This is an announcement stemming from Netanyahu's pledge to Bennett, a "war" in exchange for Bennett's staying in Netanyahu's Cabinet, and not bringing down the government immediately.
The Israelis have been talking about another invasion of Lebanon for over a year now, but their recent defeats both military and political in Gaza have demonstrated the general incapacity of their ground forces, and most importantly, aversion to taking any casualties.
This publicity announcement is only for Netanyahu's political benefit. It does not change Israel's precarious tactical and strategic position at all.
The most dismaying outcome of the recent rocket attacks from Gaza was that the Israeli defense missiles, "David's Sling" , "Iron Dome" etc.failed to bring down the large majority of the primitive Gazan rockets. Against the thousands of sophisticated missiles in southern Lebanon and Syria under Hezbollah control, the system willl likely perform even worse.
Lacking capability of invading southern Lebanon and Syria, Netanyahu and Israel are in a real predicament, and the only way to survival with them is to make peace with their neighbors and cease aggression against neighboring states and in the Occupied Territories. This is the last thing that Bennett, a settler, wants to hear.
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@Charlie
Clueless, or cued in to take advantage of other people's ignorance. You would specify what "aggression against neighboring states" you are talking about?
You could complain about the lack of an Israeli Palestinian accord, but Israel is the victim, not the aggressor, of Iranian/Syrian/Hezbollah arms build up on the northern and northeastern borders. If over 150,000 missiles doesn't sound like aggression against Israel, what would?
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@Charlie
Charlie, if your goal is peace, you need to stop spreading disinformation:
1. There was no pledge to Bennett to start a war. Netanyahu called Bennett's populist bluff to withdraw from the coalition.
2. Opinion polls showed an overwhelming majority of Israelis supporting a large scale military operation in Gaza. The Israeli public is ready to make sacrifices.
3. Missiles are indeed a threat and hi-tech defenses only partially effective, and that is why public opinion supported military action in Gaza.
4. Iran is engaged in extending a front 1,500 km from its border. Israel is acting from its side of its Northern border. Exactly how is Israel the aggressor?
5. Finally, Bennett is not a settler. He lives in an affluent suburb north of Tel Aviv.
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@Eitan 1. According to Ha'aretz there was such a promise. Bennett was expecting actual combat operations, and didn't get it. 2. Lebanon 2006 and Gaza 2014. 3. The real threat is the sophisticated missiles on the Northern front, and, similarly, it would take a sustained land invasion
and occupation to rid Gaza of any rocket threat.
4. Israel has been conducting an aggressive financial, sabotage, and cyber war against Iran, including Stuxnet, since 2005. It and its American agents have tried mightily to get the US to attack Iran on its behalf, and are still trying, and it's not a matter of who the true aggressor is. Only diplomacy as the former USSR conducted with the USA can possibly defuse this situation.
5. Bennett is the leader of the settler party and does have property in the Occupied Territories according to the Israeli papers.
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Option for Lebanon not mentioned in the article: give up on annihilating Israel and spend your money and efforts making Lebanon a better place to live. Ditto for the PA and Hamas. Be like Jordan and Egypt.
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@TMDJS
Ha. Good luck with that.
What is the raison d'etre of Iran and her proxies?
And how thoroughly are the EU and the UN helping them -perhaps unwittingly. All those Iranian millions for attack tunnels --from Mr Obama and EU doing side trade with Iran ---and a ?worthless UN force who somehow didn't see the process of attack tunnels being dug 25 meters underground. How many hundreds of thousands $ of US contributions to the UN have kept these UN forces warm and cozy on the border?
Re; Jordan and Egypt, there is a cold but steady peace. Jordan's king is focused on survival entirely, and Israel has his back.
Egypt's problems are overwhelming. The battle against Islamists is its main focus. Israel also indirectly helps Egypt in this unending struggle.
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I wish we had a wall like that
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Why doesn't Israel send some kind of robot vehicle, loaded with explosives, into the tunnel and explode it at the other end? That should close off one end of the tunnel. Then they could repeat it with further demolitions of the remaining parts.
This way the whole tunnel would be destroyed without entering foreign territory.
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Israel has every right to thwart any future attacks coming from Hezbollah as they are on Hamas. Trying to destroy their tunnels is a good start. This way they won't have to live in fear of any other attacks coming from them. Honestly, attacks from Hezbollah back in 2000 after agreeing to remove the Good Fence should have been a wake up call in understanding that preconditions just won't work as they even got the same kind of attacks from Hamas in 2005 after agreeing to leave the Gaza Strip where they are still getting attacked from even today. Had the UN actually done what they were supposed to do after Israel left the Good Fence, they wouldn't need to worry about so many attacks from Hezbollah. Before anyone says that Israel is attacking another country such as Syria for this, keep in mind that Hezbollah is bent on attacking Israel, and they feel that it's better if they stop them first before any attacks are done at them hence counter-terrorism. By that logic, Saudi Arabia must be violating such laws when using similar tactics to stop Houti rebels over in Yemen, but I don't hear the same crowd saying that's wrong as they are on Israel. Another thing to understand is that Hezbollah is really loyal to Iran when they get most of their funding from rather than to either Syria or Lebanon. Overall, Israel does have a reason to what they need to do to stop them hence they aren't solely responsible for their actions. Just imagine if this was being done to your country.
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Nearly 50 years ago I spent a summer after graduating high school working on a kibbutz on the Lebanese border. Every morning we awoke to the sounds of an Israeli air force raid on fedayeen positions at nearby Mt. Hermon. Once we were fired on by guerillas while we were picking fruit in the orchards, and I had to scramble out of a tree and duck for cover. There has never been peace here, and there never will be. This land bears the curse of Cain and Able: The three Abrahamic faiths share the same blood, but will gladly spill it.
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Under President Trump Netanyahu gets to wage war on Iran, Lebanon and any other perceived threat real or imagined to defend Israel at all costs whether a shot has been fired or not under the ruse we have a right to defend ourselves
What other country or state gets to behave like this and the world is restrained?
It’s dangerous to the world order
I am a supporter of Israel but not Netanyahu I hope these investigations against him will result in the end of his political career. Israel deserves a ruler that wants peace not war and so does the rest of the world
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Did you read the article? Israel is operating within its own borders, on its own territory. It is working to clear tunnels that are themselves invasions into its own space.
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@Rose P What does your comment have to do with the operation to destruct tunnels from Lebanon into Israel? The existence of the tunnels is yet another demonstration of the REAL threat from Iran and Lebanon. Would you prefer that Israel didn't defend itself?
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@Rose P they are preempting a threats on their side of he border, but that would only be clear if you read the article. what other country is so constantly targeted that they need to take preemptive action. Aren't we the US in the middle east, France in Africa? preemptively addressing threats?
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Pretty good-looking wall. Maybe we should find out and well it works and who the contractors are.
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A wall seems to be a good idea for Israel, so isn't it a good idea for the US?
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@Ro MaThere’s no wall all along the Israel Lebanon border, just as there isn’t one all along the area between Israel and the West Bank, or even Gaza. The press just likes to publish such pictures because it looks more dramatic.
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@Ro Ma
A main point of this article is that the wall provides no protection from attack tunnels 25 meters underground.
And another main point, not mentioned, where was the UN force guarding the border while this has been going on?
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Another great consequence of giving Iran billions of dollars to finance terrorism. Hezbollah would not have the money to build these tunnels had President Obama not given Iran sanction relief and cash.
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there's no doubt Israel exists in a bad neighborhood and has issues with belligerent and unstable neighbors. so it has been from the start.
but it seems like more than a poltical coincidence the tunnel issue in the north hits the news at just the same time as a story about Bibi's welling legal troubles and the possibility of early elections.
this is a stock rightwing trope and I'm expecting DC Republicans will keep a sharp eye on how it plays in Israel as Mueller closes in on Trump and his henchmen.
we're sunk if Sheldon Adelson stars peddling his papers in the USA.
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It's always amusing to see the attacks on Israel and the responses by its defenders. Living in entirely different universes, it would seem.
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@ Ronnie Santa Cruz
Attacks on Israeli human beings are "amusing" to you?
You certainly do live in an alternate (and sick) universe from the rest of humanity.
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Walls such as this that rise between nations are, very simply, emblematic of nationalistic/economic oppression. We saw this in a divided Germany, we see this in the boundaries and buffers between rich and poor (and white and black) neighborhoods in US Cities.
Walls do not, good neighbors make.
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@Kent R
This is true. But in decades with no wall, has Lebanon been a good neighbor to Israel?
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@Kent R
Sometimes walls serve a different purpose:to try to keep out an enemy from attacking one's civilian population.
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@SJG - I agree that Lebanon is not a good neighbor to Israel, which I interpret as further evidence...as would I think MLK...that walls injure both sides. Walls create segregation, which we in the US have found anathema to equitable society.
In the '73 war Egypt used water cannons to erode the Bar Lev line and the Germans went through the "impenetrable" Ardennes bypassing the Maginot Line. Trusting fixed monuments of fortifications is folly. Better thinking and new ideas are whats needed. I am sure there is some guy in Israel that has the answer, now whether anyone will listen to him, that is an altogether different question.
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@AusTex Read it again. Israel is doing nothing like that.
And the Bar Lev Line was not intended to be an impenetrable barrier - it was intended to delay and make more difficult an Egyptian advance across the Canal. It might have worked, except that it mostly wasn't functional on October 6, 1973.
Your examples don't mean that various types of physical barriers are useless. Israel isn't facing a possible tank invasion from Lebanon.
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Another opportunity for the clueless to address Israel's alleged land grabbing and targeting of innocents, especially those in Lebanon just over the border. Except these commenters aren't clueless; they may not have the benefit of 150,000 missiles aimed at Israel in the attempt to destroy it, so they rely on lies, false comparisons, and even use Netanyahu as the excuse why they dislike Israel.
Oh, and why they're at it, please do tell the rest of us how the billions spent on Israeli defense is a waste of our taxpayers money. Of course, money spent in Jordan isn't (actually, it's also given to bolster Jordan so that Jordan and Israel don't crash together). And the billions spent on our trustworthy friends in Pakistan, that shining example of true democracy, is foreign aid at its best.
For a change, will the anti-Israel commenters have something intelligent and authentic to say to these relevations?
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Israel has the best defense money can buy. Yes thanks to the generosity of the American people:/government Don’t hold that against us
I believe the issue here is not starting another unnecessary war.
As far as Iran we had a path that could have eventually led to a peaceful resolution over time. But that was not to be No one is interested in trying for a peaceful solution
Why not hold s summit to end this useless threat of war?
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They have the best defense because they send every man and woman into the IDF at 18. They have the best defense because they have to because if they don’t they are all dead. They have the best defense because they developed it themselves and are world leaders in offensive and defensive arms technology. American money that they have to spend on American arms doesn’t make them safe, it doesn’t protect them. Money doesn’t do anything unless it’s spent right by people with the resolve to protect their countries.
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@Rose P
Remind us:what was that path that could have "led to peaceful resolution" with Iran?
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This makes me think of US Mexico border ---
Trump wants to build a border wall -- the result of which might be continued improved engineering and greatly increased number of tunnels across Mexico US border -
(what a waste, this wall idea)
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@Susan
Think again. There is a world of difference.
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@Susan
The Mexican wall is not at all analogous to what the Israelis are doing because of the mind set of those seeking to enter the respective borders. Those coming to the United States through Mexico, by and large, want to work and join our society. Hezbollah and its compatriots want to enter Israel to commit terror, kill Israelis and recapture land now held by Israel.
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@Susan
You can't just build a wall and forget about it. Areas must be patrolled (drones would help with that), tunnels must be looked for (I suspect we could get some tips from Israel), ICE must be at the ready.
A wall is a tool to slow people down. It would have to be used with other tools.
And the el cheapo wall in CA seems to be slowing down the caravan players.
All we are saying is give walls a chance.
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I just don't have a clue about the Middle East. It is simply the craziest part of the world. We talk about hate in the US and worry over hate speeches and cops who kill black men, but countries that spend significant resources to dig tunnels into a neighboring country for reasons of hate and aggression. Totally insane. There is a commentor here who claims that Hezbollah is a popular political party in Lebanon. Really? And this is what they do? What is wrong with Lebanon? My god, look at the Middle East. The only country we don't hear much about is Jordan. Saudi Arabia murders people, Lebanon digs tunnel, Syria gasses people, Iraq murders women, the Saudis have put millions of Yemenis in starvation, Qatar has been isolated, the Israelis and the Palestinians keep attacking each other, Iran wants to "wipe Israel off the face of the earth," God needs to flood the entire area and cleanse it. There is no place on earth that is perfect, but there is also no place on earth like the Middle East. Parts of Africa are similar thanks to Islam, but I think there is hope in Africa. There is no hope in the Middle East.
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@Ralph Israel is the hope The whole world is looking at and benefiting from Israel's efforts to fight de-humanizing terrorism and war, while insuring a future for the Jewish people
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@Ralph It seems like you understand the Middle East about as well as anybody.
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@Ralph Precisely. Now put yourself into the shoes of the average Israeli who shares all your Western sensibilities and imagine what he/she thinks of the neighborhood they live in. Now do you understand why, for Israel, security is paramount?
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Metula is one of the loveliest places in Israel, high up and breezy, quiet, quaint, with expansive views of the Galilee and mountains of Lebanon, and surrounded by fruit orchards. It was once the location of The Good Fence, where the Lebanese could cross and enter Israel for health care and employment. In 2002, during the 2nd Intifada, I volunteered for a brief period as a janitor for the Israeli Army. I was stationed at a base in Tel Aviv but had weekends free. One weekend, I went to Metula. I remember climbing a hillside at sunset and sitting there with a quart of beer in a paper sack, overlooking the neighboring Lebanese village. Yellow Hezbollah flags were flapping. Arabic music drifted faintly from someone’s radio or CD player. Now and then a dog barked and, high above me in a sky full of pastel colors, swallows darted about on the air currents, making tiny little cries. Now there are attack tunnels being dug from the Lebanese side and Israel has erected a wall. This is all terribly sad.
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@Don Pirrigno It is sad, I agree with you. But the world needs to know that for too many years (thousands) Jewish lives have been seen as worthless to non-Jews. Israel is not going to be passive in the face of planned aggression on Jews, on its people, really any of its citizens. Anyother country including the US and European countries, would do exactly the same as Israel (if not moreso) if a country was busy diggin "attack tunnels" into its territory.
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@Don Pirrigno
Was it okay that "Hezbollah flags were flapping" even 16 years ago?
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I am sort of shocked to see this published. Several years ago, when Israel's Operation Protective Edge targeted tunnels that Hamas had built using concrete and steel that had been imported into Gaza, it was several days before the existence of tunnels was acknowledged in this paper, and most other US news outlets. That allowed opinions about Israel's actions to form, and gel, impervious to evidence that Hamas had built the tunnels not for humanitarian purposes, but to kill and kidnap Israelis. I genuinely hope that the Lebanese government can rein in Hezbollah within Lebanese borders and obviate the need for the IDF to take action.
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@Middleman MD
The Lebanese govt is Hezbollah; Hezbollah pretty much runs the Prime Minister and most of the aspects of the government.
The Lebanese Army and Hezbollah are now one and the same.
Re:CFB comment, Hezbollah is often popular because it wins over portions of the population by providing social services.
Question:Where has the UN force been while Hezbollah has been building these tunnels? Surely, the digging equipment and concrete have been visible.
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In the interests of accuracy, let's mention that Hezbollah is also a popular political party in Lebanon whose support comes not only from Shi'as but also from Christians living in the south. It is part of the Lebanese government. One would never know this by how it is described as only a militia with ties to Iran.
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@CFB
Your comment may be accurate but it is not a justification for tunneling into another country. And it does not justify a purpose for tunnels beyond what can be easily surmised: murder, mayhem and attacks on civilian citizens. What other reasons are more accurate?
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Hezbollah being a political party does not mean that it's army is not a militia. The Hezbollah army does not take its orders from the government of Lebanon it takes its orders from Hassan Nasrallah who holds no position in the Lebanese govt.
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@CFB
Hizbollah has made the government of Lebanon impotent. Hizbollah's militia is more powerful than the Lebanese army and Hizbollah controls Lebanon.
UN resolution 1701 (after the last war with Israel) prohibits Hizbollah arms and military activity along the border with Israel. The UN and the Lebanese army are supposed to enforce this.
Needless to say, those provisions have never been enforced, not even for a day.
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P.s. I miss Golda Please follow her example and win the hearts and minds of the whole world
@Rose P
you miss golda, but she was prime minister during the 1973 yom kippur war which almost caused Israel's demise and multiple casualties.
it is a different region today with the availablity of long range missiles aimed at israel from hizbolla on the northern border and from iran which overtly claims to "wipe israel off the face of the earth."
nostalgia does not protect a nation.
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But peace does
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@Rose P
The conflict has provided great wealth for Palestinian leaders. Arafat’s net worth was $1 billion. Abbas’ net worth is $100 million. Hamas’ Khaled Mashaal, head of Hamas’s political wing, net worth $2.6 billion. Ending the conflict means ending the money.
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