1 Iyyar 5784 – May 9, 2024

Explosions were heard at dawn Thursday in the Damascus countryside, the result of Israeli air strikes that targeted the center of the Iraqi pro-Iranian Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba movement in the Sayyida Zeinab area, south of the capital, Damascus, and a training camp also belonging to the same militia, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

“Explosions were also heard in the Al-Kiswah area coinciding with the launch of Syrian air defense missiles,” SOHR added, noting that the regime’s air force was unable to thwart the Israeli attack, while ambulances were heard heading toward the targeted areas amid news of casualties.

A Syrian military source told the state news agency SANA that “at approximately 03:20 AM on Thursday, the Israeli enemy launched an aerial attack from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting a building in the Damascus countryside. Our air defenses repelled the aggression’s missiles and shot down some of them. The aggression caused only material losses.”

According to The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, Harakat al-Nujaba (The Movement of the Noble Ones) is an Iraqi Shi’ite militia established in 2013 by Sheikh Akram al-Kaabi. The sheik had close relations with Iran during his extensive guerrilla attacks against the American forces in Iraq. Ostensibly the al-Nujaba are subordinate to the “popular mobilization,” an umbrella organization of Shi’ite militias in Iraq, most of which are sponsored by Iran.

However, in reality, the al-Nujaba, with three brigades totaling about 9,000 fighters, two deployed in Iraq and one in Syria, is handled by the Iranian Quds Force, from which it receives preferential treatment in the allotment of resources.

The al-Nujaba is also supported by Hezbollah, with which Sheikh Akram al-Kaabi has had close relations for many years. Iranian and Hezbollah support turned the al-Nujaba into one of the most powerful and important Shi’ite militias in Iraq.

Thursday’s attack was the third against Iranian proxy militias in Syria since the beginning of May.

1 Iyyar 5784 – May 9, 2024

President Joe Biden on Wednesday told CNN’s Erin Burnett that if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of the city of Rafah, he would pause certain deliveries of American weapons to Israel, saying these arms have been employed in Gaza to the detriment of civilians.

“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah – they haven’t gone in Rafah yet – if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities – that deal with that problem,” Biden said.

CHARLES DE GAULLE’S BETRAYAL

France, which was Israel’s main supplier of weapons since the early 1950s, imposed an arms embargo on the Jewish State before the beginning of the Six-Day War. As a result, the Israeli Air Force became severely limited in its long-term strategic planning and capability, since the embargo caused a shortage in spare parts for most of its French-made fighter aircraft, such as the Mirage 5, the latest generation supersonic warplane at the time.

The New York Times noted that “The Six-Day War in 1967 forced France to pick a side. In a shock to its Israeli allies, it chose the Arab states: despite aggressive moves by Egypt, France imposed a temporary arms embargo on the region — which mostly hurt Israel — and warned senior Israeli officials to avoid hostilities.”

Surrounded by the armies of its three Arab neighbors, and with the capabilities of its air force diminishing with every passing day, Israel was forced to go on the offensive, and in one massive strike on the morning of June 5, 1967, bombed the air forces of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan out of existence. It then won a decisive victory against the armies of these three Arab countries in six days.

Fifty-seven years later, Israel is facing a new embargo by a long-time ally and may have to alter its offensive in the Gaza Strip accordingly.

BIDEN’S CRITICAL MISREADING OF GAZA

“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” Biden told Burnett, referring to the paused shipment of 2,000-pound bombs last week.

“We’re not walking away from Israel’s security. We’re walking away from Israel’s ability to wage war in those areas,” Biden said and noted that while the US remains committed to supplying Israel with defensive weapons, such as for its Iron Dome air defense system, further deliveries of offensive munitions would cease in the event of a substantial ground invasion of Rafah.

“We’re going to continue to make sure Israel is secure in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks that came out of the Middle East recently,” he said. “But it’s, it’s just wrong. We’re not going to – we’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells.”

Burnett pointed out that Israel had already taken over the Rafah crossing, to which Biden responded by saying Israel’s operations in Rafah had not breached the threshold of entering densely populated areas, despite their contribution to heightened tensions in the region – most notably Egypt which is determined to prevent a flood of Gazans into its northern Sinai.

“They haven’t gone into the population centers. What they did is right on the border. And it’s causing problems with, right now, in terms of – with Egypt, which I’ve worked very hard to make sure we have a relationship and help,” Biden said, and added, “I’ve made it clear to Bibi and the war cabinet: They’re not going to get our support if in fact they go on these population centers.”

He then dove into some bizarre advice he supposedly had given the Israeli prime minister: “I said to Bibi, ‘Don’t make the same mistake we made in America. We wanted to get bin Laden. We’ll help you get Sinwar. It made sense to get bin Laden; it made no sense to try and unify Afghanistan. It made no sense in my view to engage in thinking that in Iraq they had a nuclear weapon.”

During the second Democratic primary debate on July 31, 2019, Biden said his “bad judgment” in voting to authorize President George W. Bush’s war on Iraq in 2002 was “trusting the president saying he was only doing this to get inspectors in and get the UN to agree to put inspectors in.” However, as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when the authorization vote was cast, Biden did not explicitly oppose military intervention in Iraq.

Biden’s complete misunderstanding of the situation in Gaza, in effect, suggesting the October 7, 2023 massacre was a one-time event like the Al Qaeda attack on September 11, 2001, and that Israel’s main aim is to capture Sinwar, is not just pitifully delusional, it is outright dangerous.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is also worried that Israel is facing the prospect of “strategic defeat” in its war against Hamas, saying back in January, “You know, I learned a thing or two about urban warfare from my time fighting in Iraq and leading the campaign to defeat ISIS.”

Both men appear to be driven by their nightmares of wars past, completely ignoring the fact that Israel did not invade Gaza to capture Hamas, it did so to bring an end to twenty years of ceaseless attempts on the part of Hamas and other terrorist groups to annihilate its civilian population, not only in the Gaza envelope settlements but all over the country.

Clearly, the United States’ missteps in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past generation have left a lingering impact on US policymakers during the final two months of the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Israeli leaders, on the other hand, imagine a distinct outcome. They draw parallels between the war against Hamas and the war against Nazi Germany, advocating for a postwar Gaza that mirrors the transformation of postwar Germany.

Senator Lindsey Graham exposed some of the administration’s delusional thinking on Wednesday when he grilled Sec. Austin at the Senate Appropriations subcommittee (Graham to Austin: ‘Give Israel What They Need to Fight the War They Can’t Afford to Lose’):

Graham: Do you believe Hamas is serious when they say ‘we’ll keep doing it over and over again’ — do you agree that they will if they can?
Austin: I do.
Graham: Do you believe that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization that’s also bent on the destruction of the Jewish State?
Austin: Hezbollah is a terrorist organization.
Graham: Okay, so Israel’s been hit in the last few weeks by Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas, dedicated to their destruction — and you’re telling me you’re going to tell them how to fight the war and what they can and can’t use when everybody around them wants to kill all the Jews? And you’re telling me that if we withhold weapons in this fight, this existential fight for the life of the Jewish State, it won’t send the wrong signal?

“GENOCIDE JOE” GOING HAMAS

The war in Gaza has dominated much of Biden’s attention since October 7, even as he endeavors to highlight his domestic achievements to the American public. His staunch backing of Israel has sparked protests and discontent, evident on college campuses and even at his campaign events––especially in swing states like Michigan and Ohio, where demonstrators have labeled him “Genocide Joe.”

When questioned by Burnett about these protests, Biden responded, “Absolutely, I hear the message.” However, he cautioned against demonstrations that devolve into hate speech or antisemitism.
“There is a valid right to free speech and protest. People have a legitimate right to express their views,” he affirmed. “But there is no legitimate right to engage in hate speech. There is no legitimate right to threaten Jewish students or impede others’ access to education. That is against the law.”

Some voices on the right in Israel are suggesting the IDF must learn from the lessons of June 5, 1967, and level a massive attack in Rafah that would finally eliminate, if not the Hamas leadership, at least their remaining hiding places and their claim to ruling Gaza.

And then, we’ll wait for November 5 and hope the voters, including many Jews fearing for Israel’s future, put a Republican in the White House.

One Jewish politician, however, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), may have lost his way forever: