In a week of military setbacks, devastating intelligence breaches, and communications disruptions, Hezbollah is back on its heels. Exploding pagers, detonating walkie-talkies, and now precision air strikes on key Hezbollah leadership and subordinate staff are designed to keep the terrorist organization off balance and unable to regroup. The Israel Defense Force (IDF) is bent on reducing the threat to its citizens in the North so they can return to their homes.
Israel Keeps the Pressure on Hezbollah
If Iran’s lackey, Hezbollah, thought the deadly surprise pager messages were a one-and-done operation on Israel’s part to make a point, they were fatally mistaken. The next day, according to the Associated Press:
“Walkie-talkies exploded in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon on Wednesday [Sep. 18] in a second wave of attacks targeting devices a day after pagers used by Hezbollah blew up, state media and officials for the militant group said. At least 20 people were killed and more than 450 wounded in the second wave, the Health Ministry said. Speaking to Israeli troops … Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, ‘We are at the start of a new phase in the war — it requires courage, determination and perseverance.’”
Having experienced an effective and devastating uniquely personal attack on Hezbollah terrorists using electronic devices, a savvy person might surmise that Hezbollah terrorists would be a little suspicious of any hand-held communication equipment now. Look inside, maybe. Not so, apparently. More importantly, what it does demonstrate is that the Mossad and Israel Defense Force (IDF) know the enemy. Additionally, pager and walkie-talkie weapons reveal the military vulnerabilities and intelligence gaps present with the Iran-sponsored Hezbollah terrorist leadership and foot soldiers.
Individually targeted attacks should not be considered isolated military events. When viewed more broadly, what is taking place with Israel’s attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon is a structured and coordinated campaign. Along with the pager and walkie-talkie attacks on a broad range of Hezbollah members, the IDF has been taking out key leaders. Within the last two months, the IDF has eliminated Fuad Shukr, senior advisor to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Ibrahim Aqil, a member of the Jihad Council, the premier Hezbollah military organization, and Ahmed Wahbi, the leader and trainer of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force.
Aqil and Wahbi were killed in a single airstrike on September 20 by the IDF. In a post on X, IDF Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari explained: “They gathered underground, under a residential building, in the heart of the Dahiyeh, while using civilians as human shield[s]. They met to coordinate terror activities against Israeli civilians.” The posting goes on to say that “At least 10 Hezbollah commanders were killed in the airstrike in Beirut, alongside Aqil.”
Aqil has been one of the most wanted terrorists for more than three decades. “Ibrahim Aqil, the Hezbollah leader behind a trio of bombing attacks that killed more than 250 Americans in the 1980s … Aqil – most recently a member of Hezbollah’s highest military body, the Jihad Council – ‘was eliminated in a targeted intelligence-based strike in Beirut,’ the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement,” the New York Post explained.
What the IDF is doing is methodically sowing confusion among the Iran-backed Hezbollah membership by creating distrust in what was thought to be reliable electronic equipment, disrupting the organization’s communications, rendering command and control ineffective, and selectively killing the Hezbollah leaders, effectively severing the head of the serpent. When fighting a war, and one would argue Israel is fighting a war, what the IDF is doing is an effective tactic for seriously degrading the enemy’s ability to endanger Israeli residents. A primary objective of the Israeli government is to create a safe opportunity for the over 62,000 Israeli refugees from the towns and villages along and close to the Israel-Lebanon border to return to their homes.
This can’t happen while Hezbollah is capable and willing to continue its rocket assault on northern Israel. Since October 7, when Iran-supplied Hamas terrorists went on a murderous rampage through southern Israel, more than 8,000 rockets and missiles have been launched at Israel by Hezbollah. The IDF is doing what it can to make it stop. What is America’s reaction to Israeli successes in Lebanon? National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters about his confidence in negotiations, saying, “Our intensive diplomacy efforts continue … We believe, continue to believe that a diplomatic solution is the best way forward, [as opposed to] escalating any of the military conflict.”
All the talking heads in the Biden-Harris administration were very quick to explain the US had no part in the pager and walkie-talkie attacks. This is a common refrain whenever Israel takes the initiative against its enemies. The Pentagon and State Department want to distance themselves from what Israel does in defending itself. It’s as if being associated with success is a bad thing.
US Reaction to Operations Against Hezbollah Not Supportive
Pentagon press releases from September 19 and 20 contained readouts of Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s phone conversations with Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant each day – the first following the pager attack and the second after the walkie-talkie assault. On the 19th, Austin “expressed his concern over the current escalation of exchanges between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah. He emphasized the importance of making every possible effort to reach a diplomatic resolution”; and on the 20th, Austin “reiterated his concern over the current escalation of exchanges between Israel and Lebanese Hizballah … [and] strongly reemphasized the importance of reaching a diplomatic solution.” Do you see the similarity in the readouts?
The US’s understanding of the conflict is a broken record of repetitious and useless rhetoric. Israel is in a fight for its very existence. The Biden-Harris administration has consistently believed chatting with terrorists will solve the problem. But when has that been true?
Dave is a retired U.S. Air Force Pilot with over 180 combat missions in Vietnam. He is the former Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense, Comptroller and has served in executive positions in the private sector aerospace and defense industry. This article was first published HERE
11 comments:
Completely futile to keep on babbling 'diplomatic solution' and 'two-state solution' when it is absolutely clear that Islam is implacable in its determination to eliminate Israel from the face of the Earth. It is nothing short of astounding how the world press takes against Israel while Putin goes on his merry way. Shame.
Hezbollah has said from Day 1 that they will cease their offensive operations as soon as Israel ceases its operations in Gaza.
It may make this smug commentator feel all the more self-righteous (a typical Yank trait alongside the characteristic naivete) to repeatedly call Hezbollah 'terrorists' but it's a funny 'terrorist' outfit that wears uniforms and fields candidates for national elections some of whom are in the Cabinet.
If we're going to talk about 'terrorists' it may pay to have a hard look at the thuggery associated with those illegal settlements which is directed at hounding Arab families off lands they have occupied in some cases for centuries. The BBC ran a story a few weeks back about some Israeli farmers siding with their Arab neighbours against the marauding gangs operating from those settlements.
This author is a bit confused on who the 'real terrorists' are.
"The US’s understanding of the conflict is a broken record of repetitious and useless rhetoric. Israel is in a fight for its very existence. The Biden-Harris administration has consistently believed chatting with terrorists will solve the problem. But when has that been true."
For starters, it is Israel's neighbours who are fighting for their existence in the face of Israel's US-guaranteed belligerence. Israel have always been the aggressor, both before 1948 and in its ongoing land-grab ever since. Anything to the contrary is yet another inversion of reality by Zionists and Zionist-friendly commentators.
Secondly, why is it taken for granted that the US owes Israel anything? When I try to think of anything Israel has ever done for the United States, I am at a loss. On the other hand, the United States (thanks to the huge influence of the Jewish Lobby in America) has given hundreds of billions of dollars over the decades to the ungrateful Jews, as well as waging a 20-plus year campaign in the Middle East to either militarily destroy or to bribe (aka "foreign aid") potential impediments to Israeli hegemony.
Until very recently, Israel couldn’t turn cell phones into bombs, Yemen didn’t have missiles capable of hitting Tel Aviv, Ukraine didn’t have drones capable of “earthquake-sized blasts” inside Russia, and US presidential assassination attempts were not a weekly occurrence.
2024 has a distinct “spinning out of control” vibe, so whatever we’ve been doing to prepare for strange times should probably be expedited. Just in case.
So Barend V. considers the fanaticism demonstrated by Hezbollah is justified in the context of the fanaticism of the Jewish settlers on the West Bank. Since when was passion the preserve of Islam? But the firing of 8000 missiles at innocent Israeli citizens is hardly in the same order of magnitude as the harassment of a few West Bank farmers. And it is disingenuous to suggest the rockets are only flying in solidarity with HAMAS and will cease once the war in Gaza ends. Hezbollah aggression predates the 7 October massacre. The Gaza war will only end when HAMAS is crushed and that will not please Hezbollah, so it's easy to predict the rockets will keep flying as long as the real villains, the mad mullahs in Iran, keep supplying them. Protection of its citizens is Israel's sovereign right and duty. Hezbollah deserve everything the Israelis throw at it, whatever they happen to be wearing at the time, and whatever the situation on the West Bank happens to be.
'Fanaticism' is not a term I readily associate with Hezbollah. Committed to their cause, yes; high morale, yes; but the kind of frenetic behaviour one associates with that term, no.
We have here the finest - well equipped, well trained, highly disciplined, and very brave with it - private army in the world. To portray them as being merely puppets of Teheran is a grave error. Hezbollah are highly patriotic; they value the sovereignty of Lebanon which the corrupt political elite who have destroyed the country and plunged 80% of its people into poverty do not. They are also pragmatists, and forged an alliance with Michel Aoun's Lebanese militia (Christian) more than 10 years ago.
This is no bunch of renegades or mouth-foaming fanatics. I developed a great deal of respect for them during my 17 years in Lebanon (2004-2021). They booted the IDF out of their country in 2006 and will do so again if the Israelis are stupid enough to invade again. I am sure the IDF generals know that, but the final say is with the politicians. Someone had better have a long chat with Netanyahu.
You don’t have any comment on the 8000 missiles Barend.
And I don’t buy your characterisation of Hezbollah as a patriotic bunch of Lebanese desperate to reclaim their country from chaos. To the contrary. Lebanon was once a tolerant, sophisticated society that went out of its way to accommodate Jews, Christians and Muslims in its constitutional framework. Its descent into a failed State can be largely attributed to the Islamic militias that triggered the 1976 civil war, and the subsequent Syrian occupation. Hezbollah is the current iteration of those militias and unashamedly uses its military muscle to penetrate Lebanon’s political institutions to guarantee Muslim hegemony. Fanaticism is just another day at the office for the faithful. And bravery has nothing to do with it when you are taught from birth that it is the duty of every Muslim to die for Allah. You don’t admire these people. You pity them.
You can't get much more 'tolerant' than forging an alliance with a Christian militia. There is also a brigade that non-Shia who share Hezbollah's goals can join.
The descent into a failed state started in late 2019. It was a remarkably prosperous country until then. And Hezbollah had nothing at all to do with the economic meltdown and currency collapse which can be attributed to the mismanagement and corruption of the established political elite - mostly Sunni and Christian.
I dare say it is Hezbollah that has prevented Lebanon from becoming another Libya after the murder of Ghaddafi.
Yes, I do admire Hezbollah in many ways. They are not cut from the same cloth as ISIS or al-Qaeda etc. I know them. Do you?
Yeah right, and Mussolini made the trains run on time. But still no comment about the 8000 missiles. So I guess you believe that's what every brave, well dressed group of patriots has to do to bring back the good old days. Randomly attack its neighbours. Strange values to admire Barend. And do I know them? All I need to know is that, from the inception of Hezbollah to the present, the elimination of the State of Israel has been one of its primary goals. I think Israel is entitled to take Hezbollah at its word, don't you?
You are becoming facetious now. Your prejudices are showing. Further discussion is pointless. Readers will make up their own minds as to who is the more rational and better informed.
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