Attention to the Unseen

The Washington Post reports: Among the half dozen Iranian-backed militia groups with weapons aimed at Israel, Hezbollah is by far the strongest. Israeli officials had watched with increasing anxiety as the Lebanese group added new weapons to an arsenal already capable of striking Israeli cities with tens of thousands of precision-guided missiles. Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service responsible for combating foreign threats to the Jewish state, had worked for years to penetrate the group with electronic monitoring and human informants….

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Politico reports: French President Emmanuel Macron called for a halt to the delivery of weapons to be used in the Gaza Strip. Macron made the comments in an interview on the French radio show “Etcetera” on France Inter, which was recorded on Oct. 1 and aired on Saturday. “I think today, the priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop delivering arms for fighting in Gaza,” Macron said. He said France is not delivering any. The…

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  Al Jazeera’s political analyst Marwan Bishara says Hezbollah losing contact with its leader Hashem Safieddine shows that Israel is able to “deliver one blow after another” to the group. “It is also significant that it proves there is an intelligence breach when it comes to Hezbollah, allowing Israel to locate and attack one leader after another,” he said. “From the rigging and detonating of communication devices and the assassination of one Hezbollah leader to another, all the way to…

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Be wary of the credulous takes about a new Middle East being forged through war. https://t.co/JDNmuAO9TG — Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) October 3, 2024 Reuters reports: The U.S. is discussing strikes on Iran’s oil facilities as retaliation for Tehran’s missile attack on Israel, President Joe Biden said on Thursday, while Israel’s military pressed ahead with its campaign against Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah in Lebanon. As Israel weighs its options after its arch-foe Iran launched its largest ever assault on Tuesday, Biden…

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James Risen writes: The outcomes of the two biggest wars in the world hang in the balance of the American presidential election, even though U.S. troops are not involved in combat in either one. If Donald Trump wins the election, both wars will get much, much worse. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu both want Trump to win the American presidential election so that they can prolong and intensify their brutal wars without the possibility of…

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  Israel has announced it is sending more troops into southern Lebanon as the Middle East moves closer to a full-scale regional war. On Tuesday, Iran fired at least 180 ballistic missiles at Israel that Iran says targeted Israeli military and security sites, a response that comes after a series of escalating Israeli attacks in recent months against Hezbollah, Hamas and Iranian leaders. The United States aided Israel in intercepting many of the Iranian missiles on Tuesday, and President Joe…

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Julian Borger writes: The sight of missiles descending on Tel Aviv on Tuesday night was the clearest sign imaginable that the regional conflict so widely feared over the past year may finally have ignited. This is the second Iranian aerial attack on Israel in less than six months, but last time there was several days’ notice; the much slower drones and cruise missiles arrived first, and the principal target was a military base in the underpopulated Negev desert. This time,…

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Politico reports: Senior White House figures privately told Israel that the U.S. would support its decision to ramp up military pressure against Hezbollah — even as the Biden administration publicly urged the Israeli government in recent weeks to curtail its strikes, according to American and Israeli officials. Presidential adviser Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk, the White House coordinator for the Middle East, told top Israeli officials in recent weeks that the U.S. agreed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s broad…

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  Israel says its army has launched a ground operation in southern Lebanon to target Hezbollah. It’s the latest escalation after more than a week of air strikes across the country, which have killed hundreds of Lebanese civilians, and the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah. It comes as Israeli allies, including US President Joe Biden, urge it to agree to a ceasefire with Hezbollah. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has voiced support for the Israeli military’s goals in Lebanon. So. does America…

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  “Everybody [in Lebanon] is talking about … this $9 billion that the US has just promised the Israelis now in the middle of this invasion.” On this week’s ‘Mehdi Unfiltered,’ American University of Beirut professor Karim Makdisi joins the show to discuss Israel’s latest attacks on Lebanon – including Israel’s explosive pager attacks – and how Israel’s offensive is only increasing Lebanese support for Hezbollah. Also joining the panel discussion is the Center for International Policy’s Matt Duss, a…

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Lubna Masarwa writes: The media in Israel reacted to the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah with euphoria. On Channel 12’s “Meet the Press”, Amit Segal and Ben Caspit raised a glass of arak to mark Nasrallah’s death. Paz Robinson, Channel 13’s reporter, distributed chocolates in Karmiel. Channel 13 is considered left wing. Channel 14’s flagship programme, The Patriots, opened with singing and celebration led by presenter Yinon Magal. Nadav Eyal wrote in Ynet:”[Nasrallah’s] assassination is an event…

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Hassan Hassan and Kareem Shaheen write: The killing of Hassan Nasrallah in Israeli strikes on Friday surpasses in significance those of Osama bin Laden in May 2011, Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in January 2020 and other towering figures who have shaped the region’s violent modern history. With Nasrallah’s demise, we are witnessing the fall of a figure whose influence extends well beyond Hezbollah, Iran and the “Axis of Resistance.” For both foes and followers, Nasrallah was larger than life, occupying…

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  He led Hezbollah for more than three decades and made it into a military and political force to be reckoned with, in the long-running conflict in the Middle East. Hassan Nasrallah’s killing in a massive Israeli air attack in a southern suburb of Beirut is sure to open a new page in the ongoing war. Israel is on high alert and says it is prepared for all options after it announced his death. But will Hezbollah respond – and…

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Dahlia Scheindlin writes: Since the war in Gaza began, there have been proliferating signs that Israel’s institutions of state are under severe stress. Netanyahu has ignored repeated warnings from Israel’s attorney general that his government’s actions have violated the law; in response, government ministers have called for the attorney general’s dismissal. Israel’s legal system is in disarray. For over a year, the government held up dozens of judicial appointments, including on Israel’s Supreme Court; and in September, Netanyahu’s justice minister…

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The Times of Israel reports: US rating agency Moody’s downgraded Israel’s credit rating for a second time this year on Friday, doing so this time by two notches, while citing the increased intensity of the fighting with Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group and the lack of an Israeli “exit strategy.” The prominent credit rating agency cut Israel’s score from A2 to Baa1, raising concerns that domestic political risks have increased alongside geopolitical ones “with material negative consequences for the country’s creditworthiness…

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