And Father, you are on a sad height,
Curse, bless, now pray me with your bitter tears.
.
Don’t be gentle with your good night.
Fury, rage against the destruction of light.
So is the final stanza of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas’ most famous poem. “Don’t be gentle on that good night.”
Last Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to the podium at the United Nations General Assembly and quoted a passage from the Book of Samuel: “Israel’s eternity will not falter,” before paraphrasing Thomas.
“Israel will not go quietly into bed,” he said. He then connected Thomas with a quote from the Book of Samuel and added, “We need never rage against the destruction of the light, for the torch of Israel will shine brightly forever.”
When Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke these words, things were already in motion. About two hours later, the IAF swooped into Beirut’s Dahieh district and dropped a bomb, killing Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah and its biggest terrorist.
Talk about anger and not being able to go to bed peacefully.
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Hezbollah’s unprovoked attacks forced tens of thousands of residents in the north to flee their homes for 11 months, and Israel responded with retaliatory measures, a move that came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the United Nations: showed his seriousness. “Enough is enough” against Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Nasrallah’s murder was a turning point, but it was far from the final chapter. Early Tuesday morning, Israel took the next calculated step in what appears to be a carefully prepared escalation. It is a limited and targeted ground invasion into southern Lebanon, targeting Hezbollah strongholds that threaten communities along the border. All of this highlighted the seriousness of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s declaration to the United Nations. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a speech on Sunday following rising tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, September 22, 2024 (Credit: SCREENSHOT/YOUTUBE/GPO)
Nasrallah’s assassination on Friday night marked the culmination of a stunning shift in mood and fortunes as Jews prepare to usher in the New Year on Wednesday night.
If two weeks ago this country was reeling from its worst year since its founding, hurt, divided, torn by self-doubt and worried about its future, then September 17th began with the sound of a mysterious explosion in Lebanon. The turn of events, and the events that (so far) culminated in Nasrallah’s murder, suggest that something positive may yet emerge from the ashes of October 7th, even at a terrible cost. This led to a new sense of confidence and cautious optimism.
If things looked bleak two weeks ago with the failed attempt to free the hostages, the war in Gaza is still going on, but at a slower pace. Hezbollah is depopulating the north. Iran surrounds the country with a “ring of fire”. The country is once again in a conflict camp, but today the situation is brighter.
“Today is an important day,” Netanyahu said Saturday night as he returned from the United Nations and addressed the country after Nasrallah’s death. “We appear to be at a historic turning point.”
He’s not exaggerating.
The collapse of Hezbollah’s leadership and a significant decline in its military strength, the exposure of Hamas (unable to carry out anything like the October 7th attack committed a year ago), and Iranian paranoia, suspicion, and hesitation. creates a new and better reality.
This does not mean that Israel should be euphoric. On the contrary, euphoria leads to arrogance, underestimates the enemy, becomes arrogant and causes mistakes. The state cannot and must not go there. With hostages still rotting in Hamas tunnels and Israel Defense Forces soldiers now in dangerous conditions on the ground inside Lebanon, the challenges are enormous and the concerns just as great.
But things have changed over the past two weeks, and after a year, it appears the tide is starting to turn.
See Kushner’s reaction to Nasrallah’s removal
Immediately after Nasrallah’s murder, Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and former adviser, said, “September 27th (the day Nasrallah was killed) is the most important day in the Middle East since the breakthrough of the Abraham Accords.” I wrote it. That’s no exaggeration.
First, the killing of Nasrallah and all the precision actions taken before and after, including this week’s massive attack on Houthi assets in Yemen, helped restore Israeli deterrence.
These precision strikes are watched with amazement and amazement not only by Israelis but by everyone else. If anyone thought that after the Oct. 7 debacle, Israel had lost “it”, the X factor, that “Entebbe” factor, the last two weeks have certainly changed their minds. It was a long road.
Right now, our nation’s enemies are worried and paranoid about what will happen next, where and when. Reports that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was moved to a “safe location” after Nasrallah’s assassination demonstrate the depth of that concern, and for good reason. If Israel can kill Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a heavily protected Islamic Revolutionary Guards compound in Tehran and Nasrallah in a Beirut bunker, there is no telling what will happen next.
Iran has spent decades and billions of dollars building Hezbollah as a second-strike option against Israel should Jerusalem target Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Now that the assets for this second attack have been thwarted, Iranian leaders need to think long and hard about whether to provoke an Israeli attack.
If Iran launches any kind of attack, it’s Jerusalem’s turn to think hard about how to respond even more forcefully than it did after Iran’s missile and drone attacks in April, and whether now is the time to roll back Iran’s nuclear program. It will be. Planned by attacking nuclear facilities.
Iran built Hezbollah on a huge scale as a deterrent against Israeli attacks on its nuclear facilities. Now, Israel is watching its deterrent forces be systematically dismantled because it feels it has no other choice. As Prime Minister Netanyahu said at the United Nations, no country would tolerate missile launches or the threat of missile launches that would depopulate its territory.
It is now clear that while Iran strengthens Hezbollah, Israel is not standing by. Hezbollah was not getting stronger and stronger while Israel was sitting idle.
In contrast to the military and intelligence agencies in the south, which dealt with the threat from Gaza bluntly, in the north they focused their attention and focused on step-by-step planning and preparing how to fight the world’s largest terrorist organization. I was paying. A terrorist organization that has taken over a country.
This explains the disconnect between how well prepared Israel was against Hezbollah and how unprepared it was when confronting Hamas in Gaza.
Israel saw Hezbollah as a monster and prepared accordingly. They saw Hamas as a mosquito and didn’t pay much attention to it, thinking it could be easily swatted away. Ironically, it may be easier to swat away monsters than to deal with mosquitoes.
The development of events in Lebanon shows a level of preparedness that indicates that there was a leadership hand behind all this. First, chipping away at Hezbollah’s arsenals and strongholds over the past 11 months, then tracking its communications systems (explosive buzzers and walkie-talkies). Next, remove the military’s top commander, its leaders one by one, cross the point into Syria to prevent Iran from transferring further weapons, then introduce troops directly into communities in northern Israel. Destroy the fortifications in southern Lebanon that are threatening the United States.
Israel has upset Hezbollah, and Tuesday morning’s ground actions show it has no intention of ceasing its attacks, at least not yet.
However, at some point the United States and perhaps France will inevitably introduce a cease-fire resolution calling for the implementation of relevant UN Security Council resolutions on Lebanon, including disarmament and exclusion from southern Lebanon. After being beaten down, Hezbollah will have little choice but to accept the terms.
But this time, Israel will not leave the implementation of any agreement in the hands of UNIFIL forces, which are not authorized to confront Hezbollah, or the Lebanese army, which is unwilling to do so.
Enforcement will have to be carried out by the IDF, which will once again take action if it detects movements or actions that could threaten Israeli communities near the border. Unlike before, we no longer register complaints with UNIFIL, but instead remove threats on our own. Only then will the residents of Metullah, Shlomi, and Kiryat Shmona be able to happily return home without Hezbollah breathing down their necks.
A year after Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel, and as the Jewish year 5784 turns to 5785, talk of creating conditions for northern communities to return home is finally just an empty promise. I started to think it was more than that. Efforts to achieve this are currently underway on the ground.
In his speech at the United Nations last week, Prime Minister Netanyahu quoted a poem by Dylan Thomas to drive home the point that Israel will not sit back and passively absorb the blows of Hamas and Hezbollah.
He cited another poem by Thomas, “Death Will Not Rule,” to sum up the perseverance and spirit of the nation in the face of unspeakable adversity, and expressed the state of the country on October 7th and this tragic It would also have been possible to contrast the situation with today’s situation as we enter a new year. Until the end:
“They can go crazy and stay sane,
Even if they sink into the sea, they will rise again. ”
