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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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Herzog Confirms Behind-the-Scenes Negotiations with Hamas – Deal ‘Possible’
Israeli President Isaac Herzog looks on during a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, not pictured, in Washington, DC, on Oct. 25, 2022. Stefani Reynolds/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – President Isaac Herzog revealed on Sunday that contacts are ongoing between Israel and Hamas for a ceasefire and hostage release deal.
In a conversation with Yael Alexander, the mother of the abductee Edan Alexander who has been held captive for 422 days by Hamas, Herzog said that “there are negotiations behind the scenes – and it is possible.”
“I reiterate the call – now, after the agreement in Lebanon, it’s time to make a deal and bring the captives home,” Herzog said.
His meeting comes after Hamas released a video over the weekend showing Edan Alexander, an American-Israeli who was captured on October 7, 2023, while serving in the IDF. The video showed him pleading for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President-Elect Donald Trump to secure a deal.
“There are negotiations with a bitter and cruel enemy whose entire purpose in the video was to demoralize us all,” he said. “On the contrary – I think this video gave us a lot of strength.”
“I had a sleepless night,” Yael Alexander said – “Edan, his voice. and the video which plays continuously. You can see from the video that Edan is going through hell, he is screaming and his eyes look sad, but this gave me a lot of strength – Edan strengthened us with his call to us. We released this video, so everyone can see – Edan is alive, and many other captives are alive and the time has come to do something and release them.”
Out of the 101 hostages held in Gaza, estimates range as to the number still living, with some going as low as two dozen.
The post Herzog Confirms Behind-the-Scenes Negotiations with Hamas – Deal ‘Possible’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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The Voice of Jacob
Chabad Rabbi Zvi Kogan. Photo: @Chabad/X.
JNS.org – The Jewish world is grieving the horrific murder of Rabbi Zvi Kogan in the United Arab Emirates. A gentle ambassador of Judaism, his young life was snuffed out by the perpetrators of evil. We grieve with his young widow, his parents and his family. May God grant them strength, solace and only simcha (“happiness”) in the future.
In this week’s Torah portion, Toldot, we read of the birth of twin sons to Isaac and Rebecca. These twins could not have been less identical. Genesis 25:27 tells us, “The boys grew; Esau became an expert hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a guileless man, dwelling in the tents (of Torah).”
Esau was a wild man, hunting animals as well as women. Jacob was a student of Torah. One was a gladiator, the other a sage. Esau would become the father of Rome, the destroyers of our temple, while Jacob went on to become one of the founding fathers of our faith, the patriarch who fathered the 12 tribes of Israel.
Who should we want our children to emulate: the wild warrior or the gentle scholar?
“The voice is the voice of Jacob, and the hands are the hands of Esau,” said Isaac when he was going to bestow the all-important blessings to his son and heir apparent. Jacob is forever represented by the soft voice of the Torah, of wisdom, reason and ethics. Esau, however, is not symbolized by the voice but by the violent hands that strike out and hurt others.
Jewish heroes have always been the peaceful giants of philosophy, wisdom, ethics and morals. Violent murderers are the antithesis of everything we stand for.
I feel that there is a danger today, when our heroes are our Israel Defense Forces soldiers, pilots and naval officers, as they surely should be. They are superheroes of body and soul. Every time a young man or woman puts on a Tzahal uniform, they put their lives on the line. They are prepared to give their lives to defend our homeland and our people. The most secular kibbutznik becomes a tzaddik, the holy of holies, when he makes that courageous commitment.
In fact, the Sheloh—Rabbi Isaiah Horowitz (1558-1628)—wrote that at the holiest moment of the year, on Yom Kippur, at the very climax of the Neilah service when we shout out Shema Yisrael (“Hear O Israel”), we should have in mind to give our life for God, Al Kiddush Hashem “to sanctify his name,” and it will be considered as if we actually did.
Those courageous chayalim make that pledge daily. And far too many have sacrificed their lives in the current war against terror. So it is entirely appropriate that they should be our superheroes. But the inherent danger here is that our children and the younger generation idealize war and military action, heroic though it may be. These wars of defense are a regrettable necessity in our neck of the woods. And today, sadly, Jews everywhere need to be able to defend themselves.
While we honor, cherish and admire our chayalim, they themselves would much rather be at their desktops, in the library or the yeshivah instead of on the front lines.
We dare not forget who we really are, the children of Jacob, B’nai Yisrael. Jacob is our eternal role model. Esau is the antithesis of everything we stand for.
Yes, believe it or not, Jews are pacifists. We are peace-loving people despite the scandalously libelous claims of genocide against us. Our enemies at the United Nations won’t acknowledge it, but it’s who we are.
Yes, we need the IDF, and we need it to be strong and fearless. But that is an unfortunate necessity, not an ideal.
Rabbi Zvi Kogan was a faithful scion of Jacob. His life was cut short by the hands of Esau. Perhaps the appropriate response to this tragedy would be to emulate his ways and enhance our own observance of this sacred ideal or to encourage another to embrace it.
May the voice of Jacob forever drown out and overpower the tumultuous, blood-stained hands of Esau. And may our reluctant warriors be able to go home and resume their gentle lives in peace and security.
The post The Voice of Jacob first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Unable to Destroy Israel Militarily, Its Enemies Resort to Lawfare
An exterior view of the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands, March 31, 2021. Photo: REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw
JNS.org – Jerusalem has decided to appeal the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) decision to issue warrants for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant. Israel submitted an announcement to the ICC on Wednesday regarding its intention, along with a demand to delay the warrants’ implementation.
In its decision, the ICC said there were reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant were criminally responsible for acts including murder, persecution and starvation as weapons of war as part of a “widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Gaza.”
Netanyahu has called the accusation a “modern Dreyfus trial.”
Once again, the Jews have been placed in the docket, this time as antisemites seek to punish Israel on trumped-up charges of “genocide” against the Palestinian people, he said.
Netanyahu met in Jerusalem on Wednesday with U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who updated him on the efforts he is advancing in Congress against the ICC and countries that cooperate with it.
Amb. Alan Baker, director of the Institute for Contemporary Affairs at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs and the head of the Global Law Forum, told JNS that practically, “assuming states agree to honor the arrest warrants, despite their being inherently invalid and ultra vires [running against] the ICC statute, they could theoretically try to arrest Netanyahu and Gallant if they enter their territory.”
In a statement published on Wednesday, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said Jerusalem’s notice of appeal “shows in detail to what degree the decision to issue the arrest warrants was baseless and without any factual or legal foundation whatsoever.”
Israel denies the authority of the ICC and the legitimacy of the warrants issued against the prime minister and the former defense minister, the statement continued.
Should the court reject the appeal, it will underscore to Israel’s friends in the United States and elsewhere the ICC’s bias against the Jewish state, it added.
The court lacks jurisdiction in the case for several reasons.
First, Israel is not a party to the Rome Statute that established the court, and second because Israel has its own independent, robust judiciary. Third, Palestine is not a state and does not meet the criteria for statehood under international law.
By calling for the arrest of Israel’s leaders, the ICC is violating the Rome Statute, which clearly states that complementarity is the crucial factor in such a decision.
Since Israel has a robust judicial system, it is unnecessary and unlawful for the ICC to involve itself in Israel’s internal matters, and by doing so the court breaches its foundational principles.
Furthermore, as a recent Wall Street Journal editorial noted, “The charge of deliberate starvation is absurd. Israel has facilitated the transfer of more than 57,000 aid trucks and 1.1 million tons of aid [into Gaza], even though Hamas’s rampant theft means Israel is provisioning its battlefield enemy, something the law can’t require.”
The warrant also, absurdly, calls for the arrest of Hamas leader Ibrahim al-Masri, otherwise known as Mohammed Deif, whom Israel and Hamas both say was killed in an Israeli airstrike in July.
By naming him together with Israel’s leaders and thereby feigning even-handedness, the ICC has only demonstrated morally repugnant equivalence.
The Wall Street Journal also highlighted the case of Alice Wairimu Nderitu, the U.N. Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide. After she declared that the war against Hamas does not meet the qualifications for genocide, the United Nations announced that her contract will not be renewed, though it has denied the two things are linked.
According to Nderitu, the term “genocide” encapsulates the Holocaust, the Hutus’ mass murder of Tutsis in Rwanda, the Serbian attacks on Bosnian Muslims and the killings being carried out in Sudan.
“As a legal matter, establishing a pattern of violence as a genocide requires demonstrating intent. Israel’s campaign of self-defense doesn’t qualify,” the Journal‘s editorial noted.
The court’s baseless case against Israel’s leaders, coupled with Nderitu’s dismissal, demonstrates that the ICC is abusing the law for political means.
Several world leaders, including President Joe Biden, have harshly criticized the ICC decision.
Biden stated on Thursday evening that warrants were “outrageous.”
Rep. Mike Waltz, tapped by President-elect Donald Trump as National Security Advisor, tweeted, “The ICC has no credibility and these allegations have been refuted by the U.S. government. Israel has lawfully defended its people & borders from genocidal terrorists. You can expect a strong response to the antisemitic bias of the ICC & UN come January.”
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has invited Netanyahu to visit his country, assuring him he faces no risk of arrest.
While ambiguous at first, France has declared it will not enforce the warrants as Israel is not a signatory to the ICC.
Some analysts have questioned whether France’s decision was linked to the ceasefire announced Wednesday between Hezbollah and Israel.
Famed lawyer Alan Dershowitz has announced he is assembling a “dream team” to defend Israel in The Hague.
This support is crucial because so much of the international community has fallen for the widespread anti-Israel propaganda.
Hala Rharrit, a former U.S. State Department diplomat who has made her anti-Israel opinions well known, said in an Al-Jazeera interview that most of the world is feeling that “finally, finally, there is a sense that the international community is taking action, far little too late.”
She said that in the State Department, “secretly, many American diplomats are celebrating this.”
Rharrit resigned in April in protest over Biden’s support for Israel.
Several world leaders have condoned the ICC decision.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the ICC warrants “courageous.”
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said, “The states that signed the Rome convention are obliged to implement the decision of the court. It’s not optional.”
Some experts have questioned whether the warrant and its implications could prevent civilized nations from fighting terrorism.
“If this progresses to a large-scale issuance of arrest warrants for a wider range of military people and politicians, it could certainly serve as a warning to states involved in fighting terror,” said Amb. Baker.
“But this issue is more of a blatant Israel-directed issue and would not necessarily be used against other states fighting terror,” he added.
According to Natasha Hausdorff, legal director of UK Lawyers for Israel Charitable Trust, “Every phrase of every sentence” in the court’s warrant “was in fact false.”
In a conversation with Matt Frei of Leading Britain’s Conversation (LBC), Hausdorff provided a stinging rebuke to the ICC. “One example is that in furtherance of this allegation of starvation, the prosecutor relied on a report that suggested that famine might come to parts of the Gaza Strip,” she said.
“That report was subsequently debunked by a Famine Review Committee report that indicated it had been based on insufficient or incomplete information and it drew implausible conclusions,” she said.
“The overall conclusion of that process and also from the press release the court put out on Thursday is that they have made that determination to arrest Netanyahu and Gallant on the basis of this slew of false information,” she said.
Should Israel be approaching this challenge differently?
According to Baker, Israel needs to show the countries that are party to the ICC statute “that the issuance of the warrants is ultra vires the terms of the statute since the ICC cannot exercise jurisdiction in the territory of a non-state entity that has no sovereign territory.”
He added that it is “widely acknowledged that no state of Palestine exists, and the fact that the Palestinian leadership has manipulated the United Nations and ICC to treat them as if they are a state doesn’t alter the basic legal and political fact that there is no state of Palestine. Hence the ICC cannot be given jurisdiction by a non-state, and cannot issue arrest warrants.”
“Also,” he said, “as Israel is not a party to the ICC statute, its senior officials enjoy state and diplomatic immunity and thus cannot be arrested.”
The post Unable to Destroy Israel Militarily, Its Enemies Resort to Lawfare first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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