Biden Admin Pressuring Israel to Scale Down Response to Hezbollah Missile Strike on Children’s Soccer Match
AP NEWS: “The United States … cautioned Israel about escalation with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah as Israel weighs its response to a rocket attack from Lebanon.”
As Israel prepares its military response to the Hezbollah rocket strike that killed 12 children on a soccer field in the Golan Heights, the Biden administration is pressuring Israel to abandon plans for a substantial retaliation against the Lebanon-based Iranian proxy terrorist group.
“The United States on Monday cautioned Israel about escalation with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah as Israel weighs its response to a rocket attack from Lebanon over the weekend that killed 12 youths in the Israel-controlled Golan Heights,” the Associated Press reports.
This is the moment a Hezbollah rocket hit a soccer field and playground in Majdal Shams, killing 12 children. pic.twitter.com/Ciayyl0x7c
— Israel ישראל (@Israel) July 30, 2024
According to Reuters, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin doesn’t want Israel to go ahead with its anticipated military response to Sunday’s deadly terror attack and would instead prefer to “see things resolved in a diplomatic fashion.”
“United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin does not believe that a fight between Israel and Hezbollah is inevitable, and said Washington would like to see things resolved in a diplomatic fashion,” the news agency reported Tuesday.
Reporting on the Biden administration bid to ‘deter’ Israel from hitting major targets inside Lebanon, including the Beirut airport — the main transit point for Iranian weapons to the terrorist group, The Times of Israel noted:
The United States is leading a diplomatic dash to deter Israel from striking Lebanon’s capital Beirut or major civil infrastructure in response to a deadly rocket attack on the Golan Heights, five people with knowledge of the drive said.
Washington is racing to avert a full-blown war between Israel and the Iranian-backed Lebanese terror group Hezbollah after the attack on the Golan Heights killed 12 kids and youths playing at a soccer field over the weekend, according to the five people, who include Lebanese and Iranian officials and Middle Eastern and European diplomats. (…)
The focus of the high-speed diplomacy has been to constrain Israel’s response by urging it against targeting densely populated Beirut, the southern suburbs of the capital that form Hezbollah’s heartland, or key infrastructure like airports and bridges, said the sources who requested anonymity to discuss confidential details that haven’t been previously reported. (…)
White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that Israel had every right to respond to the Golan strike, but that nobody wanted a broader war. “As for conversations over the weekend, you bet we’ve had them and we had them at multiple levels,” he added. “But I’m not going to detail the guts of those conversations.”
“Our response will come and it will be severe,” Netanyahu assures
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has approved a military response to the deadly terrorist attack. “Israel’s government authorized a retaliatory strike against Hezbollah in Lebanon, amid an American-led diplomatic push to contain the fallout from a strike that killed 12 young people in the Israel-controlled Golan Heights,” The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.
Prime Minister Netanyahu vowed on Monday to go ahead with the retaliatory action despite the mounting pressure from the U.S. and Europe.
“These children are our children,” Netanyahu said as he met the families of the victims in Golan Height. Most of the children killed in the terror strike belonged to Israel’s minority Druze community.
“The state of Israel will not, and cannot, let this pass. Our response will come and it will be severe,” the prime minister assured.
PM @netanyahu visits Majdal Shams, the site of the Hezbollah rocket attack that claimed the lives of 12 children, and expresses solidarity with the families and local Druze community. pic.twitter.com/2taF2QaCRt
— Arsen Ostrovsky 🎗️ (@Ostrov_A) July 29, 2024
European countries urge citizens to leave Hezbollah-dominated Lebanon
European countries are telling their citizens to leave Lebanon in the wake of a possible Israeli military response. “Countries including the UK, Germany, France and America have urged citizens to leave Lebanon or avoid travelling there as tensions mount,” the UK-based Guardian newspaper reported Tuesday. “The British foreign secretary, David Lammy, said on Tuesday that events were “fast-moving” and that British nationals were advised “to leave Lebanon and not to travel to the country”.”
Berlin fears imminent disruption of air traffic in Lebanon — an indication that German authorities fear an imminent IDF strike on the country’s civilian airports being used for Iranian weapons supply to terrorists. Germany “updated its travel warning to Lebanon on Monday, saying that air travel could be cut off,” France-based Euronews TV reported
Hezbollah continues rocket fire, IDF hits back
Having renewed hostilities after the October 7 attack, Hezbollah continued firing rockets into northern Israel on Tuesday.
The Israeli military confirmed further cross-border rocket attacks by Hezbollah from its positions in southern Lebanon. “Following the sirens that sounded in the area of the Upper Galilee, approximately 10 projectiles crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory, the majority were intercepted. A hit was identified in the area of HaGoshrim in northern Israel. Reports were received regarding a civilian that was injured as a result of the attack,” the IDF said in a press statement Tuesday. “The IDF is currently striking the sources of fire.”
Israeli fighter jets struck a Hezbollah operative post in Ayta ash-Shab and other infrastructure in Kafr Kila a short while ago, the IDF says.
Some 15 rockets were launched at the Upper Galilee in the past few hours, with impacts in the Yi'ron, Yiftah and Metula areas.
Also… pic.twitter.com/SCuQsbW4zf
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) July 30, 2024
IDF concludes counter-terrorism op in Khan Younis
After evacuating the humanitarian zone in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis early last week, the IDF reported success in eliminating the terrorists who had infiltrated the civilians’ safe area west of the Rafah terror stronghold. The military has started moving troops and armour from the area and has allowed civilians to enter, news reports suggest.
The IDF published footage showing a terrorist shot and killed in a tunnel. pic.twitter.com/vbPEa4lwkp
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) July 30, 2024
The IDF “said on Tuesday that its troops had concluded operations in the southern Gaza Strip’s Khan Yunis, after Palestinian reports said Israeli forces had withdrawn and residents had begun returning to their homes,” the Israeli TV channel i24NEWS reported.
“Overnight, the 98th Division completed their operational activity against terrorist infrastructure and operatives in the area of Khan Yunis. Over the past week, the troops have eliminated over 150 terrorists, dismantled terror tunnels, weapons storage facilities, and terrorist infrastructure, and located weapons,” the IDF disclosed Tuesday afternoon.
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Comments
Without the USA funding, Israel would not exist.
It is in Israel’s best interest to the USA’s advice.
What is the goal of the Biden Admin when you say that Israel should take the advice?
I fail to see why WWII rules of engagement do not apply here. Any infrastructure used by an enemy is fair game to be destroyed including roads, bridges, power etc. War is war, we need to stop trying to say it is something else.
WHOSE advice did you say?
Don’t put the words USA in your mouth in place of the despicable Biden administration.
Ah….I remember my mom telling me that Park Ridge didn’t allow Jews to live there.
They didn’t let Jews into many country clubs, so they bought their own
My mother always said, “get a Jewish Dr”
I do try
When I was growing up in Hartford, CT there were three country clubs in town – Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish. My family couldn’t get into any of them (though my Dad knew a lot of people at the Jewish CC).
If the US lets Israel get picked apart they will hear about it from voters.
Looking at whatever is our current government since we really do not know who is running things; how much do you think voters[*] influence what that government does? [*]: Real, living, breathing, US citizens of legal age only casting one vote each.
Subotai Bahadur
Just bend over and take it is not good advice
Total BS. A truly ignorant and foolish comment.
That is not true. Israel would be far better off if it had never agreed to take US money in return for giving away the Sinai and its resources and strategic depth. The money is addictive, and it always comes with “advice” that does far more harm than the money does good.
And most of the “money” isn’t really money at all but loan guarantees that don’t cost the US taxpayer anything. Or it’s military aid that must be spent in the USA, so it’s really a subsidy to US arms manufacturers, meanwhile destroying Israel’s own defense industries so that in the current war Israel found itself dependent on US arms because it had lost the capacity to make its own.
That’s why I support ending US aid to Israel. But to be fair the US should first take the Sinai back from Egypt and give it back to Israel.
I think you do not understand.
Without the US stopping them, Israel would now be the totality of the Middle East.
The pathetic forces of Allah have unified and tried to take the sliver of land that is modern Israel and have failed every time.
What a better world it would be if Islam was a minority faith in a backwater of Greater Israel that stretched across all parts of the Middle East –could you imagine the high holy days being celebrated in the city that used to be called ‘Mecca’?
No, it wouldn’t, because unlike its enemies it has no desire to be.
It would appear that the Biden Administration has some kind of unwritten agreement with the Muslims: “Whenever you attack Israel, we have your backs and will make demands on Israel not to retaliate too harshly.”
How about the other way around? Go to the Muslims first and demand that they not attack Israel in the first place? Then there wouldn’t be any retaliation. Nope. Sorry Charlie. It don’t work that way silly tuna.
I would bet that there is a secret protocol between the 0bama/Biden admins and the Mullahs.
Israel must locate Hassan Nasrallah in his deep underground bunker, hit it with as many bunker busters needed to blow a hole making him disappear. Listening to the Biden administration is poison.
its the lefty way
we got what we want
NOW YOU CANT!!
WE MOCKED THE LAST SUPPER
but you cant have a say about it AND WE ARE MAKING LIKE IT NEVER HAPPENED
even though it did and they got their message of hate across
oct 7?
never happened
09 11 01??
someone did something so….
it never happened
lefty wont stop until they are forced to
One bunker buster in the middle of Teran.
american jewish people
this is what they need to see up front
then they need to not only vote trump
but get jobs as vote counters and make sure the farracon crowd isnt in control
I was a little surprised that this statement was included:
“‘These children are our children,’ Netanyahu said as he met the families of the victims in Golan Height. Most of the children killed in the terror strike belonged to Israel’s minority Druze community.”
The implication is that Netanyahu’s sentiments were illegitimate or insincere since the victims were not Jewish. Maybe that wasn’t the intention, but that’s how it comes across.
Interestingly, Israel is the only country in the Middle East that allows people of all faiths (including Muslims) to be citizens of their country and enjoy the freedom to practice the religion of their choice.
The implication that Druze citizens aren’t viewed as “our people” by the Jewish leadership is a pretty serious charge and I would expect it to be backed up with some pretty convincing evidence…where is it?
I see no such implied or overt slight. I think you are tilting at windmills. They were, in fact, reporting that Netanyahu won’t just let it go simply because the victims aren’t Jewish.
Weird post.
It’s entirely possible I read into it more than was there. That’s just how the statement came across to me.
Your reading into his statement, meaning that is not there
No, that is not the implication at all. The point is that Netanyahu was assuring the Druze community that Israel has their backs and regards them as its own people, not as foreigners who happen to live there. That it won’t let this go just because the kids weren’t Jewish.
Which is why Israel couldn’t possibly afford to take the US “advice”. Ironically if the kids had been Jewish the Israeli response would probably have been less, because of the foreign pressure. But it can’t afford to do that now, because the Druze would see insufficient retaliation as racism.
Resolve in a diplomatic fashion.
They kill children and the response from Austin is Let’s Talk About This?
There is no talking with a murderous religious cult hell bent on killing
“Biden” should be talking to Lebanon, Iran, and Hezbollah about scaling down. Instead, he is ass backwards again thanks to his handlers.
Handlers = Obama
Diplomacy? Yes send over the suits to smooth things over. Maybe they could bring a nice pound cake to the meeting.
As has been noted above, for American diplomats Islamic attacks on the existence of the State of Israel and its citizens [of whatever religious belief] are to be glossed over as if nothing has happened. Parallel to that, any Israeli effort to either retaliate or to defend its existence or that of its citizens is considered a crime against humanity.
I first started writing more decades ago than I like to think about. Chance, circumstances, and inclinations got me primarily involved in writing for professional military and naval journals. I know a bit about the field, including deterrence theory.
If Israel follows the directions of the current US government, it will end in their being wiped out. That is not accidental. So what alternative do they have?
Strategic power is largely defined by national possession of weapons of mass destruction and means of delivery, usually nuclear. If you are or have been involved in the field, you know that there are more nations with such a deterrent than just the traditional Big 5. There is neither the time or space here to lay out all the indicators. Suffice it to say that it is considered that Israel has between 90 and 300 nuclear weapons. If any nation has had the incentive to develop them, Israel has, although I think 300 is way on the high side.
Without going into details, if you can reliably launch a satellite of a certain mass into a picked orbit, you functionally have an ICBM. Israel has launched satellites since the 1970’s and therefore has that capability.
IF, Israel decides that they are being picked apart and cannot win a conventional war. they do have an option. And no, we will not like it. That does not mean that they will attack us. But a dozen or fewer warheads delivered to selected targets [you can make your own list] will destroy the Ummah and secondarily the world economy; which will do us grievous harm. And they have more than a dozen warheads/devices.
Just suggesting that there might be a better national strategy for us than being an obviously antisemitic ally of those trying to destroy Israel.
Subotai Bahadur
I was just reading this two weeks ago, as a follow-on to reading Richard Rhodes’ Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapons_and_Israel
See “Stockpile” for estimates of the number and types of bombs they may have and “Delivery Systems” for their delivery capabilities (including ICBMs, possible MIRVs, and submarine-launched long-range nuclear armed cruise missiles).
The appropriate answer from Israel to the Biden Administration (or whoever is running the place) is the same as Elon Musk’s response to Disney pulling it’s advertising from X (twitter).
The Biden/Harris administration (and in fact, the American left wing) can be trusted to be evil at every opportunity.
Imagine urging restraint in retaliating against a terrorist organization that murdered and kidnapped thousands, and just ended the lives of a dozen more children at play.