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Netanyahu Left Israel to ‘Trick’ Hezbollah Leader

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Benjamin Netanyahu left Israel for New York to “trick” Hezbollah’s leader into thinking he was safe, a senior Israeli official told The Telegraph.

Mr Netanyahu’s address to the UN was part of a “diversionary plan” intended to make Hassan Nasrallah believe Israel would not take drastic action with the prime minister out of the country.

Israel struck Beirut with a massive air strike on Friday that shook the Lebanese capital.

Mr Nasrallah was believed to be watching Mr Netanyahu’s speech “and was then attacked by Israeli Air Force planes”, the official said.

“Netanyahu approved the strike before delivering his speech at the UN,” the official added. (Read more from “Netanyahu Left Israel to ‘Trick’ Hezbollah Leader” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

Iran Calls Emergency Meeting After Israel Hits Hezbollah Leader’s HQ With Massive Airstrikes

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Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is convening a high-level security meeting after Israel launched massive airstrikes in Beirut targeting the leader of Hezbollah, according to The New York Times.

Khamenei will be meeting with members of the Supreme National Security Council at his compound in Iran after Israeli forces launched a major airstrike in the southern suburbs of Beirut in an apparent attempt to eliminate Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah, who helms the Iran-sponsored terrorist group, according to the NYT. It is currently unclear whether Nasrallah was killed in the strikes, which have reportedly killed at least two people and injured dozens more with the toll expected to rise.

Israel reportedly believed Nasrallah to be present at a headquarters facility located beneath buildings in the Lebanese capital city, according to the NYT. The major strikes appear to have essentially flattened at least four buildings, with nearby cars also being damaged or destroyed.

(Read more from “Iran Calls Emergency Meeting After Israel Hits Hezbollah Leader’s HQ With Massive Airstrikes” HERE)

Biden’s Last-Ditch Israel-Hamas Peace Deal Effort Fails Spectacularly

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Multiple reports on Sunday and Monday indicated, citing unnamed sources, that attempts by the administration of President Joe Biden to end Israel’s self-defense operations against the jihadist terrorist organization Hamas in Gaza have not yielded any significant progress.

Both Israel and Hamas reportedly rejected the latest attempts at a ceasefire deal from the White House, the Times of Israel reported on Sunday, suggesting that the Israeli government politely raised “reservations” with the proposed agreement, while Hamas terror leaders “flatly rejected” the deal. The proposed deal appears to be the result of a visit to Egypt, a core mediator, by Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week in which he was reportedly working to complete a draft of a “bridging” proposal – an agreement to potentially reach an agreement – between the terrorist organization and its target nation.

Israel declared war on Hamas in October 2023 after the Iran-backed Palestinian terror group orchestrated an unprecedented terrorist siege on the country on the seventh of that month. Hamas terrorists invaded Israel and engaged in door-to-door raids of residential communities, killing entire families and engaging in infanticide, gang rape, and desecration of corpses. The terrorists also took an estimated 250 people hostage, about 100 of whom are believed to still be in captivity in Hamas’s stronghold of Gaza.

Biden administration officials have repeatedly stated that they, and the president, believe that the best way to rescue the remaining hostages is to come to a deal that stops Israel’s war on Hamas. They have offered no enthusiastic support for a battlefield victory against Hamas. Israel has officially adopted four goals in its war: the elimination of Hamas, the return of the hostages, the return of the over 60,000 displaced by Hezbollah in northern Israel to their homes, and ensuring that Gaza, where the terrorists invaded from, could no longer be used for terrorist attacks against Israel.

The Israeli government has listened to American proposals, hashed out with input from neighboring Egypt and Qatar, but has ultimately found that Biden administration potential deals do not allow for the completion of the war goal of eliminating Hamas. Hamas, in turn, has claimed to negotiate in good faith but rejected deals it had previously agreed to and continuously made outrageous demands unappealing to Israel. Hamas has rejected proposals even the Biden administration has admitted originated with Hamas itself. (Read more from “Biden’s Last-Ditch Israel-Hamas Peace Deal Effort Fails Spectacularly” HERE)

Archaeologists Reveal Artifacts Matching Jesus Christ’s Journey Through Israel

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Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) revealed in early August the discovery of the largest quarry in Jerusalem from the Second Temple period.

Ongoing revelations from excavations in Jerusalem’s Har Hotzvim neighborhood revealed a slew of building stones within the quarry site that ranged in size but were mostly massive, according to the IAA. Researchers believe some stones were likely used as paving slabs throughout Jerusalem’s streets at the time. . .

The road was walked by Jesus Christ and His disciples and connects to the Pool of Siloam, where Jesus performed one of his miracles — returning sight to the blind, The Christian Post noted. Site excavations are ongoing. And like most of the archaeological digs in Israel, it is likely to keep revealing incredible things into the future.

(Read more from “Archaeologists Reveal Artifacts Matching Jesus Christ’s Journey Through Israel” HERE)

The United States Military’s Top Shooters Are in Position to Target Iran

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Hurry up. America’s top shooters are moving into position to target Iran. With Sunday night’s announcement hastening the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and moving the submarine USS Georgia under U.S. Central Command’s control, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is making sure U.S. Central Command is prepared to attack Iran, and/or its proxies, if Tehran strikes Israel in the next few days.

Air Force F-22 fighter jet pilots have already unpacked their bags at a Middle East base where they arrived Aug 8. Here are more top shooters under Central Command’s operational control – that we know of. . .

It’s very unusual for the Pentagon to make announcements about secretive submarines. But then, the USS Georgia is a very special vessel. Powered by a nuclear reactor, the USS Georgia began life as an Ohio-class “boomer” designed to carry nuclear weapons, then underwent a high-tech conversion into a conventional guided-missile attack submarine. Now she can carry an astounding 154 precision Tomahawk Land Attack Cruise Missiles. And SEAL teams with mini-submarines. Add in a highly advanced communication suite, and USS Georgia can stare down Iran all by herself.

It’s very unusual for the Pentagon to make announcements about secretive submarines. But then, the USS Georgia is a very special vessel. Powered by a nuclear reactor, the USS Georgia began life as an Ohio-class “boomer” designed to carry nuclear weapons, then underwent a high-tech conversion into a conventional guided-missile attack submarine. Now she can carry an astounding 154 precision Tomahawk Land Attack Cruise Missiles. And SEAL teams with mini-submarines. Add in a highly advanced communication suite, and USS Georgia can stare down Iran all by herself. (Read more from “The United States Military’s Top Shooters Are in Position to Target Iran” HERE)

Israel Says Attacks Imminent From ‘Iran’s Axis of Evil’ — and Vows to ‘Exact a Heavy Price’

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Israel says it expects to be imminently and simultaneously attacked by “Iran’s axis of evil” — Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and Iranian military forces.

Iran allegedly told Arab leaders Saturday that it doesn’t care if the attacks cause a wider-spread war.

And Israeli leaders Sunday all but assured that would happen if Iran and its terror proxies launch their expected multifront assaults.

“We are striking every one of its arms with great force,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed during a cabinet meeting Sunday, referring to the Mideast “axis of evil,” according to Bloomberg News.

“We are prepared for any scenario – both offensively and defensively,” Netanyahu said. “I repeat to our enemies: We will respond and exact a heavy price for any act of aggression against us from any arena.” (Read more from “Israel Says Attacks Imminent From ‘Iran’s Axis of Evil’ — and Vows to ‘Exact a Heavy Price’” HERE)

Poll Shows 80% Continue to Support Israel

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A new Harvard/Harris Poll has found that support for Israel among registered voters in the U.S. is still strong — and growing stronger.

The poll, conducted July 26-28 among 2,196 registered voters with a 2.1% margin of error, found that 80% of voters continue to support Israel in its war against Hamas — the same proportion as in June.

Nearly two-thirds — 66% — believe that Israel is trying to minimize civilian casualties, which is up from 62% in June. And 70% believe that a ceasefire should only happen when Hamas is removed from power in Gaza, up from 67% in June.

Similarly, 66% believe Israel should retaliate if Hezbollah continues to fire rockets into Israel, roughly unchanged from 67% in June. (Israel had not yet launched its June 30 airstrike on Hezbollah’s second-in-command, Fu’ad Shukr.

The poll found that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump leads presumptive Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris by 3 points, or by 4 points when “unsure” is not an option. (Read more from “Poll Shows 80% Continue to Support Israel” HERE)

Erdogan Threatens Israel: ‘Like We Entered Karabakh and Libya – We Will Do the Same to Israel’

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Jerusalem and Ankara traded sharp barbs on Sunday, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seeming to threaten military action against Israel on Sundays as tensions heated up between the Jewish state and the Iranian proxy group Hezbollah.

Israel in turn warned that his fate could become akin to that of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, who was executed by hanging.

“Erdogan is following in the footsteps of Saddam Hussein by threatening to attack Israel. He should remember what happened there and how it ended,’ Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter, in which he linked a photograph of the two men.

He spoke up after Erdogan suggested that Turkey might enter Israel as it had done in the past in Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh, though he did not spell out what sort of intervention he was suggesting.

Erdogan, who has been a fierce critic of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza to destroy Hamas, started discussing that war during a speech praising his country’s defense industry. (Read more from “Erdogan Threatens Israel: ‘Like We Entered Karabakh and Libya – We Will Do the Same to Israel'” HERE)

IDF Releases Findings on Why Oct. 7 Mass Slaughter Wasn’t Stopped

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The Israel Defense Forces’ new report includes its findings from a military probe into some of the failings on Oct. 7, presenting them initially to residents of Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the worst-hit communities on that “Black Sabbath.”

The specially convened presentation took place at a Dead Sea hotel, where internally displaced refugees have been staying since their homes were largely destroyed by Hamas terrorists. While providing some answers, the probe left significant questions hanging, and the report neither assuaged some of the community’s pent-up fury amid its ongoing trauma, nor did it restore trust in the army. There are those who wonder aloud whether that sacred bond between the IDF – a largely conscript army – and the people, particularly those who felt bereft and abandoned on Oct. 7, will ever be fully repaired. It was more than just 1,200 people Hamas terrorists annihilated that day; they also damaged – perhaps irreparably – the “stickiness” that helps hold Israeli society together. . .

The investigators spent hundreds of hours sifting through residents’ WhatsApp messages, reviewing both Israeli and Hamas radio communications, checking surveillance footage and aerial reconnaissance, as well as interviewing survivors and those who fought in the battle to save the kibbutz and its residents. Supplemental intelligence was also gathered from interrogating captured Hamas terrorists.

However, several critical questions – and ones that may not get resolved without a full commission of inquiry – were left unanswered.

These include why military forces did not enter the kibbutz for several hours – despite the desperate pleas of those trapped behind its yellow sliding electric gate. This issue seemed to be partly explained by the fact that although defenders did arrive in numbers, nobody took overall command of the kibbutz’s defense. And certainly nobody decided to go in at once and attempt to take out the Hamas fighters. This was not expressly said, but the general chaos of hundreds of terrorists swarming around – with dead bodies liberally scattered across roads and fields – added to the confusion. More than 100 civilians and 31 security personnel were slain at the kibbutz, which had a pre-invasion population of about 1,000, while 30 other residents and two additional civilians were kidnapped to Gaza. Eleven of them remain in captivity. At one point, the attackers outnumbered the defenders by 340 to 26.

(Read more from “IDF Releases Findings on Why Oct. 7 Mass Slaughter Wasn’t Stopped” HERE)

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Israel’s Top Court Rules Ultra-Orthodox Jews Must Be Drafted Into Military, in Blow to Netanyahu

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Israel’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the government to draft ultra-Orthodox Jews into the military, delivering a blow to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that has the potential to unravel his ruling coalition.

The court also ordered the government to withdraw funding from any religious schools, or yeshivas, whose students do not comply with draft notices.

“The government wanted to distinguish at the level of law enforcement between individuals based on their group affiliation,” the court said in its ruling. “It was determined that by doing so, the government seriously harmed the rule of law and the principle according to which all individuals are equal before the law.”

Ultra-Orthodox (or Haredi) Jews have, for all intents and purposes, been exempt from national mandatory military service since Israel’s founding (Palestinian citizens of Israel are also exempt.) Ultra-Orthodox men spend much of their early lives out of the workforce, entirely devoted to religious study. They view yeshivas as fundamental to the preservation of Judaism, as important to Israel’s defense as the military.

Most Israelis believe ultra-Orthodox men should serve in the military, according to recent polls, but Haredi parties have been staunchly opposed to efforts to rescind the draft exemption. Netanyahu’s fragile government coalition relies on two Haredi parties – United Torah Judaism and Shas – to govern. He has for weeks been trying to advance legislation through Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, that would enshrine in law a draft exemption for Haredi men. (Read more from “Israel’s Top Court Rules Ultra-Orthodox Jews Must Be Drafted Into Military, in Blow to Netanyahu” HERE)