Israel Mopping Up the Middle East

"What the Jewish state has done in the past year --- for its own defence, but in the process and not coincidentally for the security of all of us --- will rank among the most important contributions to the defence of Western civilization in the past three-quarters of a century."

Gerard Baker, Wall Street Journal opinion piece

"A little more than a year after the Hamas massacre, Israel is shifting the balance of power in the Middle East with a stunning display of strategic, tactical, intelligence and technological genius."

• Hamas is in retreat;
• Hezbollah's leadership has been decimated;
• Iran's ballistic missile attack was intercepted;
• Calls for de-escalation and ceasefire ignored;
• Israel is striking hard and selectively;
• Israel's intelligence and precision bombing unparalleled;
• Booby-trapped Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies detonated;
• Israeli airstrikes on Beirut demolished Hezbollah's Redwan Force.

"While for some, 'peace through strength' is a political statement, for Israel, it is essential for survival."

"Success in war does not guarantee permanent peace but, for Israel it is the necessary option."

Derek H. Burney, former Cdn. Ambassador to the United States

Israeli soldier gestures to Iranian ballistic missile components that were fired at Israel, during a government-organized media tour on a base in southern Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP/Maya Alleruzzo

 

A bunker in Lebanon was hit by an Israeli precision bomb on September 27 that killed Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah, and with him several of his top lieutenants along with an Iranian general. The Islamic Republic of Iran was displeased, and more than that, alarmed. All the more so when earlier, in July, Ismail Haniyeh, political leader of Hamas, was assassinated in Tehran. The alarm deepened with the surprise detonations of thousands of Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies exploding on signal, putting an undisclosed number of terrorists out of commission, leading to Iran banning use of these devices.

Air strikes by the Israel Air Defence have taken care of much of the Hezbollah leadership in the elite Redwan Force along with a number of brigade and battalion commanders. Ibrahim Aqil, a U.S.-designated terrorist on whose head a $70-million bounty was laid, was taken out by an Israeli strike. Favouring the United States with an overdue revenge for the mastermind of the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy and American Marines barracks in Beirut, a suicide truck event that killed hundreds of U.S. diplomatic and military personnel.

Ibrahim Qubaisi, commander of missile and rocket force for Hezbollah was taken out of commission by a late September Israeli airstrike amidst Israel's campaign to punish Hezbollah with air attacks and rockets alongside limited ground incursions into Lebanon for the specific purpose of destroying Hezbollah's munitions facilities. Israel responded to a Tel Aviv long-range missile lobbed by Hezbollah, by striking the missile's launch site in southern Lebanon.

Israel's immediate goal for Lebanon is the destruction of Hezbollah and in the process creating a buffer between Israel and southern Lebanon to enable 60,000 evacuated Israelis to return to their homes in northern Israel, to resume normal life; their livelihoods, and children returning to school. While the Biden/Harris presidential duo continue to assure Israel that its support is 'ironclad', it remains openly critical of Israeli focus on Gaza, going so far as to restrict some munition exports: "a false equivalence that says more about the moral disorder in our own politics than about Israel's motives and actions", noted Gerard Baker.

Moving Donald Trump, on the presidential election campaign trail, to observe that Kamala Harris's election as U.S. president would "lead to the annihilation of Israel". The very thought of Iran succeeding in moving up to acquiring nuclear weapons adds a truly sinister note to Middle East events and future prospects. Sending a chill down the spine of those who inhabit the area, much as Western allies of Ukraine jerk to attention when Vladimir Putin casually reminds them that Russia has the world's largest cache of nuclear weapons.

Iran's nuclear capabilities and funding of munitions to arm its regional proxies was enormously boosted through the circumvention of oil sanctions and the billion-dollar cash payments it realized in exchange for the release of hostages. Meanwhile, President Biden 'advised' Israel not to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities. Conversely, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, Republican vice-presidential candidate, offered during the vice-presidential debate that: "It is up to Israel what they think they need to do to keep their country safe." Bingo.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile is carefully taking time to discuss among his chief advisers, cabinet ministers, and IDF command, how best to strike Iran for the greatest impact toward the goal of  freeing the country from its tyrannical mullahs and the Islamic Republican Guard Corps stranglehold on the nation, many of whose population chafe under the restrictive, violent grasp of Shi'ite extremism and penchant for murderous violence in their creation of, support and arming of proxy terrorist militias.

Handout photo shows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (C) and IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi meeting at the 'Bahad 1' military base in southern Israel, March 7, 2024. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)