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Israel Says Hezbollah Thwarted but Situation on Lebanon Border ‘Not Sustainable’
An explosion takes place as Israeli strikes hit southern Lebanon, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Zibqin, Lebanon, Aug. 25, 2024, in this still image obtained from a video. Photo: Reuters TV via REUTERS
Israeli officials reacted with satisfaction on Monday after a long-expected missile attack by the Iranian-backed terrrorist group Hezbollah appeared to have been largely thwarted by pre-emptive Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon.
Both Hezbollah and Israel seemed content to let Sunday’s attack, in retaliation for the killing of a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut last month, count as settled for the moment.
Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said Hezbollah had suffered a “crushing blow” from the Israeli strikes but that a longer lasting solution was still needed.
“The current situation is not sustainable,” he told a briefing, referring to the tens of thousands evacuated from their homes in northern Israel, a situation mirrored on the other side of the border in southern Lebanon. “Israel will do its duty and return its population to our sovereign territory.”
Hopes that children might return for the start of the new school year in September have evaporated, with financial assistance for residents evacuated from their homes extended to Dec 31.
However there was some optimism that the exchange of fire, which did not cause the kind of extensive damage many in Israel had feared, might help talks aimed at halting the fighting in Gaza and bringing Israeli and foreign hostages home.
Palestinian terrorist group Hamas has said it will not agree to a deal that allows Israeli troops to remain in the band of territory at the southern edge of the Gaza Strip along the border with Egypt. But some commentators said Sunday’s exchange of fire might prove that Hamas lacked the kind of support it would need to push the conflict outside Gaza.
“Maybe — just maybe — Israel‘s success at foiling Hezbollah’s retaliation might pave the way to concessions by Hamas in the negotiations over a hostage deal, given the failed bid to see the war expanded to engulf the entire region,” wrote Avi Issacharof, a commentator in Israel‘s biggest-selling daily Yedioth Ahronoth.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, around 100 Israeli jets hit dozens of Hezbollah launch sites in southern Lebanon, destroying thousands of rockets the military said were aimed at Israel. Hezbollah did launch hundreds of missiles, but most were intercepted or fell in open areas.
Hezbollah denied that its response to the killing of its senior commander Fuad Shukr had been defused, but said the operation had been completed successfully, drawing hopes that a line might be drawn under the incident, at least for now.
Iran, which has vowed retaliation against Israel for the assassination in Tehran last month of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, also said it was not looking to fuel regional tensions.
The post Israel Says Hezbollah Thwarted but Situation on Lebanon Border ‘Not Sustainable’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Germany Returns Painting Stolen for Hitler’s Museum to Heirs of Jewish Owner
A partial view of “The Valley of Mills near Amalfi” by Carl Blechen. Photo: Bridgeman Art Library via Wikimedia Commons
Germany has restituted a painting that was stolen by the Nazis in 1942 from the family of two Jewish brothers and intended to be used in a museum for Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
The landscape painting “Valley of Mills near Amalfi” (ca. 1830) by the 19th century German artist Carl Blechen was owned by Arthur and Eugen Goldschmidt, who were also art collectors. The painting was purchased by their father in Berlin and inherited by the brothers when he died. Arthur, who was also a publisher, and Eugen, who was a chemist, faced Nazi persecution and shortly after Kristallnacht in November 1938, the brothers committed suicide.
Their art collection was inherited by their nephew Edgar Moor but he had recently emigrated to Johannesburg, South Africa, so the artworks stayed in the brothers’ former apartment in Berlin. In July 1942, the Gestapo confiscated everything owned by Moor that remained in Germany, including “Valley of Mills near Amalfi.” Germany’s Federal Art Administration announced that the German government returned the Blechen painting to Moor’s heirs earlier this month after the signing of a restitution agreement in May.
“Based on the information available, it can be safely assumed that the painting in question was confiscated by Edgar Moor as a result of Nazi persecution,” the Federal Art Administration said. Including “The Valley of Mills near Amalfi,” the Federal Republic of Germany has restituted 69 artworks.
The Blechen painting was bought in 1944 by a special commission organized by Hitler to acquire items that would be displayed at a Fürhermuseum he planned to open in Linz, Austria. “Valley of Mills near Amalfi“ was stored inside Hitler’s building in Munich called Führerbau, which stills stands today, but it was stolen in 1945. The Munich police got a hold of the painting in 1946, and in June 1949, the American military government transferred it and other objects that had not been restituted to Bavarian Prime Minister Hans Ehard. The painting was handed over to Germany’s federal government in 1952 and was officially made federal property in 1960, along with other items formerly owned by the Nazis.
The post Germany Returns Painting Stolen for Hitler’s Museum to Heirs of Jewish Owner first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran’s Top Diplomat Vows ‘Definitive, Calculated’ Response to Killing of Hamas Chief Haniyeh
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi looks on before a meeting with Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, in Tehran, Iran, Aug. 26, 2024. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Iran’s plan to attack Israel in retaliation for the recent killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran will be “definitive” and “calculated,” according to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
“Iran[‘s] reaction to Israeli terrorist attack in Tehran is definitive, and will be measured & well calculated,” Araghchi wrote on X/Twitter late on Sunday. “We do not fear escalation, yet do not seek it — unlike Israel.”
Araghchi noted that he made the comment during a telephone conversation with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who called to congratulate him on his new appointment as Iran’s top diplomat.
Pleased to receive congratulatory call from Italian FM @Antonio_Tajani. Lengthy discussion focused on region.
Iran reaction to Israeli terrorist attack in Tehran is definitive, and will be measured & well calculated. We do not fear escalation, yet do not seek it—unlike Israel.
— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) August 25, 2024
The Iranian foreign ministry then released a statement on Monday saying that Araghchi told his Italian counterpart that Tehran saw the killing of Haniyeh as “an unforgivable violation of Iran’s security and sovereignty.”
Araghchi also warned that Iran is not afraid to increase tensions in the Middle East and that its response to Haniyeh’s death is “inevitable,” according to the statement.
Haniyeh, the exiled political chief of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, was killed in an explosion in Iran’s capital city on July 31. Iran has accused Israel of carrying out the assassination and vowed revenge, which, according to experts and Western officials, will likely take the form of a direct strike on the Jewish state. The Israeli government has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for Haniyeh’s death.
Iran is the chief international sponsor of Hamas, providing the terrorist group with weapons, funding, and training.
It is unclear when Iran will take action against Israel. Last week, the spokesperson for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an Iranian military force and internationally designated terrorist organization, revealed there could be a long wait.
“Time is in our favor, and the waiting period for this response could be long,” Alimohammad Naini said, according to Iranian state media. Naini added that “the enemy” should wait for a calculated response.
Araghchi’s comments came after Israel fighter jets early on Sunday destroyed thousands of rocket launchers belonging to the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, after detecting an imminent attack on the Jewish state.
Hezbollah, which is Iran’s chief proxy force in the Middle East, subsequently fired more than 200 projectiles into Israel.
“What happened today is not the end of the story,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said of the preemptive strikes. [Hezbollah chief Hassan] Nasrallah in Beirut and [Iranian Supreme Leader Ali] Khamenei in Tehran need to know that this is an additional step in changing the situation in the north and returning our residents securely to their homes.”
Hezbollah has pummeled northern Israeli communities almost daily with barrages of drones, rockets, and missiles since the start of the Gaza conflict in October.
About 80,000 Israelis have been forced to evacuate Israel’s north during that time due to the unrelenting attacks. Most of them have spent the past 10 months living in hotels in other areas of Israel.
Hezbollah had said it would attack Israel in retaliation for the killing of Fuad Shukr, a senior Hezbollah commander, in an airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon late last month. Israel claimed responsibility for Shukr’s death.
According to reports, the expected Iranian response will likely be larger than Iran’s unprecedented direct attack on Israeli soil in April. In that attack, Iran fired some 300 missiles and drones at Israel, nearly all of which were downed by the Jewish state and its allies.
The post Iran’s Top Diplomat Vows ‘Definitive, Calculated’ Response to Killing of Hamas Chief Haniyeh first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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The biggest loser: Phoebe Maltz Bovy reviews a novel about millennial woman malaise
Did you ever feel like everyone around you has their life together and you’re the one left behind? I don’t want to say that everyone’s had that sentiment—Donald Trump, perhaps, has not—but it is, as feelings go, a relatable one. And it’s the one at the centre of Lauren Mechling and Rachel Dodes’s new novel, […]
The post The biggest loser: Phoebe Maltz Bovy reviews a novel about millennial woman malaise appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.