RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.frontpagemag.com/christians-celebrate-media-and-campuses-mourn-death-of-islamic-terror-boss/

“Our motto, which we are not afraid to repeat year after year, is: ‘Death to America.’”

Ex-Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah

Iranian dissidents in London and Toronto took to the streets to celebrate the death of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Christians in Lebanon who had suffered under the Shiite Islamic terrorist group are also celebrating.

Campus Islamist campus hate groups are less happy including ‘Jewish Voice for Peace’ at the University of Michigan which is neither Jewish nor peaceful, and whose account appears to be run out of Lebanon.

And the media is already rolling out its best “austere religious scholar” takes for Hezbollah terror boss Hassan Nasrallah.

The New York Times led the way with the worst possible coverage headlined, “Protesters Mourn Nasrallah’s Death Around the World”.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/09/ding-dong-nasrallah-is-dead/

When the smoke cleared, six buildings in the quarter of suburban Beirut targeted by Israeli warplanes were gone. They collapsed into themselves, subsumed beneath the underground bunker system that housed Hezbollah’s highest-ranking commanders. It will take days, perhaps weeks, to sift through the wreckage. But when the clearing operation is complete, the Israel Defense Forces believe the salvagers will have recovered the body of longtime Hezbollah commander Hassan Nasrallah. The IDF said early Saturday that Israel had “eliminated” Nasrallah and other commanders.

It would be difficult to overstate Nasrallah’s significance to the terrorist organization he led and the blow to it represented by his death. Nasrallah took the role of Hezbollah’s secretary-general following the demise of his predecessor at the hands of the IDF over 30 years ago. He oversaw the terrorist sect’s councils and sub-councils, its judicial, parliamentary, and jihad assemblies. He led an organization estimated to be capable of fielding upwards of 50,000 fighters with around 150,000 missiles, rockets, and drones at its disposal. He was the most reliable of Iran’s proxies, the commander of its strongest militia in the region. And now he’s gone.

Nasrallah was only the most recent Hezbollah commander to face Israeli justice. In June, a sophisticated intelligence operation culminated in the death of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, a figure partly responsible for the Beirut barracks bombing and the deaths of 241 U.S. soldiers. In recent days, he was joined by Ibrahim Aqil and Ahmed Wahbi, senior leaders in Hezbollah’s Radwan Force. Ibrahim Muhammad Qubaisi, the Hezbollah commander responsible for a deadly attack on IDF soldiers in 2000, was “eliminated” in an Israeli airstrike on Tuesday. And all this follows the spectacularly successful campaign of sabotage that took hundreds of Hezbollah fighters unlucky enough to have been issued communications devices flagged for use in operations against Israel off the battlefield.

Aided by its remarkable penetration of Iran and its terrorist proxies, Israeli technical superiority and tactical brilliance have Hezbollah on the ropes. Even before the strike that killed Nasrallah, the organization was disoriented — reeling from blow after blow and, leery of relying on mass communication technology, incapable of regrouping. Now it is decapitated. If Israel can degrade Hezbollah’s capabilities to the point that both parties would be open to a negotiated cessation of hostilities, its campaign may have been such a success that it forestalls or even forecloses on the prospect of a ground operation.

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/killing-nasrallah

Friday evening in the Levant, Israel targeted buildings in the southern suburbs of Beirut killing Hezbollah General Secretary Hassan Nasrallah. This operation represents a dramatic shift in Israeli strategy. Not only have they finally liquidated an adversary they’ve long been capable of killing, they’ve also turned a deaf ear to their superpower patron of more than half a century. But at this stage, heeding Washington’s advice in war is like taking counsel from the angel of death. Just as the U.S. is no longer willing or able to win the wars it commits Americans to fight, the Joe Biden administration won’t let U.S. allies win wars either.

By ordering the strike on Nasrallah while attending the U.N. General Assembly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu underscored the Jewish state’s independence from the global consensus that has resolved not to confront terrorists but rather to appease them, whether they’re plotting in the Middle East or living among the local populations of Western nations, including the United States. Israel’s attack also shows that almost everything U.S. and other Western civilian and military leaders have believed about the Middle East for the last 20 years was simply a collection of excuses for losing wars. The questions that senior policymakers and Pentagon officials, think-tank experts and journalists have deliberated over since the invasion of Iraq—questions about the nature of modern warfare and the proper conduct of international relations in a multipolar world, etc.—can now be set aside for good because they have been resolved definitively.

The answers are as they ever were—at least before the start of the “global war on terror.” Contrary to the convictions of George W. Bush-era neoconservatives and the pro-Iran progressives in Barack Obama’s camp, securing a nation’s peace has nothing to do with winning narratives, or nation-building, or balancing U.S. allies against your mutual enemies for the sake of regional equilibrium, or any of the other academic theories generated to mask a generation’s worth of failure. Rather, it means killing your enemies, above all those who advocate and embody the causes that inspire others to exhaust their murderous energies against you. Thus, killing Nasrallah was essential.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/israel-accused-of-the-crime-of-defending-itself/

British journalist Brendan O’Neill is appalled at the way so many in the West paint Israel’s efforts to defend itself as “war crimes.” No matter how precisely it attacks its targets — as the Hezbollah possessors of pagers, hand-held radios, and walkie-talkies were — the IDF is accused of “indiscriminate” killing in Lebanon. No matter how many ways the IDF warns civilians in Gaza to leave places and buildings that are about to be targeted, Israel remains accused of “indiscriminate” bombing. For too many people around the world, everything Israel does is “a war crime.” More on this world-wide condemnation of the Jewish state for defending itself can be found here: “This wasn’t a war crime – it was an audacious assault on anti-Semites,” by Brendan O’Neill, Spiked, September 18, 2024:

…All eyes are on Israel, naturally. Experts suspect Mossad intercepted a massive stash of pagers destined for Hezbollah militants and planted explosive material in the batteries. Then they sent a signal, from hundreds of miles away, that caused the batteries to overheat and eventually to blow up. The planning required for such a spectacular op blows the mind – no pun intended. I know Israelophobia is the default position of the influential classes, but surely even they will admit this was an ingenious way for the Jewish State to take out the adherents to a self-styled ‘army of god’ that has sworn itself to excising the ‘cancerous growth’ of Zionism from the Middle East. (They mean Jews.)…

That many in the West view Israel’s every action as criminal is depressing, but not surprising. Fundamentally, they think it is a crime for Israel to defend itself. They think it is a crime for Israel to take any action that might limit the threat posed by the apocalyptic anti-Semitism of Hezbollah and Hamas. And they think this because they think Israel’s very existence is a crime. They view the Jewish State as a criminal enterprise, a vile, law-defying blot not only on the Middle East but also on the reputation of humankind itself. When you harbour such intense, irrational hatred for one nation, it is a short step to telling that nation to down its weapons, lower its defences and let itself be attacked.

https://henryjacksonsociety.org/

The State of Israel is fighting for its future.

It began on the morning of October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists from Gaza invaded Israel. They went on to commit the worst pogrom since the Holocaust. Afterwards, Israel had no choice but to enter Gaza. The goal: eliminate Hamas. 

Cut to a year later, and Hamas has been nearly defeated. But, alas, Israel’s existential war is not over yet. Another terrorist threat looms large: Hezbollah. 

Every day since October 8, 2023, the Islamist group has been firing missiles from Lebanon into northern Israel. Their targets: Israeli civilians living peacefully next to the Israel-Lebanon border. Because of Hezbollah’s reign of terror, more than 100,000 people have had to flee their homes. They are staying in hotels paid for by the government, their lives on pause. 

The situation is no longer tenable. “We will return residents of the north safely to their homes,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

To make that vow a reality, Israel has been going after Hezbollah. 

Last week, it remotely detonated the pagers and walkie-talkies of Hezbollah’s senior operatives. Although Israel has not officially taken responsibility for the operation, it has been widely attributed to its intelligence services. 

And this week, the IDF has been conducting precision air strikes on Hezbollah facilities in Lebanon. Several commanders have been killed, including the head of Hezbollah’s air units. Be in no doubt: the terrorists are on the ropes.

https://pdavidhornik.substack.com/subscribe?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=email-subscribe&r=8t06w&next=

1.       Israel had barely begun to up the ante in fighting Hizballah before the world powers began making proclamations about it.

President Biden and President Macron said jointly: ““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 October 7th, and in particular over the past two weeks, threatens a much broader conflict, and harm to civilians.”

A convocation of the European Union, the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Japan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates called for a three-week ceasefire to “provide space for diplomacy” and said the current “intolerable” situation “presents an unacceptable risk of broader regional escalation.”

Here in Israel, we couldn’t help noticing that almost a year of daily Hizballah missile, rocket, drone, and mortar fire into Israel, predominantly at civilian targets, did not count as an “escalation,” was not “intolerable” or “unacceptable,” and did not “threaten a broader conflict.” At no time, of course, did President Biden or any other Western leader demand Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to

tell Hizballah to stop the bombardment. It could have gone on for another ten years; it was not, after all, an escalation, since only Israel is capable of escalating.  

2.       Republican Senators Tom Cotton and Mitch McConell have sent a letter to President Biden that “strongly condemn[s] your administration’s continued delay in providing critical military equipment and weapons to our ally Israel in the midst of an existential war.” The letter says the US is denying Israel MK-84 bombs, which Israel needs “to hit Hamas’s deeply buried tunnels and other military infrastructure in Gaza,” while “Hezbollah also has significant military infrastructure that Israel must destroy”; Apache attack helicopters, which “Israel requested . . . last December, recognizing the increased need given the war in Gaza,” a need that “has only increased with Hezbollah’s escalation in the north”; and Caterpillar D9 tractors, which the administration is “holding up” even though Israel uses these “to clear improvised explosive devices (IEDs)” and “to save the lives of scores of Israel Defense force (IDF) soldiers and civilians.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20968/war-against-hezbollah

On October 8, 2023, the very day after Hamas attacked, Hezbollah opened a “second front” against Israel to help Hezbollah’s brothers in Hamas.

On September 19, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah promised that his organization’s terrorist attacks on Israel would continue until the war in Gaza ended. Hezbollah, he said, will continue supporting the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip “no matter what the consequences are, what the sacrifices are, what scenarios will unfold.” Nasrallah further threatened that Israelis who have evacuated from their homes will not be allowed to return, implying that Hezbollah might be planning to invade and occupy Israel’s north.

The war in the Gaza Strip could end tomorrow if Hamas would lay down its weapons and release the 101 Israelis hostages it is still holding, only about half of whom are thought to be alive. Hamas, nonetheless, seems to have chosen to fight to the last Palestinian. Hamas evidently does not care if thousands of Palestinians are killed in the war. Its main objective is to hold onto power.

How would the US respond if a terrorist organization in Mexico began launching hundreds of missiles and drones into American cities?… How would France respond if its cities came under attack from terrorists based in neighboring countries… Would the French call for negotiations with the terrorists, or would they practice their right to self-defense?

Hezbollah has decided to destroy Lebanon and sacrifice a large number of Lebanese civilians to keep Hamas in control of the Gaza Strip. It has left Israel with no choice but to wage a counterterrorism offensive to defend its own citizens. After Hamas brought a nakba (catastrophe) to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah is bringing the Lebanese people another.

Some in the international media are misrepresenting the recent round of fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed terrorist organization, Hezbollah, as a war between Israel and Lebanon. This, however, is not a war between Israel and the Lebanese people. Rather, it is a war between Israel and a heavily armed terrorist group that has created a state within a state in Lebanon and is acting on orders from the mullahs in Tehran to advance their goal of destroying the “Zionist entity.” This war was initiated 11 months ago by Hezbollah in support of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, another Iran-backed proxy based in the Gaza Strip.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/09/24/the-wests-reckless-dishonesty-over-lebanon/

If a keffiyeh-adorned posh kid on a leafy campus were to hold forth on the Israel-Lebanon clash without once saying the word ‘Hezbollah’, none of us would be surprised. To the West’s à la mode loathers of Israel, the Jewish State is responsible for every ill in the Middle East, and its foes are always blameless. But for a world leader to do it, to pontificate on this bloody battle without mentioning the ruthless terror outfit whose rocket fire started it, is unforgivable.

Step forward President Emmanuel Macron. On Friday, in the aftermath of Israel’s pagers attack on Hezbollah militants and the firing of missiles by both sides, he said France stands with Lebanon and feels ‘grief for all civilian victims of [the] attacks’. He said he’d spoken to the key parties to the war, ‘from Israel to Iran’, and told them to de-escalate. There was one party he neglected to mention, however. Which is odd given it’s the party that started the war by raining rockets on Israel from 8 October 2023 onwards – in solidarity with the racist pogromists of Hamas – and in the process drove 60,000 Jews from their homes, destroyed land and massacred children. As the Times of Israel put it: he ‘made no explicit mention of Hezbollah’.

As oversights go, it’s a shocker. It’s like gabbing about the West’s intervention in Raqqa without saying ‘ISIS’ or lamenting 9/11 but forgetting to mention a certain Islamist death cult. Is it any wonder that in a reportedly tense phone call between Macron and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, the latter said ‘instead of putting pressure on Israel, it’s time for France to increase pressure on Hezbollah’? Or at least to mention Hezbollah. That would be a start: saying out loud the name of the Iranian proxies who’ve been battering the Jewish State with missiles for a year in a show of support for the worst act of violence against Jews since the Holocaust.

Macron’s post-pagers commentary may have been bizarre but it wasn’t surprising. In handwringing over a war without referring to the war’s instigators, without namechecking that self-styled ‘Army of God’ whose destruction of Israeli homes and murder of Druze children gave rise to this latest round of hostilities, he was doing what many in the West have done. Namely, ripped this battle from its historical and moral context. Depicted it as an act of unilateral Israeli evil. Worse, absolved Hezbollah, implicitly, of responsibility for this horror show by either playing down its role or outright redacting its name from their pompous virtue-signalling.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/09/israels-righteous-war-on-hezbollah/

The Jewish state is under no obligation to tolerate the intolerable.

Israel is supposed to tolerate the intolerable.

A terror group has launched thousands of missiles into the Jewish state over the last year — catalyzed by a hideous pogrom against Israel carried out by another terror group — and we are told that it is Israel, finally hitting back in earnest, that is dangerously escalating the situation.

Since the Hamas atrocities on October 7, Lebanon-based Hezbollah has fired roughly 8,000 rockets at Israel. These indiscriminate attacks have forced tens of thousands of Israelis to flee the north of the country. In July, a missile killed twelve children and teenagers who were playing soccer in the Golan Heights, a random massacre with no military purpose whatsoever.

Israel retaliated for the horror in the Golan Heights but has generally absorbed Hezbollah’s attacks, since it’s been focused on the war against Hamas to its south while the Biden administration has been working to stay its hand in the north.

The theme, as ever, is that the Jewish state is expected to accept as background noise unprovoked attacks on its sovereign territory that no other state would ever abide.

What other country is asked to bear the rocketing of its civilian population as the price for faux regional comity?

Israel won’t abide by these rules, and nor should it. It began turning up the heat against Hezbollah with its Mission Impossible–worthy attacks on Hezbollah operatives via their pagers and other electronic devices.

The pager attack was an experiment in whether Israel could carry out perhaps the most carefully calibrated counterterrorist operation in the modern age and still get accused of committing war crimes. Sure enough, AOC and others have condemned the Jewish state.

Israel hits terrorist targets from the air — and it’s accused of war crimes.

Israel goes in on the ground — and it’s accused of war crimes.

Israel does neither, opting instead to target terrorists by using their own devices against them — and it’s accused of war crimes.