What are the chances that the Beirut explosion was not intended for Israel? - by Alex Traiman

While Israel and the rest of the international community have been offering humanitarian aid to Lebanon in the wake of one of the largest explosions since the Chernobyl nuclear reactor blew in 1986, the greatest aid to the people of Lebanon would be the complete disarmament and expulsion of Hezbollah.

Alex Traiman..
JNS.org..
09 August '20..

Many of Israel’s modern military accomplishments have defied all odds and logic. Surprise victories in Israel’s War of Independence in 1948, Six-Day War in 1967 and Yom Kippur War in 1973 will forever stand among Israel’s most miraculous and unlikely historical achievements.

This past week, while smoke and debris covers Beirut, Israel may have averted a disaster.

When a massive stockpile of weapons-grade ammonium nitrate exploded in the Beirut port on Aug. 4, it was without a doubt a tragedy of horrific proportions. At least 150 innocent civilians were killed and thousands more wounded. The damage to the city of Beirut, and to Lebanon’s main seaport, will take years to repair.

Yet for Israel, there is one major consolation: The stockpile of ammonium nitrate and the collateral damage it caused may well have been earmarked for Israel.

(Continue to Full Column)

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Hamas, Hezbollah and the terror group double standard - by Sean Durns

Like Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups, Hezbollah calls for the destruction of the Jewish state. And like them, Hezbollah is often described as merely a “militant group” as opposed to the more accurate “terrorist organization.”

Sean Durns..
JNS.org..
01 May '19..

Many members of the Western press seem to have two standards for covering terrorist groups: one for those whose primary target is Israel, and another for everyone else. An examination of recent news coverage proves it.

Few examples better highlight the media’s double standard on terrorist groups than reporting on the so-called “March of Return,” which began in the spring of 2018, and has waxed and waned in intensity ever since. Although many commentators incorrectly characterized the “march” as a grassroots “protest” by Palestinians at the Israel-Gaza border, in reality, Hamas—the U.S.-designated terror group that rules the Gaza Strip—orchestrated it for propaganda purposes.

Armed Hamas operatives, as well as those from other Palestinian terrorist organizations, including the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) and others were interspersed among unarmed Palestinian civilians attempting to break into Israel.

Israeli authorities responded with a mixture of live fire and non-lethal munitions; the former targeting terror leaders and those perpetrating violent acts, and the latter, including tear gas and rubber rounds, aimed at dispersing the thousands who had gathered at the border under the auspices of Hamas and other terror organizations.

Hamas and the other Palestinian terror groups involved hoped to put international pressure on Israel to end or reduce a blockade that Jerusalem had initiated to curtail the flow of arms to the terror group. Hamas also wanted increased international aid to fill its coffers. To achieve these objectives—and to elicit widespread condemnation of the Jewish state—Hamas sacrificed its own people. Terrorists used mirrors and burned tires to obscure the vision of IDF snipers who were specifically targeting the terror leaders hiding among civilians. And children and the disabled were bused in with the hope that they’d catch an errant bullet and perhaps make for a good headline.

IDF targeting proved superior, however, and detailed analyses by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Information Center soon showed that a majority of the Palestinians killed during the “Great Return March” were affiliated with terrorist groups. Hamas itself acknowledged as much.

(Continue to Full Column)

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The digging of a tunnel under Israel's border is a terrorist activity by any definition - Maj. Gen. (ret.) Uzi Dayan

Our enemies must know that while the U.S. may pull out of Syria and reduce its presence in the region, we are here to stay.

Maj. Gen. (ret.) Uzi Dayan..
Israel Hayom..
21 December '18..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/terrorism-by-any-other-name

The fourth tunnel exposed on Israel's border with Lebanon will not be the last. The digging of these tunnels has been going on for years. The timing of the operation has nothing to do with when the tunnels were discovered and everything to do with when the officials wanted to reveal their existence to the public.

We can only hope the exposure will silence the curious criticism coming from, among some in the media, among others, over the Israel Defense Forces' use of the term "operation" to describe these efforts, whose importance was apparent with the exposure of the first terror tunnel. This is an operation that has been going on in the area for some time and involves quite a few forces, not including those on alert, including explosions and engineering work covers a wide area.

The digging of a tunnel under the border is a terrorist activity by any definition; it is tantamount to the firing of rockets over the border fence or an attempt to infiltrate the border. Terrorism must be fought on a number of fronts; diplomatic, military, economic, legal and the public conscience.

From a diplomatic perspective, Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was right to hold not only Hezbollah but also the Lebanese government responsible. Lebanon has been playing the part of the helpless country unable to influence Hezbollah for far too long. The time has come for Beirut to understand it could pay a heavy price for this hypocrisy. Netanyahu discussed the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin and others and dispatched intelligence officials to the U.S. for a briefing ahead of a meeting of the Security Council. Tours of the area, press conferences, ambassador briefings and the like are part of the diplomatic efforts as well as efforts to influence public conscience. This does not ensure a just decision will be reached by the U.N. Security Council, it is nevertheless important to arrive at these meetings armed and ready.

As far as Israel's military efforts on the issue are concerned, exposing the threat of an attack on Israeli communities, border infiltration, the kidnapping of citizens and soldiers and thwarting that threat is important, but it is not enough. We must not deal solely with the barrel of the gun protruding into our territory, but also with the gun itself, the ammunition and the person planning to pull the trigger. The IDF has begun to seal off the entrances to the tunnels on our side of the border and detonate them along the way, a move one IDF spokesperson said would ensure they have been taken out of

Who Said UNIFIL is Totally Useless? It Does Deter the EU from Banning Hezbollah - by Evelyn Gordon

...So the international community is spending $500 million a year on a “peacekeeping” force that hasn’t stopped Hezbollah’s military buildup, hasn’t even reported it in an effort to mobilize international action and serves as a deterrent to a measure that really would hurt Hezbollah: being blacklisted by the EU. Its only useful function is serving as a communications channel between the Israeli and Lebanese governments, and one man with a cellphone could accomplish that. To call this a waste of money is a colossal understatement. And it’s not likely to change, given that efforts to reform UNIFIL have repeatedly failed.

Evelyn Gordon..
Analysis from Israel..
16 December '18..
Link: http://evelyncgordon.com/unifil-deters-eu-from-banning-hezbollah/

It’s no secret that UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, has never done the job it’s supposedly there to do. But this week, we learned that UNIFIL isn’t merely useless; it’s counterproductive. By the very fact of its existence, the organization deters the European Union from listing Hezbollah as a terrorist organization—something which, unlike UNIFIL, would genuinely impede Hezbollah’s operations.

This dirty little secret came out after Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini called Hezbollah “Islamic terrorists” during a visit to Israel on Tuesday. The Italian Defense Ministry promptly issued a press statement blasting Salvini for “embarrassing” Rome by calling a spade a spade. “These statements obviously put in a very difficult position our men who are deployed on that southern border,” the statement warned, referring to the Italian contingent of UNIFIL deployed along Lebanon’s border with Israel.

It doesn’t take an Einstein to realize that if Italy’s Defense Ministry fears repercussions to its troops from a single minister daring to call Hezbollah “terrorists,” it would be terrified of the consequences should the EU ever formally declare Hezbollah a terrorist organization. Thus, Italy’s significant involvement in UNIFIL—it currently contributes over 10 percent of UNIFIL’s manpower, including its commanding officer—constitutes a major deterrent to consenting to such a step.

Nor is Italy unique in this regard. Several EU countries make significant troop contributions to UNIFIL, including France, Germany, Spain, Ireland, Austria, and Greece. Europe also usually supplies the force’s commander. The previous commander was Irish, the two before him were Italian, the one before that was Spanish, etc.

It’s no coincidence that the major contributors to UNIFIL also oppose listing Hezbollah in its entirety as a terrorist organization. The only EU country that does blacklist the entire organization is Holland, which has exactly one soldier in UNIFIL.

The EU and its other member states blacklist only the military wing, not the political wing. And that’s fine by Hezbollah because, as the organization itself admits, any distinction between its political and military wings is purely fictitious. Thus as long as the political wing is legal, Hezbollah can still fundraise and recruit freely in Europe.

Can you imagine? Israel catches Hezbollah in the act, and the UN looks away - by Vivian Bercovici

...For the UN, it would appear, Hezbollah’s culpability is anything but certain. It’s an absurdist denial and, regrettably, exactly why Hezbollah has become so entrenched in south Lebanon in spite of Resolution 1701. This is no whodunnit. It will be interesting to see what alternate theory of reality UNIFIL suggests as to who, other than Hezbollah, might have the resources, motivation and tenacity to burrow through hard rock from Lebanon into Israel.

Vivian Bercovici..
National Post..
13 December '18..

Earlier this week, on Sunday, IDF Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, had a chat with Maj. Gen. Stefano Del Col, the head of the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.

Since August 2006, UNIFIL has been mandated, pursuant to UNSC Resolution 1701, to ensure that all militia forces are kept behind the Litani River in south Lebanon, which flows four kilometres north of the border with Israel at its closest point. In other words, 1701 intends for a reasonable buffer to be maintained separating Hezbollah and IDF forces.

The Lebanese villages of Kafr Kila and Ramya are a literal stone’s throw from the Israeli border. A small, ordinary structure in Kafr Kila, said to be a “cement block factory” turned out to be anything but. There was significant and unusual activity for an agricultural village of 10,000.

With airborne devices, the IDF noticed an awful lot of heavy truck traffic going to and from the little factory. They all arrived empty and left loaded with dirt. Israel knew what it was looking at — the site of a major tunnelling operation.

All this busy work seems to have gone unnoticed by the approximately 10,500 UNIFIL soldiers working in the area. To suggest that this strains credulity is putting it mildly. What it also clearly does is raise the issue of the neutrality of the UN force.

(Continue to Full Article)

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Hiring Both Hamas and Hezbollah Terrorists, the UN Is An Equal Opportunity Employer (Daled Amos)

...Considering the connection between the UN and Hamas, is it any wonder the lengths the UN will go in order to protect the terrorist organization from any kind of criticism in the UN, most recently in the sudden requirement for a two-thirds instead of majority vote to condemn Hamas for terrorist attacks on civilians? And what about UNIFIL, which operates in Hezbollah's back yard?

Daled Amos/Elder of Ziyon..
14 December '18..

An employer who agrees not to discriminate against any employee or job applicant because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, physical or mental disability, or age
Definition of 'Equality Opportunity Employer', Merriam Webster

Nor on the basis of "politics."

In 2004, then-Commissioner-General of UNRWA Peter Hansen was interviewed on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and said that UNRWA hiring Hamas terrorists is not a big deal:

Hansen said he believes there are Hamas members on UNRWA's payroll, but they have to follow UN rules on remaining neutral.
"Oh I am sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll and I don't see that as a crime. Hamas as a political organization does not mean that every member is a militant and we do not do political vetting and exclude people from one persuasion as against another," Hanson told CBC TV.

"We demand of our staff, whatever their political persuasion is, that they behave in accordance with UN standards and norms for neutrality," he said.

Well, isn't that reassuring?

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A Ceasefire with Hezbollah Occupying Metula? Only the Tip of the Iceberg - by Dr. Aaron Lerner

...If these coming days Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu manages to exploit the discovery of the Hezbollah tunnels for the bloodless cessation of the missile upgrade program now underway in Lebanon that's an historic achievement. But that may not happen.

Dr. Aaron Lerner..
IMRA Weekly Commentary..
06 December '18..
Link: http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=73409

Apparently Hezbollah was preparing a reasonably workable operation which would have made it possible (under certain international conditions - most out of Israel's control) for them to block off and occupy Metula long enough for a ceasefire to be declared before Israel liberated it.

Now that's a bargaining chip.

So much for the rusting Israeli "conceptzia" that viewed a Hezbollah invasion as nothing more than a suicidal flag-planting photo op.

We are acting today against the tunnels.

And while the invasion tunnels from Lebanon into Israel are most certainly important, Hezbollah's race to upgrade its missiles with guidance kits is of magnitudes greater importance.

If these coming days Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu manages to exploit the discovery of the Hezbollah tunnels for the bloodless cessation of the missile upgrade program now underway in Lebanon that's an historic achievement.

But that may not happen.

Believe it or not, Hezbollah’s war on Israel does takes precedence over the war on Bibi. Sorry. - by Jonathan S. Tobin

Accusations that Netanyahu is “wagging the dog” by highlighting Hezbollah’s terror tunnels undermines his critics’ credibility.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
JNS.org..
06 December '18..

Maybe you thought that the discovery of tunnels built by Hezbollah under the border between Lebanon and Israel would generate a full-scale debate about the deadly nature of the threat from the terror group and its Iranian masters. But if so, you haven’t been paying much attention to the political atmosphere in Israel or the way the Jewish state and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are covered in the international press.

The first mention of the tunnels in The New York Times came in an article with the headline “Suspected of Crimes, Netanyahu Is Also Suspected of Fear-Mongering.” The upshot of the piece was to frame the issue as merely a distraction from the prime minister’s legal troubles after the Israeli police recommended that he and his wife, Sara, be indicted on corruption charges.

The charges against Netanyahu are serious. Or rather, it might be said that this latest problem is more serious than two previous cases where the police also recommended his indictment. Netanyahu is accused of aiding a wealthy crony’s acquisition of the Bezeq Company. Bezeq owned a popular website Walla News that, in return for the prime minister’s ability to use the government’s regulatory power in its favor, provided positive coverage for him and his government. It remains to be seen whether Israel’s attorney general will accept the police recommendation that an actual crime was committed and a conviction can be obtained. The same is true about two more frivolous charges in which the police also sought indictments.

The debate about these accusations has played into the discussion about whether the government will wait to hold a new election next fall, when Netanyahu’s government’s term expires, or if he will move for an early election. The presumption is that if he were to be indicted—something that is by no means certain in any of the three cases—he would wish to enter into legal combat forearmed with the endorsement of the voters. That is because, to the horror of his opponents, every poll predicts Netanyahu’s coalition will be easily re-elected.

Israeli politics is just as nasty, personal and partisan as it is in the United States. So it was hardly surprising that cynics in the Israeli opposition and media, as well as their foreign counterparts, would interpret the furor over the tunnels as an attempt to change the subject from accusations of corruption.

(Continue to Full Column)

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Must have been the mole inside the Hezbollah tunnel - by Dr. Mordechai Kedar

How did Israel gain the intelligence information it needed to discover and booby-trap Hezbollah's tunnel and what does that mean for the future?

Dr. Mordechai Kedar..
Israel National News..
05 December '18..
Link: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/23109

This week, for the first time, Israel made public its discovery of the tunnel constructed by Hezbollah and reaching into Israel's sovereign territory. This brought to an end a long period during which a large number of Israelis living in communities adjacent to the Lebanese border reported hearing sounds of digging as well as feeling tremors in the walls of their homes.

Attack tunnels are intended to allow for significant numbers of armed infantry bearing weapons, artillery and supplies, to traverse them within a minimal time span, avoiding Israeli lookouts and thereby gaining the element of surprise. An underground passage grants attackers protection from Israeli bombs, while it also means that the war begins on the Israeli side of the border, in the midst of areas populated by civilians. That fact allows for sudden forays and kidnapping.

However, the discovery and neutralization of the tunnel that Hezbollah dug into Israel's sovereign territory is a technological, operational and intelligence network accomplishment, for additional reasons:

1. Hezbollah based its plans for future wars on these tunnels. Nasrallah has not made a secret of his plans to take over the Galilee in the next war, but because Hezbollah has no means of air transport, it cannot land sufficient numbers of armed forces in Israeli territory, and the tunnels were intended as the substitute for an airlift. By discovering the first tunnel, Israel has eliminated the immediate use of this strategic method, but the IDF believes there are additional tunnels. An underground passage grants attackers protection from Israeli bombs, while it also means that the war begins on the Israeli side of the border, in the midst of areas populated by civilians.

2. The discovery of the tunnel has proven to the entire world that Hezbollah is acting in flagrant violation of the Security Council Resolution 1701 which brought the 2006 Second Lebanon War to an end. This resolution forbids Hezbollah any presence in southern Lebanon, but now it has become clear that not only is the terrorist organization in that region, it is also violating Israeli sovereignty. It is obvious once again that UNIFIL has neither the ability nor the interest to carry out the mission it was given by the Security Council and Israel has no reason to assume that the international community will act to ensure its security. This violation of a Security Council decision provides Israel with justification, vis a vis the Israeli public and the world, to attack Hezbollah.

A Yom Kippur War Repeat? The Self Serving Conceptzia - by Dr. Aaron Lerner

Suffice it to say that in the absence of the "conceptzia", the potential consequences associated with letting Hezbollah or Hamas pick the time and place of the next major round far outweigh the costs of neutralizing these threats today.

Dr. Aaron Lerner..
IMRA Weekly Commentary..
13 September '18
Link: http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=73358

Israeli policy towards Hezbollah today is driven by the "conceptzia" that their goal in the next major round is essentially a photo-op. Albeit a bloody one.

Hezbollah forces will cross into Israel and slaughter the Israelis who weren't evacuated in time, raise their flag and broadcast the event.

There's a similar "conceptzia" for Hamas. The only difference in the assessment is that Hamas is assumed to be both kidnapping and slaughtering Israelis.

Hundreds - or even thousands - of Israeli dead would be a tragedy. But it wouldn't threaten the future of the Jewish State.

After all, in both cases, whatever Hezbollah or Hamas does, it is expected that at the end of the round their losses in both forces and physical assets will be magnitudes greater than Israeli losses.

The "conceptzia" is a great source of comfort for policy makers.

It serves to justify postponing in perpetuity any substantive action against Hezbollah and Hamas.

There will always be a weapons system on order, a gizmo still under development, force reorganizations yet to be implemented and of course diplomatic considerations yet to be resolved.

But what if the "conceptzia" is wrong?

Protecting Hezbollah's Drug Trafficking: The Iran Deal's additional costs that neither the Israeli PM nor American public knew.

The secret backstory of how Obama let Hezbollah off the hook

An ambitious U.S. task force targeting Hezbollah's billion-dollar criminal enterprise ran headlong into the White House's desire for a nuclear deal with Iran.

Josh Meyer..
Politico.com..
December '17..






PART I
A GLOBAL THREAT EMERGES
How Hezbollah turned to trafficking cocaine and laundering money through used cars to finance its expansion.

In its determination to secure a nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama administration derailed an ambitious law enforcement campaign targeting drug trafficking by the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, even as it was funneling cocaine into the United States, according to a POLITICO investigation.

The campaign, dubbed Project Cassandra, was launched in 2008 after the Drug Enforcement Administration amassed evidence that Hezbollah had transformed itself from a Middle East-focused military and political organization into an international crime syndicate that some investigators believed was collecting $1 billion a year from drug and weapons trafficking, money laundering and other criminal activities.

Over the next eight years, agents working out of a top-secret DEA facility in Chantilly, Virginia, used wiretaps, undercover operations and informants to map Hezbollah’s illicit networks, with the help of 30 U.S. and foreign security agencies.

They followed cocaine shipments, some from Latin America to West Africa and on to Europe and the Middle East, and others through Venezuela and Mexico to the United States. They tracked the river of dirty cash as it was laundered by, among other tactics, buying American used cars and shipping them to Africa. And with the help of some key cooperating witnesses, the agents traced the conspiracy, they believed, to the innermost circle of Hezbollah and its state sponsors in Iran.

They followed cocaine shipments, tracked a river of dirty cash, and traced what they believed to be the innermost circle of Hezbollah and its state sponsors in Iran.

But as Project Cassandra reached higher into the hierarchy of the conspiracy, Obama administration officials threw an increasingly insurmountable series of roadblocks in its way, according to interviews with dozens of participants who in many cases spoke for the first time about events shrouded in secrecy, and a review of government documents and court records. When Project Cassandra leaders sought approval for some significant investigations, prosecutions, arrests and financial sanctions, officials at the Justice and Treasury departments delayed, hindered or rejected their requests.

(Continue to Full Story)

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A Truly Gift Laden Christmas Has Come Early for Hezbollah Chief Nasrallah - by Ron Prosor

...In charge of UNIFIL’s force in Southern Lebanon is a man that has become more of an enabler for Hezbollah and Iran than a problem solver for the UN Security Council. Maj. Gen. Michael Beary, has said he sees no evidence of weapons being illegally transferred and stockpiled in the area. “If there was a large cache of weapons,” he said last summer, “we would know about it.” Maj. Gen. Beary – you had one job! As the US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, has said, Beary “seems to be the only person in south Lebanon who is blind to what Hezbollah is doing.”

Amb. Ron Proser..
Algemeiner.com..
29 November '17..

Tis’ the season to be jolly. But for the not so jolly bearded man from the Dahia district of Beirut in Lebanon, Hezbollah’s terror chief Hassan Nasrallah, and his Iranian bosses, Christmas has come early, and their presents are gift-wrapped in UN paper.

Yesterday, the United Nations Security Council debated a report recently published by UNIFIL, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon. Anyone who reads this report would think that UNIFIL has invented a completely new fantasy version of Lebanon. Astonishingly, the report ignores the single biggest threat to its mandate – the systematic rearmament of Hezbollah in South Lebanon, along Israel’s northern border. It is common knowledge in the intelligence communities of the United States, the UK, France, Israel and most likely any country that employs intelligence officers, that Hezbollah has amassed over 150,000 short and medium range missiles directed towards Israeli cities and threatening the entire Middle East. The only ones out of the loop are the people on the ground whose responsibility is to prevent such re-armament. Instead of detailing the locations of weapon stockpiles and asking the UN Security council to strengthen its mandate so they are able to raid them, the report goes into incredible detail of the amount of Lebanese shepherds spotted near the border area. 420 if anyone is interested. UNIFIL is literally counting sheep, while Hezbollah continues to grow the heaviest non-governmental military force in modern history.

In charge of UNIFIL’s force in Southern Lebanon is a man that has become more of an enabler for Hezbollah and Iran than a problem solver for the UN Security Council. Maj. Gen. Michael Beary, has said he sees no evidence of weapons being illegally transferred and stockpiled in the area. “If there was a large cache of weapons,” he said last summer, “we would know about it.” Maj. Gen. Beary – you had one job! As the US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, has said, Beary “seems to be the only person in south Lebanon who is blind to what Hezbollah is doing.”

(Continue to Full Post)

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An unacceptable and ever-growing strategic threat to Israel - by Caroline Glick

...Perhaps in a jab at his predecessor, Moshe Ya’alon, who years ago argued notoriously that Hezbollah’s missiles would “rust” in their storage facilities, perhaps in warning to Hezbollah, Liberman added, “The factories won’t rust and the missiles won’t rust.” So if we aren’t indifferent to Hezbollah’s expansion of its capabilities, what are we planning to do about it?

Caroline Glick..
Column One/JPost..
07 July '17..
Link: http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Column-One-Hezbollahs-missiles-will-not-rust-499027

Last month IDF Military Intelligence chief Maj.-Gen. Herzl Halevi made a stunning revelation. Hezbollah and Iran are transforming the terrorist group into a military force capable of independently producing its own precision weapons.

Speaking at the Herzliya Conference, Halevi reported, “We are seeing Hezbollah building a domestic military industry on Lebanese soil based on Iranian know-how. Hezbollah is producing weapons systems and transporting them to southern Lebanon.”

Halevi added, “Over the past year, Iran is working to establish infrastructure for the independent production of precision weapons in Lebanon and Yemen. We cannot be indifferent to this development. And we aren’t.”

Not only is Hezbollah building a missile industry. It is deploying its forces directly across the border with Israel – in material breach of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 from 2006, which set the terms of the cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah at the end of the Second Lebanon War.

Under the terms of 1701, Hezbollah is prohibited from operating south of the Litani River. Only the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and UNIFIL – the UN’s peacekeeping force – are supposed to be deployed in southern Lebanon.

According to Halevi, operating under the cover of a phony environmental NGO called “Green Without Borders,” Hezbollah has set up observation posts manned with its fighters along the border with Israel.

In Halevi’s words, with these posts, “Hezbollah is now able to operate a stone’s throw from the border.”

In a media briefing on Sunday, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman discussed Halevi’s revelations. Liberman said that the security community “is absolutely aware [of the missile plants] and is taking the necessary action.”

“This is a significant phenomenon,” Liberman warned. “We must under no circumstances ignore it.”

Perhaps in a jab at his predecessor, Moshe Ya’alon, who years ago argued notoriously that Hezbollah’s missiles would “rust” in their storage facilities, perhaps in warning to Hezbollah, Liberman added, “The factories won’t rust and the missiles won’t rust.”

So if we aren’t indifferent to Hezbollah’s expansion of its capabilities, what are we planning to do about it?

Another UN SC resolution violation ignored, goes unreported by the BBC - by Hadar Sela

...Predictably – given its already poor record of informing audiences about Hizballah violations of that UN SC resolution – the BBC has to date not found this story newsworthy.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
26 June '17..

As has been noted here on numerous occasions in the past, the BBC not only routinely ignores the topic of Hizballah’s continuous violations of UN Security Council resolution 1701, but has even whitewashed them.

In April of this year BBC News chose to ignore the story of Hizballah conducting press tours in an area in which, according to that resolution, it is not supposed to operate and another story that emerged last week looks likely to get the same treatment.

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The continuing BBC failure to provide context in Hizballah weapons stories - by Hadar Sela

...As is inevitably the case in content relating to such stories, the BBC refrains from giving an accurate description of Hizballah as a terror organisation and no background information concerning the suppliers of these “weapons shipments” is provided. Also as usual...

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
20 March '17..

On March 17th an article appeared on the BBC News website’s Middle East page under the headline “Israel’s Arrow anti-missile system ‘in first hit’“. The article opens with a ‘last-first’ summary of the story:

“Israel has shot down a Syrian missile using its most advanced anti-missile system for the first time, Israeli media say.

A surface-to-air missile (SAM) was intercepted using the Arrow system, designed to stop long-range ballistic missiles, reports say.

The SAMs were fired at Israeli jets which had just raided sites in Syria.”

The article goes on:

“In a rare admission, the Israeli military said its aircraft had attacked several targets in Syria before Syria launched the missiles.”

However, only in the report’s seventh paragraph do BBC audiences find out what those “several targets” actually were.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Question. What Happens When UN Security Council Resolutions are Ignored? - by Elliott Abrams

...The point is that plenty of countries defy the UN but in very, very few cases is this even noticed, and in fewer still is anyone punished. Israel remains a special case, whose maltreatment in the UN is a disgrace—and one that, until the Obama administration decided to allow Resolution 2334 to pass, the United States fought and prevented in the Security Council.

Elliott Abrams..
Pressure Points..
05 January '17..
Link: http://blogs.cfr.org/abrams/2017/01/05/what-happens-when-un-security-council-resolutions-are-ignored/

What happens when UN Security Council resolutions are ignored? That depends, really—on whether you are any of 192 other members of the United Nations, or are Israel.

Defenders of Israel often claim that it is treated differently by the United Nations from any other nation. That claim is accurate, and a brief look at Lebanon offers some proof. It continues to violate Security Council resolutions, year after year—but no one complains, and no one ever argues that Lebanon must be punished with boycotts or prosecutions for doing so. In fact they are often congratulated for their defiance.

The United Nations Security Council has been saying for decades that the Government of Lebanon must exercise control of its territory. Resolution 1559 of 2004 “Calls for the disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias” and “Supports the extension of the control of the Government of Lebanon over all Lebanese territory.” By “Lebanese militias” the UN was referring to Hezbollah, but dared not speak its name. In any event, the Government of Lebanon did not comply.

Resolution 1583 was adopted unanimously in 2005 and in it the Security Council

Reiterates its strong support for the territorial integrity, sovereignty and political independence of Lebanon within its internationally recognized boundaries and under the sole and exclusive authority of the Government of Lebanon;

Calls upon the Government of Lebanon to fully extend and exercise its sole and effective authority throughout the south, including through the deployment of sufficient numbers of Lebanese armed and security forces, to ensure a calm environment throughout the area, including along the Blue Line, and to exert control over the use of force on its territory and from it….

As the French ambassador said about that resolution when it was adopted, “in keeping with the present demands of the United Nations, Lebanon must extend its authority throughout the south, in particular, by expanding and deploying its forces and by disarming the militias.” But the Government of Lebanon did not comply.

Resolution 1701 of 2006, adopted to end the war between Israel and Hezbollah,

Welcomes the efforts of the Lebanese Prime Minister and the commitment of the Government of Lebanon…to extend its authority over its territory, through its own legitimate armed forces, such that there will be no weapons without the consent of the Government of Lebanon and no authority other than that of the Government of Lebanon….

Emphasizes the importance of the extension of the control of the Government of Lebanon over all Lebanese territory…for it to exercise its full sovereignty, so that there will be no weapons without the consent of the Government of Lebanon and no authority other than that of the Government of Lebanon….

Calls upon the Government of Lebanon to secure its borders and other entry points to prevent the entry in Lebanon without its consent of arms or related materiel….

But the Government of Lebanon paid no attention, or more accurately was unwilling to comply because it was afraid.

A Third Lebanon War? It will be the Last Lebanon War - by Vic Rosenthal

...Evil is growing stronger and good is retreating. Deterrence may put off the reckoning for a time, but unless something completely unforeseen happens, the day will come when our PM will have to give the order to save one nation by destroying another. I’m glad I’m not the one to do it.

Vic Rosenthal..
Abu Yehuda..
09 December '16..

If I’ve learned anything in my relatively comfortable and placid life it is that despite my good luck, evil is real. Sometimes it grows and sometimes declines. Today it’s gathering strength.

Hezbollah came into being in 1985, as a response to the Lebanese Civil War, Western interventions, and the Israeli invasion and its aftermath. Its stated goals were the elimination of Western influence, the assertion of Islamic (Shiite) dominance over Lebanon, and the destruction of Israel, which its founders saw as a tool of the West and an ally of Lebanese Christians.

Its attitude toward Israel is shown by this snippet from an “open letter” published by its founders in a Lebanese newspaper:

The month-long Second Lebanon War in 2006 was fought by an IDF grown complacent from years of occupation duty and a leadership team (PM Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Chief of Staff Dan Halutz) who were only marginally competent. While Hezbollah suffered heavy losses and much Lebanese infrastructure was destroyed, Israel was unable to stop the heavy rocket fire on the northern part of the country, which continued until a UN-brokered cease-fire came into effect. 120 IDF soldiers and 43 Israeli civilians were killed, and as many as a half-million Israelis were displaced as a result of Hezbollah rocket attacks. Israel tried to destroy Hezbollah’s leadership both from the air and by commando operations, and failed to do so. UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which was negotiated by Livni to end the fighting, proved worthless in preventing Hezbollah from rearming and rebuilding military infrastructure. Wikipedia called the result a “stalemate,” and I agree.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Once again ignored by BBC News: Hizballah terror activity against Israelis - by Hadar Sela

...This is of course not the first time that Hizballah’s attempts to set up terror cells in Israel via social media have been thwarted by the Israeli security services. A similar story came to light in February of this year and – like this latest one – it too was ignored by the BBC’s numerous correspondents in Jerusalem, Ramallah and Gaza.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
21 August '16..







On August 16th the Israeli security services announced the earlier arrests of nine suspects recruited by Hizballah and the prevention of a number of terror attacks.

“Hezbollah operatives from the group’s Unit 133 — its foreign operations unit — working out of Lebanon and the Gaza Strip recruited members in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and within Israel through social media sites, notably Facebook, the Shin Bet security service said.

The terror cells had planned to carry out suicide bombings and ambush IDF patrols in the West Bank. They received funding from Hezbollah, and some members had begun preparing explosive devices for use in attacks, the Shin Bet says.”

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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The purpose of the exercise is not to sleep better tonight. It's to be ready for tomorrow.

...When Dr. Singer's disturbing article was published earlier this month I sincerely hoped that it would spur the considerable discussion it warrants. It didn't. Why the complacency?

Dr. Aaron Lerner..
IMRA Weekly Commentary..
18 August '16..
Link: http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=71258

With their capacity to destroy capital facilities like power plants, the loss of only a few of which would severely harm Israel’s economy, they [Hezbollah's and possibly Hamas' precision-guided medium-range missiles ] introduce a new way for Israel to decisively lose a war. Israel will have to get the difficult balance between offense and defense right before the next war or it may not have a second chance.

The New Threat of Very Accurate Missiles
By Dr. Max Singer, August 9, 2016
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 356, August 9, 2016
http://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/new-threat-accurate-missiles/

When Dr. Singer's disturbing article was published earlier this month I sincerely hoped that it would spur the considerable discussion it warrants.

It didn't.

Why the complacency?

There are lessons from the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah conflict - by Michael Rubin

...Are there lessons from the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah conflict? Yes. First, the United Nations does not bring peace but only delays war. Its promises are empty. UN observers and peacekeepers are often less interested in keeping peace than in feeding at the international trough and sending remittances back home. To place trust in the United Nations or the attention span of European diplomats and even the State Department is foolish. Diplomacy empowers terrorists, it does not defeat them. Nor does it do any favors for peace.

Michael Rubin..
Commentary Magazine..
12 August '16..
Link: https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/middle-east/lessons-of-lebanon-hezbollah-10-years-on/

This Sunday marks the ten-year anniversary of the end of the 34-day Israel-Hezbollah War in Lebanon. The war began when Hezbollah crossed into Israeli territory from southern Lebanon, killed three soldiers, injured two others, and kidnapped two more. While Lebanon professed its innocence, it had made a conscience choice to allow Hezbollah to assert its primacy along its southern border following Israeli’s UN-certified withdrawal in May 2000. Israel’s war aims were to eradicate Hezbollah missile stockpiles and Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon. While the Israeli military succeeded in knocking out many Hezbollah stockpiles, the Iranian-backed Shi’ite militia managed to launch hundreds of missiles and rockets, striking as far south as Haifa and killing several dozen Israelis.

A chorus of international officials called for Israel to cease its attacks at once. French President Jacques Chirac condemned Israel’s actions as “completely disproportionate,” and Russian President Vladimir Putin called Israel’s “use of full-scale force” unacceptable. Even U.S. officials chimed in. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned, “It is extremely important that Israel exercse restraint in its acts of self-defense.” Hillary Clinton, then a New York senator, doubled down on the call for an immediate ceasefire and demanded the United States and Israel resolve the situation diplomatically. “We’ve had five and a half years of a failed experiment in tough talk absent diplomacy and engagement,” she said. “I think it’s time to go back to what works, and what has historically worked and what can work again.”

By diplomacy, European officials, Clinton, and eventually the Bush administration meant the problem should be punted back to the United Nations. There was some irony in this, especially since Hezbollah had armed and launched its attack under the watch of UNIFIL, the UN monitoring agency in southern Lebanon. Still, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan promised a bigger, better (and more expensive) UN monitoring force to keep the peace if only hostilities would stop. “It is urgent that the international community acts to make a difference on the ground,” he said, “The force will be larger, the way I see it, much larger than the 2000-man force we have there.” British Prime Minister also endorsed an international force. “The only way we are going to have a cessation of violence is if we have an international force deployed into that area,” he explained.