Hezballah Cross Border Attack Threatens to Elevate Conflict

 

Two IDF soldiers were killed when each of the vehicles they were patrolling the border road with Lebanon were struck each by an anti-tank rocket. Six other soldiers were injured and have been transported to Ziv Hospital in Tzfat. No information was relayed initially after they were evacuated to Rambam Hospital for treatment. Information released through journalist Rassan Ben Jiddo shortly after 1:00 PM issued the claims the Hezballah took credit for these attacks. There was also news reports claiming mortar fire had erupted along the border. The two IDF soldiers killed were Major Yochai Kalangel and Sgt. Dor Nini pictured below.

 

IDF Soldiers Major Yochai Kalangel and Sgt. Dor Nini killed by Hezballah anti-tank rockets hit in unarmored vehicles on border road

 

After calm returned to the border region, Hezballah made calls for calm after firing at the least six anti-tank rockets at light vehicles which is against the Geneva Conventions though it is doubtful that such violations will be reported by many in the mainstream media as the violations were against Israelis and not perpetrated by Israelis. Hezballah terrorists attacked an IDF post along the border earlier in the day yesterday without reports of injuries or other casualties. During these exchanges of fire a Spanish United Nations peacekeeper was killed. Israeli Channel 2 reported that Hezballah had requested for UNIFIL to inform the Israelis that they had made a request for calm as they were finished firing and now desired to call an end to hostilities before there was any serious response from the Israeli Defense Forces to their instigations.

 

Prime Minister Netanyahu responded to the reports of these attacks upon IDF forces while touring the Sderot which is situated appropriately on the border with Gaza where the Prime Minister related to the damages inflicted by the IDF upon Hamas forces and their infrastructure during this past summer’s conflict between Israel and Hamas in response to their constant cross-border rocket launches and the resultant destruction of the Hamas tunnel systems and other infrastructure disabled or destroyed during the fifty days of fighting noting, “Anyone who tries to challenge us in the north should look at what happened to Hamas, not far from here, which was recently dealt the hardest blow it has received since its creation.”

 

These attacks from Hezballah emanating from the Sheba Farms region, within Syria near the Golan Heights and across Israel’s northern border with Lebanon will eventually lead to another exchange should Hezballah continue their recent escalations. Their claims that today’s attacks were revenge for the air attack by the IAF which struck their positions in southwestern Syria which resulted in six fatalities including claiming the lives of a senior Hezballah commander as well as an Iranian IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps) General, the special military arm from Iran responsible for terror and other attacks throughout the world and the very group which was implicated in the Buenos Aires, Argentina 1994 bombing of the AMIA, Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA; Argentine Israelite Mutual Association) about which Alberto Nisman was the prosecutor recently discovered murdered in his apartment as we reported here and here. The Israeli strike was made to interdict to prevent a serious rocket attack from within southwestern Syria which was being assembled by the Hezballah and IRGC forces at two locations late last week. Hezballah protested the strike referring to it as an unjustified and unprovoked attack on troops which posed no danger to Israel and were simply operating within Syria in defense of the Syrian government of Bashir al-Assad. Iran has also threatened to attack Israel with a thunderous assault like lightening unlike anything Israel has ever seen and that Israel will be completely unable to defend against the attack due to its swiftness and devastating results. The setting up rocket launching positions which were obviously aimed to target Israel and not being targeting any positions within Syria was only prevented from potentially causing serious damages to IDF positions along the Golan Heights or even worse, striking inside Israel in the Galilee where the potential for civilian casualties would be significant thus the immediate and swift response by Israeli jet fighters taking out the launchers and personnel before they were able to launch their rockets. That was what Hezballah and Iran referred to as an unprovoked attack on their personnel who were simply carrying out exercises which were of no threat to Israel.

 

On another front on these fatal attacks on IDF vehicles and personnel, it has been rumored and is being investigated by the IDF that the vehicles struck in yesterday’s attacks were unarmored vehicles which are not for use on the border. There are claims that by mistake unarmored Isuzu dMax jeeps were the issued vehicles and are not outfitted with sufficient armor for border duties. As the vehicles were struck with anti-tank missiles the type of vehicle may not have necessarily saved these soldiers’ lives as even armored vehicles are insufficiently up-armored to resist anti-tank missiles which are designed to penetrate at least a dozen inches of armor plate and some even twice that much armor and lighter vehicles and APCs are usually armored with a maximum of six inches of armor plate equivalent. The difference would be if the vehicles were supposed to be outfitted with the Trophy Active Protection System developed by RAFAEL Armament Development Authority, that would have made a difference. Had the vehicles of any thickness of armor also been a vehicle protected by the Trophy System then whether the vehicle was armored would have been inconsequential as no anti-tank missile would have been able to even reach the vehicle still capable of exploding or doing any serious damage. Prime Minister Netanyahu commented later in the day after being briefed on the extents and numbers of IDF soldiers and young Israelis which the fact that all of these soldiers are also young men who have families and represent the future for Israel and each one lost is a loss felt by the whole nation as the majority of Israelis feel as if we are all family and not merely countrymen. It is because much of the nation as a whole mourns the loss of each and every soldier and many take the loss of each young man or woman in the defense of our small nation so precariously perched at the edge of the Mediterranean Sea at its eastern edge with nothing but enemies desiring to kill every last Israeli as their holy mission. It was speaking for the nation which has been deeply wounded that Prime Minister Netanyahu stated to the media and the nation filled with mourners this day stating, “Those who committed these acts will pay the full price for their actions. For a long time Iran has been using Hezbollah to establish a terror front against us on the Golan. We are aggressively acting to prevent this. The government of Lebanon and the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria are responsible for attacks on Israel that emerge from their territory. Our single goal is to defend Israel and Israelis. We have acted this way in the past, and will continue to do so.”

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Netanyahu Invite by Congress May End the World

 

If one listens to the Liberal, Progressive, Socialist political fronts from both sides if the American-Israeli divide one might get the opinion that a great transgression had occurred as the Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner invited Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu to appear before the United States Congress. The hue and cry from these corners over the timing of the invitation claiming that it is a sneaky ploy by Netanyahu to appear on the world stage to make points immediately before the coming election might originate from an actual and very valid complaint providing there is proof that Prime Minister Netanyahu actually had a hand in arranging this invitation. There have been calls from both nations for an invitation to also be extended to the Labor Party leader Yitzhak Herzog to speak before the United States Congress. This manufactured end of the world scenario, if one is to believe the claims that there are some underhanded maneuvers arranging a stage to exhibit Netanyahu before the world leading into the coming elections. The problem is that there is another reason for the invitation and its timing which explains everything, makes perfect sense and provides the reason that only Prime Minister Netanyahu received this invitation. Unfortunately, it is not exactly simple.

 

The Democrat leadership of Senator Harry Reid and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi echoes the complaints from some of the Labor Party ministers in Israel decrying this supposedly blatant misuse of their power by the Republicans inviting the Israeli leader this close to the Israeli elections. But what if the reasoning behind inviting Prime Minister Netanyahu has nothing to do with the Israeli elections and would have been extended even if there were no Israeli elections on the horizon. The reason behind the invitation of Prime Minister Netanyahu is due to the intransigence promised by United States President Obama. The reason for this invitation is to be given a second and opposing opinion on Iran and their nuclear weapons programs along with any pertinent information and developments in the Iranian missile and ICBM development programs such that any steps the Congress might wish to press forward with they would have the necessary details which thus far have not been forthcoming from the White House, State Department or the Pentagon as all are keeping to the pretense that all is just fine following the President’s lead. The person who has been most vocal on the world’s stage and has challenged President Obama’s position is Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. One reason for not also inviting Labor leader Yitzhak Herzog is that his position has been consistently to claim that Netanyahu has alienated the American President and that Herzog’s claim is that he will repair the relations with President Obama and stand with the President particularly in reaching a peace with the Mahmoud Abbas and also back the President in his wise course in negotiating with Iran as Herzog claims to have complete faith that President Obama knows exactly what he is doing and is the sole best hope for preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Prime Minister Netanyahu has been invited more for holding question and answer sessions with the key people as well as before various Congressional committees and as many Representatives and Senators as time permits. Most of the work which will be accomplished at this set of meetings will be done in private beyond the bright lights of the cameras and beyond the hearing ears of the media and will be more of a planning and working session for a bipartisan approach to Iran armed with the information which Prime Minister Netanyahu can provide.

 

The real reason is the promise from the White House to veto any and every bill which reaches the President’s desk which includes placing stronger sanctions on Iran even if the sanctions are scheduled for after the current deadline for an agreement to be negotiated between the P5+1 and Iran whether that turns out to be March 1, 2015 or July 1, 2015. One of the people who most likely played a large role in pushing for the meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was New Jersey Democrat Senator Robert Menendez who has authored legislation which would reapply many of the sanctions that he and others believe were prematurely lifted by the White House and has stated in the legislation that the reapplication of those sanctions would only take place were there no progress in the negotiations with Iran on their nuclear weapons program. There will also be many members of Congress who will want to know what the Israelis know about the newest rocket which Iran has on the launch pad outside of Tehran which was just pictured by an Israeli intelligence satellite. The fact that this was set up out on a launch pad just as an Israeli intelligence satellite passed overhead allowing it to be pictured implies that the Iranians desired to make this new rocket known without necessarily having to launch it such that it would have delivered a payload somewhere in the Atlantic or Pacific spending the rocket in the process. This way the Iranians have left the properties such as range and payload up to those people assigned to make such assessments for the military by the Israeli government. There will probably also be questions seeking Israeli insights on the new Saudi Arabian King Salman, age seventy-nine and also not in the best of health. King Salman has promised a smooth transference of power and a continuation of King Abdullah’s reign for the immediate future. Additionally, the events in Yemen will likely be another front where Iran will have extended reach and should the Houthis be capable of ousting al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), things will worsen as this would place Iran perched over the straight named Bab el Mandeb which basically grants control over sea lanes passing from the Red Sea including to and from the Suez Canal and from the Israeli port of Eilat, to and from the Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean and beyond.

 

There are quite a few questions on events, predictions, assessments and pure conjecture which the members of Congress could desire to pry from Benyamin Netanyahu as well as promising him their support should anything fester and explode into any manner of a war. There are currently threats being made by Hezballah which are rather doubtful unless demanded of them by Iran, Syria which has at the least the two reasons they could use to launch an attack on Israel with the recent airstrike which killed a number of Hezballah fighters as well as some five Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) troops with one senior Hezballah officer and an Iranian General, and, of course, there is the threat from Iran who has threatened to strike Israel with lightning bolts unlike anything Israel has ever experienced and will be completely defenseless against such an attack. The Congressional leadership and many members will vie for some personal time with Prime Minister seeking more information than the time will allow even should they manage some one-on-one.

 

If anything, this working visit with the members of the two houses of Congress and meeting those willing from both parties will prove to be more of an anti-campaign event than it would prove as a positive part of his campaign. Already President Obama has stated that neither he nor any member of his administration will be meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister and has threatened that the Israeli leader will be made to pay dearly for this visit and his not clearing the visit with the President before accepting the invitation from Speaker Boehner. The fact that President Obama is targeting the Israeli Prime Minister and not targeting the Republican Speaker of the House for not informing the President of his plans to invite a foreign dignitary to speak before Congress means he believes the Israeli Prime Minister is cowed as he has likely misinterpreted Netanyahu’s civility in the past for timidity, a view which is about to be corrected. The refusal of President Obama to meet with a visiting head of state says more about the American President than it does Prime Minister Netanyahu. President Obama could have made more points with the liberal socialist progressives from the Israeli Labor Party and his fellow democrats as by simply inviting Yitzhak Herzog along with Hatnua Party head Tzipi Livni who would share the Prime Minister position should their combined ticket allow for them to be chosen and succeed in forming a ruling coalition. Instead the President simply acted almost childishly doing virtually the same thing as stomping one’s feet and threatening to hold one’s breath until they turn purple. It will be interesting for all to see how this melodrama plays out though I doubt seriously it will have any bearing on the election. What may have an unimaginable effect on the election would be an attack by Syria, Hezballah, Iran or any of the Iranian proxies on Israel. I can only hope and pray that there not be any kind of assault on Israel, both in Israel or outside her borders. If I were a supporter of the Prime Minister I would also hope that President Obama would do everything within his powers to resist and fight Netanyahu while he is present in the United States making as big a scene as possible as these activities would only serve to press Israelis to vote for Netanyahu.

 

Beyond the Cusp