#and a UN base at the border to Syria

[disco-cola]

ok i need to rant again. when i was actually ON THE TRIP almost exactly 4 years ago (again, it was an educational trip organized thru a berlin based socialist youth organization) I literally had NOOO IDEA about palestine, like yeah I have heard the name before sometimes but I thought it existed CENTURIES AGO like no fucking joke I will admit this. in Germany they don’t teach you about this in school or in the media, ESPECIALLY due to germanys history, world war two and the holocaust you carry a sort of blame that’s passed on from generation to generation - it’s only been like 80 years too it might sound long ago but it really isn’t. you think oh israel is the jewish state and it has to be right after all germany did to jewish people, no further questions asked. before i never ever educated myself bc when I got old enough to watch and understand news that did involve Palestine, like in 2k14 i remember Gaza was big on the news with violent images and I was horrified just believing everything i heard and saw i distinctly remember googling where is Gaza bc i saw footage on the news and being scared but downright relieved when i saw its not close to germany (dumb) and I just believed the reports on tv. i didnt really use the internet then as much, i had no social media except Facebook and this blog at that point. Man I was 17 and in high school i didnt care for anything outside my small bubble bc I didn’t have to, being a privileged western child. So fast forward to late 2k19 in the project i was still hanging out at at the time we got the offer for the „israel travel“ and a lot of people wanted to go and I literally just succumbed to peer pressure imma be so honest. Everyone wanted to go so I did too, i didn’t wanna stay home. i just thought ohh i have not flown since 2003 and 300 euros for a two week trip i can actually afford this too for fckn once and there were too many people interested and too little spots so there was a Tombola and my name got drawn so that was literally the reason I went. And i usually pride myself with very good memory and recollection but those two weeks are honestly a BLUR to me like idk if it was the stress and excitement of the traveling itself but i wish i sometimes had listened more carefully, had already known what I know now and been able to ask more questions and watch and listen more closely. we did stay with Arab guest families in tamra for a week of the trip, the other half in Tel Aviv (i got wasted with the hostel staff after having to be freed aka 2 doors kicked down in my room the first evening we were there bc the doorhandle in the bathroom broke i was in trauma and then was mutuals on ig with the hostels chef until 2k21 when israel bombed gaza and there were also rockets from Gaza to Tel Aviv in response and he turned out to be Zionist so I unfollowed then) and then for the last few days we were staying in two air bnbs in jerusalem. We celebrated new years in haifa with a Christian Arab family that invited us. we did visit a kibbutz on New Year’s Day bc someone from our groups grandma was living there since 48 (yep back then i just thought oh wow that’s amazing now I would view this a lot more critically) which also got us an exclusive guide around the kibbutz which was just on the border to lebanon and seeing the bunkers was eerie but I understand it now that I got into the history involving Lebanon too. we visited several museums like ghetto fighters and yad vashem. which dont get me wrong im glad we did, it’s an important part of history. it was a „both side“ experience and I literally didn’t even realize there was a Palestinian side to it then. Like genuinely it wasn’t really made clear how this all came to be Israel. They showed us a map pre-1948 vs. now but how did it get so big i didnt know. What zionists are. What settlements are. What the IDF is (by now let’s just call it IOF) I just remember the second day in Tel Aviv someone told us israel has only existed since 1948 and I was like lol what like baffled how new it actually is. Dude it’s the first time I heard about that.

It was only a few months after the trip that i one day randomly started to read up on the history, like literally starting out on kids websites bc growing up i only ever just heard „it’s complicated“ making it seem like the „middle east conflict“ as they liked to call it was sooo hard to understand and you had to be sooo smart and diplomatic to have an opinion on it. and after reading up suddenly stuff I saw but didn’t question on the trip started to make sense. The huge checkpoint we went through going into jerusalem, our car full of Germans basically being waved right through without any control while i saw other cars being emptied out completely by heavily armed soldiers. We took a teen girl from Tamra to Jerusalem with us bc she liked to come along and then there were problems suddenly with BOTH our air bnb apartments and we asked the staff if we could accommodate our suitcases somewhere and just go explore the old city instead of waiting around blocking the entire lobby. first they said no you have an Arab with you (I didn’t even understand what they meant by that) then came around and let us do it after all at least. Dude she was literally a 15 yr old like 5‘3“ teenage girl. Why one of the guys from our group was detained and questioned at the airport for like 3 hours because he was born in Syria (had a German pass tho but anyway). And when we wanted to travel back the group guide prepped us for questioning and made sure we all had straight answers which I also didn’t understand the reason for - I wasn’t one of the people being asked questions but someone did truthfully tell Airport staff what we did during our stay and that we spent a week with Arab guest families and after that several suitcases SEEM to have been rummaged through (and I know bc I packed mine soooo neatly bc I bought baklava on the market the day before to bring my family and it was smashed like flattened) we did get into a storm when changing flights in Istanbul so idk maybe the suitcases really were just thrown around but for real it wouldn’t surprise me if they did control us after that.

Anyway I posted stories throughout the trip to my ig back then and just went with the first location tag that was suggested to me and looking back now, it’s all „…, israel“ when i was actually on occupied land (tel aviv jaffa haifa akka…) and I HATE IT ☺️ I can’t change it back now obviously. I don’t wanna delete the stories from my highlight tho, even tho it does make me feel kinda guilty, bc i see it as part of my journey. Quite literally. I honestly wish I could teleport back now being more educated about the situation and ask more questions, talk to more Palestinian people (like the guest families). Would I do such a trip again? Not as long as the destination on the ticket is called only israel. I genuinely hope I can visit Palestine again tho someday. But this time for real real.

[girlactionfigure]

🟦 CEASEFIRE DREAMS, IRANIAN LIES - Real time from Israel  

ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

( VIDEO - IDF targeted airstrike in Beirut this morning. )

✡️Erev Shabbat - Parshat (Torah portion) Vayeira - Genesis 18:1 - G‑d reveals Himself to Abraham three days after the first Jew’s circumcision at age ninety-nine; but Abraham rushes off to prepare a meal for three guests who appear in the desert heat. One of the three—who are angels disguised as men—announces that, in exactly one year, the barren Sarah will give birth to a son. Sarah laughs.

▪️SPORTS AND JEW HUNTING.. in football / soccer, the Israeli national team held France to a 0:0 game.  In the stands battles from Arabs who attacked Israeli supporters, who came prepared to defend themselves.

🔸CEASEFIRE DREAMS.. Draft agreement: the US and France will arm the Lebanese army, which will destroy Hezbollah’s infrastructure south of the Litani river and prevent attacks on Israel, with direct American intervention in monitoring the Hezbollah organization so that they do not rearm, France and Great Britain have agreed to participate in maintaining the ceasefire.  The IDF will withdraw after 60 days.  

.. Ynet says minister Dermer met with Trump, who ‘hopes the deal will be closed before he takes office’. 

.. Commentary: The possibility of the Lebanese army restraining Hezbollah while Iran is army and backing them is a pipe dream, one that will only end up with another war.

.. Note: So far Hezbollah has not even been involved in the negotiations.  Making this ‘the appearance of negotiations’.

.. A senior member of Hezbollah, "The Israeli condition that will allow the occupier to operate militarily inside Lebanon is unacceptable.”

.. Lebanese Al Akhbar news: The American outline for the ceasefire agreement is an attempt at blackmail - either Lebanon will accept it or the war will escalate.  They also report that Israel is demanding international guarantees for the dismantling of all of Hezbollah's military infrastructure above and below the ground, as well as the deployment of the Lebanese army, "reinforced" with UNIFIL forces at all border crossings and airports and the sea.

🔹SYRIA - Eastern Syria: yesterday morning, 3 more trucks crossed from Iraq to Syria accompanied by the forces of the Iraqi Al Hashd Al Sha'abi (Shia militia) organization.

💩IRANIAN PRESIDENT’S LIE OF THE DAY - "We have never sought to possess nuclear weapons, and we will not do so based on the Iranian leader's fatwa on this matter."  (( Said with a straight face while enriching a TON of uranium to weapons grade. ))

💩TURKISH DEF. MIN SAYS - "We do not rule out the outbreak of a third world war and we are making the necessary preparations."

♦️LEBANON - day by day IDF ground forces are working through and combing the areas, capturing war equipment, destroying underground bases and caches, capturing and destroying rocket launchers. Heavy airstrikes on Nabatea, Hezbollah buildings.  The Air Force attacked more than 120 terrorist targets throughout Lebanon.

.. “But why are there still so many rocket launches?”  Because Hezbollah, with Iran funding and support, has been receiving and burying launchers for 20 years.  There is a LOT to work through.

⭕Hezbollah summarizes the previous day with 32 terror launches  against Israel, 20 of them against civilian towns and cities.  (( How many US, French, EU or UN statements have you heard against those 20 launches at civilian towns that Hezbollah clearly states they did (war crime)?  How many evac notices (zero)?  As Israeli children are directly targeted, how many human rights organizations, women’s and children’s organizations, have you heard speak out about targeting Jewish children?  …Exactly. ))

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Colin Shindler

Twenty years ago, Pyongyang supervised the construction of Hezbollah’s underground facilities in a labyrinth of tunnels. This allowed for the storage of food and medical equipment – and missile and arms dumps. North Korean guidance was based on its extensive technological expertise in tunnelling below the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas.

During Israel’s 33-day incursion into Lebanon in 2006, the IDF could not understand how the firing of Hezbollah’s missiles could continue unabated, without cessation. The constant cascade of Katyushas essentially forced a depopulation of northern Israel - 43 Israelis were killed and more than 4,000 were injured. The Arab media produced an explanation shortly afterwards.

With the assistance of several Iranian engineers and technicians, as well as North Korean experts, who travelled to Lebanon disguised as servants for the Iranian embassy and its officers, Hezbollah has successfully built a 25km-long underground belt, with 12-metre openings along it. Every four openings are connected to one another through an easily accessible passageway. (Asharq Ali-Awsat July 29, 2006)

North Korea continued to deliver arms to Hezbollah after its perceived success in the Lebanon war.  A ship named Grigorio 1 was detained in Cyprus and found to be carrying arms, bound for Syria and probably for delivery to Hezbollah. The 18 truck-mounted mobile radar systems were officially listed as “weather observation equipment”. A UN report in 2010 suggested that North Korea had become remarkably adept at masking its intentions and operated through “multiple layers of intermediaries”. In 2021, the Alma Research Center in Israel revealed that a larger tunnel in southern Lebanon, 45 km in length, had been discovered. It had been completed with the assistance of KOMID, a North Korean front company, at a cost of US$13 million. Alma’s report detailed underground command centres, field clinics and camouflaged vertical shafts to fire missiles from underground.

It allowed the movement of Hezbollah forces from one zone of conflict to another, as well as the quick transportation of surface-to-surface missiles to underground firing sites.

Hezbollah had long ago established front companies such as Jihad Construction and the Mustafa Commercial and Contracting Company. They were ostensibly there for the benefit of the Shi’ite community – but in reality it was to build a sophisticated network of tunnels.

According to Tal Beeri, the director of Alma’s Research Department, much of the information about Hezbollah’s network of tunnels was discoverable as open-source intelligence. (This included a 2007 video in which Imad Mughniyeh, the then Hezbollah second-in-command, was seen inside an attack tunnel. Mughniyeh, who had been charged in Argentina for the attack on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992, was killed by a car bomb in Damascus in 2008.)

According to the IDF, Hezbollah planned to enter a tunnel on the Lebanese side of the border and emerge near Metula on the Israeli side and replicate October 7.

There were different types of tunnels, designed for different purposes including those which were specifically boobytrapped to kill Israeli soldiers in a repeat of the Hamas attack in 2023. Unlike Palestinian nationalists, Palestinian Islamists have never wished to compromise with Israel over a shared land. The killings at the Nova festival were not an exception to the rule but the rule itself. Nasrallah and his minions in Hezbollah would have gladly repeated the mass murder.

According to the IDF, the highly mobile Hezbollah Radwan force – named after Mughniyeh (al-Hajj Radwan) – had planned to enter the tunnel via a shaft in the main street of Kafr Kila on the Lebanese side of the border and emerge near Metula on the Israeli side. On motorbikes, they would have proceeded to replicate the events of October 7 but this time in Metula.

Hamas, too, acquired the expertise of tunnel construction and warfare. Reports in the media have suggested that some tunnels found in Gaza were wide enough for vehicles to drive through.

This may explain why Israeli spotters noticed little before October 7. Hamas forces could be transported underground in tunnels to then suddenly appear just a few metres away from the border with Israel.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

POV: You're playing a progressive game.

Dude, you wanna play "Mission Impossible: Israel Edition"?

Yeah, sure.

It's 1947 and the UN the land of Israel to a Jewish state and an Arab state. As a Jew, your mission is... survive!

That's it? Okay.

Let's draw the first card... War! Local Arabs attacking Jews all over the land, joined by the armies of Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Jordan. Do you fight back or surrender?

If I surrender, do I survive?

No.

Then I fight back.

OK, let's draw another one... You lose a huge amount of your population but miraculously manage to win. Are you willing to give back some of the territories you gained in exchange for peace?

Of course, I just want to survive.

Great and now we have... Terror! Hundreds of Israelis killed by Arabs from the West Bank and Gaza. Do you wish to surrender, hunt the terrorists or give the Palestinians autonomy so they can form a peaceful and independent society alongside Israel?

Let's give them autonomy.

OK you get... More terror! Over a thousand Israelis die in countless attacks all over Israel.

Oh wow, I won't be able to survive like this. Let's fight the terrorists in the West Bank and withdraw from Gaza completely. I'll even give the Palestinians all the facilities we created over there. I'm sure they'll find a use for it.

Interesting... The people of Gaza elected Hamas as their ruler and it swore to destroy Israel and kill all the Jews. They also dismantled the infrastructure you gave them and used it to build rockets which they fire towards you. How do you respond?

Okay let's talk to Egypt and together we'll form a tight border around Gaza to control what goes in and out.

Okay... People are mad at you because you formed a blockade.

But they'll kill me if I won't... well then let's give Gaza electricity, fuel, supplies, and billions of dollars.

Okay you get... Even more terror! Hamas uses all the aid to develop terror infrastructure while the people of Gaza remain poor.

This game is not that easy...

You waited too long and now Hamas crossed the border, killed 1500 Israelis and kidnapped 240, all in one day!

OK enough is enough. I enter Gaza to destroy Hamas.

Let's see... Many of your soldiers die fighting in urban territory. You're having trouble because Hamas hides among civilians.

Oh man. Let's use the Air Force and target Hamas officials only.

Hamas uses civilians as human shields. Do you wish to proceed?

Look, I'll put tremendous efforts into targeting Hamas only with as few civilian casualties as possible.

Let's see... Hamas builds military bases inside residential areas, schools, and hospitals, so, unfortunately, civilians die.

OK let me think...

While you were thinking, 30 Israelis died.

Wait a second...

50 Israelis more. Your people fear for their lives.

OK I'll notify the people of Gaza before striking so they have time to evacuate.

Hamas blocks the roads so civilians can't leave.

What do you want me to do?

Now Hamas says that Israel is just the beginning and they want to take on all Western democracies.

OK now I'm sure the world will understand if I keep fighting Hamas while trying as hard as I can to avoid collateral damage.

Let's see... Most people accuse you of performing a genocide and demand you cease fire.

OK, happy to, but only if Hamas will surrender and return the hostages.

They refuse. You are now accused of ethnic cleansing and considered a war criminal.

I'm starting to think I cannot win this game.

==

"Israel is the only country in the world never allowed to win a war." -- Douglas Murray

Remember when Boko Haram kidnapped 300 girls and everyone was all #BringBackOurGirls? Let's leave aside the fact they also kidnapped 10,000 boys and nobody said a word.

What are we currently hearing from Western countries, and particularly from western elites? Motions and calls for a "ceasefire." Not a demand for Hamas to surrender and #BringBackTheHostages, but for everyone to put their guns down so the terrorists can regroup, rearm and reload, and plan even more of the atrocities they've already promised.

I saw one person on social media say "couldn't they start with asking Hamas to please surrender?" I thought they were kidding. They were not. Which is like "why are there still monkeys?" Apparently scientists just never considered this, and Israel just never asked nicely.

"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it" "There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors." -- Hamas Covenant, 1988.

Who is making demands of Hamas? Nobody actually expects anything of them, because they know they're terrorists. But they're the ones of which we should be demanding the most.

The only thing you can do when being assaulted by wokescolds, of any variety, is to just do the right thing and ignore them. When they have aligned themselves with full-blown terrorists who have a fatwa issued against them, they don't have the moral high ground.

https://fatwacouncil.org/2023/03/09/hamasfatwa/

FATWA | Palestinian Human Rights in Gaza March 9, 2023

The Islamic Fatwa Council (IFC) deems the recently publicized audio and video material containing testimonies of Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip to be both alarming and concerning. It is the responsibility of the Islamic Seminaries to take a clear and firm stance in light of the inhumane actions of Hamas.

Based on the requests of countless believers, The Islamic Fatwa Council has reviewed extensive documentation of Hamas behavior towards Palestinians in Gaza, including their recently publicized testimonies. Our findings - which are also displayed in our jurisprudential reasoning - result in our ruling that:

1. Hamas bears responsibility for its own reign of corruption and terror against Palestinian civilians within Gaza; 2. It is prohibited to pray for, join, support, finance, or fight on behalf of Hamas - an entity that adheres to the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood movement.

Furthermore, The Islamic Fatwa Council joins The UAE Fatwa Council and the Council of Senior Scholars of Saudi Arabia in declaring the Muslim Brotherhood movement and all of its branches as terrorist organizations that defame Islam and operate in opposition to mainstream Islamic unity, theology and jurisprudence.

[beardedmrbean]

Weird that the palestinians are "held hostage" in gaza, they can't leave by land or boat... meanwhile, the arab states all around, instead of getting boats to gaza to help palestinians flee or protecting the egyptian border so they can go there, would rather send missiles to military bases nowhere near Gaza.

Did a long one, got too long, going short.

They don't want them, most of the countries in the area already have a palestenian community living under actual real life aparthied, instead of whatever they think it is in Israel, and they don't want more of them as can be seen with things like assad in Syria murdering thousands of them with poison gas and such.

I know Egypt has a issue with various terrorist groups that are from palestine that like to fight with the various terrorist groups from Egypt.

Another concern is that Israel might annex the gaza strip if the population drops too low, which I would hope not because they have no claim to it historical or otherwise, that's were the 5 cities of the Philistines were.

For the record the Philistines were extinct as a separate distinct society before Rome showed up, so no palestenians aren't them either.

Another reason for Egypt is the bribes the border guards take is a source of income for the government so why would they give that up.

Big reason though is that none of those countries gives a shit about the palestenian people, they just hate Israel, and the only time they pay much attention to the situation in the west bank or gaza is when something like this is going on because it makes Israel look bad and they like that. ___________

Semi related I think it would be good to grant them statehood, funny at least because then they'd all lose their refugee status and have to fend for themselves instead of having their expenses subsidized by UN member states.

[justforbooks]

Hassan Nasrallah

Ruthless head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah who led his movement for more than 30 years

Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, has died aged 64 in an Israeli bomb attack on the movement’s HQ in Dahiyeh, Beirut. His death came after 11 months of conflict between his fighters, based in Lebanon, and Israel.

On 7 October last year Hamas militants from Gaza entered Israel and killed more than 1,200 people. The next day Nasrallah ordered cross-border bombardments on Israel, and a limited conflict of attrition followed. This month Israel dramatically escalated matters by assassinating Hezbollah leaders, infiltrating the group’s security apparatus, hitting tower blocks and sabotaging pagers, walkie-talkies and arms silos, while rebuffing US calls for a ceasefire.

Over three decades Nasrallah, politically astute and often ruthless, transformed his Shia Muslim community, the largest yet most marginalised of Lebanon’s 18 sects – Muslim, Christian and Druze – into Beirut’s powerbrokers. His “party of God” also grew from a local militia into a disciplined body active elsewhere in the region.

Adored by supporters, Nasrallah was essential to Hezbollah’s success. His state-within-a-state runs schools, clinics, scout troops, support for farming, an alternative banking system, armed checkpoints, prisons, radio and TV stations and telecom networks.

Central to Hezbollah’s ethos is muqawama – resistance to Israel and its allies.

Hezbollah claimed credit when in 2000 Israel ended its 18-year-long occupation of southern Lebanon. The militia armed Palestinian factions during the second intifada of 2000-05 (the first having come in 1987-93); it trained Houthi rebels in Yemen and Shia factions in Iraq and Bahrain.

Nasrallah’s fighters became the most powerful non-state military in the Middle East. Hezbollah’s estimated 60,000 troops and 150,000 Iranian-supplied rockets eclipsed Lebanon’s national army.

In July 2006 Hezbollah fought a month-long war with Israel, with more than 1,100 dead on the Lebanese side, and more than 160 Israelis killed. Once hostile Sunnis hailed Nasrallah as the restorer of Arab pride. Their mood changed when in 2012 his forces joined President Bashar al-Assad and Iran in an internal Syrian war that killed half a million mostly Sunni civilians.

In October 2019 many Shia joined protests against him after gross mismanagement led Lebanon to the brink of bankruptcy. Foes blamed Nasrallah for overseeing the same corrupt political system he had once condemned.

Despite championing the Palestinian cause, Hezbollah did little to ease insufferable conditions for Palestinians in Lebanon. Then in August 2020, there was an explosion caused by 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate in a part of Beirut harbour under Hezbollah control.

The blast killed 218, rendered 300,000 people homeless, and caused billions in damage, leading demonstrators to hang Nasrallah in effigy.

Hezbollah had a turbulent role in other aspects of Lebanon’s domestic affairs. It was the only civil war militia that had been allowed to keep its weapons after fighting ended in 1990. Nasrallah became Hezbollah secretary general in February 1992, the day after Israel assassinated his predecessor, Abbas al-Musawi.

He was re-elected in 1993 and repeatedly thereafter. Nasrallah rejected UN calls to disarm after Israel withdrew in 2000 and prevented Lebanon’s army from guarding the southern border.

In 2005 a car bomb in Beirut killed Lebanon’s former premier, Rafik Hariri. UN investigators named Hezbollah and Syria as likely culprits. Two months later massive “cedar revolution” protests forced Syrian troops out of Lebanon after 29 years of domination.

Yet Nasrallah choreographed a pro-Syrian alliance with Michel Aoun, a Christian former renegade general newly returned from exile in France. Hezbollah scored well in June polls, and two members joined the cabinet for the first time.

When Lebanon’s pro-western prime minister, Fouad Siniora, rejected Nasrallah’s demand for a blocking veto, Hezbollah shut down parliament for 18 months. In May 2008 Hezbollah gunmen crushed opponents in Beirut, Sidon, Tripoli and Aley – contradicting Nasrallah’s promise never to attack fellow citizens. Still, many Lebanese adored him for defying Israel and affirming their dignity.

Others resented his outsized influence. They said he was an Iranian proxy who killed enemies, including Shia intellectuals, brought starvation to besieged Syrian towns, and recreated the schisms of Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war. That conflict, and especially the Israeli invasion and occupation of 1982, inspired the young cleric to choose a political path.

However, the greatest impetus was Ayatollah Khomeini’s 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran. As the Lebanese analyst Saleh el-Machnouk put it, by 2020 Lebanon had become a “mafia-militia nexus [where] Iran uses Hezbollah as a subcontractor”.

Born in Bourj Hammoud, then a mainly Christian Armenian town, Hassan was the eldest of nine children of Mahdiyya Safi al-Din and Abdul Karim Nasrallah, a grocer. Hassan devoured Islamic texts while his siblings played football. When war erupted in 1975, the family fled to their ancestral village of Bazourieh, near Tyre. Hassan joined Amal (“hope”), the mostly Shia movement that opposed traditional elites, whether Shia, Sunni or Christian.

In 1976 the penniless 16-year-old left for the famous Iraqi Shia seminary in Najaf. Al-Musawi, a fellow Lebanese exile, became his mentor. After Iraq expelled Lebanese students in 1978, Nasrallah studied with Al-Musawi in Baalbek, in the Beqaa Valley, and joined Amal’s politburo.

By 1982 younger Shias such as Nasrallah were deserting Amal for Khomeini’s camp.

Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards based in Lebanon turned these radicals into Hezbollah. Its affiliates conducted suicide attacks in 1983 that killed more than 300 US and French peacekeeping soldiers. They later fought Amal and kidnapped westerners such as Terry Waite for the benefit of Iran.

In 1989 Nasrallah moved to Iran to study at the seminary in Qom. Back in Lebanon, in 1991 he grudgingly accepted the Syrian-backed Taif power-sharing accord that formally ended the civil war. A month after he became secretary general of Hezbollah, it was accused of killing 29 people at the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires; in 1994 another assault on an Argentinian Jewish communal centre claimed 85 lives.

Hassan never stood for election; instead, the speaker of parliament and former rival, the Amal leader Nabih Berri, conveyed his views to the world. Nasrallah admitted Tehran was Hezbollah’s chief sponsor. Nonetheless, foreign intelligence claimed that the party benefited from narcotics traffic, an illicit diamond trade and millions more from expatriate tycoons.

Nasrallah cemented his image as a consensual national figure with Maronite Christian clergymen. He promised not to impose theocratic rule on a religiously diverse and often secular public and arranged for Hezbollah to contest elections between 1992 and 2022.

He displayed a dignified response when his son, Mohammed Hadi, died fighting Israelis in September 1997. Nasrallah helped Lebanon’s national army crush a revolt by Sobhi Tufaili, an anti-Iranian populist and first secretary general of Hezbollah, four months later. He tutored Al-Assad before the latter became Syria’s president in 2000. He also returned from Israel 29 Hezbollah captives and 400 Palestinian prisoners in 2004.

Often, however, the moderate facade would slip. Nasrallah praised Holocaust deniers and in 2001 reportedly called Jews “miserly and cowardly”.

In 2008 Nasrallah’s de facto deputy, Imad Mughniyeh, was blown up in Damascus. After that the leader avoided public appearances, and coordinated regional strategy with Qassem Suleimani, Iran’s external operations chief, himself killed by a US drone strike in 2020.

After another two-year shutdown of parliament, Hezbollah ensured that it elected Aoun as president in late October 2016. Following Lebanon’s economic meltdown, however, Nasrallah’s coalition lost its majority in assembly elections in 2022. That same year Hezbollah agreed a maritime and gas field demarcation agreement with Israel. But showing solidarity with Hamas after 7 October, and so displacing 65,000 Israelis in the north of the country, led to his death.

Nasrallah’s wife, Fatima Yassin, and their children Jawad, Ali and Mahdi, survive him; his daughter Zeinab died in the same blast as him.

🔔 Hassan Nasrallah, political leader, born 31 August 1960; died 27 September 2024

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[darkmaga-returns]

Death of Syria

by Eric Margolis | Dec 13, 2024

What is clearly a joint US-Israeli plan to remake the Mideast map is now well underway. Changes will be seismic.

The Biden administration, by now almost totally controlled by pro-Israel neocons, is making its final major moves by loosing a Parthian shaft into the heart of the Mideast.

Syria – or what’s left of it – was divided up into zones – a third of the country with all its oil and gas fields is under the control of US military forces. Revenues from this oil and gas accounted for half of Syria’s income and paid its armed forces. Deprived of pay and munitions, the Syrian armed forces faded away, leaving the roads to Damascus open to Islamist forces, branded ‘terrorists’ by the west.

Israel collaborated closely. In two days alone its powerful air forces launched 480 attacks against Syrian military and strategic targets, including Syria’s tiny navy on the coast and major air bases. Israeli forces occupied a UN-sanctioned demilitarized zone on its northern border with Syria.

While western media and politicians waxed euphoric over the fall of former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, there was amnesia about the history of Syria’s nasty dictatorship. Not for me, of course, as a frequent visitor to the Assad’s frightening Syria.

[asirpaz]

Reputable charities you can donate to to help Palestinians!

[Summary of charities listed below]

Doctors Without Borders

Mission: Provides emergency medical care to those who need it most, regardless of race, religion, and politics.

Charity Navigator score: 98% reputable (highest on list)

Notes: This charity has worked in Gaza and the West Bank for the last 20 years. It also has offered support to Israeli hospitals dealing with high causalities. This is an International organization so not all donations necessarily go to Palestine. Also this organizations specifically calls for a ceasefire for the sake of Gazans, to lift the siege and allow necessary supplies to cross into Gaza, among other demands.

Donation Link: https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/our-response-israel-gaza-war

International Committee of the Red Cross

Mission: To help those affected by conflict around the world. It’s neutral workers visit detainees held in both Palestine and Israel. Also helps improve access to essentials like water and electricity.

Charity Navigator score: Unrated due to being based outside of the US.

Notes: While this org has many countries it provides services for, you can specifically donate to Palestine under “Israel and Occupied Territories.” Not every org listed has this option.

Donation Link: https://www.icrc.org/en/donate/ilot

IsraAID

Mission: Global NGO based in Aviv, Israel. Aims to help children and families in crisis. The group claims to house evacuees, operate child-friendly spaces for children to process what has happened and provide safe spaces to play. Also distributes resilience kits to family, among other things.

Charity Navigator score: Unrated due to being based outside of the US.

Notes: While they do claim to provide money and services to Palestinians, all donation are pooled into the same fund, meaning you cannot choose where your money goes. Based in Israel.

Donation link: https://www.israaid.org/donate/

Save The Children

Mission: To assist children in both Gaza and Israel. It’s working with the UN in hopes of renegotiating humanitarian corridors, and has been providing aid to Palestinian children and their families since 1953, it says.

Charity Navigator Score: 97%

Notes: This org has dispersed $1M from their children’s emergency fund to Gaza following the current escalation. Also allows donators to write to their US representatives about the crisis over their site. No specific donations aimed towards Gazans are available on their website.

Donation Link: https://www.savethechildren.org/us/where-we-work/west-bank-gaza

United Nations Children’s Fund

Mission: To improve the lives of children. Active in more than 190 countries. According to them they have staff delivering support in Gaza.

Charity Navigator Score: 92% (still a very high score)

Notes: You cannot choose where your donation goes, it all goes into the same fund. Helping this org provides medical supplies, clean water, food, education materials, and various other things to children who need it the most.

Donation Link: https://www.unicefusa.org/about-unicef-usa/unicef-usa-and-unicef

The United Nations Relief and Workers Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East

Mission: To carry out direct relief for Palestinian refugees. According to the org, nearly 6 million people are eligible for their services. Operates in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), the Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.

Charity Navigator score: Unrated due to being based outside of the US.

Notes: Since October 7th, over 270,000 people have populated it’s shelters, according to them.

Donation Link: https://donate.unrwa.org/-landing-page/en_EN

*Keep in mind not all of the links will work properly on tumblr, still they should work just fine when copy and pasted into your browser

[bopinion]

2023 / 06

Aperçu of the Week:

"We wanted the best, but it came as usual."

(Viktor Chernomyrdin, former Russian prime minister, in 1993)

Bad News of the Week:

The image of the "People's Democratic Republic" of North Korea is often described as Stone Age communism. While the majority of the population suffers from extreme poverty and, in some cases, famine, Kim Yong Un stages himself as a monarch and operates a strange cult of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, which he sees as life insurance for his own despotic regime. All of this is done under the eyes of China, a protective power that is difficult to understand, and in distinction from the economically successful brother nation of South Korea.

For a long time, North Korea existed like a country on another planet. Hardly any information penetrated to the outside or the inside, the communicative isolation seemed perfect, the media control total. This still works internally, but in recent months it is the World Wide Web, of all places, on whose map the country is no longer a blank spot. On the one hand, North Korea operates extremely successful hacker cohorts who, in addition to various espionage and disinformation campaigns, also managed to collect at least $1.2 billion in cryptocurrency through online fraud and data extortion. In other words, a concretely lucrative business that flushes foreign currency into the state coffers.

What is unclear, however, is the objective of what is currently the second notable North Korean Internet phenomenon: an apparently broad-based social media offensive. In a series of channels, which according to CNN are new and have been astonishingly successful in a short time, the country is staging itself as a pleasant home for seemingly normal teenagers. Who speak perfect English with a British accent. Who, for example, enjoy popsicles and love to read Harry Potter. Only the former is hardly available and the latter is even officially banned. Why is this done? Good question.

The videos "look like a well-prepared play" scripted by the North Korean government, said Park Seong-cheol, a researcher at the Database Centre for North Korean Human Rights. The scenes shown from the alleged everyday life of youngsters are not completely fake, but staged. For example, there is a water park, a movie theater and an amusement park in Pyongyang. Only these facilities are reserved for an elite class of party officials, military officers and government employees. Like the Internet access these strange influencers use - just like the smartphones that aren't actually available. What's the point when, according to the CIA fact book, only 26% of the population even has electricity? It would be nice if the North Korean tourist office, which wants to open the country's borders to international tourism, were behind this.

More likely, however, it is a red herring. With which the regime wants to influence the current narrative: North Korea is not an isolated country that could attack its neighbors and the United States with nuclear weapons. But rather an ordinary East Asian country where ordinary people like you and me live ordinary lives. Combined with the recent spate of missile launch tests, the latest expansion of the Nyŏngbyŏn nuclear facility documented with satellite imagery, and a new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) unveiled just last Wednesday at the 75th anniversary of the founding of the armed forces, this leaves a queasy feeling.

Good News of the Week:

Probably the death toll of 28,000 from the earthquake in the Turkish-Syrian border region is out of date by the time I post this. The worst series of quakes since scientific records began has devastated an area where nearly 20 million people live. And as events unfold, a whole series of negative findings are coming to light.

The Turkish government is not implementing the regulations that actually apply to buildings in the latently earthquake-prone region. Neither Syria's ruler Bashar al-Assad nor the rebels in the north of the country are allowing solid disaster relief by foreign forces. Enemy nations cannot be stopped from attacking each other even in this situation. Even in the Near East, there are sub-zero temperatures at this time of year. And the Kurds remain constantly the biggest loosers of them all anyway.

Fortunately, many humanitarian highlights are also showing up in the face of adversity. For example, even Sweden, reviled by Erdogan, is sending aid workers to eastern Anatolia. So is the beleaguered Ukraine, which surely would have been admitted a different set of priorities. And those that don't have appropriately equipped aid workers, like the United Arab Emirates, are opening their wallets. And every day there are - still! - improbable miracles, such as the rescue of a heavily pregnant woman who was rescued yesterday after 115 hours under rubble.

What somehow makes one optimistic despite the terrible circumstances is humanity. When people stand by each other in times of need, even though the religion they believe in actually dictates enmity. When official requirements are suspended in order to allow family members who have become homeless to travel to their relatives in Germany, for example. Or when the international community thinks not only about the current rescue, but also about reconstruction afterwards - the EU has already announced a donor conference for those affected.

Even the self-proclaimed crown of creation, which likes to define itself in terms of greed, resentment, jealousy or hatred, is capable of empathy. It's nice that the term "humanity" still has a positive connotation. Even though we so often seem to go out of our way to change that. The heart is probably more than just a blood-pumping muscle after all. And conscience more than a transmission in the synapses of the brain.

Personal happy moment of the week:

I broke a bottle of red wine while shopping the other day. And moistened various purchases in the carrier bag. I noticed most of it and was able to clean and dry it. That the red wine also flowed into a box of cigarillos, I did not even notice. Not until I wanted to smoke one and had a damp, soft stem in my hand. So I put the box open on the heater in the office. And discovered two pleasant side effects of my mishap: the smell of red wine and tobacco at work has an comfortable calming effect. And the taste of the cigarillos gets a pleasant additional flavor. From that perspective, I was able to profitably recycle some of the spilled red wine.

I couldn't care less...

...whether the former head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maaßen, who is increasingly conspicuous for his racist and conspiracy-theory tones, can be officially expelled from the conservative CDU. Or whether the high good of freedom of speech also protects him within the party from accountability for his unspeakable statements. The fact that an obviously extreme right-winger could rise as a political official to become the head of the most important authority for upholding the state of lawfulness, of all things, weighs considerably more heavily and calls for more consequences than which membership card he carries around with him.

As I write this...

...I'm drinking a beer not even five hours after I got up today. A tough week in many ways takes its toll. And I tackle the challenge of relaxing Bavarian style.

Post Scriptum

In the German capital Berlin, the House of Representatives will be newly elected today - as a repeat election. This is because the regional election that took place in the fall of 2021 parallel to the federal election was declared invalid by the Administrative Court due to numerous mishaps - from ballots running hout to polling stations closing too late. Realpolitically less relevant, since no result of the election would change e.g. the majority conditions in the Bundesrat, is a look on Berlin nevertheless interesting. On the one hand, out of sarcasm, since this debacle also fits perfectly with the prejudice that simply nothing works in this city. On the other hand, out of curiosity, since in the end every conceivable party constellation is indeed possible. The extent of my tendency toward the former will depend on the first projection in less than an hour on the latter.

[israel-org]

As we look for light amid the darkness of world events, the U.S. Congress might seem a surprising place to find it. Yet the enduring cooperation between the people and governments of the United States and Israel—surely a beacon of promise and hope—survives despite turnovers in Congress and the presidency.

The U.S. Congress votes in favor of Israel’s annual security aid, a necessity more urgent now than ever before. The Christian community’s mark among members of Congress to promote legislation that will strengthen the U.S.-Israel relationship is significant and helps increase the safety of both allies. Although Congress may not base its decisions on Genesis 12:3, that “God will bless those who bless Israel,” politically active Christians are motivated by scripture and congress matches its decision-making about our staunch ally important for our own nation.

The Islamic regime continues marching toward possessing and using nuclear weapons. Its surrogates surround Israel’s borders in Lebanon, Gaza, and Syria—geographic proximity that brings terror up close. However, when it comes to Israel, terror shatters the peace within Israel’s borders. It is up close and personal when a 21-year-old terrorist living in east Jerusalem arrives at Ateret Avraham synagogue on Shabbat and starts shooting. During that four-minute shooting spree last week, the terrorist shot and killed seven Israelis and wounded three others, all on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. When a second terror attack took place the following morning in the City of David, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) added three additional battalions and ramped up the security alert to its highest level. The murders are considered the worst terror outbreak in years.

Meanwhile, government officials from two nations that are responsible for murdering their own populations recently met in Damascus to arrange a meeting between Iran’s president, Ebrahim Riasi, and Syria’s dictator, Bashar al-Assad. At this meeting, Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and Syria’s foreign minister, Faisal Mekdad, recapped their “challenges” with Western nations. Mekdad observed that they must “secure their national interests.” He named the United States and the “Zionist Regime” (Israel) and their “mercenaries” as threats.

On another front, the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog—the International Atomic Energy Agency—plans to travel back to Iran in his attempt to revive the 2015 Iran deal. Director Rafael Grossi reports that although Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapon yet, it has “amassed enough nuclear material for several nuclear weapons, not one.” I believe this latest attempt at a deal with the Islamic regime will fail, since the ayatollahs are fixated on one goal: using nuclear bombs to establish a worldwide caliphate governed under tyrannical Islamic law. The Gulf Arab states, Israel, and the United States are their prime targets.

Iran’s leaders view United Nations diplomacy as simply another forum for propaganda. The Iran regime’s dangers to its own population and the active terror from its surrogates in Lebanon, Gaza, and Syria are intensifying.

But here’s one kind of message that is bound to get their attention. On January 26, the U.S. Central Command and Israel Defense Forces completed a massive military exercise called Juniper Oak 2023, the biggest joint drill on record. Its size and scope must have sent an unmistakable message to the ayatollahs. As U.S. General Michael “Erik” Kurilla observed on NBC, “It would not surprise me if Iran sees the scale and the nature of these activities and understands what the two of us are capable of doing.”

The combined participation included 1,100 Israeli soldiers and 6,400 U.S. soldiers in the drill. The Times of Israel reported that 142 aircraft were involved: F-35, F-15, F-16, and F/A-18 fighter jets; AC-130 Hercules transports; B-52 heavy bombers; and AH-64 Apache helicopters. A U.S. Navy carrier strike group coordinated operations with six Israeli ships and a submarine that carried out maneuvers with the American aircraft carrier.

Israel provides unmatched efforts that help our own U.S. security, as Israel shares intelligence with the U.S. government and military. The advantages of this cooperation spill over into our civilian airline safety methods that were gleaned from Israeli resources. Another benefit is that Israel never asks for American boots on the ground. Their policy is to defend themselves by themselves.

When it comes to Return on Investment (ROI), our relationship with Israel is quite favorable. Such benefits manifest themselves in our economy. Our U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, the capital, reported in 2021 that bilateral trade resulted in nearly $50 billion in goods and services annually. Another example worth noting: Israelis themselves invested around $24 billion in the United States. Compare huge Israeli investments to our Congress’s Ten-Year Memorandum of Understanding with Israel. Renewed again in 2018, the memorandum commits $3.8 billion annually in U.S. funds for Israel’s security for the following decade. Seventy-five percent remains in the U.S.—in factories that manufacture some of Israel’s advanced weaponry and employ American citizens. We are surely on the winning end.

When it comes to the U.S. Congress, although Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and several other members of the House of Representatives are anti-Semitic (as evidenced by their comments and votes), both Democrats and Republicans are staunch pro-Israel votes on important legislation and resolutions to continue strengthening the US-Israel relationship.

Last week, on January 25, 2023, a recent bipartisan resolution—House Resolution 7—roundly won approval, passing in a 420-1 vote. Republican House member Thomas Massie (R-KY) cast the only NO vote. The resolution condemned the “violent suppression” of women-led protesters in Iran for the last five months. Congresswoman Claudia Tenney (R-NY) described the protests as the “most significant popular protest” in Iran since the 1979 takeover by the Islamic regime.

The 24/7 news cycle thrives on bad news. However, focusing on good news, some that I have mentioned above, provides motivation to do what we can, where we can. Prayer is our foundation, and putting feet on our prayers is faith in action. Three hundred and sixty-five times in Scripture, God says, “Fear not.” He assures us in Isaiah 41:10, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”

Please join CBN Israel this week in praying for Israel and the Middle East:

Pray for citizens in the Islamic Republic who are demonstrating, imprisoned, and killed by the regime.

Pray for Israelis who are once again on high alert for terror, including Hamas rockets launched into Israeli civilian areas.

Pray that world leaders will pressure Israel’s enemies, not Israel—which defends its citizens from terrorists.

Pray for hundreds of thousands of Syrian families who have fled Syria as well as those left amid the Iranian presence in their nation.

Arlene Bridges Samuels pioneered Christian outreach for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). After she served nine years on AIPAC’s staff, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem USA engaged her as Outreach Director part-time for their project, American Christian Leaders for Israel. Arlene is an author at The Blogs-Times of Israel, a guest columnist at All Israel News, and has frequently traveled to Israel since 1990. She co-edited The Auschwitz Album Revisited and is a volunteer on the board of Violins of Hope South Carolina. Arlene has attended Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summit three times and hosts her devotionals, The Eclectic Evangelical, on Facebook.

support us with crypto if love israel

address : 0x0E66Ec91C28363e6dA8f4EBD602c441994bB319b

[dzthenerd490]

News Post

Palestine

Israel strikes flour distribution line, kills 50 across Gaza | Israel-Palestine conflict News | Al Jazeera

The Supreme Court wades into the Israel-Palestine conflict, in Fuld v. PLO | Vox

Trump and Palestine — sidelined conflict may return to global stage (theprint.in)

How have Palestinian groups reacted to the ouster of Syria’s al-Assad? | Syria's War News | Al Jazeera

Ukraine

Biden rushes aid to Ukraine as world braces for Trump | AP News

Man fleeing Ukraine war with his kitten found alive in frigid Romania mountains: "Peach kept my heart warm" - CBS News

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,020 | Russia-Ukraine war News | Al Jazeera

Sudan

Act now to save Sudan’s hospitals (ft.com)

Sudanese refugees seek news of relatives in Assad's prisons | Middle East Eye

Sudan asks Arab League to curb regional interference - Sudan Tribune

Lebanon

Top Assad regime officials 'fleeing to luxury Lebanon hotels' (newarab.com)

In Lebanon, villagers on the border watch Syria’s revolution with unease : NPR

World Bank: Israel-Hezbollah war intensified Lebanon’s economic contraction (yahoo.com)

UN 'mulls setting up Syria-Lebanon border camp for displaced' (newarab.com)

Syria

Syria live news: Syria’s new PM meets old gov’t officials to aid transition | Syria's War News | Al Jazeera

Russian forces stay put at key military bases in Syria (ft.com)

Live updates: Syrians celebrate fall of Assad as Israel is accused of land grab | CNN

What is Iran signalling since the fall of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad? | Syria's War News | Al Jazeera

It Is Time to Recognize Rojava as an Autonomous State of Kurdistan - Middle East Forum (meforum.org)

ANF | Internationalists in Sheffield express their solidarity with Rojava (anfenglish.com)

Rojava launches emergency mobilisation following militia takeover of Aleppo | Green Left

[head-post]

Thousands flee as Syrian rebels battle around Homs

Thousands of people fled the central Syrian city of Homs during the night and morning of December 6 as rebel forces tried to push their lightning offensive against government forces further south.

The militants have already captured the key cities of Aleppo in the north and Hama in the centre, dealing one crushing blow after another to President Bashar al-Assad, nearly 14 years after protests against him began across Syria.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said thousands of people began fleeing towards Syria’s western coastal areas, a government stronghold, on the evening of December 5. A coastal resident reported that thousands of people began arriving there from Homs, fearing a rapid rebel advance.

On the morning of December 6, Israeli air strikes hit two border crossings between Lebanon and Syria, Lebanese Transport Minister Ali Hamieh said.

Russian bombing overnight also destroyed the Rustan bridge on the key M5 motorway to prevent rebels from using this main route to the city of Homs, a Syrian army officer told Reuters. He also added:

“At least eight strikes were carried out on the bridge.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told UN secretary general Antonio Guterres in a telephone conversation that the conflict in Syria has entered a “new phase.” He said:

“The Syrian regime at this stage must urgently engage with its own people to reach a comprehensive political solution.”

Naim Qassem, head of Iran’s Hezbollah in Lebanon, which has fought in support of Assad, pledged to “support Syria to thwart aggression against it.”

Hama has been under Syrian government control since the start of the civil war in 2011. Islamists headed towards it three days ago after advancing in Aleppo province in the northwest. The capture of Hama, on the route between Aleppo and Damascus, opens the way to Syria’s third-largest city of Homs – located at a crossroads connecting Syria’s most populous regions.

Anti-government groups, the strongest of which is Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, launched the offensive on November 27. They ploughed into the city of Aleppo, the centre of the province of the same name, by November 30. This is the most serious escalation in the area since 2020.

Read more HERE

[girlactionfigure]

🟩 Monday morning - events from Israel  

ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

( VIDEO - IDF bombing Hezbollah hidden Hezbollah rocket launch sites in south Lebanon villages, this video from Tyre. Note the secondary explosions. )

♦️IDF MESSAGE to South Lebanese: If you are near a building where there are Hezbollah weapons, stay away from the village until further notice.

♦️Intense bombing by the IDF Air Force from the early hours of the morning.  Continued increase of force.  Dozens of villages and towns were attacked from the morning hours in southern Lebanon.  The Lebanese counted over 150+ air force strikes that lasted about an hour and a quarter.

.. Videos from Lebanon show intense explosions and major secondary explosions - meaning rockets hit.

♦️IDF spox: the IDF is now widely attacking Hezbollah terror targets in Lebanon. The targets: Hezbollah launch sites.  We detected Hezbollah's preparations to attack the citizens of the State of Israel and that is why we attacked.  For twenty years Hezbollah distributed weapons in southern Lebanon, placing missiles in peoples homes.

♦️A GENERAL’S ANALYSIS: Brigadier General (resp.) Yossi Kuperverser writes: "The repeated failures of Iran and Hezbollah to obtain revenge by promoting terrorist attacks against senior Israeli officials, may lead them to try to save their damaged honor by extensive military action, which in turn will lead to escalation and justify strong Israeli action."

❗️IDF: Following the IDF Spokesperson's statement, attached is a video that reveals the attempt by Hezbollah terrorists to launch cruise missiles from a house in Lebanon: https://bit.ly/3ZCK3Fp  - these missiles have range over all of Israel and a 300 kg warhead, very destructive.

▪️IRAN AFRAID OF RADIOS.. Reuters report: The Revolutionary Guards have ordered all their men to immediately stop using all electronic radios for fear that they too will be captured by Israel. An extensive operation began to test all devices.

▪️CHINA.. calls on its citizens to leave Israel as soon as possible.  China manages port operations at one of the Haifa ports, and multiple major construction projects in the country including the Tel Aviv light rail.

▪️RELIGIOUS POLITICS.. United Torah Judaism to the Prime Ministers Office: Strongly demand that Netanyahu not fly back to Israel on Shabbat after he flies to the US to speak at the UN.  "If Netanyahu can't fly without staying on Shabbat, let him not fly"

▪️TEACHERS STRIKE DEAL.. Teachers' salaries will increase by NIS 1,200 in relation to the scope of the position.

▪️DEAL NEWS.. The Americans submitted drafts of their new mediation proposal to Hamas - and were refused.

⭕Overnight a large explosion was heard in the city of al-Shadadi, where American forces are located near the Iraq-Syria border.  The US Al Shadadi base was reportedly under rocket attack, alarms sounded at the base.

⭕DRONE BARRAGE from Hezbollah this morning at near-border towns in the near.

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[mightyflamethrower]

n January 3, 2020, the Trump administration conducted a drone strike near Baghdad International Airport, killing Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani.

Soleimani had a long record of waging surrogate wars against Americans, especially during the Iraq conflict and its aftermath.

After the Trump cancellation of the Iran Deal, followed by U.S. sanctions, Soleimani reportedly stepped up violence against regional American bases—most of which Trump himself ironically wished to remove.

A few days later, Iran staged a performance-art retaliatory strike against Americans in Iraq and Syria, assuming Trump had no desire for a wider Middle East war.

Soleimani had a long record of waging surrogate wars against Americans, especially during the Iraq conflict and its aftermath.

After the Trump cancellation of the Iran Deal, followed by U.S. sanctions, Soleimani reportedly stepped up violence against regional American bases—most of which Trump himself ironically wished to remove.

A few days later, Iran staged a performance-art retaliatory strike against Americans in Iraq and Syria, assuming Trump had no desire for a wider Middle East war.

An inept Biden administration has utterly destroyed U.S. deterrence abroad through both actual and symbolic disasters: the Chinese dressing down of U.S. diplomats in Anchorage; the humiliating skedaddle from Afghanistan; the brazen flight of a Chinese spy balloon across the U.S.; the invasion of Ukraine by Russia; the October 7, 2023 massacre of 1200 Israelis; the serial Houthi attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea; the visible restraint of Israeli from fully replying to Iranian missile attacks on its homeland; and renewed bellicosity on the part of both North Korea and China toward American allies such as Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.

Of course, a second-term Trump must radically reform the Pentagon and beef up the military while warning enemies of the consequences to follow from any unwise aggression.

But if opponents believe such admonitions remain only vocal threats, then empty verbiage surely will erode deterrence further—such as Joe Biden’s serial and empty braggadocio, “Don’t!”

Biden’s past theatrical finger-shaking translated into aggressors like Putin going into Ukraine, Iran sending missiles into Israel, and the Houthis serially hitting shipping in the Red Sea.

Given the past messes of the Iraqi, Libyan, and Syrian interventions, and the catastrophic Biden humiliation in Afghanistan, Trump in 2024 is much more emphatic about the need to avoid such overseas dead-end entanglements or even the gratuitous use of force that historically can sometimes lead to tit-for-tat entanglements.

Still, Trump’s selection of J.D. Vance as vice president, along with Tulsi Gabbard, RFK, Jr., and Tucker Carlson as close advisors, coupled with the announcements that former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and prior UN Ambassador Nikki Haley will not be in the administration, may be misinterpreted by scheming foreign adversaries as proof of Trump neo-isolationism.

Moreover, the U.S. is battered by an unsustainable $37 trillion national debt and a nonexistent southern border that saw 12 million illegal aliens enter with impunity.

So, the use of force abroad is now often seen in a zero-sum fashion as coming at the expense of unaddressed American needs at home.

Moreover, a woke, manpower-short military has not achieved strategic advantages from wars abroad, while disparaging and alienating the very working-class recruits who disproportionately fight and die in them.

Recently, even as President-elect Trump’s inner circle emphasized an end to endless conflicts, Trump warned Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin not to escalate his attacks against Ukraine. Yet that advice was followed by a Russian massive drone onslaught against civilian Ukrainian targets.

Putin no doubt wishes to encourage American enemies to test Trump’s deterrent rhetoric against his campaign’s domestic promises to mind America’s own business at home.

Is there a way to square the deterrence circle?

Trump will have to speak clearly and softly while carrying a club. And for the first few months of his administration, he will be tested as never before to make it clear to Iran and its terrorist surrogates, China, North Korea, and Russia that aggression against US interests will be swiftly and quietly met with disproportionate and overwhelming repercussions.

Yet Trump will likely have to rely on drones, missiles, and air strikes and not on major engagements, to deter enemies from aggression—and his domestic critics from claiming he turned into a globalist interventionist.

He is not.

Trump remains a Jacksonian. But such deterrence entails warning from time to time the reckless and adventurous abroad that our allies have no better friend than America and our adversaries no worse enemy.

In other words, Trump must remind Americans only by periodically deterring enemies can he prevent endless wars.

[wickedlybadass]

I think Trump would’ve won in 2020 if there wasn’t a pandemic. America clearly thinks they can’t live without him. Oh, dear! What are they gonna do in 2028?!

Well, there’s only one thing that’s good. Once this term is over, Trump can’t run again so might as well get the next 4 years over with.

So Trump won. That means money talks, racism wins, sexism wins, nepotism wins, women don’t get to choose what they do with their bodies, hatred wins, trans are “fags,” you don’t get to come to the country unless you’re white and from a country who allied with America, any dangerous convicted criminals can become president and get away from being sentenced, bullying wins, intimidation wins, violence wins and misinformation that puts people in danger wins.

We need a leader. How was millions of people in America dying from a deadly virus leadership?

I get people were unhappy especially with the economy. If economy was so significant, then why didn’t he win in 2020? If you say because the election was rigged, that was a waste of time because I’ll just block your fucking ass so don’t bother. I’m sure part of the reason why the economy sucked is because people were lazy to get jobs, because they got fired and decided to blame Biden just like they blamed him for everything and because people spent too money on crap instead of learning to budget their money and spending it on bills and other things worthy.

People were unhappy about “Illegals” coming in. Funny how that was a top priority and not healthcare or housing. I guess people would rather be homeless and dying than let someone with a plastic knife cross the border just because they’re not white or because they’re poor and from a country that caused 9/11 even though they were never even a part of it. It might be a shock to a lot of people but we do already have a lot of violent criminals who are originally from America. Pretty astonishing, isn’t it? People who want immigrants out are clearly hiding their racism and nepotism because they’re narrow minded bigots. I bet Trump is going to close the border to all immigrants, even law-abiding ones who would’ve been considered legal. Remember when he banned Muslims in 2016? Yea, it was temporary but some people can see through his “intentions.” He just made the ban temporary just to make it look like he’s not a nepotistic person but we saw who he really was. He had a lot of “interesting” things to say about un-American people, calling foreigners animals, Mexicans “rapists and drug smugglers,” claimed everyone from Haiti had AIDS and he wanted to ban everyone from Syria because he “didn’t want to take a chance.” Oh, please, give me a break!

People have ignored the foundation of America that our Founding Fathers created America based on. That’s based on love, compassion, integrity, freedom integrity and dignity. Trump is none of those. Instead, because of Trump’s powerful influence, people want to fight dirty and put others in danger. Now we had January 6th, millions of deaths from Covid and a dangerous man running this country because money talks and because hatred just won. Trump have threatened America and people are okay with that as long as they get more money than they need because they can’t learn to budget (young people can’t even hand write!) and are greedy and they’d die on the streets sick and homeless in order to keep out the “fags,” “niggers,” “slopes” and whatever else you want to call them!

After reading what might have gone wrong, I admit that Harris didn’t have the best campaign and should have distanced herself from Biden instead of just continuing his politics so she would have her own plans because clearly, Biden’s approval rating was tanking. We had no choice but to choose between Trump and Harris (though you could’ve elected a Green Party or Libertarian). You just chose the worst of the two. Only thing that went wrong was Harris’ campaign. If she wants to run for president again, she needs to fire her campaign manager and get a whole new team.

Harris was going to help us get back to the foundation of this country: love, compassion, happiness, integrity, dignity and freedom but clearly America will forever change because Trump, a powerful and manipulative cult leader, convinced America that greed, hatred, corruption, control, violence and death were better ways to live in America.

if we’re going to live as happy, healthy and compassionate people, something needs to change back before Donald Trump came into the picture. For one thing, the MAGA movement needs to die down. I don’t care if we’re getting a republican president or if the House and Senate are being controlled by the MAGA. Democrats need to step up their fight to get America’s original foundations back, something our Founding Fathers intended for us. Why? Because before you know it, black and white Americans won’t be able to work together or get an education together or ride the same bus together. Gay people will be put in jail. Women who even steps into an abortion clinic will be put in prison, all the rich will be allowed to do what they want with their money, blowing money away on fancy clothes and property instead of donating them to starving children while middle class families have work harder to put food on the table, people coming in from Canada will be killed. All those will happen because of corruption, greed, fear and hatred. Get the message?

Democrats have a ton of work to do to get back on track before Donald Trump took control of America and created the MAGA movement!

[beardedmrbean]

The US military has carried out extensive airstrikes in Syria since the Assad regime collapsed over the weekend, and it's not the only country on the hunt for targets in this uncertain moment.

American, Israeli, and Turkish forces have all been involved in bombing targets across Syria over the past few days in actions said to be in support of their respective national security interests.

For the US, this means continuing to go after the Islamic State, as it has done for years, but with an intensity to keep the group at bay. The Biden administration has stated that this mission will continue despite uncertainty about the future of Syria's leadership.

The US has repeatedly said that it is committed to the enduring defeat of ISIS. "We don't want to give ISIS an opportunity to exploit what's going on," White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Tuesday, adding, "They love nothing more than ungoverned space."

Widespread military action in Syria

As rebel forces reached Damascus on Sunday and Syrian President Bashar Assad fled the country, US Air Force B-52 bombers, F-15 fighter jets, and A-10 attack aircraft bombed ISIS targets in central Syria. The widespread strikes hit the terrorist group's leaders, operatives, and camps, said US Central Command, which oversees Middle East operations.

A senior administration official, speaking to reporters, described the combat operation as "significant" and said the American warplanes dropped around 140 munitions to hit 75 targets. The US military said the goal of the strikes was to prevent ISIS from reconstituting in central Syria.

Jonathan Lord, a former political-military analyst at the Pentagon, told Business Insider the US military is "rightly worried that ISIS could slip through the cracks in the chaos," so it is hitting as many targets as possible.

Retired Gen. Joseph Votel, who oversaw US military operations in the Middle East in the 2010s as the Centcom commander, told BI that it's "good" the US is sending a clear message and taking action to prevent ISIS from exploiting the void in central Syria.

He added that it's important for the US to maintain a small presence in eastern Syria, calling it "a very effective and efficient way to keep tabs on this threat."

The widespread bombing since Sunday has, however, not been limited to just US actions. Israel has carried out over 300 airstrikes across neighboring Syria, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor.

Israel has targeted the remnants of Assad's former military, including aircraft, ammunition depots, weapons storage facilities, warships, radar systems, and additional assets, the SOHR said. Israeli officials have said these strikes are intended to prevent weaponry from falling into the hands of potential foes.

"Israel is taking no chances with their security and not waiting to find out if the new Syrian government is friendly or hostile," said Lord, who is now the director of the Middle East Security program at the Center for a New American Security think tank.

The Israeli military has also sent its ground forces across the Syrian border beyond a United Nations-monitored buffer zone that separates the two countries. The UN has criticized the move, which Israel said is a measure to protect its citizens amid the uncertainty in Damascus.

Avi Melamed, a former Israeli intelligence official, told BI that the actions are a "combined effort to try to minimize as much as possible the risk of growing military challenges following the current situation in Syria."

He said the Israeli approach likely includes diplomatic efforts to complement the airstrikes and buffer zone operation.

Meanwhile, a Turkish drone attacked a military site in an area held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, the SOHR said on Tuesday. Ankara, which views the nearby SDF as a terror group, has targeted Kurdish forces for years. The US frequently works closely with the SDF on counter-ISIS operations.

"The Turks have a legitimate counter-terrorism threat that they, too, have a right to deal with," Kirby, the White House spokesperson, said in response to a reporter's question about action against Kurdish groups.

The widespread military actions come on the heels of the shock collapse of the Syrian Army amid a stunning, only dayslong rebel offensive that removed Assad from power. The longtime dictator had relied extensively on military support from Russia, Iran, and Lebanese Hezbollah to keep opposition forces in check.

US officials are blaming the fall of the Assad regime on the reality that these three actors have been weakened and distracted lately by their respective conflicts with Ukraine and Israel. Russia, in particular, used to exercise significant control over Syrian airspace, but the future of Moscow's military footprint in the country is now unclear.