Jerusalem Post: EU refuses to outlaw the entire Hezbollah terrorist entity/IDF drills for war with Hezbollah as tensions with Iran rise/الإتحاد الأوروبي يرفض وضع حزب الله كوحدة متكاملة على قوائم الإرهاب والجيش الإسرائيلي يجري مناورات حربية تحاكي حرب محتملة مع حزب الله
الإتحاد الأوروبي يرفض وضع حزب الله كوحدة متكاملة على قوائم الإرهاب والجيش الإسرائيلي يجري مناورات حربية تحاكي حرب محتملة مع حزب الله
EU refuses to outlaw the entire Hezbollah terrorist entity Benjamin Weinthal/Jerusalem Post/November 01/2021
IDF drills for war with Hezbollah as tensions with Iran rise Ann Ahronheim/Jerusalem Post/November 01/2021
Known as “Even Gazit” or “Hewn Stone,” the operation will see all echelons of Northern Command participate in the drills to improve offensive and defensive capabilities.
As tensions continue to rise with Iran, the Israeli military kicked off a month-long series of exercises simulating war on its northern border with Lebanon, to improve the preparedness of forces against Hezbollah.
Known as “Even Gazit” or “Hewn Stone” the exercises will see all levels of the Northern Command participate in the drills whose goal is to “improve the defensive and offensive capabilities of the IDF against a variety of scenarios,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said in a statement.
During the month, there will be drills and divisional exercises that will simulate “multi-front, intensive and drawn-out combat, with conscripted and reservist troops taking part, from all headquarters of the Northern Command, in collaboration with the General Staff directorates, the Ground Forces, Air Force, and Navy,” the statement continued.
Cyber and spectrum along with intelligence bodies will also take part in the drills that will also focus on the integration of all forces as part of the IDF’s “Victory” concept.
It comes alongside a surprise General Staff drill that examines the readiness of reserve forces in the Northern Command to respond to an explosive incident along the border with Lebanon.
During the exercise, calls will be made and text messages sent to reservists, some of whom will be asked to report to their units.
The IDF said that both drills were planned in advance as part of the 2021 training schedule.
The drills are also occurring alongside a major nationwide home front exercise that kicked off yesterday also simulating war against the Shi’ite terror army.
Last week the 401st Armored Division’s 9th Battalion held a two-week-long drill alongside infantry forces from the Nahal and Givati Brigades in the Jordan Valley.
Like the other two drills, it simulated drawn-out combat against Hezbollah in Lebanon and is working on joint maneuvering of forces.
The intensive drill also saw the use of intelligence collection by ground reconnaissance forces and drones in the air as well as support by the Air Force and Artillery batteries.
“We aren’t fighting alone, the power of the IDF means bringing intense firepower wherever needed,” said the Commander of the 9th Battalion, Lt.-Col. Eliezer A. “We want the firepower to get to where we need it to be before we get there.”
The Merkava Mark IV equipped with the Trophy active protection system used by the battalion, “are always in the front,” he said.
The IDF hasn’t conducted a proper ground maneuver in enemy territory since troops entered Gaza in 2009 during Operation Cast Lead. During Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012 and Operation Protective Edge in 2014, the IDF and political leadership chose to rely mainly on the air force, keeping the ground troops and armored corps out of the Strip or in the border area to neutralize Hamas tunnels.
But the military knows that a war in the north will not be able to rely solely on the air force and has therefore been carrying out intensive drills in the northern part of the country simulating war with Hezbollah.
The 9th Battalion took part in the Second Lebanon War, but, Lt.-Col. A said, “a lot has changed since the last time we fought in Lebanon.”
“The 9th battalion fought in the battle of Wadi Saluki and had a lot of casualties,” he said. “The Nahal brigade also fought in Wadi Saluki and the joint cooperation between forces wasn’t as good as it is now…”
The battle of Wadi Saluki was one of the fiercest battles of the Second Lebanon War during the Litani offensive, a few hours before the UN-brokered cease-fire went into effect. Tanks from the 9th Battalion crossed the wadi and Nahal infantrymen had been deployed on the high ground outside Andouriya and Farun to provide cover for the tanks below who were facing fierce Hezbollah resistance.
Twelve IDF troops were killed, eight tankists and four infantrymen and some 80 Hezbollah militants were killed before the ceasefire went into effect in the early morning of August 14th.
Fifteen years later, both sides are learning and improving their battle plans for future confrontations.
“I think that since that battle, one of the main things we’ve learned is how to fight together,” Lt.-Col. A said. “The enemy is learning, but so are we.”
EU refuses to outlaw the entire Hezbollah terrorist entity Benjamin Weinthal/November 01/2021
Europe stays mum on terming the Islamic Republic an antisemitic regime
Amid complaints by European Jewish leaders that the European Union does not have a serious plan to fight rising antisemitism on the continent, a spokesman for the EU told The Jerusalem Post that the EU will not ban the entire terrorist movement Hezbollah and declines to say if the Islamic Republic is an antisemitic regime.
When the Post asked about a full ban of Hezbollah, Katharina von Schnurbein, the European Commission Coordinator on combating Antisemitism and fostering Jewish life, punted the question to her EU superiors.
Peter Stano, EU Spokesperson for Foreign Policy, told the Post that “The military wing of Hezbollah is already on EU terror list. Any changes in the nature and scope of the existing listing are for EU Member States to discuss and decide by unanimity.”
After Hezbollah operatives blew up an Israeli tourist bus in 2012 in Burgas, Bulgaria, murdering five Israelis and their Bulgarian Muslim bus driver, the EU merely proscribed Hezbollah’s military wing.
Hezbollah considers it organization to be a unified movement that cannot be divided into military and political parts. The partial ban sparked Hezbollah spokesman Ibrahim Mousawi, in 2013, to reiterate what other top officials of the organization have stated over the years: “Hezbollah is a single, large organization. We have no wings that are separate from one another.”
When asked if the Islamic Republic of Iran—the chief sponsor and strategic ally of Hezbollah—is an antisemitic regime, Stano said that the “EU has been very clear in its condemnation of antisemitism in general and of the calls for destruction of Israel by anyone who comes up with such unacceptable calls.”
The Anti-Defamation League’s CEO ,Jonathan Greenblatt, testified before the House Subcommittee on Intelligence and Counterterrorism in 2020 and said at the hearing that Iran’s regime is the top state-sponsor of Holocaust denial and antisemitism.
Greenblatt wrote in Newsweek in late June that ” Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi, played a hands-on role in promoting The Protocols as part of a sustained campaign to demonize and delegitimize the Jewish people.” The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was “a 19th century forgery by Russian intelligence services…designed to scapegoat Jews for the empire’s hardships.”
Several reasons why the EU commission won’t declare the Islamic Republic an antisemitic regime might be explained by attempts not to upset the clerical leaders in Tehran in order to reach an agreement on the nation’s nuclear program.
European Union member nations are also animated by Iranian markets and trade deals, including Iran’s vast oil and gas production process.
When questioned if the EU will condemn the Iranian’s regime lethal antisemitism and Holocaust denial, the spokesperson said “We do it everytime we are confronted with such remarks, not only in case of Iran.”
Christian Wigand, EU Commission Spokesperson for Justice, told the Post that “The European Commission reaffirms its firm and unequivocal commitment to the global fight against antisemitism. Any form of antisemitism, incitement to hatred and violence is unacceptable and incompatible with the values and aims of the European Union and its Member States. It must be addressed through form action, both at European and national level. These principles are non-negotiable for the European.”
Hezbollah is widely considered a deeply antisemitic terrorist organization because of its terrorism targeting Jews and calls for the elimination of the Jewish state. Germany, Britain, the US, the Netherlands, the Arab League, Japan, Canada and many additional European and Latin American countries have proscribed Hezbollah’s entire organizaiton a terrorist entity.
It is an unusual situation when the commissioner to combat antisemitism, Katharina von Schnurbein, declines to deliver her view on whether the EU should outlaw the world’s most deadly antisemitic organization.
She told the Post: “Thank you for your reply. May I refer you to the reply which you received yesterday from the Spokespeoples’ Service of the European Commission (attached). Please send your requests in the future to the colleagues in charge of press queries.”
On October 13, the JTA’s Cnaan Liphshiz reported that “European Union plan to fight antisemitism ‘not serious,” Jewish community leaders say.” The article dealt mainly with the lack of religious freedom for Jews outlined in the EU plan.
The plan is titled “EU Strategy on Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life (2021-2030).” The 26-page document does not cite Hezbollah or the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iran’s regime has conducted surveillance on Jewish and Israeli people and organizastions, planned an assasination and stokes lethal antisemitism across Europe during its annual Al-Quds rallies in European capital. The al-Quds rally promotes the obliteration of the Jewish state.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which was designated by the US as a terrorist organization, paid the Pakistani man, Haider Syed Mustafa, carry out an assassination of a European Jew and monitor Jewish and Israeli organizations and individuals in Germany and France.
In 2017, a German court convicted Mustafa for securing intelligence on the former director of the German-Israel Friendship Society and on a French-Israeli professor from an economic university in Paris. Mustafa was sentenced to four years and three months in prison.
Mustafa spied on French-Israeli business Prof. David Rouach, who teaches at the elite Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris and served as head of the French-Israeli Chamber of Commerce, and, according to German authorities, his actions were “a clear indication of an assassination attempt.”
The US government, under both democratic and republican presidents, has classified Iran’s regime as the world’s worst state-sponsor of terrorism.
