A New Israeli-Lebanon War Nearly Broke Out This Afternoon

Every Ramadan season (which mostly coincides with the Jewish Passover) some Palestinians engage in shenanigans to draw global attention to their cause. They do this by orchestrating a standoff with the Israeli police at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, situated on the mountain where both Solomon’s Temple and the second Temple were built. For this year, the Palestinians went beyond the normal and turned the Al-Aqsa Mosque into a common ground, in spite of its status as Islam’s third holiest site. The rules for worshippers in the mosque does not permit sleeping inside the building, but these Palestinians came ready with supplies and attempted to do just that.

As expected, the Israeli police started trying to force them out of the mosque. They knew this was going to happen and were ready with their cameras to beam pictures of the fracas to the world. To add to the propaganda that the Israelis were trying to take over Al-Aqsa (a recurring lie employed to provoke Muslims virtually every year) the campers threw fire crackers while being forced out, which created an impression of excessive use of force.

Normally, after such drama at Al-Aqsa, Hamas will begin shooting rockets at Israel from Gaza. As usual, Israel’s Iron Dome Short Range Missile Defense System will intercept most of these rockets, allowing others to fall harmlessly in open fields, as dictated by the internal radar of the Iron Dome. The IDF will also often take some air actions in Gaza to discourage further rocket attacks.

But something different happened today.

Since 2006, Israel and Lebanon have not had a war, even though Hezbollah is based in Lebanon and a proxy of the Iranian regime, which has vowed to destroy Israel.

After the confrontation at Al-Aqsa, an unexpected barrage of rockets were fired from Lebanon. This is highly significant because Hezbollah is one of the most powerful terrorist organizations in the world and it is armed to the teeth with presumably over one hundred and fifty thousand rockets, some of which must be assumed to be precision weapons. And who, but, Hezbollah, will attack Israel from Lebanon?

Especially because, earlier in the day, Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’s political bureau, was in Lebanon, apparently to conclude an agreement between Hamas and Hezbollah on the start of a confrontation with Israel.

You need to understand that there is a government in Lebanon but Hezbollah is more or less the defacto leaders of Lebanon.

The Prime Minister of the Transitional Government in Lebanon, Najib Mikati, attempted to reassure Israel that his government was not responsible for the attack. In a public statement he issued he said:

“Lebanon condemns the firing of rockets from its southern territory. The army is increasing its efforts in order to stop the shooting operations.
Lebanon is completely opposed to any military escalation emanating from its territory and also opposes the exploitation of its territory for actions that cause destabilization.”

So who was responsible?

And what would Israel do in response?

A war with Hezbollah may well mean a war against Hezbollah, Hamas in Gaza, Islamic Jihad in Gaza, the Iranian proxies in Syria, and even worse, with more formidable opponents likely to join the fray.

Already, the United Nations has ordered its UNIFIL soldiers stationed in southern Lebanon to enter into bomb shelters.

Why would they do that?

Because everybody knows that a response from Israel and a counteraction by Hezbollah could quickly spiral out of control. It could even lead to the long expected Ezekiel 38 war.

For now, below is the summary of the situation in Israel. And I will update you as soon as I learn more.

🚨 Israel’s security cabinet is meeting right now.
🚨The military intelligence and the Mossad are expected to present the information regarding who is behind the rocket shooting from Lebanon.
🚨Hezbollah, as expected, denies it’s involvement.
🚨Israel’s response will determine the level of escalation.
🚨The US embassy ordered its personnel to stay away from the region near the border with Lebanon.
🚨All headquarters of terrorist organizations in Gaza Lebanon and Damascus are being evacuated.