News Digest — 9/24/24
Operation Northern Arrows: Dozens of Fighter Jets Strike Hundreds Of Targets In Lebanon
Dozens of IDF fighter jets took off on Monday evening (23rd) for another wave of strikes deep in Lebanese territory against Hezbollah terror targets.
The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said on Tuesday morning (24th), that over the past few hours, with the direction of IDF intelligence, the IAF struck hundreds of Hezbollah targets, including launchers, command posts and terrorist infrastructure in numerous areas in southern Lebanon.
Over the past day, in a multiple series of strikes, the IAF struck approximately 1,600 Hezbollah terrorist targets in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley.
IDF Chief Of Staff MG Herzi Halevi announced on Monday evening (23rd) that the name of the operation in the northern arena is “Northern Arrows.”
Netanyahu On Hezbollah: ‘We’re Not Waiting For Threats, We’re Pre-empting Them’
“The IDF is pre-empting security threats rather than waiting to respond to attacks,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said as the IDF announced it struck around 800 Hezbollah targets and had called on Lebanese civilians to evacuate homes near the terror group’s missile sights Monday (23rd).
“I would like to clarify Israel’s policy to whoever does not yet understand,” Netanyahu stated as he held security consultations with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and IDF Chief-of-Staff Herzi Halevi.
“We are not waiting for the threat, we are pre-empting it – everywhere, in every sector, constantly. We are eliminating senior figures, terrorists and missiles – and our arm is still extended,” he stressed.
“Whoever tries to harm us, we will harm them all the more forcefully,” he underscored in a message he issued.
Netanyahu spoke as Lebanese health officials reported that at least 274 were killed and 1,024 were wounded in the Israeli strikes in what has been the deadliest day since the cross-border IDF-Hezbollah war began almost a year ago.
Israel for the last week has engaged in an intensive military campaign to sway the Iranian proxy group Hezbollah to move its forces out of the southern border area and back to the Litani River.
“I promised that we would change the security balance, the balance of forces in the north [by Lebanon] – this is exactly what we are doing. We are destroying thousands of missiles and rockets that are directed at Israel’s cities and citizens,” he said.
To Israeli citizens, Netanyahu said, “We face complex times. Citizens of Israel, I ask of you two things: Follow the directives of Home Front Command – they save lives – and stand together with determination, responsibility, and , of course, patience.”
“Together we will stand strong; together we will fight, and with God’s help, together we will win,” he exclaimed.
In a separate message to the Lebanese people, he stated, “Israel’s war is not with you. It’s with Hezbollah. For too long, Hezbollah has been using you as human shields. It placed rockets in your living rooms and missiles in your garages. Those rockets and missiles are aimed directly at our cities, directly at our citizens. To defend our people against Hezbollah strikes, we must take out these weapons.”
“Starting this morning (Monday, 23rd), the IDF has warned you to get out of harm’s way. I urge you to take this warning seriously. Don’t let Hezbollah endanger your lives and the lives of your loved ones. Don’t let Hezbollah endanger Lebanon. Please get out of harm’s way now. Once our operation is finished, you can come back safely to your homes,” Netanyahu stressed.
Reports: IAF Targets Hezbollah No. 3 Leader Karaki in Beirut
Israeli air Force fighter jets conducted a targeted airstrike in Dahiyeh, the Hezbollah stronghold in southern Beirut, the military announced.
The attack reportedly targeted Ali Karaki, Hezbollah’s No. 3 man. Karaki is the terrorist organization’s highest-ranking remaining “military” commander following Friday’s (20th) assassination of Ibrahm Aqil.
Karaki had reportedly been chosen by Hezbollah to succeed Aqil to head the terrorist group’s southern front, which is responsible for the Iranian-backed army’s cross-border attacks on Israel.
Karaki is also a member of Hezbollah’s top “military” organization, the Jihad Council, which is subordinate to the Shura Council and under the direct control of Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah.
According to Lebanon’s Al Mayadeen channel, which is affiliated with Hezbollah, at least three Israeli missiles were launched at Karaki’s location, and several people were wounded in the strike.
According to Sky News Arabic. Tuesday morning (24th), it was reported that Karaki was killed in the strike.
Monday night’s (23rd) aerial strike marked the fourth time that IAF jets struck the Lebanese capital since Hezbollah joined the war against the Jewish state in support of Hamas in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre of Israeli communities.
On Friday (20th), the IDF took credit for a targeted airstrike in Dahiyeh that killed more than a dozen Hezbollah officers including top terrorist commander Ibrahim Aqil, who was also wanted by the United States for involvement in the 1983 bombing of the US embassy in Beirut.
On July 30, Israeli Air Force jets carried out a targeted assassination in southern Beirut of Hezbollah’s No. 2 “military” commander, Fuad Shukr.
Hezbollah has attacked Israel nearly daily since Oct.8, 2023, firing thousands of rockets, missiles and drones. The attacks have killed more than 40 people and caused widespread damage. Tens of thousands of Israeli civilians remain internally displaced due to the violence.
1983 Bombing Victims Laud Israel’s Strike On Hezbollah Chief
The recent killing of a Hezbollah leader, wanted for his involvement in the 1983 Beirut bombings that claimed over 350 lives, has evoked a range of emotions among survivors and victims’ families, the New York Times reported. The incident has brought little resolution but has resurfaced decades of pain for many Americans affected by the attacks.
The US had placed a multimillion-dollar bounty on the head of Ibrahim Aqil, who had survived multiple assassination attempts. He was sought for his role in two devastating bombings in Beirut in 1983: an April attack on the US Embassy that killed 63 people, including 17 Americans, and an October suicide bombing of the US Marine Corps barracks that resulted in over 300 deaths, including 241 American service members.
For survivors, the memories of these attacks remain vivid. “Every time I pick up the paper or watch the news about another bombing, it opens up wounds,” Michael Harris, a Marine veteran, told the NYT.
Elisa Camara, 58, from Daytona Beach Shores, Fla, whose brother Mecot was among the Marines killed in the October bombing, expressed mixed emotions about the Hezbollah leader’s death. “Justice is served,” she said. “That’s one less evil person in the world.” However, she emphasized the need for continued efforts to combat terrorism to prevent further loss of life.
The bombings left many families without closure through the legal system. Valerie Giblin, 61, of Smithfield, RI, whose husband Timothy died in the barracks attack shared her unresolved grief. “I was 20 years old,” she told the NYT. “I never remarried. I’ll be his wife until the day I die.” Upon hearing the news of the Hezbollah leader’s death, GIblin’s reaction was, “It’s about time.”
Lisa Weide, 62, from Daytona beach, Fla, who lost her brother Brett Croft in the barracks attack, echoed similar sentiments. “As cruel as it may sound, I’m glad he’s dead,” she said.
Aqil’s death comes at a time of heightened tensions in the region, with the ongoing Israel-Hamas war that broke out after Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel on Oct. 7. Since then, Hezbollah has continuously attacked Israeli northern communities, further escalating the conflict.
“My 24-year-old brother was killed along with 240 other marines,” a user shared on X. “This tore my family apart, and we never recovered. The Israelis finally gave me some peace for killing the animal responsible for the attack. Too bad our government wasn’t up to the challenge.”
Zion: A Place Worth Defending – Nils A Haug (Gatestone Institute)
The concept of home resonates deeply in all those searching for connection, peace, love, permanence and tranquility. This is particularly so for Jews, who have been scattered around alien cultures for countless generations.
Their common faith and the ideal of a home – with specific focus on Israel – has enabled them to maintain their sense of identity and culture despite tremendous odds, barely surviving in hostile lands.
The ancestral home of Jews is The Land of Israel, Eretz Israel, Zion. Perhaps that is why dispersed Jews have for millennia celebrated Passover and Yom Kippur with the cry of longing, “Next year in Jerusalem” (L’Shana Haba’ah B’yerushalayim).
The center of Jewish existence for nearly 4,000 years has been, and remains, “the holy land and Jerusalem the holy city” – their forever home. The Welsh people, having lost independence of their homeland, call this sense of longing hiraeth: homesickness for a place of their past.
After the destruction of Jerusalem’s Second Temple in 70 CE, Jews in the diaspora maintained their faith through community in little villages in Europe and Slavic lands (called shtetls) and in tight communities in the Middle East and Central Asia.
After having lived in the Land of Israel continuously for so long, but forced from their ancestral residence to become itinerant, the Jewish people might well feel the need to return to Israel as their home. They refer to it as Zion.
In essence, Zionism is simply an attempt to re-establish their ancestral home, their place of refuge and sanctuary in an alien world which largely despises them. Zion (Israel), is a place they can gather to practice their faith without persecution.
The six ancient cities of refuge were located only within the Land of Israel, just as, in a microscopic sense, the family is a city of refuge.
The increasing demise in the West of conventional two-parent households, where children can be raised in love and discipline, has led to an increase in single-parent and fatherless homes.
The outcome is a rise in juvenile crime, illiteracy, loneliness, gender confusion and domestic violence.
Recently however, there seems to be growing opposition to fashionable identity theories of race, gender, victimhood, entitlement and other ideologies that adversely affect the traditional family structure.
The common good of society would certainly be helped by a restoration of the core principles pertaining to family.
America was founded on traditional biblical values, as clearly reflected in the underlying values of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.
These values form the basis of Western social virtues, law and justice – as in England’s Magna Carta of 1215.
It was adherence to the spirit of the Ten Commandments, and the Mosaic codes, that helped make America and the West great; it is a greatness that can be revitalized.
Concerned citizens need the determination and courage to re-establish where they live, the values set out in the constitutional documents of the West.
The world desperately needs Jewish values and wisdom – those detailed in the holy scriptures. Jewish wisdom was among the first, after the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi (c, 1,755 BCE), to present the world with social justice – not only in the Ten Commandments – but also in how we treat our fellow creatures:
“But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns, so that your male and female servants may rest, as you do” (Deuteronomy 5:14);
“Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk” (Deuteronomy 14:21);
“If you come across a bird’s nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young,” (Deuteronomy 22:6);
“You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns” (Deuteronomy 24:14);
“You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets – for he is poor and counts on it” (Deuteronomy 24:15);
“You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor” (Leviticus 19:15);
“You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child” (Exodus 22:22).
Jews have historically defended liberty against tyranny and moral confusion, with individual liberty such as the freedoms of speech and religion. The value of each person can again be revived.
The true calling of the Jews, “with the world’s most moral army,” as the IDF is referred to by military expert Col. Richard Kemp, who is now in a war that was forced on them, is to bring eternal values such as those above, found in the Torah, to the world at large.
The Jews remain, after all, a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” They are entitled to their land, a place historically theirs – Zion, Israel, their ancestral home. This land was promised to the Jewish nation forever, it is a place worth defending.
