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Hezbollah Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 13, 2016 4 Comments
There have been a series of assinations of top Hezbollah commanders in the recent past, including Imad Mughniyeh (mastermind of almost all attacks on Israel and the U.S.), his son Imad Mughniyeh (who was killed along with several high level operatives and an Iranian general), Hassan Laqqis (key Hezbollah link to Iranian weapons procurement) and Samir Kuntar (who killed an Israeli girl by smashing her head against the rocks on a beach). In some of the cases (Imad Mughniyeh) Israeli involvement was clear, in the others it's presumed. Hezbollah just lost another top commander, the brother-in-law of Imad Mughniyey, and its top commander in Syria, Mustafa Amine Badreddine. The BBC reports:

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on May 12, 2016 3 Comments
One year after the Obama-backed Nuclear Deal came into effect, Islamic Republic of Iran remains the leading sponsor of international terrorism, says a policy paper published by British policy think-tank Henry Jackson Society. According to the report released on Wednesday at the House of Lords in London, Iran maintains a large and lucrative illegal financing network to bypass the remaining sanction that are in place to stop Tehran from funding terrorist outfits and regime. The report quotes an economist close to current Iranian regime describing the extent of the network, stating that “between 5,000-10,000 people worked in the [illicit financing] network, handling deals worth between $300 billion and $400 billion over the past decade.” Even after easing of sanction by the U.S. and the West, Iran seems to have no intention of giving up this illicit financing network which also acts as a lucrative source of income for the members of the military and the regime.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on May 03, 2016 0 Comments
“The Party of Allah”, as the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah calls itself in Arabic, is being funded by less than holy means. German investigators have uncovered a Europe-wide money laundering operation run on behalf of the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, says a report published by the leading German weekly Der Spiegel. Investigations reveal that the proceeds of the money laundering operations were going to South American drug cartels. The fact that Iranian-backed terrorist group has developed links with the South American cartels, further exposes United States to cross border terrorism, considering country's roughly 2,000 miles long unsecured border with Mexico.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on April 21, 2016 2 Comments
Germany-based activists linked to the terrorist outfit Hezbollah could be getting large amounts of financial support from the German government, the German newspaper Berliner Zeitung reveals. In one instance, city of Berlin is set to grant €100,000 to a 'refugee project' allegedly run by Hezbollah sympathisers. ‘Refugee Impulse Club’, as the group is called, has also been nominated for a €10,000 prize offered by the German Ministry of Culture. The nomination alone brings €2,500 to the group. Hezbollah, the Iran-funded Shia terrorist group, controls most of Lebanon and has made large territorial gains in Syria fighting on behalf of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Hezbollah also acts as the long arm of Iranian regime, with a long history of involvement in international terrorism under the direction of Tehran. According to a German intelligence report, Berlin is home to some 250 active Hezbollah members. Estimated 950 Hezbollah members and 300 Hamas members are thought to be operating on German soil. Berliner Zeitung reports:

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on April 12, 2016 3 Comments
Terrorist group Hezbollah is using the conflict in Syria to prepare for a war with Israel, reveals a report published by the UK-based research group BICOM. In 2015, Iran funnelled a billion dollars to the Lebanon-based terrorist group. According to a strategic analysis released by Britain Israel Communications & Research Centre (BICOM) on Monday, Iran-backed Hezbollah's missile stockpile is now estimated to be around 100,000-150,000, with large portion of it hidden among Lebanon's civilian population. Hezbollah entered the Syrian civil war 5 years ago to fight on behalf of Iran-backed dictator Bashar Al Assad. Since then 5,000 of its 20,000-strong fighting force is pinned down in Syria. The terrorist militia now controls territory within Syria, creating a base for Iran -- a fallback option in case Assad regime were to collapse. The Obama-Kerry Nuclear Deal gave Iran a signing bonus of  $150 billion. Flushed with fresh cash, regime in Tehran is making up for the past cuts it had to make in funding its proxy terrorist group across the Middle East including Hezbollah.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on March 23, 2016 2 Comments
Communist North Korea is heavily involved in training and arming the Islamic Republic of Iran and its Islamist allies in the Middle East. According to recent revelations by former US intelligence officer Dr. Bruce Bechtol, North Korea has a more extensive military partnership with Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and even Hamas -- than previously thought. In the past, North Korea has supplied Scud missiles to Iran and is currently playing a key role Iran’s domestic missile program. According to Bechtol, who is also president of the International Council on Korean Studies, Islamic Republic’s missile program would be “non-existent” without the help of the Communist Regime of North Korea. Nuclear proliferation and illegal arms trade makes up to 40 percent of North Korea’s economy. Iran has been paying impoverished North Korea in much needed hard cash and oil supplies. The Obama-Kerry Nuclear Deal that gives Iran $100 billion in previously frozen funds as well as greater access to international banking system, will inevitably boost this clandestine relationship.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 11, 2016 4 Comments
This is pretty big political news, signaling a larger Arab versus Iranian divide. The Arab League had just declared that Hezbollah, the Iranian proxy which dominates Lebanon and fights for Assad in Syria, is a terrorist organization. Al-Jazeera reports:
The Arab League has declared Lebanese movement Hezbollah a "terrorist" group, only days after the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) adopted the same stance. The move came during the Arab League foreign ministers' meeting at the organisation's seat in Egypt's capital Cairo on Friday. Nearly all 22 Arab League members supported the decision, except Lebanon and Iraq which expressed "reservations", the bloc said in a statement read out at a news conference by Bahraini diplomat Wahid Mubarak Sayar.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on March 08, 2016 3 Comments
John Kerry’s Iranian “partner for peace” has spoken again. This time calling for an all-out war against Israel, the only trustworthy U.S. alley in the Middle East. Iran’s foreign minister Javad Zarif, who also negotiated the now-infamous Nuclear Deal, seems to enjoy a great personal relationship with Kerry and they both even call each other by their first names. According to Financial Times, Javad and John are “two affable men who struck a relationship that transcended the stubborn enmity between their nations.” President Obama too has a great regard for the Iranian dictator Ayatollah Khamenei, or as he likes to calls him, the “Supreme Leader.” President Obama praised Ayatollah's Fatwa or religious edict against nuclear weapons.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on March 03, 2016 2 Comments
Amid renewed tensions between Iran and the Sunni Arab States, the six member Gulf Cooperation Council has declared Iranian-backed Hezbollah a terrorist organisation. Since 1980s, Iran has been exercising control over Lebanon through its proxy Hezbollah, a Shia Islamist military outfit. Tehran-funded Hezbollah does not only controls Lebanon but also carries out terrorist operations on behalf of its Iranian masters across the globe. Thousands of Hezbollah fighters are currently fighting alongside the Iranian Revolutionary Guard on behalf of Assad Regime in the Syrian civil war. The power vacuum created by President Obama’s hasty retreat from the Middle East has been rapidly filled by Iran and its proxies. Iranian expansion has now created an unbroken corridor of control extending from the Gulf of Persia to the Mediterranean coast of Lebanon. Flushed with fresh cash, thanks to Obama-Kerry Nuclear Deal that unlocked $100 billion in frozen funds, Iranian Regime is now capable of bankrolling its proxies throughout the Arab World.

Posted by David Gerstman on February 10, 2016 2 Comments
While President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have assured us that the nuclear deal with Iran has delayed war, Tony Badran in a devastating critique of the administration's foreign policy last week wrote, "Middle Easterners are not so lucky: They get to fight their wars with Iran right now." Back in 2014, Badran noted, President Obama said of the turmoil in the Middle East, "A lot of it has to do with changes that are taking place in the Middle East in which an old order that had been in place for 50 years, 60 years, 100 years was unsustainable, and was going to break up at some point. And now, what we are seeing is the old order not working, but the new order not being born yet -- and it is a rocky road through that process, and a dangerous time through that process." But a few months earlier, Obama, in an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg, made very clear that his intent was to make Iran an agent of changing the orders. When Goldberg asked him why the Sunni states seem to fear him so much Obama answered, "I think that there are shifts that are taking place in the region that have caught a lot of them off guard. I think change is always scary. I think there was a comfort with a United States that was comfortable with an existing order and the existing alignments, and was an implacable foe of Iran, even if most of that was rhetorical and didn't actually translate into stopping the nuclear program. But the rhetoric was good. What I've been saying to our partners in the region is, 'We've got to respond and adapt to change.'"

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 10, 2016 11 Comments
You probably never heard of Madaya. It's a town in Syria near the Lebanese border that has been under rebel control, and now is under seige by Hezbollah and the Syrian regime. And the people are starving to death. That mass starvation has received very little media coverage in the U.S. until the past couple of days. ABC News (Australian Broadcast Company) reports:
Doctors inside the besieged Syrian town of Madaya say five more people died of starvation on Sunday, including a nine-year-old boy. The town of up to 40,000 people, near the capital Damascus, has been under siege by government forces and Hezbollah militants since July.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 20, 2015 9 Comments
Samir Kuntar was among the most notorious and vicious terrorists. A Druze, he was part of a group that landed in Israel in 1979, took a family hostage, and smashed a 4-year old child's head against a rock with his rifle butt:
On April 22, 1979, Quntar, commanding a small unit of four armed men, piloted a small dinghy from Lebanon to the northern Israeli town of Nahariya. Undetected by the Israeli Navy, the terrorists struck at midnight and wasted little time: spotting a police car, they opened fire and killed one officer, Eliyahu Shahar. Then, they proceeded into the town, forcing their way into the nearby home of the Haran family. Danny Haran, 31, and his daughter Einat, 4, were taken hostage. Smadar, Danny’s wife, managed to grab her infant daughter Yael, 2, and hide in the apartment’s narrow attic. Terrified, and anxious to keep the child from crying, Smadar accidentally choked her baby to death. Quntar and his men, meanwhile, took Danny and Einat to the beach, where they were met by Israeli soldiers and police officers. A short firefight ensued, but Quntar had other targets in mind. He shot Danny in the back at close range, murdering him in front of his small daughter. Then, he took Einat and smashed her skull against a rock with the butt of his rifle.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 17, 2015 5 Comments
Israel's discovery of massive natural gas fields off its coast has the potential to turn Israel into an energy superpower, supplying not only its own needs, but those of surrounding countries and potentially Europe. Israel already has signed a $15 billion deal to supply natural gas to Jordan. We covered the story of Israel's emergence as an energy supplier in March 2013, when Israel started pumping natural gas from the Tamar field, which is not even the largest find, Yesterday the Middle East changed forever, and you didn’t know it. This 2013 PBS reports explains:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 26, 2015 10 Comments
On Tuesday, May 25, 2015, we continued our tour of northern Israel along the Lebanese border, stopping at Moshav Avivim. While our discovery of a memorial to the victims of the Haifa Bus 37 suicide bombing and our visit to Ziv Hospital in Safed, and its Syrian patients, were unexpected, our visit to the Moshav was even more emotional and full of surprises - Revenge and Reunion. We met with Shimon Biton, the Secretary of the Moshav.  (Our excellent guide, Udi Guberman, provided translation, as Shimon does not speak English.) [caption id="attachment_128643" align="alignnone" width="550"][Shimon Biton, Moshav Avivim, Israel] [Shimon Biton, Moshav Avivim, Israel][/caption]A Moshav is a type of collective farming community where homes are owned individually and owners are allotted separate plots of land, but the community shares in certain expenses and resources. (Unlike a classic kibbutz, where all the property is communal.) There currently are 120 families in the Moshav, 480 people. There are plans to expand to add at least another 50 families, and the demand outpaces available spots. Moshav Avivim sits along the Lebanese border, just south of Bint Jbeil and Maroun Al-Ras.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 13, 2015 6 Comments
Much of the war against Israel is fought in the media and through deceptive "Non-Governmental Organizations" which issue endless distorted reports against Israel. There hardly is any pretense of objectivity anymore -- there is an attempt to tie Israel's hands when dealing with groups like Hamas and Hezbollah which strategically use civilians as shields. In Gaza, the media was intimidated by Hamas, and maintained a near-silence about the use of the main hospital in Gaza as a Hamas headquarters, and the firing of rockets from near schools, apartments and hospitals. But a few reports leaked out and some reporters admitted to the distorted reporting after leaving Gaza: http://youtu.be/Nu-e5qWXx-k This media war is important because one side (Hamas, Hezbollah) uses media outrage as a strategic weapon to shape the physical battlefield.  And biased, agenda-driven NGOs and media organizations are part of the plan. The lastest distortion, which has received wide play on anti-Israel websites and on Facebook, was issued by "Breaking the Silence."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 31, 2015 17 Comments
Leaks of classified and politically-charged intelligence information often are purposeful. So what to make of simultaneous leaks to The Washington Post and Newsweek Magazine that the CIA helped Israel assassinate Hezbollah master terrorist Imad Mughniyah, responsible for killing more Americans in terror attacks than anyone else prior to 9/11, and continued to work to kill Americans in Iraq and elsewhere. He also was involved in the kidnapping, torture, and murder of CIA Beirut station chief William F. Buckley (not the author), and reportedly sent video of the torture to CIA headquarters. Washington Post graphic Imad Mighniyah This was thought to be a purely Israeli operation. Some of the details leaked also contradict prior claims as to how the assassination was carried out -- instead of a bomb planted in a headrest, it was planted in the spare tire in the vehicle. The Washington Post reports, CIA and Mossad killed senior Hezbollah figure in car bombing:
On Feb. 12, 2008, Imad Mughniyah, Hezbollah’s international operations chief, walked on a quiet nighttime street in Damascus after dinner at a nearby restaurant. Not far away, a team of CIA spotters in the Syrian capital was tracking his movements. As Mughniyah approached a parked SUV, a bomb planted in a spare tire on the back of the vehicle exploded, sending a burst of shrapnel across a tight radius. He was killed instantly.

Posted by Mike LaChance on January 31, 2015 2 Comments
The FBI is seeking a man named Ghazi Nasr Al-Din for connections to Hezbollah. He is believed to be in Florida. WPTV News reported:
The FBI is looking for Ghazi Nasr Al-Din and believes he could be in South Florida He was just added to the bureau’s seeking information terrorism list. The agency wants to talk to him about his fundraising efforts with Hezbollah contributors. Hezbollah is an Islamic militant group. Nasr Al-Din is 5 foot 7 and weighs about 175 pounds. He has black hair, brown eyes and an olive complexion. He speaks Arabic and Spanish and he has dual citizenship in Lebanon and Venezuela. If you see him call the FBI’s toll-free tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800- 225-5324) or contact your local FBI office.
Here is the the official FBI wanted poster:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 23, 2015 9 Comments
After several senior Hezbollah military leaders and an Iranian General were killed in the Syrian portion of the Golan Heights, presumably by Israel, there is plenty of speculation as to when and how Hezbollah and Iran will react. An article in The Times of Israel suggests that capturing an Israeli town or sections of northern Israel could be in store, as Hezbollah has threatened to do so in the next conflict:
Nasrallah, [Lt. Col. Dotan Razili] said of the organization’s leader, “wants to conquer a city,” perhaps in the Galilee. The border town at the tip of the Galilee’s panhandle, Metulla, he suggested, “is definitely a possibility.” The army constantly practices perimeter defense and the invasion of enemy strongholds or towns in which the enemy is embedded. It does not, however, drill its infantry soldiers in the practice of taking back an Israeli town seized, in its entirety, by enemy forces. “The main element is to lessen the shock and make sure they’ll act,” Razili said, noting that no Israeli village or town has fallen since Kibbutz Nitzana, in 1948, “and the trauma of that endures till today.”
Longtime readers may recall my trip to Metula in the summer of 2013, where I reported on the vulnerability, Metula and the fake Hezbollah village, including maps and photos showing the geography: [caption id="attachment_60711" align="alignnone" width="505"](Metula, Israel - Map View) (Metula, Israel - Map View)[/caption]
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