[akyan]

Israel will now conquer the whole of Gaza, this I didn't see coming. But the stars aligned and looks like it will come to pass. Hamas in using extreme violence doomed themselves and began another Nakba.

But honestly when you are a little piss ant terror group, don't go fucking around with the big dogs. Al Qaeda, ISIS, or Hamas fucks around and finds out.

[kellyhound]

Under mounting US pressure, Lebanon’s government is being forced into a dangerous choice. Does it want to fight a war with Israel or does it want to fight a war at home, with Hezbollah?

In recent weeks, the US has been pushing for the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah. The government had already been moving in that direction, but not at the pace the US wanted. Lebanese media began to fill with warnings from unnamed sources that if Hezbollah’s arms were not confiscated soon, a second war with Israel could be on the horizon.

On Tuesday, the Lebanese government acquiesced and announced the Lebanese army would draw up a plan to place arms exclusively within the hands of the state by year’s end. Hezbollah and its political ally Amal announced the next day that they would “treat the decision as if it did not exist” and accused the government of serving US diktats.

US pressure for faster disarmament has laid the seeds for a scenario the Lebanese government has taken pains to avoid: a confrontation with Hezbollah. If cornered, the group could resort to force to defend its arsenal.

Lebanon’s current government was born after the latest Hezbollah-Israel war, with the US as its midwife. A battered Hezbollah could no longer maintain its side of a stalemate that had left Lebanon without a president for two years, and Joseph Aoun, the former army chief, was elected amid heavy US pressure.

The election of Aoun, who included in his mandate restoring the state’s monopoly on violence, was an extraordinary sign of how much Lebanon, and the region, had changed in the past year.

Hezbollah had dominated Lebanon for two decades. What had started as a resistance group described as a “state within a state” had transformed into a party controlling the state, setting much of Lebanon’s domestic and foreign policy.

It was only after a devastating war with Israel, which saw virtually all of its top leadership killed, thousands of fighters dead or wounded and a large portion of its weapons destroyed, that Hezbollah’s grip on the country was loosened. The toppling of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, in December was another blow to the group, which had used Syria as its main supply route from Iran.

The new Lebanese government, however, was careful not to gloat. It took pains not to publish videos of soldiers confiscating Hezbollah weapons caches in south Lebanon. Too aggressive an approach to Hezbollah could provoke a confrontation and alienate the group’s base of mostly Shia Muslims.

First and foremost was to engage in state-building so that former members of Hezbollah and its popular base felt included in Lebanon’s national project, rather than under siege.

Officials were aware that the same conditions which gave rise to Hezbollah in the 1980s are still present today. Similar to 45 years ago, Israel occupies parts of southern Lebanon and the country’s Shia population, which bore the brunt of Lebanon’s war, are impoverished and do not feel represented by the state.

The US views the gradual pace that the state has set as stalling, however.

On the Lebanese side, officials have privately complained that the Americans seem unconcerned with building a strong Lebanese state. Instead, the US wanted immediate results on disarmament, putting the new government’s state-building project at risk.

“This process is very dangerous the way it is unfolding. It will actually consolidate and push potentially even wider sectors of the Shia portion of Lebanese society behind Amal and Hezbollah rather than to national consolidation,” said Joseph Daher, the author of Hezbollah: the Political Economy of the Party of God.

Near-daily Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon, in violation of the November ceasefire, have also undermined the Lebanese government’s claims that only the state can protect sovereignty.

The day after Lebanon announced it would draft a plan to disarm Hezbollah, an 11-year-old child was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon.

The Lebanese army has not responded to any of the thousands of Israeli airstrikes on the country since November – nor does anyone expect it to. The under-equipped, under-staffed army can do little in the face of an Israeli military equipped with US fighter jets, which drop the latest US munitions by the thousand.

There is little appetite among the international community to help the Lebanese army become a proper fighting force. Requests by army leadership to install low-tech watchtowers on its border with Israel have been rejected.

Without the means to do so, asking the Lebanese army to enforce the disarmament of Hezbollah is a tall order. “How can you ask the LAF to do to Hezbollah what Israel couldn’t do to Hamas in a smaller space, with warplanes?” said a senior diplomat in Beirut.

Nonetheless, international pressure to disarm Hezbollah is likely to increase, not abate. Opinion among international powers on the question of the Lebanese state’s monopoly on arms was uniform.

“The US, Saudi and EU are in agreement on this point: the question is no longer if Hezbollah should be disarmed, but how to do it,” the diplomat said.

[StrategicNuclearMoose]

An exclusive photo published by The Telegraph shows Jeffrey Epstein wearing an IDF shirt on his private jet in 2019

[houseoftechno]

Originally Posted by akyan ↗

Israel will now conquer the whole of Gaza, this I didn't see coming. But the stars aligned and looks like it will come to pass. Hamas in using extreme violence doomed themselves and began another Nakba.

But honestly when you are a little piss ant terror group, don't go fucking around with the big dogs. Al Qaeda, ISIS, or Hamas fucks around and finds out.

I've felt all along that to stop the daily terror attack threat that has stood in Israel from inception, Israel must eliminate all previously autonomous territories in its borders (Gaza, Judea and Samaria) and establish permanent DMZs in the border regions of Lebanon and Syria. All these lands must remain under Israel occupation and oversight (police and land development), the latter being to prevent reestablishment of the military facilities in striking distance of Israel. Israel has already announced plans to designate the Syrian territory south of Damascus as a DMZ, which I think is the initial step toward an independent Druze state.

[houseoftechno]

Originally Posted by kellyhound ↗

Under mounting US pressure, Lebanon’s government is being forced into a dangerous choice. Does it want to fight a war with Israel or does it want to fight a war at home, with Hezbollah?
...
“The US, Saudi and EU are in agreement on this point: the question is no longer if Hezbollah should be disarmed, but how to do it,” the diplomat said.

Stupid concept. The US is being naive as usual in trusting Muslim leaders to protect the lives of non-Muslims. Lebanon already had its chances to control or be controlled by the Jihadists. History repeats and we know the Jihadists will continue to run Lebanon, their Gov and their armed forces. It would be a mistake to put Lebanon Gov in charge of disarming Hez because in the end, Gov and Hez are controlled by the same people. Also, a well armed Lebanese military will eventually move to counterstrike Israel when IDF launches military strikes upon Islamist military/terror threats in Lebanon.

Israel's game plan with Lebanon is to use military attacks to assassinate the Hez leadership and remove military infrastructure. This plan is working well. It will not work well if Lebanon "transfers" its military infrastructure from Hez to Gov.

[akyan]

Originally Posted by houseoftechno ↗

I've felt all along that to stop the daily terror attack threat that has stood in Israel from inception, Israel must eliminate all previously autonomous territories in its borders (Gaza, Judea and Samaria) and establish permanent DMZs in the border regions of Lebanon and Syria. All these lands must remain under Israel occupation and oversight (police and land development), the latter being to prevent reestablishment of the military facilities in striking distance of Israel. Israel has already announced plans to designate the Syrian territory south of Damascus as a DMZ, which I think is the initial step toward an independent Druze state.

what I mean was that I wasn't sure that Trump was going to survive the Dem's communist style political persecution and assassinations. Then give Bibi full support to do things that were not even thought USA would allow. The stars aligned not because Israel lacked the capability to wipe Gaza off the face of the map, but Israel now has the sovereignty needed to make such a move. With full support of USA the rest of the world are just dogs barking at a tiger. No one is coming to save Gaza, time to leave or die.

[StrategicNuclearMoose]

So what do we think of Jeffery Epstein wearing an IDF shirt around in 2019?

[akyan]

I wore Badboy entertainment shirt in highschool. I loved Micheal Jackson, I still listen to R Kelly.

[Caduceus]

Originally Posted by Myristylbenzylmorphine ↗

So what do we think of Jeffery Epstein wearing an IDF shirt around in 2019?

The same thing we think of Arabs wearing Mohammed T shirts. He had 11 wives. One was 9. Killed a Jewish family. Abducted and raped Sophia. Murdered countless others.

[StrategicNuclearMoose]

Originally Posted by Caduceus ↗

The same thing we think of Arabs wearing Mohammed T shirts. He had 11 wives. One was 9. Killed a Jewish family. Abducted and raped Sophia. Murdered countless others.

Very insightful, thank you for your contribution.