Causes.com
| 11.3.23
Hezbollah Leader Threatens To Escalate Battle
Is the U.S. doing enough to protect civilians?
Updated November 3, 2023, 1:30 p.m. EST
- Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, made a widely anticipated televised statement on Friday that his militia is already engaged in battle along the Lebanon-Israel border and threatened to escalate the fight further. He did not, however, announce that Hezbollah would fully enter the war, which many debated if he would.
- The U.S. issued warnings to Hezbollah against involvement. Nasrallah said the warnings "will not scare us." In the statement, he declared that he was prepared for all options and said the fighting would not be limited to the scale seen thus far.
Updated October 25, 2023, 3:00 p.m. EST
- Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, met top officials from Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad today. A Hezbollah statement said:
“An assessment was made of…what the parties of the resistance axis must do at this sensitive stage to achieve a real victory for the resistance in Gaza and Palestine and to stop the treacherous and brutal aggression against our people.”
- Netanyahu warned that if Hezbollah tried to enter the war, it would be crippled with a force it “cannot even imagine.”
- On Friday, Israel ordered the evacuation of Kiryat Shmona, a city of 20,000 people one mile from Lebanon's border.
- Several countries, including Germany, Norway, and the U.K. are urging their citizens in Lebanon to leave immediately, given the uncertain security situation.
What's the story?
- U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies are trying to determine whether the planned ground offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip could incite Hezbollah to launch a military campaign against Israel from Lebanon in light of a series of clashes along the border.
- Hezbollah has called for a "day of rage" over the airstrike that hit a hospital in Gaza and killed around 500 people. They blamed Israel for the strike, calling it a brutal crime and a massacre.
- On Monday, Israel evacuated the residents of 28 villages and kibbutzim in the region and reinforced its northern border with Lebanon. Lebanese civilians in border towns have also evacuated.
- The U.S. sent a second aircraft carrier group to the region to bolster Israeli defenses and deter any other state or non-state actors from entering the conflict.
- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vetoed proposals for a pre-emptive strike against Hezbollah. However, he warned Hezbollah:
"I have a message for Iran and Hezbollah: Don't test us in the north. Don't repeat the same mistake, because today, the price you'll pay will be much heavier."
What is Hezbollah?
- Hezbollah is an Iranian-backed Lebanese Shiite political party and militant group founded during the 15-year Lebanese Civil War, which broke out in 1975. It has since been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S.
- The group opposes Israeli and Western influence in the Middle East and often functions as a proxy for its benefactor, Iran. Its extensive security apparatus and influence have led to it being deemed a "state within a state."
- Hezbollah fought a 33-day war with Israel in 2006. Analysts believe Hezbollah poses a graver threat to Israel due to its vast arsenal of precision-guided missiles and large reserve of experienced fighters.
- For the past eight years, the Israeli military has tried to avoid direct confrontation with the group, which has been successful in managing the simmering tensions. Israel has not fought a two-front war since Syria and Egypt both attacked on Yom Kippur 50 years ago.
What is happening now?
- Israeli shelling left three Hezbollah fighters dead last week. In retaliation, Hezbollah fired at an Israeli tank and other military positions, killing one soldier. On Sunday, an Israeli civilian and a soldier were killed by anti-tank missiles fired from Lebanon.
- Two Lebanese army officials claimed that Israel had used munitions loaded with white phosphorus, violating international law when used to target civilian areas.
- Shelling on the border with Lebanon killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah and injured six other journalists. Al Jazeera said an Israeli shell was responsible.
Concerns of a second front
"There is a risk of an escalation of this conflict, the opening of a second front in the north and, of course, of Iran's involvement."
- Mick Mulroy, a former senior Pentagon official and C.I.A. officer, said:
"If Hamas looks like it will be destroyed, Hezbollah will have incredible pressure to get directly involved and open a northern front. The more civilians killed, the more outrage will come from people in the region. This will put more pressure on Hezbollah to join the fight or lose credibility."
- Iran's foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said:
"Time is running out very fast. If the war crimes against the Palestinians are not immediately stopped, other multiple fronts will open and this is inevitable."
- Despite the tension, many analysts believe that Israel and Hezbollah will try to avoid a full escalation because each side has a lot to lose economically and politically in the event of an all-out war. Analysts worry, however, that increased assault on Gaza will compel Hezbollah to act.
Is the U.S. doing enough to protect civilians?
-Emma Kansiz
(Photo credit: AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
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With 4,200 Palestinians dead in Gaza, and 1,000 Israeli civilians dead the answer is no one is doing enough to protect civilians.
Time to resolve the disputed territories that keeps triggering these violent events.
Hint: Bombing civilian populations is not a solution instead creating an environment where both sides make mistakes. Nor is evacuating 1M civilians in 24 hr realistic especially from hospitals with nowhere to go, no way to get there, no way to live once there, and no end game about who governs the area the day after.
https://www.causes.com/comments/109836
https://www.economist.com/international/2023/10/16/israel-needs-to-resist-irrational-retaliation
https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories-17-october-2023-enar
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2023/10/17/israel-hamas-war-gaza-live-updates-latest-news.html
We're in a game of Whac-a-mole in the Middle East. Hit ISIS, and the Taliban pops up. Hit Taliban, oooh there's Hamas. Hit Hamas, there's Hezbolah. It's never ending. And, even those we consider allies, are often iffy, at best.
Best long-term strategy, for the USA (and the planet), is to stop the reliance on oil!!! That black gold funds terrorism! Personally, I am tired of watching my loved ones be deployed to fight the never ending wars in the Middle East.
NO! President Biden needs to call for an immediate cease fire and call upon Israel and Egypt to open the border to all cilivans to escape Gaza. The actions that Israel has taken are excessive and killing cilivans. This slauder must stop on both sides.
Glad to hear that the US is at least discussing steps to protect Palestian civilians.
Not certain what the steps are nor consequences for not taking these steps but at least it's moving in the right direction,
Also a good sign that Blinken's visit includes a stop in Jordan initiating a dialogue with both sides since this was not possible on the last trip but is much needed to move forward.
"U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday said he would discuss during a trip to Israel "concrete steps" that should be taken to minimize harm to Gaza civilians amid mounting alarm over soaring casualties in Israel's bombardment of the enclave."
https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2023/11/3/blinken-discusses-humanitarian-pauses-as-israel-encircles-gaza-city
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/blinken-will-discuss-israel-steps-minimize-harm-civilians-gaza-2023-11-02/
The bigger picture might ask, why did Hamas attack by committing atrocities and purposely on camera? What was the goal, not by just attacking, but by purposely committing atrocities? Clearly they had a goal in mind in baiting both Israel and the world for a reaction. For what purpose? What is their higher goal beyond the stated goal of eliminating Israel, because the atrocities were done to create a reaction on the world stage, but to what end?
We are furnishing the necessary supplies needed for the Israeli military besides aid for those in Gaza and refugees in Egypt. We have naval vessels patrolling the Mediterranean waters. What more can we do? This is a War of nations. We supply supplies and money to smaller terrorized countries. Other countries such as Iran and Russia and who knows who else supply war supplies and funds to the enemies. We don't want or need to send in our troops, if at all possible. That would just asking for WWIII. And it could be nuclear.
Does not look like it! Gaza needs humanitarian relief.
Protect Palestinian civilians first and foremost! The rest can be debated, but there is no excuse for genocide, something the rest of the world knows we are paying for. No more money to Israel while they continue their apartheid, racist and murderous behavior.
The question is not if America is doing enough but what is being done against terrorism, both domestic and foreign. As a surrogate Iranian force, Hezbollah is not a new threat but a continuation of foreign aggression against American Democracy. Israel has been an ally of America, consequently, the use of Hezbollah against Israel and, by proxy, the United States. A muslim travel ban is not the answer. Placing american troops in harm's way is not the answer. America is not the sole aribitrator of solutions to the Arab and Jewish settlement question. However, the US can lead the democratic nations in providing diplomatic options. But beyond a two-state solution for Palestine and Israel, the Hezbollah threat and pro-Arab threats toward Israel which then involves the US because they see the US as siding with Israel which means they preceive the US an enemy.
If you can imagine HAMAS as threat but not Palestine and the civilians inhabiting the GAZA strip then providing for the humane welfare and treatment of Palestine is in the best interests of the US and Israel whose war is with HAMAS, not the innocent children of Palestine. Israel has a right to defend itself against HAMAS's deadly attack on the 7th of October. However, HAMAS holding over 200 hostages inhibits the chance of Israel relenting on their mission to remove HAMAS from GAZA. Any cease-fire has to include the return of hostages and the safe evacuation of Palestinians who need to flee the war zone created by HAMAS.
The US can no more affect foreign country decisions than it can affect the apparent oppression of marginalized communities here at home. How can anyone argue that the US has not done enough short of not backing Israel like police departments in America's reluctance to stop qualified immunity? More robust Immigration and tighter border control do not keep our nation safer any more than the existing over-policing of communities keeping residents safer. We are a leader in mass shooters killing our citizens, and the GOP refuses to acknowledge the use of assault rifles is a problem. We are a non-bipartisan governed country, so why would our foreign policy differ? GOP won't admit having people walk around with assault weapons murdering people is horrible and requires a ban because that would appear as a win for the other side who have advocated for stricter gun control to save lives. But NRA provides lots of donations to the GOP? So again, whether America is doing enough is not the question.
I feel disappointed and upset that no we are not doing enough at all to protect civilians from the bombshell attacks! We really need to! How many more people are going to die? I'm worried and concerned because it has to stop now! When is this going to end! There really needs to be a ceasefire! We need to give aid to Gaza and the hostages should be released! We also need to prevent the escalation of battle! I hope it doesn't spread from South Lebanon to Beirut because that's worrisome to me and I don't want it to happen at all!
It's not America's job to protect anybody. This isn't America's fight. America should be supporting Israel and the Israeli efforts.
Innocents are being slaughtered!
I am so sick and tired of all this BS. I'm 76 years old and have known that this is nothing more than a power play to control territorial posession. At the same time, this activity is being used to destroy our own safety net against our own enemies. I am sick and tired of our tax dollars being used to support all this mess. As for the so-called civilians, they should have "gotten the hell out of Dodge" before all this went down. It is their fault that this was allowed to happen. We NEED to TAKE CARE OF OUR OWN. Again, we are not the world's police force and our own military doesn't belong in this fight. The corporat military complex and big oil is behind all this activity. It needs to be stopped ASAP. "Kill them all and let God, or Allah if you prefer, decide" the outcome. Time for a "wakeup call".
In WW2 we dropped 2 atomic bombs on Japan killing over 120,000 civilians. We did it to stop the war and mainly to stop lots of American lives being lost if we had to invade Japan. Didn't hear about protests then? This is an Israel war with a terrorist group who the Palestinians wanted them to represent them. These low life thugs slaughtered 1,400 people in Israel including women and children. It's up to Israel how they handle this war. If the protesters can't understand what happened here, I suggest the Government charter a plane and send all these morons to Gaza.
Hamas attacked Israel Oct . This is an Issue of Hamas as a terrorist organization
I would like to know how the US is going to protect people in Gaza or Israel, this is a war between Israel and Hamas? Hamas is using its people as human shield !!!! The Palestine people voted in Hamas and their beliefs, they need to overthrow Hamas as a governing body if they don't want a dictatorship running the country, sense voting is not an option, same for Russia, Iran, China, North Korea and other dictatorships that not support democracy!
Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania are they the ones with faults electoral fraud, they have more trust in the GOP? Of course the do all they listen to is Fox entertainment news and newsmax entertainment.
Israel, Ukraine, the USA, Germany, and Japan. Similarities and the divide
During World War II, the USA bombed Dresden and Tokyo to the ground, thoughts of humanitarian aid never came up. Why do we allow Ukraine to suffer a full-scale invasion with the Russians Not only committing War Crimes but also having no respect for any humanitarian aid, no cease fire either.
Now Israel and Hamas is A totally different story. The sovereign, legally elected representatives of the Palestinian people of the Gaza Strip have and continue to make War against Israel with the goal of Genocide.
Hamas, the USA, and others have asked Israel to have a cease fire for humanitarian aid, even before releasing the captured Israelis.
What kind of War is this?
We should help both Israel and the Ukraine with no strings.
We should hope for Unconditional Surrender.
I'm not sure whatelse the US can do other than threaten to not send aid to Israel, which I doubt we'll do.
America is a fascist country. It is a plutocracy, and the rich own 95% of our politicians, 66% of our Supreme Court, and much more. They are psychotic serial killing Satanists, and we the people must protest to oust these demon possessed so-called Representatives. They hate education, they hate everything except slavery. They deny their own science and they work wholeheartedly to end life on earth. Their false gods are of war and nothing but war. They are soulless. They are the worst criminals the world has ever seen. They are diseased in the brain with animalistic minds. They are wolves. They are rabid wolves. They hate teaching proper history. History says we oust them easily by going on strike and protesting until they resign. We can do it We the People. We are the greatest political force in America, not the congress or the Supreme Court or the president. We are America, not them. They are only the few owned by our psychotic serial killing rich Satanists who g have nearly guaranteed earth's destruction by global warming. Intelligence can be. We can have it again but the criminals who own and run our government must face justice. They won't face justice if we ignore their devilry. Peace can exist. We've proven it with 1000 years of peace before the Europeans came to the Americas killing all but 5% of Americas aborigines. Still today they run most of the Americas with slavery, degradation, segregation, torture, and all the other great evils possibly done by man. They have not the fear of God. They are hellbound and intent in killing all life on earth by global warming. They must face justice. It's how it's done historically. You killed civics class in America and rewrite history to clown Americans daily. Will Americans ever see the light? Can they even have a little intelligence enough to end the insanity of the rich owned government? Will rich who are psychotic serial killers face justice or not? Americans are the Steinway political power in America. We the People have all the power in America to oust bribed Representatives in all branches of government. It's historically done by countries worldwide to end oligarchs and bribery of their leaders by the oligarchs and to end plutocracy. Our founding fathers gave us a dire warning that if we let the rich own our politicians that we would suffer a fate that is extremely evil. That's why we have two duties as Americans. To vote and write our congressmen and senators which is from our watching our Representatives like hawks. The rich will always be in the wings looking to destroy our constitution. We failed. We didn't do it duties and now we all have open files of the FBI on us. The rich see us as slaves. They are working diligently to both steal elections for the radical right wing and end all of our rights. Obey the laws of the land the Bible says. Now we have power of the people but once the radical right gets complete government power they will require the constitution to a monarchy or just completely fascist, racist, kill kill government like nazi Germany. America pays Israel to be Judeo-Nazi and and America is American-Nazi. We need to squash the rich bugs who get the laws they want in place to make their devilry upon us legal. They are the evil of the world. They have us a toxic pandemic that makes you stupid, sick, reversal of healing, diseases for kids, many for everyone and damaging and changing your DNA and genes. Then they say they wanna go to war with all their victims. Americans, the cure is ousting these criminals. Wake the hell up already!
Israel resists US pressure to pause the war to allow more aid to Gaza, wants hostages back first https://apnews.com/article/94d5d0b58bc10a14be6ac191060e47e1
<Quote>
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday pushed back against growing U.S. pressure for a “humanitarian pause” in the war to protect civilians and allow more aid into Gaza, insisting there would be no temporary cease-fire until some 240 hostages were released.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made his third trip to Israel since the war began, reiterating American support for Israel’s battles against Hamas, while echoing President Joe Biden’s earlier call for a brief halt in the fighting to address a worsening humanitarian crisis.
Alarm has grown over spiraling Palestinian deaths and growing misery for civilians after weeks of Israeli bombardment and a widening ground assault that risks even greater casualties. Overwhelmed hospitals say they are nearing collapse, with medicines and fuel running low under the Israeli siege. About 1.5 million people in Gaza, or 70% of the population, had fled their homes, the U.N. said Friday.
<End Quote>
MORE.
I do not want the US to support Israel if Netanyahu thinks it's a good idea to behave like all Palestinians are the enemy.
A little of the behind-the-scenes extremist thinking.
Do they want to go to war?
The US needs to more forcefully distance our country from the Netanyahu regime.
Another Nakba? Israeli Intel Ministry Proposes Expelling Every Palestinian in Gaza to Egypt | Democracy Now!
https://www.democracynow.org/2023/11/3/israel_leak_gaza_expulsion_egypt
<Quote>
Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, a writer for +972 Magazine and Local Call, ... says that while the Intelligence Ministry is not particularly powerful, “this is an official state document essentially recommending the government to carry out an ethnic cleansing of Gaza.” Meanwhile, radical settlers in the West Bank are increasingly using the war on Gaza as cover to push Palestinians out of their homes and villages, often under threat of lethal violence. “Death is now everywhere, and things are deteriorating really, really quickly,” says Abraham.
<End Quote>