While the 2024 Olympic Summer Games in Paris continue to captivate the attention of a worldwide audience, 12 innocent children were killed by Hezbollah missile fire while playing soccer in Israel. An Iranian-made missile launched by terrorists in Lebanon exploded in a soccer field in the Golan. The devastation was immediate—the most civilian deaths since Oct. 7—shocking the entire nation. Anti-Israel activists went right into action spreading false conspiracy theories. Tehran’s ruthless, relentless war against the Jewish state continues to escalate and threatens the region.
Seeing images of dead children with their limbs blown off triggers traumatizing flashbacks of what happened to nearly 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7. Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorists have fired thousands of deadly missiles, rockets and drones into Israel on a near-daily basis since Oct. 8, killing dozens of civilians and soldiers, destroying property and forcing more than 80,000 Israelis to flee their homes. Days after the Hezbollah attack on the Druze town of Majdal Shams, a Hezbollah rocket killed an Israeli civilian in a kibbutz. Just as Hamas intentionally targeted Israel during a Jewish holiday on Shabbat, Hezbollah also attacked Israel on the Jewish day of rest. The Iranian regime funds, arms and trains the terrorists who use Lebanon as its base of operations.
The murdered children were all Druze, an ancient ethnic and religious minority representing about 1.5% of Israel’s population. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “These children are our children. Israel will not and cannot let this simply pass on by. Israel will stand with the Druze today, tomorrow and forever.”
Hezbollah boasted that it fired an Iranian Falaq-1 missile into Israel but quickly denied this when it became clear that its deadly weapon killed kids. The terror group claimed that it was an Israeli Iron Dome interceptor that caused the fatalities; this has been debunked by Israel and America.
The terrorists don’t want to be unmasked as child murderers. However, Hezbollah repeatedly and intentionally targets civilians on Israel’s northern border, including Druze, Muslim and Christian villages. This is not the first time Hezbollah attacked a soccer field. Nearly eight weeks earlier, Hezbollah drones exploded on a field in a Druze village, wounding 11 Israelis.
Israeli Druze: ‘A covenant of blood and a covenant of life’
The Druze are an Arabic-speaking ethnic and religious group of roughly 1 million worldwide. Their religion is an offshoot of Islam, influenced by Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism and other religions. Many of their religious practices are secretive. The vast majority of Druze live in Syria and Lebanon, and more than 100,000 live in Israel.
Many Druze are fiercely loyal to the country they live in. In fact, the relationship of Israeli Druze with the Jewish state is often referred to as a “blood pact.” Israel’s prime minister recently paid a condolence call to bereaved Druze families who have lost soldiers in Israel’s current war against Hamas.
Mona, the widow of Lt. Col. Alim Abdallah, told Netanyahu: “We have no other country. We sacrificed what is most dear to us and it must be made certain that the blood of our soldiers is not in vain.” Netanyahu referred to the “longstanding partnership between us: a covenant of blood and a covenant of life.”
Israel’s Druze spiritual leader, Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif: “The bond between the Druze community and the Jewish people in the State of Israel is a deep bond that has endured for eight decades, and is built on a common vision and values. It exists thanks to the fighters’ heroism and a steadfast and true covenant.”
His family has led the Druze community since 1753. Druze have risen to prominent positions in the IDF; its men asked to be drafted in 1956.
The Jewish and political history of the Golan
Jewish communities in the Golan date back more than 2,000 years. The village of Gamla served as a stronghold against the Romans in the Great Jewish Revolt from 66 to 74 C.E. The Romans captured the town and massacred its residents. Archaeological excavations uncovered a 2,000-year-old synagogue in Gamla in 1976—one of 30 ancient synagogues discovered in the Golan.
Syria, along with Jordan and Egypt, attacked Israel in June 1967, leading to another war of annihilation attempted by Israel’s neighbors following Israel’s Independence in 1948. Israel won a decisive victory in the Six-Day War, capturing land, including the Golan Heights from Syria.
The Syrians frequently attacked Israeli civilians in the valley below the Golan plateau from 1948 to 1967—artillery shelling, sniper fire and infiltration attempts—that instilled constant fear and threatened the safety of Israelis. Now, there is wide consensus among Israelis that the Golan is part of Israel and is strategically critical for national security.
Iran’s war against America: ‘Revenge is very near!’
The Iranian regime’s anti-American hostility continues. Iranian leaders continue to threaten the assassination of former President Donald Trump, in addition to more than two dozen other current and former American officials. An Iranian regime social-media post showed fake mugshots of 26 government officials and stated: “There is no night that we sleep without thinking about you. Revenge is near. Very near!”
Iran also funds and supports anti-America and anti-Israel protests in the United States, including on university campuses.
U.S. intelligence officials warned in January that Iranian-backed Hezbollah is capable of attacking the American homeland.
Hezbollah, Iran’s proxy in Lebanon, previously attacked American citizens in the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in 1983, killing 63, including 17 Americans; the U.S. Marine barracks bombing in October 1983 that killed 241 American and 58 French servicemen; the bombing of the U.S. Embassy annex in Beirut in 1984 that killed 24; the hijacking of TWA 847 in 1985, in which a Navy diver was shot in the head and his body dumped on the tarmac; and the Khobar Towers housing attack in Saudi Arabia in 1996 that killed 19 U.S. airmen.
Points to consider:
- Israelis want peace, not war.
Israel’s goal is to preserve life, while Israel’s enemies are willing to sacrifice life. Hezbollah effectively controls most of Lebanon—a country not at war with Israel—with about 150,000 rockets aimed at Israel. Many of them are precision-guided weapons with more destructive warheads than Hamas launches from Gaza. The Iran-backed terrorists in Lebanon have launched thousands of attacks against Israel since Oct. 10. Israel has responded by conducting limited precision strikes on terrorists and weapons depots. A full-scale war would likely be very destructive for both Israel and Lebanon. Israelis and Lebanese—many who do not support Hezbollah—would suffer. But this doesn’t matter to Hezbollah and Iran, who are hellbent on destroying Israel.
- Iranian-backed terrorists also intentionally kill non-Jews.
One of Iran’s goals is general chaos and destruction. Attacks on civilians, regardless of ethnicity and religion, create fear and terror among all Israelis. It makes no difference to Israel’s enemies where their deadly missiles, rockets and drones land. Iranian-made rockets, missiles and drones fired directly from Iran or its proxy terrorist groups Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and the Houthis in Yemen do not discriminate between Jews, Druze or other ethnic groups. In fact, Hezbollah has purposefully attacked northern Israeli towns that have majority Druze, Muslim and Christian populations.
- Anti-Israel activists peddle conspiracy theories to delegitimize Israel.
Hamas and Hezbollah supporters in American and European nations went into overdrive following Hezbollah’s heinous attack. They are spreading propaganda that Israel was behind the attack, lies that are repeated and shared across American and international media. Anti-Israel activists routinely spread false narratives, such as Israel being a colonial state or orchestrating global events. These baseless claims often rely on historic anti-Jewish tropes, especially blood libels, repackaging and rebranding them for contemporary audiences. By spreading misinformation, they deepen division and hostility, diverting attention from the actual perpetrators and increasing the chances of more violence, especially against Jews living in America and Europe.
- Not land and borders: Iran’s proxy wars have one goal—to annihilate Israel.
Iran routinely vows to wipe Israel off the map and kill millions of Jews. The Islamic Republic’s proxy terrorist groups, Hamas and Hezbollah, are not trying to “liberate” the West Bank to create a Palestinian state. Israel has repeatedly offered the Palestinians statehood; all offers were rejected. Hamas and Hezbollah are dedicated to the “liberation” of Palestine from the river to the sea—in other words, the eradication of Israel. Iran’s main goals are clearly stated and supported by its actions: supporting terror groups that share its malign vision and building nuclear weapons.
- Iran is a threat to America and the world, not just Israel.
The Iranian regime seizes, kidnaps and kills Americans. Iran held 52 American citizens hostage for 444 days after attacking the American embassy in 1979. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps repeatedly builds mock U.S. aircraft carriers to blow up and harass American vessels protecting the Persian Gulf. The Islamic Republic is developing rockets and missiles that can reach the United States. Hezbollah and Iran leverage their network of deadly resources to carry out attacks against American targets both at home and abroad. Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and aggressive rhetoric toward America—the “Big Satan”—increases the potential for conflict.