‘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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Yitzhak Brik: Israel is Being Led to Ruin

Retired Israeli General Yitzhak Brik said the political and military bosses are leading Israel “toward ruin through a path with no exit.”

Brik explained despite the tactical achievements against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Israel’s strategic situation is deteriorating in terms of security and economy, as well as its relations with the countries of the world.

He added that Hezbollah, despite the targeting of its weapons and leaders, its missiles continue to destroy every part of northern Israel without stopping.

Brik stressed that the only way forward for Israel is to reach an exchange deal and stop the war in the Gaza Strip, in the hope that Hezbollah will stop firing.

It is noteworthy that since Monday morning, the Israeli army launched the most violent and extensive attack on Lebanon since the beginning of the confrontations with Hezbollah about a year ago, and the bombing resulted in the killing of more than 600 people, including children and women, and the wounding of more than 2,500, while official estimates indicate that about 400,000 people have been displaced according to Al Jazeera.

In return, Hezbollah launched rocket barrages targeting Israeli military bases and airports and areas in the Galilee, Safed, Haifa and others, causing material and human losses and the outbreak of fires.

The Israeli occupation army continues its aggression on the Gaza Strip for the 11th consecutive month, which has left 41,495 martyrs, in addition to 96,006 wounded, in addition to an unprecedented health and humanitarian crisis.

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Nasrallah: ‘No Lebanon-Gaza Separation’

CEOSSFIREARABIA – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his military establishment led by Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi are determined to separate the Lebanese and the Gaza fronts. 

To do that the Israelis are bombing Lebanon in all sorts of directions  right, left and center, in the south of the country, its east and of course, southern Beirut – considered the prime Hezbollah stronghold – as hard as they can to achieve their illusive objectives which are nowhere near to being realized.

Israeli air raids, bombings, killing of civilians and murder of claimed Hezbollah fighters have increased in the last 48 hours with death knocking on the door of the Lebanese. Last Monday alone Israeli warplanes killed 274 people and injured 1024 in 1100 air raids all over Lebanon with the number of those killed rising daily.

But in contrast, Hezbollah attacks – through missiles and drones – have been tough on northern Israel including its cities like Haifa, Tel Aviv, in the Galilee, Safad, Jewish colonies/settlements  and military bases have continued non-stop where reports of fires, deaths and hundreds of thousands hiding in underground shelters.

Secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah has been very clear in his approach. In this escalation which started last week through the so-called pager and wireless massacre when Israeli killed around 3000 people in the southern neighborhood of Beirut, Hezbollah quickly regrouped and started firing on the north and center of Israel in unexpected moves.

He said there will be no separation between the Lebanese and Gaza fronts until the Israeli military machine stops bombing Gaza once-and-for-all. Hezbollah and Gaza has long become an unparalleled equation, he maintains. The war must stop in Gaza so that Fadi I, Fadi II and more recently Fadi III as well as more missiles stop landing on the different and sensitive areas of Israel.

However he tried to be reasonable saying that if a settlement is reached within the Palestinian groups and be acceptable to them his party would stop firing on Israel. Nasarallah couldn’t be more clearer than that.

Meanwhile the ‘trading over the border escalation’ between Hezbollah and the Israeli warplanes continues with missile swaps and bombs continuing. Despite the war utterings from certain quarters, Israel doesn’t want a northern front as their leaders keep saying and is not expected to start a ground troop offensive into southern Lebanon because of what is being termed as their ‘debilitating’ ability and exhaustion of their soldiers after their nearly 12 months of fighting in Gaza. 

But in this respect too, Nasrallah has been clear too saying if the Israeli army wants to enter south Lebanon, Hezbollah would be ready for them, going all the way of inviting them to invade and see the real force of the resistance in Lebanon that had been fighting Israel, albeit on a ‘low level’ since Israel started its war and onslaught on the Gaza Strip soon after 7 October, 2023. 

All indications suggest Israeli will not be able to separate this front from the Gaza one. Though Israeli planes are in a state of bombing momentum believing if they bomb certain regions of Lebanon fiercely enough, and aim to kill their top caders by bombing south Beirut, Hezbollah will eventually give up by themselves and wrap up the war.

But the situation is particularly fluid, neither side is budging from their positions. With Hezbollah termed to be recruiting 40,000 fighters from Iraq, Syria and Yemen, it insists that this front is their to support Gaza while Netanyahu refuses to accept a ceasefire deal on the enclave.

Both parties are in “military deadlock”, while a third party, the Biden administration, is walking in the middle. Its officials right from US president Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other lowley staff stated many times they want a deal on Gaza, and don’t want the war to spread to the region, to Lebanon, possibly Iraq, Syria and even Yemen which have been up till now low key operators.

In this war first on Gaza, and now developing into Lebanon, the US has been a constant behind-the-scene player, politicking in Lebanon through its special envoy and Qatar and Egypt acting as mediators in the past months to work a ceasefire that didn’t work mainly through Israeli intransigence, Washington must take much of the blame.  

This is because Washington has been a constant supplier of weapons to the Israelis in this war right after 7 October, 2023 through an active air and sea bridge to Tel Aviv. It has, till this day, been providing Israeli with technical advice on the conduct of the war with at least 2000 US military personell and many would argue, the United States has not been forceful enough with Netanyahu who worked to disrupt the talks and make sure the war on Gaza continues.

With the war switching to the Lebanese-Israeli border, it seems that the US would continue to supply Israel with weapons, increase its intransigence even further, keep up the Hamas-Hezbollah ante up and suck the regional into an even bigger regional war.

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Israel-Hezbollah Clashes Means ‘Greater War’ Likely

Northern Israel is on fire. Hezbollah rockets fired from Southern Lebanon has been a constant reminder that a war-situation is here to stay and likely to develop.

A batch of 55 rockets were fired on Safad and the sorrounding areas adding to the scorching of the region. These rockets were launched from southern Lebanon and hit Israeli settlements and military bases in northern Israel adding to nervousness of the dwingling number of people who are still there.

They are just the latest batch at the wail of many sirens across northern Israel.

Since last night and into Saturday morning a total of 60 rockets fell on the area including over the border into Safad and Tiberius in the Upper Galilee and the vacuous Israel town of Kiryat Shmona,  the Israeli media reported.  

Fires raged in the different forest areas of this region soon after the rockets landed as testified by pictures and images on the social media adding to deep tensions and fear of a wider regional war.

The latest barrage of rockets was in retaliation for Israeli overnight airstrikes on towns in southern Lebanon which included the Beqaa and Nabatieh and which injured many Lebanese civilians.

The Israeli-Hezbollah crossfire clashes have increased in the passed few months but the upward momentum was noticed since the early summer. 

The Hebrew media has been rife in its reporting of the active northern front stating the Hezbollah rockets into these areas have become a routine affair. 

But this is a source of major worry for men like Benny Gantz who once served as a member in Netanyahu’s war cabinet but is now deeply at odds with him. 

‘Hit Hezbollah hard’

Gantz, a major contender for the Israeli leadership, says the present government needs to dampen its 11-month war on Gaza that killed over 41,000 civilians and to concentrate on the dangerous developments happening in northern Israel.

He said Israel must have an action plan and hit Hezbollah hard, adding the Israeli air force “has thousands of targets in Lebanon” Gantz said on Israel’s Channel 12. 

Meanwhile the cross-border war continues at its present tempo while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refuses to leave Gaza but at the same time orders his military to maintain a war position on Hezbollah and southern Lebanon while continuing his strikes on different positions in Gaza.

But reports of the raging fires continue to be bad news for Israel. Hundreds of thousands have already left the north and are in temporary placements on hotels. The latest patch of fires are creating more displacements. One social media post points to the fact that 62,000 settler Israelis are fleeing the north for safety, pointing out that more than 40 percent of these wont return back.

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