A WordPress Blog-THE CHURCH MILITANT Ephesians 5:11-"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them". This Christian News Blog maintains a one stop resource of current news and reports of its own related to church, moral, spiritual, and related political issues, plus articles, and postings from other online discernment ministries, and media which share the aims to obey the biblical commands to shed light on and refute error, heresy, apostasy, cults, and spiritual abuse. ALL CONTENT FROM HTTPS://RATHEREXPOSETHEM.BLOGSPOT.COM MOVED TO THIS NEW BLOG, MAY 2020
Hundreds of Hezbollah terrorists were injured in Lebanon on Tuesday after handheld pagers “exploded” in what the group claims was a targeted attack, according to a state media report.
Members of the terrorist organization confirmed the “wide-range attacks” on its operatives, including fighters and medics, with one member claiming its the “biggest security breach” since it began its attacks on the Jewish State began on October 8th.
Videos on social media caught the explosions on camera. Viewers can see the Hezbollah men, who had communication devices in their pockets, suddenly react after small explosions occur seemingly out of nowhere. Seconds later, Islamist terrorists began crying in pain as bystanders ran away in terror.
Among those injured when the pagers exploded included Iran’s ambassador in Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, Iranian state media reported.
“The enemy [Israel] stands behind this security incident,” a Hezbollah official told the Associated Press.
The pagers that detonated were reportedly the latest models that the terrorist organization had recently acquired and given to its members. Reuters was informed by several sources that there is now ongoing suspicion that someone or a group working for Israel had discreetly tampered with the devices.
Additionally, one Hezbollah official told a Middle Eastern correspondent working for the Wall Street Journal that some Hezbollah members felt their pagers quickly begin to heat up, so they disposed of them immediately before a detonation could occur.
The leader of the terrorist group, Hassan Nasrallah, previously warned his men of the possible dangers of carrying cell phones or pagers, claiming that their movements could be tracked or they could have a targeted strike carried out against them.
Nevertheless, who or what is behind the pager explosions has still not been revealed.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry has asked its emergency personnel treating the wounded to get rid of all their wireless devices. Additionally, local residents claimed that the explosions continued for “over 30 minutes” after the initial explosion.
Currently, no deaths have been reported as of Tuesday morning, but at least several casualties are expected after examining the Hezbollah members’ gruesome injuries, according to Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad.
The explosions come as Israel and Hezbollah have engaged in daily attacks over the border since the terrorist group joined Hamas in their joint effort against the Jewish state.
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The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on June 24 announced to the world that in a war with Hezbollah, Israel shouldn’t count on help from America. This stark warning must have delighted the mullahs in Iran, and caused great consternation in Israel. More on this disastrous statement by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Charles Q. Brown, can be found here: “Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman: US likely unable to assist Israel in war with Hezbollah,” Jerusalem Post, June 24, 2024:
Joint Chiefs of Staff head Charles Q. Brown warned on Monday that the US may not be able to help defend Israel against an all-out war with Hezbollah in the same way that it stepped in during the Iran drone attack in April.
Why would Israel's strongest military power in the world be unable to help its most loyal ally, Israel, in its moment of maximum peril, fighting against the terrorists of Hezbollah who have been supplied by Iran with 150,000 rockets and missiles, enough to overwhelm Israel’s anti-missile system? Why wouldn’t fighter jets on American aircraft carriers now in the eastern Mediterranean be able to help the IDF attack Hezbollah’s storehouses of those rockets and missiles, its control-and-command centers, its tunnel systems?
Brown, a US Air Force general, also said that Iran “would be more inclined to support Hezbollah.”
Iran, Brown says, “would be more inclined to support Hezbollah.” It would not merely be “more inclined.” It will support Hezbollah, period, just as it has been doing for decades.. Brown should have said something like this: “Iran has already supplied Hezbollah with 150,000 rockets and missiles, and with billions of dollars in financing, and of course Iran will back Hezbollah to the hilt in any war between it and Israel. We must provide Israel, our most loyal ally, not only with all the weapons it asks for, but make clear to Iran that we will not allow Hezbollah to rain down death on Israeli civilians. We will act to help Israel defend its civilian population against the barrage of missiles from Hezbollah.”
While the Islamic Republic supports Hamas, General Brown said that Tehran would stand more firmly behind Hezbollah, “particularly if they felt that Hezbollah was being significantly threatened.”
In other words, Brown recognizes that Iran would do even more to help Hezbollah than it did for Hamas in Gaza.
Brown also said that any Israeli military offensive into Lebanon could risk triggering a broader war, putting US forces in danger.
What is the “broader war” that General Brown fears? Iran has been engaged in a “broader war” for decades. It has backed the Houthis in the Yemeni civil war, and provided them with the missiles they have fired at Saudi oil installations and at ships in the Red Sea, disrupting 15% of the world’s sea traffic, that has had to be rerouted round the Cape of Good Hope. Iran has supported Syria’s Assad with weapons and money that have allowed him to crush his opposition in the Syrian civil war. Iranian-affiliated militias in Iraq have attacked American bases in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan. What General Brown should have said was that “Iran has been engaged in an attempt to create a Shia crescent, including the Houthis in Yemen, the Kata’ib Hezbollah militias in Iraq, Alawite-ruled Syria, and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Now Iran wants, through its puppet Hezbollah, to fulfill its dream of destroying Israel. We will not let that happen. There will be no daylight between the United States and Israel if war breaks out with Hezbollah. And the Iranians should be careful not to attack any American forces in the region.”
But that is not what he said.
In the event of war, Brown said the US would likely not be able to provide the same assistance as it did when Iran carried out a missile and drone attack on Israel earlier this year. He also said it was hard to fend off the shorter-range rockets that Hezbollah fires across the border into Israel.
Why let Hezbollah know that the US would not be able to provide “the same assistance” to Israel as it did during the missile and drone attack by Iran on April 13? This will only encourage Hassan Nasrallah to attack the Jewish state. Or is Brown trying to frighten Israel into avoiding a war that most Israelis think will be necessary if the 80,000 Israelis who have fled northern Israel to avoid Hezbollah’s barrages of rockets are to be able to return home?
He asserted that the safety of US forces was a priority and reiterated that no attacks had been carried out on US bases in the region since February.
Are the few thousand American troops in the region of greater concern than the eight million Jews in the state of Israel? In addition, not a single attack on US bases in the region has been launched in the past five months. It seems that Iran and its proxies have learned a lesson— not to attack the American military — the hard way.
Brown said the U.S. continued to warn Israel against going to war with Lebanon.
“Think about the second order of effect of any type of operation into Lebanon, and how that might play out and how it impacts not just the region, but how it impacts our forces in [sic] regions as well,” Brown reportedly said….
The Bidenites still do not understand: Israel does not want war with Hezbollah. But it cannot tolerate a situation where, because of Hezbollah missile and rocket barrages, 80,000 Israelis have had to leave their homes in northern Israel and will not be able to return until those barrages seize. It is Hezbollah that needs to be persuaded to stop those barrages, and the Americans ought to be warning Hezbollah, not Israel, of a war that will otherwise ensue, and likely leave much of Lebanon in ruins.
All that Israel wants, in essence, is that Hezbollah stop firing at civilians in the north, so that the 80,000 Israelis who have left may now return home, and that it pulls back its forces a few kilometers from the Lebanese border with Israel, creating a buffer zone between Israel and the terror group.
Prime Minister Netanyahu told Channel 14 on Sunday night that Israel is open to a diplomatic resolution to the Hezbollah threat, but he stressed, “It must be on our terms.”…
A diplomatic resolution might be crafted by France, which has historic ties to Lebanon. The Quai d’Orsay could enroll fellow members of the European Union to threaten an economic boycott of Iran unless that country directs Hezbollah to stand down, and end its daily barrages into northern Israel.
The Israelis are resolute, determined to put a stop to Hezbollah’s continued aggression in the north. This is the time for the Bidenites to declare their full-throated support for Israel, to deliver at once the shipments of weapons that have been deliberately withheld or slowed down, and to offer to help defend the Jewish state against the massive armory of rockets and missiles that Hezbollah is prepared to rain down on the Jewish state, hoping to overwhelm by sheer numbers the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system. The Americans could use their own ship-borne anti-missile defenses in the eastern Mediterranean to intercept Hezbollah’s missiles.
Instead, the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has publicly distanced the Americans from such support, warning Israel that the Americans do not want Israel to take any action that could potentially endanger American forces in the region. But what are those forces for, if not to support our allies and frighten our adversaries in the region?
Hizballah, along with Hamas, is an Iranian proxy. The key player is obviously Iran, which is being emboldened, not just by unity among the Muslim ummah, but by the weakness of the Biden administration. The one positive thing that America has done was veto the application of “Palestine” for full membership in the UN in mid-April. Iran and its proxies still view America as an ally of Israel.
Iran understands that Israel is a nuclear state with superior conventional capabilities and that war with Israel would ultimately mean war with the United States. Israel, for its part, knows that a larger conflict with Iran would compel Hezbollah to fire many more missiles at Israeli cities and military facilities. Still, if a tenuous truce between Iran and Israel is to be held, Washington must remain deeply engaged.
At a deeper level, it also comes down to America versus Iran, a nightmare scenario for the Biden administration as it faces upcoming elections.
The latest Hizballah attack, described as the largest since October 7, is testing the Biden administration’s resolve in the war on Gaza. So far, the administration has waffled, which sends the message to Iran and its proxies to continue advancing. Iran’s acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani has warned Israel against attacking Lebanon. But Israel has proven that it will defend itself.
“Residents of the North are used as cannon fodder’: Local leaders respond to Hezbollah’s barrage,” by Yael Halfon and Maya Gur Arieh, Jerusalem Post, June 13, 2024:
Following multiple rocket sirens and hostile aircraft alerts sounded in northern Israel on Thursday afternoon, local leaders responded to the barrage and lack of government response.
Moshe Davidovich, head of the Mateh Asher Regional Council, said, “The North is attacked continuously and non-stop." The residents of the north are used as cannon fodder for Nasrallah’s whims, and the Israeli government is falling asleep while standing.”
“We demand the government present an immediate plan to maintain the security of northern residents. It was also decided that if such a plan is not presented by the beginning of July, we will take a series of steps to be announced later.”
Lobby 1701, a group representing thousands of northern residents, also responded to Thursday’s Hezbollah barrage, stating, “The Israeli government is endangering the settlements of northern Israel." Destruction, fires, and not a word from the government.”
The militant Hezbollah group downed an Israeli drone over southern Lebanon and fired heavy rockets at an Israeli military base. Hezbollah continues to target militants and civilian homes. Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Forces continue to push on Gaza's city of Rafah. Hezbollah fighters struck a Hermes 900 Kochav drone while firing along the Lebanon-Israel border. According to Israel war room, Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel on Sunday, with sirens sounding in northern Israel. Israeli Defense Forces fired at Hezbollah terror targets in southern Lebanon on Sunday. IDF warned civilians to remain in bomb shelters. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on X, 'Israel's conditions for ending the war have not changed: The destruction of Hamas' military and governing capabilities, the freeing of all hostages and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel.'
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) told the press that a 22-year-old Lebanese immigrant who was detained on March 9th for entering the country illegally near El Paso, Texas, claimed to be a former member of Hezbollah who was traveling to New York and intended “to make a bomb.”
However, other reports have stated that he is a current member of Hezbollah.
According to the New York Post, Basell Ebbadi informed federal officials that he had been trained for seven years by the Iran-backed terrorist group and had worked for four more years as an armed guard at weapons facilities.
Ebbadi admitted to the agents that he intended “to make a bomb” after entering the United States. Before attempting to enter the country, the Lebanese man explained that he had a fake identification card with a false identity and birthday.
Ebbadi was also acting quite confidently, according to a CBP source, who labeled him as “bloviating and acting with machismo.”
He is now marked for deportation.
This occurs at a time when, according to federal officials, migrant interactions with the U.S. Border Patrol in the El Paso Sector have continued to increase over the last few weeks. In the last two weeks, border officials in the area have encountered at least 1,100 migrants on an average day. It is a combination of groups of undocumented foreign nationals attempting to avoid arrest and conviction in their own countries as well as asylum-seekers attempting to surrender at the border wall in order to live a better life.
Hezbollah is known as one of the world’s most dangerous terrorist groups. Its aim is to completely annihilate Israel, similar to that of Hamas. Arab media sources have even reported that the terrorist group applauded Hamas’s October 7th terrorist operation inside Israel.
According to Reuters, the terror group stated that it was in direct contact with the leadership of the Palestinian resistance throughout the strike against Israel on October 7th.
The U.S. Border Patrol has detected at least 59 individuals who are on terror watchlists attempting to pass between ports of entry since October, continuing a notable trend that began after Joe Biden was elected in 2021. According to official data, less than ten individuals on the list were encountered annually during the fiscal years 2017 and 2020.
Ebbadi is now being imprisoned at the El Paso Sector Hardened Facility.
At the Great Revelations Academy, the convergence of troubling Islamic teachings and Sharia adherence unveils a disturbing reality of Islamic radical grooming within U.S. borders, underscored by the troubling fact that the U.S. government has granted tax-exempt status to an institution facilitating such jihadist indoctrination.
In a Sharia-adherent event that has attracted considerable attention, the Islamic Al-Mustapha Girl Scouts recently held their annual Takleef Celebration at Great Revelations Academy, a private Islamic school in Dearborn, Michigan. The controversial school has connections to staunch supporters of Hezbollah and the Iranian regime. The ceremony, deeply rooted in Shiite Islamic tradition, marks the coming of age for young Muslim girls, imposing upon them the rigorous observance of Sharia law, including the controversial practice of wearing the hijab. The troubling implications of such Islamic ceremonies reinforce a doctrine of female subjugation and raise profound concerns about the integration of Muslim communities into Western societies.
Ceremony Overview
The Takleef Celebration Event is a pivotal moment in the lives of young Shiite Muslim girls. It signifies their obligation to start observing Islamic practices, such as fasting, praying, and dressing modestly (often, girls are given their first chador, a full-length body covering) from as young as nine years old.
The event underscores the adherence to Sharia law, even in Western settings, compelling these young girls to take on responsibilities that emphasize their role in preventing male temptation through their attire. This practice not only sexualizes children at a tender age but also places an undue burden on them, aligning with a broader Islamic perspective that sees women primarily as guardians of virtue through modesty.
In Western nations, women who adopt Sharia practices are a threat, as their commitment lies in the propagation of Islamic law. This is of particular concern to Dearborn, known as the Arab capital of North America, where Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian, Iraqi, and Yemeni communities are concentrated. The city claims the highest American Muslim population per capita, primarily of Shiite Muslim denomination, and is also home to the nation’s largest mosque. Arabic signs adorn the facades of restaurants and businesses. Even within Dearborn’s public schools, all meat served is Halal—a strategic means employed by Muslim minorities to gradually introduce elements of Sharia into the broader non-Muslim majority of the West.
The Hijab: Symbol of Oppression
Contrary to Islamic and left-wing narratives that frame the hijab as a symbol of cultural identity or religious devotion, the ceremony and teachings at the Great Revelations Academy utilize it as a means of oppressing young girls. The event instills in young girls the belief that their values and social responsibility hinge on their ability to conform to strict Sharia dress codes designed to mitigate male desire. This perspective is further reinforced by Islamic scriptures, which dictate the covering of women as a preventive measure against potential abuse, essentially normalizing a culture of victim-blaming.
The Quran itself commands women to cover themselves to the extent that they are no longer capable of provoking temptation, and if they do not, they are considered fair game to be “abused.” As Robert Spencer explains, “It is not a cultural custom as some purport; it’s a religious edict.”
(Quran 24:31) And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and be modest, and to display of their adornment only what is apparent, and to draw their veils over their bosoms, and not to reveal their adornment except to their own husbands or fathers or husbands’ fathers, or their sons or their husbands’ sons, or their brothers or their brothers’ sons or sisters’ sons, or their women, or their slaves, or male attendants who lack desire, or children who know nothing of women’s nakedness. And do not let them stamp their feet so as to reveal what they hide from their adornment. And turn to Allah together, O believers, so that you may succeed.
(Quran 33:59) O prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to draw their veils close around them. It will be better so that they may be recognized and not molested.
The Great Revelations Academy’s Radical Islamic Ties
Investigations into the Great Revelations Academy reveal a concerning foundation rooted in Islamic extremism. Founded in 2015 by fervent supporters of Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, a key figure in the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran and considered the spiritual leader of Hezbollah, the academy’s ideological underpinnings raise alarming questions about the education and values being imparted to young Muslims in America.
The U.S. considered Fadlallah responsible for the bombing of multinational forces in Beirut in October 1983, in which 241 U.S. Marines and 56 French paratroopers were killed in two explosions. He was designated a terrorist by the U.S. Treasury Department.
Fadlallah hated with a vengeance the United States government and Israel. He regularly praised the terror attacks that killed Israeli citizens. He was known as an enthusiastic supporter of suicide bombings against Israel. Fadlallah wished that the state of Israel would cease to exist.
Fadlallah’s support for terrorist actions and organizations underscores the troubling nature of the academy’s association with his teachings. Furthermore, Clarion Project reports that statements from the academy’s founders, such as Fouad Bayoun, explicitly express their dedication to spreading Fadlallah’s message in the United States.
Principal Sheila Bazzi-Charara has openly declared the academy’s adherence to Fadlallah’s philosophy, mission, and vision, further solidifying its ties to extremism. Additionally, collaborations with organizations like the Qaim Project, led by Sheikh Mohammad Ayad, demonstrate the academy’s alignment with extremist ideologies.
Ayad’s Qaim Project glorifies Hezbollah and Hamas, advocating for a Shiite-Sunni jihadist alliance against the West. The project’s endorsement of the Iranian regime and its anti-American worldview further exemplify the academy’s dangerous associations.
Guest speakers like Sheikh Amin Rastani, known for their support of the Iranian regime and affiliation with regime-friendly religious schools in Qom, Iran, further reinforce the academy’s extremist ties.
Additionally, connections to radical figures further highlight the concerning nature of the academy’s associations. In 2015, at the Az-Zahraa Islamic Center in Detroit, MI, radical Imam Dr. Sayed Moustafa Al-Qazwini praised the opening of the troubling Great Revelations Academy and encouraged the construction of more Islamic schools in America for Muslim children.
Al-Qazwini, known for his extremist views and anti-Semitic rhetoric, demands a perpetual state of war with Israel, expresses hatred towards Jews, defends Hamas, and propagates conspiracies such as claiming that “ISIS is the production of Israeli intelligence.” Such endorsements from individuals with radical ideologies underscore the academy’s alignment with extremist agendas.
In light of these findings, it becomes clear that the Great Revelations Academy serves as a platform for disseminating an Islamic view that not only contradicts Western values of equality and freedom but also perpetuates a divisive and dangerous worldview.
The troubling revelation of the Great Revelations Academy’s Islamic radical ties raises serious concerns about the grooming of Muslim children in America to adhere to Sharia law and sympathize with terrorist groups and ideologies. The lack of oversight regarding the teachings at this Islamic institution is deeply troubling. Furthermore, the fact that the Great Revelations Academy is recognized as a tax-exempt organization under section 501(c)(3) of the IRS code raises questions about whether American taxpayers should be compelled to support a school that promotes anti-Western beliefs and supports organizations and individuals with harmful Islamic intentions.
This article has been crossposted with permission from the RAIR Foundation.
Yeah, this is like posting that water is wet. Mohamed Abdou will fit right in at Columbia, and won’t meet any professors there who don’t share his point of view, or who dare to say so if they really do dissent. What would be news would be if Columbia or any other university hired an opponent of jihad violence and Sharia oppression of women. But that would never happen in a million years.
“He Endorsed Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Then He Landed a Professorship at Columbia University.” By Jessica Costescu, Washington Free Beacon, February 27, 2024:
During a Jan. 5 interview with socialist podcast Revolutionary Left Radio, Islamic scholar Mohamed Abdou declared his support for Hamas and “the resistance.” The terror group’s “dedicated few,” he said admiringly, worked in “stealth mode” on Oct. 7 to defeat a “larger enemy” in Israel.
Just days later, on Jan. 16, Columbia University’s Middle East Institute extended a “warm welcome” to Abdou, the Ivy League school’s latest visiting professor in modern Arab studies.
As part of that role, Abdou teaches a weekly class on “Decolonial-Queerness & Abolition,” where his students discuss “transnational feminist discourses” and “queer of color critiques.” The self-described “Muslim anarchist” has also emerged as a friend to Columbia’s anti-Israel community. In a Feb. 11 social media post, Abdou revealed that he organized a protest in which Columbia students interrupted a panel featuring Hillary Clinton. One demonstrator called the former secretary of state a “war criminal” who “will burn” before chanting, “Free, free Palestine.”…
Abdou offered a more explicit endorsement of Hamas four days after the terrorist group’s attack on Israel. “Yes, I’m with the muqawamah (the resistance) be it Hamas and Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad,” he wrote in an Oct. 11 Facebook post, which also lamented “false reports accusing Arabs and Muslims of decapitating the heads of children and being rapists.” Months later, Abdou’s assessment remained the same.
“I might be with Hamas and support the resistance, absolutely,” the Columbia professor toldRevolutionary Left Radio in January. “Look what 1,500 did … they were organized and they worked in stealth mode and they divested.”
“And nobody expected that this was the direction that Hamas and the Hamas leadership, or at least the political leadership, was going to take,” Abdou continued. “But look what the dedicated few [did] … how much a small group have defeated a larger enemy.”
Neither Columbia nor Abdou responded to requests for comment. Abdou’s role as a visiting professor will keep the Islamic scholar on Columbia’s campus through the spring 2024 semester. Abdou on his website acknowledges that the campus sits “on the ancestral and traditional homelands of the Lenni-Lenape and Wappinger peoples.”
While Abdou has already worked to organize anti-Israel protests at Columbia, he encourages those who oppose the Jewish state to go further.
“DON’T just go to Pro-Palestinian rallies DON’T just post on social media,” he wrote in November. “ORGANIZE revolutionary alternatives to capitalism & the state ON THE LAND you live alongside BIPOC kin who share similar anti-imperialist & anti-settler-colonial ETHICAL-POLITICAL commitments as YOU.”
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s worse case scenario warning is realistic, and his warning is prudent given the current climate and the fact that Islamic zeal is off the charts since October 7.
Consider some points : 1. the emboldening of jihadis after October 7; 2. the fact that Ramadan is the month of jihad; 3. widespread Palestinian rage over the war against Hamas, fueled by Islamic religious zeal; 4. prodding by the Iranian regime as it escalates the activities of its proxies, and now claims that its Afghan proxy battalions are ready to support Gaza; 5. the wavering of the Biden administration’s support for Israel; 6. pressure from the United Nations for a ceasefire, which would enable Hamas to survive and regroup: 7. the unity of the ummah globally in standing for Hamas.
Ramadan is certainly a period that Iran, Hamas and Hizballah will take advantage of one way or another. Some may regard Gallant’s warning as an exaggeration, but it is a better to be prepared. Preparedness, however, isn’t always straightforward. Gallant is “strongly against National Security Minister Itamar Ben- Gvir’s push to reduce access to the Temple Mount for certain Israeli-Arabs or Palestinians during Ramadan.” Palestinians call it the Al-Aqsa compound. One can only imagine the reaction to such an order as Palestinians ready themselves for “martyrdom” in an explosive atmosphere.
“‘October 7, part two:’ Iran plans for terror during Ramadan, Israel charges,” by Yonah Jeremy Bob, Jerusalem Post, February 27, 2024:
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Tuesday warned that Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas are trying to use Ramadan to inflame the region so as to achieve another October 7 disaster against Israel.
According to Gallant, their hope is to provoke Palestinians in the West Bank, Hezbollah, and Arabs and Muslims across the region to attack and turn their rage on Israel, using the Temple Mount and tensions in the West Bank as an excuse.
The defense minister has been a leading voice for smashing Hamas and earlier in the war, tried to persuade the war cabinet to launch a preemptive strike on Hezbollah.
Gallant calls for reducing tensions
However, at this point, he believes that fighting the war without hesitation must go hand in hand with reducing tensions in areas where there is no reason for there to be tensions.
This means Gallant is strongly against National Security Minister Itamar Ben- Gvir’s push to reduce access to the Temple Mount for certain Israeli-Arabs or Palestinians during Ramadan….
Apparently, after having launched 150 attacks on American forces in Iraq and Syria during the past few months, and one attack on our servicemen at Tower 22 in northeast Jordan, Kataib Hezbollah is suddenly scared out of its wits, and wants Washington to know that it will no longer — honest, cross our hearts and hope to die — target any Americans. More on this sudden volte-face can be found here: “Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah says it suspends attacks on US forces,” by Timour Azhari, Reuters, January 30, 2024:
Iran-aligned Iraqi armed group Kataib Hezbollah has announced the suspension of all its military operations against US troops in the region in a decision aimed at preventing “embarrassment” to the Iraqi government, the group said in a statement.
No, the decision is not aimed at preventing “embarrassment” to the Iraqi government. It’s aimed, rather, at saving the lives of Kataib Hezbollah members, and of avoiding destruction on a scale they would really prefer to avoid. And were such an American attack to take place, as the talk in Washington brought home to Kataib Hezbollah that this time the American mood was “no-more-water-the-fire-next-time,” with Lindsey Graham and Mike McCaul and a host of other Republicans urging the Administration to “hit Iran. Hit it hard.” The credit for this unexpected decision by Kataib Hezbollah goes to the Republican rhetoric in the Senate, urging retaliation on Iran itself. The Iranians may even have prompted Kataib Hezbollah to announce its new policy.
The decision follows the killing of three U.S. troops in a drone attack near the Jordan-Syria border – an attack that the Pentagon said bore the “footprints” of Kataib Hezbollah, though a final assessment had not yet been made.
Founded in the aftermath of the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, Kataib Hezbollah is one of the elite Iraqi armed factions closest to Iran….
That pitiful attempt by Kataib Hezbollah to now ‘scape whipping — after it and its fellows in the Islamic Resistance in Iraq have launched 150 attacks on American targets in Syria, Iraq, and Jordan — by promising that it has “suspended” attacks on American targets, has not even been acknowledged by Washington. That promise came a day late and a dollar short. Americans are fed up, and are not going to be hornswoggled by the likes of Kataib Hezbollah to refrain from retaliation.
Within the next week or two, we can expect drone attacks, or bomb-away airstrikes, not just on Kataib Hezbollah, but also on Iranian bases in Syria and Iraq. After the murder of those three servicemen at Tower 22 in Jordan, the gloves are off. And if those retaliatory attacks lead groups other than Kataib Hezbollah to attack Americans anywhere in the Middle East, Washington will simply double, treble, quadruple the dose, until the enemy understands, and quietly reigns.
The Israeli Government provided an update on the 129 hostages being held captive by Hamas. Israeli Government Spokesman Eylon Levy says Hamas is holding the bodies of hostages that have been murdered. The government says Hezbollah has launched an anti-tank missile from inside Lebanon at the Greek Orthodox Church, injuring a civilian.
Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., joins 'Fox & Friends' to discuss the latest on U.S. troops attacked in the Middle East and Biden touting the economy as his approval hits new lows.
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
In 2006, the UN passed Resolution 1701, according to which Hezbollah was supposed to be disarmed. It never happened. Now Hezbollah is stronger than ever. It essentially runs the Lebanese government; not Prime Minister Najib Mikati, but Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, calls the shots in Beirut. And thanks to Iran, Hezbollah has a storehouse of 150,000 missiles and rockets. Its arsenal is ten times more powerful than that possessed by Hamas.
During the four-day “pause” in its campaign in Gaza against Hamas that Israel has agreed to, the IDF could turn more of its attention to Hezbollah, stepping up its bombing campaign in southern Lebanon, to destroy weapons warehouses, enough airstrikes to inflict significant punishment, but not enough to cause Hezbollah to respond with a full-scale war, which at this point Israel would prefer to avoid. Once Hamas is destroyed, however, the Israelis may want to deal more forcefully with Hezbollah to degrade its storehouses bristling with weapons.
Since October 7, Hezbollah has fired at least 1,000 missiles into Israel’s northern cities. It has now been attacking Israel with missiles, drones, and artillery. Almost every night, there is an exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah. Six Israeli soldiers and three civilians have so far been killed by Hezbollah fire since October 7. More on this fighting in the north, which has escalated on November 20, can be found here: “Hezbollah says attacks Israeli troops with drones, artillery, missiles,” AFP, November 20, 2023:
The Israel-Lebanon border has seen daily exchanges of fire since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7.
Hezbollah fighters targeted soldiers west of Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel “with three attack drones,” the Iran-backed group said in a statement, adding shortly after that it had also targeted troops in the area with artillery fire [on November 20].
Both statements claimed the attacks were “direct hits.”
Earlier Monday, Hezbollah said it had fired “Burkan missiles” at an Israeli barracks, and also claimed a number of other attacks on Israeli positions.
Israel’s army said “three UAVs (drones) were identified striking adjacent” to an army post, without specifying where. It added that “no injuries were reported.”…
Hezbollah said the three drones made “direct hits” on an army post and killed Israelis. The IDF said that the drones struck a site “adjacent” to the army post, and that there were no casualties. Which version do you believe?
In late October, after enduring three weeks of shelling by Hezbollah, the Israeli government evacuated Kiryat Shmona and forty northern Israeli border communities. On November 2, 12 rockets were fired from Lebanon and set off sirens north of the Israeli port city of Haifa. On November 6,. Israelis were forced to seek shelter in cities such as Kiryat Yam and Kiryat Bialik.
Israel has continued to evacuate more towns as Hezbollah’s attacks have increased. The moshav of Dovev was entirely emptied; its residents were moved to Tiberias. Many of them have said, “We are never going back.” The attack of October 7 has spooked them, and they know that Hezbollah’s chief, Hassan Nasrallah, has said that if Israel attacks Lebanon then his forces may move into northern Israel.
The mood of the Israelis evacuated to Tiberius from villages and moshavs closer to the Lebanese border is discussed here: “‘Never going back:’ Israelis evacuated from border town with Lebanon fear war with Hezbollah,” by Tara John and Adi Koplewitz, CNN, November 20, 2023:
From the basement of a hotel in Tiberias, where dozens of evacuated children were attending a makeshift lesson, Elana Pilveny told CNN that there was “no way in hell I am going back.” Her family is not taking any chances with Hamas’ ally in southern Lebanon after October 7, when Hamas massacred 1,200 people, many of whom were civilians.
A quiet knitting circle in the hotel lobby, consisting of four cousins who have lived in Dovev for decades, belies the panic among the evacuees. “I don’t know how to function normally if I have to go back to Dovev,” Shoshana Yakut, 77, told CNN from a hotel in Tiberias where she has lived for over a month.
They have lived through the Six-Day War, the Yom Kippur War, Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and fight with Hezbollah in 2006. “We never felt something so powerful,” she said of the October 7 attacks. “Not in 67, not in 73, or not in 82 and 2006 – this is a whole new level of fear right now.”…
The only way for the Israeli government to restore faith in its ability to protect people living near the Gazan or Lebanese borders is for the IDF to destroy Hamas, and once that has been accomplished, to concentrate its forces on the northern front, to hit Hezbollah in southern Lebanon with such ferocious airstrikes on weapons storehouses as to make Nasrallah rethink his plans. Nasrallah takes his cue from Iran, which has taken alarmed note of the two American carrier strike groups that are now in the eastern Mediterranean.
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
Iran’s proxy war against Israel and the U.S. is escalating. Iran’s most powerful proxy, Hizballah, has now warned of a regional war if Israel continues its action in Gaza, and has unveiled “powerful Russian anti-ship missiles” as a “threat against U.S. warships.” This week, despite American warnings not to escalate, Hizballah fired 20 rockets into Israel, “setting off sirens in the Upper Galilee and the Golan Heights.” Hizballah is calling Iran’s proxies the “Axis of Resistance.”
Meanwhile, at least 45 U.S. service members have reportedly been injured in attacks from Iran proxies, nineteen of them with traumatic brain injury. To Iran and its proxies, the exchange of fire with America and Israel is nothing less than jihad, while the West downplays the critical importance of this fact.
According to the doctrine of Mahdism, part of preparing for the reappearance of the 12th Imam is removing all obstacles and barriers to his return. Against this backdrop, Iran’s hardline clergy affiliated with the IRGC claim religious hadiths state that the “Jewish state will be destroyed before Mahdi’s arrival.” According to these accounts, which are legitimized through religious scripture, “Sh’ia Muslims will be on the side of the war against Jews” prior to the reappearance of Mahdi. As such, the collapse of “Israeli regime and Zionist Jews” at the behest of “Iran and the Resistance Axis” will take place “prior to the emergence of Mahdi.”
The Mahdi is the Shias’ 12th Imam, aka the Hidden Imam.
Only a no-nonsense maneuver of deterrence could possibly keep Iran at bay. America’s longtime policy of appeasement under Obama and Biden is clearly ineffective.
“Hezbollah’s anti-ship missiles bolster its threat to US navy,” by Laila Bassam and Tom Perry, Reuters, November 8, 2023:
BEIRUT, Nov 8 (Reuters) – Powerful Russian anti-ship missiles acquired by Hezbollah give it the means to deliver on its leader’s veiled threat against U.S. warships and underline the grave risks of any regional war, sources familiar with the group’s arsenal say.
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned Washington last week his group had something in store for the U.S. vessels deployed to the region since war erupted last month between the Palestinian group Hamas and Israel, shaking the wider Middle East.
Two sources in Lebanon familiar with the Iran-backed group’s arsenal say he was referring to Hezbollah’s greatly enhanced anti-ship missile capabilities, including the Russian-made Yakhont missile with a range of 300 km (186 miles).
Reports by media and analysts have for years indicated that Hezbollah acquired Yakhont missiles in Syria after deploying there more than a decade ago to help President Bashar al-Assad fight a civil war….
Washington says its Mediterranean naval deployment – comprising two aircraft carriers and their supporting ships – aims to prevent the conflict from spreading by deterring Iran, which backs groups including Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad….
Nasrallah said in a speech on Friday that the U.S. warships in the Mediterranean “do not scare us, and will not scare us”.
“We have prepared for the fleets with which you threaten us,” he said….
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
This present jihad is brought to you by…
“Rockefeller Brothers Fund Funneled Millions to Hamas, Other Terrorists,” by Frank Bergman, Slay, October 27, 2023:
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) has funneled millions of dollars to Hamas and other deadly terrorist groups, according to a new report.
The RBF was founded by the five third-generation Rockefeller brothers: John, Nelson, Laurance, Winthrop, and David, all of whom are now deceased.
The organization portrays itself as a philanthropic foundation that seeks to “contribute to a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world.”
However, a new report reveals that it has contributed more than $3.4 million to Hamas and other terrorist groups since 2018.
Andrew Kerr of the Washington Free Beacon expounded on this matter, naming several groups that benefited from RBF money.
One such group is Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI Palestine), an extension of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
The group, which employs senior PFLP members, has received $165,000 from the RBF since 2018 to promote flawed research that seeks to de-legitimize Israel.
Because of this, the Israeli government declared DCI-Palestine a terrorist organization in October 2021.
Another recipient of RBF money is Education for Just Peace in the Middle East, a national organization working toward freedom, justice, and equality.
The group, which has received $580,000 in funding since 2018, was later accused of using its charity status to fund Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organizations.
Jewish Voice for Peace has also received $490,000 from the RBF since 2019.
Protesters associated with the group reportedly entered a congressional office building to speak out against Israel on October 18.
This resulted in the arrest of roughly 300 demonstrators.
Aside from the three organizations he mentioned, Kerr said the RBF has given more than $2.2 million to other groups that have either justified pro-Hamas actions or blamed Israel for the October 7 terrorist attack….
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
The ayatollahs are getting impatient that their $6 billion check from Biden hasn’t arrived.
The ayatollahs are getting impatient that their $6 billion check hasn’t arrived in the mail. And they do like celebrating the 40th anniversary of their great triumph… the Marine Barracks bombing.
So they spent a little time trying to kill American soldiers. Again.
At least two-dozen American military personnel based in Iraq and Syria were injured in drone attacks last week that officials said were launched by Iran-backed proxy groups.
The largest attack carried out against a US base was on Oct. 18 when 20 troops suffered “minor injuries,” after numerous one-way drones targeted the al-Tanf Garrison in southeastern Syria, US military officials said, according to the Washington Post.
On the same day, multiple drones also targeted the US and its allies in two different attacks on Ain al-Asad Air Base in western Iraq that left four people with minor injuries, the Washington Post reported. Those injured also returned to duty.
A US citizen working as a contractor died the same day after he went into cardiac arrest during a shelter-in-place order at the base.
The Pentagon has said the groups behind the attacks are supported by Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
It’s natural to assume that this is a response to the current situation in the region, but the depressing thing is that it’s not even new.
The two elements that jump out at most people (1. Iran launching attacks on U.S. bases and (2. the White House not even mentioning it… have been around for quite a while.
Two more terror drones targeted American forces deployed to fight ISIS at the Al Asad air base. The base has been repeatedly hammered by Iran-backed rocket attacks over the past year, most notably when 14 rockets struck the base over the summer causing several injuries.
There were repeated Iran-backed rocket strikes against Americans in Iraq throughout the last year totaling an estimated 25 separate attacks under the Biden administration.
On September 11, two drones launched an attack on U.S. forces at Erbil International Airport.
Then, as now, the Biden administration limited American military personnel to defensive preventative air strikes against the Shiite terror groups carrying out the attacks.
This was going on long before the current Hamas attack and the Israeli response. Or before we directed more forces to the region.
American soldiers have been killed and worse still, we’re funding their killers. And I don’t just mean with that $6 billion.
While some U.S. conflicts with Jihadists in the region are old news, Kataeb Hezbollah fired rockets at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad in 2019 and has bombed U.S. bases in recent years. Kataeb Hezbollah killed two American soldiers in 2020: Army Spc. Juan Miguel Mendez Covarrubias and Air Force Staff Sgt. Marshal D. Roberts.
Politicians and the media have mostly ignored the fact that Americans are continuing to be killed in Iraq, that the Iraqi government is funding their killers, and that we’re funding Iraq.
While Iraq funds Iran’s terror militias, the United States funds the UN Development Programme to “stabilize” Iraq and has invested over $100 million into “conflict, peace and security” funding.
The United States has spent over $1 billion financing the nation’s military while Iraq spends billions financing the Iranian PMU terror militias which are expected to approach a quarter of a million Jihadis.
Did you hear any mention of Air Force Staff Sgt. Marshal D. Roberts?
On March 14, 2020, Roberts lost his life when enemy fire engaged with his unit at Camp Taji. With rockets flying, Roberts and his friend took cover. They discussed running to a bunker but not without considering if they could make it to safety. Roberts told his fellow Airmen to go and get her body armor. As his friend left, a rocket landed, taking his life. In losing his own, Roberts saved another.
Her body armor.
Do we talk about any of this? No. And then suddenly we notice it and wonder what’s going on. Iran keeps attacking us and trying to kill us. And Biden keeps trying to cut a deal while warning against offending Iran.
On the House floor, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) introduced a resolution to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) for alleged anti-Semitic statements and actions, and for leading an "insurrection" in the Cannon Building.