Why Israel is Unprepared for War With Hezbollah
By Ekaterina Blinova – Sputnik – 24.06.2024
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the country’s Channel 14 Television that Tel Aviv is ready to move some forces to the north to confront Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah. Could Tel Aviv wage a war on two fronts?
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Hezbollah fighters have increasingly exchanged strikes across Lebanon’s southern border since the beginning of Tel Aviv’s Gaza war launched over Hamas’ attack on October 7 2023.
“From an Israeli perspective it would be very hard to imagine a double front war, even though we know that within the Israeli Cabinet of war, there are many ministries who are willing to try to open the second front with Hezbollah,” Dr Lorenzo Trombetta, Beirut-based scholar and analyst specialising on the Middle East, told Sputnik.
Hezbollah has repeatedly warned it would step up military actions unless Israel stops killing Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.
Hezbollah has intensified attacks over Israel’s Rafah invasion.
Last week Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah played down Israel’s threats to launch an all-out war against the resistance group, warning that it has a 100,000-strong military force capable of waging military actions against Israel in all three domains – land, air and sea.
Nasrallah added that the movement does not want a “total war” with Israel and called for a complete and permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
Hezbollah released a nine-minute video last week, filmed from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) which penetrated Israeli air defenses and returned to Lebanese airspace without being detected. The footage shows sensitive civilian and military locations in and around Haifa, one of Israel’s largest cities.
According to some estimates, Hezbollah has up to 150,000-200,000 rockets and missiles and has also mastered the use of unmanned vehicles.
But Dr Hasan Selim Ozertem, an Ankara-based security and political analyst, told Sputnik that a repeat of the Israeli invasions in 1982 and 2006 would bring “catastrophe” to southern Lebanon.
“The plot is valid for a possible operation against Lebanon because looking in the past, in 2006, Israel also could carry out another operation against Hezbollah and, as you remember, left behind a kind of catastrophe in the Lebanese terrain,” Ozertem said. “Israel has all the capabilities, especially the air capability and also land capability to carry out an operation.”
While conceding that the Israeli military capabilities are “very strong and very high,” Trombetta expressed doubts about Tel Aviv’s chances of succeeding in a war against Hezbollah.
“Technically speaking, Hezbollah has drones and mainly it showed recently, during May and June, its abilities to launch soil-air missiles that can hit or can counter not only Israeli drones, the Hermes 450 and Hermes 900, but also Israeli jet fighters,” the pundit said. “So first of all, Hezbollah could try to increase its abilities to defend the Lebanese territory with these surface-to-air missiles.”
“Secondly, they also showed in the last weeks the ability to offend, to pose a threat within the Israeli territories with armed drones, suicide drones, and other flight weapons that breached the Iron Dome system on more than one occasion, even recently,” Trombetta continued.
The Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) published analysis in March describing how a potential Israel-Hezbollah conflict in 2024 could be more challenging for Tel Aviv than the 2006 Israeli-Lebanese war.
The think-tank drew attention to the fact that Hezbollah has for years built upon its successful 2006 tactics of “decentralizing its command and control and reorganizing to force the IDF into more urbanized terrain where [Hezbollah] fighters can take advantage of concealed, fortified positions.”
Hezbollah has beefed up its military stockpiles with new weapons over the past 18 years. It has also gained extensive military experience during the war against ISIS and other Islamist terrorists in Syria and has had “access to capabilities and competencies used by conventional armies.”
The CSIS also noted that the geography of southern Lebanon offers advantages for Hezbollah guerrillas, including positions on rocky hills where they can hide and fire rockets, unmanned aircraft systems and anti-tank guided missiles at Israeli positions on the border.
The Israeli Reichman University Institute for Counter-Terrorism assumes that Hezbollah could fire up to 3,000 missiles a day and overwhelm Israel’s air defenses.
The researchers warned that intensive attacks would deplete the Israeli stockpiles of surface-to-air missiles within a few days of combat, exposing the nation to further Hezbollah missile and drone attacks. They argued that Tel Aviv is unprepared for an all-out war with the resistance force.
“We should include also the fact that in case Israel will launch a war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, it is very possible, it is very likely that Iran and other Iranian allies in the region will activate their forces against Israel and the US interests,” Trombetta said, adding that Yemen’s Houthi-led government, the Iraqi Islamic Resistance and others could come to Hezbollah’s aid in the event of an all-out Israeli attack on Lebanon.
Euro-Med: Israel destroyed 75% of Gaza’s farmlands, uses starvation as weapon
Press TV – June 23, 2024
An international human rights organization says Israel has rendered over 75 percent of farmlands in Gaza unusable either by isolating them to annex those lands to its so-called buffer zone, or by bulldozing them.
Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor made the comment in a Sundy report, adding that the regime’s forces seek to destroy Gaza’s food basket of vegetables, fruits and meat, in addition to destroying its local food production system.
The organization noted that “in addition to destruction of all components of local food production,” Israel is also preventing the entry of food supplies and humanitarian aid in order to “perpetuate famine in the Gaza Strip and use starvation as a weapon of war as part of its ongoing crime of genocide, which continues for the ninth month in a row.”
Euro-Med added that its teams have documented evidence of the occupation army intentionally killing farmers who were either working or attempting to access their lands and farms.
In addition, Euro-Med said it has also documented extensive destruction of farms, greenhouses, water wells and tanks, and agricultural equipment by the regime’s forces.
Euro-Med urged the international community “to ensure the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, including essential food and non-food items, in order to address the territory’s health and environmental disaster in an immediate, safe and effective manner.”
The organization’s report came after the Gaza media office decried the use of starvation as a tool by the United States and Israel to achieve their political goals in Gaza despite the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the besieged territory.
“We condemn the inhumane crime of starvation used by the occupation and the American administration in a gruesome manner to achieve political goals,” it said in a statement last Monday.
According to the statement, thousands of sick and wounded people have no access to food or medicine amid the continued closure of Gaza’s crossings by Israeli forces.
“The situation in the Gaza Strip is becoming increasingly catastrophic and difficult, with the humanitarian crisis significantly worsening, especially for children, the sick, and the wounded who lack food and treatment.”
Earlier, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, had said in a separate statement that more than 50,000 children in Gaza require immediate medical treatment for acute malnutrition.
India supplied Israel with arms amid war on Gaza
MEMO | June 24, 2024
India has reportedly provided Israel with advanced Hermes 900 drones as well as other weaponry manufactured in the city of Hyderabad, Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported on Sunday.
The report said the factory, established by Israel to supply these drones to the Indian military, converted 20 of them specifically for the Israeli army due to the shortage created during the war back in February.
The factory, a joint venture between the Israeli defence company, Elbit Systems, and the Indian billionaire, Gautam Adani’s consortium, is the first in the world to produce these drones outside of Israel.
This dramatic decision was likely approved by the highest officials in India, likely due to Israel being one of its main arms suppliers to the country.
The move joins other reports indicating India has supplied Israel with artillery shells and weapons since the start of the war. The strategic partnership between the countries has proven highly beneficial for Israel, according to the Israeli paper.
Max Blumenthal: ‘TARGETED FOR EXPOSING ISRAEL’S LIES’- The Washington Post Attacks The Grayzone
Afshin Rattansi’s Going Underground | June 21, 2024
Israel and Hezbollah on the brink of war
By Steven Sahiounie | Strategic Culture Foundation | June 23, 2024
The Middle East is sitting on a powder keg, and every minute that passes brings heightened tensions between Israel and Hezbollah.
Canada, the U.S., Great Britain and Kuwait have all warned its citizens in Lebanon to evacuate.
The impending war is caused by Israeli refusal of a ceasefire in Gaza. Hezbollah says they will continue to stand in solidarity with the Palestinians of Gaza as the continuing genocide is perpetrated by Israel, but as soon as a ceasefire begins, Hezbollah’s response will cease.
Hezbollah is a Lebanese resistance group which is heavily armed. Most experts agree that the military might of Hezbollah and Israel are quite comparable on many levels, but Israel has air superiority.
Israel has a sophisticated air defense system, the ‘Iron Dome’. However, this system can be overwhelmed by Hezbollah if they were to launch a massive amount of missiles at Israel, and all agree that Hezbollah has a huge arsenal of missiles.
If the ‘Iron Dome’ was inundated by missiles launched from Lebanon, the effectiveness of the Israeli defenses would stop, and Israel could suffer destruction on a scale it has never experienced before. We have witnessed the destruction of Israeli missiles on Gaza, and homes and buildings across Israel could face a similar disaster.
Hezbollah demonstrated it has an air defense system, but it has been secretive in showing the capabilities of its defense from Israeli jets; however, on at least one occasion Hezbollah utilized their air defenses to repel an Israeli jet flying over Lebanon.
Amos Hochstein, the U.S. special envoy dispatched recently to Israel and Lebanon in hopes of averting a war between Israel and Hezbollah, came back empty-handed. Hochstein had been successful in a negotiation between Israel and Lebanon in 2022 over the maritime borders, but this time he was not negotiating with the Lebanese government alone, but with the most powerful resistance group in the Middle East.
The root cause of all conflicts in the Middle East emanate from the brutal Israeli occupation of Palestine, which has stripped away all human rights, and civil rights, from about six million Palestinians, while the six million Jews in Israel live in a quasi-democracy with human rights and civil rights comparable to most western democracies.
U.S. President Joe Biden and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken have repeatedly told Israeli officials the U.S. does not want to see a wider war in the Middle East, where other nations could be involved should Lebanon face destruction.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Israel would “turn Beirut into Gaza” in the event of a war.
Experts agree that Biden would continue to support Israel even in the face of a war on Hezbollah. The international community has come out against Israel and its genocide on Gaza, but Biden continues to support war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israel.
Biden has sponsored a ceasefire plan, but Israel refused it, and experts suggest that the Biden plan was not designed by Washington to succeed, but was drafted only as an exercise in buying time for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Israeli public and military are divided on the war on Gaza. Many are demanding Israel stop the war and get the hostages out after almost 9 months of captivity. Others support the war on Gaza as part of the Zionist plan to eliminate all non-Jews and create one Jewish nation from the ‘river to the sea’.
Netanyahu firmly demands the continuation of the war on Gaza and demands that Hamas be destroyed, but his military leaders have said that is an impossible task, as Hamas is an ideology, that of resistance to occupation, which is guaranteed to all people through the Geneva Convention.
On June 18, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said plans for an attack in southern Lebanon had been approved and steps had been taken to “accelerate readiness in the field.” The statement came from Major General Ori Gordin, the head of IDF Northern Command, and Major General Oded Basiuk, who heads the IDF’s Operations Division.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz threatened Hezbollah that they faced “destruction” amid “all-out war” at the Israel-Lebanon border.
Katz’s threat came after Hezbollah published a surveillance video that it took by a drone over various Israeli military, infrastructure and civilian installations, including some in the Israeli port city of Haifa.
“In an all-out war, Hezbollah will be destroyed and Lebanon will be severely hit,” Katz wrote on X.
On June 21, Hezbollah said it fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel in retaliation for a deadly air strike in south Lebanon that Israel said killed one of the group’s operatives. Hezbollah also claimed several other attacks on Israeli troops and positions over the course of the day.
In a meeting with visiting Israeli officials in Washington, Blinken underscored “the importance of avoiding further escalation in Lebanon and reaching a diplomatic resolution that allows Israeli and Lebanese families to return to their homes”, according to a statement.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah had warned “no place” in Israel would “be spared our rockets” if a wider war began, in a TV address on Wednesday. He also threatened Cyprus if it opened its airports or bases to Israel “to target Lebanon”. Cyprus houses two British bases, including an airbase.
Israel invaded and brutally occupied Lebanon from 1982 to 2000. Its withdrawal was a victory for Hezbollah. In 2006, Israel launched a second war on Hezbollah which saw Israel prevented from invading by the might of Hezbollah, and in the following years the resistance group has gotten much stronger militarily.
Dozens of Israeli towns are now deserted, with around 60,000 Israelis evacuated to temporary accommodation, while about 90,000 have also fled from southern Lebanon.
Israel has launched roughly four times as many attacks as Hezbollah over the course of the conflict, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a Wisconsin-based research group specializing in conflict data analysis. Last week, Israel made its deepest attack yet into Lebanon, striking 75 miles north of the border.
Israeli troops have also deployed white phosphorus in Lebanon, a substance that burns at high temperature and can be used to create smokescreens to obscure troop movements, but can cause respiratory damage and deadly burns. Its use near civilian areas is a violation of international humanitarian law.
“It’s not a question of if it will happen but when it will happen,” Avichai Stern, the mayor of Kiryat Shmona, the largest town in Israel’s north, said in an interview, and added, “We have to wipe them out.”
The war between Israel and Lebanon can be avoided if Israel will stop the unrelenting attacks on Gaza, which have resulted in over 36,000 deaths, mostly women and children.
Advantage Hezbollah
By Alon Mizrahi | June 23, 2024
Remember last week’s video from Hezbollah, with the drone over Northern Israel?
Well, there’s a new one, and it is also very interesting. It doesn’t look like footage from a drone, but rather like satellite imagery.
But this is not Google Earth or some nonsense like that. No publicly accessible satellite service will show you Israel’s top security sites. Try it. You’ll get nothing. It’s all blurred out.
So by publishing this Hezbollah accomplished two goals: first, they know many Israeli secrets and their specific locations. Second, they have access to high-quality satellite imagery.
This means Hezbollah can not only potentially hit sensitive sites with high accuracy. What it also means, and is just [as] problematic for Israel, is that Hezbollah may be able to track the movements of Israeli forces deep in Israeli territory in relative real-time. A capability no enemy of Israel ever had while directly involved in an armed conflict against it.
We know that Iran has dozens of satellites in space, some capable of state-of-the-art high resolution. When Israel fought Hezbollah in 2006 Iran had no such capability. Today it is a major international satellite powerhouse, using domestically-developed missiles and launchers.
Here’s Why The US Is Unable To Secure A Gaza Ceasefire
By Robert Inlakesh | Al Mayadeen | June 22, 2024
It’s time to be serious about the reasons behind the US government’s inability to secure a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. This comes down to unrealistic expectations, a refusal to concede a loss, incompetence and a pro-Israeli Lobby that controls many levers of power.
Weeks have passed since US President, Joe Biden, spoke in favor of a ceasefire and presented an Israeli proposal as “a road map to an enduring ceasefire and the release of all hostages.” Not long after this, the American military provided a supporting role to the Zionist military operation in Gaza’s Nuseirat, which allegedly resulted in 3 Israeli captives being killed and 4 re-captured, but most notably inflicted a civilian massacre that killed at least 274 Palestinians, injuring around 800 others.
The US temporary pier project, which was supposed to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, has been removed for a third time from the besieged coastal enclave, following allegations that immediately after its previous re-attachment it was used during the Nuseirat massacre. This project cost the American taxpayer hundreds of millions of dollars and has barely facilitated a trickle of the much needed aid, calling into question its true intended application.
On top of all of this, US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, traveled once again to West Asia on a trip that was publicly announced to be geared towards concluding the ceasefire proposal that was voted through by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Blinken immediately decided to put himself in front of the cameras and tell the media that the Israelis had accepted the proposal and that Hamas was hindering its implementation due to their inability to answer “yes or no”. However, Hamas, unlike the Zionist entity, were the only side to actually issue a legitimate response to the UNSC’s resolution on the ceasefire proposal.
At this point, when the Secretary of State began openly lying and making excuses for the Zionist regime, it was clear that his administration had given up on the proposal and were preparing themselves to continue protecting the Israelis publicly. The Zionist regime never accepted the ceasefire, which was allegedly their own, with not a single one of their leaders issuing a statement uttering an acceptance. In fact, the very opposite has been the case, while Hamas has welcomed the ceasefire push and responded positively, the Zionists have been repeatedly asserting their desire to continue the genocide in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has repeatedly made it clear that his intention is to pursue the destruction of Hamas and only ever issued statements regarding releasing the Israeli captives.
All of this was so predictable, because Netanyahu has no incentive at all to end the war in Gaza, other than the threat of a wider regional war. The US government supports him no matter what he does. So he need only shrug off any pressure coming from a rather weak and pathetic American administration that will unconditionally support the Zionist regime at any cost.
There are, however, layers to this catastrophe from the US government’s side. Starting with the fact that Washington cannot accept the impending strategic defeat it faces and wishes to try to extract a win by any means necessary. The United States is now experiencing the shrinking of its influence in the region, as a new multi-polar order emerges where nations around the world are given other economic partners as alternatives to the tyranny of the American so-called “rules based world order”. This order is rooted in maintaining the cultural and physical supremacy of the collective West, where Washington commands the world as the dominant liberal democracy that seeks to teach everyone else how to behave.
In line with attempting to hang onto the idea that they are still living in a world that resembles the period immediately following the Cold War, they clearly believe that the Palestinian cause will die down in its popular support and that they can return to a similar situation to the one that existed prior to Al-Aqsa Flood. In line with this way of thinking, to which the Arab client regimes still also desperately cling, the US continues to pursue Arab regime normalization with the Zionist entity. This way of thinking is predicated on the idea that Hezbollah, Ansarallah and the Palestinian resistance will suddenly disappear, which is out of touch with reality.
The Palestinian resistance have turned Gaza into a graveyard for its invaders, while Lebanese Hezbollah pummels their military sites and burns the northern settlements, meanwhile, the Yemeni resistance has succeeded in consistently embarrassing the US naval forces and imposing its blockade on the Zionist entity.
While the US could end this war any time it chooses, it is filled with incompetent and money-driven careerists who are incapable of long-term strategic thinking. If the Americans shut this war down earlier on, there was a window of opportunity to save their own power, image, and at least temporarily the future of the Zionist entity. Now, they have undermined both their own future and the existence of the Israeli regime in ways that are irreversible.
Joe Biden is essentially a human vegetable, who is clearly not physically capable of commanding such an important international issue at a time when other major geopolitical challenges are also ongoing. Perhaps if the self-professed Zionist was mentally sound and not simply a shell of his former self, he could have had more of an impact, beyond placing himself in front of cameras to deliver pro-Israeli propaganda.
Then we have Antony Blinken, who is tasked with standing up to Benjamin Netanyahu and is failing abysmally, assuming he is even employing the courage to try at all. The Israeli PM is a man that is well connected in the United States, not only with the billionaire class there, but also with the intelligence services too. Netanyahu is many things, a liar, a war criminal and a certified narcissist, but he isn’t stupid and knows how to operate from his position of power in a way that no other Israeli politician can. Blinken is clearly in no way cut out for the task in front of him and presents himself as a weak, incompetent, Secretary of State.
Although there may be people in the Biden administration who see the predicament they currently find themselves in and seek to maneuver strategically, they are clearly incapable of leading their government to a position that would save its own interests.
If we look at the elected officials, the vast majority of the US Congress and Senate are bought and paid for, whether this is by the military-industrial complex, AIPAC, or both. These officials are therefore useless, serving only their special-interest donors and/or seeking to climb the ladder of political power as the parasitic social climbers they are. Then we have both major Parties, who are heading towards a national election in which they need every billionaire and special-interest group to donate.
What the US’s current state of politics does is ensure that pockets are lined on all sides; however, you can’t run a successful country on the whims of mega-corporations and billionaires with special loyalties. It appears that a combination of weak politicians, incompetency, cognitive decline in the case of the President, the Israeli lobbying efforts, delusional misconceptions about their own capabilities, combined with a racist lack of regard for Palestinian life, has allowed for Washington to bow down to the demands of the Israeli PM.
Unfortunately, the approach that the US government adopted after October 7 of permitting a genocidal assault in order to try and save the image of the defeated US-Israeli regional alliance, continues.
As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slowly sinks to the bottom of the ocean, so too does he drag down the Zionist entity, while grabbing onto the hand of the US, pulling both down with him. Washington, meanwhile, holds on and chooses to believe that air bubbles exist at the bottom of the ocean.
Canada suggests taking in Israeli settlers amid escalation in North
Al Mayadeen | June 23, 2024
The Canadian government has suggested that Israeli settlers migrate to its territory due to the escalation in northern occupied Palestine between Hezbollah and “Israel” and the security threats faced by the settlers for more than eight months, Israeli media reported.
Canada’s proposal comes amid the difficulty in evacuating the Israeli settlers from areas within the range of Hezbollah’s rockets and following reports from Lebanese officials that US officials had informed them that the number of Israeli settlers displaced from northern occupied Palestine due to the escalation could exceed 200,000.
Analysts familiar with the Israeli situation suggest that this news highlights the severe internal crisis within “Israel” and indicates that allied NATO countries, like Canada, view the situation as dire and frightening to the extent that the solution might involve the migration of some settlers to these countries.
Israeli media have reported that the situation in northern occupied Palestine along the border with Lebanon is “unbearable” for tens of thousands of settlers whom the Israeli authorities have not evacuated.
Since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, and the consequent fighting with Hezbollah on October 8, Israeli media have reported a significant number of settlers leaving occupied Palestinian territories and a substantial increase in “reverse Jewish migration.”
In a related context, Israeli media highlighted that half a million people left “Israel” in the first six months of the war, while moving into the Israeli entity has significantly decreased compared to the period before the war.
In February, about 20,000 people left the occupied Palestinian territories, and in March, about 7,000 others left. According to Israeli media, adding the number of arrivals and departures in April to the overall figure, the gap in favor of those leaving reached about 550,000 people.
Biden Is In Full Denial As He Escalates His Wars
BY PHILIP GIRALDI • UNZ REVIEW • JUNE 22, 2024
When are American soldiers not really engaged in combat?
Over the past week it was revealed that Congress is considering legislation that will strengthen current conscription registration requirements and could even include women. It seems that the US armed services can no longer obtain enough volunteers to meet their needs and are getting desperate given the wars both ongoing and planned by the National Security State. The Pentagon planners note how the wars in Gaza and Ukraine are also escalating alarmingly and China and Russia are being targeted over the horizon. But when Joe Biden is able to compose himself enough to express something that he considers to be an elemental truth he generally limits himself to a few words that he has memorized. One of my favorites is the empty of meaning expression “No boots on the ground,” meaning that the United States will not rush willy nilly into any of the wars it has started recently by engaging actual American armed forces in hand-to-hand combat. Of course, the narrative would work better if Old Joe were not lying about what he has been up to secretly in both Israel-Gaza and Ukraine. One recalls that Joe made a morale boosting trip to support Israel back in October 2023 where he was photographed together with a number of US Delta Force special ops soldiers in full combat gear. The White House actually posted the picture on its website before deleting it together with a description of the photo reading “In Israel, President Biden met with first responders to thank them for their bravery and the work they’re doing in response to the Hamas terrorist attacks.” It was explained to the media at the time that the men were there to provide assistance to Israel in its “defending itself” against Hamas but they were apparently first responders, whatever that was supposed to mean, not combat soldiers.
A problem quickly developed when it was also observed by some military veterans that the photos were of such a quality as to enable the identification of the soldiers, a definite no-no for a covert unit involved in sensitive under-cover operations. Fox News contributor Sara Carter questioned “Is the White House really this stupid or are they just trying to get people targeted? This is totally unacceptable… These operators are required to maintain a level of discretion that this administration has completely disregarded. I would know, my husband is a retired operator. They are elite trained fighters and something as simple as facial ID recognition is putting them in direct threat by adversaries. How did this happen White House?” The photo faux pas also demonstrated that Biden was a liar when he denied having made the risky decision to put “boots on the ground.”
Beyond that blunder, it has already been observed by numerous sources that the White House has been secretly sending weapons and money to both Israel and Ukraine and it is also generally known that the equipment is frequently accompanied by soldiers and civilian contractors who are along for the ride to set the stuff up and provide minimal training in its use. That is referred to in military slang as SOP or “standard operating procedure” and it is to be assumed that the personnel are wearing their “boots” or whatever attire they choose to put on their feet.
And then there is the now infamous pontoon pier constructed at great cost of $320 million by the US military which broke after brief use and may have been used to insert Israeli commandos that slaughtered 274 Palestinians in the controversial June 8th hostage rescue at Nuseirat refugee camp. Claims that Israel used the US pontoon pier are supported by a photo that shows an Israeli helicopter landing near the structure, but the evidence has been disputed by Washington, which claims that the pier is only used for humanitarian relief. That, of course, is debatable and Prime Minister Netanyahu has suggested that it could also be used to deport Palestinians. Craig Mokhiber, an American former United Nations human rights official and a specialist in international human rights law, has asked the critical question on X: “Was the US ‘humanitarian’ pier used as a launching point for the Al-Nuseirat massacre (which could not happen without US collaboration)? And what role did US forces play on the ground (besides arming and providing diplomatic cover for the IOF)?” Adding to the confusion, is an interview in which the perpetually dim Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin seemed confused over whether the soldiers building the structure would be authorized to shoot back if came under fire when at work or while running the completed operation. Would they constitute “Boots on the Ground?”
In addition to that, the United States has sizable and active embassies in both countries that currently include enlarged Defense Attache Offices, which incorporate both military personnel and civilians. And don’t be fooled by the civilians as many of them are special ops or intelligence types under cover as State Department staff. In both places, the DATT personnel are actively engaged in the wars being fought by Volodymyr Zelensky from Kiev and Benjamin Netanyahu from Jerusalem by providing intelligence and targeting information as well as in advising their Ukrainian counterparts. In both cases the US has given its “allies” a carte blanche approval to use whatever weapons they have in their arsenals to directly target their opponents in such a fashion as to guarantee an escalation of the conflicts. In other words, in spite of the White House denial that the US is actually engaged as combatants in two wars that were unnecessary in the first place, the evidence is in place suggesting that the United States is fully involved as a belligerent, a fact that is well known both to the Russians, who have commented on the threat from NATO and have warned of their own possibly nuclear response, as well as to the Palestinians and Hamas.
Indeed, in a break with the general silence on covert operations, it is now being reported that the United States provided considerable intelligence on the hostages before Israel’s rescue operation at Nuseirat camp. A team of American hostage recovery specialists were stationed in Israel to aid the Israeli military’s effort to rescue the four captives by providing signals intelligence and other logistical support. The Pentagon and the CIA have been providing information collected from drone flights over Gaza, communications intercepts and other sources about the potential location of hostages including intelligence from the air and cyberspace that Israel apparently cannot collect on its own. The reporting also has revealed that intelligence collection and analysis teams from both the United States and Britain have been in Israel since the start of the war, assisting Israeli intelligence in collecting and analyzing information related to the hostages, some of them dual national Israeli citizens from both the UK and US.
Moving on to Central Europe and given the persistent warnings coming from Moscow over US and NATO’s direct role in the Ukraine war, Washington is currently in a mild panic over the Russian decision to send one of its naval frigates and a nuclear powered missile armed submarine as well as two support vessels on a visit to Cuba to show the flag, as it were, 90 miles from the continental US. One recalls that when Russia moved its forces into Cuba over sixty years ago it resulted in the Cuban Missile Crisis which could have turned into a nuclear war were it not for some common sense coupled to adroit diplomacy by President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev. Common sense, unfortunately, is currently lacking in the White House so it is quite possible that something completely nutty will result from the impasse which is further complicated by the 10 year Bilateral Security Agreement that Joe Biden signed with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky at the G7 meeting in Italy last week. What it commits Washington to do is by no means clear.
Like it or not, the United States is directly involved in two wars that it could have avoided and the Biden Administration is deeply in denial over what is taking place. Once upon a time the level of US engagement would have guaranteed a counter-attack from the opponent, but given the availability of nuclear weapons in the hands of many of the players there is appropriately a certain reluctance to engage in open and sustained warfare in the old-fashioned way. That is to the good. One can only hope that all parties involved will get tired of the game before too long and will resort to another old-time value, namely diplomacy to bring about a ceasefire and peace settlements.
Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation (Federal ID Number #52-1739023) that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is councilforthenationalinterest.org, address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is inform@cnionline.org .
Columbia University students’ charges dropped after pro-Palestine protest arrests
MEMO | June 22, 2024
New York Criminal Court Judge Kevin McGrath decided to dismiss the cases filed against 30 people arrested during pro-Palestine protests in Hamilton Hall at Columbia University.
According to the Guardian: “Stephen Millan, a prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney’s office, told the court on Thursday his office would not prosecute 30 protesters who were Columbia students at the time of the arrest, nor two who were Columbia employees, citing prosecutorial discretion and lack of evidence.”
The prosecutor added that no police officers were harmed during the arrests.
Judge McGrath confirmed that the cases filed against 30 detained protesters and university employees had been dropped.
On 18 April, 2024, students and academics who condemn the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip began a sit-in on the campus of Columbia University in New York, demanding that its administration stop its academic cooperation with Israeli universities and withdraw its investments from companies supporting the occupation of Palestinian territories.
After the intervention of the police and the arrest of dozens of protesters, the protests expanded to other universities and spread to countries such as France, the UK, Germany, Canada and India, all of which witnessed demonstrations in support of their American counterparts and demands to stop the Gaza war and boycott companies that supply weapons to Israel.
Rafah: More than 50 martyred in Israeli attack on tents, homes in Al-Shati Camp
MEMO | June 22, 2024
US vows ‘security support’ for Israel in all-out war with Lebanon
The Cradle | June 22, 2024
Senior US officials confirmed that if Israel wages a full out war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Washington is fully prepared to back its ally in Tel Aviv, CNN reported on 22 June.
According to a senior administration official speaking with CNN, the US officials gave the assurances in person to a delegation of Israeli security officials visiting Washington this week.
The Israeli officials, including Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer and national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi, met with US officials, including national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and White House Middle East affairs coordinator Brett McGurk.
The face-to-face assurances come amid heightened tensions between Israel and the Lebanese resistance group. In recent weeks, Hezbollah has escalated its attacks on Israel’s military infrastructure near the Lebanese border.
At the same time, Israeli officials have issued multiple threats claiming they will launch a major attack on Lebanon, including attacking civilian areas such as in the capital, Beirut.
Israeli officials are frustrated that they are not able to provide security for some 100,000 displaced Israelis to return to settlements in the north.
When discussing the prospects of a major war, US officials said they would offer Israel the security assistance it needs but would not deploy US troops to the ground.
If Hezbollah were to significantly expand the scale of its attacks on Israel, resulting in the deaths of Israelis, US officials expect Israel to respond with full force, CNN added.
Earlier this week, US officials warned that in the event of an all-out war, Hezbollah would be able to overwhelm the Iron Dome with its powerful arsenal of over 100,000 missiles and rockets.
“Israeli officials have told the US they believe the Iron Dome could be vulnerable, particularly in northern Israel, and have been surprised at the sophistication of Hezbollah’s strikes to date,” the US officials went on to tell CNN.
One Israeli official cited by the outlet confirmed that Hezbollah attacks could be “challenging for the system to defend against.”
It is also unclear whether Israel will have the troops to launch a full-scale war with ground troops. Israel faces a serious enlistment crisis and shortage of soldiers in the Israeli army and has lost many troops to death and injury fighting Hamas in Gaza.
On 21 June, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to schedule an urgent meeting to discuss extending compulsory military service to three years.
“The new security reality requires finding means to continue the war effort,” Gallant was quoted as saying. Gallant has requested that Netanyahu approve this in government within the coming days.
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From the Archives
The New Baghdad Pact
By Dr Bouthaina Shaaban | February 23, 2017
A recently declassified CIA document prepared in 1983, and released on 20 January 2017, shows that the United States had at the time encouraged Saddam Hussein to attack Syria, which would have led to a vicious conflict between the two countries, thus draining their resources.
The report, which was then prepared by CIA officer Graham Fuller, indicates that the US tried adamantly to convince Saddam to attack Syria under any pretense available, in order to get the two most powerful countries in the Arab East to destroy each other, turning their attention away from the Arab-Israeli conflict. … continue
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