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Iran’s Steadily Eroding Ring of Fire
Objects are seen in the sky above Jerusalem after Iran launched drones and missiles towards Israel, in Jerusalem April 14, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
JNS.org – Iran’s ring of fire around Israel is shrinking and the Islamic Republic’s axis is not what it was several months ago, a former senior Israeli defense official says, following high profile targeted killings of Hamas Politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hezbollah chief of staff Fu’ad Shukr in Beirut on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.
In a call with journalists organized by the Jerusalem Press Club, Maj. Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror, a former national security adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, emphasized that the Israel Defense Forces’ recent achievements in Gaza represent a significant blow to the Iranian axis.
Amidror highlighted the broader implications of Israel’s operations beyond the targeted assassinations. He noted that the successful elimination of key figures in Hezbollah and Hamas is part of a larger picture.
“If we want to understand the situation, we have to look not just at the success of assassinating important people, one in Hezbollah, one the head of Hamas, but also at the situation in Gaza,” said Amidror, who is a senior research fellow at both the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security and the Washington-based Jewish Institute for National Security of America.
He pointed out that Hamas in Gaza is steadily losing its operational capabilities. Once a formidable military-terror organization, Hamas in Gaza now operates at a fraction of its previous strength due to sustained IDF operations.
“If Hamas began October 7 with 100% capabilities, today it is at 30%. Seventy percent was destroyed by Israel,” Amidror said.
The successful war against Hamas means the remainder of the Iranian axis must deal with a new reality.
“The picture in front of decision-makers in Tehran, Beirut and elsewhere is different from a few months ago when it seemed Israel was losing its position,” Amidror said.
“The proxies, the ring of fire that they [the Iranians] build around Israel, in which the strongest element is Hezbollah, not Hamas—now, after the 7th of October, we have to finish the job in Gaza and then to think when and how and where to do the needed actions against Hezbollah.
“It might happen within few days if the situation will deteriorate. But it must be postponed for a few months, so that Israel will be in a better position to do it in the future after rebuild our stores [of munitions] and so on and so forth,” he assessed.
The assassination of Haniyeh in Tehran and the success of Israel in eliminating Hezbollah’s No. 2 in Beirut show “Israel’s determination to eliminate the organizational side of Hamas, not just its military capabilities,” Amidror added.
Hamas will find someone to represent Hamas in Qatar and in Tehran in the future, said Amidror. Hamas in Gaza terror chief Yahya Sinwar is more concerned about his position in Gaza, he noted.
‘Connect intelligence to the right weapon’
Maj. Gen. (res.) Amos Yadlin, former head of Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate and current president of MIND Israel, a consultancy that advises Israeli leaders and security agencies, said that the two quality operations of Israel Defense Forces against two top terrorists, one in Beirut and one in Tehran, “show the capability to connect intelligence to the right weapon.”
Yadlin continued, “Israel is basically implementing here the Munich Olympics revenge [program] that took about a decade to assassinate all those who were involved in the Munich ’72 massacre. So Israel opted to do the same to all these that were involved in the 7 October attack, and the killing, burning, beheading and raping of our citizens in the western Negev.”
Yadlin said that he expects Hezbollah and Iran will to evaluate their next steps carefully before responding. “Both sides are trying to find a modus operandi that will be strong enough to make a statement but not escalate to a full-scale war.”
The question remains how these developments will influence future negotiations and possible ceasefires. Amidror speculated that the hostages’ situation in Gaza might be influenced more by the situation of the ground than by the assassination of leaders. “For Sinwar, the situation in Gaza is much more important than the assassination of Haniyeh,” he assessed.
He listed Haniyeh, Hamas deputy politburo chief Saleh al-Arouri, who was assassinated in Beirut in January, and Hamas military-terror chief in Gaza Mohammed Deif, as well as Hamas’s No. 3 in Gaza, Marwan Issa, as being eliminated. “So we are now four out of six from the top leaders that already punished for what they have done on the 7th of October.”
Remaining alive are Sinwar and his brother Muhammad, who appears to have replaced Deif as head of Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades in Gaza.
“The fact that it was done in Beirut and Tehran is to say we are learning that Gaza is not the core of the issue anymore,” said Yadlin. “Israel is now in a war with seven fronts and the leading forces in this front are Iran and Hezbollah.”
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Israel to Issue 54,000 Call-Up Notices to Ultra-Orthodox Students
Haredi Jewish men look at the scene of an explosion at a bus stop in Jerusalem, Israel, on Nov. 23, 2022. Photo: Reuters/Ammar Awad
Israel’s military said it would issue 54,000 call-up notices to ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students following a Supreme Court ruling mandating their conscription and amid growing pressure from reservists stretched by extended deployments.
The Supreme Court ruling last year overturned a decades-old exemption for ultra-Orthodox students, a policy established when the community comprised a far smaller segment of the population than the 13 percent it represents today.
Military service is compulsory for most Israeli Jews from the age of 18, lasting 24-32 months, with additional reserve duty in subsequent years. Members of Israel’s 21 percent Arab population are mostly exempt, though some do serve.
A statement by the military spokesperson confirmed the orders on Sunday just as local media reported legislative efforts by two ultra-Orthodox parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition to craft a compromise.
The exemption issue has grown more contentious as Israel’s armed forces in recent years have faced strains from simultaneous engagements with Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthis in Yemen, and Iran.
Ultra-Orthodox leaders in Netanyahu’s brittle coalition have voiced concerns that integrating seminary students into military units alongside secular Israelis, including women, could jeopardize their religious identity.
The military statement promised to ensure conditions that respect the ultra-Orthodox way of life and to develop additional programs to support their integration into the military. It said the notices would go out this month.
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Influential Far-Right Minister Lashes out at Netanyahu Over Gaza War Policy
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends an inauguration event for Israel’s new light rail line for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, in Petah Tikva, Israel, Aug. 17, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich sharply criticized on Sunday a cabinet decision to allow some aid into Gaza as a “grave mistake” that he said would benefit the terrorist group Hamas.
Smotrich also accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of failing to ensure that Israel’s military is following government directives in prosecuting the war against Hamas in Gaza. He said he was considering his “next steps” but stopped short of explicitly threatening to quit the coalition.
Smotrich’s comments come a day before Netanyahu is due to hold talks in Washington with President Donald Trump on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day Gaza ceasefire.
“… the cabinet and the Prime Minister made a grave mistake yesterday in approving the entry of aid through a route that also benefits Hamas,” Smotrich said on X, arguing that the aid would ultimately reach the Islamist group and serve as “logistical support for the enemy during wartime”.
The Israeli government has not announced any changes to its aid policy in Gaza. Israeli media reported that the government had voted to allow additional aid to enter northern Gaza.
The prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The military declined to comment.
Israel accuses Hamas of stealing aid for its own fighters or to sell to finance its operations, an accusation Hamas denies. Gaza is in the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe, with conditions threatening to push nearly a half a million people into famine within months, according to U.N. estimates.
Israel in May partially lifted a nearly three-month blockade on aid. Two Israeli officials said on June 27 the government had temporarily stopped aid from entering north Gaza.
PRESSURE
Public pressure in Israel is mounting on Netanyahu to secure a permanent ceasefire, a move opposed by some hardline members of his right-wing coalition. An Israeli team left for Qatar on Sunday for talks on a possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal.
Smotrich, who in January threatened to withdraw his Religious Zionism party from the government if Israel agreed to a complete end to the war before having achieved its objectives, did not mention the ceasefire in his criticism of Netanyahu.
The right-wing coalition holds a slim parliamentary majority, although some opposition lawmakers have offered to support the government from collapsing if a ceasefire is agreed.
The post Influential Far-Right Minister Lashes out at Netanyahu Over Gaza War Policy first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Australia Police Charge Man Over Alleged Arson on Melbourne Synagogue
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks to the media during a press conference with New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon at the Australian Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Aug. 16, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Tracey Nearmy
Australian police have charged a man in connection with an alleged arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue with worshippers in the building, the latest in a series of incidents targeting the nation’s Jewish community.
There were no injuries to the 20 people inside the East Melbourne Synagogue, who fled from the fire on Friday night. Firefighters extinguished the blaze in the capital of Victoria state.
Australia has experienced several antisemitic incidents since the start of the Israel-Gaza war in October 2023.
Counter-terrorism detectives late on Saturday arrested the 34-year-old resident of Sydney, capital of neighboring New South Wales, charging him with offenses including criminal damage by fire, police said.
“The man allegedly poured a flammable liquid on the front door of the building and set it on fire before fleeing the scene,” police said in a statement.
The suspect, whom the authorities declined to identify, was remanded in custody after his case was heard at Melbourne Magistrates Court on Sunday and no application was made for bail, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported.
Authorities are investigating whether the synagogue fire was linked to a disturbance on Friday night at an Israeli restaurant in Melbourne, in which one person was arrested for hindering police.
The restaurant was extensively damaged, according to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, an umbrella group for Australia’s Jews.
It said the fire at the synagogue, one of Melbourne’s oldest, was set as those inside sat down to Sabbath dinner.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog went on X to “condemn outright the vile arson attack targeting Jews in Melbourne’s historic and oldest synagogue on the Sabbath, and on an Israeli restaurant where people had come to enjoy a meal together”.
“This is not the first such attack in Australia in recent months. But it must be the last,” Herzog said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the incidents as “severe hate crimes” that he viewed “with utmost gravity.” “The State of Israel will continue to stand alongside the Australian Jewish community,” Netanyahu said on X.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese late on Saturday described the alleged arson, which comes seven months after another synagogue in Melbourne was targeted by arsonists, as shocking and said those responsible should face the law’s full force.
“My Government will provide all necessary support toward this effort,” Albanese posted on X.
Homes, schools, synagogues and vehicles in Australia have been targeted by antisemitic vandalism and arson. The incidents included a fake plan by organized crime to attack a Sydney synagogue using a caravan of explosives in order to divert police resources, police said in March.
The post Australia Police Charge Man Over Alleged Arson on Melbourne Synagogue first appeared on Algemeiner.com.