‘Bibi, You Are Not Going to Win this War’

Look Bibi, you are not going to win the war so stop acting as if you are going on! The sooner Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu realizes that the better it would be for everyone.

 But will he? Netanyahu is on a rollercoaster. Unable to finish off Gaza and Hamas, he turns his army to Lebanon and Hezbollah but he is soon stuck in the ‘mud’ despite the mass bombing, the destruction and the murder of innocent civilians.

The Israeli army has tried to cross the border at least seven times but has failed. It tried to enter a few hundred yards into southern Lebanon but soon pushed back every time by Hezbollah fighters. The Israeli army is finding out this party is no pushover despite the early pagers and the walkie talkie deathly-traps disasters.

Despite its air superiority and massive bombings that killed much of its top cadres including the dramatic killing of Secretary-General Hassan Nasarallah, Hezbollah fighters soon picked up and regained their strength and armor.

On the ground, the Israeli soldiers were not going to cross into Lebanon and that was a promise kept up by the skirmishes, heavy fighting, engagement and combat. Israeli soldiers were being stopped at the door so to speak, they were being killed and injured as reported by Hezbollah and admitted to by the Israeli army.

In addition to that, Hezbollah has been launching missiles and rockets on northern and central Israel all week, reaching all the way to Haifa and Tel Aviv, Acca, Tiberias, Safad with settlements, military basis, Mossad headquarters, the Galilee and all way to the occupied West Bank.

What this meant is that sirens were going off all the time and people were going in and out of underground shelters because of the extent of the missiles that were mostly coming from southern Lebanon but occasionally from Yemen and from Islamic resistance groups in Iraq and even Syria.

Psychology Strain

So the psychology has been a strain on its people, military and even politicians for on average between 100 and 150 missiles were being launched on the Israeli interior and on a daily basis. The majority of these are falling on these areas all the time and wreaking havoc and nervousness.  Their deflection by the Israeli Iron Dome has  failed badly in this war with Israelis feeling the heat as 23 percent of the population polled are already thinking of leaving the country.

Hezbollah is launching the different missiles despite the constant bombing being made by Israeli warplanes on the southern district of Beirut which is considered as the main Hezbollah stronghold. The Israelis are bombing intensely the Lebanese district, almost on the same level that was being practiced on the Gaza Strip, especially in the early months of the period following 7 October.

However, Hezbollah is stronger than Hamas and continuing its battering of the north of Israel – as can be seen – and will be maintained for a long time. Observers are saying Hezbollah seeks to send a clear message to Israel that ‘if you bomb our south district we will continue to strike places like Tel Aviv and Haifa’ which are the major economic and technological hubs and conurbations in Israel.

It is not an east ride for Israel after it killed Nasrallah which was seen as a brief moment of success and jubilation not least most of all from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who wanted to celebrate this act on the first anniversary of 7 October. But this wasn’t to be for soon, Israel was hit by 200 ballistic missiles launched all the way from Iran and increasing the psychology of fear among the Jewish population.

Israel has already tried to play down that affair by saying these missiles were not effective but they later admitted at least two of their military bases were hit. On the point of conjecture, everyone is expecting Israel to strike Iran and expand the regional war. But the Americans, whose generals and politicians are presently in Israel, they maybe trying to persuade the Israeli government not to because of the deadly consequences and slippery-slope scenarios.

Meanwhile, and feeling the pain again, Israel is going back to pound poor old Gaza in a most intense and obscene way and manner while seeking once again to drive the population of northern Gaza further down south and create a military zone and fill it with Jewish settlements through its so-called ‘Generals’ Plan’. 

This was the idea put forward at the start of this war on the enclave last year. It failed then – despite talk of driving the Palestinians into the Sinai Peninsula – and no doubt it will fail now.

This is because after a whole year of destruction Hamas and its fighters continue to be a force to be reckoned with. They have not been destroyed despite the mass bombs dropped on Gaza but they are regrouping throughout the enclave and dealing painful blows to the Israeli army.

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What is The ‘Generals’ Plan’ For North Gaza?

Two military experts said the military operation launched by the Israeli occupation army in the northern Gaza Strip is different from previous onslaughts and is aimed at implementing the so-called “Generals’ Plan” that has been adopted at the political level in Israel.

Military expert Maj-Gen Fayez Al-Duwairi, explained that the latest military operation is different from previous invasions, which were within a time frame that sought to gather information about fighters and leaders of the political and military resistance and searching for tunnels and detained prisoners.

He explained the new military operation is related to the “Generals’ Plan” that aims to gain absolute control over the northern Gaza Strip and empty it of its population up to the Netzarim axis, where the numbers range between 350,000 and 700,000.

He added the operation also comes within the framework of what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke regarding his aim to redraw the Middle East and with the ongoing Israeli reports about re-establishing settlements in the northern Gaza Strip.

Late last month, Israeli Army Radio reported that Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant approved a study of possible operations in Gaza based on the “Generals’ Plan,” which calls for  blockading the northern Gaza Strip, halting  humanitarian aid and evacuating its residents.

CNN quoted a former Israeli military official as saying the plan aims to turn the northern Gaza Strip into a closed military zone, besiege Hamas fighters and “force them to surrender or starve.”

Al-Duwairi said that implementing the “Generals’ Plan” requires military action on the ground to evacuate civilians who are concentrated in the Jabalia, Shujaiya, Zeitoun, and Sheikh Radwan neighborhoods according to Al Jazeera.

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Macron Calls on States to Stop Weapons Supply to Israel

French President Emmanuel Macron urged countries to stop providing weapons to Israel for its ongoing genocide war in the Gaza Strip and expressed concern that Lebanon should not be allowed to “become a new Gaza.”

“The priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop delivering weapons to carry out fighting in Gaza,” Macron said in an interview with France Inter, a public radio station aired Saturday.

Macron added, “France is not delivering any” weapons to Israel.

He stated: “I think we are not being heard.”


“I think it is a mistake, including for the security of Israel,” he said, adding that the war was leading to “hatred”.

Macron’s call comes amid mounting public scrutiny of the high death toll in Gaza and Israel’s widening aggression in Lebanon.

Macron said Lebanon should not be allowed to “become a new Gaza,” referring to Israel’s ground and air offensive in the country. “The Lebanese people cannot, in turn, be sacrificed,” he added.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, while France did not export any major arms to Israel in recent years, it has supplied components for arms.

At a summit for French-speaking leaders in Paris, Saturday, according to the Washington Post, Macron said, “If we call for a cease-fire, consistency is to not provide weapons of war. And I think that those who provide them cannot every day call for a cease-fire alongside us and continue to supply them.”

Last month, Britain suspended some arms exports to Israel over concerns about potential violations of international humanitarian law, joining several other nations that have taken similar actions in the wake of the war in Gaza.

Speaking in Paris, Saturday, Macron said that while both the US and France had called for a ceasefire in Lebanon, he added: “I regret that Prime Minister Netanyahu has made another choice, has taken this responsibility, in particular, for ground operations on Lebanese soil.”

Netanyahu, in a video statement Saturday after Macron’s remarks, criticized the French president and other leaders who “call for an arms embargo on Israel.”

“Israel will win with or without their support, but their shame will continue long after the war is won,” he said.

In response to Netanyahu, Macron’s office said France remains a “steadfast friend of Israel,” describing Netanyahu’s reaction as “excessive and detached from the friendship between France and Israel,” according to Le Monde as reported in the Quds News Network.

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Israel to Face a Decade of Death, Pain and War Says Maariv Columnist

Israeli writer Dror Raphael presents a bleak vision of the future of Israel. In an article published in Maariv newspaper, almost a year after the events of 7 October and the start pf the “Al-Aqsa Flood”, he stresses that “every Israeli has been walking around with a black hole in his heart for a year now.”

He explains there is no need to remind Israelis of what they are going through, because they live with pain and losses daily. The displaced (in the north and south) are still far from their homes, the prisoners are still in the tunnels of the Gaza Strip, and the pain of the dead does not subside.

“Every Israeli has been walking around with a black hole in his heart for a year now,” referring to the role of social media, such as the famous Israeli account on X “News from last year”, which republishes newspaper headlines that predicted the crisis before it happened, he added.

He pointed out it was clear to everyone that Israel was heading towards disaster, but the leaders were busy with the “legal revolution”, unaware of the looming danger, noting that “the most common greeting these days is ‘the return of the kidnapped’ and the expression of negativity and pessimism.”

The writer expresses his disappointment with the political and social situation in Israel, considering that “the assumption of responsibility and other values ​​that the Israelis believed they lived by turned out to be illusions,” noting in particular that “the government investigation committee, which was supposed to be established automatically after the attacks of 7 October, has become almost illegitimate.”

He believes that the young Israeli generation is suffering from a state of despair, and sites what former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill said during World War II, expressing his hope that Israel would receive promises of “blood, sweat and tears” as Churchill promised his people, and says that “the reality indicates that we are facing a decade of death and wars with no light at the end of the tunnel.”

Titanic and Ice

Raphael sees that Israel is facing a “decade of death, pain and war” without clear leadership or  vision to get out of this dark tunnel, likening the situation in Israel to the Titanic that is hurtling towards an iceberg.

The writer highlights the political situation in Israel, pointing to the extreme composition of the government, criticizing the leaders and officials, from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the heads of the army and intelligence, describing them as “short-sighted, arrogant, boasting about Israel’s strength and deterrence without actually understanding what is happening.”

The writer points to the division in Israel and its future impact, saying, “people between the ages of 40 and 50 feel disgusted with the Knesset and the government, and therefore hesitate to participate in leadership.

The writer refers to the phenomenon of reverse migration among Israelis due to despair over the conditions in Israel, and said, “those born last year will live in another, different and colder country, a country whose citizens vowed not to leave, but have already established colonies in Cyprus, Thailand or Puerto Rico on the Atlantic coast.”

While the writer tries to alleviate the “gloomy picture” by referring to the young soldiers who he said are “fighting to repair the country that collapsed,” he concludes by directing a question to future generations: “How did they not see this happening? How did they not know? How did they not prevent or warn? And most importantly, how were they not ashamed?”

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Eight Israeli Soldiers Killed in First Battle With Hezbollah

In his first comments following the death of eight Israeli officers and soldiers in battles in southern Lebanon, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Tel Aviv is in the “middle of a tough war.”

“I would like to send my heartfelt condolences to the families of our heroes who fell today in Lebanon,” Netanyahu said in a video post on X.

“We are in the middle of a tough war against Iran’s axis of evil, which seeks to destroy us,” he added.

Netanyahu concluded his remarks by saying: “We will rescue our hostages in the south (Gaza); we will return our residents in the north; we will guarantee Israel’s eternity.”

Earlier, the Israeli army said that eight of its troops, including three officers, were killed and seven others, including one officer, were injured, some seriously, in battles in southern Lebanon according to Anadolu.

Israeli Channel 12 reported that the first confrontation erupted in the early hours of Wednesday in the village of Odaisseh, where an Israeli force was ambushed at the entrance of a house.

The report said that Hezbollah fighters fired on the Israeli unit from close range and also engaged them from a close distance using machine guns, anti-tank missiles, and mortars.

The evacuation process lasted a long time due to the topographical conditions and severe weather during the early morning hours, with six soldiers killed and five others from the Egoz Commando Unit sustaining varying injuries.

In a second incident, a unit from the Golani Brigade was hit by mortar fire launched by Hezbollah fighters from both close and distant ranges, resulting in the death of two soldiers.

Meanwhile, the Yedioth Ahronoth daily reported that the ambush set by Hezbollah in a house in southern Lebanon, where face-to-face confrontations occurred, resulted in the deaths of six Israeli officers and soldiers from the Egoz unit, with 30 others injured.

Israel has launched massive airstrikes since Sept. 23 against what it calls Hezbollah targets across Lebanon that have killed more than 1,000 victims and injured over 2,950, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

The top leadership of Hezbollah was killed in the Israeli assaults, including leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in cross-border warfare since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed nearly 41,700 people, most of them women and children, following an attack by the Palestinian group, Hamas, last October.

The international community has warned that Israeli attacks in Lebanon could escalate the Gaza conflict into a wider regional war.

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