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‘3,000 Rockets a Day, Hospitals Overwhelmed’: What Israel-Hezbollah War Would Look Like
Flames seen at the side of a road, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, close to the Israel border with Lebanon, in northern Israel, June 4, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ayal Margolin
A full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah inched closer this week, as Hassan Nasrallah — the Shiite Lebanese terror group’s leader — threatened both Israel and Cyprus.
In a televised address on Wednesday, Nasrallah said, “There will be no place safe from our missiles and our drones should a larger conflagration erupt,” and that Hezbollah had “a bank of targets” it would aim for in precision strikes. He also urged the Cypriot government against opening airports and bases on the island for the “enemy” to operate from, although Israel is not known to have ever done this.
Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged near-daily fire since the October 7 Hamas attack, after the terrorist group fired rockets in support of Hamas, forcing tens of thousands of Israeli civilians to evacuate their homes in northern communities close to the border. Israeli military chiefs now think an all-out war is a real possibility.
In a statement, the military said “operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon were approved and validated, and decisions were taken on the continuation of increasing the readiness of troops in the field.”
But what would a war with Hezbollah look like? How would Israelis be affected by the war? And who would win?
“3,000 Rockets Launched Daily; Air Defenses Overwhelmed and Mass Casualties”
A three-year study by Reichman University’s Institute for Counter-Terrorism, in which more than 100 senior military and government officials took part, forecasted devastation in Israel in the event of war.
The report, which was reportedly presented to Israeli government officials before the Hamas attack last year — and was seen by the Israeli publication Calcalist — predicted Hezbollah would fire between 2,500 to 3,000 rockets each day at Israel. These would range from accurate rockets to precision long-range missiles and would be interspersed with intense barrages aimed at specific targets for maximum destruction, such as densely populated civilian areas or military targets.
Iranian terror proxies in the region, including pro-Iranian militias in Syria and Iraq; Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the West Bank and Gaza; and Yemen’s Houthis, would also join the conflict. It is thought that a multi-pronged assault could destroy Israel’s air defense systems, specifically by using munitions and drones to target Iron Dome batteries, as well as cause thousands of civilian and military casualties.
There has also been speculation that Iran itself would join, attacking Israel, as it did on April 13.
Due to Hezbollah’s vast arsenal of rockets, Israel’s Iron Dome interceptors and David’s Sling missiles would run out just a few days into the conflict, leaving most of the country entirely exposed and unprotected.
It is thought that the daily rocket fire would last for weeks.
The group’s precision missiles would target Israeli military bases to hinder counterattacks and critical infrastructure such as power plants, water facilities, and electricity stations.
The critical seaports of Haifa and Ashdod would buckle, and international trade would be severely impacted, while flights would be canceled and airspace closed. Israel’s health system would likely be overwhelmed by the sheer number of casualties, as well as by hospitals themselves becoming targets of suicide drone attacks.
Meanwhile, an assault would also be launched in the digital realm, with Israeli communications infrastructure and government websites subjected to cyberattacks designed to wreak further damage on the country’s economy. The group would try to capitalize on the chaos to send hundreds of Radwan commandos to infiltrate the border with the goal of seizing Israeli towns and villages, forcing Israel to launch ground operations within its own territory.
There could be widespread panic among the Israeli public amid extensive damage and large casualty numbers, as well as difficulty accessing essentials like food and medicine. Hezbollah would seek to provoke a psychological campaign of warfare against Israelis by flooding social media networks with disinformation, aiming to sow distrust in official government spokespeople.
Like Hamas, Hezbollah would encourage Palestinians to carry out attacks and pile pressure on Israeli police struggling to maintain control. The war would end after around three weeks as the sheer scale of damage done to both sides is too much to sustain, leading to a kind of stalemate.
The cost to Lebanon would be enormous. The 2006 Lebanon war was catastrophic for Lebanon’s economy, causing $3.5 billion in damage to infrastructure. A new war would be even worse for a country already facing a deep economic crisis.
However, Hezbollah is unlikely to be destroyed in a war, in part due to its deep integration into Lebanese society, including holding positions in the Lebanese government and controlling key institutions. Additionally, a war with Israel would likely serve as a propaganda victory for Hezbollah.
Hezbollah’s confrontation with Israel would help it drum up support in the Arab world, potentially leaving it in a strengthened domestic position.
War with Hezbollah would have a much wider regional impact, including galvanizing extremist actors in the region and ushering in further instability in the Middle East. We’ll have to wait and see what happens.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post ‘3,000 Rockets a Day, Hospitals Overwhelmed’: What Israel-Hezbollah War Would Look Like first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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A pro-Israel rally at the University of Toronto was headlined by Columbia University professor Shai Davidai
Around 200 people gathered for a pro-Israel demonstration at University of Toronto’s downtown campus at King’s College Circle—which was the site of one of Canada’s largest pro-Palestinian encampments during May […]
The post A pro-Israel rally at the University of Toronto was headlined by Columbia University professor Shai Davidai appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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‘Not Welcome’: New Pro-Hamas Campaign Aims to Abolish Hillel Campus Chapters
A statue of George Washington tied with a Palestinian flag and a keffiyeh inside a pro-Hamas encampment is pictured at George Washington University in Washington, DC, US, May 2, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Craig Hudson
The campus group National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) is waging a campaign to gut Jewish life in academia, calling for the abolition of Hillel International campus chapters, the largest collegiate organization for Jewish students in the world.
“Over the past several decades, Hillel has monopolized for Jewish campus life into a pipeline for pro-Israel indoctrination, genocide-apologia, and material support to the Zionist project and its crimes,” a social media account operating the campaign, titled #DropHillel, said in a manifesto published last week. “Across the country, Hillel chapters have invited Israeli soldiers to their campuses; promoted propaganda trips such as birthright; and organized charity drives for the Israeli military.”
It continued, “Such actions reveal Hillel’s ideological and material investment in Zionism, despite the organization’s facade as being simply a ‘Jewish cultural space.’”
DropHillel claims to be “Jewish-led,” although only a small minority of Jews oppose Zionism, and the group has been linked to and promoted by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters.
Hillel International has provided Jewish students a home away from home during the academic year. However, NSJP says it wants to “weaken” it and “dismantle oppression.”
The idea has already been picked up by pro-Hamas student groups at one college, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, according to The Daily Tar Heel, the school’s official student newspaper. On Oct. 9, it reported, a member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) unveiled the idea for “no more Hillel” during a rally which, among other things, demanded removing Israel from UNC’s study abroad program and adopting the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement. Addressing the comments to the paper days later, SJP, which has been linked to Islamist terrorist organizations, proclaimed that shuttering Hillel is a coveted goal of the anti-Zionist movement.
“Zionism is a racist supremacist ideology advocating for the creation and sustenance of an ethnostate through the expulsion and annihilation of native people,” the group told the paper. “Therefore, any group that advocates for a supremacist ideology — be it the KKK, the Proud Boys, Hillel, or Heels for Israel — should not be welcome on campus.”
The #DropHillel campaign came amid an unprecedented surge in anti-Israel incidents on college campuses, which, according to a report published last month by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), have reached crisis levels.
Revealing a “staggering” 477 percent increase in anti-Zionist activity involving assault, vandalism, and other phenomena, the report — titled “Anti-Israel Activism on US Campuses, 2023-2024” — painted a bleak picture of America’s higher education system poisoned by political extremism and hate.
“As the year progressed, Jewish students and Jewish groups on campus came under unrelenting scrutiny for any association, actual or perceived, with Israel or Zionism,” the report said. “This often led to the harassment of Jewish members of campus communities and vandalism of Jewish institutions. In some cases, it led to assault. These developments were underpinned by a steady stream of rhetoric from anti-Israel activists expressing explicit support for US-designated terrorists organizations, such as Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and others.”
The report added that 10 campuses accounted for 16 percent of all incidents tracked by ADL researchers, with Columbia University and the University of Michigan combining for 90 anti-Israel incidents — 52 and 38, respectively. Harvard University, the University of California – Los Angeles, Rutgers University New Brunswick, Stanford University, Cornell University, and others filled out the rest of the top 10. Violence, it continued, was most common at universities in the state of California, where anti-Zionist activists punched a Jewish student for filming him at a protest.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post ‘Not Welcome’: New Pro-Hamas Campaign Aims to Abolish Hillel Campus Chapters first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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‘Muslim for Trump’ Launches Initiatives in Key Battleground States, Says Candidate Will Bring ‘Peace’ to Gaza
Former US President Donald Trump is seen at a campaign event in South Carolina. Photo: Reuters/Sam Wolfe
The “Muslims for Trump” organization has officially launched initiatives to help elect Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to the White House, arguing that he would be more likely to end the war in Gaza than Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
In a statement released on Monday, the group said it will focus on recruiting Muslim voters in key battleground states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and North Carolina. The organization both praised Trump for his supposed “peace-focused” approach to ending the war in Gaza and condemned Harris for helping facilitate a so-called “genocide.”
“After meeting with President Trump, it was clear to me he is the right leader for Muslims to get behind,” Rabiul Chowdhury, co-founder of Muslims for Trump and former co-chair of the “Abandon Harris Movement,” said in a statement.
Chowdhury added that during his discussions with Trump, the former president vowed to “ending the escalation of wars and bringing peace to war-torn regions.” In contrast to Trump’s promise to stop the “bloodshed” in Gaza, he claimed, Harris has “recklessly pushed us toward World War III.”
Chowdhury, a self-described “peace advocate,” urged the Muslim community not to fall victim to supposed “misinformation” campaigns by the media and Democrats that paint the former president as hostile to immigrants. He claimed that the former president’s focus is on “ending war, not dividing families through false immigration claims.”
Samra Luqman, chair of the Michigan chapter of Muslims for Trump, underscored the need to punish the Biden administration for what he described as supporting a “genocide” in Gaza.
“The goal of this election is to hold the Biden administration accountable for a genocide. No amount of fear mongering or scare tactics will persuade my community into forgiving the mutilation, live-burning, and genocide of over 200,000 people,” he said.
According to data produced by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, roughly 40,000 people have died in Gaza since the war began last October. Israel has said that its forces have killed about 20,000 Hamas terrorists during its military campaign.
Israel says it has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties, noting its efforts to evacuate areas before it targets them and to warn residents of impending military operations with leaflets, text messages, and other forms of communication.
On the organization Muslims for Trump’s official website, it claims that the Abraham Accords, a series of historic, Trump administration-brokered normalization agreements between Israel and several countries in the Arab world, helped stabilize the Middle East. It also says that had Trump not lost the 2020 presidential race, the so-called “genocide” could have been prevented.
“Under Trump’s leadership, the Abraham Accords were brokered, fostering peaceful relations between Israel and several Arab countries. Supporters might argue that Trump’s diplomacy prioritized peace and stability in the Middle East, reducing the likelihood of large-scale conflicts like genocide,” the group wrote.
Over the course of his campaign, Trump has repeatedly touted his support for the Jewish state during his singular term in office. Trump has boasted about his administration’s work in fostering the Abraham Accords, promising to resume efforts to strengthen them if he were to win November’s US presidential election.
Harsh US sanctions levied on Iran under Trump crippled the Iranian economy and led its foreign exchange reserves to plummet. Trump and his Republican supporters in the US Congress have criticized the Biden administration for renewing billions of dollars in US sanctions waivers, which had the effect of unlocking frozen funds and allowing the country to access previously inaccessible hard currency.
Trump also recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a strategic region on Israel’s northern border previously controlled by Syria, and also moved the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, recognizing the city as the Jewish state’s capital.
Despite Harris’s repeated efforts to woo Muslim voters, polling data indicates that the demographic has made a dramatic swing away from the Democratic Party. Polling data from the Arab American Institute reveals that Trump slightly edges Harris among Muslim voters by a margin of 42 to 41 percent. A report from the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) shows that Green Party candidate Jill Stein leads Harris and Trump with Muslim voters in the key swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Arizona.
The post ‘Muslim for Trump’ Launches Initiatives in Key Battleground States, Says Candidate Will Bring ‘Peace’ to Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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