Israel and West Bank Settlements

[old salt]

Terrorize the terrorists. The Hezbollah Handball Tournament is cancelled.

[cradleandshoot]

This is a new one -
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/09/17 ... s-war-news

"Wireless Devices Explode Across Lebanon After Israel Warns Hezbollah
A Lebanese official said pagers belonging to Hezbollah militants had exploded, causing a large number of injuries. The Israeli military declined to comment.

Large numbers of “wireless devices” simultaneously exploded across Lebanon on Tuesday afternoon, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, a day after Israeli leaders warned that they were considering stepping up their military campaign against Hezbollah.

A Lebanese intelligence official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, said that the blasts occurred after pagers belonging to Hezbollah members exploded across Lebanon, resulting in a large number of injuries.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said in a statement that many people had arrived at Lebanese hospitals after being wounded when their “wireless devices” exploded. The ministry warned citizens to stay away from similar devices until it was clear what had caused the blasts.

The Lebanese Red Cross said in a statement that 80 ambulances were responding to “multiple bombings” in southern and eastern Lebanon, as well as in Beirut, the capital.

In other news - Netanyahu Is Said to Consider Firing Israel’s Defense Minister
Dismissing the minister, Yoav Gallant, would remove a frequent critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a time of mounting tensions with Hezbollah." Yup -- Netanyahu is a mad man! Gallant has far more popular support than Benny.

... strange that Hezbollah is using pager explosions. Seems to me targeting is a real problem. Can be done but takes a lot of effort.

They apparently switched to pagers because they thought the Israelis were targeting and tracking their celll phones.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrew ... -exploded/

"I asked an ex-IDF intel agent about this. They don't think it was a remote hack.
It's more likely that devices were intercepted, explosive capability put on the pager, and then software tampered with to make sure the devices exploded when a specific message came in."

"If Israel’s intelligence services are indeed behind the Hezbollah pager explosions all over Lebanon — and they likely are — it is an extraordinary decision.

It means they are likely burning whatever route they used to get these pagers into Hezbollah’s hands, the sources they used likely can’t be used anymore, and now Hezbollah and the Islamic Republic of Iran will conduct a top-to-bottom check of every electronic device, which means they may discover other devices or other ways Israel has penetrated their electronics.

So, clearly, Israel has deemed the immediate gain more valuable than the long-term potential use of these compromised devices.

And the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the devices were recently received by Hezbollah so perhaps Israel also felt like it had a short window to take advantage of this option."

... when I first saw a report of the pager explosions early this AM -- it was attributed to Hezbollah, the mainstream press was claiming Hezbollah had taken responsibility, which made no sense. Turns out, this was Israeli terrorism, which makes a lot more sense, given who the victims are. The US press seems to have fallen for this Israeli propaganda, initially.

Just continues to make me suspicious of US reporting of Israeli favorable stories -- Israel gets all kinds of free passes -- by the US press that no one else does. This to me seems a pretty egregious case. Now it t urns out Israel was responsible and did not notify the US (not surprising) before going down this path.

Good for the goose... Hezbollah and Hamas always get all kinds of love in your world.

[PizzaSnake]

This is a new one -
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/09/17 ... s-war-news

"Wireless Devices Explode Across Lebanon After Israel Warns Hezbollah
A Lebanese official said pagers belonging to Hezbollah militants had exploded, causing a large number of injuries. The Israeli military declined to comment.

Large numbers of “wireless devices” simultaneously exploded across Lebanon on Tuesday afternoon, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, a day after Israeli leaders warned that they were considering stepping up their military campaign against Hezbollah.

A Lebanese intelligence official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, said that the blasts occurred after pagers belonging to Hezbollah members exploded across Lebanon, resulting in a large number of injuries.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said in a statement that many people had arrived at Lebanese hospitals after being wounded when their “wireless devices” exploded. The ministry warned citizens to stay away from similar devices until it was clear what had caused the blasts.

The Lebanese Red Cross said in a statement that 80 ambulances were responding to “multiple bombings” in southern and eastern Lebanon, as well as in Beirut, the capital.

In other news - Netanyahu Is Said to Consider Firing Israel’s Defense Minister
Dismissing the minister, Yoav Gallant, would remove a frequent critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a time of mounting tensions with Hezbollah." Yup -- Netanyahu is a mad man! Gallant has far more popular support than Benny.

... strange that Hezbollah is using pager explosions. Seems to me targeting is a real problem. Can be done but takes a lot of effort.

They apparently switched to pagers because they thought the Israelis were targeting and tracking their celll phones.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrew ... -exploded/

"I asked an ex-IDF intel agent about this. They don't think it was a remote hack.
It's more likely that devices were intercepted, explosive capability put on the pager, and then software tampered with to make sure the devices exploded when a specific message came in."

"If Israel’s intelligence services are indeed behind the Hezbollah pager explosions all over Lebanon — and they likely are — it is an extraordinary decision.

It means they are likely burning whatever route they used to get these pagers into Hezbollah’s hands, the sources they used likely can’t be used anymore, and now Hezbollah and the Islamic Republic of Iran will conduct a top-to-bottom check of every electronic device, which means they may discover other devices or other ways Israel has penetrated their electronics.

So, clearly, Israel has deemed the immediate gain more valuable than the long-term potential use of these compromised devices.

And the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the devices were recently received by Hezbollah so perhaps Israel also felt like it had a short window to take advantage of this option."

... when I first saw a report of the pager explosions early this AM -- it was attributed to Hezbollah, the mainstream press was claiming Hezbollah had taken responsibility, which made no sense. Turns out, this was Israeli terrorism, which makes a lot more sense, given who the victims are. The US press seems to have fallen for this Israeli propaganda, initially.

Just continues to make me suspicious of US reporting of Israeli favorable stories -- Israel gets all kinds of free passes -- by the US press that no one else does. This to me seems a pretty egregious case. Now it t urns out Israel was responsible and did not notify the US (not surprising) before going down this path.

Good for the goose... Hezbollah and Hamas always get all kinds of love in your world.

Be careful what you wish for.

[jhu72]

Israel apparently infiltrated -- colluded with a Hungarian company to manufacture and sell the exploding pagers. The sale was made under the brand name of a Taiwanese company, "Gold Apollo". I would guess the Hungarian manufacture and their principals will feel some retaliation.

[Kismet]

Israel apparently infiltrated -- colluded with a Hungarian company to manufacture and sell the exploding pagers. The sale was made under the brand name of a Taiwanese company, "Gold Apollo". I would guess the Hungarian manufacture and their principals will feel some retaliation.

The Israelis, through a series of shell companies, formed the company in 2021 (or, in some way, controlled it) in Hungary where they actually produced the devices, inserted the explosives, added detonators and software and then sold them to Hezbollah. Pretty incredible.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/18/worl ... ollah.html

"How Israel Built a Modern-Day Trojan Horse: Exploding Pagers

The Israeli government did not tamper with the Hezbollah devices that exploded, defense and intelligence officials say. It manufactured them as part of an elaborate ruse.

By all appearances, B.A.C. Consulting was a Hungary-based company that was under contract to produce the devices on behalf of a Taiwanese company, Gold Apollo. In fact, it was part of an Israeli front, according to three intelligence officers briefed on the operation. They said at least two other shell companies were created as well to mask the real identities of the people creating the pagers: Israeli intelligence officers.

B.A.C. did take on ordinary clients, for which it produced a range of ordinary pagers. But the only client that really mattered was Hezbollah, and its pagers were far from ordinary. Produced separately, they contained batteries laced with the explosive PETN, according to the three intelligence officers.

The pagers began shipping to Lebanon in the summer of 2022 in small numbers, but production was quickly ramped up after Mr. Nasrallah denounced cellphones.

Some of Mr. Nasrallah’s fears were spurred by reports from allies that Israel had acquired new means to hack into phones, activating microphones and cameras remotely to spy on their owners. According to three intelligence officials, Israel had invested millions in developing the technology, and word spread among Hezbollah and its allies that no cellphone communication — even encrypted messaging apps — was safe anymore."

As Nasrallah was speaking today, he was interrupted by sonic booms from low flying Israeli jets over Beirut.

In other news - Saudis say no diplomatic agreement with Israel unless a Palestinian state is established

"Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia has declared that the kingdom will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel before the “establishment of a Palestinian state,” an apparent hardening of his position on an issue that could reshape the diplomatic map of the Middle East.

“The kingdom will not cease its tireless efforts to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and we affirm that the kingdom will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without one,” the crown prince and the kingdom’s de facto ruler said on Wednesday in an address to a senior advisory council. “We thank all the countries that recognized the Palestinian state as an embodiment of international legitimacy, and we urge other countries to take similar steps.”

[PizzaSnake]

Israel apparently infiltrated -- colluded with a Hungarian company to manufacture and sell the exploding pagers. The sale was made under the brand name of a Taiwanese company, "Gold Apollo". I would guess the Hungarian manufacture and their principals will feel some retaliation.

The Israelis, through a series of shell companies, formed the company in 2021 (or, in some way, controlled it) in Hungary where they actually produced the devices, inserted the explosives, added detonators and software and then sold them to Hezbollah. Pretty incredible.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/18/worl ... ollah.html

"How Israel Built a Modern-Day Trojan Horse: Exploding Pagers

The Israeli government did not tamper with the Hezbollah devices that exploded, defense and intelligence officials say. It manufactured them as part of an elaborate ruse.

By all appearances, B.A.C. Consulting was a Hungary-based company that was under contract to produce the devices on behalf of a Taiwanese company, Gold Apollo. In fact, it was part of an Israeli front, according to three intelligence officers briefed on the operation. They said at least two other shell companies were created as well to mask the real identities of the people creating the pagers: Israeli intelligence officers.

B.A.C. did take on ordinary clients, for which it produced a range of ordinary pagers. But the only client that really mattered was Hezbollah, and its pagers were far from ordinary. Produced separately, they contained batteries laced with the explosive PETN, according to the three intelligence officers.

The pagers began shipping to Lebanon in the summer of 2022 in small numbers, but production was quickly ramped up after Mr. Nasrallah denounced cellphones.

Some of Mr. Nasrallah’s fears were spurred by reports from allies that Israel had acquired new means to hack into phones, activating microphones and cameras remotely to spy on their owners. According to three intelligence officials, Israel had invested millions in developing the technology, and word spread among Hezbollah and its allies that no cellphone communication — even encrypted messaging apps — was safe anymore."

As Nasrallah was speaking today, he was interrupted by sonic booms from low flying Israeli jets over Beirut.

In other news - Saudis say no diplomatic agreement with Israel unless a Palestinian state is established

"Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia has declared that the kingdom will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel before the “establishment of a Palestinian state,” an apparent hardening of his position on an issue that could reshape the diplomatic map of the Middle East.

“The kingdom will not cease its tireless efforts to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and we affirm that the kingdom will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without one,” the crown prince and the kingdom’s de facto ruler said on Wednesday in an address to a senior advisory council. “We thank all the countries that recognized the Palestinian state as an embodiment of international legitimacy, and we urge other countries to take similar steps.”

I guess Israel said "no" to Neom.

[jhu72]

...Israel will be the big loser in the outcome of the war. It's easy and useless to kill, helpless Palestinians. Saudi Arabi telling Israel to "pound sand" says all you need to know. The Abraham accords are dead until Israel agrees to a separate free Palestinian state and implements it. All they have accomplished is to damage their own future, postponed regional peace. The world is turning away from them.

I sure hope the average Israel thinks saving Netanyahu's worthless ass is worth the price they will pay for his fascist dumpster fire.

[cradleandshoot]

...Israel will be the big loser in the outcome of the war. It's easy and useless to kill, helpless Palestinians. Saudi Arabi telling Israel to "pound sand" says all you need to know. The Abraham accords are dead until Israel agrees to a separate free Palestinian state and implements it. All they have accomplished is to damage their own future, postponed regional peace. The world is turning away from them.

I sure hope the average Israel thinks saving Netanyahu's worthless ass is worth the price they will pay for his fascist dumpster fire.

Benji sent you a free pager. Did you get it yet, there may be an important message for you, respond ASAP!!

[Kismet]

The hits keep on coming as Israelis ramp up pressure on Hezbollah in Lebanon

"Israeli special forces carried out a commando raid in Syria on Sunday that destroyed a Hezbollah missile production facility, according to American and Western officials.

The secret facility in northwestern Syria was hit with airstrikes and stormed by ground forces who rappelled from helicopters to seize evidence in a predawn raid, the officials said."

An airstrike in a Beirut neighborhood reportedly killed Hezbollah senior military figure Ibrahim Aqil and other senior Hezbollah elite force members according to the Israeli military. Aqil is still sought by USA (bounty on his head) for involvement in the bombing of the US Embassy and US Marines barracks in Beirut in 1983 which killed almost 300 Americans.

The Iranian-backed Iraqi armed group Kata’ib Hezbollah announced that one of its senior members, Abu Haider al-Khafaji, was killed in an Israeli drone strike in Damascus early on Friday.

[PizzaSnake]

Fcuked up.

“ Israeli soldiers threw, pushed and kicked three Palestinians off the roof of a building on Thursday during a military raid in the occupied West Bank town of Qabatiya, according to multiple verified videos of the gruesome incident.

It was not clear from the videos, which were verified by The New York Times, if the Palestinians were alive or dead at the time. The three appeared to be lifeless and at least one of them blindfolded.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/20/worl ... -roof.html

[youthathletics]

The hits keep on coming as Israelis ramp up pressure on Hezbollah in Lebanon

"Israeli special forces carried out a commando raid in Syria on Sunday that destroyed a Hezbollah missile production facility, according to American and Western officials.

The secret facility in northwestern Syria was hit with airstrikes and stormed by ground forces who rappelled from helicopters to seize evidence in a predawn raid, the officials said."

An airstrike in a Beirut neighborhood reportedly killed Hezbollah senior military figure Ibrahim Aqil and other senior Hezbollah elite force members according to the Israeli military. Aqil is still sought by USA (bounty on his head) for involvement in the bombing of the US Embassy and US Marines barracks in Beirut in 1983 which killed almost 300 Americans.

The Iranian-backed Iraqi armed group Kata’ib Hezbollah announced that one of its senior members, Abu Haider al-Khafaji, was killed in an Israeli drone strike in Damascus early on Friday.

Killing cancer takes time https://www.npr.org/2024/09/20/nx-s1-51 ... -hezbollah

[PizzaSnake]

Israel, home of NSO, is a threat. Bought a SS7 tracking company in 2014. Great.

[OCanada]

Israel has, through, various corporations has been snuggling up governments like Oban in Hungary and other authoritarian governments wanting Trump back in power

[PizzaSnake]

Mad dogs. Don’t want to be near them when the karma-rang comes.

“It was the deadliest day of Israeli attacks in Lebanon since at least 2006. More than a thousand were also injured, Lebanon’s health ministry said, without saying how many were civilians. The armed group Hezbollah sent rockets into northern Israel and vowed to keep attacking.”

Never, ever, ever put your hand near fighting dogs. Ever.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/09/23 ... -hezbollah

[old salt]

Mad dogs. Don’t want to be near them when the karma-rang comes.

“It was the deadliest day of Israeli attacks in Lebanon since at least 2006. More than a thousand were also injured, Lebanon’s health ministry said, without saying how many were civilians. The armed group Hezbollah sent rockets into northern Israel and vowed to keep attacking.”

Never, ever, ever put your hand near fighting dogs. Ever.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/09/23 ... -hezbollah

Don't stick around if Hezbollah parks a missile in your garage.

[old salt]

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/bidens-dipl ... x_artPos=6

Biden’s Diplomatic Magical Thinking
His attempts to soothe the Middle East have produced the opposite effect.
by Walter Russell Mead, Sept. 23, 2024

For nearly a year Team Biden has given its all to the diplomatic effort to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. Repeatedly, administration officials have hailed progress toward an agreement that would pause the fighting and send the Israeli hostages home. But senior officials are conceding privately that the chances of a cease-fire deal during Mr. Biden’s remaining months in office are slim.

For the past few weeks Washington has been frantically trying to prevent the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah from escalating dramatically. Like Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Hamas and the Houthis, neither Israel nor Hezbollah thinks Washington is dispensing sound policy advice.

The Biden administration wants something it can’t have in the Middle East: continued influence with diminished presence. Its diplomacy is aimed at preserving a regional order that depends on the kind of American power projection the president desperately wants to avoid.

The metastasizing conflicts across the Middle East that Mr. Biden hates are the natural and inevitable consequence of his own policies. As America withdraws, or attempts to withdraw, from the region, its influence over the relevant parties diminishes. The less reliable America looks, the less value anyone attaches to promises of American support. The more obviously America looks toward the exits, the less anyone fears American power.

As Iran’s fear of American power fades, it becomes more aggressive. As Gulf Arabs’ confidence in American wisdom and commitment shrinks, they hesitate between their desire to oppose Iran and the need to conciliate the rising power of a dangerous neighbor. This in turn drives Israel to ever tougher and more dramatic responses as it scrambles to convince both Iran and the Arab countries that it can deter Iranian aggression even as America walks away.

Mr. Biden has fundamentally misjudged what diplomacy is and what it can and can’t do. As a man who came of age politically during the Vietnam War and was politically and personally scarred by his support for the Iraq war, the president knows in his bones that military power projection unrelated to an achievable political goal often leads to expensive disasters.

He isn’t wrong about this, but like many in the Democratic policy world, Mr. Biden rejected a misguided overconfidence in military force only to attribute similar magic powers to diplomacy. Diplomacy in quest of an unachievable political goal is as misguided as poorly conceived military adventurism and can ultimately be as costly.

In the 1930s, the U.S. thought Japan’s attempt to conquer China was both immoral and bad for American interests, but a mix of naive pacifism and blind isolationism blocked any serious response. Instead, Washington settled on a diplomatic stance of nonresistance to Japanese aggression mixed with nonrecognition of Japanese conquests and claims. The policy failed to help China. What it accomplished was to persuade a critical mass of Japanese leaders that America was irredeemably decadent. They gradually came to believe that a nation so foolishly led would respond to the destruction of its Pacific fleet with diplomats rather than aircraft carriers.

Mr. Biden’s diplomats must struggle against the near-universal global perception that the administration’s Middle East policy is similarly blind. Allies as well as adversaries increasingly disregard American wishes and discount its warnings.

That isn’t good for American interests, and it won’t bring peace to the region. As events slide out of control, Mr. Biden’s diplomats can do little more than wring their hands and wish for better times. The failure isn’t their fault. Like soldiers sent into a war their leaders don’t know how to win, America’s diplomats were tasked with an impossible mission their leader never thought through.

[Kismet]

more whining from Mead and you lap it up as usual. He hasn't stopped complaining since you posted his last whinefest the other day.

[cradleandshoot]

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/bidens-dipl ... x_artPos=6

Biden’s Diplomatic Magical Thinking
His attempts to soothe the Middle East have produced the opposite effect.
by Walter Russell Mead, Sept. 23, 2024

For nearly a year Team Biden has given its all to the diplomatic effort to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. Repeatedly, administration officials have hailed progress toward an agreement that would pause the fighting and send the Israeli hostages home. But senior officials are conceding privately that the chances of a cease-fire deal during Mr. Biden’s remaining months in office are slim.

For the past few weeks Washington has been frantically trying to prevent the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah from escalating dramatically. Like Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Hamas and the Houthis, neither Israel nor Hezbollah thinks Washington is dispensing sound policy advice.

The Biden administration wants something it can’t have in the Middle East: continued influence with diminished presence. Its diplomacy is aimed at preserving a regional order that depends on the kind of American power projection the president desperately wants to avoid.

The metastasizing conflicts across the Middle East that Mr. Biden hates are the natural and inevitable consequence of his own policies. As America withdraws, or attempts to withdraw, from the region, its influence over the relevant parties diminishes. The less reliable America looks, the less value anyone attaches to promises of American support. The more obviously America looks toward the exits, the less anyone fears American power.

As Iran’s fear of American power fades, it becomes more aggressive. As Gulf Arabs’ confidence in American wisdom and commitment shrinks, they hesitate between their desire to oppose Iran and the need to conciliate the rising power of a dangerous neighbor. This in turn drives Israel to ever tougher and more dramatic responses as it scrambles to convince both Iran and the Arab countries that it can deter Iranian aggression even as America walks away.

Mr. Biden has fundamentally misjudged what diplomacy is and what it can and can’t do. As a man who came of age politically during the Vietnam War and was politically and personally scarred by his support for the Iraq war, the president knows in his bones that military power projection unrelated to an achievable political goal often leads to expensive disasters.

He isn’t wrong about this, but like many in the Democratic policy world, Mr. Biden rejected a misguided overconfidence in military force only to attribute similar magic powers to diplomacy. Diplomacy in quest of an unachievable political goal is as misguided as poorly conceived military adventurism and can ultimately be as costly.

In the 1930s, the U.S. thought Japan’s attempt to conquer China was both immoral and bad for American interests, but a mix of naive pacifism and blind isolationism blocked any serious response. Instead, Washington settled on a diplomatic stance of nonresistance to Japanese aggression mixed with nonrecognition of Japanese conquests and claims. The policy failed to help China. What it accomplished was to persuade a critical mass of Japanese leaders that America was irredeemably decadent. They gradually came to believe that a nation so foolishly led would respond to the destruction of its Pacific fleet with diplomats rather than aircraft carriers.

Mr. Biden’s diplomats must struggle against the near-universal global perception that the administration’s Middle East policy is similarly blind. Allies as well as adversaries increasingly disregard American wishes and discount its warnings.

That isn’t good for American interests, and it won’t bring peace to the region. As events slide out of control, Mr. Biden’s diplomats can do little more than wring their hands and wish for better times. The failure isn’t their fault. Like soldiers sent into a war their leaders don’t know how to win, America’s diplomats were tasked with an impossible mission their leader never thought through.

Good read... No whining whatsoever just cold hard reality.

[NattyBohChamps04]

Guess he thinks we shouldn't try any kind of diplomacy then. Just give up. Real quitter there.

In the meantime, OS & C&S can write their congressmen to put more US boots on the ground in the ME and open some new bases.

[OCanada]

Yves Smith article. Lengthy

As many commentators have noted, Israel’s exploding pager/walkie-talkie attacks, followed by air strikes on a Hezbollah command post and then broadly across Lebanon are a gambit to try to get Lebanon to respond in a manner that would get the US to come in more formally on Israel’s side as the Axis of Resistance is inflicting costs on Israel over its Gaza genocide.

However, the reporting on the large scale terrorist act of the communication-devices-turned-bombs illustrates how corrupted this information environment is. Israel and its cheerleaders have attempted to justify this act as part of an intended military operation, to disrupt Hezbollah’s operations. The only “bad” thing was they executed prematurely.

In fact, as we’ll unpack further below, this tech-bombing was even worse than you imagined. The military wing of Hezbollah does not use pager or walkie talkies. They’ve used their own fiber optic network since 2006, and otherwise rely on couriers. These devices were in the hands of civilian Hezbollah workers, such as members of its large social services effort. Yes, military members may have been hurt too, but that was dumb luck, like being in proximity to blown-up pager-user or picking up a ringing device on behalf of someone else.

Needless to say, this also means that the device attacks were pure terrorism, with no remotely colorable military purpose whatsoever. Remember, the press has brayed that Israel has been working on this caper for 15 years. But Hezbollah moved its military comms to fiber optic before that. And Israel surely knew that. So that means this entire enterprise was from its outset a terrorist scheme and never a military operation.

But why should that be a surprise? This is how Israel has rolled since its Stern Gang days.

Because we are in what Lambert would call an overly-dynamic situation, rather than attempt a state-of-play account, it seemed more productive to alert readers to how the deeply polluted state of Anglosphere reporting. It should be no surprise that it is coming to resemble Western reporting on the Ukraine conflict, as overstating Israeli successes and underplaying or ignoring Hezbollah/Axis of Resistance wins.

This matters because if Israel’s efforts to subdue the Axis of Resistance fall short, which seems likely, the campaign to get the US committed to the conflict will only intensify. Mind you, in reality, it’s not as if we could do all that much even if we wanted to, ex possibly commit more air power. As Associated Press pointed out yesterday, the US has only 40,000 men in the entire theater. They presumably already have things to do. It takes 6+ months to move more men and the needed logistical support in were we to deploy more than say some Special Forces types. And the US is low on materiel world-wide, thanks to having drained our stockpiles to back Ukraine. For instance, one thing the US is short on globally is Patriot air defense missiles, and at least as of now, we are prioritizing Ukraine.

The general tendency for Western reporting to favor our allies dovetails with Israeli press censorship. The Israeli government finds it important to restore if at all possible the image of the IDF as formidable, both to restore its citizens’ once central belief that Israel was safe place for Jews, and to project power in the region.

Yours truly in now finding it necessary to listen to Alastair Crooke’s Monday morning talks on Judge Napolitano to sanity check Israeli claims. Readers may recall that a few weeks ago, we showcased one of these interviews immediately after some much-ballyhooed Israel air strikes into Lebanon. The claim was that Israel had sent in 100 planes and destroyed Hezbollah rocket launchers right before a planned Hezbollah attack, defanging it.

This is what Crooke reported:

Whatever you’ve read is almost certainly wrong. It’s a narrative…..First of all, it all happened at around 4 o’clock in the morning on Sunday. The Israelis started to see people moving in Lebanon and moving towards platforms. Hezbollah was planning the operation to fire drones and rockets at 5:15 on Sunday morning. And Israel started to, an attack, a direct attack. It involved I think about a hundred aircraft.

But contrary to what the Israeli propagandists at the IDF are saying, and I know this not from Hezbollah but I know this from inside Lebanon, people who are on the ground there, it was chaotic twenty minutes. Israel just bombed various valleys where they imagined the ballistic missiles were. But they’d been cleared out of there some time ago. There were no ballistic missiles. You can check that, there are people on the ground who know what’s happened. There are no missiles. So when they said they destroyed thousands of missile launchers, this is a complete lie. Because first of all, there are no missiles, no ballistic missiles, no large missiles south of the Litani River. What you have is drones and small rockets. And none of these have launchers. And they destroyed none of them. It was just a show, a show of force and it only lasted about twenty minutes…..

On top of that, the Hezbollah attack that Sunday morning, in retaliation for the assassination of senior Hezbollah military official Fuad Shukr in Beirut, did take place. Israel immediately clamped down on all reports. At first, Israel claimed the Hezbollah strikes were ineffective (there was Twitter fun about Hezbollah striking a chicken coop, which does seem to have occurred). However, it finally came out that Hezbollah was successful in striking a building in the military airport near Tel Avis that housed Unit 8200, which is akin to our NSA. Hezbollah believed Unit 8200 planned the killing of Fuad Shukr. “Successful” as in some Unit 8200 members died (there is speculation that Hezbollah got a very top level official; I’ve not seen anything convincing either way).

Now let us turn to the series of exchanges that started with barbarism-by-pager. Per Moon of Alabama:

Last week Israel launched a terror attack on Hizbullah operatives who were using pagers to receive alarms and orders. These people were part of the civil administration side of Hizbullah and not its armed fighters.

But since a new trope coming out of the bogus claim that the Hezbollah militia used pagers and didn’t even inspect them is (just like Russians!) that this proves that they are incompetent. So let’s again turn to Alastair Crooke:

The notion that Hizbullah’s communications are crippled is wishful thinking that fails to distinguish between what may be called civil-society Hizbullah, and its military arm.

Hizbullah is a civil movement, as well as a military power. It is the Authority over a significant slice of Beirut and a country – a responsibility that requires the Movement to provide civil order and security. The pagers and radios were used primarily by its civil security forces (effectively a civil police managing security and order in Hizbullah-controlled parts of Lebanon), as well as used by its logistics and support branches. Since these personnel are not combat forces, they were not seen to require truly secure communications.

Even before the 2006 war, Hizbullah ended all cellphone and landline communications in favour of their own dedicated optic cable system and hand-courier messaging for the military cadres. In short, Hizbullah’s communications at the civil level took a major hit, but this will not unduly impact upon its military forces. For years, the Movement has operated on the basis that units could continue with combat, even in the event of a complete rupture of optic communications, or the loss of a HQ.

So again in a close parallel to Ukraine, the real reason for this attack appears to be to try to break the will of the long-suffering Lebanese people and turn them against Hezbollah, just as some collective Ukraine officials fantasize that if they cause enough pain to Russian civilians, they will turn on Putin. At least so far, Lebanese citizens instead appear to be pulling together. Journalist Laith Marouf, now in Beirut, told Rachel Blevins that thousands of citizens came to hospitals offering to donate one of their eyes to a victim of the cyber attack (starting at 9:20). Even though that’s beyond current medical technology, it’s an indication of the depth of public support. Marouf also contends that the Lebanese know what they are up against, that wars of decolonization take years.

A second leg of the attack, coming shortly after the device carnage, was an assassination attempt via precision air strike in Beirut against Hezbollah paramilitary leader Ali Karaki, reportedly one of the top three on Israel’s kill list. The press cheered his death. That turns out to have been premature. From Military Watch:

A senior commander for the Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah, Ali Karaki, has survived an Israeli assassination attempt, after a precision strike on a military headquarters in the capital Beirut was launched to eliminate him… Confirmation of his survival follows multiple reports from Western media outlets, citing Lebanese military sources, that the commander was eliminated during an Israeli attack on Beirut’s Madi neighbourhood.

It was a nice touch for Military Watch to point out that the initial Anglosphere accounts cited (or made up) “Lebanese military sources”. Admittedly, it is possible this was disinfo while Karaki was being moved to safety.

Now to the next Israel move, widespread air strikes that extended into Syria. The claim was that they were targeting rocket launchers, So far, they have killed nearly 500. But as for the rockets, we again turn to Alastair Crooke, here on Judge Napolitan