Bibi Lights the Fuse for Regional War—Is There Time to Put It Out?
Sept. 28—Hezbollah confirmed early this morning that its co-founder and Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah had been murdered in a “precision” Israel bombing yesterday on Hezbollah’s Central Command Headquarters in the Dahiyeh suburb of Beirut that took out four buildings using 2,000-lb. “bunker buster” bombs, dropped by F-35 fighter jets—both the bombs and the jets supplied by the United States. Nasrallah had been in a basement bunker, where he was meeting with other Hezbollah operatives and others when that attack occurred.
Ali Karaki, the commander of Hezbollah’s southern front, and Abbas Nilforushan, the commander of Iran's Quds Force in Syria and Lebanon, were also among the senior Hezbollah officials killed in the attack, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which estimates that at least 300 people were killed in neighboring buildings from the force of the blast.
Nabil Qaouk, a member and former deputy member of Hezbollah’s Executive Council, was reportedly the target of an IDF strike today in Beirut. The IDF said that in an airstrike on Beirut’s Dahiyel suburb today it had also killed Hassan Khalil Yassin, a senior Hezbollah intelligence official.
Saudi media reported that deputy Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem will replace Nasrallah as head of Hezbollah.
Iranian sources told Reuters today that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was transferred to a safe location with increased security after the Israeli bombing in Beirut Sept. 27 and that two Iranian officials told The New York Times that Khamenei on Friday had called an urgent meeting of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. Khamenei said that the fate of the region “will be determined by the resistance forces with Hezbollah at the forefront” and called on Muslims worldwide ”to stand by the people of Lebanon and the proud Hezbollah with whatever means they have and assist them in confronting the ... wicked regime [of Israel].”
NBC News—citing Ayatollah Mohammad Hassan Akhtari, Iran’s deputy for international affairs—reported that Iran will approve sending troops to Lebanon in the coming days; there is no official confirmation of this report.
After Israeli officials claimed that the U.S. was informed of the operation shortly ahead of time, U.S. President “Sleepy Joe” Biden insisted Israel did not provide advance notice of the Sept. 27 Beirut strike, nor did the U.S. participate. Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said the U.S. “cannot deny complicity” in Nasrallah’s killing, state media reported. Biden said today that the assassination of Nasrallah was “a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis, and Lebanese civilians,” adding that it is time to reach cease-fire deals in Lebanon and Gaza.
The Israel Defense Forces provided a chart, posted on their X account, that listed the entire chain of command of Hezbollah, with Nasrallah at the top, that had the word “eliminated “ in red, across every one of the pictured leaders. All had been killed in the last two weeks, by Israeli “precision” bombing, based on targeting information provided to the Mossad and Shin Bet by operatives, including inside the Hezbollah leadership. Similar inside information had led to the Sept. 20 IDF strike on Hezbollah leaders and commanders who were engaged in a planning meeting for a cross-border strike into northern Israel that was to commemorate the slaughter of Israeli civilians and hostage taking in the murderous Hamas assault of Oct. 7, 2023.
That Oct. 7 assault served as a pretext for the Butcher of Gaza, Israel’s Prime Minister “Bibi” Netanyahu to unleash his blood purge against all Palestinians in Gaza, and which this messianic zealot now wants to extend to the Palestinians in the West Bank and Lebanon. According to some reports, not confirmed, Bibi gave the final okay for the Sept. 20 attack from a phone near the podium of the UN General Assembly in New York City, where he had just delivered a blood curdling speech vowing vengeance and war against all of Israel’s enemies. Many entire delegations exited the chamber rather than listen to his Hitler-like diatribe.
Sources report that Bibi, who was under severe attack from both inside and outside Israel for his conduct of the genocidal campaign in Gaza and for his sabotage of a ceasefire deal—supported by the Americans—that would have brought home the remaining hostages, dead or alive, held by Hamas, turned his attention to the north and demanded a campaign to halt Hezbollah rocket fire at Israel that has forced more than 80,000 residents of northern Israel to abandon their homes. Pounding his fist on the table, he insisted that he would not tolerate a terrorist organization with sophisticated missiles, drones, and rockets on Israel’s borders and ordered the IDF to prepare for all-out war with Hezbollah including a ground invasion of Lebanon.
To some, including Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, and IDF Chief, Major General Herzl Halevi, this sounded like a call for another war of extermination like Bibi’s Gaza campaign. They argued against a ground invasion; that fighting the well-trained Hezbollah, armed by Iran, and one of the more capable military forces in region, would cost too many Israeli lives. Instead they proposed a more limited campaign targeting Hezbollah command and control, and its missile-rocket capabilities, with the goal of forcing Hezbollah out of the West Bank entirely, to north of the Litani River in Lebanon, as mandated by the peace agreement contained in UN Security Resolution 1701 that ended the 2006 Lebanon War—the last (second) war in Lebanon. This strategy was not without risks, as many Hezbollah military facilities are in civilian areas.
Bibi was forced to accede to this plan, which prepared for but did not unleash a ground invasion. But Netanyahu never gave up on wanting a regional war, one that could draw the United States, which has weak political leaders like “Sleepy Joe” Biden and Kamala Harris, his Vice President and anointed successor and whore for NATO, and even more incompetent military and strategic thinkers, who will jump into the fight, or so Bibi thinks, if he can provoke Iran into attacking Israel.
“Bibi can only succeed if he prevents any kind of peace deal in Gaza,” said a source with knowledge of policy discussion both in the U.S. and in Jerusalem, "The only capable U.S, diplomat [CIA Director] Bill Burns has just such a plan in his briefcase that is supported by every sane person in the Israeli government, including the heads of the security services, the IDF leadership, most of the cabinet, with the exception of Bibi’s rabid race-hating lunatics [Minister of National Security] Ben-Gvir, and [Minister of Finance Bezalel] Smotrich, as well as the families of those taken hostage by Hamas. Burns’ plan even had the support of the White House. Until now, he has kept the plan in his briefcase because that bitch Kamala Harris demanded that Burns’ plan should stay in his briefcase so she would not have to deal with it as a campaign issue. She prevailed upon her boss, “Sleepy Joe” to stupidly agree to this arrangement.
“Burns’ plan has been tweaked to trap Bibi, incorporating parts of his own non-starter proposal that he put on the table last week to block the American plan,” said the source. “It calls for a one-phase exchange of hostages held by Hamas and prisoners held by the Israelis, a ceasefire that would become permanent if there are no violations, and an end to the war, and total IDF withdrawal. All of these things Hamas had agreed to and notified Israel. Unlike Netanyahu’s plan, the Burns plan does not require Hamas effectively to surrender and march out of Gaza. It leaves open for discussion the nature of a post war civilian government and would have an immediate ramp-up of emergency aid, and the start of reconstruction with regional and international participation.”
The source reported that Hamas has worked out a plan for Gaza to be administered by the Palestinian Authority (a Fatah-controlled government body that exercises partial civil control over the West Bank) with some of Hamas civilian non-fighting people who are currently in administrative functions, participating but not running, this new government.
Were this plan to be adopted, Hezbollah would withdraw north of the Litani and cease all attacks on Israel; Nasrallah had repeatedly said this.. The stated objective of Israel’s operation could be achieved: the return of Israeli residents to safety in their homes in northern Israel.
But that was up until the events of the last few days. The source reported that instead of letting Burns proceed with his plan, already worked out with the other mediators, Egypt and Qatar, and Hamas, with knowledge of the plan passed to Hezbollah’s Nasrallah, who was desperately looking for a way to prevent Bibi from launching a slaughter in Lebanon, even after Israel had killed most of his leadership, Bibi ordered Nasrallah's elimination, and the Israeli command stupidly went along with this..
First, the incompetent U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the hand-waving buffoon, French President Emmanual Macron came up with a call for a 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon and the West Bank, which, said the source, “was a total non-starter. It just delayed the Burns proposal, until Bibi could stage another provocation: which turned out to be the murder of Nasrallah. This was a move beyond stupid, if you are trying to end this war. Nasrallah wanted a peace deal; he was the one who said, “End the war in Gaza and we are through. We will work out a peace deal with Israel.” So, you kill the potential partner to a deal and leave the organization in chaos, with no one powerful enough to work something out.
"Bibi did the same thing earlier with Hamas," the source said. "On July 31, he killed their peace negotiator [Ismail] Haniyeh who had worked with Burns to lay the foundation for something that could work. That killing set back the negotiations. Now, the only thing that can stop a larger war, perhaps one that might provoke Iran to attack Israel, is Burns’ Gaza peace plan. But will that bitch Harris even let him try? If she doesn’t, Burns may turn over his briefcase to the Egyptians and let them try. Sure, Bibi’s a murdering bastard. But it’s that bitch Harris and the weak White House than enables him. What he wants is for Hezbollah to launch their rockets en masse at civilian targets. If that happens, he can order the ground offensive with the support, he thinks, of the Israeli people, who otherwise want him thrown out of office and jailed for corruption.
“The Iranians have already said that they will respond to the murder of Nasrallah,” the source concluded. “They have a real problem here. If Hezbollah is taken down and seriously degraded, it ends what Iran had set up as deterrence against a major Israeli attack on Iran. They created that deterrence by creating a ring of armed proxies around Israel coordinated by the heavily armed Hezbollah, with a larger military capability than some European states, and armed with several hundred thousand missiles of all types and drones. Now, Iran will have to defend Hezbollah. The only way to stop this is to end the war in Gaza, and end Bibi’s tyrannical and murderous reign. Can it happen? Yes. But will it? I don’t know if there is time to prevent the next and most dangerous act in this ongoing tragedy.”
“Israel killed Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh, and maybe even Yahya Sinwar.... Has this brought about the end of the conflict?… Today, every Palestinian child will proclaim their desire for freedom, life, dignity, and self-determination—unrelated to Sinwar, [Mahmoud] Abbas, Nasrallah, or Iran, and with no regard to any heroic operations behind enemy lines or various targeted killings. This is the reality, these are the facts, and Israelis, sooner or later, will have to look in the mirror,” wrote columnist Jack Khoury in Haaretz Sept. 28.
Ahead of a UN Security Council meeting on Gaza, Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said that “the truth is, unless Netanyahu is stopped, unless this government is stopped, war will encompass all of us.”
