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‘Our Enemies’ Core Assumptions Have Been Shattered’
Smoke billows over southern Lebanon following an Israeli strike, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Tyre, Lebanon, Sept. 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
JNS.org – Recent events have shaken assumptions by Israel’s enemies regarding the strength of the Jewish state and Israeli society, according to former Israeli National Security Adviser Meir Ben Shabbat.
Reflecting on the past year and particularly recent weeks, Ben Shabbat, currently head of the Misgav Institute for National Security, highlighted to JNS on Wednesday how Israel’s resilience and daring, sustained military operations have disrupted core beliefs of Hezbollah and its sponsors in Iran regarding Israel’s ability to endure extended warfare.
At the same time, he cautioned against complacency, and warned that a long fight remained ahead, with Israel now determined to fundamentally change the regional security reality, and not make do with victory pictures.
Ben Shabbat referred to the late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s infamous “spider web” speech, delivered in Bint Jbeil, Southern Lebanon, in May 2000 after the Israel Defense Forces’ withdrawal from Lebanon. In this speech, Nasrallah declared that Israeli society only appeared strong, but lacked the resilience to endure war, describing Israel as “weaker than a spider’s web.”
“Nasrallah and his partners were convinced that Israeli society is weary of war and lacks the resilience to endure a bloody conflict or sustain casualties,” said Ben Shabbat.
This conviction was reinforced further during 2023, when deep divisions and polarization erupted in Israeli society.
However, he added, the events of the past year have shattered all of these assumptions, with Israel demonstrating its ability to manage a long war on multiple fronts while remaining steadfast in its objectives.
“Nasrallah and our other enemies failed to understand the true nature of Israel or the profound impact that Oct. 7—and the shake-up it caused—had on Israeli thinking and behavior,” he added.
Ben Shabbat cited a speech by Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, delivered at the United Nations two weeks ago, in which he stated that “in the past year, the world was witness to Israel’s true nature.”
While Pezeshkian “intended to accuse Israel of crimes against humanity, like Balaam [the non-Israelite biblical prophet], his intended curse ended up being an accurate observation and a compliment: Israel during the year of war after Oct. 7 presents its real nature: Belief, boldness, sophistication and determination against all who rise against it,” said Ben Shabbat.
As a result, there has been a shift among what is left of Hezbollah’s leadership, he continued, especially after Naim Qassem, Nasrallah’s deputy and one of Hezbollah’s founders, appeared to call for a ceasefire in Lebanon during a speech on Tuesday. Notably, he did not link the call to the ongoing fighting against Hamas in Gaza—a linkage Nasrallah insisted on throughout almost a year of conflict.
“This is a good indication of the organization’s position and shows that Israel has succeeded in breaking the connection that Nasrallah had established between the fighting in Lebanon and the fighting in Gaza,” contended Ben Shabbat.
While Hezbollah remains closely tied to Iran, much more so than Hamas, and this connection remains strong, the group’s political position within Lebanon has weakened, he said.
“Anti-Hezbollah forces in Lebanon now have an opportunity to raise their head and come out against the organization that has held the entire country hostage, in a struggle it conducted against us under Iranian sponsorship and support,” he added.
Asked whether Israel could prevent Iran from rearming Hezbollah, Ben Shabbat noted that Israel is actively working toward that goal. “Israel is taking action to counter the enemy’s efforts to strengthen itself, and while it is a complex battle, the battle to stop this is inevitable,” he said. “It of course also requires steps to limit Iran’s [moves] in this area, and its ability to fund Hezbollah’s growth and the other proxy organizations it activates.”
The collapse of Nasrallah’s “spider web” theory, according to Ben Shabbat, is being observed across the region and beyond. Not only are Tehran and its proxy militias taking note, but also others suffering under Iranian influence, he said.
“Lebanese power brokers now have an opportunity, which was until now a dream only, to free themselves from Hezbollah’s oppressive shadow. Sunni leaders in the region, too, have a chance to set red lines regarding Iran’s malicious presence in their territories, or on their borders,” he said.
Ben Shabbat highlighted how recent events have reinforced Israel’s strategic value to Washington and other global powers. The U.S. presidential candidates, the leaders of Russia and China and heads of state from countries still formulating their stance toward Israel are all keenly observing events, he explained.
“If there was ever any doubt about Israel’s value to Washington, the events of the past few days have dispelled it. If there was a need to prove that Israel is the arrowhead in dealing with the forces of evil of Iran, this war provided it. Alongside concern over deterioration into general war, one can also sense optimism following the achievements of the campaign,” he stated.
Ben Shabbat cautioned however that Israel’s adversaries are not yet defeated, stating, “Our enemies in Lebanon and Gaza have been dealt severe blows, but a hard and surprising hit does not necessarily mean it’s decisive or fatal.”
The test, he said, lies in the ability of these enemies to recover and continue their activities. “There is still much work to be done, and it will be complete only when we return the hostages and can declare that the Iranian octopus has finally lost these two tentacles.”
Reflecting on Israel’s history, Ben Shabbat concluded with a message of perseverance.
“The people of Israel have known great disasters throughout history, but we have never sunk into the depths of despair. Our faith has not cracked, and our spirit has never been broken. When we fall, we rise again, and from every crisis, we grew. Israel is eternal.”
The post ‘Our Enemies’ Core Assumptions Have Been Shattered’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Blocks Ramallah Meeting with Arab Ministers, Israeli Official Says
A closed Israeli military gate stands near Ramallah in the West Bank, February 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
Israel will not allow a planned meeting in the Palestinian administrative capital of Ramallah, in the West Bank, to go ahead, an Israeli official said on Saturday, after Arab ministers planning to attend were stopped from coming.
The move, days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government announced one of the largest expansions of settlements in the West Bank in years, underlined escalating tensions over the issue of international recognition of a future Palestinian state.
Saturday’s meeting comes ahead of an international conference, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, that is due to be held in New York on June 17-20 to discuss the issue of Palestinian statehood, which Israel fiercely opposes.
The delegation of senior Arab officials due to visit Ramallah – including the Jordanian, Egyptian, Saudi Arabian and Bahraini foreign ministers – postponed the visit after “Israel’s obstruction of it,” Jordan’s foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that the block was “a clear breach of Israel’s obligations as an occupying force.”
The ministers required Israeli consent to travel to the West Bank from Jordan.
An Israeli official said the ministers intended to take part in “a provocative meeting” to discuss promoting the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“Such a state would undoubtedly become a terrorist state in the heart of the land of Israel,” the official said. “Israel will not cooperate with such moves aimed at harming it and its security.”
A Saudi source told Reuters that Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud had delayed a planned trip to the West Bank.
Israel has come under increasing pressure from the United Nations and European countries which favour a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, under which an independent Palestinian state would exist alongside Israel.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that recognizing a Palestinian state was not only a “moral duty but a political necessity.”
Palestinians want the West Bank territory, which was seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, as the core of a future state along with Gaza and East Jerusalem.
But the area is now criss-crossed with settlements that have squeezed some 3 million Palestinians into pockets increasingly cut off from each other though a network of military checkpoints.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said the announcement this week of 22 new settlements in the West Bank was an “historic moment” for settlements and “a clear message to Macron.” He said recognition of a Palestinian state would be “thrown into the dustbin of history.”
The post Israel Blocks Ramallah Meeting with Arab Ministers, Israeli Official Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Gaza Aid Supplies Hit by Looting as Hamas Ceasefire Response Awaited
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
Armed men hijacked dozens of aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip overnight and hundreds of desperate Palestinians joined in to take supplies, local aid groups said on Saturday as officials waited for Hamas to respond to the latest ceasefire proposals.
The incident was the latest in a series that has underscored the shaky security situation hampering the delivery of aid into Gaza, following the easing of a weeks-long Israeli blockade earlier this month.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday he believed a ceasefire agreement was close but Hamas has said it is still studying the latest proposals from his special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. The White House said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to the proposals.
The proposals would see a 60-day truce and the exchange of 28 of the 58 hostages still held in Gaza for more than 1,200 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, along with the entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave.
On Saturday, the Israeli military, which relaunched its air and ground campaign in March following a two-month truce, said it was continuing to hit targets in Gaza, including sniper posts and had killed what it said was the head of a Hamas weapons manufacturing site.
The campaign has cleared large areas along the boundaries of the Gaza Strip, squeezing the population of more than 2 million into an ever narrower section along the coast and around the southern city of Khan Younis.
Israel imposed a blockade on all supplies entering the enclave at the beginning of March in an effort to weaken Hamas and has found itself under increasing pressure from an international community shocked by the increasingly desperate humanitarian situation the blockade has created.
The United Nations said on Friday the situation in Gaza is the worst since the start of the war began 19 months ago, with the entire population facing the risk of famine despite a resumption of limited aid deliveries earlier this month.
Israel has been allowing a limited number of trucks from the World Food Program and other international groups to bring flour to bakeries in Gaza but deliveries have been hampered by repeated incidents of looting.
At the same time, a separate system, run by a US-backed group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has been delivering meals and food packages at three designated distribution sites.
However, aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF, which they say is not neutral, and say the amount of aid allowed in falls far short of the needs of a population at risk of famine.
“The aid that’s being sent now makes a mockery of the mass tragedy unfolding under our watch,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of the main U.N. relief organization for Palestinians, said in a message on the social media platform X.
NO BREAD IN WEEKS
The World Food Program said it brought 77 trucks carrying flour into Gaza overnight and early on Saturday and all of them were stopped on the way, with food taken by hungry people.
“After nearly 80 days of a total blockade, communities are starving and they are no longer willing to watch food pass them by,” it said in a statement.
Amjad Al-Shawa, head of an umbrella group representing Palestinian aid groups, said the dire situation was being exploited by armed groups which were attacking some of the aid convoys.
He said hundreds more trucks were needed and accused Israel of a “systematic policy of starvation.”
Overnight on Saturday, he said trucks had been stopped by armed groups near Khan Younis as they were headed towards a World Food Programme warehouse in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza and hundreds of desperate people had carried off supplies.
“We could understand that some are driven by hunger and starvation, some may not have eaten bread in several weeks, but we can’t understand armed looting, and it is not acceptable at all,” he said.
Israel says it is facilitating aid deliveries, pointing to its endorsement of the new GHF distribution centers and its consent for other aid trucks to enter Gaza.
Instead it accuses Hamas of stealing supplies intended for civilians and using them to entrench its hold on Gaza, which it had been running since 2007.
The post Gaza Aid Supplies Hit by Looting as Hamas Ceasefire Response Awaited first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Seeks Changes in US Gaza Proposal; Witkoff Calls Response ‘Unacceptable’
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy-designate Steve Witkoff gives a speech at the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena on the inauguration day of Trump’s second presidential term, in Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Hamas said on Saturday it was seeking amendments to a US-backed proposal for a temporary ceasefire with Israel in Gaza, but President Donald Trump’s envoy rejected the group’s response as “totally unacceptable.”
The Palestinian terrorist group said it was willing to release 10 living hostages and hand over the bodies of 18 dead in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. But Hamas reiterated demands for an end to the war and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, conditions Israel has rejected.
A Hamas official described the group’s response to the proposals from Trump’s special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff as “positive” but said it was seeking some amendments. The official did not elaborate on the changes being sought by the group.
“This response aims to achieve a permanent ceasefire, a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and to ensure the flow of humanitarian aid to our people in the Strip,” Hamas said in a statement.
The proposals would see a 60-day truce and the exchange of 28 of the 58 hostages still held in Gaza for more than 1,200 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, along with the entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave.
A Palestinian official familiar with the talks told Reuters that among amendments Hamas is seeking is the release of the hostages in three phases over the 60-day truce and more aid distribution in different areas. Hamas also wants guarantees the deal will lead to a permanent ceasefire, the official said.
There was no immediate response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office to the Hamas statement.
Israel has previously rejected Hamas’ conditions, instead demanding the complete disarmament of the group and its dismantling as a military and governing force, along with the return of all 58 remaining hostages.
Trump said on Friday he believed a ceasefire agreement was close after the latest proposals, and the White House said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to the terms.
Saying he had received Hamas’ response, Witkoff wrote in a posting on X: “It is totally unacceptable and only takes us backward. Hamas should accept the framework proposal we put forward as the basis for proximity talks, which we can begin immediately this coming week.”
On Saturday, the Israeli military said it had killed Mohammad Sinwar, Hamas’ Gaza chief on May 13, confirming what Netanyahu said earlier this week.
Sinwar, the younger brother of Yahya Sinwar, the group’s deceased leader and mastermind of the October 2023 attack on Israel, was the target of an Israeli strike on a hospital in southern Gaza. Hamas has neither confirmed nor denied his death.
The Israeli military, which relaunched its air and ground campaign in March following a two-month truce, said on Saturday it was continuing to hit targets in Gaza, including sniper posts and had killed what it said was the head of a Hamas weapons manufacturing site.
The campaign has cleared large areas along the boundaries of the Gaza Strip, squeezing the population of more than 2 million into an ever narrower section along the coast and around the southern city of Khan Younis.
Israel imposed a blockade on all supplies entering the enclave at the beginning of March in an effort to weaken Hamas and has found itself under increasing pressure from an international community shocked by the desperate humanitarian situation the blockade has created.
On Saturday, aid groups said dozens of World Food Program trucks carrying flour to Gaza bakeries had been hijacked by armed groups and subsequently looted by people desperate for food after weeks of mounting hunger.
“After nearly 80 days of a total blockade, communities are starving and they are no longer willing to watch food pass them by,” the WFP said in a statement.
‘A MOCKERY’
The incident was the latest in a series that has underscored the shaky security situation hampering the delivery of aid into Gaza, following the easing of a weeks-long Israeli blockade earlier this month.
The United Nations said on Friday the situation in Gaza is the worst since the start of the war 19 months ago, with the entire population facing the risk of famine despite a resumption of limited aid deliveries earlier this month.
“The aid that’s being sent now makes a mockery of the mass tragedy unfolding under our watch,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of the main U.N. relief organization for Palestinians, said in a message on X.
Israel has been allowing a limited number of trucks from the World Food Program and other international groups to bring flour to bakeries in Gaza but deliveries have been hampered by repeated incidents of looting.
A separate system, run by a US-backed group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, has been delivering meals and food packages at three designated distribution sites.
However, aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF, which they say is not neutral, and say the amount of aid allowed in falls far short of the needs of a population at risk of famine.
Amjad Al-Shawa, head of an umbrella group representing Palestinian aid groups, said the dire situation was being exploited by armed groups which were attacking some of the aid convoys.
He said hundreds more trucks were needed and accused Israel of a “systematic policy of starvation.”
Israel denies operating a policy of starvation and says it is facilitating aid deliveries, pointing to its endorsement of the new GHF distribution centers and its consent for other aid trucks to enter Gaza.
Instead it accuses Hamas of stealing supplies intended for civilians and using them to entrench its hold on Gaza, which it had been running since 2007.
Hamas denies looting supplies and has executed a number of suspected looters.
The post Hamas Seeks Changes in US Gaza Proposal; Witkoff Calls Response ‘Unacceptable’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.