Looking for Help in All the Wrong Places

 

Read a news flash a couple of days ago and was simply amazed at the inanity of the acts reported. According to the report, Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu held a brief press photo op with the Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini in Jerusalem. Initially, after Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini was escorted into the office, Prime Minister Netanyahu can be seen pointing to a map of the region in or about the Israel-Lebanon border (video posted below). Then they exchange greetings and the Israeli Prime Minister thanks the Italian government for providing one of the commanding officers for UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon) and stated that he has a difficult position but needs to step up and fulfill their mission and prevent such incursions and other threats posed by Hezballah in violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 limiting actions and presence of Hezballah south of the Litani River. The UNIFIL forces are positioned along the border with Israel well south of the Litani River tasked to prevent the militarization of the border by Hezballah, not an enviable task. The closing statement was a quasi insistence for the international community to address the recent incursions via infiltration tunnels by Hezballah into Israel. Israeli Defense Forces have recently uncovered several of these tunnels using the same technology they used to uncover the tunnels out of Gaza dug for the last several years by Hamas with assistance by Islamic Jihad. The reality of the situation is that Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezballah are all in the service of Iran and share their technology of tunneling while also providing rocket technology, and have lately been providing Hezballah with guidance systems to transform their lonest range rockets into precision guided missiles capable of striking any location in Israel. Prime Minister Netanyahu has already stated that this providing of these guidance systems to Hezballah is the crossing of a red line, which is endangering Israelis, and the safety of Israel and her future.

 

 

The pleading for international assistance in addressing the threats posed by Hezballah with Iranian assistance is almost laughable. Turning to the United Nations for assistance, even if it is to enforce their own United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, will fall on deaf ears. As it is, reports by the Wall Street Journal of the ineptitude of the UNIFIL forces in fulfilling their mission of preventing Hezballah from reestablishing their rockets, weapons, bunkers, tunneling and other infrastructure including stashing weapons in residential homes. The people who reside in these homes have no say in the decision, they either allow Hezballah to store rockets, launchers and weapons in their homes or they are evicted or worse, murdered. Iran has been utilizing civilian flights into Beirut International Airport to supply Hezballah with advanced weapons and the guidance systems. Iran has even gone so far as to upgrade weapons factories in Lebanon originally utilized by the IRGC to manufacture weapons for the Syrian civil war. Hezballah has weaponized the entirety of the region across the border from Israel and, for those paying attention to international news, have realized that Israel has uncovered at least two infiltration tunnels reaching into Israel from houses in Lebanon. All of this despite the presumption that Hezballah has been observing the limitations of UNSC Resolution 1701, which makes the entirety of the region of southern Lebanon pictured in the map below, supposed to be denied them by the UNIFIL forces.

 

Map of UNIFIL Demilitarized Region

 

It is the completely ridiculously ineffectiveness of the United Nations forces in southern Lebanon. To be entirely honest, we can understand that they would not care to fight a war for Israel in southern Lebanon, which is exactly what it would take to prevent Hezballah from doing whatever they desire. The main deterrence the UNIFIL forces pose is on Israel, preventing any intervention by Israel to weaken Hezballah or to use rockets, missiles, tank fire or other explosives to destroy the Hezballah munition stores. They also prevent any infiltration into Lebanon by Israel for reconnaissance or other means of sabotaging Hezballah positions. Israel is left to attempt to mitigate tunnels and other means of infiltration being built by Hezballah and worse, wait until Hezballah chooses the time of the next war. When Hezballah does attack Israel, which very well could come at the end of the Syrian civil war, they could very easily be supplemented by IRGC forces with heavy weapons attacking across the Golan Heights or even sweeping through northern Jordan and attacking from south of the Sea of Galilee. Israel would also be facing endangering those very same UNIFIL forces which are providing Israel no enforcement of the UNSC Resolution 1701 and simply watching as Hezballah rearms and rebuilds their military infrastructure south of the Litani River and upgrading their weaponry with generous assistance from Iran. Israel would be unable to immediately respond to any Hezballah offensive strikes until the UNIFIL forces have been provided ample time to remove themselves from the battlefield. They might even be held to their position by Hezballah in order to use them as human shields preventing any proper and all-out Israeli response. Israel need learn the simply lesson, nobody is going to risk their troop’s lives to enforce anything imposed on any terrorist group be it Hezballah, Hamas or any of the Arab militaries which the nations surrounding Israel have attacked with in the past. Israel should never again seek United Nations “protective services” as that only opens up other nations to becoming victims of Israeli fire, even more so should they be kept from leaving to serve as human shields. Those who may wish to mock such an idea really need to reconsider their position as they are dealing with terrorists who largely do not care about the lives of the children they use as human shields, do you believe they value UNIFIL troops’ lives with any greater regard? There will be another war started by Hezballah when they decide it is to their advantage or when Iran decides it is to their advantage. Should Iran make good on their threat to disallow any oil shipments to leave through the Straights of Hormuz should President Trump place an embargo on Iranian oil shipments, it would be tantamount to a declaration of war. Were Iran to follow through on their threat and sink even a single supertanker or the United States Naval vessels escorting such a tanker, they would be really needing something which would grab global attention and fast. Having Hezballah start a war with Israel while preventing the UNIFIL forces from departing just begging for a single Israeli round of artillery, tank fire or aircraft fire to strike any UNIFIL forces and Iran with whomever allies with them screaming about Israel murdering international observers in the United Nations General Assembly; that would be the perfect foil to take the heat off of Iran, at least for a moment or maybe a week or two. What the world has in place in southern Lebanon is a ticking bomb simple waiting for Iran to light the fuse with the full intent of sacrificing every last UNIFIL troop stationed in southern Lebanon so as to get the maximum protection against the Israeli Defense Forces and to have the world denounce and scold Israel for not simply absorbing six to ten weeks of rocket and missile fire and infiltrations from Lebanon by Hezballah while the United Nations attempted halfheartedly to extract the UNIFIL contingents all while demanding Israel stand down to protect these precious lives. After all, is not every UNIFIL troop worth at least five or six hundred Israeli’s lives? Trust me that the world will demand exactly such from Israel while they argue in futility with Hezballah to release the UNIFIL troops which Hezballah will claim are protecting the lives of Lebanese from Israeli military actions which Hezballah has been responding to as Israel started it by existing. And yes, there is absolutely no room for sanity in any of this as any other nation in the world would not stand for such on their border. If you want proof, we give you the Islamic State which Russia and the United States plus the European nations traveled as far as half way across the globe to address that terror problem which was not threatening any of these nations. There is your truth and in the meantime Israel has been searching out tunnels used for infiltration from Gaza and Lebanon and will only be a matter of time before Israel will be required to check along the Golan Heights for tunnels made by the IRGC when Iran deems it necessary. Do not get this wrong, all of these forces sitting perched to attack to try and destroy Israel are under the puppet-master’s strings and that puppet-master is the Iranian Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei. He may also hold the lives of the UNIFIL forces stationed in southern Lebanon as they may end up hostages serving as human shields.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Nasrallah and Allies Throwing Threats at Israel

 

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel to “Count to one million!” this past Monday before starting any attacks or violence against Lebanon. To those who know Israel they realize this threat has nothing to do with any threats which might emanate from Israel, they have everything to do with Nasrallah reinforcing his own standing as Hezballah has some difficulties as their losses in the Syria conflict continue to mount. Hezballah requires their front with Israel to give their movement legitimacy and without support in Lebanon they would not have this front. Nasrallah’s problem is the fighting by Hezballah in support of Syrian dictator Bashir al-Assad in his war to try and reestablish his country with him still in control. Hezballah only has an obligation to fight for al-Assad because Iran insists they assist the Iranian efforts to support al-Assad, an ally, or should we say the more honest assessment of puppet, and thus retain Syria as the anchor on the Mediterranean of the Shiite Crescent across the Middle East. This Shiite Crescent begins with Iran bordering the Indian Ocean and Persian (Arabian) Gulf across Iraq and on through Syria and Lebanon to the Mediterranean Sea. Should Iran lose their claim to Syria personified by Bashir al-Assad who is more Shiite than Sunni as an Alawite Muslim, they lose their western Shiite Crescent anchor. The civil war in Syria has drawn more assets from Iran who has sent mostly Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) units and as the fighting had continued they demanded that Hezballah assist the efforts and this demand has only increased as the fighting became more and more desperate. Initially Hezballah had great successes but soon they began to have sufficient losses that they were no longer able of hiding the deaths and severe injuries to their fighters. As Hezballah is mostly an all-volunteer force, leaving Hezballah has proven bad for some individuals’ health.

 

Hassan Nasrallah Gesturing during remote feed video onto large screen during Hezballah semi-annual pretense of readiness to defeat any Israeli assault as he remain in hiding presumably beyond the reach of Israeli drones and commandos. This enhances his appearance of constantly under threat by Israeli forces seeking to assassinate him. The likely truth is that Israel had no reason, desire or even bothered to draw up plans to do so. As far as whether Israel could find Hassan Nasrallah’s various secreted locations, probably already have them pinpointed on some map just in case it becomes advantageous to remove Nasrallah from his position as the figurehead of Hezballah.

 

Still, and especially with the losses in Syria, Hezballah needs volunteers to fill their ranks of fighters. They control much of the government forces throughout Lebanon and is allied closely with President Michel Aoun and through these connections they control the education system in much of the areas and through this they indoctrinate the youth thus providing for future volunteers. One of the main attractive themes which is used in the schools and in their seeking for new recruits is the idea of fighting the Jews, Israel in particular. This has been a central theme even in Iran where their two major indoctrination inducing themes are “Death to America” teamed with “Death to Israel” both of which are often chanted in demonstrations after Friday prayers. This is the Iranian version of George Orwell’s 1984 “Two Minutes of Hate.” The similarity between the Iranian use of hate and Nasrallah using hate for Israel and the Jews are asimple means of holding power through defining and demonization of the other. This has been one of the means of unifying populations throughout Islamic history beginning with Muhammad during his later period in Medina after his being cast out of Mecca as his preaching that his revelations were the only truth, something the pluralistic society of Mecca refused to accede to, eventually rubbed the leaders of the city and the populace to such an extent they rejected both his preaching and soon the man himself, Muhammad, was cast out of the city. Once he established his power base in Medina he turned on those who had rejected him, first the Jewish tribes in the vicinity of Medina and then on Mecca bringing it down and subjugating those who had formerly rejected him. This was why he called his religion Islam which best translates as submission. This is still the method used by Islam that all must bow to their wishes and as Muhammad chose the Jews for a special place as the most accursed by Islam, this theme is repeated today. This is part of why Israel is so hated and why they so often depict the United States as controlled by Jews or as the puppet of Israel and thus singling the United States for equal hate as is given Israel. Some may ask why then is Britain also given such hate even more so than France, which was just as much a colonial power after the end of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, and the reason is simple, the Balfour Declaration brining Israel into existence, as they were under Jewish control. Everything traces back to the Jews no matter how absurd such a premise may be. Below we have Orwell’s “Two Minutes of Hate” and a rally against Israel, Britain and America from Tehran and the similarities are easily recognized.

 

Two Minutes of Hate

 

Endless Mindless Hate

 

There has also been a renewed belligerence from Gaza using a new tactic of firing their rockets from both within Gaza and from the Sinai Peninsula. Other than opening up a new front by using Egyptian territory there may be more involved. These rockets have been largely a single volley and then a return to what can be described as a normal level of fear and anxiety. The truth is, as we noted in our article Hamas Appointments Signal Coming Conflict, the recent retirement by Ismail Haniyeh and his replacement by Yahya Sinwar signals an expected increase in belligerence and the definite possibility of another Gaza war as Hamas will likely start a new rocket offensive this spring and into the summer. More rockets were fired into Israel today and all that remains is to see who and how many take credit for the attacks. Currently there is a war ongoing in Gaza in a rather subdued struggle for control of the area, the attacks on Israel as well as potentially Egypt between Hamas and Islamic State. Both groups would desire to eradicate Israel and both find Egyptian President Sisi to be a threat to their particular version of Islam, as he is calling for a reformation within Islam placing the emphasis on the Meccan coexistence verses instead of the Medina conquer the world and subjugation verses. Both Islamic State and Hamas see conquest as the true path of Islam holding no question in the supremacy which must be brought about by any and all means necessary including by the sword. Their argument with Sisi still would take a back seat to their hatreds for Israel and the Jews. In the case of Hamas one should not believe their aim is simply to destroy Israel and scatter the Jews to the far corners of the Earth as their Charter calls for the annihilation of all Jews wherever they may be found. Quoting the Hamas Charter, it states in Article 7, “The Day of Judgment will not come until Muslims fight the Jews, when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say, ‘O Muslim, O servant of God, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.’” Further, it states in Article 32, “Zionism scheming has no end, and after Palestine, they will covet expansion from the Nile to the Euphrates River. When they have finished digesting the area on which they have laid their hand, they will look forward to more expansion. Their scheme has been laid out in the ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion.’” These are actual beliefs which they intend to act upon yet nobody appears capable of understanding their deep-seated anti-Semitism and the extents to which they intend to carry the extermination of the Jewish People. What the world need understand is that the Islamic hatred for the Jews goes all the way back to the beginning starting with Muhammad and was not a product of their influence from the Nazis but rather it was an Islamic influence of Jew hatred which spurred the Nazis even further and was responsible in part for the “Final Solution” which was in part formulated through the input of the Mufti of Jerusalem in discussions he partook in at the Wannsee Conference. Hamas is simply the continuation of Muhammad’s preoccupation with the extermination of the Jewish People.

 

Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar

 

What poses the real threat is the possibility of facing a two front assault from the south using both Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula by Hamas as well as facing Hezballah in the north potentially attacking from both Lebanon and onto the Golan Heights from within al-Assad held areas around Damascus in Syria. Where such would not prove an impossible task for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), it would limit that care which could be granted should the IDF only need fight on just one front. There would be a necessary broadening of any theater of operation with less ability to use discretion when targeting essential structures being used as rocket launching facilities or command and control. This would be particularly true on the front against Hezballah as they have been provided with sufficient ability to destroy much of Israel with their estimated one-hundred-fifty-thousand rockets and missiles. With such an arsenal they could probably overwhelm the Iron Dome systems and in order to preserve the nation the IDF would be required to rely on intensive air strikes and use of Israeli missiles in a series of precision munitions. The usual surgical precision and calling off air strikes simply because there would be a potential for civilian casualties would need to be given less urgency as many of these rockets and missiles and their launchers have been placed in what Hezballah refer to as their hardened positions which they claim Israel is unable to strike. What they are relying upon is that no Israeli government would ever permit the unrestricted use of missiles and air strikes regardless of civilian casualties. The difference in any coming conflict with Hezballah is that it would come down to Lebanese casualties or Israeli casualties and that would not be a difficult, though it would be an unpleasant, thought for any Israeli Prime Minister no matter where on the political scale they may sit. Any Israeli Prime Minister who would hold Lebanese or Gazan lives as more important and more precious than Israeli lives and call off strikes which would save Israeli civilians simply because Lebanese or Gazans might be hurt should step down immediately. There is a point where being humane when fighting a war has to give way to the practicality of fighting a war. Any war with Hezballah who have been provided with more missiles and rockets than many European military powers could put into use at any given time by Iran with the intent of overwhelming Israel and destroying as much of the country and murdering as many of the people as possible, that requires taking off the gloves and fighting any confrontation as what it is, an all-out no-holds-barred war. Such is not exactly something to be proud over, but reality has consequences and the only thing which Israel can promise is that she will not fire the first shot.

 

That leads us to the final reason Nasrallah made the comments he did. His other purpose is to establish through quotations the idea that any confrontation must have been started by Israel. In this with repeated statements of how Hezballah will go to any length in protecting Lebanon from Israeli aggressions, Hezballah will not shy when Israel attacks, Hezballah stands ready for the coming Israeli attacks and statement after such statement that when Hezballah strikes Israel in a cross border raid killing IDF soldiers on patrol and kidnapping soldiers if able they will claim the Israelis attacked and the world, even for a moment believes and reports such, then the entire following conflict will be blamed on Israel. Many of the world media will point to all the times Nasrallah warned of impending Israeli attack. The problem is Hezballah claims that the Galilee is occupied land and that Israel illegally holds these lands so when they attack it is in defense of lands they claim are occupied despite there being a recognized international border which places these lands within Israel. The entire length of the Lebanon Israel border is fenced and any attack required crossing through the fence at recognized crossing points. The entire border between Israel and Lebanon is supposed to be monitored by the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon. These are the same peacekeepers who were supposed to prevent Hezballah from rearming and prevent their digging an entire new set of underground facilities. This is the same United Nations peacekeeping force which the Europeans walked out of supporting, India left after they were threatened and these peacekeepers now basically work for Hezballah. These United Nations forces were referred to as UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) and were put in place after the Second Lebanon War and almost lasted two years before basically turning the other way and allowing any breaching of the agreements they were supposed to enforce. They became so threatened that one seldom sees any United Nations vehicles south of the Litani River and those one can find are often being driven by and used to transport Hezballah units, rockets and provisions. UNIFIL became a joke and if there is any logic left in Israel, they will never again trust the United Nations, European union, European nations or most of the world to keep even a single promise if doing so places them in opposition to the forces of Islam as the world is more afraid of terrorists than they are of Israel because Israel will not be blowing things up in their capitals or anywhere they care about. Israel needs to realize they are on their own for the most part and any friends they may have after an election may disappear after the next election and their promises will leave with them. Such is the lesson of the written agreement given Ariel Sharon by George W. Bush which has since become a dead letter with at best may become resurrected briefly but will then be eclipsed somewhere down the road, guaranteed. The only promises Israel can count upon are in Torah.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Military Strike Spoils Plans for Attack on Israel

 

Hezballah has reported that a helicopter strike in southwestern Syria has killed Jihad Mughniyeh, the son of Imad Mughniyeh, along with four Iranians amongst others while they were setting explosives along the Syrian border with Israel, breaking terms of the armistice, and preparing rockets for strike to be launched against Israel. No nation has claimed credit for these strikes but I would like to issue an open ended thanks to whoever it may have been. There were reports that shortly before the strike there were drones orbiting over the site though it has not been reported where the drones went. It has also not been explained what a top Hezballah was doing with four Iranians in southwestern Syria setting explosives along the Israeli border or why rocket launchers were being set up and armed with rockets set in a direction which would have resulted in their launching into Israel. As Israel has refused to comment and there has also been no commentary from the United States, let me first thank President Obama and the folks at the Pentagon just in case the United States decided to strike these dangerous and potentially problematic actions along the Israeli border and if it was Israel then well played, well played.

 

Whatever were the particulars on who performed this strike, what was surprising is this is the first actual report of preparations for a strike on Israel from within Syrian territory. There have been numerous people crossing from Syria into Israel seeking medical aid and each has been treated and returned to Syria upon their complete recovery. There have been no question as to which side they may be aligned with or even whether or not they are civilians, Syrian military or from amongst the myriad of terrorist groups including al-Qaeda, al-Nusra, ISIS, or even Hezballah; they are simply treated and returned across the border. Perhaps this explains some of the reasons for healthcare costs along with the Palestinians from Judea, Samaria and even Gaza which receive treatment in Israel even including the granddaughter and wife of leading Hamas officers. Had these rockets been launched into Israel it would not have made any difference where or what they had struck or what response they might have intended, be that being able to internationalize the conflict or to have drawn Israel into the war in order to gain sympathy and involvement of other Middle Eastern governments into the war, the sole response they would have drawn would have been an Israeli strike against whatever forces within Syria which were determined to have been responsible. This brings us to emphasizing something which needs to be stressed and made known before it ever becomes an incitement in the form of an attack on Israeli cities, towns, farms or other targets within Israel as evidence has been gathered where such strikes have been proposed as a way of internationalizing the Syrian war and being able to make a general call to arms in support of Assad claiming that Syrian forces have come under attack by the Israelis. Assad realized that Syria is lost and is fighting now for the survival of the only thing he really cares about, his survival and to remain the Iranian base of supply for Hezballah and the Iranian harbor for any operations they may plan for the Mediterranean Sea. Assad realized his strategic importance as Iran’s western Mediterranean base and also as an Iranian staging area bordering Israel which offers far greater strategic depth than does Lebanon. Iran has also proven their belief in the importance of their Syrian base of operations through their providing provisions for Syrian and Hezballah fighters and their ordering Nasrallah to commit Hezballah forces to assist Assad for without the Hezballah forces it is very likely that Syria may have already fallen before the combined forces made up by al-Qaeda allied terror groups such as al-Nusra plus the forces of the now infamous ISIS terrorists, though they prefer to simply be called IS (pronounced iz) rather than ISIS (pronounced iz-iz).

 

This now primordial struggle between historic forces of enmity, Sunnis and Shiites, has ravaged Syria beyond imagination of anyone who has not resided or been stationed in a nation embroiled in a war where the complete eradication and destruction of the enemy was the stated aim of both sides fighting within the national borders. Many cities in World War II faced such destruction; Stalingrad and Dresden come to mind. That is the real horror of the war in Syria, the complete and utter destruction of a nation to the point that it no longer retains the infrastructure necessary to support the nation’s population and the neighboring nations where most of the population has fled are not prepared or capable of absorbing these refugees who no longer have homes, jobs, places to shop, food stores, farms or much else to facilitate their returning to their former neighborhoods. The horrific destruction has been one of the resulting dilemmas for which nobody has given much concern. Perhaps this might be something which the United Nations might put some of their brainiacs on seeking answers to instead of rushing to investigate Israel at the behest of a collection of terrorist entities pretending to be a nation. Solving the dilemma which is Syria would also assist in finding a solution for a fair number of so-called refugee Arabs who had been held in camps in Syria before Assad had his military target those very same camps just in case they might join the forces marshalled against him. Those refugees are now double refugees which are currently under the auspices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and potentially might return to being under United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) should they ever be returned and their camp rebuilt in Syria. All of this is pure conjecture about a future which is so far out of sight that perhaps any solutions for what to do after the Syrian struggle reaches an end point should be planned for some time in the next century.

 

Hezballah has responded to the strike saying that the death Jihad Mughniyeh, the son of Imad Mughniyeh, along with four Iranians was “a hard blow to take.” Further it has been reported by Turkish media that Hezballah has elevated the readiness of its forces stationed along the southern border areas of Lebanon with Israel. These forces are stations south of the Litani River which has brought a number of Israeli complaints as such placement of Hezballah terrorists south of the Litani River breaks the agreement which ended the second Lebanon war armistice. But never mind such a brazen breach of a treaty presumably enforced by the United Nations, United States and the European Union with European and other United Nations troops were supposed to enforce along with forces from the Lebanese Army. The United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon (UNIFIL) were reinforced almost doubling their size with the explicit orders and mission statement was to prevent any rebuilding of the infrastructure of command bunkers, concealed rocket launching emplacements, ammunitions depots which are often placed within people’s homes, interconnecting tunnels and tank traps amongst other military support emplacements as well as preventing Hezballah terrorists to take up position south of the Litani River but they found an endless number of reasons why they failed every stipulation of their mission statement. About the only unanswered question is whether or not Hezballah and the UNIFIL forces are sharing buildings again where they both have their flags raised overhead on the same flagpole. Whatever the case with UNIFIL and their questionable ability to restrict Hezballah from reestablishing their fortresses rocket launching platforms, armament depots and other installations, with Hezballah blaming Israel for the loss of their command level personage, Jihad Mughniyeh, four Iranian fighters and other personnel and placing their terrorist forces on heightened military preparedness level and announcing their holding Israel responsible for the attack on their personnel, Israel has also placed personnel in the north along the Lebanese border on a heightened awareness and hopefully doubling the numbers of patrols and soldiers contained in each patrol making all the needed preparations to repel any Hezballah incursions across the border. Hopefully neither side will provoke any further actions escalating the confrontation further nor requiring an Israeli response as such will not be anything like the second Lebanon war, the IDF has provided all infantry units’ additional training to better prepare her troops for any situation. As of the time of this report there has been no infiltration by Hezballah terrorists and with any luck the fates will allow for both sides to relax their heightened levels of alert ending this escalation without any further altercations. The Hezballah reactions and statements begs a basic question namely; what were Jihad Mughniyeh, four Iranian agents and a platoon or so of Hezballah terror fighters doing in Syria and what was their intentions as they were caught laying explosives charges along the Syrian-Israel border and setting up rocket launchers such that any rocket fired from them would necessarily strike within the borders of Israel and not be launched into Syria at their opponents.

 

Beyond the Cusp