After enduring nearly a year of bombardment of northern Israel from Hezbollah rockets, missiles and drones attacking towns and villages, Israel struck back with surgical precision targeting terrorist leaders using explosive beepers and walkie-talkies. Israel’s extraordinary counterattack was followed by airstrikes on Iran-backed Hezbollah arsenals and rocket launchers triggering a new phase in the conflict. Despite more than 8,000 projectiles raining down on Israel since Oct. 8, a chorus of condemnations from leaders around the world has criticized Israel, ignoring the sustained terrorist barrages that have dislocated 60,000 Israelis from their homes.
Hezbollah intensifies assault against Israel: ‘We live in fear’
Hezbollah’s under-reported war against Israel continues to escalate as its massive arsenal of armaments is reaching cities deeper into the Jewish state. Once-vibrant northern communities now stand desolate, leaving once-thriving businesses and tourist destinations deserted. Israeli hospitals were forced to relocate patients into a fortified underground bunker. The largest hospital in the north has once again become the world’s largest underground hospital, transforming its parking lot into a medical facility with more than 2,000 beds.
As rocket sirens wail incessantly across northern Israel, including Nazareth—known as the Arab capital of Israel—tragedy strikes. Hezbollah’s rockets claim indiscriminate victims: Jews, Druze, Muslims and Christians. A Hezbollah rocket killed 12 Druze children playing soccer in one particularly horrific incident in June. An Israeli regional leader described life on the border: “For the past year, we’ve lived in chaos, consumed by fear and helplessness.”
Israeli jets shot down a drone launched by an Iranian-backed militia in Iraq and destroyed more than 100 loaded Hezbollah launchers, preventing an imminent attack—part of “Operation Northern Arrows.” The military is striking “infrastructure that Hezbollah built up for years” but faces difficulty because, like Hamas, Hezbollah stores weapons and rocket launchers in civilian neighborhoods, making it difficult to neutralize threats without endangering innocent lives. The Lebanese are like hostages in Hezbollah’s grip that effectively controls their country.
The terror proxy, described by experts as “the world’s most heavily armed non-state actor” and “a militia trained like an army and equipped like a state,” holds a vast arsenal of 150,000 rockets aimed directly at Israeli cities. Hezbollah continues to vow Israel’s destruction, as its arsenal can be continuously resupplied by its Iranian masters through neighboring Syria, another Iranian ally. The weapons include sophisticated long-range missiles that can reach all of Israel with highly destructive warheads.
Former Hezbollah fighter: ‘Brainwashing starts in childhood’
A chilling video series called “Hezbollah’s Hostages” recently released by the Center for Peace Communications and The Free Press exposes Hezbollah’s manipulation of Lebanese civilians. One ex-combatant: “We’re programmed starting in childhood. When you are older, they recruit you to join Hezbollah. They start you off with religious courses, then fighting courses. I said I wanted to go to battle. We had endless amounts of cash and worked with the Syrian army and Iran. After a serious leg injury, I left Hezbollah and started working in a hotel. I worked with people of different religions and nationalities. I started thinking. I finally opened my mind and had become free. Now, if you bring me an Israeli soldier, the Syrian dictator and a gun, and tell me to kill my enemy, I will kill [Syrian President Bashar] Assad.”
Espionage thriller: Explosive pager wounds Iranian ambassador
In a scene straight out of a spy novel, Israel is suspected of deploying a technological innovation with explosive pagers and walkie-talkies. These seemingly harmless devices were secretly embedded with explosives handed out to Hezbollah leaders—not rank-and-file militants—five months ago after Hezbollah turned to low-tech, older communication systems to avoid Israeli surveillance. The Lebanese Health Ministry claimed that more than 30 were killed and thousands injured. The attacks crippled Hezbollah’s ability to communicate and coordinate with its forces.
According to a news report, each device was designed to harm only the terrorists carrying it. Reportedly among the injured was the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, who lost an eye after looking at the pager when it beeped, which was further proof of his involvement in Hezbollah’s operations. This is perhaps ironic since the Iranian regime blinded more than 120 of its citizens during the 2022 protests for women’s rights. Israel has not confirmed its role in building and supplying the pagers and walkie-talkies, but Iran demanded the head of the United Nations condemn the attacks. The Iranian regime’s terror group banned its members from using any communication device.
Worldwide press coverage downplayed the Hezbollah rocket attacks and sensationalized Israel’s reaction erroneously as a “major escalation.” Not to be outdone, the anti-Israel Wikipedia editors who recently redefined Zionism to fit their narrative, falsely labeled the pager attacks “terrorist incidents.”
IDF kills Hezbollah leader responsible for murdering Americans
On the 40th anniversary of Hezbollah’s 1984 suicide bombing of the U.S. Embassy annex in Beirut that killed 23, the Israel Defense Forces took out a senior Hezbollah commander. The U.S. State Department branded Ibrahim Aqil a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” in 2019, and there was a $7 million bounty on his head. He was directly responsible for the 1983 bombings of the U.S. embassy that killed 63 individuals and the U.S. Marine Barracks bombing that killed 241 Americans. Before he was killed, his latest plot was an Oct. 7-style attack to raid Israel and massacre Israeli civilians.
Blame Israel: U.N. expresses ‘solidarity’ with terrorists
Perversely, the United Nations swiftly condemned Israel’s efforts to target terrorists while continuing to overlook Hezbollah’s sustained attacks and the 101 hostages held by Hamas. Despite Hezbollah and Hamas openly calling for Israel’s destruction, the United Nations has consistently failed to classify them as terrorist organizations. Instead, responding to the beeper blasts, U.N. human-rights experts “expressed our deepest solidarity to the victims of these attacks.”
The United Nations is deeply involved in this conflict. The U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has been repeatedly condemned as a failure. The “interim” peacekeeping forces have been present for nearly 50 years in Southern Lebanon to “restore international peace and security.” Not only has it proven ineffective, Hezbollah and multiple Palestinian terrorist organizations were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of UNIFIL peacekeepers.
Points to consider:
- The beeper bombs were targeted attacks, not “terrorism.”
The beepers and walkie-talkie attacks targeted devices that were only distributed to Hezbollah operatives. Israel does not intentionally target civilians. This is in sharp contrast to both Iranian-backed terror groups that intentionally launch rockets at Israeli homes, hospitals and schools. The main reason there are not more Israeli casualties is that Israel and America jointly developed defensive measures like the Iron Dome shield.
- Hezbollah’s war against Israel is not about Palestinians.
Hezbollah is an Iranian proxy terror group that effectively controls Lebanon. It is not directly connected to Hamas, but it also is dedicated to destroying the Jewish state and killing all Jews. The terrorists stated that their repeated attacks since Oct. 8 are in support of the Palestinians, but this is just a pretext for their assault on Israelis. Their sophisticated and deadly rocket arsenal is not about “freeing Palestine.” It is about Iran’s quest to annihilate the Jewish state. Hezbollah exploits its civilian population and the Lebanese government to help it achieve its aims. It sacrifices the lives of innocent Lebanese civilians to die because of its commitment to radical Islamist theology.
- Iran wants to destroy America and Israel.
Iranian-backed militias in Iraq killed more than 1,000 American soldiers. Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorists killed hundreds of Americans in Lebanon in the 1980s. Iran is trying to influence America’s presidential election. It is developing nuclear weapons and the capability to use them to obliterate the United States. Iran is a direct threat to American lives and values. The Islamic Republic refers to America as “Big Satan” and Israel as “Little Satan.” Its intent is clear: kill Americans and Jews everywhere. Israel’s fight against Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and other Iranian proxies also is America’s fight against Iran. United as allies, Israel and America can succeed.
- Israel is repeatedly and disproportionally singled out for condemnation among the world’s combatants.
The ongoing civil war in Sudan is a tragic conflict that does not generate front-page headlines or mass protests. There is rampant sexual violence, 12 million were forced from their homes, and 8.5 million are on the brink of famine. Iran is responsible for the vast majority of the world’s executions every year, murdering civilians for being gay, blasphemy and drinking alcohol. Recently, a Kurdish activist was sentenced to death. She described her treatment in prison: “During interrogations, they hanged me multiple times, buried me 10 meters underground, then pulled me back up.” Of all the global conflicts, only the Jewish state garners significant attention and is falsely condemned.
- The United Nations condemns Israel and promotes Iran’s agenda.
The world body’s bias against Israel is clear, even while appointing Iran to key leadership positions. Iran is a serial human-rights abuser, a global sponsor of terror and is in the process of developing nuclear weapons. Yet, Iran was selected to chair the U.N. Human Rights Council Social Forum last November, elected to the U.N. Committee on Disarmament and International Security in 2023 and a member of the U.N. Women’s Rights Commission in 2022.
