This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
JERUSALEM – On day 373 of the war between Israel and Hamas – although more correctly between Israel and Iran – evidence has emerged the Oct. 7, 2023 attack which started it, was designed to be significantly more deadly, part of an extraordinary plan which would have seen both Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists shaking hands in Tel Aviv.
International media outlets obtained a series of documents – released Saturday – which make for sobering reading. One of the first points of note is Hamas had wanted to undertake its operation – self-labeled "the Big Project" among a secret cabal of its leadership – already in 2022.
The Washington Post said it had obtained letters from Yahoo Sinwar of Hamas to Iranian officials, which discussed financing such an operation as early as 2021. Indeed, the Gaza terrorist's group seeking to co-opt both Hezbollah and Iran more directly to its cause, turned out to be the source of the delay.
The report, which first appeared in the New York Times, was based on IDF-recovered recordings in January, of meetings with Hamas' now undisputed leader Yahya Sinwar, at which his brother, Muhammad, as well as now-eliminated leaders Mohammed Deif and Marwan Issa, were present at several.
According to the report, the deputy head of Hamas' political bureau, Khalil al-Hayya, informed senior Iranian commander Mohammed Said Izadi of the plot in July 2023, in Lebanon. According to Izadi, Hezbollah and Iran both sanctioned the operation "in principle" – although they cautioned more time was needed to "prepare the environment." Now-eliminated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was supposed to meet with Hamas representatives in person, although it was postponed.
Hamas leaders seemed to be mollified it would not be left "exposed," although it reportedly left open the possibility it would go it alone, whether it had the explicit material support of either Hezbollah and Iran – which are effectively two sides of the same coin.
The details of the proposed attack are well-delineated in the report, and there was a clear intention to make it as spectacular as possible. At its heart was using subterfuge to allow Israel to be drawn deeper into its own conception, i.e. the impression Hamas was a rational actor, which wanted to improve the people of Gaza's economic standing, and could be placated by doing so.
Hamas leadership was relieved when an uptick in tension – presumably such as the often violent demonstrations against the border fence – never fully boiled over. In this way, it was able to maintain the ruse it sought to tamp down conflagrations and was instead in search of calm. Meanwhile, Sinwar and his cronies were plotting an attack, alongside a broader regional war, which he hoped would bring about Israel's collapse.
However, Hamas was dissuaded from this course of action after it concluded it lacked the ability – whether as a technical problem of the right amount of explosives or given the mall's proximity to IDF headquarters of time sensitivity and a lack of detection – to bring the towers down.
The mechanics for the attack – which presumably looked on paper a lot like what transpired on Oct. 7 – were in place around the Rosh Hashanah – the Jewish New Year – in mid-September 2022. Hamas appeared ready to attack military bases and then pivot to civilian residences. However, it would be almost 13 months later when the attack was so infamously carried out.
There was seemingly no specific reason for the delay, other than the one outlined above about Hezbollah and Iran wanting more time to prepare the ground. However, there were at least four significant catalysts for Hamas choosing to strike when it did:
- The concern about reports of significant advancements in Israel's military defense technology particularly with regard to lasers capable of shooting down rockets and missiles at a fraction of the cost of the Iron Dome and David's Sling etc.
- A perception about the nature of Israel's most ring-wing government ever, specifically coupled with the notion that the status quo on the Temple Mount might be in jeopardy – hence calling the eventual operation on Oct. 7, "the al-Aqsa Flood."
- A sensitivity to the divisions within Israeli society, practically ripped apart as it was over the judicial reform bill. Hamas leaders thought soldiers refusing to appear for reserve duty or air force pilots from topping up their training would be a perfect time to strike.
- There was a strong desire to scupper the possibility of normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which would have been perhaps the crowning achievement of the Abraham Accords.
Only a very select few of the Hamas leadership was aware of the plans, and apart from the now-eliminated Ismail Haniyeh, there was a clear delineation between Gaza and the so-called "hotel guys" in Qatar. With secrecy at a premium, even lower-level operatives – the ones who would actually lead and take part in the attack – were only informed mere hours before it took place.
On the Jewish festival of Simchat Torah – Oct. 7, 2023 – Sinwar unleashed his hordes, the result of which has changed the face of the Middle East forever.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Middle East/Israel:
5 Arab-Israelis detained over ISIS-style plot to car bomb Azrieli Mall in Tel Aviv
The Israel Police and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) revealed they recently thwarted a plot by five Arab-Israeli residents of the city of Taybeh to carry out an ISIS-style car bombing attack at Tel Aviv's Azrieli Mall.
Iran threatens Gulf states if IAF planes given passage through airspace to attack Islamic Republic
Dual national British-Israeli detained in Beirut
A journalist, Joshua Tartakovsky, who entered Lebanon on his British passport, was detained after a search by Lebanese security forces revealed he was also carrying an Israeli one. The Lebanese authorities deported him to the United States on Thursday.
Why won't the ICC chief prosecutor specify charges against Israeli leaders?
Israel claims that the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor Karim Khan's refusal to specify the allegations against Israeli leaders before seeking their arrest means he never gave authorities a chance to fully investigate.
WATCH!!! UNRWA, whose members took part in Oct. 7 massacre, nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
U.S.-Israel:
Trump is right: Iran was nearly broke until Biden-Harris pumped regime full of cash
Recently released estimates from the Biden-Harris administration itself of Iran's projected petroleum exports and sales, show how the Islamic Republic benefited from a cash windfall following the Biden-Harris administration's reversal of President Trump's maximum pressure sanctions.
CBS network directors tell staff, 'Jerusalem isn't in Israel'
The CBS network, already in hot water for airing a heavily doctored car-crash interview on "60 Minutes" with VP Kamala Harris, and for excoriating Tony Dokoupil for asking actual questions of Ta-Nehisi Coates on his biased book, is now telling its "journalists" to not refer to Jerusalem as "being in Israel."
Guardian review of Oct. 7 documentary 'One Day in October' bemoans footage made terrorists look bad
In a scarcely believable critique of a documentary that uses both phone and CCTV footage of the horrific events in Kibbutz Be'eri on Oct. 7, the Guardian's reviewer writes, "Sadly it also demonizes Gazans as either looters or killers."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Kamala Harris' meandering word salads are well-known. Just look online for her description of "passage of time" and how important is the "passage of time" and you'll be treated to a flood of social media evidence.
But this time it's gone way beyond the fact that she has trouble delivering a coherent answer to questions.
Now a television interview has been edited in order to try to make her coherent.
By inserting into the interview an answer that she had not delivered to that question.
See the video (Please be aware of one scatological reference to her comments in the video description):
The interview included Bill Whitaker asking: "But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening?"
Harris' actual response: "Well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by or a result of many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region."
Then "60 Minutes" edited her response, apparently to make it better?
Bill Whitaker: "But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening?"
Harris: "We are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end."
The Gateway Pundit concluded the deception was done "to make her sound coherent and normal."
"This is the definition of election interference," the report said. "Apparently, Kamala's interview with 60 Minutes was much worse than we first thought. Fake news 60 Minutes was caught editing Kamala's answers to make her sound coherent and normal."
The report noted Harris' answer apparently came from "earlier in the interview."
"This isn't journalism. It's fraud.," the report said.
Social media, which delivered the evidence to some four million viewers – and counting – immediately pointed out that President Donald Trump had declined to do an interview with "60 Minutes," with, "No wonder Trump didn't want to do your interview…"
"First you lied about the Hunter Biden laptop in 2020 and now you plug and play Kamala's answers? Whoa!"
Another said, "So, I guess I can assume that ALL 60 Minutes hard-hitting, investigational reports are lies upon lies upon lies…"
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
JERUSALEM — Israel's first, and second-longest serving, prime minister, David Ben-Gurion famously said, "In Israel, in order to be a realist, you must believe in miracles," and the year from Oct. 7, 2023, to Oct. 7, 2024 has certainly been an example of this. The story, whose end is unknown, has a very Jewish patina to it; from the depths of despair at 6:29 on that Sabbath/Simchat Torah morning as the paragliders flew over the Nova music festival and the Hamas paratroopers stormed over the border killing everything in their way, backed by a cacophony of rocket-fire; to a place today, which despite the difficulties and challenges of the knowledge of the hard road ahead, might even border on hope.
In every generation there are disputes and temptations, which threaten to rip the Jewish people asunder. In 2005, it was the disengagement from Gaza, pulled off by practically the only politician – Ariel Sharon – who had the fortitude and authority to pull it off. Many people on the right warned of the national implications of that fateful decision, but their concerns were dismissed for the perceived greater good of living in peace with our neighbors. Some hope.
In the months leading up to Oct. 7, 2023, Israel's civil society seemed fatally weakened, a hint, which Hamas' barbaric terrorist leader Yahya Sinwar, certainly did not miss. Despite the fact, protesters against the government's proposed judicial reform, and those in favor would all be waving Israeli flags at their demonstrations, as they yelled epithets at each other from point-blank range. Sinwar thought he knew Israel and Israelis, having learned the language and immersed himself in its newspapers over his extended stay in prison, which was so catastrophically cut short in the deal which released kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011. He assumed Israel was on the precipice of collapse; however, he misinterpreted what was underneath all the noise. Israel is a very noisy society, but underneath it there is an almost unspoken acknowledgment that Jews, whatever their political, spiritual or religious affiliations, are responsible for one another in times of great peril. And make no mistake, Oct. 7, 2023 was a moment of catastrophic danger.
Sinwar's actions led us to this point, and if one was to think back to Oct. 6, 2023, it would be impossible to contemplate that one year and one day later, they would lead us to a place where the future of the entire Middle East – of Israel's relationships with its Arab neighbors, and if the evil Islamist regime were to fall in Tehran, of Iran too – could be redrawn. It is a tantalizing moment – an inflection point – full of potential… and jeopardy.
Israelis, Diaspora Jews, U.S. politicians commemorate first anniversary of Hamas attacks, which left some 1,200 people dead
A somber mood – which to be sure has hung like a pall over the Jewish state for the last 366 days – descended a little further Monday, as Israelis came together – many of them at 6:29 a.m. – to commemorate the events of Oct. 7, 2023. Impromptu, unofficial gatherings paired with much larger events put on by various municipalities across the country, as long as the security situation would permit it. Hamas even fired a few rockets, some of which impacted in Tel Aviv and further to its south, in Holon.
Against which targets in the Islamic Republic of Iran might Israel retaliate?
Iran launched nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel on Oct. 1; Israel has still to respond. The timing of the response is unknown, although Iran was on high alert overnight Sunday. The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies provides maps with a key of the significance of the targets Israel might strike.
What targets in the Islamic Republic of Iran might Israel retaliate against?
Here is FDD's assessment of the regime's key military, nuclear, economic, and other centers. pic.twitter.com/SpXBcuWFO2
— FDD (@FDD) October 6, 2024
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A prominent publisher of science research is being challenged in court after moving to suppress science-based details about the dangers of abortion, according to a new report at the Federalist.
The fight now in Superior Court in Ventura, California, is over a decision by Sage Publications to move to retract three key studies "exposing the dangers of the nation's most popular abortion drug regiment," the report explained.
It's happening just as the U.S. Supreme Court is approaching a case involving the drug, mifepristone.
The report explained 10 of the researchers who delivered in three scientific papers their conclusions about the threat to lives have now filed a petition to compel arbitration.
They accuse the publisher of "pretextual and discriminatory" comments that were created to support retracting the findings on the abortion pill. The authors provided science to back their original writings, but Sage ignored it.
"One of the studies in question, which the lawsuit notes is 'the second most-read article' in the journal's history, specifically determined mifepristone is responsible for a 500 percent increase in abortion-related emergency room visits," the Federalist reported.
The censorship campaign is suspect for several reasons, not the least of which is the fact the papers were done in 2019, 2021 and 2022 and "originally passed peer review for publication without a hitch."
In fact, Sage emailed Dr. James Studnicki, who headed the 2021 and 2022 projects, and commended him for his "fine contributions."
But this year, amid a re-election year that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris both have participated in, with their extreme pro-abortion positions, the publisher suddenly claimed that it was acting on a "reader's concern" that the authors had a conflict of interest over some "pro-life organizations."
"Abortion activist researchers publish plenty of papers on the topic without scrutiny. Yet Sage, after what it called an 'independent review,' ultimately followed through with the retractions," the report said.
The challenge, now in court, charges, "Sage's wrongdoing has been causing enormous and incalculable harm to the Authors' professional reputations, as Sage intended. Because of Sage's retractions, the Authors and their research have been attacked by the media and by other authors, and the Authors have had new research proposals inexplicably turned away by other publications that now fear associating with them. The Authors have years — even decades — of fruitful research ahead of them, but they are now being treated as pariahs."
The Charlotte Lozier Institute found that Sage's claims provided "no evidence" of any major "errors, miscalculations or falsehoods" in the reports.
Further, the authors "fully complied" with the publications "conflict disclosure requirements."
The researchers had called for arbitration on the disagreement but the report said Sage delayed the process by making demands that were unrelated to the issue at hand.
"Even more concerning, Sage has used its intransigence as a weapon to try to pressure the Authors into unilaterally surrendering their discovery rights. Sage's egregious actions require this Court's intervention to compel arbitration," the lawsuit charges.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Israel never has taken second place to any government intelligence operation, to anyone, anywhere.
The Mossad, after all, tracked down Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Argentina, where he'd been in hiding since World War II collapsed around the Nazi movement and he fled in 1945.
He lived at ease there for years, but was caught by Israeli agents in 1960, transported to Israel, tried for his war crimes and executed.
Other operations, sometimes still unknown to the public, have been successful, too.
Just recently, Israel was able to destroy hundreds of Hezbollah terror operatives by exploding their electronic pagers. Israel had BUILT the pagers, installed explosives, and then arranged for them to be delivered to and used by Hezbollah.
Also, comments repeated recently by Iranian officials confirmed that a special squad intended by Iran to seek out and hunt down Israeli agents inside Iran was, in fact, headed by an Israeli agent inside Iran.
But it wasn't military or government intelligence that allowed Israel recently to bomb, and destroy, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah inside a bunker 60 feet underground in Lebanon.
It was jinn.
You know, those entities more commonly called genies. As in "Aladdin," where they were endowed with "cosmic power in an itty, bitty living space," and as in "I Dream of Jeannie."
That's according to Mostafa Karami, who teaches at a Muslim seminary in Iran. He opined that the Israeli attack on Nasrallah was successful because the help from "jinn."
The report comes from Robert Spencer, the director of Jihad Watch and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center who as written 28 books including "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)," "The Truth About Muhammad" and "The History of Jihad."
He commented, "Karami didn't say whether or not the Israelis employed the services of Barbara Eden of 'I Dream of Jeannie' for this operation, but as Ms. Eden is now 93 years old, she is unlikely to have participated."
He noted the Israelis' "astounding" successes of late, including "the explosion of thousands of pagers that belonged to high-level Hezbollah operatives."
Then there was the elimination of terrorist Nasrallah.
"Karami also remained mum about whether or not the Israelis have a secret laboratory full of bottles, from which they summon their trained jinn whenever they need them to carry out special ops," Spencer joked, "The jinn, according to the Quran, are spirit beings that Allah created from 'smokeless fire.' They can be dangerous; the Quran says that some of them even try to turn prophets away from their mission."
Spencer continued, "The twentieth-century Islamic scholar Muhammad ibn al-Uthaymeen states a standard Muslim view when he asserts that while human beings cannot see jinn, 'undoubtedly the jinn can have a harmful effect on humans, and they could even kill them.' Hmmm. Did the jinns not only lead the Israelis to Nasrallah but do him in themselves?"
Karami stated, "Considering the Zionists' history of subjugating genies, they carry out many of their missions through this means, and demons are their secret army."
Spencer notes the beliefs that "They [the Jews] have had access to genies and cosmic science since the time of David and Solomon. Historically, they have always used genies, their documents and traditions proved that. They have used genies and demons for warfare and intelligence operations throughout history."
And he suggests that could explain Israel's "stunning against-all-odds Israeli victories in 1948, 1967, and 1973."
Further, he explained, there's no reason to believe Karami isn't serious. After all, it's "in the Quran."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
JERUSALEM – Iran's former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave an interview Monday to CNN Turkey in which he said Tehran established a special intelligence unit to hunt down Mossad operatives working in the country. Astonishingly, he said the person recruited to head up this elite unit was himself discovered to be a Mossad agent.
Furthermore, the alleged Mossad agent employed up to 20 Israeli agents to work alongside him. Based on Ahmadinejad's account of facts that had been reported earlier, these agents were responsible for a number of intelligence operations inside Iran, including one of the more spectacular ones of recent years, namely the squirreling out of the country of a half ton of highly classified information about the depth of Iran's lying to the so-called international community, and the reality of its nuclear program.
It was thought that Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's presentation of this evidence to then-President Donald Trump was instrumental in the United States' decision to pull out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which Barack Obama had so forcefully championed.
"Israel organized complex operations inside Iran. They could easily obtain information. In Iran they are still silent about this. The man who was in charge of the unit in Iran against Israel was an Israeli agent," he said. Ahmadinejad claimed the double agent at the head of the intelligence unit and all the other operatives are currently living in Israel.
In addition to the theft of the nuclear documents, several high-ranking Iranian scientists – including the person considered "the father of the Iranian nuclear program," Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, were eliminated. In Fakhrizadeh's case, the November 2020 hit was apparently carried out via a remotely operated computerized machine gun, which required no on-site operability. However, it is assumed the people who assembled this weapon and placed it in a position most beneficial to taking out the nuclear scientist were at the time on the ground, and are now assumed to be members of this special intelligence unit.
Ahmadinejad, whose term of office ended in 2013, was replaced by Hassan Rouhani. The latter's former chief of staff – former intelligence minister Ali Younisi – admitted in an interview in 2022, "The Mossad has infiltrated many government departments in the last ten years, to such a degree that all the country's top officials should fear for their lives," according to Ynet.
There are such fears about the depth of Israel's penetration into Iran's intelligence and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) establishment – particularly following the July elimination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a Guard Corps property – that long-time Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei has been moved to a secret location out of concern for his well being. It is not clear how the people entrusted with either protecting him or the knowledge of his whereabouts are not either compromised in some way, or may indeed be Israeli operatives themselves.
It is not certain why Ahmadinejad has decided to air this information again now, except the timing of it coalesces into the broader picture of just how much intelligence Israel has on Iran, and its Shiite Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah. Although Ahmadinejad has already served as Iran's president, it did not stop him from throwing his hat back into the ring for the most recent round of (s)elections – in which Masoud Pezeshkian was victorious – and occasioned by the helicopter crash which killed incumbent President Ebrahim Raisi in May.
Until two weeks ago when Hezbollah was hit by the stunning "Grim Beeper operation," which simultaneously wounded, maimed, or killed thousands of operatives, including those of the IRGC, it was widely assumed the helicopter Raisi was traveling in had indeed plowed into a mountainside as a result of poor weather conditions. However, some more conspiratorial minds have suggested Israel's intelligence agency may have had a hand in this, too – although, like the beeper operation, it is not something they would publicly acknowledge.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Over the last few years, the Biden-Harris regime effectively has delivered to the rogue and terrorist-sponsoring regime in Iran some $60 billion.
In return, the Islamists there have started war against Israel through proxies Hamas and Hezbollah, closed off the Suez Canal and fired on American troops in the region more than 150 times.
So beyond the obvious financial incentives, are there any other reasons that Iran is now interfering in America's 2024 presidential election on behalf of Kamala Harris?
He warns there is.
"That the Iranian regime is meddling in U.S. elections to support the Harris campaign, should serve as a jarring warning that Harris' approach to Iran policy is one that would enable this expansionist regime to keep wreaking horrors on the world, both by itself and through its proxies, especially after it acquires nuclear capability. Why should Iran's government, which treats its own people atrociously, be expected to treat others any better?" he wrote.
He said, "In a significant move that, since the establishment of Iran's Islamist regime, Iranian leaders have actively extended their influence to support a political party and candidate in a U.S. presidential race. This notable intervention is directed towards aiding the Democratic ticket headed by Vice President Kamala Harris. It is a move that signals that Iran's regime hopes to secure an even deeper geopolitical alignment after the upcoming U.S. elections."
The FBI, in fact, recently brought a criminal case against agents for the Iranian regime suspected of hacking into President Donald Trump's campaign and then delivering that information to Democrats.
"A particularly striking element of this revelation is the Democratic campaign's silence regarding the stolen information. Despite having received the data that originated from the Trump campaign, the Democratic camp refrained from acknowledging it until the FBI publicly disclosed the fact on September 18. On September 19, the Harris campaign finally responded, pointing out that it had not utilized any materials that Iranian hackers had allegedly collected from Trump's email accounts," he wrote.
The article explained adding intrigue is the apparent desire of the Iranian regime to align with the Democrat party.
"There appear to be several underlying reasons why Tehran favors a Harris victory. First, Harris would likely continue the current administration's extremely lenient approach to enforcing sanctions on Iran. Under the current U.S. administration, Iran has been able to sell oil at record levels and engage in lucrative trade with European nations – exponentiating Iran's revenues.
"Second, the Iranian regime anticipates that billions of dollars will continue to be released under a Harris administration. In the past four years, significant funds, nearly $60 billion, have effectively been given to Iran's mullahs by the Biden-Harris administration."
He said, "Third, the Iranian regime must be ecstatic over on Harris' reluctance to confront their galloping advancements in nuclear technology. Iran's nuclear program reached its highest level of progress under the Biden-Harris administration."
And finally, he noted, Iran would expect a Harris presidency to "remain passive in response to Tehran's military support for Russia in the ongoing war against Ukraine."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
JERUSALEM – Once the confirmation of Hezbollah leader's Sayyid Hassan Nassrallah's death was confirmed on Saturday, a wave of conflicting emotions and opinions were evident across the world, although most importantly and relevantly in the Middle East. The principal question of "what next?" was also very much to the fore.
In the all the brouhaha surrounding the death of an arch-terrorist, drug pusher and murderer – for what was Hezbollah if not a hugely powerful cartel – we should pause for a moment and understand just how extraordinary the last two weeks or so have been for Israel, Lebanon, and the entire Middle East.
On Sept. 17, thousands of beepers in the hands of Hezbollah terrorists – mostly in Lebanon but also Syria – simultaneously detonated causing a range of wounds, from minor injuries to blindness, amputations, and even death. Attributed to Israel's Mossad intelligence agency – although not officially confirmed – this operation set in motion the chain of events, which culminated in Nasrallah's demise.
It rocked the terrorist proxy on its heels, and one can only imagine the amount of confusion and suspicion, which emanated from such an attack. The organization shifted to pagers and walkie-talkies for fear of Israeli intelligence intercepting cell phone calls – and then the lower-tech option was used as a weapon against them.
The distrust Hezbollah and IRGC kingpins had of their electronic communications forced them to meet – like mafia dons – in person, to try and thrash out a response to Israel's intelligence successes. It would prove their downfall, as Israel either gained or already had significant and accurate intel about Hezbollah's leaders, up to and including Nasrallah.
He personally must have felt in the last two weeks it was just a matter of time until his number came up. And here's the thing, there was no unanimity within Israel's cabinet as to the decision to take him out. Even a figure such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, no Arab-lover, was reportedly somewhat uneasy about eliminating Nasrallah, presumably fearful – and correctly so – of the reprisals that might emanate from this action.
What has been clear for the last two weeks is just how compromised Hezbollah's internal security has become. From an outsider's perspective it doesn't seem possible to achieve the extent of the disruption Israel has caused without a level of superior intelligence, including infiltrating deeply into Hezbollah's organizational structure.
Even before the operations of the last two weeks, Israel's military eliminated some 450 Hezbollah and IRGC operatives, including senior field commanders with significant battlefield experience. The Israeli Air Force also worked to hit the supply lines carrying materiel from Iran or Iranian-aligned proxies in Iraq or Syria to be closer to the Lebanese front.
What can be seen from the reactions to Nasrallah's demise is an odd alignment of people – commentators, so-called journalists, and politicians – who decry Israel's actions labeling it "an escalation," conveniently forgetting the thousands of rockets fired at the country's north and the tens of thousands of displaced citizens because of it. There is a certain level of myopia and cravenness, which allowed the Associated Press to label Nasrallah as "charismatic and shrewd." It brings to mind the Washington Post's description of Abu Bakr al-Baghdai as an "austere religious scholar." (The Post followed that up with labeling Nasrallah a "father figure, and moral compass.")
The fawning over honest-to-goodness murderers, thieves, and terrorists, is a sickness the West is having a hard time dealing with. For its own long-term survival it would do well to drop the suicidal empathy, which permits formerly respected news institutions – among others – to wax lyrical about some truly terrible human beings.
Let us recall, also, those civilians were not just evacuated because of the rockets, but for fears, subsequently confirmed, which showed Hezbollah's powerful Radwan force was planning an Oct. 7-style attack on the Galilee. Although the terrain is much craggier and difficult along the Israel-Lebanon border, a remnant of distant tectonic shifts in the Great Syrian-African Rift than the sand dunes along the Mediterranean coast, it is well-known Hezbollah invested huge sums in creating cross-border attack tunnels.
However, for millions of Middle Easterners, Syrians, Iraqis, and Lebanese – the people who witnessed and suffered from Hezbollah's brutality – let's call it their lived experience – were exultant at the news of Nasrallah's demise. A feeling of hope has begun to germinate, a tiny flame radiating some light and a sense of opportunity, a belief that a fog has been lifted.
Jared Kushner, former President Donald Trump's son-in-law, and a person who was intimately involved in jettisoning the assumptions of the past and looking at the Middle East anew, posted a rare comment on X. He wrote: "Sept. 27 is the most important day in the Middle East since the Abraham Accords breakthrough."
Kushner was also perfectly blunt in his assessment of the mealy-mouthed and cowardly stance of the Biden-Harris administration in general, and the U.S. State Department in particular: "Anyone who has been calling for a ceasefire in the North is wrong. There is no going back for Israel. They cannot afford now to not finish the job and completely dismantle the arsenal that has been aimed at them. They will never get another chance."
There are still many unanswered questions and several imponderables. Will Lebanon be allowed to coalesce around some unity figures so the country can remove itself from the grip of Shia terrorists who wish to lead it down the path to hell? What will Iran and its proxies' response be?
The Houthi already fired a ballistic missile Saturday toward Ben Gurion International Airport near Lod – ironically a significantly mixed Jewish and Arab city. Will Israel perform a limited ground incursion into southern Lebanon to drive Hezbollah operatives – and their missiles – back over the Litani river and farther away from Israel's population centers (although some of their ordnance has a range of several hundreds kilometers, bringing the entire country into range)?
Outside of the immediate reality of the Middle East, what will be with the relationship between the United States and Israel? There were reports, similar to other operations the Jewish state has carried out, it neither sought permission nor informed U.S. officials until the planes were already in the air to destroy Hezbollah's underground HQ.
Two simultaneous things seem to be at work; the first is there is a frosty relationship (at best) between Israel's leaders – particularly Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – and the Biden administration, including the titular head of that government President Joe Biden, and the U.S. State Department. What is an ally to make of the situation when the sitting president has been reduced, due to the machinations and needs of his own political party, to a bit-part player? Biden is the lamest of lame ducks; a person whom we know is propped up by an avaricious and grasping wife, and a party that cannot 25th Amendment him, for fear his failings will be too closely associated with his anointed successor, Vice President Kamala Harris.
In addition to the cooling of personal relations, there is also very clear a lack of trust between Israel's defense establishment and its U.S. counterparts – and with good reason. Too often plans have either been leaked or telegraphed, and at times the Biden administration has brought undue pressure to bear on its ally, rather than the genocidal terrorists arrayed against it.
The same thing happened right before the strike that knocked out the head of Hezbollah. Perhaps the U.S. and France heard some chatter about a potential attempt on Nasrallha's life; perhaps they put two and two together, assuming if Israel was going after Hezbollah's top-most leadership, Nasrallah would be the ace in the pack, even if they were not sure Israel would assuredly go for it. It did, and it's conducting operations, which provide hope for millions in the Middle East, unconstrained by American timidity.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A far-left member of Congress is declining to endorse the far-left Democrat candidate for president, Kamala Harris.
And it's apparently over one issue: Harris has not yet endorsed the Palestinian cause in the Israel-Hamas war … enough.
It is a report from Algemeiner that documented U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and the only Palestinian-American woman in Congress, "refused to issue an explicit endorsement of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris on Thursday, instead encouraging voters to throw their support behind candidates who support a ceasefire in Gaza."
That military conflict has been going on since Hamas terrorists ended a longstanding ceasefire last Oct. 7 by invading Israel and slaughtering, often in horrific fashion, some 1,200 Israelis. Israel responded with military moves aimed at eliminating that threat of terror against its citizens.
Palestinians have complained that they now want a ceasefire, a status that actually existed before the Hamas terrorists attacked.
The report noted at a speaking event in Washington, "Tlaib expressed dismay over Harris' unwillingness to adopt policies advocated by the pro-Palestinian movement. The Michigan congresswoman suggested that the Harris campaign was taking a 'risk' in angering voters by continuing to support Israel's defensive military operations against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza."
Tlaib explained she's told constituents there are others on the ballot besides Harris.
The report explained, "Earlier this year, Tlaib helped spearhead the 'Uncommitted' movement in Michigan — an initiative which encouraged voters to withhold their support for the Democratic nominee until they adopted anti-Israel policies. Tlaib argued that the initiative was necessary because Arab Americans have supposedly felt 'neglected' and 'unseen' by the federal government."
A Front Page Mag, a report said Tlaib's position was "strange."
"Because if elected, Kamala Harris will do everything the pro-Hamas people want. She'll push for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, leaving Hamas still standing, able to regroup, and to recruit new members as it brags that it withstood 'the mighty Zionist army.' She'll want to use American taxpayer dollars to 'rebuild' Gaza so that the people there can enjoy the 'independence' and 'self-determination' and 'security' that they 'so rightly deserve.' And Harris will push for that will-o'-the-wisp 'two-state solution' by pressuring Israel to agree to be squeezed back within the 1949 armistice lines …"
The report also noted, pointedly, "What Tlaib doesn't realize is that Harris has already called — six months ago, in fact — for an 'immediate ceasefire' in Gaza. If she hasn't emphasized that demand just now, it's only in order not to alienate pro-Israel voters, but if she wins, she'll be calling again for an 'immediate and permanent ceasefire.' And she'll be ready to withhold both more weapons for Israel, and more vetoes at the U.N. Security Council. Whether Tlaib and other pro-Hamas voters withhold their support for Kamala Harris, Kamala Harris won't withhold her support for them."