes” when your foe purposefully embeds itself in the civilian population. Collateral damage comes with the territory in situations like this.
Have you ever been to Israel? Doesn’t the IDF/reservists “embed themselves in civilian populations”? Isn’t the HQ of the IDF under the Dizengoff shopping mall in Tel Aviv? Would you feel the same indifference to Israeli civilians killed in Hezbollah rocket attacks on military installations? No, of course not.
All humans are equal. Jews and everyone else’s lives have the same high worth.
This from Dyab Abou Jahjah
Author and Activist
“This is Sayed Hashem Safiyedeen, the man groomed for years to succeed him. The two men are cousins. They look like brothers. Even their voice is the same. And yet, there is some difference.
Nasrallah, throughout his leadership, has been regarded as a moderate within the context of the broader resistance movement. While his influence and stature as a historic figure are undeniable, his approach has often been characterized by pragmatism. Safiyedeen has all the intellectual and management qualities of Nasrallah but will likely adopt a more aggressive stance, moving from Nasrallah’s diplomacy-focused leadership to a more militant posture.
Netanyahu may come to regret that he assassinated Nasrallah.”
US and Israel were well aware of this man and that he would be the successor. Nasrallah has led for 32 years and Hezbollah is a military organization. Succession planning is a given and never stops in such an organization. Although every effort has been made to bury the story, there are many sources indicating over a hundred US troops were killed by the revenge bombing over Soleimani. Tension between the US and Russia has never been greater and Russia has openly referenced intention to supply the “opposition.” They have some marvelous toys including missiles the west has never successfully intercepted. The military industrial complex wants endless war, and nothing could have done more to get it than to ensure Hezbollah will go all in. Hezbollah has no choice but to avenge. This will also lead to negotiations over Ukraine. The US has much love for Israel. Ukraine is a tool. I get a lot of reports from Ukraine and Ukrainians feel the Americans have raped and abandoned them.
Bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
Not when they are firing directly at your close relatives. They are firing directly at my close relatives as I type these words. I do not support killing people. I am perhaps the only decorated veteran who checked the “conscientious objector” block in my 201 file. If you don’t know what a 201 file is, talking about killing people is just pillow talk for the violently inclined.
Well bully for you. That and $3 will get you a cup of coffee.
I don’t support unnecessary killing but am fine with necessary killing. And by my definition any terrorist that is killed is a necessary one.
Did you serve?
I’m not the servant type.
The service doesn’t need cowards.
PS It was tactically foolish to eliminate a leader knowing his successor is more inclined to military responses and less inclined to diplomacy. It was also tactically foolish to eliminate a leader who is obviously close to retirement, when that elimination was guaranteed to provoke retaliation, which Iran has just promised.
Unless the desired result is escalation. And we have escalation. So it is not like there is any question as to the reason for the strike. His elimination was of no identifiable value and it was a guarantee of escalation.
And so there is no question which interests are calling the shots.
You are full of crap.
Israel was forced to respond against Hezbollah BECAUSE they refused to stop shooting their rockets into northern Israel as long as there wasn’t a ceasefire in Gaza, thus forcing 60k+ Israeli citizens to relocate from their homes in the north of Israel for the last year.
Hezbollah has no right to jump into a conflagration and attempt to dictate an outcome to Israel.
The fact that Israel waited a full year to retaliate against Hezbollah, shows, IMO, unreasonable patience. They should have attacked Hezbollah much sooner.
As to killing Nasrallah, even the wimpy Biden administration is calling this appropriate JUSTICE.
“You are full of crap.” You are a child, you have not served in a military by your own choice, and you want others to go out and fire upon one another. That’s how five year olds think.
I have not made any comments about what was or what was not justified. You are attributing them to me because you need to change the subject. The assassination of Nasrallah made no sense with respect to geopolitical, diplomatic, or military purposes. It has served to escalate the situation. That is was a very bad decision from the standpoint of de-escalation is already a proven fact, days later.
It’s obvious that’s what you desire. You’re demonstrating a lot of anger, and a lot of lack of self control.
I don’t see that you have offered a single construction suggestion with respect to the situation.
You can call me full of crap, but you are not a decorated veteran, you are not a veteran, you have no particular expertise, experience, or knowledge with respect to the situation, and your credentials to offer an opinion worth considering here are certainly specious at best. If you have some sort of expertise, experience, or specialized knowledge, feel free to offer it. Otherwise, you’re just another coward shooting their mouth off to vent personal frustrations from the failures of their own life.
Lol. I don’t care whether you are decorated or not and I will not kowtow to you because you are. You made a choice to join the military, which is just another job. You deserve no special respect for doing the job you signed up for anymore than police or fire “heros’ do.
Your opinions are uninformed and obviously, not in agreement with those of TPTB and those hired to make decisions in the arena under discussion, which is why they aren’t following the course of action you promote.
You attribute this failure to them not recognizing your superior experience and knowledge. [rotflol]
Suggest you settle back into your comfy armchair, fire up your game console and maybe play some military strategy games. Otherwise, try writing the president or the your Congress people. I’m confident they will toss your communication in the waste file but maybe it will keep you occupied doing this.
“the military, which is just another job”
If the military is just another job, who will do your killing for you?
You call for blood and run from war. You are not only a coward, but a hypocrite. You’ve never served, you’ve never been to Israel or Palestine, and you are not even gainfully employed – yet you suggest others are naive?
The comment I made argued that killing Nasrallah was a mistake, because it would only bring on a completely up to speed and more militant successor, as well as inspiring revenge attacks leading to escalation.
That just happened.
You were wrong. I was right, and proven right by all of the facts revealed since I posted my comment. You haven’t addressed those realities. You are desperate to keep changing the subject. Why was it a good idea to kill Nasrallah when it has accomplished nothing save escalation?
You can’t answer that. Your arguments were uniformed, naive, incorrect, and blatantly foolish. Your continued childish personal attacks are nothing more than the rants of an infant denied of their way and descended into a tantrum. You cannot answer my question, which is unequivocal demonstration of how entirely wrong you were and how ridiculous your position is. It is wrong and it is ridiculous because it is a veil for the violence you openly support, in spite of being too cowardly to take up a rifle on your own. It is a coward who attacks anonymously on social media and fears the risks it takes to defend your right to shoot your ignorant mouth off on the Internet.
Thank you for your non-service. The men I served with didn’t have time to change your diapers. You would only have been in the way.
Why was it a good idea to kill Nasrallah when it has accomplished nothing save escalation?
Netanyahu funded and supported Hamas, and it grew. Hezbollah under Nasrallah was a much lesser threat than under the new leader, whose uncle and whose son-in-law’s father, the martyr Soleimani, were both killed by the collective west. Iran lost a military leader as well, and approximately 200 missiles just landed in Israel as a result.
The articles are now posted at the top. Since you live alone and don’t have gainful employment, I’m sure you’ll have plenty of time to sort this all out for the rest of the class and explain why killing Nasrallah will have a net positive effect, and was not a mere excuse for the escalation I said it guaranteed and which has already arrived.
Hezbollah was forced to attack Israel because Israel was wantonly destroying Gaza, thus forcing 2mn stateless Gazans to relocate from their homes to tent cities. Gazans were forced to attack Israel after Israel displaced them in ’48 and continue to displace Palis today.
See how principles work, Jojo? They go in both directions or you’re just demanding special privileges for your favorite team, showing a lack of integrity or morality.
Warmongers are going to do their usual routine: post Neville Chamberlain memes to justify sending poor Americans from black ghettos and white trailer parks to die for Israel and Corporate America.
They will keep killing until Israel runs out of “credit” – – So to speak. That means that it will NEVER END until one side is decimated and unable function OFFENSIVELY or DEFENSIVELY.
MEANING, again:
N_E_V_E_R!
I have always had questions about US foreign policy, but am I to trust Iranian, Russian or even Chinese foreign policy even more???
If you had questions about Iranian, Chinese, or Russian foreign policy and aired them in a public forum. . . You wouldn’t last very long. That’s the difference
The US has launched many more wars that any of those countries. China hasn’t had a war since 1949, for example. We seem to run multiple wars at the same time.
Just single example. Do you know that China attacked Vietnam in 1979?
I did not, but now I do. Thank you for the correction. I see that China invaded Vietnam in a war that lasted a month. Now how many months has the US been at war, and with how many nations since WWII?
Would Iran be better off going all in now rather than waiting for it?
I don’t think Iran actually has the stomach/stupidity to start a full out war with Israel and non-troop American assitance.
“I don’t think Iran actually has the stomach/stupidity to start a full out war ESPECIALLY with Israel and ON-THE-GROUND American assistance.”
Nah. . . They need to supply Russia with kit to blow up civilian infrastructure in the Ukraine.
Iran will bide their time waiting for a moment when America is seen as weakened. All the more important to keep our politics here in the US non-violent
If Iran is waiting, it’s waiting for the election to see who wins.
Kamala as a woman will be perceived as weak by traditional male led countries and that will in my opinion increase the likelihood of many of Americas enemies being bold (not just Iran, I’d expect North Korea, China etc all to be bolder).
I believe you will be proven wrong and that Harris will be a lot more aggressive than Biden.
I believe you correct, Harris has the killer eyes and instinct, and much to prove.
“We will not accept a terror army perched on our northern border able to perpetrate another Oct. 7-style massacre,” Netanyahu said.
“Late Saturday, Gallant’s office said he was meeting with top army commanders to discuss the expansion of military activities along Israel’s northern front.”
Israel covets the water in the Litani River. Could they drive north to set up a DMZ and that just happens to give the access to the river?
I found a good map and lo and behold, the northernmost extent of Israel is roughly even and just east of where the Litani River turns west. Taking everything between the current border and the river would considerably shorten the defensive line to the north as well as getting more water to ship south.
You’re ignorant. Israel agreed to leave Lebanon in 2006 under the terms of UN Resolution 1701, which was to establish “the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon to be replaced by Lebanese and UNIFILforces deploying to southern Lebanon, and the disarmament of armed groups including Hezbollah, with no armed forces other than UNIFIL and Lebanese military south of the Litani River, which flows about 29 km (18 mi) north of the border. It emphasizes Lebanon’s need to fully exert government control and calls for efforts to address the unconditional release of abducted Israeli soldiers.” The Israelis withdrew, Hezzbollah, with the assistance of Iran, began to re-arm in the proscribed area with missiles that couls reach the entire area of Israel. Hezzbollah uniformly violated UN 1701. The Israelis MAY establish a DMZ but it will because the UN allowed Hezzbollah to violate the agreement.
Israel, having invested heavily in water reclamation (by far the world leader on this) and desalination, does not need the waters of the Litani. If it did then it wouldn’t have withdrawn back in 2006.
Israel relies heavily on the water under the west bank, which is not Israel’s. As much as half of the water in northern Israel is stolen from (and denied to) Palestinian acquifers.
PS, are you suggesting that if Israel DID need the waters of the Litani, it would have just continued to occupy Lebanon? Hardly seems moral.
Of course 80,000 Israelis driven from their homes in the north of Israel has nothing to do with it.
That was the goal of the 2006 invasion.
And not a peep of protest within the USA.
Kamunists have the shackles on the protesters until Nov 5th.
Pro-Hamas demonstrations were allowed. Are you calling for protests in support of Islamic terrorism?
I’m calling for protests against Israeli crimes and occupation, continued annexation of land in the WB, the pulverization of Gaza, for Israel to stop denying Palis the last possible rump of the state they are entitled to. If you think that’s “support for terrorism”, you need a morality check.
Sorry to have to inform you but YOUR version of morality doesn’t necessarily equal the morality of others.
Yes, I am generally against taking land, displacing people and pulverizing cities. But clearly, others such as yourself, view those actions positively. I am against the displacement of Palestinians in ’48 and today, much as I would have been against the displacement of Jews from their homes in Germany and Eastern Europe in the 1930/40s had I been alive then. I have a universalist view of morality. Does your morality depend on the ethnic group?
I’m happy to report that most of the world is offended by these actions too. https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/12/1144717 and most of world understands Palestinians rights: https://press.un.org/en/2024/sc15670.doc.htm
And yet nothing changes favorably for the Palestinians or your POV. That should tell you that the sources you read from are not valid and worth reading. And that you POV might need modification.
The UN is certainly not a source that anyone should depend on.
“And yet nothing changes favorably for the Palestinians” – That, lamentably, is the result of letting Israel run amok, supported by the US. While Israel’s powerful military allows Israel to continue stealing land and imprisoning and bombing.
“The UN is certainly not a source that anyone should depend on.” – My point, which you overlooked, is that the vast majority of the world’s countries agree and voted for the resolution that Israel is depriving Palestinians of their fundamental rights. I know rabid Zionists love to bash the UN, but of the states of the world, the vast majority agree with me… or i with them.
That Israel is successful in taking Palestinian land via bombs, tanks and blood is no more moral than the Nazi’s eventual successful taking of the Warsaw ghetto. Sounds like “might makes right” when your in-group has the power, but any opposition to that onslaught is terrorism?
I wish we had Trump in the WH instead of the inept crook and his moronic sidekick.
You must mean:
Crook – Hunter B
Sidekick – Joe B
?
Neither the inept crook nor his moronic sidekick are calling the shots on this. Assuming it’s anyone other than Netanyahu it’s Blinken and Sullivan.
Lebanese people are poor, many are hungry, like palestinians or iranians, but their leaders waste billions of dollars trying to erase Israel and promoting terrorism worldwide.
Sadly, many “progressive” people in USA and Europe aprove this violent madness.
The emotions of losing your state are very strong. Note that Israel claims it returned to its state after 2000 years. (Their national anthem is about exactly this.) But the Palestinians become terrorists fighting for land they lost a mere 76 years ago.
Why did the U.N. declare a state of Israel in 1948 which then ignited a war against Israel by most of the neighboring Arab countries that in some form or other exists to this day?
“Why did the UN declare a state…” – as a solution to the violent response of the existing population triggered by the demand for that same state from new immigrants. And understandable sympathy for a people that had undergone the heinous history of the Holocaust.
“… ignited a war against Israel by most of the neighboring Arab countries”…
The source of the conflict was the demand for a Jewish state in majority Muslim Palestine.
America is becoming less “woke”Our statistical analysis finds that woke opinions and practices are on the declineAmerica is becoming less “woke” (archive.ph)
its war
There is no negotiations with Islamic jihadists; either Israel destroys them, or they destroy Israel.
Wrong . If the jihadists win they won’t just destroy Israel but the West as well as all the moderate states in the Middle East
Yes, yes, we need to destroy Saddam Hussein before he deploys his weapons of mass destruction, and make sure to contain Vietnam’s communism before it takes over the world and blockade Cuba so it abandon’s communism before it spreads and …
Don’t know why people always assume some underlying fundamentalist motivation for the hatred felt towards those who kicked them off their land.. instead of the more obvious reason… they were kicked off their land.
Looks like war with Iran is inevitable within the next year. The U.S. will of course have no problem funding and supporting all this, even though we have no business getting involved.
By the way, when will the U.S. start forking over the billions needed to rebuild the areas that Israel destroyed with our weapons? Just add it to the tab.
Agreed, we have no responsibility in rebuilding destroyed areas in Gaza or any other aggressor territory.
WW II was caused primarily by notassisting Germany after WW I.
An aspect of the natural philosophical concept of grace is mutual aide.
G.K. Chesterton argued, 1916, that England was guilty of a crime of causing WWI because it had aided Prussia->Germany too much in the decades going on more than a century before WWI.
GB, France and Russia built a cauldron surrounding Germany. Prussia sophisticated R/R system enabled them to attack Russia first, before moving troops west. Italy was added in 1915. Results: Germany 3:0 Russia. Germany 1:1 GB, France, Italy and the Balkan states. After Gallipoli Bulgaria switched sides to Germany and the Ottoman.
Gaza is the aggressor?? Do you know what the Balfour Declaration was?
….and so the never-ending cycle of bloodshed continues. My American buddy says the only way to stop it is to turn the whole area into a parking lot. This will still be a conflict in a hundred years time. A plague on all of them.
I disagree with Israel on many occasions, like I can’t do anything about it anyway. But I’m finding it hard to disagree with them in killing all of Hezbollah’s top people, including Nasrallah.