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As it fights in Gaza, Israel is girding itself for another potential war in Lebanon
MAHANAYIM JUNCTION, Israel (JTA) — When Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7. Lea, a former infantry instructor in the Israel Defense Forces, cut short a trip to Central America and booked a ticket back to Israel, hoping to contribute to the war effort.
But like thousands of reserve soldiers, she has found herself far from the fighting in Gaza. After a brief period serving down south, she is one of the many IDF troops who have amassed on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, girded for a full-scale fight with the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah that is threatening to erupt but has yet to materialize.
Like other soldiers up north, Lea, who did not share her full name due to IDF policy, doesn’t feel like passing her weeks up north is a waste of her time. In spite of the potential danger, she described her return to Israel and the army as a “safe space” for her — something that has kept her busy even during this waiting period.
“We are constantly in action,” she said recently while taking a break with dozens of other soldiers near a kiosk at this intersection, where two major highways intersect on their way to the Lebanese border at the town of Metula and the Syrian border in the Golan Heights. ”We keep going to different units to refresh them on how to use their mortars and quicken speed.”
How much those mortars and other weapons will be used remains an open question hanging over Israel and Lebanon as the IDF directs the brunt of its power toward Hamas in Gaza. Since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, the threat of Hezbollah joining the fight has been top of mind for leaders in Israel and across the region.
If that happens, the fighting could be even more extensive than Israel’s war in Gaza. Hezbollah, which is funded by Iran, is much larger than Hamas and has many more fighters and a bigger stockpile of weapons — including precision rockets that are far more dangerous than those launched by Hamas.
In Hezbollah’s last war with Israel, in 2006, more than 100 Israeli soldiers were killed in a ground invasion that did not end with a clear victor. In the 17 years since, Hezbollah has rebuilt its capacities for another round of conflict.
And sabres are rattling: A Hezbollah strike killed an Israeli civilian on Thursday, and earlier this week an anti-tank missile fired from Hezbollah injured 12 in Israel, following a week of relative calm during Israel’s ceasefire with Hamas, which Hezbollah largely abided by.
On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to rain the same firepower on Lebanon that Israel has brought to bear in Gaza.
“If Hezbollah chooses to start an all-out war, it will by its own volition turn Beirut and southern Lebanon, not far from here, into Gaza and Khan Younis,” the Gaza city where Israeli troops are now battling, he said in an address to troops on Thursday.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, meanwhile, has delivered several lengthy sermons expressing solidarity with Hamas, but has yet to indicate any clear plans for his group to escalate its fight with Israel.
Smoke rises during an exchange of fire between the Israeli military and Hezbollah on the border between Israel and Lebanon on December 3, 2023. (Ayal Margolin/Flash90)
“It seems like Hezbollah is trying to avoid an escalation or total war,” said Eyal Zisser, a professor at Tel Aviv University who studies the geopolitics of Israel’s northern borders, while cautioning that it’s difficult to predict what may unfold.
“We have to wait and see,” he said. “The war has not come to an end and you don’t know what will happen tomorrow.”
As a precaution following the Hamas attack, Israel evacuated tens of thousands of civilians from the Lebanese border area, including the 26,000-resident city of Kiryat Shemona. Hezbollah has since fired near-daily rockets at Israel and engaged in cross-border skirmishes with IDF troops. Seven Israeli soldiers and four Israeli civilians have been killed so far, as have more than 100 people in Lebanon — the vast majority of them Hezbollah fighters.
One prominent fear is that Hezbollah might attempt a ground invasion similar to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. Tal Beeri, who leads the Alma Institute, which focuses on Israel’s northern security, issued a paper last week arguing that Hezbollah’s special “Radwan” forces, who were specially trained by Iran to invade Israel by ground, have not been sufficiently weakened.
“In spite of the army’s preparedness in the north, it is still possible to invade Israel — while their original plans were for thousands of fighters to enter, they can still attempt it with a smaller group of hundreds,” Beeri wrote.
Complicating matters, Beeri does not believe that a diplomatic solution can address the challenge posed by Hezbollah: Previous attempts to demilitarize the region peacefully did not last.
“Diplomatic processes do not have teeth, as we learned from [United Nations Security Council Resolution] 1701,” he said, referring to a U.N. decision at the end of the 2006 war that called on Hezbollah to disarm. “There needs to be a reckoning with the clear, physical danger and the physical elimination of Radwan and its infrastructure.”
In the meantime, Hezbollah fighters have been seen roaming freely within sight of the Israeli-Lebanese border, and many residents from the evacuated communities say they will not return to their homes before the area is more fully secured.
Avital Salab, a mother of five from Kiryat Shmona, spent a few weeks in a Jerusalem hotel before renting an apartment “because you can’t really live a normal life with children in a hotel.” She said that she is “terrified” to return to her “beautiful, green home” because “we do not feel like they have done enough to make it safer.”
Soldiers who spoke with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency said they felt they were providing a vital service in guarding civilians against a looming threat, even if the war never arrives on their frontier.
“We are a first line of defense here to help keep the residents safe in the north against the threat that is Hezbollah,” said Jeremy, a native Midwesterner and former IDF paratrooper. “The whole big picture is to make sure that what happened down south does not happen again up north and the residents can feel a sense of security.”
The waiting game can be difficult. Jeremy, who is a parent, said the time away from his family has been a challenge. Guy, a 28-year old infantry soldier from Haifa, was glad that he was recently able to return home for his daughter’s first birthday before going back to his base. Oriel, another soldier at Mahanayim Junction, managed to return to base with an unexpected furry friend: his therapy dog, Zeus.
“The uncertainty of the northern front adds to the stress,” he said, adding that he hopes that petting Zeus will allow soldiers on his base to relax a bit.
Soldiers stand in line in November 2023 at a rest stop in Israel’s north that offers discounted fare to troops. (Eliyahu Freedman)
The soldiers were also getting a bit of a break at a shop called Route 90 Hamburgers and Beer, which has been offering a free beer tap and eats for soldiers during the war. Ran Sasson, the restaurant’s owner, said a few weeks ago that about 60 kegs had been served so far, along with about $16,000 worth of free burgers, “to help lift their spirits in a little way — without exaggerating — and also for ourselves to feel good by giving.”
He is no longer serving the fare for free, instead charging a discounted rate and soliciting donations to cover the difference. He’s also trying to collect gear for his IDF customers.
“We have turned into a little center here for any soldier that needs something —someone said that the rain is coming, we need wooden frames to not sleep on the floor, I helped arrange it for them from a local kibbutz,” Sasson said.
Israel’s Druze community in the north — which only a few months ago held major demonstrations against a planned windmill energy project in the Golan Heights — has rallied behind the army’s defense of the border.
“When we were first stationed here, there were Druze people driving trucks with a Druze flag that stopped and dropped off cookies and food in a show of support,” said Jeremy.
He added that American Jewish donations have also helped. The Orthodox Jewish high school he attended has offered to tutor kids whose parents are on reserve duty and has offered to send meals to his family. Other schools and volunteer efforts have mobilized to purchase gear and creature comforts for soldiers up north.
With winter approaching, Zack added that many soldiers feel “the rain is scarier than Hezbollah” and that there still is a need for more winter gear.
Most of the time, however, soldiers are on base, and are still “adjusting to the situation,” said Zack, who had just finished his term as an IDF infantry soldier and moved back to California when he learned of the Oct. 7 attack.
“After an initial shock, it is becoming more regular,” he said of serving up north. “We are on the edge of our seats most of the time, preparing in defensive positions, but our commander said honestly that nobody knows what will happen tomorrow.”
Ofek, 24, an artillery combat soldier waiting for an army shuttle to take him back to his base, agreed that “there is some tension in the air waiting.” But he added, “We feel like at the moment of truth we will do what we are doing in Gaza to Hezbollah.”
If Hezbollah joins the war, he said, “We will enter with full force.”
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The post As it fights in Gaza, Israel is girding itself for another potential war in Lebanon appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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US Democrats Demand Release of Pro-Hamas Columbia University Activist Mahmoud Khalil From ICE Detention
US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) addresses attendees as she takes part in a protest calling for a ceasefire in Gaza outside the US Capitol, in Washington, DC, US, Oct. 18, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis
Democrats in the US Congress are largely defending a leading anti-Israel agitator at Columbia University in New York following news of his arrest and detainment by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian from Syria who completed post-graduate studies at Columbia in December, was apprehended by federal authorities on Saturday night and transported to an immigration jail in Louisiana. The pro-Hamas activist was informed that his green card had been revoked and that he would be deported from the United States.
In a statement, the US Department of Homeland Security said ICE agents arrested Khalil “in support of” an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump aimed at combating antisemitism on university campuses.
“Khalil led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization. ICE and the Department of State are committed to enforcing President Trump’s executive orders and to protecting US national security,” the department said.
US President Donald Trump defended Khalil’s arrest and said it will be the first of many.
“We know there are more students at Columbia and other universities across the country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, antisemitism, anti-American activity, and the Trump administration will not tolerate it,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “Many are not students; they are paid agitators. We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again.”
However, a federal judge in New York City on Monday ordered that Khalil not be deported by the Trump administration until the court ruled on a lawsuit presented by his lawyers. According to ICE, the activist is currently being held at the Lasalle Detention facility in Louisiana. Khalil’s case is set to be heard on Wednesday.
Many observers criticized Khalil’s arrest and detainment, arguing that the Trump administration both violated his right to due process and undermined free speech. Critics also argued that the Trump administration does not possess the right to unilaterally revoke green cards from legal residents.
Congressional Democrats largely condemned the ICE arrest of Khalil, arguing that the Trump administration should release the pro-Hamas activist immediately.
“The warrantless arrest of any legal permanent resident seemingly solely over their speech is a chilling, McCarthyesque action in response to the exercise of first amendment rights to free speech,” said Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY).
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, lambasted the arrest, posted on social media that detaining a legal resident “for exercising his right to free speech is something we’d expect from Russia — NOT AMERICA [sic].”
The official BlueSky account of the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee accused the Trump administration of seeking retribution against Khalil for expressing “his First Amendment rights in a way Donald Trump didn’t like” and condemned the White House for practicing “straight up authoritarianism.”
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), one of the most outspoken critics against Israel in Congress, said that Khalil’s arrest is part of a broader effort “to shred our constitutional rights to free speech and due process.” In addition, Tlaib spearheaded a letter to US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, demanding that Khalil be “freed from DHS custody immediately.” Thirteen other Democrats signed the letter.
The letter argued that Khalil has “not been charged or convicted of any crime” and that the Trump administration targeted him “solely for his activism and organizing as a student leader,” as well as his efforts in opposing Israel’s “brutal assault of the Palestinian people in Gaza.” The missive also claimed that the arrest of Khalil represents another example of the Trump administration’s purported “anti-Palestinian racism” and accused the White House of trying to dismantle the “Palestine solidarity movement in this country.” The lawmakers warned that the Trump administration’s tactics against Khalil “will be applied to any and all opposition to his undemocratic agenda.”
Some observers noted out that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), one of the most vocal opponents of the Jewish state in the US Congress, did not sign onto the letter calling for Khalil’s release. Though Ocasio-Cortez has spoken out in defense of Khalil, some on the political left have repudiated her for not taking more strident anti-Israel stances in the 16 months following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of Israel. The lawmaker came under fire by some of the political left last summer for calling for the release of the Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas to Gaza.
Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) also repudiated the arrest, writing that Khalil is “entitled to First Amendment protections like everyone in this country.”
Despite the widespread backlash over Khalil’s arrest, many congressional Republicans praised the announcement, arguing that the Trump administration has taken aggressive action to protect Jewish Americans and clamp down on antisemitism.
While at Columbia, Khalil spearheaded multiple pro-Hamas demonstrations on campus. He was a participant in Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), a constellation of 100 anti-Israel campus organizations calling for the Ivy League institution to cut ties with the Jewish state.
In the aftermath of Khalil’s arrest, video circulated online showing the activist leading a takeover of a campus building at neighboring Barnard College. During the unsanctioned demonstration, activists spread pamphlets glorifying the Hamas Oct. 7 massacres across southern Israel.
In addition, Khalil helped lead the infamous Hamilton Hall takeover on Columbia’s campus in the final weeks of the 2023-2024 school year.
US Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) defended Khalil’s arrest, saying, “If you are on a student visa and you’re an aspiring young terrorist who wants to prey upon your Jewish classmates, you’re going home.”
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) condemned Democrats for “fighting for a pro-Hamas foreigner who has made life hell for Jews on campus.”
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) also lauded the detainment of Khalil, writing that “obtaining a US visa is a privilege, not a right. Friends of Hamas — don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”
In the year following the Hamas-led Oct. 7 slaughters across Israel, Columbia University has emerged as a hotbed of anti-Israel student activism. Last spring, anti-Israel students and faculty erected a student encampment, protesting the university’s ties to the Jewish state. Moreover, Columbia has suffered an exodus of financial support from Jewish donors and alumni, alleging that the university has dragged its feet in combating antisemitism on campus.
Last week, the Trump administration cut $400 million in grants originally intended for Columbia, arguing that the university has not done enough to protect Jewish students. Mounting pressure from the Trump administration reportedly caused the university to collaborate with ICE to detain Khalil.
The post US Democrats Demand Release of Pro-Hamas Columbia University Activist Mahmoud Khalil From ICE Detention first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran’s President to Trump: I Will Not Negotiate, ‘Do Whatever the Hell You Want’
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian attends a press conference in Tehran, Iran, Sept. 16, 2024. Photo: WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Majid Asgaripour via REUTERS
President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran would not negotiate with the US while being threatened, telling President Donald Trump to “do whatever the hell you want,” Iranian state media reported on Tuesday.
“It is unacceptable for us that they [the US] give orders and make threats. I won’t even negotiate with you. Do whatever the hell you want,” state media quoted Pezeshkian as saying.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that Tehran would not be bullied into negotiations, a day after Trump said he had sent a letter urging Iran to engage in talks on a new nuclear deal.
While expressing openness to a deal with Tehran, Trump has reinstated the “maximum pressure” campaign he applied in his first term as president to isolate Iran from the global economy and drive its oil exports down towards zero.
In an interview with Fox Business, Trump said last week, “There are two ways Iran can be handled: militarily, or you make a deal” to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Iran has long denied wanting to develop a nuclear weapon. However, it is “dramatically” accelerating enrichment of uranium to up to 60 percent purity, close to the roughly 90 percent weapons-grade level, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, has warned.
Iran has accelerated its nuclear work since 2019, a year after then-President Trump ditched Tehran’s 2015 nuclear pact with six world powers and reimposed sanctions that have crippled the country’s economy.
The post Iran’s President to Trump: I Will Not Negotiate, ‘Do Whatever the Hell You Want’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syrians Riot in Front of Jewish Museum in Munich Amid Rise in Antisemitic Incidents
Illustrative: Pro-Hamas demonstrators marching in Munich, Germany. Photo: Reuters/Alexander Pohl
Three young Syrian men rioted in front of the Jewish Museum in Munich this past weekend, spitting on photographs of Israeli hostages and deceased soldiers before one of the assailants threatened security personnel with a knife.
The incident, first reported by German media, was one of the latest antisemitic cases in a country that has experienced a surge in open hatred toward Jews since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
During the Gaza conflict, the Jewish Museum has displayed photographs of hostages taken by Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists during their Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel as well as deceased Israeli soldiers, along with candles, to honor and remember them.
On Saturday afternoon, three men — Syrian citizens living in Austria — vandalized the memorial by spitting on it while shouting antisemitic slogans, the German newspapers Süddeutsche Zeitung and Jüdische Allgemeine reported.
After witnessing the attack, two employees from the Jewish community’s security service tried to stop the assailants, who responded aggressively. One of the three men, a 19-year-old, allegedly kicked one of the employees before drawing a knife.
Several police officers assigned to protect the Jewish Center, located next to the museum, noticed the incident and intervened. Soon afterward, more than 30 officers arrived at the scene. Police and security guards had to threaten to use their firearms before the teenager dropped the knife.
According to local police, the man and his two accomplices, a 20-year-old and a 31-year-old, have all been arrested and are under investigation for threats, assault, defamation, and insulting the memory of the deceased.
The Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office has taken over the case, with senior prosecutor Andreas Franck, who also serves as the antisemitism commissioner of the Bavarian judiciary, overseeing the case.
Germany has experienced a sharp spike in antisemitism since Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, amid the ensuing war in Gaza.
In just the first six months of 2024 alone, the number of antisemitic incidents in Berlin surpassed the total for all of the prior year and reached the highest annual count on record, according to Germany’s Federal Association of Departments for Research and Information on Antisemitism (RIAS).
The figures compiled by RIAS were the highest count for a single year since the federally-funded body began monitoring antisemitic incidents in 2015, showing the German capital averaged nearly eight anti-Jewish outrages a day from January to June last year.
According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), police registered 5,154 antisemitic incidents in Germany in 2023, a 95 percent increase compared to the previous year.
However, experts believe that the true number of incidents is much higher but not recorded because of reluctance on the part of the victims.
“Only 20 percent of the antisemitic crimes are reported, so the real number should be five times what we have,” Felix Klein, the German federal government’s chief official dealing with antisemitism, told The Algemeiner in an interview in 2023.
Earlier this year, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz condemned the ongoing discrimination faced by the Jewish community, calling it “outrageous and shameful.”
Last month, Germany’s federal parliament, the Bundestag, passed a motion to address antisemitism and hostility toward Israel in schools and universities, seeking to combat a surge in pro-Hamas demonstrations on campuses and antisemitic incidents across the country.
Jewish students at German universities widely expressed a growing sense of insecurity and uneasiness following Hamas’s Oct. 7 invasion of southern Israel, amid a slew of incidents purportedly meant to protest the war in Gaza.
The recently passed parliamentary motion stipulates that the federal government — in collaboration with the ministers of education and the German Rectors’ Conference, an association of state and state-recognized universities — must ensure that antisemitic behavior in educational institutions results in sanctions.
“This includes the consistent enforcement of house rules, temporary exclusion from classes or studies, and even … expulsion,” the motion reads.
The post Syrians Riot in Front of Jewish Museum in Munich Amid Rise in Antisemitic Incidents first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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