This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
President-elect Donald Trump's influence over world, national, and state affairs has been on display ever since his landslide victory, in both the Electoral College and popular vote numbers, in November.
He openly challenged Canada's leadership, and the prime minister's resignation followed shortly after. He promised action on illegal immigration and Mexican officials began diverting those caravans of would-be illegal aliens heading to the U.S.
Suddenly, too, there are comments that perhaps the Russia-Ukraine war might reach a settlement.
Now Trump's agenda is hitting at the state level.
He already has set up his appointees in a "Department of Governor Efficiency," or DOGE, assigned to crack down on the hundreds of billions, even trillions of dollars in wasteful spending by the government. X's chief, Elon Musk, is one of his leaders in that campaign.
Now the Washington Examiner is reporting that Kelly Ayotte, a Republican governor in New Hampshire, is following suit, with a state Commission of Government Efficiency.
"Signed my first Executive Order to create the Commission on Government Efficiency – or as I like to call it, 'COGE'! We're going to roll up our sleeves and find ways to streamline government, cut spending, and create value for our taxpayers," she told her state's residents in a social media post.
"New Hampshire is moving in the right direction, and no one deserves more credit for that after four terms at the helm than Gov. Chris Sununu. Thank you, Governor," she added.
Democrats and other leftists in the state already are in an uproar, accusing Ayotte of "laying the groundwork for massive budget cuts to services that people rely on," according to state Democrat chief Ray Buckley.
The governor is scheduled to propose her budget to the legislature soon, and lawmakers are faced with state agency requests for nearly $17 billion.
Republicans held a differing perspective.
"I think it's a brilliant approach," Republican Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais told Fox News. "Appointing a commission like this to go after any kind of bloat, I think, is a perfect approach and certainly going to be really beneficial for state government and also certainly helps us downstream at the local level as well."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
JERUSALEM – The new year has brought no respite for the United Nations and its various agencies – especially UNRWA – with regard to the hits, which keep coming, emphasizing its deep ties with Islamist terrorist organizations, according to a recently published report by U.N. Watch.
The explosive report reveals years of coordination and close collaboration between Islamists and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, up to and including the collusion of at least its two most recent commissioners-general – current head Phillippe Lazzarini, and previous chief Pierre Krähenbühl, who held the role from 2014-2019.
The report starts strongly, arguing how despite its claims to be a humanitarian agency, UNRWA "has forged an unholy alliance with Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist organizations." It continues that this relationship has allowed Hamas unprecedented influence in the policies and practices of a "UN agency with 30,000 employees, and a $1.5 billion annual budget that is funded primarily by Western states." Indeed, UNRWA is the largest of all the U.N. agencies.
U.N. Watch called for UNRWA's dismantlement, describing the organization as "a conduit for terrorism and a facilitator of violence in the Middle East." "UNRWA's failure to maintain neutrality, combined with its susceptibility to influence from terrorist groups, undermines its credibility as a humanitarian agency and perpetuates conflict in the region," the group said. "It is time for donors to reconsider their support, dismantle the Agency, and seek alternative frameworks to provide effective aid to Palestinians in need."
And U.N. Watch's report was not mere speculation, it also brought the receipts. It listed dozens of instances – with images obtained from open sources – of senior UNRWA officials meeting with terrorist leaders.
Examples included Lazzarini meeting with Fathi al-Sharif, a teachers' union chief and Hamas leader in Beirut. He had for years openly glorified Hamas terrorist attacks, including on his personal Facebook page. It was only after an unnamed government protested to UNRWA about al-Sharif's activities did the U.N. body suspend him. Hamas and other terrorist organizations immediately shut down UNRWA in Lebanon, prompting Lazzarini to fly to Beirut in June 2024 to smooth out the situation. The IDF eliminated al-Sharif in a missile strike on Sept. 30.
Krähenbühl, who was forced to step down from his UNRWA position in 2019 following a corruption and sexual abuse scandal – and who was absurdly appointed to head up the International Red Cross in 2024 (are you seeing a pattern yet?) – met with terrorist leaders from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, in February 2017, where he emphasized the "spirit of partnership" between them and UNRWA.
In June 2021, former deputy commissioner-general Leni Stenseth went cap-in-hand to Gaza to kiss the ring of Oct. 7 terrorist mastermind and Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar. Hamas had been angry with UNRWA after its then Gaza Director Matthias Schmale, an ardent supporter of the Palestinian narrative, unwittingly admitted in a TV interview that Israeli strikes on Hamas, during the May 2021 war, were "very precise." While supporters of Israel routinely shared the footage, Hamas was furious, declaring Schmale persona non grata in the Strip. Stenseth, who is now director-general of Norway's foreign ministry – and it cannot be a coincidence this is the nation which most ardently supports the Palestinian cause – threw Schmale under the bus calling his interview "indefensible."
"People need to understand that UNRWA isn't the firefighter, it's the arsonist. The U.S. and other Western nations who have given billions to UNRWA need to wake up.. Your money is being used to employ terrorists, indoctrinate children, and build the infrastructure of hate and violence. The U.S. alone has given more than $1 billion to UNRWA over the past four years. This is a betrayal of your taxpayers and your values," Neuer said.
The report paints a picture of a symbiotic relationship, and one in which UNRWA officials cannot bend over backward enough to facilitate the whims and wishes of Gaza's various terrorist organizations. The report concludes, "While it was created by the United Nations and has 'U.N.' initials in its title, it is essentially a Palestinian-run organization whose purpose is to perpetuate Palestinians as refugees with the aim to one day dismantle Israel."
UNRWA is the only refugee agency dedicated to solely one people, the Palestinians. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is responsible for all the others, and yet only has a workforce around two-thirds that of UNRWA. Indeed, the report accuses UNRWA of perpetuating and enshrining the idea of the "right of return," which does not apply to any other group of refugees on the planet. Also, UNRWA schools point to the example of Oct. 7 as how their aims can be achieved by "resistance."
And there is yet another twist in the tale. On Tuesday, U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric told reporters in a briefing, that the world body's officials "appreciate information being given to us directly, instead of done through the media." This take, albeit extraordinary, is unsurprising.
Neuer, who personally tried to meet with Lazzarini at least twice while the latter was in Europe last summer, and hand over evidence of UNRWA's terrorist ties, was surgical in his dismantlement of the U.N. position. "The audacity of the U.N. in refusing to respond to our detailed report, while dismissing our efforts to engage directly, is staggering… It's a shameful abdication of accountability, especially given the serious nature of the allegations."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
JERUSALEM – As the sun begins to set – although some would argue not quickly enough – on the failed and discredited Biden administration, and President-elect Donald Trump waits in the wings to resume his seat in the Oval Office, it is worth taking a moment to scan the political landscape – in this case with an international slant – and truly marvel at how much the so-called "adults in the room" have so royally managed to mess things up.
Whether one buys the Trumpian line of "having begun no new wars," or not, during his first administration, the facts speak for themselves, and when he left office in January 2021, the world was not aflame. Four years of Bidenism – or was it Obama 3.0? – on the international scene has proved to be an unmitigated disaster. It's hard to think of any region which is better off now than it was in 2021, and this particularly true of the Middle East.
Without question, the main catalyst for this change was the slaughter that was Oct. 7, and Israel's response to it. Large swaths of the region are largely unrecognizable compared with how they were 15 months ago; a more-than 50-year-old dynasty has crumbled to dust in Syria, and a more-than-four-decade foreign policy of the Islamic Republic has similarly been obliterated.
Where some have lost, others have gained; and one of the biggest winners is undoubtedly Turkey. It will be one of the main issues in the Trump inbox as he must now attempt to navigate an Ankara – a supposedly NATO ally – which seems inexorably on the march. It is also a subject vexing Israeli decision-makers.
On Monday, the Nagel Committee, headed by Prof. Jacob Nagel, which is a supervisory and deliberative body, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set up in late 2024 to examine defense spending and IDF military force design for the future, warned Israel should prepare for war with Turkey.
For Michael Rubin, director of policy at the Middle East Forum, Turkey's current posturing is emblematic of the country under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's leadership, which he labeled "an engine of radicalism and irredentism."
"Turkey will now repeat the Iranian pattern: It will use proxies – of which Syria is one – to attack Israel while preparing its own forces to eventually eradicate the Jewish state. The fact Turkey may also follow Iran down the path of a covert nuclear program makes the parallels even greater."
Dr. Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak from the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University took a slightly different approach, arguing that now Turkey and Israel no longer have Syria as a buffer state between them, there is a greater likelihood of Israel potentially hitting a Turkish target there, which even if it was by mistake, could be a conflict-igniting spark "Israel seeks to avoid such incidents, as it does not want Turkey – a nation with which it maintains peaceful relations – to transform into a hostile state," he said.
There is no doubt Turkey has been the main beneficiary of the demise of the Assad regime, not least because forces it substantially backed – whatever the ins and outs of Syria's day-to-day administration under Ahmad al-Sharaa and his HTS cronies – are currently running the country. Ankara is clearly feeling emboldened by several elements, which play into its sense of self-confidence, as it has seen the dominoes of many of its most powerful regional adversaries fall, in particular the Islamic Republic of Iran.
These two countries have been locked in a hegemonic struggle for influence over the region for centuries, and now their modern iterations vie to reanimate the luster of fallen empires. As Iran's fortunes have waned over the last few months – particularly with Israel's pounding of Hezbollah in Lebanon, largely responsible for the subsequent collapse of the Assad regime – Turkey's have waxed. Erdogan senses an opportunity for his replacement of Ayatollah Khamanei as the dominant force.
"Just as Iran will use religion, language, and the legacy of the Persian Empire, whatever is convenient at any given moment, to expand its influence, so too does Turkey use Sunnis, Turkish, and the legacy of the Ottoman Empire to claim the right to dominate. Trump may celebrate the Abraham Accords and hope to use them to check Iranian influence but increasingly as great a threat comes from Turkey itself," Rubin warned.
To this end, two additional pieces of information are crucial. Turkey's Russian-built nuclear reactor is due to become operational this year. As Rubin wrote in a recent article published on the Middle East Forum website, "the notion that it is proliferation-proof rests on the assurance of Ankara and Moscow.
Erdogan himself has hinted he finds the idea of Turkey not being allowed to possess nuclear weapons an intolerable one. Also, the Turkish president recently announced Turkey's production of intercontinental ballistic missiles with an increase in range from 500 to 1,250 miles.
For Yanarocak Turkey's desire to increase the range of ballistic missiles could be seen as them being in direct competition with Iran. "After all, compared to Iran, Turkish missiles have a much shorter range."
Neither he nor Rubin thought it was axiomatically true that Turkey's production of longer-range ballistic missiles would necessarily be used to threaten Israel. Indeed, Rubin suggested it might export the missiles to "even the most odious regimes." He assessed it was likely Turkey's clients might use the missiles – as well as its advanced drone technology – to "murder and destabilize."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
PALM BEACH, Florida – President-elect Donald Trump shared a video on Truth Social Monday evening of a man from Greenland urging the U.S. to purchase the massive territory from Denmark.
"Buy us! Buy Greenland!" the man says as he puts on a red, Make America Great Again cap.
Trump attached his own message to the video clip, indicating: "I am hearing that the people of Greenland are 'MAGA.'
"My son, Don Jr, and various representatives, will be traveling there to visit some of the most magnificent areas and sights.
"Greenland is an incredible place, and the people will benefit tremendously if, and when, it becomes part of our Nation.
"We will protect it, and cherish it, from a very vicious outside World. MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN!"
When asked why Trump should buy Greenland, the man responded: "Because we don't want to be colonized by Danish government anymore."
"We get ripped [off] every year about our minerals from Greenland. We are the richest nation in the world, and we don't get to use it."
He also noted, "I love America."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
JERUSALEM – Hamas released another proof-of-life hostage video Saturday, which featured 19-year-old Liri Albag, who was kidnapped from the Nahal Oz military base abutting the Gaza border, along with six of her colleagues on Oct. 7, 2023. Fifteen of her surveillance colleagues were murdered in the initial onslaught.
The three-and-a-half-minute video was another in part of the drip-drip psychological war that Hamas is engaged in; showing some signs of life of Israeli hostages who have been kept in Gaza captivity for well in excess of 400 days. Like the others, this video was not dated, although Albag stated she has been held for over 450 days, indicating that it was filmed recently. We are currently 457 days into the war.
Albag was one of a number of unarmed surveillance soldiers, when thousands of Hamas terrorists swarmed over the border, overrunning the military base. One of the abducted surveillance soldiers was later rescued alive, and the body of a second one was recovered after she was murdered in captivity. The other five – Albag, Karina Ariev, Agam Berger, Naama Levy and Daniella Gilboa – are still hostages. Gilboa appeared in a previous proof-of-life video in July, in which she begged the government – prompted by a Hamas-approved script – for a ceasefire.
Albag's family did not permit the media to use the footage Hamas released, although it did allow stills – and these are harrowing enough in themselves. Albag is dressed in some kind of brown jacket, with a single light above her and a dark background.
Her hair looks as though it hasn't been cut since her abduction, or a few months at best. She looks as though she has been almost entirely kept underground and has seen little-to-no natural sunlight. The stills show she broke down while speaking, putting her head in her hands.
"The video released today tore our hearts apart," her family said in a short statement on Saturday evening. "This is not the same daughter and sister that we know. She is in bad condition, and her difficult mental state is evident."
"We saw our heroic Liri survive and beg for her life. She is several dozen kilometers from us, and for 456 days we have been unable to bring her home," the family said.
They appealed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the government to make decisions regarding the hostages "as if your children were there."
"Liri is alive and must come back alive! It depends only on you," the family said.
In a second, longer statement issued shortly after, the family said they had "watched the video that Hamas sent in horror, and we can't breathe."
"This is not the Liri we know, this is a shadow of Liri," they reiterated. "While it is a sign of life, this is not the video that we were looking for. The always-strong Liri looks broken and shattered."
Albag's parents, mother, Shira, and father, Eli, said if their daughter could her them they'd want her to know they "haven't given up on her," and that she's "coming home alive."
"Liri, if you're hearing us, tell the others that all the families are moving heaven and earth and want their children home, and we will fight until all hostages are returned – the living for rehabilitation and the murdered and fallen for proper burial in Israel, Eli Albag said. "Tell the others – stay strong. Just a little longer and soon there will be a deal."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
There has been much talk throughout 2024 about the "two Americas." On Nov. 5, these two Americas faced off in what many pundits – forgetting, say, the election of 1860 – called the "most divisive election in American history."
This week I received your classic "holiday letter" from a long-time friend who resides in that other America, the one in which I don't reside. Before parsing this remarkable letter from Mrs. X, a description of those two Americas might be in order.
Although our understanding of the two Americas has evolved over time, Canadian Michael Ignatieff – writing in Prospect, Britain's leading current affairs publication – provides a reasonable summary of the post-election status quo as seen from the Left.
In the first America, Ignatieff generalizes, are "younger, city-dwelling, higher income, college-educated men and women, living either on the West or East Coasts."
He continues, "These people have feasted on the tech and AI boom, profited from the stock market rise and leveraged the credentials they earned in American universities to gain power in American government, media and corporations. These Americans still live the dream."
The "second America," Ignatieff writes, is "concentrated among older non-college educated white men living in small towns and rural areas in the south and the Midwest."
He adds, "It's an America that worries that its great days are past, that distrusts the elites on both coasts and fears that America's institutions are irrevocably corrupted."
Despite living in the Midwest, Mr. and Mrs. X are poster children for the First America. Affluent, well-educated, and well-traveled, they have – like their fellow progressives – "essentially endorsed the changes that have convulsed the country since the Sixties."
Endorsing those changes, however, has so estranged them from friends in the Second America that they no longer concern themselves with their friends' feelings. How else to explain a holiday letter to "Friends & Family" that begins as follows.
"Well, damn. I really thought the Holiday Letter in 2016 would be the darkest we would ever have to send. And yet here we are, eight years on, presumably eight years wiser, with eight more years of experience, and our country has gone and done it again. We have elected the rat a second time."
The rat? How, one wonders, did Mrs. X imagine the supporters of said rat would respond to such a hateful slur? I cannot have been the only rat voter to have received this letter.
Mrs. X continues, "We expect time will offer greater clarity about what happened – and what lies ahead. For now, we are trying to absorb that more than 77 million Americans became convinced to choose this path."
Ignatieff, writing from his own experience as a leading Canadian Liberal, explains at least part of the lesson Mr. and Mrs. X needs to absorb: "When liberal progressives translated the revolution of inclusion into affirmative action, speech codes, diversity and inclusion bureaucracies, when they sought to entrench the revolution in a bureaucracy of political correctness, the resentment at the inclusion revolution exploded."
On the personal level, as the holiday letter from Mrs. X reveals, the "inclusion revolution" has led to the exclusion of those who do not share the ever-evolving worldview of the X family.
A one-time moderate and a genuinely decent person, Mrs. X no longer hears what she is saying. She has listened instead to the Siren song of the woke, and followed it unthinkingly onto the shoals of bad ideas and even worse manners.
In my experience, women – especially women of means – have proved particularly vulnerable to this mind-spinning, mass-formation psychosis.
But men are not immune. Mr. X, we are told, 'worked very hard on the Harris/Walz campaign" and is now "exploring several new avenues to get involved in saving our democracy going forward."
This effort on the part of Mr. X to save "our democracy" calls to mind a memorable encounter in June 2024 between a hard-core, Second America MAGA couple and a smarmy First America CNN reporter.
The mocking headline sums it up: "These Trump supporters say America isn't a democracy. And they're okay with it." The headline implies that the Trump supporters welcome America's impending slide to fascism.
What the MAGA people actually – and correctly – said was that America is a republic, not a democracy. On the right this is common knowledge. On CNN, this came as news.
Despite having less formal education than liberals on average, conservatives score better in every political knowledge survey that I have seen.
Were there a humility test, conservatives would score better on that as well. They do not presume others should think – and feel – a certain way, simply because they do.
The truth is there are no two Americas. The holiday letter from Mrs. X shows her to be closer in life-style to those in MAGA America than to those in the alternative world of the woke.
Mrs. X loves her husband of long standing, her two children, and her two grandchildren, and they appear to love her in turn. She is a person of faith and a civic do-gooder.
To understand those other 77 million people with the same dreams and aspirations and ambitions – inside joke – Mrs. X just needs to have her bubble popped.
Happy New Year to all!
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A first-grader in Wyoming is being credited with saving his diabetic grandmother's life after he got up in the morning and she was unresponsive, so he got himself dressed, went to school, and reported to teachers what had happened at home.
Medical personnel responded to the home and the grandmother reportedly was fine after treatment.
It is the Cowboy State Daily that documented the heroics of Mason Rasmussen, for whom Kimberly Gibson has guardianship.
Earlier this month, he woke to his grandmother's alarm but found Gibson on the floor of her room.
She hadn't died, but was unconscious from low blood sugar, the report explained of the Rock Springs, Wyoming, woman.
When a second alarm, indicating it was time to catch the school bus, sounded, Mason dressed and went to school.
The report noted that "it showed" that he dressed himself, as he wore cargo shorts, a t-shirt and cowboy boots with no socks.
At Stagecoach Elementary, teacher Caroline Pierpoint saw something was wrong, as wintry temperatures were sub-freezing.
"The school noticed rather quickly he's not dressed like he should be," Sweetwater County Sheriff's Detective Stephanie Cassidy told Cowboy State Daily. "They were like, normally he's a very well-taken-care-of kid. Well-dressed and well-mannered."
When Mason told his teacher, "My grandma's home alone, and she died this morning," the school called county dispatch, and also Gibson's husband, Cory Gibson, working at a power plant an hour from home.
With personnel en route to help the grandmother, Cassidy decided to visit with Mason.
It was while the two visited that Deputy Ana Lindig called Cassidy to say Mason's grandmother would be all right.
Later, she told the publication, she suggested putting together a bravery award and goodie package for the boy.
"Just to say, 'You did the right thing, and you were so brave, ultimately saving grandma's life,'" she explained.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
In what officials have described as a "major incident," Congress has been warned that Chinese hackers infiltrated work stations at the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
A report from Just the News said the situation developed on Dec. 8 when a Chinese-backed agent used a stolen key to remotely access work stations and unclassified documents.
"Based on available indicators, the incident has been attributed to a Chinese state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor," explained Aditi Hardikar, assistant secretary for management at the federal agency.
Officials confirmed the affected stations were taken offline and a law enforcement investigation was launched.
Fox Business said it had gotten a copy of the letter to Congress and that officials called it a "major incident."
"Once Treasury was alerted by the service provider, we immediately contacted Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and have worked with law enforcement partners across the government to ascertain the impact of this incident," a Treasury official told the publication.
"The compromised BeyondTrust service has been taken offline and there is no evidence indicating the threat actor has continued access to Treasury systems or information."
Fox Business said word of the infiltration came as state-affiliated Chinese hackers continue to pursue a campaign of espionage against the U.S., pursuing phone accounts through telecoms.
"Last week, the White House said that Chinese officials accessed Americans' private texts and phone conversations through the targeting of a U.S. telecommunications company – the ninth telecom company to be affected by Chinese hacking," the report said.
Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser, explained, "We believe it was the goal of identifying who those phones belong to and if they were government targets of interest for follow-on espionage and intelligence collection of communications, of texts and phone calls on those particular phones."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Who knew, but Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, is racist. And a parking lot in Lake Merritt, California. And the University of Michigan.
And "guru," milk, "Nikki Haley," math, immunology, marriage or being married, not pronouncing Kamala Harris name the way she wants, colorblindness, and Christianity.
That's all according to a report from College Fix, which researched comments and statements from America's higher education industry.
The organization said, "Racism is the intentional mistreatment of someone on the basis of their race – at least in the normal world. But in academia, racism is anything producing disparities, according to Professor Ibram Kendi."
Then it delivered a list of "people, places, actions, and other things declared racist this year by higher ed, though a few came from K-12."
It explains, "If something needs 'anti-racist' action or 'diversity, equity, and inclusion,' it follows it must be racist, or else it would not need correction."
The list includes academic disciplines: "Chemistry, Classics, Evolutionary biology, Engineering, Immunology, Math and more.
Actions finding themselves targeted for condemnation include: Accusing a black student of plagiarism, Banning DEI, Being Asian but romantically interested in white people, Course evaluations, Criticizing a black female reporter, Criticizing plagiarism, Marriage/being married, Mentioning a black female congresswoman has fake eyelashes, Murder, Not pronouncing Kamala Harris' name right and pages more on the list.
Condemned beliefs include: Being pro-life/pointing out high abortion rates for black women, Christianity, Colorblindness and Nostalgia.
Among others were Counseling, Dentistry, Geology, Medicine, Ocean sciences, Dolly Parton's free book program, Dressing as a Native American at a Kansas City Chiefs game, Paintings of British countryside, Porcelain, Fried chicken, Conservatives, Donald Trump, Nikki Haley and …
Greenhouses!
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
JERUSALEM – The IDF revealed the extensive spoils of its war with Hezbollah in Lebanon as it unveiled a massive display of the materiel it seized from the Iranian-backed proxy.
At an army base in Israel's north, the military laid out a large selection (but not all) of the 85,100 individual items captured from Hezbollah operatives, weapons caches, and tunnels. The haul included some 6,840 RPG rockets and anti-tank missiles, including 340 Russian-made Kornets, along with their launchers; 9,000 explosive devices and grenades; 2,250 unguided rockets and mortars; 2,700 assault rifles; 2,860 other guns including sniper rifles; and 60 anti-aircraft missiles.
The display also includes 20 Hezbollah vehicles captured by the IDF; 60,800 pieces of electronic equipment, communication devices, computers, and documents; and 300 pieces of surveillance equipment. The totality of this military gear is materiel, which the IDF captured during operations in dozens of villages in southern Lebanon since the expansion of the Swords of Iron war to include action across Israel's northern border in late September. Military representatives estimated the IDF had succeeded in destroying approximately 80% of Hezbollah's infrastructure in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah's weaponry is mainly sourced from Russia and Iran, with a smaller proportion also locally produced. China and even North Korea also supply one of the forwardmost militias attached to the Islamic Republic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Israeli military officials said some of the weapons – particularly mortars – were up to the IDF's standards and would be used by the army.
Hezbollah began attacking Israel with the launching of thousands of anti-tank missiles in the north at people's homes in the now mostly-deserted border towns, as well as longer-range projectiles on Oct. 8, 2023, in support of the Hamas-led so-called "Al-Aqsa Flood" of the day before.
There was a certain acceptance of the status quo for nearly a year, until a Hezbollah missile killed 12 Druze children playing soccer in the northern Israeli town of Majdal Shams at the end of July. Within only a few days, one of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's right hand men – Fuad Shukr – was killed in an airstrike on the Dahiyeh neighborhood of Beirut, while Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed by what was thought to be an Israeli bomb in an IRGC apartment complex in Tehran.
By the end of September, Nasrallah and almost the entire top echelon of the Iranian proxy was dead, and Israeli boots on the ground were attempting to dismantle Hezbollah's war machine. While Israel's political and military leadership is not so naive to think Hezbollah has been entirely defeated, displaying the weapons haul does send a strong message about the successes, which can be enjoyed if these Islamists are stood up to.