Cease Fire in Lebanon ?

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

     June 12, 2024 One of the largest missile attacks on Israel by Lebanon:  On June 12, 2024, Hezbollah launched over 200 rockets and multiple drones into northern Israel, marking one of the largest attacks in the 8-month conflict. This massive barrage, which caused widespread fires and targeted military sites like the Meron air traffic control base, was retaliation for an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon that killed:

Abdullah on right side of picture:

         Senior Hezbollah commander Taleb Abdullah. “The most important Hezbollah official to have been killed” since the October war, according to a source quoted by AFP, Hajj Abou Taleb “has disappointed no front since his early youth,” said Hassan Fadlallah, a Hezbollah MP.

Al Jazeerq and most all other countries are reporting that Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a 10-day ceasefire, United States President Donald Trump says.  I haven't heard such a story Trump is announcing agreed upon by Israel, though.  Just because Trump says something is not inclusive always to what Netanyahu thinks best for Israel and Netanyahu does not go along with all Trump says.  

The truce will take effect at 5pm US East Coast time (21:00 GMT) on Thursday, Trump wrote on social media after speaking to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun.

Now several hours later, Israel has not confirmed a cease fire as yet.  Netanyahu said that Israeli forces would remain in Lebanon within an “extensive” security zone and that he wanted Hezbollah “dismantled” as part of a future agreement with Lebanon.  Trump later said the Lebanese government would begin working with Hezbollah to achieve that goal.

Pictures like this are hard to swallow but make a point of why Israel had not signed this peace agreement making Trump's comment a truth, and why.  Israel will be hit over and over again if restraints aren't on the peace agreement.  

About an hour ago, says CBC, Israel agrees to 10-day ceasefire with Lebanon, but says its troops will stay on the ground.  U.S. State Department says truce meant to provide opportunity for long-term peace talks.  

The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said strikes killed nine people across the southern district of Tyre over the past two days, including a paramedic.  At least eight people were killed and 33 others wounded in an Israeli strike on the town of Ghaziyeh in the Zahrani area of southern Lebanon on Thursday, Lebanon’s state news agency NNA reported.

“These two Leaders have agreed that in order to achieve PEACE between their Countries, they will formally begin a 10 Day CEASEFIRE at 5 P.M. EST,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.  He says things like this of what he wants to happen but are not really verified when he says them.  It's a habit of his.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam welcomed the announcement in a post on X, describing the ceasefire as “a central Lebanese demand we have pursued since the first day of the war” and the primary goal of Tuesday’s meeting between Lebanese and Israeli officials in the US.

Lebanon was drawn into the US-Israeli war on Iran on March 2 when Hezbollah, the Iran-aligned Lebanese armed group, fired rockets at Israel in response to the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed on February 28 in an Israeli strike on the opening day of the war on Iran.  

Lebanon has been taken over by Hezbollah.  Hezbollah does not formally rule Lebanon as a single party, but it acts as a powerful "state within a state," exerting dominant influence over the Lebanese government, security, and infrastructure. As a major political party with parliamentary seats and cabinet positions since 1992 and 2005 respectively, it operates as a, if not the, key power broker.

Hezbollah has stated it will continue attacking Israel until Israel halts its operations in Gaza.  Hezbollah has established strong military presence in southern Lebanon, storing rockets in civilian sites, building tunnels into Israel, and obstructing United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon's (UNIFIL) access.

Israeli forces responded with a ferocious campaign that has since killed more than 2,196 people in Lebanon and wounded thousands more. Israel has also issued forced evacuation orders covering roughly 15 percent of Lebanese territory.

Resource:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/6/12/hezbollah-rains-rockets-on-israel-after-senior-commander-killed

https://today.lorientlejour.com/article/1417115/who-is-taleb-abdallah-the-hezbollah-commander-assassinated-in-jwaya.html

Benjamin Netanyahu From Cheltenham, Pennsylvania

 Nadene Goldfoot                                               

                                                 Netanyahu in 2023; at age 74

Benjamin Netanyahu was born in Tel Aviv, Israel on October 21, 1949, but his father and family had immigrated to a township outside of Philadelphia to teach at Dropsie college between 1956 to 1958 when Ben was 7 years old and in 2nd grade till he was 9 years old.  He was a middle child.  Later on his education was in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to get his BS and MS, and also Harvard University.

A 17-year-old Netanyahu, right, sits with a friend at the entrance to his family home in Jerusalem in 1967. Netanyahu spent his teenage years in the United States, going to high school in Philadelphia.

 He became the Prime Minister of Israel 3 times putting in 17 years as the PM, now its 9th PM.    Bibi served from 1996 to 1999=3 years; then from 2009 to 2021=12 year run;  and now since December 29, 2022=2 more years so far=17 years.  

After graduating from high school outside of Philadelphia in 1967 at 18, Netanyahu returned to Israel to enlist in the Israel Defense Forces. He trained as a combat soldier and served for five years in a special forces unit of the IDF, Sayeret Matkal which is as hard a place as any in Israel ending in 1972 at age 23. My service in the unit strengthened my understanding of the risks involved behind approving operations and the risks that fighters are taking on. It is tangible and not theoretical for me. BenjaminNetanyahu, on Sayeret Matkal (Maariv 2007) In other words, graduating from such a place is SPECIAL !

His older brother,  Jonathan,  died in service on July 4, 1976.  He know what its like to lose a special member of your family.  Yonatan "Yoni" Netanyahu (Hebrew: יונתן נתניהו; March 13, 1946, New York City, United States – July 4, 1976, Entebbe, Uganda) was the commander of Sayeret Matkal, which is a special armed force unit of the Israel Defense Forces, from 1975 to July 1976.  In fact, Yonatan was serving as the commander of Benjamin's former unit, the Sayeret Matkal, and died during the counter-terrorism hostage-rescue mission Operation Thunderbolt in which his unit rescued more than 100 mostly Israeli hostages hijacked by terrorists and flown to the Entebbe Airport in Uganda.The subject of hostages hits Bibi personally !!!

He took part in numerous cross-border raids during the 1967–70 War of Attrition, including the March 1968 Battle of Karameh, when the IDF attacked Jordan to capture PLO leader Yasser Arafat but were repulsed with heavy casualties, rising to become a team-leader in the unit. He was wounded in combat on multiple occasions. He was involved in many other missions, including the 1968 Israeli raid on Lebanon and the rescue of the hijacked Sabena Flight 571 in May 1972, in which he was shot in the shoulder. He was discharged from active service in 1972 but remained in the Sayeret Matkal reserves.

Following his discharge, he left to study in the United States but returned in October 1973 to serve in the Yom Kippur War. He took part in special forces raids along the Suez Canal against Egyptian forces before leading a commando attack deep inside Syrian territory, the details of which remain classified today.                                                                 

                     Netanyahu with his son Yair at the Western Wall in 1998  They are putting a note/prayer into the wall which is the custom.

Yair, now 33 years old, Yair Netanyahu was born in Jerusalem to Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara. He has a brother, Avner Netanyahu, and a half-sister, Noa Netanyahu-Roth; Noa is Benjamin Netanyahu's daughter by his first wife, Miriam Haran née Weizmann.

Resource:

wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Netanyahu

Enemies of Iran and It's Tentacles: Big Satan and Little Satan

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                             

We are witnesses to this!  One of the littlest states in the world, Israel, standing up to the most important and one of the largest states in the world to their conditions of appeasement and misplaced trust of others, the United States, and coming out with the most  successful outcomes said  to happen way back in the past few thousand years. 

                  David (Israel) standing up to Biden (USA) on ceasefire conditions

Yet Iran calls us the Little Satan and the United States as the Big Satan.  Israel is roughly the size of the US state of New Jersey. Israel is a small country in the Middle East, covering an area of 8,522 square miles.  The population today is about 9 million with 20% being non-Jews.  That's about the same as New Jersey.  

PM Netanyahu explaining in the UN in September 2012, about the danger of Iran's uranium goals to wipe out Israel that the USA had walked out on for lunch engagements, causing UN to ignore.  It's been 12 years since then and we see that Israel is fighting against 7 fronts of Iran's tentacles who are still trying to wipe out this tiny state holding 6 million Jews once again since the time when Hitler tried to do it.  

And what's happened since then?  The UN and all the world's country's except the USA have warrants against Netanyahu who is facing their arrests who has been the defender of his country's demise.  This 2nd Ayatollah wants him killed!  It's nonsense in a crazy upside-down world.  The 8 million other Jews in the world are aghast at the events, facing anti-Semitism at the highest level, about as high as it was in 1939 in Germany for many already. 

It is amazing that Benjamin Netanyahu, loved, our leader, then hated and cursed, has stood with his internal love for Israel and hasn't given up fighting for it.  When the chips have been down, we've had Bibi standing as our father, our leader, trusting in his religion and his people,, knowing we could pull together and survive.

                                               Iran's leadership, the first Ayatollah

The Israeli prime minister addressed the UN general assembly, urging the international community to halt Iran's nuclear programme. (Reuters)

When a senior Israeli official told Reuters that Binyamin Netanyahu would be drawing a red line on Iran's nuclear program, he was not kidding.

Speaking at the United Nations general assembly in New York in 2012, the Israeli prime minister unfolded a chart with a cartoon-style drawing of a nuclear bomb, and proceeded to draw on it with a red magic-marker.

"This is a bomb," he says. "This is a fuse." The chamber was almost empty when Bibi spoke. I'll never forget the feeling in my stomach when this happened.

     Ethiopian Jewish IDF soldier guarding Israel, the in-gathering of Jews has been taking place;  coming from countries attacking their very lives for being Jewish.   The first "legal" group of Ethiopian Jews to enter Israel was in August 1977, when 122 Ethiopians arrived through the "front door". 1979–1983  Aliyah activists and Mossad agents in Sudan called on the Beta Israel to come to Sudan, where they were eventually taken to Israel.  On the 24th of May 1991, a Guinness world record was broken for the most passengers on an aircraft ever. The record was broken during a daring Israeli operation, the evacuation of Ethiopian Jews from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This operation called Operation Solomon continued non-stop for 36 hours and included 34 jumbo jets of the Israeli air force, hundreds of soldiers and the evacuation of 14,200 Jews to their promised land.

Now, this minute, Israel has committed to a cease fire that Biden of USA has put together to be a permanent event.  It is on condition that the Hezbollah terrorists abide by it and show no attempt at starting the fight again under any circumstances, or Israel, who will be monitoring , will react in kind by putting an end to it.  

That's been the problem with other cease fires;  nobody has had the spine to prevent the enemies from ignoring the rules and breaking them.  

With Israel, this is a life or death situation.  With the UN and other countries, it is a boring tiresome period that interferes with their travel plans.  It doesn't take but a Ho Hum from the world to forget and join the more powerful; but this time they have been defending Iran in the fight against wiping out Israel's existence.  

        U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stands with Sudanese Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, the head of the ruling sovereign council, in Khartoum, Sudan, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2020. Pompeo is the most senior U.S. official to visit the African country since last year’s ouster of its autocratic leader, Omar al-Bashir. Pompeo’s visit Tuesday is meant to discuss the normalization of ties between Sudan and Israel and also show U.S. support for the country’s fragile transition to democracy. (Sudanese Cabinet via AP).  Incidently, Khartoum is the city where the Arabs held their 1967 meeting and coming up with their 3 NO NO NO towards Israel.  What happened?  

Our big brother, yes, the United States, is coming through in standing with Israel's right to exist and helped with the cease-fire's acceptance of Bibi's conditions. They have been backing Israel since Harry S. Truman days.   Finally, they understood the situation and used their power before Biden was to leave his seat in January.  He can rest assured that he did the right thing and was on the right side of democracy and morality.  

Resource:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/blog/2012/sep/27/binyamin-netanyahu-israel

Oh Listen, Oh Israel: About Netanyahu

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                        

Terrorists are demanding for PIE IN THE SKY

Terrorists are demanding that Israelis lie down and die

Why all the hullaballoo

Against Netanyahu

When anger of late

Should be against the terrorists of hate?  

Benjamin Netanyahu " returned to Israel from the USA in 1967 to join the Israel Defense Forces and served in the Sayeret Matkal special forces as a captain before being honorably discharged.  Born in Tel Aviv to secular Jewish parents, Netanyahu was raised in West Jerusalem and the United States."  His English is still better than many Americans and this has helped him to be the leader that is listened to by the world.  

If ever there was a leader of Israel who knew the terrorists well and had spent his life fighting to keep Israel and Israelis alive, it's Netanyahu.  Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu (born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician, though he didn't set out to become one.  

He has served as the prime minister of Israel since the past 2 years,  since 2022.  Bibi  previously held the office in 1996–1999 (a total of 3 important years)  and again from 2009–2021 (a total off 12 years.  All together since 2009, he has spent the past 15-16 years in service of his government. "Netanyahu is the longest-serving prime minister in Israel's history, having served a total of over 16 years." When Jews were really worried about their country, they voted in Netanyahu, and with good reason.  He was one deeply aware of his capabilities as well as his country's needs and did his all to keep this young state born in 1948 afloat.  

Netanyahu worked for the Boston Consulting Group and moved back to Israel in 1978 to found the Yonatan Netanyahu Anti-Terror Institute. Between 1984–1988 Netanyahu was Israel's ambassador to the United Nations.

While living in the USA, he graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Above is his IDF picture.  He trained as a combat soldier and served for five years in a special forces unit of the IDF, Sayeret Matkal. He took part in numerous cross-border raids during the 1967–70 War of Attrition, including the March 1968 Battle of Karameh, when the IDF attacked Jordan to capture PLO leader Yasser Arafat but were repulsed with heavy casualties, rising to become a team-leader in the unit. He was wounded in combat on multiple occasions. He was involved in many other missions, including the 1968 Israeli raid on Lebanon and the rescue of the hijacked Sabena Flight 571 in May 1972, in which he was shot in the shoulder. He was discharged from active service in 1972 but remained in the Sayeret Matkal reserves. Following his discharge, he left to study in the United States but returned in October 1973 to serve in the Yom Kippur War. He took part in special forces raids along the Suez Canal against Egyptian forces before leading a commando attack deep inside Syrian territory, the details of which remain classified today.

Netanyahu's parents were His mother, Tzila Segal (1912–2000), who was born in Petah Tikva in the Ottoman Empire's Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem, and his father, Warsaw-born Benzion Netanyahu (né Mileikowsky; 1910–2012), was a historian specializing in the Jewish Golden age of Spain. His paternal grandfather, Nathan Mileikowsky, was a rabbi and Zionist writer. When Netanyahu's father immigrated to Mandatory Palestine, he hebraized his surname from "Mileikowsky" to "Netanyahu", meaning "God has given." While his family is predominantly Ashkenazi, he has said that a DNA test revealed him to have some Sephardic ancestry. He claims descent from the Vilna Gaon.

I have found that I share some DNA with his mother, Tazila Segal, having many Segals on my tree.  I have also found that I have some Sephardic ancestry and descent from the Vilna Gaon.   Our Goldfoot (originally Goldfus) was from Lithuania,where many rabbis lived.  Therefore, even before I had discovered this, I have beenan admirer of Netanyahu. Oh other Litvaks, you may also be related.  

The death toll of the unprovoked attack on Israel by the Iranian-backed Hamas terrorist group on October 7, 2023 continues to rise with over 1,200 Israelis killed. 

While the large-scale, brutal slaughter of Israeli civilians and military personnel has been devastating, Hamas terrorists also kidnapped over 230 Israelis and other foreign nationals as hostages. The temporary ceasefire agreement in November saw 105 civilians released from Hamas captivity, including 81 Israelis, 23 Thai nationals, and one Filipino. That left a possible 125 hostages in the clutches of terrorists.  Israeli security forces have also carried out several high-risk and complex hostage rescue operations in the Gaza Strip. So far, eight hostages have been rescued alive by Israeli forces, and the bodies of 36 hostages have also been recovered. That (8 + 36=44 total) leaves 81 hostages to rescue. 

 Murder of six Israeli hostages: The bodies of six hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 were found in a tunnel in Rafah, Gaza, shortly after they were murdered by the terror group.  The hostages were Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23; Eden Yerushalmi, 24; Ori Danino, 25; Alex Lobanov, 32; Carmel Gat, 40; and Almog Sarusi, 27. Now there are 75 hostages to rescue.  

2Since October 7, 7,209 newly wounded military personnel have entered the Defense Ministry’s rehabilitation system, according to official numbers showing high numbers of mental health issues.  The Defense Ministry estimates that by the end of 2024, there will be 20,000 newly wounded members of the military from this war. Some 8,000, or 40%, will face psychiatric challenges, including anxiety, depression, PTSD, adjustment and communication difficulties, and psychotic conditions.   Tunnel warfare is a new experience.  How many countries have fought such wars that Israel finds itself in?                                                     

Look and listen, oh Israel!  Look at what happened to the last 6 when the IDF was close by where they were hidden!  They were murdered!  Shot dead!  It is not possible to barter and trade with a terrorist group.  Remember, their goal is to wipe Israel off the map with a takeover!    They are trying by wounding our IDF.                                    

 Do you not understand that Netanyahu is doing his best?  He's already lost his own brother, Yonatan,  to terrorists.  Every one of our IDF are like brothers to Netanyahu.  His heart has been breaking, too.  How can it not?  He's given more than most of us ever could.  

The pressure Biden is now setting on Netanyahu's shoulders

Along with the rest of the world in concert with the riots in Jerusalem, 

and no one even gives a hoot as to the demands the Terrorists make

To retrieve our beloved hostages that  trading our country for;   we don't .

We cannot lose the country we waited 2,000 years for to be born in 1948.  

We cannot give into such demands, even though we're in this new war

Where we are dammed if we do or don't.  

If my son Steve or daughter Deborah were hostages, I would see the picture with different eyes, and do all I could to bring them back alive. My mind would be on a different highway of thinking...

Netanyahu is expected to act with such eyes and mind as well as that of a Prime Minister in defense of a country.  He deserves our prayers of help;  not damnation of rioting against him.   

Resource:

https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2024/09/

the-sayeret-matkal-special-forces-for.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Netanyahu