Israeli PM tells Lebanon, either ‘liberate’ from Hezbollah or suffer ‘fate of Gaza'
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a message – in English – to the people of Lebanon, telling them that his country has assassinated the leader of Hezbollah as well as his successors.
This was said despite that detail not being confirmed by either Hezbollah or the Israeli security establishment. Nonetheless, Netanyahu gave the Lebanese people a choice between the fate of Gaza, which has been going through a genocide and a very destructive war for the past 12 months, or “liberation”, as he put it, from Hezbollah.
In a way, Netanyahu is kind of inciting internal strife in Lebanon [by calling on people to fight Hezbollah], in exchange for saving that country from the wrath of war.
Threatening genocide, inciting civil war, another war crime. Netanyahu is a terrorist through and through. Of course many outside countries have incited civil wars before, yet usually it's by backing militant groups rather than by threat of total destruction.
Food security warning for Lebanon amid escalating Israeli attacks
The World Food Programme’s country director in Lebanon has warned of a food crisis facing the country. Matthew Hollingworth said he was extraordinarily concerned about Lebanon’s ability “to feed itself” amid the destruction of agriculture and food production.
Hollingworth said 1,900 hectares (4,700 acres) of agricultural land have been burned in the south of the country, while 12,000 hectares (30,000 acres) of farmland – in one of the most productive areas of Lebanon – have been abandoned.
The crisis has heavily affected 46,000 Lebanese farmers and there will be no olive harvest in the south of the country – and the same for bananas and citrus fruit. Vegetables will “rot in fields”, he added, in a video address released on social media.
“Diplomatic political solutions must be found,” he said, adding that Lebanon is “already on its knees” and “cannot cope with an extended period of crisis such as we’re facing right now”.
A picture taken from northern Israel along the border with southern Lebanon shows smoke billowing above the Lebanese village of Yaroun during an Israeli bombardment on October 2
Netanyahu halts Israeli defence minister’s trip to US for ‘war plans’ meeting
The Israeli prime minister has also entered into another debacle with his minister of defence, telling Yoav Gallant that he cannot travel to Washington because there are other details that he needs to sort out.
Netanyahu wants the president of the United States to call him first before sending the defence minister to talk war plans and retaliation plans against Iran.
Netanyahu wants the minister of defence to approve plans before he leaves for the US – in effect, boxing the US administration and the defence minister into the choices that will be approved by the Israeli Cabinet before any discussion about that can take place in Washington.
So, for now, the drums of war and the promises of the wrath of war are all that can be heard here in the region. Nothing to promise any respite, any end in the fighting, or any political dialogue.
Biden, Netanyahu set to speak about Iran attack plan: Report
US President Joe Biden is expected to talk by phone with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later today about any Israeli plans to attack Iran, the Axios news site reports, citing three US officials as sources.
Axios also said Netanyahu will meet with senior officials in his government on Tuesday night, as well as military and intelligence chiefs, to “try to reach a decision about the scope and timing of Israel’s attacks” on Iran.
Israeli officials said the “retaliation is expected to be significant, and will likely include a combination of airstrikes on military targets in Iran and clandestine attacks”, the news site reports. A US official said Washington wants to make sure that Israel’s attack on Iran is “significant without being disproportionate”.
“We want to use the call to try and shape the limitations of the Israeli retaliation,” Axios quoted an unnamed US official as saying.
