Hezbollah surprises Israeli regime again

Hezbollah has taken an iron fist approach to defend Lebanon's sovereignty and territorial integrity. Lately, it has targeted Israeli military installations, troops and destroyed a sophisticated spying network. 

Since the Palestinian resistance launched the al-Aqsa Storm Operation, hostilities have gradually flared up between Hezbollah and Israeli forces on the Lebanese border with occupied Palestine. 

The Lebanese organization, which forced the Israeli occupation out of Lebanon in the year 2000 and defeated the regime again when it launched a war on Lebanon in July 2006, is now engaging the regime again militarily. 

Experts believe events on the border are not exactly tit-for-tat exchanges, but far from a full-blown-out war. 

The exchange of fire has inflicted losses and casualties on both sides. 

On Monday, Israeli media reported that another regime’s soldier has been killed, and three others have been injured after their tank was overturned in the north, on the border with Lebanon. 

Hezbollah announced the martyrdom of Mohammad Najib Halawi from the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila. 

It's been this way for some two weeks now.

Hezbollah is a formidable force in Lebanon, and its impressive military capabilities have been on show once again. 

On Friday, the organization published a video detailing the functions of Israel's technical and spying equipment in 42 locations on the border, how they operate and the security threat they pose to all Lebanese people, across all of Lebanon and its borders with other Arab countries. 

The Israeli equipment includes day and night thermal monitoring and surveillance cameras, different types of radar towers, embedded systems, and naval monitoring systems. 

The Israeli intelligence systems that contact traitors in Lebanon are also shown in the video as well as sophisticated spying network technology, all of which are controlled by Israeli military operators far away from the border. 
The four-minute clip, which begins with a narration stating "These are not defensive positions that the Zionist entity portrays them to be", concludes with Hezbollah missiles, rockets and gunfire either destroying the Israeli equipment or damaging them to the extent they are out of service. 

At one point, a precision-guided missile is shown being fired toward a radar tower with a direct hit.  

Hezbollah says the damage it inflicted in destroying the equipment is a huge blow to the Israeli spying and monitoring network in Lebanon. 

Hezbollah says the calculated attacks go a long way to serving Lebanon's sovereignty, territorial integrity, and its people. 

The organization has also been targeting Israeli military vehicles, tanks, and troops in response to Israeli attacks on Southern Lebanon. 

The men it has lost are being labeled as the martyrs on the path to al-Quds, in reference to the Israeli-occupied Palestinian city that hosts the holy al-Aqsa Mosque, also known as Jerusalem. 

Israeli occupation forces continue to target forests in various areas of the Lebanese border with incendiary shells, which has led to the outbreak of a number of fires.

On Monday, the occupation regime acknowledged the death of a first sergeant in the Israeli army on the northern front, announcing that he was killed as a result of another tank being hit in the area. 

On Sunday, Hezbollah announced that it had targeted points of the Israeli army on the Lebanon-occupied Palestine border.

Hezbollah confirmed in a statement that after careful follow-up and monitoring its forces located an Israeli infantry force in the al-Malikiyah area and its surroundings (in southern Lebanon), which was immediately targeted with appropriate weapons, inflicting confirmed casualties.

In a separate statement, the group said that it had targeted the al-Samaqa area in the occupied Lebanese Sheba'a farms with appropriate weapons that led to direct hits on Israeli forces.

The group also announced that its forces targeted an Israeli drone with a surface-to-air missile, hitting it directly, and it was spotted within eyesight as it fell into the occupied Palestinian territories.

Reports suggest countries around the world, in particular the West and the United States at the forefront, have been trying their best diplomatic efforts to prevent the merciless Israeli war on Gaza from spilling over to Lebanon or elsewhere in the region. 

The regime's mass killing of children in Gaza is making that very difficult. 

Military bases belonging to the illegal American presence in Iraq and Syria have come under attack dozens of times by local forces already. 

Experts have said the silence of the Hezbollah leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, since Hamas staged the October 07 Storm operation, has frightened the Israeli regime, as it remains clueless whether another front will open in the north. 

The occupation regime may not have to wait too much longer. 

The Hezbollah secretary-general will deliver a speech on Friday, November 3, 2023, at 15:00 local time, during a ceremony honoring the martyrs on the path to al-Quds.

It is a widely anticipated speech in which the Hezbollah chief will no doubt address his party's position on the war on Gaza as well as the devastating Israeli bombardment on the completely blockaded coastal enclave.

 

United States unveils bill to fund Israel

According to Reuters, the US House of Representatives Republicans on Monday introduced a plan to provide US$14.3 billion in aid to Israel by cutting funding for the Internal Revenue Service, setting up a showdown with Democrats who control the Senate.

In one of the first major policy actions under new House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Republicans unveiled a standalone supplemental spending bill only for Israel, despite Democratic President Joe Biden's request for a US$106 billion package that would include aid for Israel, Ukraine and border security.

Johnson, who voted against aid for Ukraine before he was elected House speaker last week, had said he wanted aid to Israel and Ukraine to be handled separately. He has said he wants more accountability for money that has been sent to the Kyiv government as it fights Russian invaders.

"Israel is a separate matter," Johnson said in an interview on Fox News last week, describing his desire to bifurcate the Ukraine and Israel funding issues.

Johnson has said bolstering support for Israel should top the US national security agenda in the aftermath of the October 07 attack by Hamas militants that killed more than 1,400 people and saw more than 200 others taken hostage.

Democrats accused Republicans of stalling Congress' ability to help Israel by introducing a partisan bill.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre issued a statement accusing Republicans of politicizing national security and calling their bill a non-starter. To become law, the measure would need to pass the House and the Senate and be signed by President Biden

"House Republicans are setting a dangerous precedent by suggesting that protecting national security or responding to natural disasters is contingent upon cuts to other programs," Representative Rosa DeLauro, the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said in a statement.

The House Rules Committee is expected to consider the Republican Israel bill on Wednesday.

Trust me, western media is dishonest

I started this blog in June 2012 and the focus has remained on Geopolitics in South Asia and MENA. Over the years my conviction has got stronger that western media is dishonest. Since media is supported by conglomerates, especially ‘Military Complexes’ the focus remains on creating conflicts that can lead to proxy wars and ultimately sale of arms. Referring to two mantras: Presence of Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and Iraq building weapons of mass destruction (WMD) may help the readers understand my assertion.

I am listing titles of some of my blogs and their links with a request o readers to spend a few minutes in reading these blogs and then decide does the western media publishes/ airs real stories or these are tweaked to achieve their ultimate objective of selling lethal arms to facilitate their military complexes working at the best capacity utilization.

To read details click the following links

Ten dumbest things propagandists want people to believe

https://shkazmipk.blogspot.com/2023/10/ten-dumbest-things-propagandists-want.html

Dishonest western media not reporting correct situation of oil market

https://shkazmipk.blogspot.com/2022/07/dishonest-western-media-not-reporting.html

Media in United States in the grip of intelligence agents

https://shkazmipk.blogspot.com/2019/10/media-in-united-states-in-grip-of.html

Time to mend Saudi-Iranian relationship

https://shkazmipk.blogspot.com/2019/08/time-to-mend-saudi-iranian-relationship.html

Trump acts touching insanity

https://shkazmipk.blogspot.com/2019/06/trump-acts-touching-insanity.html

As world faces Armageddon, west seems leaderless

https://shkazmipk.blogspot.com/2019/06/as-world-faces-armageddon-western-world.html

Western Media is Key to Syria Deception

https://shkazmipk.blogspot.com/2019/05/western-media-is-key-to-syria-deception.html

Syria planning another chemical attack, another hoax call by the US

https://shkazmipk.blogspot.com/2017/06/syria-planning-another-chemical-attack.html

Anti Iran stance of western media

https://shkazmipk.blogspot.com/2017/01/anti-iran-stance-of-western-media.html

What are the motives behind alleging Russia of hacking US election?

https://shkazmipk.blogspot.com/2016/12/what-are-motives-behind-alleging-russia.html

The Long History of Lies about Iran

https://shkazmipk.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-long-history-of-lies-about-iran.html

 

Need to stop violence by West Bank settlers

The Israeli government is supportive of these attacks and does nothing to stop this violence.

With international focus on the horrors of Israel's assault on Gaza, 30 Israeli human rights and anti-occupation organizations on Sunday aimed to draw attention to a surge in settler violence against Palestinians in the illegally occupied West Bank.

The coalition of groups—including B'Tselem, Breaking the Silence, and the Israeli arms of Amnesty International and Physicians for Human Rights—released a joint statement calling on the international community to act urgently to stop the state-backed wave of settler violence which has led, and is leading to, the forcible transfer of Palestinian communities in the West Bank.

In retaliation for a Hamas-led attack earlier this month—in which over 1,400 Israelis were killed and around 200 others were taken hostage —Israel has waged what some legal scholars are calling a genocidal  war, killing more than 8,000 people in Gaza.

"Settlers have been exploiting the lack of public attention to the West Bank, as well as the general atmosphere of rage against Palestinians, to escalate their campaign of violent attacks in an attempt to forcibly transfer Palestinian communities," the coalition noted.

"During this period, no fewer than 13 herding communities have been displaced. Many more are in danger of being forced to flee in the coming days if immediate action is not taken."

"Palestinian farmers are particularly vulnerable at this time, during the annual olive harvest season, because if they are unable to pick their olives they will lose a year's income," the groups explained.

"Lately Bilal Muhammed Saleh from the village of As-Sawiya south of Nablus was murdered while tending to his olive trees. He was the seventh Palestinian to have been killed by settlers since the current war began."

The Palestinian Health Ministry said Saturday that 111 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed since October 07.

Jewish settlers have recently tried to scare Palestinians into fleeing the West Bank by displaying dolls covered in blood or a substance meant to mimic it and distributing leaflets with messages like "Run to Jordan before we kill our enemies and expel you from our Holy Land, promised to us by God."

The coalition said Sunday, “Unfortunately the Israeli government is supportive of these attacks and does nothing to stop this violence. On the contrary: government ministers and other officials are backing the violence and in many cases the military is present or even participates in the violence, including in incidents where settlers have killed Palestinians."

Over the past three weeks, Israeli forces fatal violence against Palestinians in the West Bank has included raids and an airstrike on a mosque in the densely populated Jenin refugee camp.

"Moreover, since the war has begun there has been a growing number of incidents in which violent settlers have been documented attacking nearby Palestinian communities while wearing military uniform and using government-issued weapons," the coalition continued. "With grave concern and with a clear understanding of the political landscape, we recognize that the only way to stop this forcible transfer in the West Bank is a clear, strong, and direct intervention by the international community."

In response to the statement, Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), said on social media that the "world must act."

Meanwhile, in Gaza, Israeli forces have moved to a second stage of the war with ground operations, despite global demands for a cease-fire—though notably not from the US government, which provides Israel with billions of dollars in annual military support.

"Israel's major ground offensive in Gaza, following weeks of bombardment that have reduced large parts of neighborhoods to rubble, raises grave concerns for the safety of all civilians caught in the fighting," HRW executive director Tirana Hassan said in a statement Sunday. "Thousands of children and other civilians have already been killed."

"Palestinian armed groups are continuing to indiscriminately launch rockets at Israeli communities," she added. "All civilians, including the many who cannot or do not want to leave their homes in northern Gaza, retain their protections under the laws of war against deliberate, indiscriminate, or disproportionate attacks."

Over objections from Israel and the United States, the U.N. General Assembly on Friday adopted a nonbinding resolution demanding that "all parties immediately and fully comply with their obligations under international law," and calling for "an immediate, durable, and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities."

Iran votes in favor of Arab-drafted resolution

The Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York has defended its vote in favor of the Arab-drafted resolution on the situation in Palestine, saying any vote otherwise would have played into the hands of the Israeli regime. 

The resolution in question was passed overwhelmingly at the UN General Assembly on Friday, with 120 countries voting in favor, 14 voting against, and 45 abstaining.

The resolution called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and the cessation of hostilities in Gaza.

Iran’s UN mission said that the resolution was proposed by the Arab League, and its text had not even been put into debate at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, adding that the Islamic Republic did not approve of some parts of the resolution as they were in conflict with Iran’s principled and definite policies towards Palestine, according to IRNA.

Iran voted in favor of the resolution, because the Zionist regime and its allies were attempting to portray the October 07 resistance operation as a terrorist act, the mission said in reference to the Operation Al-Aqsa Storm that Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas launched against Israeli positions from the Gaza Strip.

That attempt was foiled through strong efforts by Islamic nations and a number of other states, the Iranian mission said, adding that the Zionist regime and its allies were also trying to create division among countries so that the resolution was approved with the least number of votes.

Considering all these, the mission said, any Iranian vote other than a positive one would have been playing into the hands of the Zionist regime and its supporters, IRNA reported. 

 

Qatar playing complex role between United States, Israel and Hamas

Intense US diplomacy to secure the release of hundreds of hostages held by Hamas is shining a spotlight on the complicated role held by the tiny Gulf nation of Qatar.

At times a pariah among its immediate neighbors, the gas and oil-rich monarchy has managed for years to straddle the line between being a close US partner while enraging Gulf countries over its support for the Muslim Brotherhood, a movement of political Islam that helped inspire Hamas’s founding. 

US officials are putting increasing pressure on Qatar to distance itself from Hamas following its abhorrent terrorist attack against Israel on October 7. 

But Qatar’s track record as a reliable mediator between authoritarian states, terrorist groups and democracies make it one of the only countries that can help retrieve hundreds of innocent people from the Gaza Strip. 

“We’re using every connection we can to try to get the release of the hostages. Qatar has avenues that we think are helpful,” Sen. Ben Cardin, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told The Hill. 

“We have been very clear about Qatar’s role in allowing Hamas reign in their country — it’s wrong. And we have pointed that out and we’ll continue to point that out,” he said.

The relationship is complicated, Cardin added, pointing to the Al Udeid Air base in Doha, owned by Qatar but home to US Central Command and US Air Force Central Command. The base is the epicenter of American military power overseeing the Middle East and Central Asia, including Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and countries of the former Soviet Union.  

Hamas is estimated to have kidnapped more than 200 people from Israel during the October 07 massacre that also killed more than 1,400 people in southern Israel. Americans are among those being held and their families have advocated for their release in Israel and in Washington D.C.

Qatar has allowed Hamas to operate a political office in Doha since 2012 and it has mediated between Israel and Hamas in previous rounds of conflict, also helping with the transfer of money and goods to the Gaza Strip that came out of such deals.

The scale of the current hostage crisis is unlike anything in recent memory. Among those kidnapped are toddlers, a nursing baby, the elderly, mothers, fathers, sons and daughters, all being held in locations and conditions unknown. 

Hamas’s military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, said this week that dozens of the hostages have been killed in Israeli air strikes, but they offered no proof. The US-designated terror group has otherwise provided little to no information on the captives and no visitation from international aid groups. 

“Something very basic, Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders are not allowed to get in, we don’t even know if our loved one is alive or dead,” said Ruby Chen, a US-Israeli citizen whose 19-year-old son Itay, a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), is believed to be held by Hamas. 

“Want to think about that for a second? Make it happen.”

Qatar has so far helped facilitate the release of four of Hamas’s hostages, an American-Israeli mother and daughter, and two elderly women.

Gerald Feierstein, a former ambassador to Yemen and four-decade veteran of the foreign service in the Middle East and Gulf, said that Qatar likes to view itself as a Switzerland-like mediator in the Middle East and that provides them clout and protection in a hostile environment.

“They see that they can play a role by keeping channels of communication open to people that the world despises. Whether it’s the Taliban or Hamas, or the Iranians for that matter, they see that they can be useful by being able to communicate or pass messages,” Feierstein said.

“They really see themselves as playing a role much larger than their size and impact would suggest.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has thanked Qatar for playing a very important role in securing the release of the American-Israelis. But the secretary has also said in Doha that there can be no more business as usual with Hamas.  

He reportedly called on the Qatari government to tone down rhetoric in news coverage about Israel on Al Jazeera, the nominally private but Qatari-funded English and Arabic news group. 

“I don’t think that — forced to choose — there’s any question that the Qataris value the relationship with the US more highly than with Hamas”, said Feierstein, now a distinguished senior fellow on US diplomacy at the Middle East Institute.

Feierstein also spoke to the Qatari’s track record in diplomacy, pointing to their role in the early 2000s of trying to mediate between warring factions in Yemen; mediation efforts between Ethiopia and Eritrea; and offering Doha as a venue for the US to hold talks with the Taliban. 

“I can’t think of any time where the Qataris said that they would do something and didn’t do it. I think that they are reliable,” he said. 

“Generally speaking, their word is good. And obviously if you want to play the role that they want to play, that’s an absolutely essential component. If people didn’t trust you then they wouldn’t turn to you to undertake these things.” 

It’s unclear what it might take for Hamas to release the hostages, who are among a wide range of factors that is seemingly delaying an Israel ground offensive in the Gaza Strip. 

Among possible Hamas demands are a ceasefire amid heavy Israeli airstrikes, asking Israel to release Palestinian prisoners, money or some type of immunity.

Rep. Haley Stevens, co-chair of the ​​Congressional Task Force on American Hostages and Americans Wrongfully Detained Abroad, called the task of rescuing the hostages unprecedented, speaking to The Hill after a press conference with the families whose loved ones are being held by Hamas.

The task force was an initiative started in 2021 to help congressional offices navigate the support available for constituents and their families in circumstances of their loved one being unjustly arrested or detained abroad, or even taken captive by a terrorist group.

But she called this situation very different.

“This was an act of lawlessness. It wasn’t even an act of war because it’s outside of the rules of war to do what has been done here. And this has been part of the head spinning terror that was descended upon the Israelis on October 7th,” she said

Asked about Qatar’s role as a mediator, Stevens called for the administration to be open about how the US is carrying out its diplomacy.  

“Our diplomacy is going to be essential, the work of our ambassadors, the work of our State Department, and that’s a place that we as members of Congress can lend oversight and, if need be, appropriating authority to our federal agencies to assist in those negotiations,” she said.

Haley raised concern that the administration’s pending transfer of US$6 billion in frozen Iranian funds — facilitated in exchange for the release of Americans wrongfully detained — has raised the cost for hostages.

“While we don’t want to slow things down by any stretch of the means, engaging members as the administration can in classified settings is very helpful,” she said.  

Israel multifaceted failure

The Israeli lack of preparedness for, and weak initial response to, the Hamas attack on October 07 encompassed four key failures.

First, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s strategy for dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict crumbled. While never officially articulated, Netanyahu’s approach since 2009 had involved sidelining the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA) and allowing the strengthening of Hamas in Gaza, within certain limits.

This approach enabled Netanyahu to avoid meaningful negotiations with the PA, which might have led to the establishment of a Palestinian state, a prospect he opposes. The ascent of Hamas in Gaza aided Netanyahu in his effort to fragment the Palestinian national movement. It also allowed him to claim he could not negotiate with a significant part of the Palestinian national movement, due to its extremist Islamist rejectionist stance. The combined effect was that Netanyahu did not face significant international pressure to resume talks with the Palestinians. Moreover, the state of affairs limited international efforts (in particular by the European Union and the United States) to advance Palestinian unification. Due to Hamas’ nature, such efforts were deemed too sensitive.

The prime minister’s policy went largely unchallenged for over a decade, in part because it wasn’t fully disclosed. Ongoing clashes with Hamas every few years signaled deep hostility between the parties; although behind closed doors, Netanyahu admitted that the status quo, including Qatari funding to Hamas, serves his policies. In a 2019 Likud faction meeting, the prime minister said that if one opposes a Palestinian state, he should favor the (Israeli approved) Qatari transfer of funds to Hamas in Gaza because maintaining the wedge between the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza would prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Shifting political conditions in Israel — such as the decline of the Israeli left, which had been advocating for a two-state solution — further helped the prime minister. Finally, Netanyahu’s increasingly populist leadership style led to the removal of strong figures who might have dissented in both his party and the cabinet.

The second pillar of the October 07 debacle was the intelligence failure. Israeli security agencies, especially the Directorate of Military Intelligence (AMAN) and the Israeli Security Agency (SHABAK, also widely known as Shin Bet), acknowledged their shortcomings. SHABAK’s head, Ronen Bar, took responsibility on October 16, followed a day later by Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliwa of AMAN. The intelligence failure was systemic. At a strategic level, Israel misunderstood Hamas’ goals, with some in the security establishment wrongly believing that the necessity for quasi-sovereignty in Gaza would make the organization more pragmatic and potentially alter its ideology. The 2017 policy paper released by Hamas was viewed by some in Israel and abroad as a potential sign of change. Hamas’ choice not to engage Israel during its two last major armed clashes with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza were regarded by many in Israel as further proof of Hamas’ pragmatic approach. Additionally, Israel’s security agencies failed to anticipate the attack pattern and its timing. The bitter taste of failure in Israel is especially pronounced, considering that the country’s intelligence agencies have enjoyed ample resources and demonstrated their effectiveness in near and distant arenas for decades. As in previous Israeli and international intelligence failures, it seems that Israel had some information, but its intelligence agencies did not piece it together and issue a warning.

The third aspect of the failure pertained to the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) operational preparedness. It appears that the organization lacked clear plans for how to handle such a widespread attack. Israel was caught off guard by the large and brutal assaults on civilian communities, or the massive rave party that took place near the border. Another surprise was Hamas’ influence campaign accompanying the attacks, which included the extensive use of cameras by the attackers, documenting their actions, which members of the international human rights community have already begun to identify as war crimes. Others in the international community, such as US President Joe Biden, compared Hamas’ actions to the brutality displayed by ISIS. Israel was further taken aback by some of the tactical military aspects of the attack, including the dismantling of sensors, assaults on Israeli command-and-control posts, and the easy breach of the barrier constructed on the Israel-Gaza border.

The fourth failure involved the state’s weak response to the crisis, at least in the initial phase. Many Israelis were deeply disappointed by the military’s inability to come to the aid of the 1,000 civilians who were murdered, the thousands wounded, and the approximately 220 abducted to Gaza. In some cases, military forces were only able to retake control more than 24 hours after the attack began. This general sense of ineptitude was accompanied by an underwhelming leadership response, including in providing information and reassuring the public as the crisis unfolded, facilitating the absorption of internally displaced people, or offering financial support and social services. The prime minister, normally a brilliant speaker, did not effectively engage with the public and — to date — has yet to take any responsibility for what transpired on his watch.