Tag: israel

Biden orders U.S. military to help defend Israel against future Iranian strikes

President Joe Biden has declared that the United States Armed Forces will help Israel shoot down any Iranian missiles that target the country.

This declaration comes after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that Iran had fired rockets at various targets in Israel in response to Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanon. The U.S. had reportedly warned the IDF, allowing the Israeli military enough time to engage Iranian munitions with their Arrow-2 and Arrow-3 anti-missile defense systems.

“This is testament to Israeli military capability and the U.S. military,” said Biden. “It’s also a testament to intensive planning between the United States and Israel to anticipate and defend against the brazen attack we expected.”

“Make no mistake, the United States is fully, fully, fully supportive of Israel,” the president added.

While most of the Iranian projectiles were successfully intercepted, this does not mean Israel went away unscathed. Media reports note that some of the Iranian missiles directly targeted Tel Aviv, marking a significant escalation in the ongoing conflict. (Related: Iran blasts Israel with 180 ballistic missiles; Israel preparing to STRIKE BACK.)

Following the Iranian barrage, Biden ordered U.S. military assets in the region to intercept and shoot down any additional Iranian missiles aimed at Israel. This move highlights the rapidly intensifying situation, with the U.S. now actively involved in defensive efforts to protect its ally.

In response to the crisis, the White House has convened an emergency meeting. Vice President Kamala Harris and top national security teams were involved and helped coordinate the U.S. response.

Reports from Israeli Army Radio indicate that the recent Iranian missile strike against Israel involved over 100 ballistic missiles, marking the largest missile barrage in the country’s history. Israel’s security cabinet reportedly had to convene in a bunker somewhere in or near Jerusalem to discuss defense strategies.

Although Israel’s anti-missile defense systems have managed to intercept many of the rockets, a significant number broke through and hit targets on the ground, causing widespread damage and panic. An Israeli official speaking with the Hebrew-language broadcaster Kan News warned that Iran would face a “harsh” response to the missile attack.

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Let’s talk about… “WWIII” trending again, as war in ME expands

The year-old Israeli-Hamas war is, we are told, spreading across the region. Following Israel’s bizarre “pager  attack” last month the IDF have “shifted focus” to Lebanon.

Two days ago an Israeli strike on Beirut is said to have levelled six buildings and “wiped out” the entirety of Hezbollah’s leadership.

Yesterday, Iran responded by firing “hypersonic” missiles at Tel Aviv that either breached the Iron Dome missile defense system or did NOT breach it depending on who you ask.

Today, Israeli troops are reportedly crossing into Lebanon to fight on the ground. Iran is expected to continue to respond.

Reports claim over a million Lebanese – around one fifth of the entire population – have fled their homes due to Israeli bombing. A very large number indeed.

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Israel’s 1981 Attack on Nuclear Facility “STARTED” Iraq’s Nuclear Weapons Program

Biden announced that Washington doesn’t support an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, which to some knowledgeable observers, given Biden’s record, makes that more likely. 

There are many other hypocrisies and fallacies, but obviously the first thing to be said about Israel’s propaganda regarding Iran’s nuclear program being weaponized is that Israel has its own massive nuclear weapons program that both it and the US government have refused to acknowledge for decades, as I’ve long documented.

But one myth is little known and important to understand as Israel seems to be eyeing striking Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The Telegraph yesterday claimed: “Israel did the world a historic favour when it bombed Iraq’s Osirak reactor in 1981.”

Bullshit.

Israel would claim in 1981: “From sources whose reliability is beyond any doubt, we learn that this reactor, despite its camouflage, is designed to produce atomic bombs.” Which seems to be a case of projection given their deceit regarding their Dimona facility.

In fact, Richard Wilson, who was Mallinckrodt research professor of physics at Harvard University, visited the Osirak Iraqi reactor in 1982 after it was bombed by Israel. He told me back in 2006: “Many claim that the bombing of the Iraqi Osirak reactor delayed Iraq’s nuclear bomb program. But the Iraqi nuclear program before 1981 was peaceful, and the Osirak reactor was not only unsuited to making bombs but was under intensive safeguards. Certainly, Saddam Hussein would clearly have liked a nuclear bomb if he could have had one, but the issue is whether there were enough procedures for that reactor in place to prevent him from doing so and all the indications are that there were enough procedures.

“The Osirak reactor was destroyed in June 1981. It was not until early in July 1981 that Saddam Hussein personally released Dr. Jafar Dhia Jafar from house arrest and asked him to start and head the clandestine nuclear bomb program. The destruction of Osirak did not stop an Iraqi nuclear bomb program but probably started it. Worse still, the Israelis were so pleased with themselves that it appears that neither they nor the CIA looked for and understood the real direction of the Iraqi nuclear bomb program.

“In the international discussions with Iran, this must be borne in mind. Bombing a peaceful program, rather than controlling it, is very dangerous. But, alas, this is not the lesson that many people, who have not studied the technical evidence, have gained.” Wilson died in 2018. See his piece in New Outlook: “Iraq’s uranium separation: the huge surprise.”

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The US Privately Encouraged Israel To Escalate in Lebanon

POLITICO reported on Monday that despite the Biden administration’s public calls for a ceasefire in Lebanon, White House officials privately told Israeli officials that they agreed with the plan to escalate in Lebanon and shift its focus to the north.

The report, which cited US and Israeli officials, said the message was delivered by Brett McGurk, the top Middle East official on the National Security Council, and Amos Hochstein, an Israeli-born veteran of the Israeli Defense Forces who works as a special advisor for President Biden.

The report said that Israel told the US of its plans to focus on Lebanon but didn’t offer much detail, and McGurk and Hochstein “relayed to their Israeli counterparts that — while they still urged a cautious approach — the timing was likely opportune for such a move, especially after Hezbollah had been significantly degraded in the months prior.”

The report contradicts public claims from US officials that they have been seeking a ceasefire in Lebanon and are working toward a diplomatic solution. But US actions have shown they do support Israel’s actions in Lebanon, as the Biden administration gave Israel $8.7 billion in new military aid amid the dramatic escalation.

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The Israeli Government Must Be Stopped

The Israeli government has been dragging Western weapons and militaries into wars for far too long, putting all of the world — and its global institutions — at risk. The move into Lebanon, creating more dead, injured, traumatized, and homeless already in huge numbers ought to snap some war supporters out of their trance.

The danger of a catastrophic war on Iran that is joined by the United States and NATO on one side, and additional nations on the other, looms horrifically on the horizon.

It is high time for the world’s governments, including that of Israel’s top supplier, the United States, to begin complying with the International Court of Justice, the United Nations General Assembly, and each of the treaties and domestic laws violated by each arms shipment.

While the UK and Canada have stopped some weapons, that is far from sufficient. While a handful of U.S. Senators anti-democratically plan a vote weeks from now after a U.S. election, on halting illegal arms shipments to Israel, that is far from sufficient, and yet more than we see in the U.S. House of so-called representatives.

Western governments have emboldened the Israeli government with weapons supplies for so long that Israel understands there are no limits. There is nothing it can do that anyone could reasonably expect the U.S. and allied governments not to support, not to protect with propaganda assistance, Security Council vetoes, and yet more instruments of mass killing. That has to change.

Public pressure in the West has prevented western governments from going to war with Iran for decades. But Israel is now expanding an existing war in an effort to create a wider war without any debate or decision. Western media is already using the passive language of “being dragged into” a war — as if no decision need be made at all. This could not be more dangerous, more dishonest, more opposed to the supposed ideal of democracy.

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Israel Again Accused of Illegally Using White Phosphorus in Lebanon

Israeli forces were accused Tuesday of the war crime of firing white phosphorus artillery munitions over populated areas of southern Lebanon as Israel escalates an assault on its northern neighbor that has killed or wounded thousands of people.

Video footage published on social media and reported by Middle East Eye shows distinctive explosions that appear consistent with the use of white phosphorus rounds over civilian areas of southern Lebanon, including the village of Kfar Kila.

While white phosphorus munitions are not completely prohibited under international law, their use in populated areas is forbidden. White phosphorus round are primarily used to create smokescreens. However, when used as an incendiary weapon, white phosphorus – which ignites on contact with air and burns at nearly 1,500°F (815°C) – can maim and kill by burning flesh straight through to the bone, often causing a slow, agonizing death. Water does not extinguish it.

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Did the Abraham Accords Pave the Way for Total War?

The Abraham Accords, the U.S.-sponsored alliance between Israel and several Arab states, were supposed to get the United States out of the Middle East. At least, that’s what many conservative proponents argued.

In 2020, neoconservative writer Michael Doran argued in Tablet magazine that the accords were an agreement to “step up and bear more of the burden so that America can step back.” Two years later, the hawkish Washington Institute for Near East Affairs claimed that the accords were allowing Washington “to gradually withdraw from the Middle East to focus its efforts and resources on the Pacific Ocean, the rise of China, and the consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”

Sen. J.D. Vance (R–Ohio) has even made this strategy a large part of his foreign policy pitch. A few months before being nominated as former President Donald Trump’s running mate, Vance told the antiwar Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft that “combining the Abraham Accords approach with the enduring defeat of Hamas” will ensure that “Israel, with the Sunni nations, can actually police their region of the world. That allows us to spend less time and less resources in the Middle East.”

That’s not how former Trump administration official Jared Kushner, a key architect of the accords, sees it. Over the weekend, he posted an essay to social media arguing that the United States should build on the “Abraham Accords breakthrough” by backing an Israeli war in Lebanon, and hinted that the time is ripe for a wider U.S. war. “Iran is now fully exposed,” he wrote, adding that “it’s not only Israel’s fight.”

Of course, the Trump administration has never pretended that the Abraham Accords were meant to allow U.S. disengagement; then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo bragged about unlocking more “defense cooperation.” The Biden administration itself promised a permanent U.S. military commitment to Abraham Accords member Bahrain in order to entice Saudi Arabia to join the alliance.

But Kushner’s essay moves the goalposts from a defensive commitment to an offensive one. It’s now hard to pretend that the vision is anything less than a regime change campaign on the scale that old-fashioned neoconservatives could only dream of.

Kushner wrote his essay in response to the Israeli assassination of Hezbollah commander Hassan Nasrallah. Hezbollah, a Lebanese militia backed by Iran, had been engaged in a low-grade border war with Israel for the past year. Israel decided to assassinate Nasrallah after he kept demanding an end to the Israeli war in Gaza in exchange for a ceasefire in Lebanon, an Israeli official told NBC.

The Israeli army is now beginning a ground incursion into Lebanon, after the Biden administration reportedly talked Israel out of a full-on ground invasion. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has hinted at even larger plans, calling Nasrallah’s assassination “Operation New Order” and stating that the fall of the Iranian government “will come a lot sooner than people think.”

Nasrallah’s assassination “is significant because Iran is now fully exposed. The reason why their nuclear facilities have not been destroyed, despite weak air defense systems, is because Hezbollah has been a loaded gun pointed at Israel,” Kushner wrote. “The right move now for America would be to tell Israel to finish the job. It’s long overdue. And it’s not only Israel’s fight,” he added.

Kushner added that Iran is the “main issue between Lebanon and Israel” and brought up Hezbollah’s role in killing U.S. Marines in 1983, during the last U.S. military intervention in Lebanon.

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US Likely ‘Had a Hand’ in Israel’s Operation to Eliminate Hezbollah’s Leader Nasrallah – Analyst

Iran has condemned the Israeli attack that killed Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, with President Masoud Pezeshkian claiming that the US greenlit the attack and bears partial responsibility for the “war crime.”

It is very likely that the US “had a hand” in Israel’s operation in Beirut that killed Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, Nikolas Kosmatopoulos, assistant professor of public policy and international affairs at the American University of Beirut, told Sputnik.

“Certainly, there is good reason to believe that there has been diplomatic approval… military, most probably, and intelligence cooperation,” he said.

US interest in an operation targeting Nasrallah “might have to do with the protection of the role and power that Israel projects in the region,” the pundit speculated.

“It is no secret that Israel enjoys bipartisan support in the US Senate and Congress. It is also an important US ally, and carries out its dirty job in the region. It helps the US maintain economic, diplomatic, and political hegemony […] keeps the region in turmoil… It doesn’t allow for the unification of the region, doesn’t allow for the region to cooperate with each other… become a regional power that could endanger the interests of the US and the EU,” he underscored.

Kosmatopoulos pointed out that the military-industrial complexes of the US and Israel “are almost organically entwined, are an extension of each other.”

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IDF Reveals Special Operations Activity In Lebanon

More than 700 special operations in which IDF forces spent more than 200 nights in enemy territory in southern Lebanon.

Some of the promotions even lasted 2-3 consecutive days of staying in southern Lebanon.

Many special units of the IDF engaged in these operations.

As part of the operations, the forces entered the Hezbollah tunnels, destroyed weapons in the territory itself, captured and placed explosives, and also removed weapons and intelligence documents to Israeli territory.

In two of the operations over the past few months, our forces were injured – one as a result of exploding traps of our forces, and one as a result of the explosion of an old bomb that was left in the field. Hezbollah did not recognize these operations and there were no encounters or battles with terrorists at all.

The operations were carried out at a distance of up to 2-3 km from the border with Israel in the nearest strip of villages.

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Israel bombs Palestinian journalist’s home in latest Gaza massacre

Palestinian journalist Wafa Aludaini was killed alongside her family on 30 September in an Israeli airstrike targeting their home in central Gaza. 

Aludaini’s family home was bombed by Israel on Monday, killing her with her husband and two children, according to several Palestinian media reports. 

Gaza’s Government Media Office identified her as the 174th Palestinian journalist to be killed by Israel since the start of the war in Gaza on 7 October.

She worked “with several English-speaking media outlets,” the media office said, urging the international community to hold Israel accountable for its “crimes against journalists.”

“Through her words and actions, she stood as both a storyteller and a symbol of the Palestinian struggle for freedom,” wrote the Palestine Chronicle, with who Aludaini worked as a contributor, on 30 September. 

Israeli airstrikes continue to pound the entirety of the Gaza Strip on a daily basis. 

A woman and her child were killed in Deir al-Balah on Monday after an Israeli airstrike targeted a home in the Hakr al-Jami area of the city.

“Israeli occupation forces committed two massacres against families in the Gaza Strip over the last 24 hours, resulting in the killing of at least 20 Palestinians and the injury of 108 others,” WAFA news agency reported.

Since 7 October, at least 41,615 people have been reported killed and another 96,359 injured. 

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