by Jonathan Spyer | The Australian | July 8, 2024
The Lebanese Hezbollah organisation has in recent days carried out the largest drone and missile attacks on northern Israel since the latest round of hostilities commenced on October 8.
Two hundred missiles and 20 drones were launched at Israel’s north, according to a statement issued by the Iranian proxy Shia Islamist group. The barrage came hours earlier in response to Israel’s killing of a senior Hezbollah commander, Mohammed Nasser.
Nasser – who commanded the organisation’s forces in the western sector of the Israel-Lebanon border areas – is the latest in a string of senior Hezbollah operational commanders to have been targeted and eliminated by Israel in recent weeks.
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Hi all! We seem to have lost track of the article.
Iran and its proxies have reached a situation where they can do what they please with no repercussions. While we have no beef with the Iranian public (we hope) we do have a number of serious issues with the Iranian leadership and their nuclear program. I sometimes wonder what the Palis will say when Iran turns Israel into a nuclear testing ground. Do they think that is OK or simply a faster way to martyrdom?
If Israel wants to survive she has to act now rather than attempt to react later.
All the other issues in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and yes, Egypt will also have to be dealt with sooner rather than later. The current situation cannot be allowed to fester any longer. It sounds like Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon up to the Litani River and occupation of the Philadelphi corridor for ever. If Israel needs to reoccuppy Kalkilia and Tulkarem to get peace, so be it.
As a British acquaintance once said, tongue in cheek, isn’t it time you taught them all a lesson?
@Laura
Vance’s record, though incredibly brief, took him on a whirlwind venture from being totally anti Trump to know being the possible successor of carrying on Trump’s policies – too long of an ideological journey over too short of a period of time for it to be in earnest, or at least this is my concern. Also, his background ties hem to the tycoons of silicon valley, which brings with it assets and deficits. The deficits are that this would suggest ties to the same globalist policy whores who have been selling out the US for far too long.
I do believe that he was the best pick of the three under consideration, with Rubio being easily the worst. Notably Bergum alone had experience as a successful executive which I would argue is quite important for a presidential candidate. So JD will learn how to run the country on the job, so to speak. In time, sooner or later, he will either come to disappoint me or to disappoint you – time will tell which, but I suspect you might be more pleased with him than others such as myself. A bit of irony in this, to be honest. In any event, in the immediate future, he provides the party with someone which has public appeal and states all the right things, and supports Trump almost as fervently as his own family. The most important goal is to have Trump reelected so that the Republic might be restored. Every possible good for the future stems from that eventuality, and nothing good will come if this is not achieved. So at a minimum, I expect JD will succeed in helping achieve this, and that at least will hopefully become an important consequence of him being picked.
How so?
@Laura
Most people I know are quite giddy about this pick. I however have my own concerns, though they remain distinct from your own. Actually they are the polar opposite of your concerns.
I am concerned about this.
@Laura
You may not be wrong about Vance, but I would argue that you are wrong about Trump. And of course, you would be honest enough to acknowledge it. I never meant to imply anything else.
@Laura
You can stand by what you like of course, but your claim is not honest, accurate, nor consistent. In fact, Trump surrounded himself with politicos of every stripe and flavor, and these policy wonks executed Trump’s policies or were dismissed, and quite a few of them were dismissed. Yet, you conclude that of all the fellows surrounding Trump, Trump was led to pursue the input of Pompeo, Haley and Pence, and now Kushner too. Yet Kushner was a Liberal, and agreed with these others on quite little, yet it is now your statement that Kushner not returning to the White House, which I would argue is not entirely a bad thing for Israel, means that Trump will now be taking his policy decisions from Don Jr. With all due respect, these are quite large and significant leaps of logic.
One thing more to note on the topic of Trump and Israel, Trump’s most ardent and consistent support has always been from the American Evangelicals whose support of Israel defies your less than convincing conclusion that Trump will be led by any isolationist wannabees in abandoning Israel.
Also, Trump was always going to choose a MAGA candidate, and hopefully Vance will prove more accurately described as this than I suspect, but your disappointment of Trump supporting the wishes of his base is due to the fact that you do not count yourself as part of that base. No doubt you and others conclude that Vance will be the face of the party going forward, and perhaps this will actually come to be. Yet, the MAGA base has its own perspective, so we will see what comes after Trump, be it Vance or someone else.
As I have always stated, the one policy goal which dwarfs all others is to return the will of the people to the people, and if Trump succeeds in this, it will be a sizeable victory for both America and Israel alike, because the true ally of Israel has never been in the White House but among the common American voters who have been denied the privilege of their objections having any political bite of late. So Vance or his replacement will be faced with answering to the American people who have always been astute and consistent in their support for Israel.
Time will tell, Peloni. If my hunch turns out to be wrong, I’ll gladly acknowledge it.
Because that was about himself. I stand by my comment that he has no ironclad principles when it comes to issues.
@Laura
You are completely wrong. It was not Pompeo nor Haley nor Pence who moved the embassy, nor did they provide the landmark speech at Riyadh, nor did they do any of the things which you seem to be implying Trump did only to suit these political flunkies with which Trump surrounded himself. He was so cowed by these underlings that he ignored each of them in turn in challenging the election which was stolen from the American people, which, let’s face it, was the greatest struggle of Trump’s entire presidency.
You claim that Trump has no policies, and use that assumption to support the notion that he can not be trusted. By doing so, not only do you provide a perfect example of confirmation bias, something which I would like you to demonstrate is not a fair criticism, but you also you ignore the long history of Trump’s pre-political life in which he has acted to openly support Israel with no political quid pro quo in mind.
Meanwhile, the very people whom you seem to find support for to this day, such as Pence, Haley and Rubio, specifically and directly had a hand in preventing the most pro-Israel administration from returning to office, and allowing it to be replaced with the greatest challenge of Israel’s existence. As I noted below, what kind of support for Israel is that?
In fact, Trump’s close association and support for Israel goes back to his father, and has been demonstrated throughout his entire life, all the while as a private citizen with no interest in becoming involved in politics.
What utter nonsense. Upon what do you base such a wild eyed claim as this. MAGA is not isolationist, nor is Trump, and I have made this case repeatedly in the past, to which I do not recall you having provided any response.
I can appreciate that your political ideology is not represented by Trump and I understand that you dislike him personally, but your perspective does not provide you with any clarity on this topic as you are making rather baseless arguments which are founded upon your own confirmation bias which is secured only by your great dislike of Trump.
Also recall that Ivanka’s husband had a very influential role in the previous term and won’t have any role this time around. In fact, I just heard it was Don Jr. who pushed for Vance. So, it’s clear this time around Don Jr will be his primary advisor and will have a significant role in the coming term, with Jared totally out of the picture. Jr sounds more of an isolationist and we really have no idea of his views on Israel.
It’s been confirmed that Vance is the guy. I’m not happy. I would have been ok with any of the others named, yet the only one I wouldn’t be happy with is the one chosen. I knew Trump was going to pick a MAGA loyalist and someone who the MAGA base favors. The others he and his base considers to be “establishment” and Trump was never going to go against his base.
I’m very concerned about who his foreign policy team will be. I know his previous term was pro-Israel however how much of that had to do with the people he surrounded himself with like Pence, Pompeo and Niki Haley. This time is going to be a foreign policy team composed of isolationists and not who the MAGA base considers to be “establishment” types. What was is no indication of what necessarily will be. So those of you who cite Trump’s Middle East policy in his previous term as reassurance, Trump tends to be all over the map on most issues. He doesn’t really have ironclad principles, let’s be honest. I’d love to be proven wrong, but I’m concerned for the time being.
It’s Vance
@Laura
I was pretty certain that these two were no go’s for Trump. I hope it won’t be Vance, but all things have pointed to it being him for quite a while now, IMO. Vance has been very supportive of Israel, but in the end what does that phrase really mean? As I recall, every candidate running for office has claimed to be supportive of Israel and none of them bar Trump actually acted to support Israel, made Israel stronger, and targeted Israel’s enemies. Hopefully Vance won’t turn out to be more of the same as I am expecting him to be, but to be honest, I would be surprised if this turns out to be the case.
Personally, I would be greatly relieved to hear that someone off the short list was being considered instead.
Bergum and Rubio have been eliminated as VP choices. I’m quite certain that JD Vance is going to be running mate. I’m not sure if that’s good for Israel.
Brilliant report by Jonathan Spyer . Everything he writes here is true. Also conggratulains to the Australian for publishing this article, despite the strength of the anti-Israel, antsemitic mainly Islamist mobs in that country.
@EvRe1
Thank you for this important report. I am presuming the Spaces was in Hebrew, but if in English, do you have the URL for it?
If it is the same Rami Ben-Yahuda, he is a political activist who was drawn into Bibi’s trials last year and openly attacked the hostage families who were supporting the Brothers in Arms earlier this year.
I am not aware of him being connected to intelligence reporting such as this. From everything that I have heard of him, he is a political activist, but perhaps I am incorrect in this assumption. In any event, the real basis of my knowledge about him came from the lawfare effort to tie his social media accounts to Bibi’s trials last year.
I think there is a very real risk that Netanyahu’s plane may be shot down or forced to land somewhere where he can be arrested and turned over to the International Court of Justice, where he could be tried by this kangaroo cout in the Hague or wherever they hang out, I believe that would-be assassins sometimes do announce their plans in advance when they don’t think this will prevent them from carrying out their plans. Both IS and al-Quaeda, for example, announced their plans to assassinate many people in advance.
Rami ben Yehuda on X:“The Deep State is planning to shoot down the plane of Benjamin Netanyahu during his flight to Washington next week. “ – claimed Rami Ben Yehuda, one of the leaders of the anti Netanyahu protests in a Space on X.
Israel is being attacked from multiple directions from the outside of Israel but also from the inside of Israel.
Is this an empty threat to get Netanyahu to back down from going to Washington D.C.? Or is it a threat based upon a real, planned assassination?
Why publicize it on X if it is a real, planned assassination? Usually assassins don’t announce their plans for the entire world to see in advance, if so they wouldn’t be effective assassins. Or is there a plan for the assassination of Netanyahu, with this threat being a ruse to cover up what is actually being planned?
Who is Rami ben Yehuda, and what are his credentials to be taken seriously?
It is true that the oligarchs and their deep state representatives are aware they are losing the battle, which makes them desperate. Every time they attack Trump support for him grows. Even so, that doesn’t mean they won’t eventually succeed in killing him. Because these are the kind of people who do not care about human life, they care only about their power.
We have seen in the US that now the Secret Service cannot be trusted to keep Presidential candidate Trump safe. Who is responsible for Bibi’s safety and can they be trusted?