Mick Hartley

An entirely false narrative from @SkyNews.
Whatever ones view of Israel and the Palestinians – mine is that whenever two republics can created safely beside each other so that both peoples can live in security and freedom can not be soon enough, long live Israel, long live… https://t.co/SucSl1Z4e7

— S Sebag Montefiore (@simonmontefiore) September 24, 2024

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Whatever ones view of Israel and the Palestinians – mine is that whenever two republics can created safely beside each other so that both peoples can live in security and freedom can not be soon enough, long live Israel, long live Palestine – but whatever ones views on this, Hezbollah started firing missiles at civilian areas of Israel on 8 october. The missiles were fired to support the Hamas slaughter raid of 7 October. Hamas expected Hezbollah to open a second front in the north. It avoided that but instead: Hezbollah fired over 8000 missiles into Israel during the last year – including the one that massacred Druze children playing football. 60,000 Israelis were forced to evacuate their homes. This is what would be called an escalation and provocation in any other time or place. Israel replied tit for tat because it was busy fighting Hamas in Gaza. Israel was last present in Lebanon 25 YEARS AGO and has not be present since.
In 2006, after the last clash between Israel and Hezbollah, UNSC 1701 ordered disarmament of armed groups including Hezbollah, with no armed forces other than UNIFIL and Lebanese military south of the Litani River. Hezbollah's forward position is in direct contravention to this.
Hezbollah is a terrorist paramilitary and Iranian vassal parastate that has captured the Lebanese republic, terrorizing and assassinating anyone who challenges it. Hence the terrified performance of its president, ministers etc. Hezbollah was a major perpetrator of the biggest mass killing of civilians in the Arab world in modern times – the slaughter of 500,000 Syrians in alliance with the Assad dictatorship, Iran and Russia. So the narrative that Hezbollah has been provoked etc etc is inaccurate. Whatever one's view of the dire Netanyahu govt, Israel has no wish for a northern war; it has no presence in Lebanon and obviously after enduring the trauma and humiliation of the 7 Oct fiasco had no need for any more war.
No country on earth would tolerate an 8000-missile bombardment that forced it to evacuate an entire region. Israel was unable to respond earlier. Now it is doing so to end an unprovoked bombardment over many months that is sadly overdue.
It is a tragedy that Israeli civilians have been terrorized all this time; it is tragic too that Lebanon, once a thriving multi ethnic multi faith multi party system, has been sadly hijacked and captured by a ruthless terrorist vassal of Iran and that a few brutal potentates at the top of Hezbollah and the Islamic Republic of Iran are recklessly sacrificing Lebanese security and Lebanese civilians on the altar of anti-American, anti-Western democracy, anti-Israel 'resistance' and Iranian imperialism.
It is worth repeating that Lebanon has no strategic clash with Israel; Israel occupies no part of Lebanon; Lebanon has no interest in a war with Israel. In fact Lebanon and Israel should not coexists but be close allies in a normal world. Hezbollah's forward positions are in contravention of UN1701 that ordered their withdrawal north of this area.
And this is entirely a war launched on 8 October by Hezbollah and Iran that benefits only Hezbollah and its masters in Iran and only destroys the innocent civlians of Lebanon and Israel and noone else. Every civilian who suffers or dies in this conflict is one civilian too many! Plse may this end soon.