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US Sends Additional Forces to Middle East as Israel-Hezbollah Tensions Soar, Pentagon Says
Smoke billows over southern Lebanon following Israeli strikes, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border, Sept. 23, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Gil Eliyahu
The United States is sending a small number of additional troops to the Middle East given escalating tensions between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, the Pentagon said on Monday, declining to specify the precise number or mission of the deployed forces.
“Out of an abundance of caution, we are sending a small number of additional US military personnel forward to augment our forces that are already in the region,” Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesperson, told reporters.
After almost a year of war against Hamas in Gaza, Israel is shifting its focus to its northern frontier, where Hezbollah, a powerful Iran-backed terrorist organization, has been firing rockets into Israel in support of its ally Hamas.
Israel‘s military on Monday struck Hezbollah in Lebanon’s south, eastern Bekaa valley, and northern region near Syria in its most widespread strikes. An Israeli strike on Monday evening on the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital targeted senior Hezbollah leader Ali Karaki, the head of the southern front, a security source told Reuters.
US President Joe Biden’s administration has been seeking to contain the conflict to Gaza and has repeatedly called for the Israel-Lebanon border crisis to be resolved through diplomacy. That call for diplomacy has been underscored by US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, in daily calls with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Experts question whether Iran would stay on the sidelines if Lebanon’s Hezbollah’s existence were threatened and say US troops could also find themselves targeted throughout the Middle East, if a regional war breaks out.
In their call on Sunday, Austin suggested that no outside actors should intervene in the conflict.
“The secretary made clear that the United States remains postured to protect US forces and personnel and determined to deter any regional actors from exploiting the situation or expanding the conflict,” the Pentagon said in a statement.
Those US capabilities include the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group, fighter aircraft and air defenses.
“We have more capability in the region today than we did on April 14th when Iran conducted its drone and missile attack against Israel,” Ryder said.
“So all of those forces combined provide us with the options to be able to protect our forces should they be attacked.”
Ryder referred to Iran’s attack by more than 300 missiles and drones, which caused only modest damage inside Israel thanks to air defense interceptions from the United States, Britain, and other allies in the region. The April 14 strikes were Iran’s first-ever direct attack on Israel.
The post US Sends Additional Forces to Middle East as Israel-Hezbollah Tensions Soar, Pentagon Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Treasure Trove: An Israeli stamp reflects the complex mix of emotions about Oct. 7
Michelle Shalmiev was born in a village in the Caucasian mountains and immigrated to Israel and settled on a kibbutz when she was 14. Her series “Putting Your Stamp on History” […]
The post Treasure Trove: An Israeli stamp reflects the complex mix of emotions about Oct. 7 appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Download a special Oct. 7 print edition of The Canadian Jewish News
Printable obituaries of eight Canadian victims and more of our original coverage.
The post Download a special Oct. 7 print edition of The Canadian Jewish News appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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The Jewish People Perform Another Miracle
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is seen addressing supporters, in Beirut, Lebanon. Photo: Reuters.
JNS.org – This Oct. 7 will not only be an anniversary of tears, of pure contrition, even if the memory is burning as the people of Israel live. As to how, it wasn’t at all obvious. Our whole history is made of miracles—from the splitting of the sea to escape from the Egyptians to the Inquisition to the pogroms to the thousand other genocidal attacks to which the Jews have been subjected. In every case, the results are always incredible and surprising, especially for how we have emerged active, faithful to our Torah tradition and committed to the return to Jerusalem until we made it happen.
The War of Independence in 1948 was fought by concentration-camp veterans, yet we defeated all the Arab armies, united in hatred, who marched against us. Later, in 1967, 1973 wars were won by a hair’s breadth with miraculous strokes of imagination and leaders who gave birth to ideas that people would have expected. No one would have ever bet a euro, penny or shekel on the idea that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and his entire hierarchy could be eliminated, petrifying Iran, especially since we have already reduced its other favorite proxy, Hamas, to pieces. And now we have bombed Iran’s other proxy, the Houthis, some 2,000 kilometers away, destroying the airport from which they receive their weapons and aid from the ayatollahs. The Islamic Republic’s leader, Ali Khamenei, is reportedly hiding underground, the Iraqi and Syrian Shi’ites are waiting to see if they are next, and cities controlled by Tehran are shaking.
As President Joe Biden said, it is a measure of justice, but one that Israel has undertaken in an impossible fashion, defending its citizens amid a thousand prohibitions with determination and without fear. Only in this way can a 76-year-old young state, which has been attacked from all sides, defend itself. The country’s existence is the latest chapter in the history of a people born many millennia ago in the Land of Israel, who are finally back home and defending their state.
The war is certainly not over, as Hezbollah reportedly had 100,000 fighters. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows that he must see this fight through to the end, despite the international pressure to which Israel has been subjected for nearly a year. Israel’s leadership understands that its very existence is at definitive risk if there is no “new Middle East” in the aftermath of Oct. 7.
While previous generations and Israeli leaders hoped that peace agreements would establish peace in the region, today’s leaders know that there is also a need for battle to stop those who, dominated by absurd fanatical and religious beliefs, wish to kill you. (After all, what do the Houthi rebels in Yemen have to do with the Jews and Israel?)
This is the lesson of our time—not just for Israel and the Jewish people but for everyone. The Jewish people are writing a new page in history, one in which the free world must write and fight alongside them, as it is a battle for the survival of Western ideals. Israel has eliminated the two most dangerous terrorist groups in the world—Hamas and Hezbollah—with operations that will set a precedent for decades. And it challenges Iran. I would like to hear the applause, please.
The post The Jewish People Perform Another Miracle first appeared on Algemeiner.com.