News Digest — 10/30/24
Gallant On Nasrallah’s Replacement: ‘Temporary Appointment, Not For Long’
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned that Naim Qassem would not remain long in his new position as leader of the Hezbollah terrorist organization.
“Temporary appointment. Not for long,” Gallant wrote on X in response to the announcement of Qassem’s appointment.
US Senator John Fetterman (D-Penn.) tweeted in support of Gallant’s post, writing, “The next funeral waiting to happen.”
Hezbollah announced Tuesday morning (29th) that Naim Qassem had been appointed as the leader of the terrorist organization. Qassem was the deputy of the former secretary general of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, who was eliminated in Beirut last month.
The Hezbollah announcement states, “Based on faith in Allah, commitment to Islam, and adherence to the principles and goals of Hezbollah, and according to the approved mechanism for choosing a secretary general, Hezbollah’s Shura Council agreed on Naim Qassem’s appointment as secretary-general. We commit to work together to achieve Hezbollah’s principles and the campaign’s objectives, and to keep the flame of resistance and the flag raised until victory.”
Qassem stated in a speech following Nasrallah’s elimination, “A new leader will be selected for the organization at the nearest opportunity according to Hezbollah’s regulations. We are prepared for an Israeli ground invasion – Israel will not achieve its goals, and we will emerge victorious.”
Austria Says Eight UNIFIL Troops Wounded In Lebanon Rocket Attack, IDF Says Hezbollah Responsible
Eight Austrian soldiers belonging to the UN peace-keeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) sustained slight and superficial injuries in a rocket strike on Camp Naqoura near the Israeli border, Austria’s Defense Ministry said on Tuesday (29th).
“We condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms and demand that it be investigated immediately,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that it was not clear where the attack came from, and none of the soldiers needed urgent medical care.
Later on Tuesday (29th), an IDF source told The Jerusalem Post that Hezbollah was responsible for firing rockets at the UNIFIL soldiers.
The IDF told the Post that it is accusing UNIFIL of a double standard, as there have been several incidents in the past where Hezbollah killed UNIFIL soldiers in Lebanon.
UNIFIL confirmed that a rocket that hit its headquarters in Naqoura was fired from the north, likely by Hezbollah or an affiliated group.
A former UN Truce Supervision Organization soldier testified that UNIFIL was “totally subject to Hezbollah” when he worked in Lebanon 10 years ago in an interview with Danish news site B.T. in October.
In an earlier instance, in June of 2023, a Lebanese military tribunal formally accused five Hezbollah terrorists of killing an Irish UN peacekeeper in 2022.
The five accused are among seven already charged by Lebanon’s judiciary in January, but a new court document filed on Thursday (24th) identifies some of them as members of Hezbollah, the terrorist group that controls the part of southern Lebanon where the attack took place.
Netanyahu Vows To Prevent Iran From Acquiring Nuclear Weapons following IDF Strikes
Israel is determined to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday (28th) at the opening plenum of the Knesset’s winter session. He touted the IDF’s successful airstrike against Iran’s conventional military targets, including its production of anti-ballistic missiles, early Saturday (26th).
“Stopping the Iranian nuclear program is at the forefront of our minds, and for obvious reasons, I cannot share with you all of our plans and actions in this regard,” Netanyahu said.
“Our long-term strategy, which I hope will be achieved in the near future, is to dismantle the axis of evil, cut off its arms in the South and in the North… to exact a heavy price from Iran and its proxies, and to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons,” he said.
“I have not given up, and we will not give up on this central goal,” he added.
Netanyahu had been under pressure to order a retaliatory strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities. The Biden administration had been very public in its insistence that Israel not strike Iran’s nuclear facilities or its oil fields. Some said Netanyahu caved to US pressure, not taking into account Israel’s strategic needs.
In a speech following the strike on Iran, Netanyahu defended himself against such charges.
“We maintain a continuous dialogue with our American friends, but the fateful decisions concerning our security, including the choice of goals and objectives, we make ourselves, according to our interests and considerations,” he said. The airstrike against Iran’s conventional military complexes had been successful, Netanyahu said.
The IDF “hit dozens of military targets throughout Iran,” he said. “We proved, and not for the first time, that our long arm will reach wherever the call to destroy Israel comes from. We severely damaged Iran’s defense systems and its ability to produce missiles aimed at us.”
Netanyahu stressed that the IDF had not hit symbolic military targets but rather struck at “industrial death factories on an industrial scale, and we dealt them a real blow.”
“This attack is a setback for Iran, which is threatening Israel, the region and the world,” he said.
“Iran strives to develop a stockpile of nuclear bombs, which are aimed at destroying us, equipped with long-range missiles, intercontinental missiles that Iran intends to develop. Tehran is building an industry of dangerous ballistic missiles,” Netanyahu said.
“Israel is the barrier to Iran’s regional and global ambitions,” he said, adding that “if Israel fails, then so will the Middle East.”
“But we have not fallen and we will not fall,” he said. “We will win, and the world will be a better place, a safer place. Our victory will not be just for us, it will be for all humanity.”
Netanyahu placed Israel and the West’s battle with Iran within the larger context of the region’s history.
“For decades, Pan-Arabism was initially a threat to Israel, but eventually Israel was able to defeat onslaughts from Arab armies and make peace with its neighbors, first with Egypt and then with Jordan,” he said.
“The threat of Pan-Arabism was replaced by the Islamic Republic,” he said, adding that “the Islamic regime wants to develop its own regional empire in which there is no place for the State of Israel.”
“Iran’s plan to destroy Israel is built on three pillars: proxy groups that attack the Jewish state, ballistic missile capability, and the development of nuclear weapons,” he continued.
“Over the past year, the IDF has significantly weakened Iran’s proxy groups, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and over the past few days it has damaged Iran’s ballistic missile capability,” he added.
In reflecting on the last year, since the October 7 massacre, in which more than 1,200 people were killed and another 251 were seized as hostages, Israel had “suffered a severe blow” but had “gotten back on its feet” with military successes that are “changing the face of the Middle East,” Netanyahu said.
He compared it to a modern War of Independence. “In 1948, Israel had battled seven armies, and it is now facing enemies on seven fronts,” he said.
Netanyahu spoke about the bereaved families who had lost loved ones on October 7, or soldiers in battle and lauded the IDF soldiers for their exploits on the battlefield.
The main objectives of the Israel-Hamas War remains the elimination of Hamas and the return of the remaining 101 captives, he said.
He pledged to free all the remaining captives, the living and the dead.
“These days we are seeking every avenue and every means possible to bring everyone home without exception,” he said.
Israel is also determined to create conditions on Israel’s border so that residents of the South and the North can return “safely to their homes. That is absolute victory.”
Iran Has Been Proven To Be A Paper Tiger – Yossi Melman
IDF war planners have planned to strike Iran for years, but have always feared the worst-case scenario: downed planes, pilots captured, and Israeli citizens hung as spies in Tehran’s central square. On Saturday (26th), more than 60 U.S.-made F-35, F-16, and F-15s, accompanied by Boeing mid-air fueling planes and early warning air intelligence aircraft, with 150 Israeli air crew, flew 1,600 km. for two hours, passing over Syria and Iraq, and entered Iranian air space.
Within three hours, with precision guided missiles, they hit 20 targets in five regions across Iran, including near Tehran, the first time since the Iran-Iraq war in 1988 that a strike had hit the outskirts of Tehran. The ramifications are enormous. Iran, for all its rhetoric, has been proven to be a paper tiger. It will take at least two years for its anti-aircraft defenses to be resupplied by Russia. Until that happens, Iran is blind, deaf and has been humiliated. Israel has once again proven its aerial and intelligence superiority.
Israel has sent a clear message to Iranian leaders that it knows about Iran’s military bases, its headquarters, air defense systems, missile depots, and command-and-control centers. Iran’s leaders and much of the public know this as well. Their secrets are an open book to Israeli and American intelligence, which have been collaborating and devising plans against the Islamic regime for years. (Spectator-UK)
Swastikas On Paris Apartment Where Holocaust Survivor Was Killed
A troubling wave of anti-Semitism has surfaced in France, where a Jewish resident is enduring persistent threats in a building already marked by tragedy. Nancy is facing relentless anti-Semitic harassment including death threats and Nazi symbols, in the same building where 85-year-old Holocaust survivor Mireille Knoll was murdered in 2018. Nancy has already filed multiple police reports.
The harassment has escalated in recent weeks, with perpetrators defacing the building’s common areas with swastikas and targeting Nancy’s personal space. Her door and mailbox have been vandalized with anti-Semitic death threats, some written in Arabic, while Nazi symbols and Stars of David have been scrawled across the corridor. French news channel BFM brought the case to public attention after visiting Nancy’s home and documenting the ongoing threats.
“The intimidation began with letters, then evolved to symbols appearing in the stairwell and elevator,” Nancy told BFM in a visibly distressed state. “About two weeks ago, threatening letters started arriving. I’ve already submitted six police reports and find myself at the police station every three days to follow up. My life has been completely disrupted. I can’t sleep, I feel lost, threatened and anxious. I simply cannot comprehend how someone could target another human being this way.”
These incidents are unfolding at the same Avenue Phillippe-Auguste address where Mireille Knoll, an elderly Holocaust survivor, met a tragic end. Knoll was tortured and killed by two assailants, Yacine Mihoub and Alex Krimbikos, who stabbed the 85-year-old woman before setting her apartment ablaze. The French Judiciary officially classified her murder as an anti-Semitic hate crime.
While Israel Is Barred From Paris Trade Show, French Companies Supply IRGC
While France banned Israeli security industry companies from participating in the Euronaval Trade Show in Paris in June, some of the 233 French companies that will take part in the event, were known to be licensed suppliers of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) naval vessels and the country’s coast guard and nine countries were listed by Iran as authorized suppliers of its oil and energy industries.
Some of the Iranian companies the French firms were doing business with, were under U.S.-imposed sanctions.
The annual exhibition features hundreds of international companies that develop naval vessels and weapons and has always included numerous representatives of Israel’s defense industries. Although the event is scheduled for June, preparations start many months in advance.
An Israeli source said that France has become a symbol of left-wing embargoes on Israel, noting that French companies had asked President Emmanuel Macron to ban Israeli companies for commercial reasons behind the scenes.
One French company provided a radar with a maximum range of over 105 miles that was installed on an IRGC ship.
France said there was never any intention to ban Israeli companies from attending French trade shows and the French government’s position cannot be seen as a boycott of Israeli firms. “OUr support of Israel and its right to defend itself has always been unequivocal,” the Elysee Palace said. “Proof of that is evident in our decision to continue to make components for the Iron Dome missile defense system.”
The Palace went on to say that while France has called for a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon because it is the only way to stop the escalation and achieve regional stability and peace, it would be “inconsistent to allow the promotion of weapons used in those fronts, that was harming civilians.”
Twelve Israeli companies were interested in exhibiting at the naval fair, and local participation will almost certainly be blocked from the Paris Air Show at Le Bourget, the crown jewel of such exhibitions, should this negative trend continue.
