Israeli strike on Lebanon kills senior commander in elite Hezbollah unit

girlfreddy@lemmy.ca to World News@lemmy.world – 70 points –
reuters.com

An Israeli strike on south Lebanon on Monday killed a senior commander in Hezbollah's elite Radwan force, three security sources told Reuters.

The security sources identified him as Wissam al-Tawil, the deputy head of a unit within the Radwan force. They said he and another Hezbollah fighter were killed when their car was hit in a strike on the Lebanese village of Majdal Selm.

"This is a very painful strike," one of the security sources said. Another said, "things will flare up now."

Israeli bombardment has killed more than 130 Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon since cross-border shelling began in the aftermath of Hamas's attack on Israeli territory on Oct. 7. Another 19 have been killed in Syria.

Hezbollah's secretary-general Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel in two televised addresses last week not to launch a full-scale war on Lebanon.

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Israel has historically wiped the floor with most of these countries even without us aid.

Never forget they had like 5 countries try to invade in the war of 1948 and they fought back each one and in many cases conquered territory. (Example they had part of Egypt etc and gave it back).

Granted things have changed a bit but they still maintain a fairly significant military force.

They aren't really worried.

Israel has never been alone since the day it became a nation.

... having the backing of America, specifically militarily, has led Israel to "a great success story," helping it survive wars that broke out in 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973. Source

The U.S. has given Israel $158 billion since Israel was founded, not adjusting for inflation, according to the Congressional Research Service. That makes Israel one of the biggest recipients of U.S. foreign aid since World War II. Source

Between 2001 and 2020, Israel received more military aid from the US than all other nations combined. Source

Where are these quotes from?

I put the source after each quote.

Hmm. My Memmy app doesn’t have the hyperlink. All I see is the word “Source” which sucks I guess lol

Oh, sorry about that. Here they are in order.

https://abcnews.go.com/International/history-us-support-israel-runs-deep-growing-chorus/story?id=104957109

https://www.marketplace.org/2023/10/23/a-look-at-the-history-of-u-s-aid-to-israel/

https://www.businessinsider.com/us-aid-spending-israel-military-defense-gaza-war-2023-10?op=1&r=US&IR=T

I was specifically curious about the first source as I have heard from other sources (namely Behind the Bastards) that the US initially did not care much for Israel, the Soviets helped more, and it wasn’t until the early 60s after an aggressive lobbying campaign was Israel a solid US ally.

The Wikipedia page on the 1948 Arab-Israeli war has this:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Arab%E2%80%93Israeli_War

Up to 100,000 Arabs, from the urban upper and middle classes in Haifa, Jaffa and Jerusalem, or Jewish-dominated areas, evacuated abroad or to Arab centres eastwards.[40]

This situation caused the United States to withdraw its support for the Partition Plan, encouraging the Arab League to believe that the Palestinian Arabs, reinforced by the Arab Liberation Army, could put an end to the plan. However, the British decided on 7 February 1948 to support the annexation of the Arab part of Palestine by Transjordan.[41]

And later:

Thanks to funds raised by Golda Meir from sympathisers in the United States, and Stalin's decision to support the Zionist cause, the Jewish representatives of Palestine were able to sign very important armament contracts in the East.

Which suggests that initially the US government did not support Israel as the ABC article suggests. The reporting seems to get around the factual claims by just quoting their source, but I think that “Democrats for Israel” dude is stretching his historical claims.

They're not worried but they pump out enough propaganda about how they are constantly threatened with annihilation.

Tbf Israel is surrounded by nations who would be happy if it were wiped off the face of the earth ... so Israel isn't totally lying here.

The problem is Palestinians have an absolute right to live there as well, but Israel has become like the spoiled child who's been given everything without understanding the need to play nice with others. And Netanyahu is the epitome of a sneaky conniving asshole who never should have been leader.

Fair point. The two state solution is dead though. Israels apartheid system needs to be dismantled. Palestinians should have full civil rights and freedom of movement.

I hope you're wrong about the death of the 2-state solution.

I suspect we'll find out soon if Biden is willing to put the brakes on Netanyahi and Israel's right-wing coalitions tho.

Why? 2 state solution would have been a disaster. It would have created a Palestinian Bantustan fully under Israel's economic and military control. The just solution is one state with equality for all.

Israel will never agree to a one-nation state with 100% Palestinian equality.

A 2-nation state with Palestinians in control of their own water, electric and land resources - without Israel's incursions on or in Palestinian affairs - is a fair and equitable solution.

Rabin and Carter were close to that with the Oslo Accords, but Rabin's assassination shut it down.

Israel will never agree to a two state solution either. We already have a de facto one state solution. Israel just needs international pressure to dismantle apartheid and recognise civil rights for Palestinians as Israeli Arabs already enjoy. This could be done gradually starting with peaceful areas of the West Bank and rolling out to the rest of the Occupied Territories.