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In the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Netanyahu and his Likud Party have made it clear to France, Germany, and the US that they are not to involve themselves in Israel’s foreign policy decisions. Their job is to supply weapons and provide diplomatic cover full stop.
On September 25th, French President Emanuel Macron said in a speech at the UN General Assembly in New York that he had dispatched his foreign minister to Lebanon to work on a 21-day ceasefire agreement, saying “there cannot be, must not be war in Lebanon”.
“We are firmly calling on Israel to stop the escalation in Lebanon and Hezbollah to stop firing towards Israel,” Macron said. “Israel, cannot – without consequence, just expand its operations to Lebanon”. Reuters reported at the time that the US was also involved, as was the Lebanese government.
“The world is speaking clearly for virtually all of the key countries in Europe and in the region on the need for the ceasefire,” said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on MSNBC when asked about an earlier statement from Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, who had rejected any talks of a ceasefire.
“There will be no ceasefire in the north,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on X. “We will continue to fight against the Hezbollah terrorist organization with all our strength until victory and the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes”.
Blinken said he would be meeting with Israeli officials in New York.
In general, a whole day of the recent UN meeting was dominated with speeches on Gaza and Lebanon, with the EU, Canada, Australia, several Middle Eastern Nations, and China all encouraging dialogue in the strongest possible terms and lending their support in whatever way was necessary to the governments of Israel and Lebanon, Mid-East Eye wrote.
No response
On the same day Blinken claimed he would be meeting with officials, Netanyahu’s office released a statement saying that the Prime Minister “didn’t even respond” to invitations to discuss a ceasefire.
“The news about a ceasefire—not true. This is an American-French proposal, to which the prime minister did not even respond,” his office said.
The office said he had instructed the armed forces to continue fighting as they were, and two days later, Israel used a 2,000 lbs pound with a JADM kit provided by the US to assassinate Hezbollah founder Hassan Nasrallah.
The Lebanese Government Emergency Committee said recently that since October 8th, 2023, 1,640 people, including 104 children and 194 women, have been killed, and 8,408 have been wounded. At least 816 of the dead have been killed since September 23rd.
Both President Biden and VP Harris have released statements supporting Netanyahu taking the most antagonistic single action possible to prevent the stated wishes of the US and their European allies, even while the IDF masses forces for a ground incursion across the border.
Officials speaking with ABC had it pointed out to them that everything Tel Aviv has done since Wednesday has been in opposition to US calls for de-escalation, calls that go all the way back to late June when Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with his counterpart in Tel Aviv, Yoav Gallant, and “urged” him to de-escalate tensions with Lebanon and avoid a “destructive war that neither Israel nor Lebanon wants”.
The resultant assassination will drastically expand the war efforts by the so-called Axis of Resistance—a group of Shi’ite militias across the region that has at least said rhetorically they stand ready to engage the US and Israel should the war expand.
WaL reported in June that Qais al-Khazali, leader of Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, part of the Iraqi army’s militia groups known as the PMF, said in a televised speech on Monday that if the US were to assist Israel in attacking Hezbollah directly, “then America should know that it will put all its interests in the region, particularly in Iraq, at risk and make them a target”.
Al-Khazali said that they had intelligence the US was preparing to do just that. PMF groups like Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq and Kataib Hezbollah have conducted over 100 separate strikes on US bases, causing around 60 brain injuries like concussions from the blasts. In January, a direct hit on the Tower 22 base in Jordan killed 3 US servicemen.
The risk of future and escalated attacks on US bases and troops is now much higher, assuming these militias keep their word, proving once again that defending Israel’s genocide in Gaza and her wars beyond is antithetical to US interests in the region. WaL
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PICTURED ABOVE: Netanyahu with one of his maps at the UN. PC: UN photo, Loey Felipe
