Israel Roaring in the Lion's Den

"Israel has every right to remove this threat and return our citizens to their home safely. And that's exactly what we're doing ... we'll continue degrading Hezbollah until all our objectives are met."

"Just imagine if terrorists turned El Paso and San Diego into ghost towns ... How long would the American government tolerate that?"

"Yet Israel has been tolerating this intolerable situation for almost a year."

"Well, I've come here today to say: Enough is enough."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back at critics of his campaigns against Hamas and Hezbollah in a speech at the UN General Assembly, justifying his military operations as necessary. Still from video

 

A 'precise strike' was the message conveyed by the Israeli military on Hezbollah central headquarters in Beirut. A set of buildings in the Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh were levelled after a precision strike by the Israeli Air Force, acting in conjunction with the Israeli Secret Intelligence Service. In service of yet another deadly strike against high-profile terrorist leaders, from Gaza to Lebanon to Iran. Intelligence comes in many forms, and it is worth pondering on the kind of humint that offers insider secret information enabling Israel to produce its pinpoint precision strikes where it knows its targets will be located.

Those with entree to the inner circles of Israel's terrorist enemies are obviously no loyal allies of those they betray; their betrayals owe to the fact that insiders privy to security secrets they may be, but their loyalties are to their countries which have been throttled by force, threat, intimidation and violence by the death-to-Israel-groups curried by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Betrayals of the mullahs of Iran holding their own people in thrall to a deadly ideology, along with those of their proxies stifling the lives of people whose countries they have control over.

Following Prime Minister Netanyahu's address to the United Nations where he stressed that nothing would deter Israel from its campaign against Hezbollah, just as it is engaged in destroying Hamas, both of which terrorist groups threaten Jewish lives and the State of Israel with annihilation in coordination with the Islamic Republic, assent was given for the IAF to strike Hezbollah's central headquarters.

The ultimate target of the strikes was Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The size and timing of the destructive blast ensured the presence of a high-value target necessitating the attack. Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Haggari announced that the main Hezbollah headquarters, positioned  under residential buildings was the target. Four buildings, as a result, were reduced to rubble by the powerful blast that rattled windows and shook houses up to 30 kilometres north of Beirut. 

Israel had good reason after enduring thousands of rockets striking northern Israel for almost a year, displacing 60,000 Israelis internally, unable to return to their homes under constant bombardment. Forests, farms and towns under constant fire leading to ravaging wildfires destroying both environment and infrastructure and the hopes of returnees. There is a planned ground invasion for the purpose of installing a wide berth on the border of southern Lebanon and northern Israel clear of Hezbollah terrorists.

During his speech, President Netanyahu, a formidably skilled communicator, gave his audience a lesson on what a determined nation is capable of doing to a relentless enemy intent on destroying a country dedicated to the preservation of world Jewry. Visual aids skilfully deployed enabled him to defend Israel's response to the horrendous October 7 atrocities perpetrated on unarmed Israeli civilians that resulted in Israel's military operation to destroy the threat represented by Hamas.

Israel, he emphasized, desired peace, and he delivered a special message to Iran: "If you strike us, we will strike you." Placing ultimate responsibility where it belongs. For its part, Lebanon has fair reason to fear a repeat of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict of 2006, the cause of massive destruction in areas of the country which harbours and submits to the direly destructive presence of the 'Party of God'.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)