On October 7, 2023, Hamas butchered 1,200 innocent people, maimed 5,400, kidnapped 250, and drove tens of thousands out of southern Israeli towns. The next day, to show solidarity with Hamas, Hezbollah began launching rockets, missiles and drones into northern Israel, driving 80,000 from their homes.
Israel’s war rages on, against Hamas and Hezbollah, ISIS, the Houthis and their Iranian theocracy puppet masters. It is a conflict that Israel did not start and did not want, a war for the Jewish state’s survival.
Hamas leader Sinwar is now dead. So are Hezbollah leader Nasrallah, his successor, and the successor’s replacement. But Hezbollah still demands “appropriate and suitable” terms for ending the conflict.
A Lebanon ceasefire might happen, if a new American proposal is accepted, under which US, EU and UN “partners” would (finally) enforce 2006 UN Security Council Resolution 1701, requiring that Hezbollah disarm, withdraw north of the Litani River, and let the Lebanese government govern.
President Biden wants to “move on” to other matters. VP Harris says “de-escalation” is essential. They want a ceasefire and Palestinian statehood that may be less likely than ever, because Israeli trust is gone.
However, Donald Trump’s resounding reelection is already making Iran less relevant – and Hamas and Hezbollah more open to a cessation of hostilities, release of still-living hostages, and even a long-term, wide-ranging peace agreement ... largely on Israel’s terms.
Meanwhile, Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis and Iran continue to target any Israeli civilians unlucky enough to be in blast zones – with few condemnations or repercussions from the UN, US or anyone else.
The Hamas war is the most dangerous and complex urban warfare imaginable. It’s horrific for anyone caught in crosshairs or crossfires. And yet Israel is condemned for crimes against humanity for attacking Hamas and Hezbollah ambush sites, weapon and missile storage depots, terror tunnels and strongholds that were deliberately built in and under homes, schools and hospitals to maximize civilian casualties.
Even Israel’s brilliant booby-trapping of Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies – the most precise targeting in military history – was labeled a war crime.
Meanwhile, Russia continues targeting Ukrainian schools, apartment buildings and hospitals, maiming and killing civilians – with few or no condemnations or repercussions.
In reality, civilian death tolls in Gaza and Lebanon are a fraction of noncombatant casualties in other recent wars – Afghanistan, Africa and Ukraine, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, for example – where US, UN and allied forces killed nine civilians for each combatant. In Gaza and Lebanon, fewer than two civilians died per combatant, because Israeli Defense Forces take “more measures to avoid civilian harm than virtually any other nation that’s fought an urban war.”
Israel was also condemned for kicking the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinians out of Israel, because UNRWA employed terrorists who participated in the 10/7 massacres and helped kidnap Israelis; indoctrinated children to be terrorists; aided and sheltered Hamas; funneled food, water, concrete and other resources to the terrorists; and concealed weapons and explosives in UNWRA facilities.
President Biden and the US State Department are “deeply concerned” that this decision could prevent humanitarian aid from reaching people, even though the IDF and other aid agencies are more than capable, and pictures and videos prove UNRWA employees committed multiple crimes.
Norway has asked the UN General Assembly to request an International Court of Justice “advisory opinion” outlining Israel’s supposed “obligations as an occupying power to facilitate humanitarian assistance” to Palestinians. The US says it “categorically rejects” any Israeli actions that could lead to the “forced relocation” of Palestinians from Gaza.
Why haven’t Norway, the US, UN or pro-Hamas mobs sought similar legal opinions regarding Russia’s obligations toward Ukrainians – or regarding other horrific international conflicts?
Years-long war in Sudan has killed well over 60,000 people, forced millions to leave their homes, added another 135,000 to the refugee stream just since October 20, and created the “world’s worst current hunger crisis.” And yet these “human rights advocates” have said virtually nothing.
Similar stony silence reigns regarding butchery in Nigeria, where Islamist “jihad and genocide” have slaughtered 150,000 Christians since 2009 and driven millions of refugees into neighboring countries. Some bizarrely blame resource scarcity, eco-violence, and climate change for the slaughter.
During Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, some 750,00 Arab people fled or were forced to flee the new nation. Their six million descendants now live Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and other places, largely assisted by UNRWA. They are still considered “refugees,” with a “right of return” to what is now Israel – the only people in history with such status.
Most Holocaust survivors (perhaps 3,000,000 of 9,000,000 pre-WWII Jews) had no desire to remain in Europe; they emigrated to Israel and other countries and started new lives and families. Most who tried to enforce their “right of return” to their pre-war homes were murdered or driven away. This week, Islamist mobs hunted and attacked Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam.
Israel’s creation also resulted in 850,000 Jews being forced to leave their centuries-long homes in Muslim countries across North Africa, through the Middle East to Iran and beyond. They received no UN help.
This October, Israel finally responded to Hezbollah’s ongoing attacks – and its preparations for Hamas copycat massacres via tunnels similar to those in Gaza. IDF targeting of Hezbollah headquarters, war rooms, and stockpiles of weapons and explosives, rockets and missiles in populated areas damaged parts of Beirut and southern Lebanon, displaced more families, and killed terrorists and sadly civilians who failed to heed warnings about imminent airstrikes.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and other finance ministers even sent a letter to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, warning that the West Bank’s economy could collapse if Israel doesn’t extend a waiver allowing Israeli and Palestinian banks to continue cooperating in disbursing international financial support. The Palestinian economy faces “systemic collapse” if action isn’t taken immediately, they claim.
Israel’s economy has also been battered, but the ministers say nothing about that.
The US, UN and EU are further outraged that Israel wants the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to move out of its forts, to safeguard its “observers” from air and ground actions in active combat zones. UNIFIL has steadfastly rejected the demands.
UNIFIL has been deployed in Lebanon since 1978, supposedly to prevent Hezbollah having an armed presence south of the Litani River. However, it studiously saw nothing, said nothing, reported nothing and did nothing to prevent Hezbollah from building terror tunnels, sniper positions, missile launch pads, munitions depots and more within a hundred yards of UNIFIL positions along the Israeli border.
These travesties, threats and hypocrisies must end. The wars on Israel must be brought to a close and the hostages returned – but only with the dismantling of Hezbollah and Hamas forces that still promise to wipe Israel off the map. Thankfully, the ascendance of Trump 47 makes all that more likely than ever.
Paul Driessen has been to Israel multiple times and is the author of many articles on energy, environmental, human rights and Israel issues.
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