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Iran launches unprovoked attack on country that committed year-long genocide and threatened to destroy it

Laura and Normal Island News | October 1, 2024

In harrowing scenes, Iran has launched a salvo of hypersonic missiles at Israel that have rendered the iron dome useless and caused explosions across the country. This unprovoked attack came after Israel peacefully committed a year-long genocide, bombed an embassy, destroyed schools, universities and hospitals, starved 2.1 million civilians, carried out multiple assassinations, murdered 162 journalists and 222 UN workers, built a centre dedicated to the rape and torture of prisoners, launched large-scale terror attacks in Beirut, and invaded Lebanon. Why is Iran like this?

Among Iran’s targets were military installations located in densely-populated areas of Tel Aviv. Outrageously, Israel has been accused by the worst people of using civilians as human shields. What kind of monster would use such insensitive language when people are dying? Please show some compassion.

In a horrific attack, a large number of Israeli civilians were gunned down in Tel Aviv earlier today. Every decent person should condemn this violence towards civilians, and every decent person has. Even the people who laughed when Lebanese children lost their eyeballs in the pager attack have condemned this violence.

Israelis are understandably terrified, having endured for one day what Palestinians have endured for one year. Everyone knows only Palestinians, and maybe Lebanese, should endure this level of suffering. We couldn’t just have… peace.

As all the sensible people keep telling us, a peace deal wouldn’t achieve peace, only this would: World War III. If you don’t understand this, it’s because you’re an idiot and a terrorist lover.

Thankfully, the newspapers have found their ability to name the attacker, now that someone who is not Israel is firing rockets. For a moment, I was worried they were going to describe this terrorism as “mysterious explosions in militant strongholds” and urge restraint from Israel.

Netanyahu was understood to be in good spirits in his luxury bunker as World War III got underway because sure, millions of innocent people around the world are going to die, but this is his best chance of avoiding those corruption charges. And that’s what matters, isn’t it?

Reassuringly, I’m told the prime minister has now been airlifted out of Israel and returned to the safety of his home country, Poland. This is how much Mileikowsky loves his people.

Israel’s de-escalation through escalation strategy is going well, isn’t it? So well, in fact, that I’m having an end of world party tonight. I mean why not? Personally, I think this is much better than the alternative which was not selling arms to Israel. If we’d done that, we wouldn’t have had the pleasure of 12 months of genocide, would we? Thank god the moderates made the right decision!

Anyway, who else can’t wait to be conscripted and used as a meat shield for Israel? If you’re worried you’re too old for conscription, at least your children can be called up. I hope you’re not too attached to them! At least they’ll be sacrificed for the best possible reason: the political career of someone everyone hates.

Netanyahu has reassured us that when Israel loses the war he didn’t start, he is going to push that nuclear button because the tens of thousands he’s killed so far, and the millions he’s about to kill, just aren’t enough. Might as well eradicate every multicellular lifeform on the planet. It’s either that or international arrest warrants and the Hague. I know what I’d choose in his position.

October 2, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Militarism | , , , | 9 Comments

Hezbollah kills over a dozen Israeli soldiers attempting to invade south Lebanon

The Cradle | October 2, 2024

Israeli forces continued to take heavy losses during their attempts at infiltrating southern Lebanon on 2 October, forcing them to retreat a number of times.

Lebanon’s Armed Forces (LAF) confirmed on Wednesday afternoon that an Israeli force withdrew from the Blue Line back to the Israeli side of the border after penetrating 400 meters into Lebanon’s territory.

“While an Israeli enemy force was trying to encircle the town of Yaroun from the forest side, the Islamic Resistance fighters surprised them at 2:00 pm on Wednesday 10/2/2024 by detonating a special explosive device, killing and wounding all members of the force,” Hezbollah said on Wednesday afternoon.

“In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance is engaging in clashes with the Israeli enemy soldiers who have infiltrated the town of Maroun al-Ras from the eastern side, inflicting several casualties among them, and the clashes are still ongoing,” it said earlier.

Video footage showed Israeli forces carrying several dead or wounded soldiers in order to evacuate them via helicopter.

According to Israeli sources cited by Sky News Arabia, 14 soldiers have been killed so far by Hezbollah fighters since Wednesday morning. Al-Arabiya and Al-Hadath previously reported that four have been killed and around 20 others injured.

Among those killed by Hezbollah fighters is Lieutenant Eitan Oster from Israel’s elite Egoz unit. Israel admitted his death as the “first” killed in clashes with Hezbollah.

Early on Wednesday morning, Hezbollah thwarted an attempt by Israeli soldiers to penetrate Lebanese territory via the town of Odaisseh, targeting them and forcing them to retreat after inflicting casualties.

“The number of enemy casualties in today’s battles is very large, and there is a media blackout imposed by the enemy,” the head of Hezbollah’s media relations office, Mohammad Afif, said on 2 October.

The Israeli army claims its ground operation aims to push Hezbollah away from the border and return tens of thousands of Israeli settlers evacuated from the northern settlements as a result of the Lebanese resistance’s operations, which began on 8 October last year.

In his last speech prior to his sudden assassination last week, Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah promised that any ground invasion of Lebanon would be “hell” for Israel and that the settlers “will not return” to the north.

October 2, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , | Leave a comment

Words kill: Why Israel gets away with murder in Gaza and Lebanon

By Ramzy Baroud | MEMO | October 1, 2024

The official Israeli army version of why it targeted civilian areas during the intense and deadly bombardment of southern Lebanon on 20 September is that the Lebanese are hiding long-range missile launchers in their homes. This official explanation was meant to justify the killing of 492 people and the wounding of 1,645 in a single day of Israeli air strikes.

This off-the-shelf explanation will be repeated throughout the Israeli war in Lebanon, however long it takes. Israeli media is now citing these claims and, as usual, US and western media are parroting the same narrative. Keep this in mind as you reflect on earlier statements made by Israeli President Isaac Herzog on 13 October last year when he argued that there are no civilians in Gaza, and that, “There is an entire nation out there that is responsible [for 7 October ].”

Israel does this in every war it launches against the Palestinians or any Arab nation.

Instead of removing civilians and civilian infrastructures from its target bank, it immediately turns the civilian population into the main targets for its bombs.

A quick glance at the number of civilians killed in the ongoing war and genocide in Gaza should be enough to demonstrate that Israel targets ordinary people as a matter of course. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza, children and women constitute the largest percentage of the war’s victims at 69 per cent . If we factor in the number of adult males who have been killed — including doctors and other medical staff, civil defense workers and numerous other categories — it will be obvious that the vast majority of all of Gaza’s victims of Israeli brutality were civilians.

Only Israeli media, and their allies in the west, continue to find justifications for killing Palestinian and now Lebanese civilians in large numbers.

Compare the following two statements, which received much attention in the media, by Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari regarding both Gaza and Lebanon: “Hamas systematically uses hospitals to wage war and consistently uses the people of Gaza as human shields,” said Hagari on 25 March. Then he claimed on September 27, “Hezbollah’s terror headquarters was intentionally built under residential buildings in the heart of Beirut, as part of Hezbollah’s strategy of using human shields.”

For those who routinely give Hagari and other Israeli spokespeople the benefit of the doubt, just review what has taken place in Gaza in the past year. For example, Israel claimed that the massacre at Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital was not of its doing, and that it was a Palestinian rocket that killed the nearly 500 displaced refugees and wounded hundreds more on 17 October 2023. All evidence, including investigations by well -respected rights groups, concluded the opposite. However, the false Israeli claims still dominated the media headlines.

The Baptist Hospital episode was repeated with other lies on numerous occasions. In fact, the lies started on 7 October, not 17 October, when Israel made claims about decapitated babies and mass rape. Even though much of that has been proven conclusively to be wrong, some in the media, and pro-Israel officials, continue to speak of it as if it is a proven fact.

Moreover, although no Hamas headquarters were ever found under Al-Shifa Hospital, the unsubstantiated Israeli claims continued to be repeated as if they were the full truth of the matter, and thus justified the death and destruction at Gaza’s main medical facility.

The same logic is now being applied to Lebanon, where Israel claims that it does not target civilians and, when civilians are killed, that it is the Lebanese themselves who should be blamed for supposedly using civilians as human shields.

The Gaza playbook is now the Lebanon playbook.

Of course, many are playing along, not because they are irrational or unable to reach proper conclusions based on the obvious evidence. They do so because they are happy to be part of the Israeli narrative, not neutral storytellers or honest journalists.

Even the BBC plays its part within that narrative, as it uses Israeli claims as the starting point of any conversation on Palestine or Lebanon. “Israel has said it carried out a wave of pre-emptive strikes across southern Lebanon to thwart a large-scale rocket and drone attack by Hezbollah,” reported the corporation on 26 August. That’s just one example of many.

Israel gets away with its lies pertaining to the mass killings in Gaza, and now in Lebanon, because Israeli propaganda is welcomed, in fact, embraced by western officials and journalists. Thus, when US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan described the 20 September air strikes on Lebanon as “justice served”, he was telling mainstream media that its coverage should remain committed to that official assessment.

Imagine the outrage if the tables were turned, and Israeli civilians were slaughtered in their own homes by Lebanese bombs. There would be no need to have to explain the reactions of the US or western media, as they would be obvious to anyone who is paying attention.

Lebanon is a sovereign Arab state. Gaza is an occupied territory, and its people are protected under the Fourth Geneva Conventions. Neither Lebanese nor Palestinian lives are without worth, and their mass murder should not be allowed to take place for any reason, especially based on lies communicated by an Israeli military spokesperson and repeated by complicit media.

Perpetuating Israeli lies is dangerous, not only because truth-telling is a virtue, but also because words kill. Dishonest reporting can, in fact, succeed in justifying genocide, which is why Israel gets away with murder in Gaza and Lebanon.

October 1, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Fake News, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Jerusalem Post deletes article claiming Lebanon is part of Israel’s ‘promised land’

A man walks over debris of the building, where Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah lost his life, after Israeli army’s airstrike, carried out by F-35 fighter jets, in Dahieh, Beirut, Lebanon on September 29, 2024 [Houssam Shbaro – Anadolu Agency]
MEMO | October 1, 2024

The Jerusalem Post has prompted a controversy after publishing then swiftly deleting an article suggesting that Lebanon and several other Middle Eastern countries are part of Israel’s “promised land”.

“Is Lebanon part of Israel’s promised territory?” was published on 25 September, coinciding with Israel’s assault on Lebanon and subsequent ground invasion. The timing and content of the piece have been viewed by critics as evidence of Israel’s expansionist ambitions in the region.

In the now-deleted article, Mark Fish claimed that the land “promised by God” to the “children of Israel” includes parts of modern-day Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and even Turkey. Fish cited religious texts to support its claims.

“The Torah provides clear guidelines regarding the areas we were commanded to conquer when taking possession of the land,” he wrote. He elaborated further on the concept of “Greater Israel”, suggesting that the Biblical boundaries stretch “from the ‘River of Egypt’ [interpreted by some as the Nile or a smaller river in Sinai] to the Perat River [Euphrates].”

The Jerusalem Post removed the article following a backlash on social media, with many accusing the newspaper of promoting expansionist ideology under the guise of religious justification. However, the article has been archived and continues to circulate online.

Notably, the author provides Torah-based justifications for holding onto occupied land. He said that “Hashem [God] tells us that we are granted every land we will conquer within the borders mentioned,” suggesting that God has sanctioned territorial expansion and occupation. This is an argument that aligns with a core tenet of Zionist ideology, which often cites Biblical prophecy about God’s promise to the Jews as justification for claiming Palestine and surrounding areas.

“Every place where the sole of your foot will tread shall be yours — from the wilderness and the Lebanon, from the river — the Euphrates River — until the western sea shall be your boundary,” wrote Fish. “This promise from the Creator clearly places the land of Lebanon within the Promised Land of Israel, or what some refer to as ‘the Complete Land of Israel’, or ‘The greater Israel’.”

Critics argue that the publication of such content, especially during another Israeli invasion of Lebanon, serves to legitimise Israel’s ongoing colonisation efforts in the Middle East. They contend that it reflects a broader ideology within certain Israeli circles that seeks to justify territorial expansion based on religious beliefs.

The controversy has reignited debates about the role of Israel’s religious claims to Palestine and the potential consequences of such rhetoric in an already volatile region. Like the early Zionists who concealed their true intention about ethnic cleansing and the complete colonisation of all of Palestine, Israeli leaders tend to avoid commenting on the concept of Greater Israel.

As of the time of writing, the Jerusalem Post had not issued an official statement regarding the publication and subsequent removal of the article.

October 1, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, War Crimes | , , , , | 2 Comments

US deploys thousands of troops to Middle East as tensions rise

Al Mayadeen | October 1, 2024

Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters on Monday said the US is increasing its military presence in the Middle East by deploying a “few thousand” additional troops.

According to a statement, this includes bringing in new units and extending the stay of those already stationed there.

“A certain number of units already deployed to the Middle East region… will be extended and the forces due to rotate into theater to replace them will now instead augment” those that are already there, Singh said.

“These augmented forces include F-16, F-15E, A-10, F-22 fighter aircraft and associated personnel,” Singh added, noting that there will be “an additional few thousand” personnel in the region as a result.

This comes in light of heightened escalations amid the start of “Israel’s” “localized and targeted” aggression of Lebanon.

The latest attacks on US positions in the region include a strike on the US military’s Victoria base near Baghdad Airport, occurring late Monday into Tuesday.

The Yemeni Armed Forces have also struck Israeli military targets earlier today using long-range multi-purpose one-way assault Samad 4 drone.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah continues its operations targeting Israeli movements within the occupied Palestinian territories.

Iran also launched a response to the Israeli assassinations of martyrs Haniyeh, Sayyed Nasrallah, and General Nilforooshian earlier, launching hundreds of rockets toward occupied Palestine.

Heightened escalations

On Monday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin expressed support to Israeli Security Minister Yoav Gallant for “dismantling attack infrastructure” belonging to Hezbollah.

Austin also warned Iran of “serious consequences” should it directly strike “Israel” in retaliation for attacks on the Lebanese Resistance group.

On Tuesday, Hezbollah Political Council member Mahmoud Qomati said in an interview with Al Mayadeen that Hezbollah’s allies “will intervene if the battle expands.”

Qomati warned that southern Lebanon “will become a graveyard for the occupation forces” should they enter, highlighting the Resistance’s vast arsenal of unused weapons and the fighters’ readiness to engage with Israeli forces.

Addressing observers, Qomati said the Resistance was rebuilt immediately following the assassination of Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

The legacy of Sayyed Nasrallah is well-maintained, he said, adding, “his trust is in our hands and will remain so with every leader and fighter.”

Qomati also reiterated Hezbollah’s stance, which had been affirmed by the late Secretary-General since the beginning of the Israeli occupation’s war on Gaza, stressing that the party “will not halt its support unless a comprehensive proposal is put forward, including a ceasefire in Gaza.”

October 1, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Wars for Israel | , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Operation True Promise II: Iran launches barrage of missiles against Zionist entity

Press TV – October 1, 2024 

Sirens sounded all over the occupied territories as Iran launched hundreds of missiles towards the Zionist entity, in a retaliatory attack dubbed Operation True Promise II.

Flares and missiles were seen in the Tel Aviv sky and explosions could be heard in the occupied al-Quds, sending Zionist settlers fleeing into shelters.

The Israel Airports Authority said that no aircraft will be allowed to take off or arrive at all Israeli airports.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported “direct hits” in Negev, Sharon and other locations from Iran’s attack.

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) issued a statement shortly after the missile attack began.

It said in response to the martyrdom of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyah, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and IRGC commander Abbas Nilforoushan, the IRGC Aerospace Force launched dozens of ballistic missiles targeting key military and intelligence bases in the heart of the occupied territories.

The IRGC further said that the attack was in line with the country’s right to legitimate self-defense as per the United Nations Charter, and in response to the regime’s escalating crimes—backed by the United States—against the people of Lebanon and Gaza.

The Zionist regime will face more crushing attacks in case it reacts to Iran’s operation, the IRGC added.

In a follow-up statement, the IRGC said three Israeli military bases in Tel Aviv were hit during the operation.

In this operation, a number of air and radar bases, as well as centers for conspiracy and assassination planning against resistance leaders and IRGC commanders were targeted, the statement said.

The IRGC noted that even though the designated areas were shielded by advanced defense systems, 90% of the missiles shot successfully hit their targets.

“The Zionist regime has been terrified by the intelligence and operational dominance of the Islamic Republic,” it added.

The Iranian mission to the United Nations said in a statement that the missile attack was a “legal, rational, and legitimate” response to the terrorist acts of the Zionist regime.

It also warned the Israeli regime that a more “crushing” response would ensue should it dare to respond or commit further acts of malevolence.

Celebratory gunfire erupted in southern Beirut, where Hezbollah chief Nasrallah was killed in a massive Israeli airstrike last week, following Iran’s retaliatory attack.

“Heavy gunfire heard from automatic weapons from areas of the southern suburbs, rejoicing in the missile launch from Iran towards Israel,” Lebanon’s National News Agency said.

October 1, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , | Leave a comment

The weakness of Zionist air power

By Robert Daly | Al Mayadeen | October 1, 2024

What we have seen in the Zionist conduct of war since October 7, 2023, is a flashy, noisy exhibition but no seizure and holding of territory.

The murder of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and the destruction of six high-rise apartment buildings with multiple airstrikes make Zionist air power appear triumphant over Hezbollah. But nothing could be further from the truth. It is not air power that defeats enemies in war. Rather, it is infantry—conquering, seizing, and holding territory that defeats an enemy. The Soviet Union defeated Nazi Germany not through air power but through the ground battles of Stalingrad and Kursk and then by pushing the Nazi troops back into Germany as the Soviets liberated one occupied state after another from Ukraine and Belarus to Hungary and Czechoslovakia. The West at the time bombed Dresden and other cities, but that effort had little effect in defeating the Nazis. So, Zionist bombings of Lebanon’s cities kill citizens and wreck their homes but do not occupy territory or defeat Hezbollah.

It is beyond the capability of air power to seize enemy territory and hold it. Air power is only a form of contemporary artillery. In the past 100 years, humankind has ‘progressed’ from mere cannons and tanks delivering artillery shells onto an enemy’s positions to warplanes dropping them from above. What we have seen in the Zionist conduct of war since October 7, 2023, is a flashy, noisy exhibition but no seizure and holding of territory. Today, Hamas has retaken all of Gaza and continues to manage the territory as the Zionists have admitted in press briefings though they attacked Gaza by air. The Zionists responded to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack by bombing and destroying civilian residential buildings, but that did not destroy Hamas, which took advantage of the situation and the changed terrain to prepare positions from behind wrecked buildings to attack Zionist tanks and armored personnel carriers, which they have destroyed by the dozen. In this way, we have seen the contrast between ground fighters and air power in Gaza, where the Zionists are effective at killing women and children from the sky above with bombs, but cannot occupy and hold the territory that that population lived in.

If air power is an effective way to defeat one’s enemy and win a war, why is Hamas still ruling Gaza? Yedioth Ahronoth, a leading ‘Israeli’ newspaper, citing Israeli security sources wrote this past week that:

○ Hamas is working to consolidate its authority again in the areas of Gaza that the IOF left.

○ No one in Gaza stands against Hamas, and no one challenges its rule.

This is not new. In June, after eight months of Zionist bombing, the Guardian wrote “Hamas still strong in areas ‘cleared’ by Israel in northern Gaza.” How is that possible? Zionist warplanes far above do not provide much competition with Palestinian freedom fighters on the ground. Zionist armored vehicles full of scared reservists are easy targets for Gazan patriots who destroy those vehicles one after another. The Guardian concludes, “Hamas’s ability to return to areas from which it was earlier forced to retreat threatens ‘forever war’.” The paper explains, “There may be more Hamas militants in the north of Gaza, supposedly cleared by Israeli forces months ago, than in Rafah, the southern city in the territory described by Israeli officials as the extremist Islamist organization’s “last stronghold”. “We do have to remember there are more Hamas armed people in the north of Gaza in the places that the IDF has already moved out of than … in Rafah … Those are the IDF’s numbers. This is why the IDF had to go back into Jabaliya and … Zeitoun. Hamas is controlling all those areas,” Eyal Hulata, the head of “Israel’s” “national security council” from 2021 to last year, told reporters last May. Zionist air power and fragile armor have failed to conquer Gaza. They only wrecked it.

One can expect an even better outcome for the domestic national liberation army in Lebanon, where Hezbollah has the advantage of better and more artillery and soldiers experienced in fighting ISIS and Al-Qaeda on the ground in Syria.

One of the most disgusting Zionist air war practices is their cowardly war by assassination. Zionists will swoop down in aircraft of various sorts to kill someone on a motorcycle, a family in a car, or a leader of the national liberation movement in a building. To do that, they do not hesitate to murder hundreds of others in the area, as when the fascists murdered Sayyed Hassan. For if the Nazi abandoned his air vehicle and fought a fair fight on the ground, he would surely lose.

Moreover, it is an embarrassment to an American with a memory to hear Hezbollah or Hamas referred to as “terrorists” for defending their own land from Zionist invaders. Does not anyone remember Washington’s crossing of the Delaware on Christmas 1776, when they and their makeshift army slaughtered British-hired Hessian mercenaries drunk from celebrating the holiday? If Hamas is “terrorist”, then why isn’t George Washington?

So, we have it: “Israel” has not won in Lebanon. Rather, “the enemy must wait for us by air, land, and sea. We repeat: If war is imposed on Lebanon, the Resistance will fight without rules, controls, or ceilings,” Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah once said. “Storming the Galilee is a possibility that remains present within the framework of any war that the occupation may launch against Lebanon,” he added, referencing his 12-year-old promise that Hezbollah will invade “Israel’s” north if Tel Aviv chooses to attack.

October 1, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Iran won’t deploy forces to Lebanon to help Hezbollah – foreign ministry

RT | September 30, 2024

Iran will not send troops to Lebanon or Gaza to confront Israel, the Foreign Ministry in Tehran announced on Monday. The statement comes amid Israel’s intensified attacks against the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen.

Tehran does not seek war but is not afraid of it and stands for a safe and stable Middle East, the ministry stressed.

“There is no need to send extra or volunteer forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani told a weekly news conference. Lebanon and fighters in the Palestinian territories “have the capability and strength to defend themselves against the aggression,” he added.

In the past several weeks, Israel has been conducting heavy airstrikes targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon and other militant groups in the region, including in Syria, Yemen, and Iraq, raising fears the conflict could engulf the entire Middle East and draw in Iran and the US, Israel’s main ally.

“We have not received any request in this regard from any side, on the contrary, we are informed and are sure that they do not need the help of our forces,” Kanaani told reporters.

He nonetheless pledged that Israel “will not remain without reprimand and punishment for the crimes it has committed against the Iranian people, military personnel and the resistance forces.”

During the past week alone, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) significantly ramped up airstrikes on Lebanon, killing more than 1,000 people and wounding over 6,000 according to local health officials. The escalation also triggered a mass exodus from the areas most affected by the Israeli bombing.

The Israeli military also conducted a series of strikes against senior Hezbollah commanders, killing most of them, including the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian visited Hezbollah’s office in Tehran on Monday to pay tribute to Nasrallah, according to the government’s website.

September 30, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lebanon: Israeli forces’ airstrikes kill 14 medics in 2 days

People check the leveled area bombarded on September 27, 2024 by US-made bunker-buster bombs in the Haret Hreik neighborhood of Beirut’s southern suburbs. (Photo by AFP)
Press TV – September 29, 2024

More than a dozen paramedics have been killed in recent Israeli attacks, Lebanon’s health ministry announced.

The Lebanese health ministry announced on Sunday that 14 paramedics had been killed in two days of intense Israeli bombardment in Lebanon’s east and south and in Beirut where it had killed Hezbollah’s leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

The ministry said in its statement that it “condemns in the strongest terms the Israeli enemy’s repeated attacks on medical centers” and that “paramedics do not participate in hostilities.”

“The Israeli occupation forces have accumulated their attacks on paramedics and health centers in recent days. This series of attacks led to the martyrdom of fourteen paramedics in two days,” it said in the statement.

“The repeated attacks by the Israeli enemy on health centers flout international laws and norms, especially the Geneva Convention which highlights the neutrality of health centers and health workers in combat zones to allow them to carry out their humanitarian duty.”

“Does Israel want the blood to flow without stopping? Where is the international community and its responsibility to put an end to this escalating genocide?” it added.

The Lebanese Government Emergency Committee announced that the Israeli war machine launched 216 air attacks in the past 24 hours across Lebanon.

The Israeli airstrikes are due to the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance group showing solidarity with and giving support to Palestinians since the Tel Aviv leaders unleashed a genocidal war against the besieged Gaza Strip in October 2023.

Since then, Israeli attacks on Lebanese targets have left 1,640 people dead.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who led the resistance movement for over three decades, was himself martyred after Israeli regime forces bombarded a Beirut suburb using US-made jet fighters and bunker-buster bombs.

September 29, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , | Leave a comment

Of Cool Heads and Hot Heads

By Philip Kraske • Unz Review • September 29, 2024

Ever more desperate, Israel is working hard to start a world war with the United States on its side. The elimination of Hassan Nasrallah won’t make much difference to Hezbollah’s fight; the new leader will soon step up. But Israel might regret the absence of the cool-headed Nasrallah.

Cool-headedness has actually been the norm this past year, and is among the few hopeful notes on the international scene. Lots of leaders are keeping calm, holding back the factions in their governments that would love to take a crack at the folks thumbing their military noses at them.

China merely tut-tuts about foreign navy ships traversing the Strait of Taiwan, Hezbollah keeps its big missiles in their silos, Iran responds to Israeli attacks with a few half-hearted firecrackers, and Vladimir Putin frowns and issues warning after warning when Ukraine, with Nato help, hits Russian refineries and radar installations. Meanwhile Egypt, Jordan, Iran, Syria, and Turkey — and I’ve probably missed a few — itch to put holes in Israeli runways.

But restraint is the watchword. Unlike before World War One, when governments decided to declare war from one day to the next, countries are looking before they leap. Why? To what do the world’s citizens owe this clear shift to reluctance among national leaders to jump into conflict? It’s often been observed that nuclear weapons have kept the peace among the great powers. Nowadays, however, other elements keep the peace just as well. Here are the three most important ones.

The first is economic. It’s true that capitalist consumerism has atomized the citizenry, but it also keeps people quiet. National leaders figure that the only way to keep everybody fed and employed and hypnotized by Netflix series is to keep the economy running. Take tourism, for example — a labor-intensive industry that absorbs a lot of workers with little formal education. Israel’s has been hammered. Who wants to retrace the steps of Christ in the Holy Land amidst the squall of sirens announcing incoming missiles from Hezbollah? Israel now has to rotate its forces in and out of the military just to keep the economy going. But they’re finally going to throw the Palestinians out, and figure it’s worth the tradeoff.

Other touristy countries have much less to gain. In Turkey, tourism makes up more than ten percent of the economy, and is still growing. In Egypt, it’s 24 percent. Take that away, and the ensuing unrest will topple governments. But their leaders have less to gain from tackling Israel.

The second element is strategic. Just over the last several years, war has turned into a video game of missiles and missile-defenses and drones of all different kinds. As the commentator Alistair Crooke has observed, American aircraft carriers parked in the eastern Mediterranean look like something out of the 1950s. A couple of missiles sent from Crimea would send them to the bottom of the sea in a question of minutes.

Conventional war has all but disappeared. Imagine what would happen to American troop and supply ships traversing the Atlantic. If German U-boats sank nearly three thousand, Russians would sink every one of them, and not from a dank submarine but from a cosy office in Moscow. And crossing the Pacific to attack China would be a suicide mission.

National governments see the destruction wrought by Russian missiles — not its army shelling villages, but the attacks from afar on major cities and infrastructure — and they quickly figure that restraint is the better part of valor.

The third element that makes governments hesitate to get into a fight is that societies are far more fragile than before. Imagine what would happen if the Chinese got mad at the Americans and dropped a few missiles on highway overpasses, which then collapsed highways, between San Diego and San Francisco. Of course, hackers could wreak havoc on just about everything, but if software defenses proved troublesome to them, a couple of missiles — or just bombs placed by hired thugs — on data centers would quickly affect the internet in all kinds of random ways. Well-paid jokers could send drones flying around Atlanta and Chicago airports — or Istanbul’s or Frankfurt’s or Tokyo’s — closing them down. And if some leader were in a bloody frame of mind, he could order the downing of just two commercial airliners, one taking off in Paris and the other in Miami — and watch every flight reservation in the the western hemisphere get canceled in an hour. Citizens of the world’s poorest countries would finally have the last laugh.

In fact, there is a never-declared Mutually Assured Destruction that restrains governments, or quasi-governments like Hezbollah. All to the good, except that conventional war seems to be morphing into terrorism. Now that Israel has opened the Pandora’s box of booby-trapping consumer items, how long will it be before desk lamps — or shoes or avocados — begin to explode in Tel Aviv? Will Kurds need to take apart their Turkish-made earphones? As readers of Unz.com know, attacking China is far more cost-effective through untraceable biological attacks against its people and livestock, and invites no revenge — at least for the moment.

Israel’s attack with pagers and radios, Ukraine’s worthless drone strikes on Moscow apartment buildings, America’s aimless pecking at “terrorists” in Syria and Iraq — these are harbingers of the terrorist world to come.

And as defeat approaches, the losers are bound to raise the ante — especially the Israelis and Ukrainians. As in World War Two, the years of war have corroded their last vestige of ethics, and they know that the Washington elite will ultimately excuse their tactics. The western media would give nothing but dashing accounts of how Zelensky and Netanyahu — harried, exhausted, yet persevering — listened to their advisers, rubbed their necks, and gave the green lights to “limited” chemical or nuclear attacks against advancing enemies. For an excellent example of how flexible, how downright protean, mainstream journalists can be, read New York Times columnist Amanda Taub’s article on the legality of Israel bombing of the Iranian consulate in Damascus: “Israel Bombed an Iranian Embassy Complex. Is That Allowed?” She concludes that it was.

In short, if Hezbollah’s next leader, not so restrained as Nesrallah, unleashes missile hell down the whole length of Israel, Netanyahu and his hard-eyed friends may come to regret finishing him off. Doesn’t history tell the best jokes?

September 29, 2024 Posted by | Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Militarism, War Crimes | , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Israel’s new quagmire: a ground invasion of Lebanon

By Mohamad Hasan Sweidan | The Cradle | September 28, 2024

On 26 September, the Israeli army announced the conclusion of a brigade exercise simulating a ground operation in Lebanon, several kilometers from the shared border. In the past two days, several Israeli military officials, including Chief of Staff Herzi Halevy and Northern Commander Uri Gordin, have spoken about the occupation army’s readiness to execute ground operations in Lebanon. 

But how can Tel Aviv realistically conceive of launching ground troops into a country that has not once, but twice, managed to expel occupation forces, to engage in combat against an adversary – Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah – that is far better armed and organized than in years past? 

Features of the Israeli strategy so far

Since the start of its recent escalation with Lebanon, Israel appears to be executing its war on five simultaneous tracks. First, it seeks to strike Hezbollah’s command and control system, mainly through targeted assassinations against key resistance military leaders, the most recent target being drone unit commander Abu Saleh Sorour. 

Second is to directly strike Hezbollah’s military capabilities based on an existing bank of targets established by Tel Aviv: Last Monday, the Israelis announced that they had successfully struck 1,600 resistance military targets, including weapons depots, missile stores, and launching pads. Notably, they claimed the same kinds of successful strikes in the July 2006 war, which turned out to be grossly inaccurate. 

Third, Israel aims to apply internal Lebanese pressure on Hezbollah by harming its constituents, supporters, and even detractors. Tel Aviv has intensified its bloody targeting of civilian populations and areas in the past two weeks, killing over 728 civilians, injuring thousands, and displacing nearly 390,000 people, according to official Lebanese government data.

Fourth, is an attempt to influence the broad, general Lebanese environment to turn against the resistance through systematic media campaigns – in cooperation with Lebanese media outlets and personalities who parrot Israel’s intimidation narratives in order to tame and curb Hezbollah’s actions. The fifth and final track, so far, is the growing threat and preparation for an Israeli ground invasion of Lebanon – albeit a limited one – with a goal to confirm Israeli field superiority by controlling Lebanese areas, even for short periods.

Hezbollah’s reactions?

Naturally, the resistance intends to thwart Israel’s strategies through a set of interconnected steps. After each assassination, Hezbollah confirms that its command and control system remains unaffected, then launches a controlled escalation to confirm its readiness in the face of enemy shocks. This was evident on 24 September, when Hezbollah launched a 300+ missile strike the day after Israel’s air campaign, essentially to confirm that its missile capabilities were locked and loaded, ready to go.

As in past Israeli confrontations with Hezbollah, the latter’s support base remains largely consistent and supportive of the resistance’s escalatory plans. Separating Hezbollah from its incubating environment is an Israeli strategy that has repeatedly failed, mainly because the resistance’s rank and file originate from this very society. 

Finally, Israel’s goal of turning Lebanese public opinion against the resistance has not advanced, to date. Rather, Israeli aggressions have increased national cohesion, particularly after the occupation state’s pager terror attack, except in some limited cases.

The fifth track: ground invasion of Lebanon

In recent days, discussions about the possibility of an Israeli ground incursion into Lebanon have increased markedly. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has boasted that military operations against Lebanon will continue “at full strength to ensure Hezbollah is “significantly weakened,” and has rejected international calls for an immediate ceasefire. 

The army’s chief of staff also instructed Israeli forces to prepare for a possible ground attack for the purpose of establishing an Israeli buffer zone in southern Lebanon. Operationally, the occupation army is preparing for this possibility by running training drills and summoning two reserve brigades to the northern front.

According to Western and Israeli sources, there are several scenarios for a possible Israeli ground invasion of Lebanon, with each scenario offering different strategic objectives and risks:

First, is a limited ground action inside Lebanese territory with the aim of striking specific Hezbollah targets near the border, such as missile launch sites, or clearing an area to prevent the resistance from carrying out attacks on Israel. This would be a short-term action used to pressure the party in ceasefire negotiations. At this point, if Tel Aviv chooses the option of ground action, this will be the most likely scenario.

Second, is a limited ground incursion to push resistance forces to retreat from the border, specifically to reduce the range of anti-tank guided missiles that Hezbollah possesses. Israeli military commanders have indicated this option would serve to create a “security zone” extending 8 to 10 kilometers inside Lebanese territory. Notably, this scenario increases the likelihood of prolonged fighting and higher Israeli human and military losses.

Third, is a complete ground invasion of Lebanon – the most extreme scenario – with the goal of destroying Hezbollah’s capabilities. Currently, this scenario remains highly unlikely due to its extremely high-risk profile – and given that Tel Aviv’s near-term goal is not to destroy Hezbollah but rather to alter the security challenges on its border with Lebanon.

Attack where?

An Israeli ground attack – limited or expansive – is expected to focus on specific geographic areas in Lebanon, mainly the south, where Tel Aviv wants its Hezbollah-free buffer zone, or the Bekaa region that flanks the Syrian border. Israel envisages a scenario similar to the status quo in southern Lebanon in the 1990s, in which it maintained a security zone to limit Hezbollah’s access to the border – before being purged by resistance commandos in 2000.

Conversely, a limited Israeli ground action in the Bekaa would be to impact and tighten Hezbollah’s logistical and weapons supply routes from Syria, either by cutting off land routes between Lebanon and Syria or by cutting supply lines between the Bekaa and the south. The groundwork there will be a continuation of Israeli air strikes in the Bekaa, which targeted four main border crossings with Syria – Al-Arrayedh, Mutariba, Saleh, and Qabsh.

Most western analysts are not optimistic about the Israeli army succeeding in executing ground operations in Lebanon, given Hezbollah’s enhanced and sophisticated capabilities to confront such an action. In a Washington Post article, writer Max Boot says this wild option “would be another quagmire for Israel.” From Tel Aviv’s perspective, the best-case scenario would be that its air campaign succeeds in halting the Lebanese support front for Gaza and allows displaced Israeli settlers to return to their homes in northern Israel. 

But with no imminent resolution of its conflict with Lebanon likely – given Netanyahu’s refusal to entertain a northern ceasefire, let alone a Gaza one –  the possibility of an Israeli ground action in Lebanon increases, despite the extraordinary risks for the occupation army. From its recent battle history with Lebanon’s resistance, in which Israel has lost face, Tel Aviv knows well that its air superiority is matched only by Hezbollah’s ground advantage.

September 28, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Militarism | , , , | Leave a comment

Collective West supporting Israel ‘to wipe out the Palestinian population’: Prof. Marandi

Press TV – September 28, 2024

Professor Mohammad Marandi says all the Western countries are supporting the Israeli regime “to wipe out the Palestinian population.”

Marandi, a professor at the University of Tehran and a political analyst, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Friday from Beirut, Lebanon, where he is based these days.

“All the Western countries are supporting the regime in every way possible, through aid, through political cover, through weapons, through ammunition, and… through intelligence gatherings,” Marandi said.

“So this is a collaboration of tens of Western regimes to wipe out the Palestinian population,” he stated.

The Iranian academic added that “when it comes to seeking a ceasefire they are doing everything possible to help the regime carrying out both a holocaust in the south of Palestine and ongoing genocidal attacks in the north of Palestine.”

Commenting on Israel’s recent aggressions against Lebanon, Marandi said, “Hezbollah and the people of Lebanon are paying the price for defending the people of Gaza, against the genocide.”

“For over 11 months now, the resistance in Lebanon with the support of the overwhelming majority of the Lebanese population, have been engaging in battles or in strikes across the border in the north of Palestine in order to draw troops away from Gaza, and to support the people of Gaza to lessen the intensity of the ongoing holocaust in Gaza,” he stated.

The Islamic resistance movement Hezbollah has been conducting numerous operations against Israeli targets since October last year when the Israeli regime waged a genocidal war in the Gaza Strip.

At least 41,534 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed in the brutal Israeli military onslaught so far.

On Friday, Israeli warplanes launched massive airstrikes on the southern suburb of Dahiyeh in Beirut, killing at least eight people and wounding around 80 others.

Hours after a new wave of Israeli airstrikes hit the Dahiyeh area.

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas called on “Arab and Islamic nations” to act and “reject this brutal aggression” by Israel against the brotherly people of Lebanon.

Hamas condemned the “Zionist escalation and aggression” against the people of Lebanon.

Speaking about the hypocrisy of the Western media, Marandi said, “Whenever they bomb towns and villages across the country, the Western media calls it Hezbollah strongholds.”

He added that many ordinary people get killed in Israeli attacks the Western media call targeted strikes against Hezbollah leaders.

“In general it is fair to say that Hezbollah and the people of Lebanon have played the most courageous role in this almost one-year-long genocide in Gaza because they voluntarily chose to draw Israeli forces away from the battlefield in the south of Palestine,” he noted.

Full video interview

September 28, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Video | , , , , | Leave a comment

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