English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For September 28/2024
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
Everyone, slave and free, hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?’”
Book of Revelation 06/09-17/:”When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered for the word of God and for the testimony they had given; they cried out with a loud voice, ‘Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long will it be before you judge and avenge our blood on the inhabitants of the earth?’They were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number would be complete both of their fellow-servants and of their brothers and sisters, who were soon to be killed as they themselves had been killed. When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and there came a great earthquake; the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree drops its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll rolling itself up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the magnates and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on September 27-28/2024
Text & Video: The Nero of Lebanon, Hassan Nasrallah, Burns the Country from His Hidden Bunker/Elias Bejjani/September 28/2024
Due to Their Failure and Narcissism: A Call for Lebanese Maronite Patriarch Al-Ra'i, Maronite Politicians, Officials and Political Party Leaders to Resign and Repent/Elias Bejjani/September 26, 2024
Text & Video: Iranian Terrorist Hezbollah Booby-Trapped Shiites Villages, Cities, Institutions & Created a Landscape of Hatred and Deception/Elias Bejjani/September 24/2024
Israeli Airstrikes Rock Beirut, Target Hezbollah Command
US Did Not Have Advance Warning of Israeli Strike in Beirut, Pentagon Says
Who is Hassan Nasrallah? The leader of Hezbollah and his impact on Lebanon and Israel
IDF strike targeted Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut
Nasrallah assassination attempt: Risks, consequences, and new opportunities for the Middle East
Did Israel succeed in eliminating its number one enemy? - analysis
IDF strikes Hezbollah launcher used to fire at Haifa, targets Hezbollah infrastructure
Canada booking seats on flights out of Lebanon as violence escalates
Israel-Hezbollah conflict: Why is Lebanon being attacked and will there be a ceasefire?
Lebanon fears Gaza-like carnage as Israel ramps up airstrikes across the country
Israel-Hezbollah conflict: Why is Lebanon being attacked and will there be a ceasefire?
Berri to Asharq Al-Awsat: Temporary Ceasefire Call Marks Victory for Beirut Efforts

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September 26-27/2024
Netanyahu didn’t flip-flop on ceasefire, saw text only on plane
Pentagon seeking more information before classifying Beirut strike as escalation of war
IDF deploys more reserve brigades to North as military preps for cross border ops.
Dozens Of UN Delegates Walk Out In Protest Ahead Of Benjamin Netanyahu's Evocative Speech
Netanyahu to Iran at UN — 'If you strike us, we will strike you'
Gunmen shoot and kill aid worker in Gaza, charity and family say
Wrapping up mission, US troops will leave some longstanding bases in Iraq under new deal

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on September 26-27/2024
Rape is Resistance and Beepers are Genocide/Daniel Greenfield/Gatestone Institute/September 27, 2024
Quick, Angry Impressions on the Margins of War/Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/September 28/2024
To Prevent Lebanon from Becoming Another Gaza!/Hanna Saleh/Asharq Al-Awsat/September 28/2024
A War of Choice and a War of Necessity/Amir Taheri/Asharq Al-Awsat/September 28/2024
Hezbollah at the Finish Line/Nadim Koteich/Asharq Al-Awsat/September 28/2024

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on September 27-28/2024
The Nero of Lebanon, Hassan Nasrallah, Burns the Country from His Hidden Bunker

Elias Bejjani/September 28/2024
The satanic, terrorist, and Persian-backed Hezbollah has turned Lebanon into a ticking time bomb, with the Shiite communities bearing the brunt of its destructive ambitions. Hezbollah’s reckless stockpiling of weapons and ammunition in civilian areas has placed the entire country, particularly the Shiite regions, on the brink of catastrophe. Israel, fully aware of these explosive caches, has begun detonating them, resulting in devastating explosions that are killing hundreds of innocent civilians.
Nasrallah, the criminal mastermind, has laced residential areas with death traps, even in the neighborhoods he claims as part of his "Shiite stronghold" in the southern suburbs, Bekaa, and the South. Israel’s strikes are igniting these Hezbollah warehouses, and fires are engulfing the surroundings. As of today, the death toll is expected to soar into the thousands, with many victims still buried beneath the rubble, their lives extinguished by Hezbollah’s greed and Iran's sinister influence.
Nasrallah, Lebanon’s Nero, may very well meet his end in this fiery chaos, buried deep in his bunker as Lebanon burns above him. His downfall, however, will not absolve the devastation he and his Iranian handlers have wrought upon Lebanon, particularly the Shiite community that he falsely claims to protect.


Due to Their Failure and Narcissism: A Call for Lebanese Maronite Patriarch Al-Ra'i, Maronite Politicians, Officials and Political Party Leaders to Resign and Repent
Elias Bejjani/September 26, 2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/09/134945/
"You brood of vipers! How can you speak good things when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." (Matthew 12:34)

Because silence in the face of truth makes one a silent devil, and because refusing to acknowledge an illness only allows it to fester, we speak now with anger, bitterness, and disappointment. The truth is crystal clear, known even to children: our Lebanese Maronite leaders, both clerical and political—foremost among them Patriarch Al-Ra'i—have expired in their roles. They have become mere Iscariots, and betrayers who must step down and be removed from the picture.
With very few exceptions, these leaders are completely disconnected from the suffering and hardships that Lebanon and the Lebanese people endure under Hezbollah’s bloody and evil Iranian occupation.
Our Lebanese Maronite clergymen and political leaders are generally surrounded by spies, opportunists, merchants, and mercenaries. They are weak and afraid of those who are honorable, honest, and competent, preferring instead to fight them. Their followers, castrated supporters and slaves within their so-called political "parties," are nothing more than idol worshippers—blindly loyal and foolish.
The vast majority of these leaders lack the basic qualities of leadership: faith, honesty, courage, and vision. They have enabled the terrorist, sectarian, and Iranian Hezbollah to control Lebanon, dismantle the state, and undermine all its institutions because they are cowards, afraid to speak the truth, or take a clear patriotic stance.
Here are some of the national crimes, grave mistakes, and sins they have committed in the pursuit of their sickening visions, selfishness, stupidity, and evil personal agendas:
1- They turned a blind eye to the fact that Hezbollah did not liberate the South Lebanon (Security Zone); instead, it occupied it, transforming it into an Iranian colony filled with weapons depots and tunnels for the Iranian mullahs' arsenal. They distorted the truth, bore false witness, and committed the grave sin of declaring that Hezbollah's armed terrorists, killed in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Gaza, and elsewhere while fighting Iranian wars and Jihad battles, are martyrs—equating them with our own. They lacked the courage to boldly state the truth—that Israel implemented UN Resolution 425 and withdrew from the South in 2000 purely out of Israeli self-interest, as part of an Iranian-Arab-international understanding (an Israeli blunder that brought disaster upon itself)....Hezbollah did not liberate the South but rather occupies it.
2-They abandoned the residents of South Lebanon, (security Zone) as well as the South Lebanon Army (SLA) and its members and leaders. They lacked the bravery to champion their just cause, succumbed to Hezbollah’s Jihadist rhetoric, and failed to oppose the unjust and hostile labeling of these people as collaborators and traitors. In reality, they are heroes and patriots of the highest order, left behind in Israel without any effort made to ensure their honorable return.
3- They cowardly accepted the lie, deceit, and hypocrisy that Hezbollah is Lebanese, that it liberated the South, that it is a resistance force, that it represents a segment of the Lebanese population, and that it speaks for the Shiite community in Parliament. They lacked the courage to demand the implementation of UN resolutions addressing Lebanon (the Armistice Agreement, Resolutions 1559, 1701, 1680). Like sheep, they shamefully followed the foolish heresy of the treasonous trinity: "Army, People, Resistance."
4-They betrayed the residents of South Lebanon, silenced the voice of God—their conscience—and transformed into disciples of Judas, driven by a culture of betrayal and the lure of silver coins. By national and moral standards, all those who abandon the heroes and martyrs of their country and people deserves nothing but curses, disgrace, humiliation, and isolation.
5-Today, as Lebanon faces destruction, displacement, poverty, crime, and chaos due to the ongoing war between Israel and the terrorist Iranian Hezbollah, they swallowed their tongues and hid like frightened mice in their holes, just like the charlatan Hassan Nasrallah. They did not speak up to name things as they are, to tell the world, the Arab countries, the United Nations, the Vatican, and the Lebanese people that Hezbollah is a terrorist, Iranian, jihadist entity that occupies Lebanon, dismembers it, and kills its people. Their cowardice and lack of vision prevent them from demanding the implementation of UN resolutions related to Lebanon under Chapter VII, the arrest and trial of all Hezbollah leaders and fighters, and the severing of ties with their patron, the criminal and terrorist Iranian rouge regime.
These Lebanese leaders, clerics, the Patriarch, the heads of the falsely called Christian political parties, and the entire political Maronite -Christian class failed to take a patriot stance during the ongoing destructive war between Israel and the terrorist Hezbollah. They did not adopt and declar a unified Lebanese solid stance against Hezbollah and its Iranian war agenda. Instead, they cowardly continued their submissive path, appeasing, flattering, and supporting Hezbollah, while regurgitating the foolish and dhimitude narratives of “the Israeli enemy,” “the Israeli aggressions,” and “Israeli expansionist ambitions.” Their list of stupidity, cowardice, and lack of vision goes on and on.
Given all these acts of treason, which are only a fraction of their crimes, it is imperative that all these failures, cowards, temple merchants, and Judases resign.
*The author, Elias Bejjani, is a Lebanese expatriate activist
Author’s Email: [email protected]
Author’s Website: http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com

Elias Bejjani/Text & Video: Iranian Terrorist Hezbollah Booby-Trapped Shiites Villages, Cities, Institutions & Created a Landscape of Hatred and Deception
Elias Bejjani/September 24/2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/09/134845/
There is no shed  of doubt that the terrorist Iranian proxy, Hezbollah, is the one that has mined and booby-trapped the Shiites areas in occupied Lebanon and placed them evilly on explosive barrels. It drowned its Shiites communities with illusions, myths, hatred, arrogance, worshipping death, while belittling its opponents and labeling them as traitors. In this context we are sadly witnessing the ongoing tragedies inflicted on the civilian Lebanese Shiites' communities.
In the recent wave of violence, only in one day over 600 innocent Shiite civilians were killed and two thousand inquired and thousands forced to abandon their homes and livestock's in fear for their lives because of devastating Israeli air strikes targeting Hezbollah's weapon caches strategically hidden among populated areas in South Lebanon, beeka valley, Dahea district in Beirut. This tragedy underscores a painful truth and shows clearly that the real perpetrators behind the suffering of these victims are not only the Israeli forces, but rather Hezbollah and its Iranian backers.
For decades, Hezbollah has turned Lebanese neighborhoods, mainly the Shiites villages, cities and institutions into battlegrounds, placing weaponry in schools, religious institutions, and even homes, endangering the very people it claims to protect. This reckless strategy has turned civilians into collateral damage in a conflict driven by Iran's regional expansionist and denominational satanic ambitions.
Compounding this situation, recently Iran has increasingly distanced itself from Hezbollah and Hamas, opting instead to appease the United States. The Mullahs have publicly stated that they do not seek to engage in direct conflict with Israel, declaring a shift towards cooperation with the U.S. This pivot reveals a significant change in Iran's approach, highlighting its desire to stabilize its position rather than escalate tensions because its main aim is to keep its regime in power.
The continuous threats from Hezbollah and Iran have put Israel in a precarious position, where it feels compelled to act in self-defense. The recent bombings, while devastating, are a response to a longstanding pattern of aggression and provocation. It is essential to recognize that the chaos affecting the Middle East, including the tragic loss of life among Shiite communities, is a direct consequence of Iran's expansionist policies and Hezbollah's militant strategies.
As Lebanon grapples with this ongoing crisis, it is vital to hold accountable those who have chosen to weaponries their neighborhoods. The suffering of innocents must be acknowledged, but so must the responsibility of those who have perpetuated this cycle of violence.
The massacre that the people of the south Lebanon are being subjected  falls on  the terrorist Hezbollah, which is made up of Lebanese and non-Lebanese mercenaries, as well as their masters the Iranian Mullahs. Hezbollah has booby-trapped and mined the south villages and towns with weapons depots among the people in schools, religious, educational and governmental institutions, and even inside homes. Yesterday, Israel blew up a large number of these depots, killing hundreds and wounding thousands of civilian victims.
Terrorist Hezbollah, the enemy of Lebanon and the Lebanese, has kidnapped the Shiites communities and taken them hostage by force and terror. Hezbollah is a mere slave to an expansionist Iranian agenda that has lured Israel into waging its destructive war on Lebanon in general, and on the Shiite areas in the south, the Bekaa and the southern suburbs of Beirut in general in a bid to defend its people and existence of the Jewish state..
What do Hezbollah and its Iranian masters expect from the state of Israel, while they have been shamelessly, immorally and promiscuously promoting the idea of ​​throwing their state into the sea, killing Jews, while raising their children on a culture of ignorance, barbarism, hatred, reverence, sanctification of death and crime, and at the same time demonize who oppose their Iranian ambitions, and labeling them as traitors.
The killing, assassinations and destruction that Israel is doing currently in Iranian occupied Lebanon are caused by the policy and culture of the mullahs of Iran, as well as the Sunni and Shiite political Islam, leftist, nationalist groups, and merchants of the so called resistance and liberation.
In conclusion, Iranian occupied Lebanon will not be saved or restore is sovereignty, independence and free decision making process before uprooting the criminal Hezbollah, arresting and putting on trial its Trojan and mercenary leaders, and implementing the UN resolutions related to Lebanon; The Armistice Accord, 1559, 1701 and 1680, which gives the Lebanese state full control over all Lebanese territories by its own forces, and disarming all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias. At the same time arresting and putting on trial all Lebanese politicians, officials and clergymen who conspired against Lebanon and helped Hezbollah to fully occupy Lebanon.hitting Lebanon but becoming a regional catastrophe.”

Israeli Airstrikes Rock Beirut, Target Hezbollah Command
Asharq Al-Awsat/September 27/2024
The Israeli military said it had targeted Hezbollah's central headquarters in Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday in an attack that shook the Lebanese capital and sent thick clouds of smoke over the city. The news outlet Axios cited an Israeli source as saying Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was the target of the strike and that the Israeli military was checking if he was hit. A source close to Hezbollah told Reuters that Nasrallah is alive, while Iran's Tasnim news agency also reported he was safe. A senior Iranian security official told Reuters that Tehran was checking his status. Iran-backed Hezbollah's al-Manar television reported that four buildings were destroyed and there were many casualties in the multiple strikes, which marked a major escalation of Israel's conflict with the heavily armed Hezbollah. Al-Manar's live feed showed search and rescue teams scrambling over concrete and protruding metal, with a correspondent for the TV station saying the attack had left several large craters and damaged many surrounding buildings. The Israeli military said it had carried out a "precise strike" on Hezbollah's headquarters which it said were "embedded under residential buildings in the heart of the Dahiyeh in Beirut".
Israel has struck the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut, known as Dahiyeh, four times over the last week, killing at least three senior Hezbollah military commanders. But Friday's attack was far more powerful, with multiple blasts shaking windows across the city, recalling Israeli airstrikes during the war it fought with Hezbollah in 2006. In a televised statement, Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the central command center was embedded deep within civilian areas. The strikes hit Beirut shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue Israel's attacks on Iranian-backed fighters in Lebanon in a closely watched United Nations speech, as hopes faded for a ceasefire that could head off an all-out regional war. Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the attack showed Israel did not care about global calls for a Lebanon ceasefire.
SHARP ESCALATION IN CONFLICT
It was by far the most powerful attack carried out by Israel in Beirut during nearly a year of conflict with Hezbollah. Security sources in Lebanon said the attack targeted an area where top Hezbollah officials are usually based. The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has escalated sharply this week, with Israeli airstrikes killing more than 700 people in Lebanon. The escalation has raised fears of an even more destructive conflict between the heavily armed adversaries. Speaking at the UN General Assembly, Netanyahu said: "As long as Hezbollah chooses the path of war, Israel has no choice, and Israel has every right to remove this threat and return our citizens to their homes safely." "Israel has been tolerating this intolerable situation for nearly a year. Well, I've come here today to say enough is enough," he said. Several delegations walked out as Netanyahu approached the lectern while supporters in the gallery cheered. Netanyahu's office said he would cut short his trip to New York following the strike and would return to Israel on Friday. The United States did not have advanced warning of the Beirut strike and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart as the operation was ongoing, a Pentagon spokesperson said on Friday. Israel says its campaign aims to secure the safe return home of tens of thousands of people who were forced to evacuate homes in northern Israel because of rocket attacks Hezbollah has been carrying out in solidarity with its Palestinian ally Hamas, which is fighting Israel in Gaza. This week's escalation has displaced around 100,000 people in Lebanon, increasing the total number of people uprooted in the country by the conflict to well over 200,000.

US Did Not Have Advance Warning of Israeli Strike in Beirut, Pentagon Says
Asharq Al-Awsat/September 27/2024
The United States had no advance warning of an Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart as the operation was ongoing, a Pentagon spokesperson said on Friday. "The United States was not involved in this operation and we had no advanced warning," spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters. Singh declined to say what Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told Austin about the operation and whether it targeted Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The Pentagon also declined to speculate on whether the Hezbollah leader was still alive.
Austin and Gallant spoke as the Pentagon chief flew over the Atlantic after a visit to London. Asked what Austin may have communicated to Gallant given the Israeli strike's potential impact on US efforts to secure a ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, Singh declined to offer specifics, but she said the defense secretary is always frank in his conversations with his Israeli counterpart. "Look at just the engagements that the secretary and Minister Gallant have had over the last two weeks, speaking regularly. I think if there was any type of fracture in trust, you wouldn't see those type of levels of calls and engagements occurring frequently," Singh said when asked if the lack of advance notification by Israel indicated a lack of trust. The Israeli military said it had targeted Hezbollah's central headquarters in Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday in an attack that shook the Lebanese capital and sent thick clouds of smoke over the city. The news outlet Axios cited an Israeli source as saying Nasrallah was the target of the strike and that the Israeli military was checking if he was hit. A source close to Hezbollah told Reuters that Nasrallah was alive, while Iran's Tasnim news agency also reported he was safe. A senior Iranian security official told Reuters that Tehran was checking his status.

Who is Hassan Nasrallah? The leader of Hezbollah and his impact on Lebanon and Israel
Jerusalem Post/September 27/2024
Hezbollah, under Nasrallah's command, has frequently clashed with Israel, with notable confrontations like the 2006 Lebanon War.
Early life and rise to power
Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hezbollah, has led the Shia militant and political organization since 1992. Born in Beirut in 1960, Nasrallah started his political journey in the Amal Movement before joining Hezbollah in the early 1980s. Under his leadership, Hezbollah grew into a powerful force with significant military capabilities and political influence in Lebanon.
Hezbollah’s conflicts with Israel
Hezbollah, under Nasrallah's command, has frequently clashed with Israel, with notable confrontations like the 2006 Lebanon War. Nasrallah’s leadership during these conflicts has boosted his popularity, especially among those who view Hezbollah as a symbol of resistance against Israeli occupation.
Despite the heavy toll on Lebanon, Hezbollah emerged with a narrative of defiance and survival that Nasrallah has used to galvanize support​. Recent escalations and challenges. In recent weeks, tensions have escalated as Israel continues targeted strikes against Hezbollah, focusing on its operatives and infrastructure. Nasrallah has condemned these actions as acts of war, accusing Israel of targeting civilian areas in Lebanon. He vowed retaliation, warning that Hezbollah is prepared for a prolonged confrontation if necessary​. Strategic position and future threats. While Nasrallah projects confidence, he also faces significant challenges, including military setbacks and internal Lebanese opposition. Israeli officials, like retired IDF Colonel Kobi Marom, argue that this is an opportune moment to strike at Hezbollah’s leadership to prevent future escalations. Nasrallah’s cautious approach reflects a delicate balance between military engagement and avoiding a broader conflict that could undermine Hezbollah’s position​.

IDF strike targeted Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut
Jerusalem Post/September 27/2024
The IDF strike hit Hezbollah's central headquarters in Dahiyeh, Beirut, built under residential buildings. Updated to reflect that Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has yet to be confirmed killed in Israel's strike.
The IDF targeted Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in a strike on the terror organization's central headquarters in Beirut Friday evening, the IDF reported after witnesses in Beirut told Reuters they had heard multiple blasts and saw clouds of smoke rising from the city.
Israeli officials suspect that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was in the bunker targeted in the recent bombing, and anyone inside would struggle to survive such an attack.
About three hours before the strike, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu consulted with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi. A security source told the Qatari newspaper Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that "the extent of the destruction in Dahieh is enormous. Lebanon has reinforced all ambulances and dispatched them to the scene." Reuters reported that Nasrallah was alive, citing a source close to Hezbollah. Iran's IRGC-controlled Tasnim News Agency also reported he was alive, and an additional Hezbollah operative has also stated Nasrallah survived the attack. "Hezbollah's central headquarters was intentionally built under residential buildings in the heart of the Dahiyeh in Beirut as part of Hezbollah's strategy of using Lebanese people as human shields," IDF Spokesman R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari stated in an evening address. Hagari said that the targeted building was the epicenter of Hezbollah's terror activities. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, at the time of the strike, was at the Israel Air Force's (IAF) command and control center, where he monitored the strike against Hezbollah's headquarters, the Defense Ministry stated.
Other senior officials, including IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and Commander of the IAF, were also present. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cut his trip to New York short and plans to leave for Israel Friday night on Shabbat, following the IDF strike on Beirut that targeted Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Following a situation assessment after the strike, the IDF stressed that it is prepared in all offensive and defensive arenas. A senior security official told army radio that anyone in the Hezbollah headquarters will not get out alive, and they are closely following what is developing in Beirut. The IDF added that there was no change in the Home Front Command directives. According to Israeli sources, Israel informed the US of the strike shortly before, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorized the strike from New York.
The Pentagon later said that the US did not have advanced warning of an Israeli strike in Beirut, and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart as the operation was ongoing, Reuters reported. "After almost a year of Hezbollah firing rockets, missiles, and suicide drones at Israeli civilians, after almost a year of Israel warning the world and telling them that Hezbollah must be stopped, Israel is doing what every sovereign state in the world would do if they had a terror organization that seeks their destruction on their border, taking the necessary action to protect our people so that Israeli families can live in their homes, safely and securely,” Hagari said in his address. In response to the Israeli strike targeting Nasrallah, the Iranian embassy in Beirut released a statement on X/Twitter calling the attack "a bloody massacre, adding that it represented "a serious escalation that changes the rules of the game, bringing upon its perpetrator the appropriate."Successive airstrikes The IDF targeted Beirut shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue Israel's attacks on Hezbollah. The southern suburbs of Beirut were hit in successive airstrikes, Hezbollah affiliate Al Manar TV reported. Southern Beirut is known as a Hezbollah stronghold, and the Israeli air force struck the area last week, targeting 16 Hezbollah commanders, including Radwan Force commander Ibrahim Aqil. In another strike in the southern portion of the city, Israel eliminated Hezbollah drone unit chief Muhammad Hossein Sarur.  Many ambulances and civil defense vehicles arrived at the scenes of several buildings that had exploded.

Nasrallah assassination attempt: Risks, consequences, and new opportunities for the Middle East
Jerusalem Post/September 27/2024
The intent behind Friday’s strike on Hezbollah's central headquarters—aimed at hitting Nasrallah—represents a regional shakeup. The strike on the bunker of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah is nothing short of a seismic event in the Middle East. With Israel having shifted the rules of the game, what comes next? The risk of a broader conflict has risen, but there are also opportunities for a comprehensive settlement—everything now hinges on Hezbollah's response. The intent behind Friday’s strike on Hezbollah's central headquarters—aimed at hitting Nasrallah—represents a regional shakeup, increasing the likelihood of a wider escalation while also creating chances for a comprehensive agreement.
A shift in the rules of engagement
First and foremost, the move signals a "change in the rules of engagement" in the fight against the so-called axis of evil. The assassination attempt, whose success remains unconfirmed, sends a clear message of Israeli resolve and boldness to the entire region, particularly Iran. This is undoubtedly a regionally destabilizing event. If the operation succeeds, it opens significant opportunities in the battle against terrorism in the north with Hezbollah and in the south with Hamas, as well as a chance to pursue regional agreements.
What happens next?
The IDF must now brace for various scenarios and their implications, both in terms of defending Israel and continuing its offensive operations. The most extreme scenario involves Iran unleashing Hezbollah and the Houthis, allowing them to launch an extensive missile and drone attack on Israel’s home front. In an even more severe scenario, Iran itself could join the conflict directly with strikes from its territory, although this possibility is considered low. A second, more plausible scenario involves targeted retaliation by members of the Axis of Evil and other terrorist groups, which could lead to attacks from multiple fronts, as well as spontaneous incidents in Judea and Samaria. The central question is whether, regardless of the strike’s outcome, Hezbollah’s leadership will stick to its hardline stance against Israel, continuing to tie the organization’s fate to the ongoing conflict in Gaza, or whether it will reconsider its strategy.
In response, the IDF has raised its alert level to the highest across land, sea, and air defenses and is prepared for attacks should the situation deteriorate. Additionally, the IDF has reinforced the Northern Command with two infantry brigades to prepare for potential reinforcements in Judea and Samaria and, if necessary, ground maneuvers in Lebanon.

Did Israel succeed in eliminating its number one enemy? - analysis

Jerusalem Post/September 27/2024
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah began his journey in the terror organization during his school years in the city of Tyre. The fate of Hassan Nasrallah, Israel's top target in recent years, is still unclear. The fact that Israel struck Hezbollah's central headquarters while Nasrallah was there is a dramatic development. First and foremost, Israel is making it clear that Nasrallah is marked for death. Second, it demonstrates Israel's intelligence capabilities and resolve. Third, Israel shows that it has no red lines in its battle against Hezbollah—every figure and every place where Hezbollah operates will be targeted decisively. The strike was carried out by the Israeli air force’s 119th “Bat” Squadron, using an F-16i aircraft known as “Sufa” (Storm) in the IAF. The planes dropped tons of munitions. Israel conducted the bombing while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in New York, on American soil. Hassan Nasrallah, at 64, has been Hezbollah’s leader for four decades and is one of Israel’s most challenging adversaries in recent decades. He is closely aligned with Iran, and although he didn’t find Hezbollah, he has shaped the organization in his image. Nasrallah began his journey in the organization during his school years in the city of Tyre. He frequented the main mosque, drawing the attention of preacher Muhammad al-Gharawi, who was impressed by Nasrallah’s intelligence and interest in theological studies. Al-Gharawi recommended him to Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, a leading figure in the Shiite seminaries in Najaf, Iraq. After completing high school about a year later, Nasrallah moved to Najaf to start his studies.
Formation of Hezbollah
There, he met al-Sadr, who placed him under the mentorship of Abbas al-Musawi, a Lebanese student from the Beqaa Valley who later became a Hezbollah leader. At just 16, Nasrallah formed a deep bond with al-Musawi, whose teachings significantly shaped his worldview. Following al-Musawi’s assassination, Nasrallah was appointed as his successor. At the time, Israeli officials underestimated the young leader’s potential to surpass his predecessors, turning Hezbollah into a far more powerful and dangerous organization than before.

IDF strikes Hezbollah launcher used to fire at Haifa, targets Hezbollah infrastructure
Jerusalem Post/September 27/2024
Earlier on Friday, the military said ten rockets had been fired from Lebanon at Haifa and the surrounding area, with some being intercepted and others impacting in open areas. Israel Air Force jets struck the Hezbollah launcher which was used to fire rockets at Haifa and the city's bayside suburbs earlier on Friday, the military said later in the day. Earlier on Friday, the military said ten rockets had been fired from Lebanon at Haifa and the surrounding area, with some being intercepted and others impacting in open areas. The military added that it had struck additional targets, among which were Hezbollah military infrastructure and terror squads in various areas of southern Lebanon. This comes amid a surge in IDF strikes in Lebanon and an escalation in Israel's North. Late on Thursday, the military said it had struck some 220 terror targets throughout Lebanon, including weapons storage facilities and ready-to-fire launchers. In addition, on Thursday, the military confirmed it had eliminated Hezbollah's drone unit chief, Muhammad Hossein Sarur, in a precise strike. Sarur oversaw numerous drone and missile attacks on Israeli territory.

Canada booking seats on flights out of Lebanon as violence escalates
Mia Rabson/The Canadian Press/September 27, 2024
OTTAWA — Global Affairs Canada began booking blocks of seats on the few remaining commercial flights leaving Lebanon on Friday as it issued another urgent plea for any Canadians in the country to leave immediately. "Canadians need to leave now and we are helping with that," Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said in a statement on X late Friday afternoon. "Canada has secured seats for Canadians on the limited commercial flights available. If a seat is available, please take it." Passengers will pay for the flights themselves, but Joly said loans are available for those who need financial assistance. Joly and Defence Minister Bill Blair have been asking Canadians in Lebanon to leave for months as fighting between Israel and Hezbollah escalates. On Thursday, Blair said there were still many commercial flight options available, but by Friday those were quickly filling up.
Global Affairs Canada is taking the step of pre-booking seats to try to help as many Canadians as possible. The flights could be going to any destination, and passengers would be responsible for finding their own way to Canada. Joly said earlier this week it's believed about 45,000 Canadians were in Lebanon, even though only about half that number have registered officially with the embassy in Beirut.Canadians in Lebanon are asked to use the email [email protected] to get information and secure one of the available seats. Joly said Canadians should register with the embassy in Beirut and say they want help leaving Lebanon. The federal government and the military have been working on plans for a possible evacuation of Canadian citizens from Lebanon for months, but the government is urging people to leave on their own before that is needed. Airlines have begun cancelling flights after an escalation of airstrikes by the Israeli military. Lebanon's health ministry said Friday more than 720 people have been killed in the last week in airstrikes that Israel said are targeting Hezbollah's military capabilities to stop its airstrikes into northern Israel. The most powerful strikes yet destroyed six buildings in suburban Beirut on Friday as the Israeli military said it struck the central headquarters of Hezbollah. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cut short a visit to the United Nations and flew back to Israel after vowing before the General Assembly that Israel's campaign against Hezbollah would continue despite calls for a ceasefire from allies including the United States and Canada. All G7 nations, along with Australia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and United Arab Emirates jointly asked Israel and Hezbollah for a 21-day ceasefire to allow for a diplomatic solution to the war. Joly said she spoke with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati Friday and that "there must be no war" in Lebanon. "Civilians must be protected and we need an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah."

Israel-Hezbollah conflict: Why is Lebanon being attacked and will there be a ceasefire?
Albert Toth/The Independent/September 27/2024
Tensions in the Middle East continue to escalate as Israel ramps up its assault on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. Beginning with a major bombardment on 23 September, Lebanon has now experienced its deadliest attack since the end of the 1975 - 1990 Civil War, with over 90,000 civilians displaced from their homes. Israel has called the bombardment a “new phase” of its war on Gaza, striking more than 1,000 targets in Lebanon which it says were Hezbollah strongholds or military facilities in homes. Since the 7 October Hamas attack where over 240 Israeli hostages were taken, Hezbollah has been striking Israel from Lebanon on the country’s northern border in support of Hamas. Israeli forces have continued to respond with strikes on the paramilitary group which regularly fired missiles and rockets to intercept military technology like drones or tanks. But the massive bombing campaign by Israel marks a major escalation in the exchanges – one which the international community worries could lead to all-out war in the Middle East. It comes as the country also continues its military action in Gaza, which has now killed over 41,000 Palestinians.
Why is Israel attacking Lebanon?
Israel says it is attacking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in a bid to return its citizens who have been displaced from the north by Hezbollah attacks. The country’s officials say that 65,000 Israeli citizens have been evacuated due to conflict on the border.
Speaking in the days after the initial wave of attacks, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel would deploy renewed “forces, resources and energy” to the northern region in its campaign against Hezbollah. “Today was a masterpiece,” he later added, “this was the worst week Hezbollah has had since its establishment, and the results speak for themselves.”Hezbollah, a proscribed terrorist group in the UK, was formed in 1982 but gained significant military power in the 2006 Lebanon War against Israel. Its stated objective is to drive Israeli forces away from southern Lebanon. The group is aligned with Iran, which is understood to provide most of its funding. Hezbollah’s military wing is sophisticated and thought to be about the strength of a medium-sized army, stronger than Lebanon’s own forces. Israel’s heightened assault on the group has pulled civilians into its wake, killing an estimated 620 and injuring nearly 2,000. Wednesday 25 September saw Hezbollah aim a long-range missile at Israel’s capital Tel Aviv, the deepest into the country the group has attempted to attack. On the same day, Israel targeted mountains north of Lebanon’s capital Beirut for the first time in the war. The country’s forces are now reportedly preparing for a possible ground operation. While the military has said in recent days that it does not have plans for an invasion, spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters: “The army is in full readiness, and we will do whatever is necessary to bring back home all our citizens to the northern border safely.”
Could other countries become involved?
A ground invasion of Lebanon would mark a major escalation in the conflict, likely with serious international repercussions. The United States has already announced it would deploy additional troops to the area, with 40,000 already in the region. With its close ties to Iran, a direct assault on Hezbollah runs the risk of drawing the country – a long-time opponent of Israel – into the conflict. Tensions already reached a high point in April when Iran launched a drone and missile attack on Israeli targets in April, responding to the country’s bombing of part of the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria. Israel responded in turn with a series of retaliatory strikes on Iranian military sites, with little further conflict between the two nations reported since. Although it has never revealed its nuclear weapon status, Israel is thought to hold an arsenal of 90 nuclear warheads. Iran is not believed to be nuclear-armed but resumed its nuclear programme after limits were lifted by former US president Donald Trump in 2018.  The UK has now joined the US, France and other allies in calling for a 21-day temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. The joint statement reads: “It is time for a settlement on the Israel-Lebanon border that ensures safety and security to enable civilians to return to their homes. “The exchange of fire since 7 October, and in particular over the past two weeks, threatens a much broader conflict, and harm to civilians.”But Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, due to address world leaders at the UN’s General Assembly, has ruled out the deal. “There will be no ceasefire in the north,” a spokesperson said, “we will continue to fight against the terrorist organization Hezbollah with all our might until victory and the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes.”Speaking ahead of the assembly, UN Secretary General António Guterres warned that the world “cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza.” Lebanese officials have also called for a ceasefire and suggested they will involve their own forces if Israel undertakes a ground invasion. Speaking to Sky News, health minister Firass Abiad said that Israeli strikes in the country are causing “carnage”. “We’re already at war - this is not just an escalation, we are already at war,” he added. “If Israel uses these very big and strong bombs to target civilian areas, as they have been doing, then yes, the numbers could reach catastrophic – even more catastrophic – than what we see now.”But Israeli strikes on targets in Lebanon continue, with 75 attacks reported on Wednesday. And while Israel and Hezbollah have both advocated for de-escalation in the region, both maintain their attacks and threats.

Lebanon fears Gaza-like carnage as Israel ramps up airstrikes across the country
Kareem Chehayeb And Zeina Karam/September 27, 2024
When she first heard about the evacuation warnings Israel was sending to residents of Lebanon, Aline Naser’s thoughts immediately turned to Gaza. For the past year, the 26-year-old Beirut resident has been following with horror the reports about besieged Palestinians in the Gaza Strip ordered to move from one place to the other, fleeing to “humanitarian zones” only to be bombed and ordered to leave again. The Israeli calls for Lebanese citizens to evacuate ahead of a widening air campaign, delivered via mobile phone alerts, calls and leaflets this week, seemed chillingly familiar. “It’s definitely something on the back of my mind, and we don’t really know where exactly is safe,” she said. Almost a year after the start of its war in Gaza, Israel has turned its focus on Lebanon, significantly ratcheting up its campaign against its archenemy Hezbollah. Among many in Lebanon, there is fear that Israel’s military operations in Lebanon would follow the same Gaza playbook: Evacuation orders, mass displacement and overwhelming airstrikes. Israel says its strikes target Hezbollah weapons sites and militants. There are key differences between Gaza and Lebanon and how Israel has so far conducted its operations, which it says aim to push back Hezbollah from the border so that tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by Hezbollah's rocket attacks can return to their homes. Although it has said it is preparing for a possible ground operation, Israel has so far not sent troops into Lebanon.
Still, there are fears that Israel’s actions in Gaza, including the use of overwhelming and what rights groups and the United Nations have described as disproportionate force, would be repeated in Lebanon. Top Israeli officials have threatened to repeat the destruction of Gaza in Lebanon if the Hezbollah fire continues. On Monday, Israel struck 1,600 targets across Lebanon, killing 492 people and wounding 1,645, and causing a massive wave of displacement as thousands fled from south Lebanon north. It was a staggering one-day toll that shocked a nation used to war. It was by far the deadliest barrage since the monthlong 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, when an estimated 1,000 people in Lebanon were killed.
Throughout the day, the Israeli military sent warnings to residents to immediately evacuate in anticipation of the strikes and to stay away from places where Hezbollah stores weapons — something most would have no way of knowing. “Please get out of harm’s way now,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a recorded message. “Once our operation is finished, you can come back safely to your homes.” Israel’s evacuation orders have been a central part of its military campaign in Gaza for the past year. In the first week after launching war, Israel ordered 1.1 million civilians in the Gaza Strip to relocate from the north to the south, sowing confusion and fear in the overcrowded enclave. Since then, the Israeli military has issued dozens of evacuation orders calling on Palestinians to evacuate to Israeli-designated "humanitarian zones.” Israeli officials say they are targeting Hamas militants who have embedded themselves among the population. Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to health officials in Gaza. The Health Ministry, part of the territory’s Hamas government, does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but says that just over half the dead have been women and children.”With Gaza's borders sealed, residents of the crammed territory are trapped with nowhere to go, whereas in Lebanon, those fleeing Israeli strikes have been able to move to safer areas. Thousands have fled to neighboring Syria, while others have left through the country’s airport.
A second front for Israel
Hezbollah started firing rockets on Israel in support of Gaza on Oct. 8, a day after Hamas militants launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, killing some 1,200 people and abducting another 250. Since then, the two sides have been engaged in cross border strikes that have gradually escalated and displaced tens of thousands of civilians on both sides of the border. Many Lebanese have been following the growing hostilities with a mixture of nonchalance and dread, hoping they would remain contained. Lebanon has been in the throes of an economic meltdown since 2019 and can ill afford another devastating war with Israel. Hostilities escalated dramatically last week when thousands of explosives hidden in pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah detonated, killing dozens of people and leaving thousands, including many civilians, with severe injuries to the eyes, face and limbs. Israel is widely believed to be behind the attack. Israel has also killed several top Hezbollah commanders in Beirut. Meanwhile, intensifying Hezbollah barrages have wounded several people in Israel. As the region appeared to be teetering toward another all-out war, Jana Bsat, 25, who works for a media analysis company in Beirut, said she now has a bag packed, ready for immediate evacuation. She feels it’s only a matter of time. “It feels surreal, to be honest. We heard about what was happening in Gaza and now we’re experiencing it for ourselves,” she said. “I am in disgust of all this fear-mongering and psychological torture,” she said, adding: “But then you remember, it’s all part of a warfare strategy and it’s not going to stop anytime soon.”
Lebanon is not Gaza
While Israel’s actions in Lebanon may have echoes of Gaza, the conflicts are different. In Gaza, Israel’s goal is the complete destruction of Hamas, whereas Israel’s stated goal in Lebanon is to push Hezbollah away from its border. Whereas Hamas rules Gaza, Hezbollah is a powerful militia with enormous influence inside Lebanon, and has representatives in the country's parliament and government. In 2006, Israel flattened entire Beirut neighborhoods and bombed Lebanon's only international airport as well as key infrastructure, including bridges and power stations. By contrast, its current campaign seems to be, for the large part, targeting Hezbollah, although many civilians have also been killed. Unlike Gaza, Lebanon is also a mixed tapestry of political and religious groups, including Christian and Sunni-majority areas where there is significant opposition to the Iran-backed Shiite Hezbollah.
Ali Safa, a 30-year-old interior designer who fled to Beirut from south Lebanon with his family this week, said he isn’t worried about the Gaza scenario being repeated in Lebanon. “Gaza is an open prison, it is besieged. Lebanon is much larger, it is not encircled. And it has Hezbollah, which is a much bigger force, much better-equipped than Hamas,” he said. U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, speaking at the United Nations Wednesday, said the world “cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza.”
Frayed nerves
Whether the current hostilities will expand into an all-out war or whether Israel will launch a ground invasion remains to be seen. Israel’s army chief said Wednesday that preparations were underway for a possible ground operation. Many in Lebanon say they are haunted by the nonstop churn of horrifying images from Gaza over the past year, fearing the same scenario in Lebanon. For several months, low-flying Israeli fighter jets have launched sonic booms over Lebanon, rattling windows and terrifying residents. More recently, the buzzing sound of Israeli military drones in Lebanese skies have added to the anxiety. Some have gotten used to it. At a funeral for a Hezbollah commander recently where a few hundred people gathered, hardly anyone flinched when low-flying Israeli planes caused a thundering boom that shook the ground. Bsat said at some point she, too, got used to hearing sonic booms that made the windows in her house shake. "The drones I also got used to and now, unfortunately, the bombing,” she said via Whatsapp. “I’ve come to terms with reality, but my hands still can’t stop shaking as I’m writing this,” she said. “I’m still dreading what is going to happen here.”

Israel-Hezbollah conflict: Why is Lebanon being attacked and will there be a ceasefire?
Albert Toth/The Independent/September 27/2024
Tensions in the Middle East continue to escalate as Israel ramps up its assault on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. Beginning with a major bombardment on 23 September, Lebanon has now experienced its deadliest attack since the end of the 1975 - 1990 Civil War, with over 90,000 civilians displaced from their homes. Israel has called the bombardment a “new phase” of its war on Gaza, striking more than 1,000 targets in Lebanon which it says were Hezbollah strongholds or military facilities in homes. Since the 7 October Hamas attack where over 240 Israeli hostages were taken, Hezbollah has been striking Israel from Lebanon on the country’s northern border in support of Hamas. Israeli forces have continued to respond with strikes on the paramilitary group which regularly fired missiles and rockets to intercept military technology like drones or tanks. But the massive bombing campaign by Israel marks a major escalation in the exchanges – one which the international community worries could lead to all-out war in the Middle East. It comes as the country also continues its military action in Gaza, which has now killed over 41,000 Palestinians.
Why is Israel attacking Lebanon?
Israel says it is attacking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in a bid to return its citizens who have been displaced from the north by Hezbollah attacks. The country’s officials say that 65,000 Israeli citizens have been evacuated due to conflict on the border. Speaking in the days after the initial wave of attacks, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel would deploy renewed “forces, resources and energy” to the northern region in its campaign against Hezbollah. “Today was a masterpiece,” he later added, “this was the worst week Hezbollah has had since its establishment, and the results speak for themselves.”Hezbollah, a proscribed terrorist group in the UK, was formed in 1982 but gained significant military power in the 2006 Lebanon War against Israel. Its stated objective is to drive Israeli forces away from southern Lebanon. The group is aligned with Iran, which is understood to provide most of its funding. Hezbollah’s military wing is sophisticated and thought to be about the strength of a medium-sized army, stronger than Lebanon’s own forces. Israel’s heightened assault on the group has pulled civilians into its wake, killing an estimated 620 and injuring nearly 2,000. Wednesday 25 September saw Hezbollah aim a long-range missile at Israel’s capital Tel Aviv, the deepest into the country the group has attempted to attack. On the same day, Israel targeted mountains north of Lebanon’s capital Beirut for the first time in the war. The country’s forces are now reportedly preparing for a possible ground operation. While the military has said in recent days that it does not have plans for an invasion, spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters: “The army is in full readiness, and we will do whatever is necessary to bring back home all our citizens to the northern border safely.”
Could other countries become involved?
A ground invasion of Lebanon would mark a major escalation in the conflict, likely with serious international repercussions. The United States has already announced it would deploy additional troops to the area, with 40,000 already in the region.
With its close ties to Iran, a direct assault on Hezbollah runs the risk of drawing the country – a long-time opponent of Israel – into the conflict. Tensions already reached a high point in April when Iran launched a drone and missile attack on Israeli targets in April, responding to the country’s bombing of part of the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria. Israel responded in turn with a series of retaliatory strikes on Iranian military sites, with little further conflict between the two nations reported since. Although it has never revealed its nuclear weapon status, Israel is thought to hold an arsenal of 90 nuclear warheads. Iran is not believed to be nuclear-armed but resumed its nuclear programme after limits were lifted by former US president Donald Trump in 2018. The UK has now joined the US, France and other allies in calling for a 21-day temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. The joint statement reads: “It is time for a settlement on the Israel-Lebanon border that ensures safety and security to enable civilians to return to their homes. “The exchange of fire since 7 October, and in particular over the past two weeks, threatens a much broader conflict, and harm to civilians.”But Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, due to address world leaders at the UN’s General Assembly, has ruled out the deal. “There will be no ceasefire in the north,” a spokesperson said, “we will continue to fight against the terrorist organization Hezbollah with all our might until victory and the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes.” Speaking ahead of the assembly, UN Secretary General António Guterres warned that the world “cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza.”Lebanese officials have also called for a ceasefire and suggested they will involve their own forces if Israel undertakes a ground invasion. Speaking to Sky News, health minister Firass Abiad said that Israeli strikes in the country are causing “carnage”. “We’re already at war - this is not just an escalation, we are already at war,” he added. “If Israel uses these very big and strong bombs to target civilian areas, as they have been doing, then yes, the numbers could reach catastrophic – even more catastrophic – than what we see now.”But Israeli strikes on targets in Lebanon continue, with 75 attacks reported on Wednesday. And while Israel and Hezbollah have both advocated for de-escalation in the region, both maintain their attacks and threats.

Berri to Asharq Al-Awsat: Temporary Ceasefire Call Marks Victory for Beirut Efforts
Beirut: Thaer Abbas/Asharq Al-Awsat/September 27/2024
Lebanese political and diplomatic activity is intensifying after the release of an “international-Arab call” for a ceasefire in Lebanon and Gaza. “The key lies in implementation,” Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri told Asharq Al-Awsat, describing the call itself “a victory for Lebanon’s efforts.”
Berri highlighted the role of major players, especially the US, in convincing Israel to accept the ceasefire. He pointed out that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “says one thing and its opposite,” while stressing that Lebanon is committed to the call’s principles and ready to act.
“There is no problem on the Lebanese side, as the international joint statement addressed both Gaza and Lebanon together,” Berri stressed. A Lebanese source involved in negotiations at the UN indicated that the obstinacy of both Israel and Hezbollah had blocked a proposed solution.
Now, efforts are focused on establishing a temporary ceasefire to allow for negotiations regarding the crisis that erupted when Hezbollah, backed by Iran, engaged with Israel to support Gaza. The source explained that the proposed solution involved a new UN resolution to reinforce Resolution 1701, effective since the end of the 2006 Lebanon War. However, Hezbollah’s insistence on linking a ceasefire in Gaza to this proposal and Israel’s refusal to do so thwarted the plan. The source expressed hope for a three-week temporary ceasefire, with negotiations led by US envoy Amos Hochstein between Beirut and Tel Aviv. In New York, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati held diplomatic discussions aimed at stopping the Israeli offensive against Lebanon, engaging with European and Arab officials during his visit. Reports suggested that Mikati had “signed a proposed ceasefire agreement” after meeting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and mediator Amos Hochstein. However, the Prime Minister’s office denied these claims, asserting that they are “entirely untrue.”The office reminded the public of Mikati’s remarks after the joint call initiated by the US and France, supported by the European Union and several countries, aimed at establishing a temporary ceasefire in Lebanon. “We welcome the statement, but the crucial factor lies in Israel's commitment to implementing international resolutions,” said Mikati.
New York Meetings
Mikati met with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, who outlined Cyprus’s efforts to support Lebanon and facilitate a ceasefire, including his talks with Netanyahu. The Lebanese premier also discussed the situation in Lebanon and the region with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, highlighting Britain’s efforts to stop the fighting. Additionally, Mikati met with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, thanking Qatar for its support of Lebanon, particularly for its backing of the Lebanese army.The Qatari Prime Minister briefed Mikati on ongoing ceasefire negotiations in Gaza and Qatar’s role in the international committee working to elect a new president for Lebanon.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September 27-28/2024
Netanyahu didn’t flip-flop on ceasefire, saw text only on plane — source
Jerusalem Post/September 27/2024
The US claimed that it believed that Netanyahu would consent to the ceasefire soon after it was issued, while Israel said there was no such expectation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t flip-flop on his response to a joint US-French call or a 21-day ceasefire along the Israeli-Lebanese border, a senior diplomatic source told Israeli reporters during a briefing in New York. “We never agreed to it,” the source said. He was one of two senior sources who briefed reporters about what appeared to be a deep division between the Biden administration and Israel over the best path forward to push Hezbollah away from Israel’s northern border and out of Southern Lebanon. US believed Netanyahu would consent to the ceasefire. The US claimed that it believed Netanyahu would consent to the ceasefire soon after it was issued, while Israel said there was no such expectation.
The disagreement created a situation where US officials were talking about a 21-day ceasefire that would soon go into effect. At the same time, Netanyahu spoke about the IDF’s continued military campaign against Hezbollah, and security officials weighed a possible ground campaign in southern Lebanon. US National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby said that US President Joe Biden would not have issued the statement if he didn’t believe that Israel was on board. Israel “doesn’t want a dispute with the US over this,” one of the officials stated, noting that it was simply not possible to have understood that Israel would support a final text it saw only at the last second. The US also doesn't want a dispute here, the source added. There were only three people involved in the talks that led up to the issuance of the statement on Wednesday: Netanyahu Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Israel’s Ambassador to Mike Herzog. Those three people “didn’t see 95 percent of the text until Netanyahu was on the plane” en route to New York, and they were “the most involved in the process,” the source said. US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan called Dermer to explain that the Biden administration was thinking of releasing a joint statement with France calling for a ceasefire in the north. Israel believed it gave its consent to the start of a dialogue on the proposal, during which time it would continue with its military campaign. Israel always believed its consent was contingent on the text, a source said. It was important to Israel that it proceed with the process without giving the impression that it opposed it. “Our [Israel’s] understanding was that it was an American decision, that they [the Biden administration] was going to put something on the table, and we would have to see what it said,” the source said. Netanyahu won’t respond to the call for a 21-day ceasefire call without holding consultations back in Israel, one of the sources explained. A northern ceasefire that would create a temporary lull in the year-long constrained IDF-Hezbollah war would also be linked to the concurrent Gaza war.
Israel has preferred to de-couple the two issues, while Hezbollah has insisted on linking them, the source said. The initial text that Israel saw didn’t include Gaza in it, while the one that was issued did, as part of a bid to gain wider consensus on the document, the source said, referencing the 10 other countries that backed the document. Israel has since worked to repair that understanding with the US, with conversations held with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US special envoys Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein. “We have tried to fix this misunderstanding, and we think it is now behind us,” he said.

Pentagon seeking more information before classifying Beirut strike as escalation of war
Jerusalem Post/September 27/2024
The Pentagon said it is assessing the event, but had no additional information or specifics to provide at this time. The US had no advance warning of Israel's strike on Hezbollah's central headquarters in Dahiyeh, Beirut on Friday, the Pentagon said, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin learned of the operation while it was underway during a phone call from Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. "We are still assessing the event and don't have any additional information or any further specifics to provide at this time," Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said.  Singh did not comment on Israel's target or if Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is alive. Singh said it “remains to be seen” if Israel’s attack is considered to be an escalation. “We are still doing an assessment,” she said. Singh was repeatedly pressed on who initiated the phone call this morning between Austin and Gallant. Earlier this week reporters questioned why the counterparts hadn’t spoken directly in days. Austin, and the administration broadly, continues to urge for diplomacy as it’s the best path forward, she said. “Diplomacy cannot succeed amid continued tit-for-tats back and forth,” Singh said. “So that's what the Secretary's conversations are like with Mr. Gallant. That's what he continues to urge for. I'll leave it at that.” Singh denied there was a fracture of trust between Austin and Gallant. If there was, she said, there wouldn’t be this type of levels of calls and engagements occurring frequently, and not just at the Secretary's level, but across the administration.  According to Singh, the US still coordinates with the Israeli government and provides intelligence, though she clarified the US had no involvement or advance warning of Friday’s strike in Beirut. At this point, the Pentagon does not see imminent signs of an Israeli ground operation into Lebanon, but Singh deferred questions to the IDF to speak of their own operations.

IDF deploys more reserve brigades to North as military preps for cross border ops.

Jerusalem Post/September 27/2024
The two brigades included the 6th and 228th brigades and were mobilized as part of recent tensions along Israel's northern border.
The IDF mobilized the 6th and 228th reserve brigades for operational missions in northern Israel, the military announced on Friday. The military had previously announced that they mobilized these two brigades, though their recent statement confirmed which brigades and battalions were called up. The brigades were mobilized along with additional reserve battalions as part of the IDF's preparations for escalating conflict as tensions along Israel's northern border with Hezbollah in Lebanon ramp up. The brigades reportedly carried out various operations along the northern border over the course of the Israel-Hamas War. They were recently mobilized to enable combat efforts to continue, which the IDF said included targeting Hezbollah's military capabilities and creating conditions for residents of northern Israel to return home. This follows a Wednesday IDF announcement that the military was remobilizing two reserve brigades for operations in northern Israel. The military said recruiting additional reserve brigades would allow the fight against Hezbollah to continue. Halevi says IDF 'not stopping'. While attending IDF exercises in northern Israel, Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said, "We are not stopping. The air force is striking all day, and we are preparing for an operation."Additionally, on Wednesday, the IDF's 7th Brigade completed exercises near the Lebanese border and trained troops in maneuvering and combat in thicketed, mountainous terrains. The IDF noted that this exercise simulated operational and logistical readiness for various combat scenarios on the northern front. It also published images showing tanks moving to the North. Yuval Barnea contributed to this report.

Dozens Of UN Delegates Walk Out In Protest Ahead Of Benjamin Netanyahu's Evocative Speech
Kate Nicholson/HuffPost UK/September 27, 2024
Dozens of UN delegates walked out of the general assembly hall in silence the moment Benjamin Netanyahu started speaking on Friday. Cheers and applause rang out at the same time – although it’s not clear if that was for the Israeli prime minister or for the protest – while the UN president Philémon Yang called for “order, order, please”.This is the first UN General Assembly since the war in Gaza began on October 7. So this year, world leaders like UK PM Keir Starmer have used their UN speeches to plead for Israel and its foes – Hezbollah and Hamas – to “step back from the brink” and “stop the violence”.
Despite the wave of walk-outs, the Israeli PM began his speech by saying: “I didn’t intend to come here this year. My country is at war, fighting for its life. “But after I heard the lies and slander levelled at my country by many of the speakers at this podium, I decided to come here and set the record straight.”There was a cheer from the remaining delegates at that. He claimed: “Here’s the truth: Israel seeks peace. Israel yearns for peace. Israel has made peace and will make peace again.”Israel’s war against the Palestinian militants Hamas began when the Iran-backed group killed 1,200 people on Israeli soil and took around 250 others hostage. Israel declared war in retaliation, before bombing and invading Gaza, supposedly in an effort to wipe out the militants. Almost a year later, local authorities say 40,000 Palestinians have been killed. Israeli tensions with other Iranian-backed militant groups, like Lebanon-based Hezbollah, have also skyrocketed in the last 11 months, resulting in further conflicts and risking all-out war in the region. Netanyahu claimed Israel is now fighting on six fronts; Hezbollah attacks from Lebanon, Houthis from Yemen, Iran’s Shiite militias from Syria and Iraq, Hamas in the West Bank, and Iran.
But, the Israeli PM still claimed his country “is winning”, at the UN, and warned there is no place in Iran the “long arm” of Israel cannot reach. He also held up two maps of the Middle East – where Gaza and the West Bank were not separated from Israel – and claimed relations had normalised with Egypt, Sudan and Saudi Arabia into a “blessing” but described Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon as part of a “curse”.The Israeli PM added that it was “inconceivable” to allow Hamas to remain a part of Gaza when the war ends, claiming Israel has killed or captured “more than half” of Hamas members since the war began. He went on to accuse the UN and the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, who is trying to issue an arrest warrant for him, of “pure antisemitism”.Starmer reportedly tried to arrange a meeting with Netanyahu at the UN this week, but their diaries did not align. A planned meeting between the prime minister and Israel’s strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer, was also cancelled because Dermer delayed his travel to New York by a day. This all comes after the UK joined calls for Israel and Hezbollah to agree to an immediate ceasefire earlier this week. Netanyahu also condemned the UK for suspending 30 of approximately 350 arms licences to Israel at the start of September, saying it was a “shameful” move which would “embolden Hamas”.

Netanyahu to Iran at UN — 'If you strike us, we will strike you'
Jerusalem Post/September 27/2024
With respect to Hezbollah, he charged that it was “the quintessential terror organization in the world today."Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Iran not to directly attack the Jewish state, as he addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Friday morning. “If you strike us, we will strike you,” Netanyahu said. “There is no place in Iran where the long arm of Israel can not reach,” Netanyahu said. “Far from being lambs led to the slaughter, Israel will fight back,” Netanyahu said, adding, “We are winning.”Netanyahu spoke to the plenum as his country is fighting a multi-front war against Iranian proxies, namely Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. He was greeted by loud applause from the Israeli delegation while the entire Iranian walked out as he strode to the podium. Netanyahu explained that he had not wanted to come to the UN in the middle of those wars, but felt bound to so that he could speak Israel’s “truth” to the world. Israel, he said, stands between “the curse of Iran or the blessing of a historic normalization between Arabs and Jews.”He held up two maps, one showing what he described as Iran's long aggressive arm and the other showing the regional potential of expanding Israeli-Arab ties. One map was titled “the curse,” and the other, “the blessing." “Iran’s aggression will endanger every single country in the Middle East and many countries in the rest of the world,” he said. “For too long the world has appeased Iran, and turned a blind eye to its internal oppression and external aggression,” Netanyahu said. He pledged not to allow Iran to acquire or develop nuclear weapons and asked the United Nations, particularly the Security Council to take steps to make sure that Iran does not become a nuclear power. Netanyahu recalled the Hamas-led invasion of October 7, which sparked the Gaza war, and the Hezbollah attack on October 8, which sparked the constrained cross-border war along its northern border. This was followed by attacks from the Houthis in Yemen and a direct Iranian attack. Turning to Gaza, he called on Hamas to release the remaining 101 hostages and pledged not to end the war in Gaza until it does so. “All that has to happen” to end the Gaza war “is for Hamas to surrender, lay down its arms, and release all the hostages,” Netanyahu said. “If they do not, we will fight until we achieve total victory, there is no substitute,” he said. A small group of relatives of hostages were in the gallery, listening to his speech. "Hamas has got to go," Netanyahu stated. "Just imagine, for those who say Hamas has to stay, it has to be part of a post-war Gaza - imagine in a post-war situation - in World War Two, imagine allowing the defeated Nazis in 1945 to rebuild Germany." "It's inconceivable. It's ridiculous. It didn’t happen then, and it's not going to happen now,” Netanyahu added. With respect to Hezbollah, he charged that it was “the quintessential terror organization in the world today, it has murdered more Americans and Frenchmen than any [terror] group, except Iran,” Netanyahu stated. Don’t let Hezbollah drag Lebanon into the abyss,” Netanyahu said, explaining that as long as Hezbollah. Remained on Israel’s northern border, “Israel has no choice and every right to remove this threat and return our citizens” safely to their homes, he said.
Israel-Saudi normalization
Netanyahu spoke of the potential of Israel-Saudi normalization, noting that this could happen sooner than anyone could imagine. He recalled that when he was Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations he had fought against attempts to oust Israel from the global body. Now, he said, he finds himself in that same battle 49 years later, with the latest push to drive Israel out of the UN coming from Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas, not Hamas. The United Nations General Assembly, he said, and the body itself has a long history of bias against the Jewish state.In its “swamp of antisemitic vile,” there is an “automatic majority that is willing to demonize the Jewish state,” he said. “In this anti-Israel, flat earth society, any false charge, any outlandish allegation has a majority,” he stated, adding that since 2014, this body condemned Israel 174 times while condemning all the other countries in the world 73 times.
“Why hypocrisy, what a double standard, what a joke,” he said. He took particular issue with the recent resolution which sought to strip Israel of its right to self-defense, which he said was the same thing as determining that it should not exist. “If you can't defend yourself, you can’t exist, not in our neighborhood and maybe not in yours,” he said.Those who stand with Israel “should be ashamed of yourselves,” he said, adding that Israel will “win this battle” because “we do not have a choice.” Netanyahu quoted from the Bible stating that “the eternity of Israel will not falter” and from the famed poet Dylan Thomas. “Israel will not go gently into that good night. We will never cease to rage against the dying light, Israel will forever shine bright,” he said. “The people of Israel live, now, tomorrow, and forever,” he said.
Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.

Gunmen shoot and kill aid worker in Gaza, charity and family say
Nidal al-Mughrabi/CAIRO (Reuters)/September 27, 2024
Palestinian gunmen in the Gaza Strip shot and killed an aid worker from a U.S. based charity, firing on her car in what government officials told her family was a case of mistaken identity. The car in which Islam Hejazy, Gaza program manager at HEAL Palestine, was travelling was intercepted on Thursday in the area of Khan Younis in the south of the enclave. Gunmen riding in three cars sprayed the vehicle with dozens of bullets, according to residents and the woman's family. "She was the mother of two small children and a humanitarian with the highest ethics and professionalism," HEAL Palestine, posted on its Facebook page. "HEAL Palestine is more dedicated than ever to serving Gaza, in her honor. Ceasefire now," it added. Her family issued a statement on Friday, saying they were told by government parties at the hospital where her body was taken that she was killed by mistake. Her killers, whose identity wasn't immediately clear, had failed to identify the vehicle she was driving, they said. There has been no immediate comment from Hamas. "That was a bigger shock .. How would an innocent soul be wasted and 90 bullets fired at her car just for mistaken identification?" the family said in a statement published by Palestinian media. Reuters was not able to verify the number of bullets fired. The incident highlights growing chaos and anarchy in Gaza almost a year into Israel's military offensive, which has weakened the ability of Hamas-run security services to police the streets, according to the group. Palestinians have complained of rising theft, gangsters, and price-gouging merchants. Gaza has a population of 2.3 million people and most of them have been internally displaced by the war. Israel and Hamas have been fighting since gunmen from the Palestinian militant group stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and capturing some 250 hostages, by Israeli tallies. Israel responded with a military offensive in Gaza, which has killed more than 41,500 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.

Wrapping up mission, US troops will leave some longstanding bases in Iraq under new deal
Qassim Abdul-zahra And Tara Copp/WASHINGTON (AP)/September 27, 2024
The U.S. announced an agreement with the Iraqi government Friday to wrap up the military mission in Iraq of an American-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group by next year, with U.S. troops departing some bases that they have long occupied during a two-decade-long military presence in the country. But the Biden administration refused to provide details on how many of the approximately 2,500 U.S. troops still serving in Iraq will remain there or acknowledge it will mark a full withdrawal from the country. “I think it’s fair to say that, you know, our footprint is going to be changing within the country,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters Friday without providing specifics. The announcement comes at a particularly contentious time for the Middle East, with escalating conflict between Israel and two Iranian-backed militant groups — Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza — threatening a broader regional war. Bases housing U.S. forces and contractors have been regularly targeted by Iran-backed militias over the last several years, and those attacks intensified late last year and early this spring after the Israel-Hamas war broke out nearly a year ago. For years, Iraqi officials have periodically called for a withdrawal of coalition forces, and formal talks to wind down the U.S. presence in the country have been going on for months. U.S. officials who briefed reporters Friday said the agreement will bring about a two-phase transition in the troops assigned to Iraq that began this month. In the first phase, which runs through September 2025, the coalition mission against ISIS will end and forces will leave some longstanding bases. Following the November election, American forces will start departing from Ain al-Asad airbase in western Iraq and from Baghdad International Airport, according to Iraqi government officials who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity. Those forces will be moved to Hareer base in Erbil, in northern Iraq's Kurdistan region.
In the second phase, the U.S. will continue to operate in some fashion from Iraq through 2026 to support counter-ISIS operations in Syria, a senior Biden administration official and a senior defense official said on the condition of anonymity on a call with reporters to provide details ahead of the announcement. Ultimately, the U.S. military mission would transition to a bilateral security relationship, the U.S. officials said, but they did not indicate what that might mean for the number of American troops who remain in Iraq in the future.The Iraqi officials said some American troops may stay at Hareer base after 2026 because the Kurdistan regional government would like them to stay. “We have taken an important step in resolving the issue of the international coalition to fight ISIS,” Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani said in a speech this month. He noted “the government’s belief in the capabilities of our security forces that defeated the remnants of ISIS.”
The continued presence of U.S. troops has been a political vulnerability for Sudani, whose government is under increased influence from Iran. Iraq has long struggled to balance its ties with the U.S. and Iran, both allies of the Iraqi government but regional archenemies. “We thank the government for its position to expel the international coalition forces,” Qais Khazali, founder of Asaib Ahl al-Haq — an Iran-backed Iraqi Shia militia that has conducted attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq — said last week. But critics caution that this year’s surge of ISIS attacks in Syria across the desert border from Iraq suggest the drawdown in Iraq is a “really significant cause for concern,” said Charles Lister, a senior fellow with the Middle East Institute research center in Washington. The U.S. withdrawal from Iraq isn’t because ISIS has disappeared, Lister said. “The withdrawal is because there’s a significant proportion of the policy-making community in Baghdad that doesn’t want American troops on Iraqi soil.”The agreement marks the third time in the last two decades that the U.S. has announced a formal transition of the military's role there.
The U.S. invaded Iraq in March 2003 in what it called a massive “shock and awe” bombing campaign that lit up the skies, laid waste to large sections of the country and paved the way for American ground troops to converge on Baghdad. The invasion was based on what turned out to be faulty claims that Saddam Hussein had secretly stashed weapons of mass destruction. Such weapons never materialized. The U.S. presence grew to more than 170,000 troops at the peak of counterinsurgency operations in 2007. The Obama administration negotiated the drawdown of forces, and in December 2011, the final combat troops departed, leaving only a small number of military personnel behind to staff an office of security assistance and a detachment of Marines to guard the embassy compound. In 2014, the rise of the Islamic State group and its rapid capture of a wide swath across Iraq and Syria brought U.S. and partner nation forces back at the invitation of the Iraqi government to help rebuild and retrain police and military units that had fallen apart and fled. After ISIS lost its hold on the territory it once claimed, coalition military operations ended in 2021. An enduring U.S. presence of about 2,500 troops stayed in Iraq to maintain training and conduct partnered counter-ISIS operations with Iraq's military. In the years since, the U.S. has maintained that presence to pressure Iranian-backed militias active in Iraq and Syria. The presence of American forces in Iraq also makes it more difficult for Iran to move weapons across Iraq and Syria into Lebanon, for use by its proxies, including the Lebanese Hezbollah, against Israel.

The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on September 27-28/2024
Rape is Resistance and Beepers are Genocide

Daniel Greenfield/Gatestone Institute/September 27, 2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/09/134968/
Those same organizations [that condemned Israel's exploding pagers] and activists had nothing to say about the Hezbollah rocket attacks on Israeli towns and villages that turned tens of thousands of Jews into refugees in their own country.
There is no legitimate way for Israel (or any non-Muslim country) to take out an Islamic terrorist. No amount of warnings, phone calls and dropped leaflets and roof-knocking warning projectiles were enough of a precaution. Even hostage-rescue operations were condemned for killing terrorists who, in the usual Hamas medical department parlance, turned into innocent children.
And there's also no such thing as an illegitimate Muslim way to murder Jews.
The Democrat political establishment can't seem to get around to condemning the Islamic groups attacking synagogues and marching through the streets praising the rape and murder of Jews.
Every Israeli tactic is illegitimate because the cause, a Jewish State, is illegitimate, but no Islamic tactic is ever truly illegitimate because its cause, replacing Israel with an Islamic state, is legitimate.
The liberal anti-Israel establishment in D.C., human rights groups and the media have played a cynical game of focusing on Israel tactics as if they actually cared how Israel takes out terrorists, and as if there were any means of taking out terrorists that would win their approval.
What makes people cheer for Israel are accomplishments, winning a war in six days, rescuing hostages from Africa, taking out an Islamic nuclear program on July 4th, and detonating the communications devices of a terrorist group responsible for killing Americans.
Israel has been held hostage trying to win over those who cannot be won over. Much of the liberal establishment has either become radicalized into permanently opposing Israel or has become complicit with those who do. The only narrative it will accept is the same demands that Israel be dismantled piece by piece and parceled out to Islamic terrorists in exchange for peace.
No one cheers weakness, they only respect strength.
The only way to win... is to win.
No sooner did the encrypted pagers used by members of Hezbollah begin exploding than human rights experts and the UN began condemning the single greatest targeted attack on a terror group as a violation of international law. Those same organizations and activists had nothing to say about the Hezbollah rocket attacks on Israeli towns and villages that turned tens of thousands of Jews into refugees in their own country. Pictured: A photo taken on September 18, 2024 in Beirut shows the remains of a Hezbollah pager that exploded the day before. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)
The myth that Israel's tactics, not its existence, is at issue died with the murdered Jewish families on October 7, 2023 and the Hezbollah terrorists taken out by pagers on September 17, 2024.
No sooner did the encrypted communications devices handed out to members of the Islamic Jihadist group begin exploding than human rights experts and the UN began condemning the single greatest targeted attack on a terror group as a violation of international law. Those same organizations and activists had nothing to say about the Hezbollah rocket attacks on Israeli towns and villages that turned tens of thousands of Jews into refugees in their own country.
There is no legitimate way for Israel (or any non-Muslim country) to take out an Islamic terrorist. No amount of warnings, phone calls and dropped leaflets and roof-knocking warning projectiles were enough of a precaution. Even hostage-rescue operations were condemned for killing terrorists who, in the usual Hamas medical department parlance, turned into innocent children.
And there's also no such thing as an illegitimate Muslim way to murder Jews. Oct 7 proved that. Nearly a year later, Islamic groups are still celebrating the orgy of butchery, kidnapping and rape. The Democratic Socialists of America, which boasts 5 allied Members of Congress including Rep. Rashida Tlaib, has taken to arguing in favor of "armed resistance" and Hamas.
More Democrats have taken to social media to condemn a Detroit News cartoon which implied that Tlaib's support for terrorism may have led her to worry about her pager, than two recent Muslim terrorist plots to massacre Jews in synagogues in Las Vegas and New York City. The Democrat political establishment can't seem to get around to condemning the Islamic groups attacking synagogues and marching through the streets praising the rape and murder of Jews.
The liberal establishment accepts the Islamic terrorist cause but rejects the Israeli cause.
That's why when it comes to Islamic terrorism, it emphasizes the cause over the tactics, but when it comes to Israel, it emphasizes the tactics over the cause. Every Israeli tactic is illegitimate because the cause, a Jewish State, is illegitimate, but no Islamic tactic is ever truly illegitimate because its cause, replacing Israel with an Islamic state, is legitimate.
No matter how often the Arab Muslim invaders occupying parts of Gaza and the West Bank pledge their allegiance to terror, we are told that their ultimate cause is just and inevitable. And that the killings, kidnappings and rapes don't truly represent the moral righteousness of it.
While every time Israel takes out a terrorist, the media links it to the Jewish "occupation" of those parts of Israel that the terrorists demand for themselves. Since Israel's existence is wrong, any tactic that it uses to fight the terrorists trying to take it over is a human rights violation.
The Marxist mobs in the street are at least honest about their ideological orientation. They define all Jews living in Israel as "settlers" who are fair game for genocide. Whether Israel takes them out with drone strikes, exploding beepers or Barney songs played on a loop doesn't much matter except as it's useful for propaganda materials calling for the destruction of Israel.
The liberal anti-Israel establishment in D.C., human rights groups and the media have played a cynical game of focusing on Israel tactics as if they actually cared how Israel takes out terrorists and as if there were any means of taking out terrorists that would win their approval. A generation of the Israeli military jumping through every possible hoop has yielded only angrier and more sanctimonious condemnations every time another terrorist bites the dust.
Israel has wasted a lot of the lives of its soldiers and civilians on its side in the hopes of achieving some phantom "purity of arms" that included an extensive approvals process for strikes that crippled its aerial response on Oct 7. Afterward things got better and worse. The pager attack was brilliantly calculated and yet crippled by an obsessive need to take out specific targets rather than inflicting as much damage on the Hezbollah terrorists as possible.
The painstaking efforts to monitor the terrorists to minimize collateral damage and to focus on specific targets did not change the inevitable condemnations that came rolling Israel's way.
The real lesson of the pager attacks was that an innovative Israeli attack on Islamic terrorists will be cheered by the right people and condemned by the wrong ones. Israeli hasbara (public relations) is a fundamentally misguided effort to explain the need for a war whose hand-wringing signals weakness and guilt. What makes people cheer for Israel are accomplishments, winning a war in six days, rescuing hostages from Africa, taking out an Islamic nuclear program on July 4th, and detonating the communications devices of a terrorist group responsible for killing Americans.
No one except the occasional military expert who tours the battlefield is impressed by Israeli restraint. And restraint will win not a single concession from the same establishment that can't bring itself to condemn by name the mobs waving Hamas flags and assaulting Jewish students.
Israel has been held hostage trying to win over those who cannot be won over. Much of the liberal establishment has either become radicalized into permanently opposing Israel or has become complicit with those who do. The only narrative it will accept is the same demands that Israel be dismantled piece by piece and parceled out to Islamic terrorists in exchange for peace.
That the peace has never come, that the negotiations are worthless and that the only product of two generations of concessions is endless war will not change a single mind. Just as the implication of the revelation that Hamas planned to murder Israeli hostages before handing them over in exchange for live Muslim terrorists was hardly even discussed in the media.
After nine months of demanding a deal with Hamas at any cost, the Biden administration has belatedly decided that the terrorist group is not serious about a deal, but that news hasn't changed Kamala Harris's set talking point about the urgent need to end the war and cut a deal. Nor will it change her policy should she be in a position to stop talking and start making the rules.
Israel has been divided by the need to balance winning wars against winning over public opinion, but the public opinion of the establishment was never winnable, and if it is winnable, it can only be won by winning wars. The Biden administration's policymakers will never admit it, but they were far more impressed by the pager attacks than by 9 months of negotiations. The same is more obviously true of Arab-Muslim countries that despise Hezbollah and fear Iran.
No one cheers weakness, they only respect strength.
Israel will never have even the grudging acceptance of those who believe that rape is resistance and beepers are genocide. Accommodating military tactics to their accusations has led to a loop of defeatism that culminated in the deadly infiltration, invasion and massacres of Oct 7. But it can best be a player on the world stage by showing its strength rather than its weakness.
One Pagergeddon was worth a hundred Nova documentaries and exhibitions about the unhappy victims who were assaulted at the music festival to morale, national security and the reputation of a nation built on repudiating the helplessness and victimhood of its long exile.
Oct 7 incited the dark glee of a movement that believes it can taste Israel's destruction. Protestations of innocence and victimhood only feed its triumphalism. What it fears isn't a documentary about the atrocities of Oct 7, but the destruction of its Jihadist armies.
The issue was never Israel's tactics, but Israel's existence. The only way to win... is to win.
**Daniel Greenfield is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. This article previously appeared at the Center's Front Page Magazine.
© 2024 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20970/beepers-are-genocide

Quick, Angry Impressions on the Margins of War
Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/September 28/2024
- Once again, humans become an ephemeral detail. Devastated civilians, mourning loved ones they have lost, homes that have been destroyed, and lives of poverty and deprivation they will face... these are all mere numbers, or scenes we watch as they unfold on our television screens.
No one takes these people into consideration as they lay out their war plans. The more numerous dead people are, the better, because in the mayhem of war, their only utility is to serve as evidence of the enemy's brutality. They validate "what we told you," and have been saying for a hundred years.
- Dignity? The displacement of hundreds of thousands of people from the South and the Bekaa (after the mass displacement in Gaza) is the epitome of dignity. Where is the problem? In a year, or two, or ten, another leader, or perhaps the same one, could invite them to return to their homes, only to be displaced again. We heard and saw this call just a few weeks ago, superciliously dropped on residents from above like it were largesse.
That is how we have approached dignity since the late sixties; we have never once failed it and it has never failed us. That is how we, the people of Lebanon, became the most dignified on earth!
- Declaring defeat is ugly and painful, and it certainly entails a high cost on those who do so. However, that cost pales in comparison to the costs of resistance and steadfastness. Do you want numbers, or is this a matter of a stray spirit that cannot be measured in figures as it looks down on any data and all that is concrete?
- Sometimes it seems that all our history does is repeat itself, providing those who essentialize us and paint us rigid with enough arguments to make their point. We are occupied, so we resist; we resist, so we are occupied, and so on until the end of time. When this cycle winds down, we find ourselves in limbo, surrendering to our ordinary life that lacks honor and dignity. Resist then; you are guaranteed to be occupied, and then to resist and be occupied again... and to keep living in an endless epic.
- Can anyone tell us the point at which we would stop fighting or declare defeat? How many people would have to be killed? How much land has to be occupied? How many homes have to be destroyed? How many harvests have to be burned? Any one of these criteria could be binding, assuming there can be a criterion?
The Iranian regime, it seems, has set a standard for transitioning to "moderation." The Syrian regime preceded it, setting a standard for passivity and disavowal. In Lebanon, our standard is the will to resist, and naturally, this will is unbreakable because it is "God’s will." Is there anything visible in this world of spirits?
- After the liberation that some promise us, and the erasure of the usurping entity that the more flexible wing of this same cohort promises us, what will we do? What is our program? Program? What a dull word!
- The tragedy of the Palestinians is compounded by the tragedy of how Palestine has been exploited, so much so that the word has become synonymous with disaster for the people of Lebanon and Syria after it had already been for Palestinians. The culture of proposing disaster to the two nations has become mainstream in Arab political culture.
- Something significant has ended, even if this finality continues to be denied. Together, the end and its denial compound death.
In Lebanon, at least, the current tragedy should be expected to broaden and consolidate an existing majority. This majority does not want to live haplessly, generation after generation, with no say on their lives or deaths merely because "a handful of honorable men have decided to resist." What this majority builds is destroyed, and its dreams are shattered for the sake of this sheer absurd madness, crested with lies and hot air. These are people who love both their country and life itself.
- Anyone who takes even a quick glance at social media is horrified by the intensity of sectarian hatred (which often intersects with national or factional divisions) that has been unleashed by this war. Haven’t the knights of war promised that nothing would unite us like a conflict with the Zionist enemy? It is yet another prophecy being fulfilled before our eyes!
This war, within the confines of its Lebanese theater, is the culmination of a long and diligent effort to destroy Lebanon: its destruction as a space with modest freedoms, peace, and openness to the world, and as an entity capable of reform and change, as was evident when the 2006 war was instigated to eradicate the climate that arose after March 14, 2005, and when honorable youths who coming back home from their genocidal mission in Syria were called on to eradicate the movement that arose on October 17, 2019.
Yes, this is how we should be and should remain. We should keep resisting and being occupied, and then be occupied and resist, turning into a mass cemetery that mainstream Arab culture calls a great epic of melting in the love of Palestine.

To Prevent Lebanon from Becoming Another Gaza!

Hanna Saleh/Asharq Al-Awsat/September 28/2024
The third Lebanon War is close to becoming totally unrestrained, and the country is exposed. Israel launched a devastating incursion by air last Saturday that has turned into genocide since Monday. Massacres have been perpetrated in the south and the Bekaa Valley, resulting in a heavy toll: over 600 people have died and more than 2,000 have been injured. Hospitals have shut down, and broad panic has led to the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands humiliated by belligerent arrogance!
The rapidly developing situation threatens grim outcomes. It seems that Lebanon is on course to become another Gaza, with Zionist savagery creating several small Gazas in border towns that have been turned to ashes! This dangerous trajectory began the moment Israel’s security cabinet made the "safe return of northern residents to their homes" an official objective of the war. Israel has been launching lethal strikes since the 17th of September. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he had promised to change the "balance of power in the north” and to “eliminate senior officials and remove the missile threat." Meanwhile, the Pentagon has said that "a wider regional conflict is very likely."
From the very moment the terrifying spiral began, Hezbollah, which dragged the country into this destructive war, should have abandoned its intransigence by reassessing its internal issues and its relationship with other Lebanese actors. One minute of the day of the "deadly call" made Lebanon seem weaker than a spiderweb. Without firing a single bullet, Israel neutralized around 4,000 people, mostly members of the militia, field commanders, and elite fighters. After the walkie-talkies were blown up, the national tragedy as the tally of families affected rose to 6,000.
Meanwhile, Hassan Nasrallah ignored the implications of the Israeli government incorporating the northern front into its war objectives, raising the stakes after having rejected every viable political initiative for a settlement. He doubled down on linking Lebanon's fate to Gaza, i.e., to Netanyahu's fate and interests, thereby providing Israel with an opportunity to launch its third war on Lebanon, which it sees as an alternative to a broader conflict, to achieve a resounding restoration of deterrence. To any serious political actor, that was obviously on the cards. Indeed, the party all but invited war, whereas the wise thing to do would be to avoid it. Israel responded with Operation Buffalo, targeting Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil and the leaders of the Radwan Force, revealing dangerous shifts:
First, Hezbollah failed to address Israel’s deep intelligence and security infiltration. The assassination of three highly prominent figures in the party’s stronghold (Arouri, Shukr, and Aqil) culminated last Monday with the attack that injured Ali Karaki, one of the two living members of Hezbollah’s top brass.
Second, the empty slogans and false narratives about the rules of engagement, the achievements of Hezbohllah’s harassment and support, and a balance of deterrence have collapsed. However, it keeps trying to sell deluded notions, as well as refusing to acknowledge the gravity of these failures, leading to death and destruction across the country.
Third, the statelet’s approach to dealing with the Lebanese people and “its community” has been exposed. It mirrors the Iranian regime in its indifference to the people's hopes and concerns, treating the calamities it causes as mere collateral damage of the effort to consolidate Iran’s control. If that were not the case, its leadership, headquarters, and ammunition would not be located in densely populated residential areas.
Fourth, the claims that the statelet’s arsenal protects the country, as well as the assertion that these weapons allow for self-defense, have been debunked. It is now evident that the state, which has been weakened, hollowed out, and plagued by corruption and poverty, remains capable of restoring security and stability, as well as protecting everyone, including Hezbollah, which is now fighting for its own existence.
Amid the painful strikes acknowledged by Nasrallah, and while its “nucleus of support" and broad segments of the "party" are awaiting the support of the factions that have committed to a "unity of fronts," Tehran announced that it is ready to negotiate its nuclear program. The Iranian president presented himself as a peace advocate in New York, stressing that his country would not intervene in the Israel-Hezbollah war and implying that the role of its proxies is merely to serve as tools Tehran uses to conclude dirty deals with Washington and Tel Aviv!
Nothing should be prioritized over the need to save Lebanon and the lives of its citizens. There is still time to prevent Lebanon from becoming another Gaza, despite the world turning its back on the massacre and the plans to crush Lebanon, granting Israel cover to escalate its crimes under the pretext of reducing Hezbollah's military capabilities.
Things have reached a point where the pulling to the north of the Litani River is no longer enough. To stop the bleeding, the remnants of the country’s authorities and the political class must face their moral responsibilities and protect civilian lives. The government must stop behaving like a mere spokesperson for Hezbollah and its project. The government must send substantial military forces to the south now, thereby delivering an unequivocal message about its intention to fully implement UN Resolution 1701 and the new proposals being put forward to safeguard Lebanon's sovereignty and allow the state to once again make decisions of war and peace. A different policy is needed to allow Lebanon's friends to play supportive roles and lay the foundations for ending the war. That could potentially allow Hezbollah to find a way back down.

A War of Choice and a War of Necessity
Amir Taheri/Asharq Al-Awsat/September 28/2024
Last week, on a single day of an undeclared war, one of the protagonists suffered more than 500 deaths and more than 1,600 wounded, a total of over 2,200 casualties.
The country in question has a population of 5 million. Now imagine if that casulaty figure had occurred in a country with a population of say 90 million; the proportionate casualty figure would work out at a staggering 34,000.
Well, as you guessed the first country mentioned is Lebanon. which has been dragged into a war on behalf of the second country that is to say the Islamic Republic in Iran.
I said dragged into a war because as everyone must know neither the Lebanese people nor what is still regarded as the Lebanese government were consulted on the wisdom let alone the desirability of triggering such a war.
The tragic episode has created a new category of war: kangaroo proxy war.
In it, the proxy uses the territory of a nation with no interest in or desire for a war in order to protect and promote the real or imaginary of a distant master.
Broadly speaking, we know two kinds of wars: of choice and or of necessity. In a war of choice, a protagonist enters the foray by choice and in the absence of any pressure from necessity. The United States was sucked into the Vietnam War by choice as did the USSR in Afghanistan and more recently Russia in Ukraine. In none of those cases, the party that gate crashed into a civil war, as was the case in Vietnam and Afghanistan or triggered an unnecessary war as is the case in Ukraine faced any mortal danger or serious threat to its vital interests.
The war of necessity, however caused by a sentiment that a protagonist's vital interests, indeed even its very existence, may be in danger.
Back to the current wars in our region. The October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas was a war of choice. Hamas was in no mortal danger from Israel, and Gaza was doing relatively better thanks to a fairly long period of calm, growing foreign investment and a tripling of Israeli work permits for Gazan seasonal workers. There wasn't the remotest possibility of Israel wishing to reconquer Gaza and dislodge Hamas.
In practical, that is to say non-ideological terms, Hamas could have chosen to live
with and profit from the status quo rather than seeking to upset it in a manner that forced the adversary into a war of necessity.
Israel's initial reaction to the October 7 attack was a war of necessity, at least in the field of geo-political perceptions. Israel was in the same situation that the US had been after 9/11. At that time, the US might have limited its response to a police operation to dislodge the Taliban and if possible capture Osama bin Laden and his senior associates without getting involved in a 20-year low intensity war with no discernible geopolitical benefit for America.
What had started as a war of necessity morphed into a war of choice when US Democrats, having declared the Iraq war "the wrong war" dubbed the imbroglio in Afghanistan "the right war."
Is Israel heading in the same direction by transforming a war of necessity into one of choice?
It is too early to offer a definitive answer to that question. What is clear, however, is that the activities of Tehran's proxies in Yemen, Iraq and above all Lebanon encourage those in Israel who wish to transform a war of necessity into one choice with the ultimate goal of eliminating Hezbollah and, later why not, the Khomeinist regime in Tehran.
Whichever way one looks at it, the war of choice that Hezbollah started by breaking the 2006 ceasefire accord and ignoring the 1701 UN resolution can't but lead to disaster for Tehran's Trojan Horse in Beirut. It will also provide Israel with a strong "self-defense" argument to justify pursuing the war in Gaza while Hassan Nasrallah claims he is bombarding northern Israel in support of his imaginary ally Yahya Sinwar crouched in his tunnel.
Paradoxically, dragging Lebanon into the foray makes it more difficult if not impossible for Sinwar, provided he is still alive, to accept any ceasefire deal.
And even if he does, there is no guarantee that Israel would suddenly abandon a golden chance to cut Hezbollah down to size especially with assurances from Iran not to do anything consequential to protect its Lebanese protege.
Nasrallah is two intelligent not to realize that he has been sold a bundle by Tehran. He became a tool in a war that was someone else's choice but is becoming his necessity.
Worse still Tehran media are already musing about changes in Hezbollah paving the path for a cynical blame game of the kind only mullahs made in Iran are capable of. Soft-soaping the gullible Americans, President Masoud Pezeshkian in New York conjured the peace dove out of his invisible turban. The subtext was: we can call back the hounds of war we unleashed

Hezbollah at the Finish Line
Nadim Koteich/Asharq Al-Awsat/September 28/2024
To justify the severe blows it has received, Hezbollah and its supporters console themselves with the notion that "we have been sacrificing martyrs for 40 years."
The party’s shrewd bi-pronged propaganda game is centered around this theme. Managing the contradictions of its narrative, it glorifies leaders who have fallen in battles or been assassinated and portrays them as legends, before swiftly transitioning to an antithetical claim: losing these legendary leaders does not undermine the party’s efforts or project in any way.
It seems that this game is no longer sufficient for boosting morale and mobilizing support at this point, as Hezbollah is undergoing the most difficult phase it has been through since it was established in 1982.
Within less than a year, a deep crisis has undermined its leadership structure, military capabilities, and operational effectiveness, raising serious questions about its future in Lebanon and the regional geopolitical landscape.
First: the penetration of Hezbollah's communication networks has dealt a severe blow to a crucial pillar of any organization or army’s capabilities. Without them, no fighting force can wage any kind of conflict.
Israel’s ability to penetrate mobile phones has left the party exposed since the conflict began, allowing the Israelis to locate and eliminate a large number of the party’s field commanders. Later on, following the assassination of military commander Fuad Shukr, it became apparent that Israel had even succeeded in infiltrating Hezbollah's private landline communication network- the same network that Hezbollah had fought a "mini civil war"to maintain in 2008.
The most consequential blow was dealt when Israel lured Hezbollah into making a deal to purchase thousands of booby-trapped pagers, most of which detonated in the hands of their users within less than 30 minutes, critically injuring many operatives and officials. This breach opened the door to locating figures like the commander of the Radwan Unit, Ibrahim Aqil, who had been injured as a result of this very operation. He was identified after Israel hacked into the surveillance cameras of the hospital where he was receiving treatment, and then tracked his movements after he was discharged, leading them to the building in the southern suburb of Beirut (Dahyieh) where he held his final meeting around 24 hours later.
The scale of the collapse of Hezbollah's secure communications is immense. Even without accounting for the scale of the injuries and losses it caused, this breakdown makes it impossible for Hezbollah to engage in a direct conflict with Israel.
By bombarding the location of the meeting in Beirut’s southern suburb, Israel demonstrated that Hezbollah is in chaos and that it has lost its operational efficiency and that its command and control capabilities have collapsed due to the severe breach of its communications infrastructure.
Second: its breach of Hezbollah’s communications has allowed Israel to launch devastating preemptive strikes on Hezbollah’s military infrastructure, including its weapon depots, rocket launching sites, fortified positions, and drone and missile assembly plants. The most notable strikes were launched on August 25th, when around 100 Israeli fighter jets destroyed thousands of Hezbollah rocket launchers that were about to be used in attacks on northern and central Israel in retaliation for the assassination of Fuad Shukr.
Anticipation and speculation of Hezbollah’s retaliation have not dominated the media coverage since then. The general impression is that, although it managed to launch a few rockets or sought to project strength by launching rockets at the vicinity of Haifa, Hezbollah has completely lost the initiative. Indeed, with the assassination of Fuad Shukr, the preemptive strike that followed, and finally, the strike that eliminated an unprecedented number of Hezbollah’s top brass in the heart of Beirut’s southern suburb, Israel has raised the stakes to an entirely new level.
Third: the most painful blow might be Israel’s systematic assassination of Hezbollah leaders and its pivotal operatives. The Israeli military has released an image of Hezbollah’s leadership structure showing that the party has lost about 70 percent (6 out of 9) of its military and field commanders. Its assassinations have also targeted hundreds of Hezbollah figures that oversee critical operations, including drone warfare, cyberwar, special coordination units, and key field commanders and personnel.
Given how rapidly and extensively Israel has drained the party’s human capabilities, a massive strategic vacuum has emerged and it will be difficult to fill in the near future. These assassinations have not only weakened the party’s effectiveness in the field but have also devastated its morale and strategic vision.
As a result, Hezbollah now finds itself in the worst situation it has ever been in. Its communication networks were compromised, its military infrastructure was destroyed, and it is bleeding leaders and cadres. The hits it has taken in the past few weeks are more consequential than all the blow it has received over the past few decades combined, raising existential questions about Hezbollah’s future, its role in Lebanon, and its standing among its allies and adversaries in the Middle East.

Selected Important Tweets
Hanin Ghaddar
The #Shia fleeing the war are literally left on their own, for the first time.
- The #Lebanese government has forgotten to put an emergency plan in place to help refugees. The government is broke anyway.
- #Hezbollah’s social service teams are nowhere to be seen. In 2016 they were all over refugee centers helping people with food, medicine, and mattresses. They are afraid to come out now.
- Except for a few volunteers who can afford to help, the refugees would starve.
- Many couldn’t take the humiliation and went back to their homes in the south and #Dahiyeh.
- Some decided to break into empty apartments by force; others are just trying to survive; and many left to Syria, with no guarantees of aid for a long term displacement.
- The worst part? Hezbollah leaders and commanders sent their families - by planes - to Iraq, including the family of #Nasrallah himself - leaving the Shia community alone; completely alone.
- This is not going to end well; and many Shia are already blaming Hezbollah.

Hussain Abdul-Hussain
Shia partisans of #Hezbollah have relocated away from their dangerous territory to safer non-Shia neighborhoods across #Lebanon. As displaced guests, the Hezbollahis refuse to be nice, but are acting as if they own the world, threatening their non-Shia hosts with consequences when the war with #Israel ends. The Shia partisans of Hezbollah seem certain that this war is a replica of 2006. All they have to do is hunker down for the duration of the war, and then dig out after few weeks and take out the rage of their defeat to Israel against fellow Lebanese.
#Lebanon looks doomed. But in the off chance that Hezbollah weakens, the Lebanese will tear it apart in revenge. The idea that Hezbollah is a popular organization that represents the Lebanese will, to support Palestinians and war with #Israel, is one huge lie.
Hezbollah is more popular in New York City and on U.S. college campuses than it is in its own country — Lebanon.

What’s next for #Hezbollah, if #Nasrallah is killed.
Hanin Ghaddar
- On the political level: As I said in my succession paper a few years back, not only he is the most charismatic Hezbollah leader (he speaks colloquial Arabic; not Fusha, he smiles, he jokes), and no one else does that.
- He is also linked to Hezbollah’s legacy and victories - the liberation of 2000, and the “divine victory” of 2006. The successor - if they survived - won’t be able to fill these shoes. They be linked to the group’s failures and challenges.
- On the military level, the IRGC used to coordinate with Hezbollah on vital decisions, and Nasrallah - along with senior commanders - would lead the battle, command forces, implement decisions. With all senior commanders killed (except Ali Karaki) the Iranians will have a problem. Either they will have to lead themselves, or they’ll accept the ceasefire initiative via the Lebanese government.
- In any case, the Iranians don’t know Lebanon, and can’t shape political dynamics. This is big opportunity for the Lebanese opposition - vital moment for a unified opposition coalition.
- Hezbollah might turn its arms inwards. And it’s vital for the international community to take advantage of this moment to protect and support the opposition.