‘A Time for War’: Israelis Unite Against Cease-Fire Demand

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The Israelis have had enough. They have had enough of Hamas, had enough of Hezbollah, and they especially have had enough of foreigners bearing cease-fire proposals.

Voices across the political spectrum in Israel made that clear after the US and France suggested a 21-day cease-fire in Lebanon, and some media outlets reported that both sides had accepted. Benjamin Netanyahu scoffed at the report today, telling reporters he hadn’t even seen the details yet, let alone reach any conclusions about it:

“The report about a ceasefire is incorrect,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement it issued while Netanyahu was en route to New York to address the high-level session of the United Nations General Assembly. “This is an American-French proposal that the Prime Minister has not even responded to,” the PMO stated.

It also rejected reports that as a result of the diplomatic initiatives, the IDF had scaled down the level of its military campaign to push Hezbollah back to the Litani River, a step that is mandated by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701.

“The report about the purported directive to ease up on the fighting in the north is the opposite of the truth. The Prime Minister has directed the IDF to continue fighting with full force, according to the plan he presented.

“The fighting in Gaza will also continue until all the objectives of the war have been achieved,” the Prime Minister’s Office stated.

Netanyahu has kept to that same approach in Gaza, which has created significant political blowback for him at home. That does not appear to be the case when it comes to Hezbollah, however. Politicians across the political spectrum — and especially in the north — rejected calls for any lengthy cease-fire with Hezbollah as long as they defy previous cease-fire terms. Only war will move the threat from Israel’s borders, and the Israelis don’t want another October 7 to take place to prove that to the world:

Israeli Ministers and Members of Knesset (MKs) from both the coalition and opposition denounced reported cease fire talks between Israel and Hezbollah on Thursday morning, and advocated instead to continue the offensive. …

“The State of Israel should announce this morning that it accepts the Biden-Macron proposal for a ceasefire, but only for seven days, to prevent Hezbollah from rebuilding its command and control systems,” Lapid wrote. He then stressed that Israel should not accept any proposal that does not see Hezbollah driven away from Israel’s northern border.

Chairman of the Democrats and former Deputy Chief of Staff, Major General (res.) Yair Golan advocated for a three-day ceasefire, not a three-week one. …

Golan stated that Hezbollah should not have a presence south of the Litani River and that the Lebanese government must make a “commitment to restoring sovereignty and reducing Hezbollah’s influence, including taking responsibility for preventing the entry of long-range missiles and drones into the area between the Litani and Awali rivers.” He also said that UNIFIL must be strengthened and its mandate must be expanded “to ensure its forces have freedom of movement in all southern villages (south of the Litani).”

All of the same people insisted that the cease-fire in 2006 would settle the problem while promising to enforce UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which barred Hezbollah from re-militarizing the sub-Litani in Lebanon. These same people then stood by and refused to enforce Resolution 1701 while Hezbollah reinforced their positions on the Israeli border and built the same kind of tunnel system that Hamas built in Gaza. They parked munitions in residential buildings, just as Hamas did in Gaza, and planned an invasion into the Galilee. And that was on the basis of a cease-fire agreement that was also exactly like those the West brokered with Hamas in Gaza, including the one Hamas violated in their mass-atrocities invasion of October 7.

What value do Western cease-fires have for Israelis? Bupkis. If the Western nations don’t want to enforce those terms on the terrorists, then maybe they should have a Coke and a smile and shut the f*** up, as Richard Pryor once told Eddie Murphy about Bill Cosby. 

The Israelis have continued to ramp up their attacks. Earlier this morning, they struck a target in Beirut in an attempt to kill the commander of Hezbollah’s aerial forces. The target was in the Dahiyeh section of Beirut, Hezbollah’s political and military stronghold in the capital, and the location of previous attacks that killed a number of the terrorist group’s top commanders over the past week:

According to Israel’s Army Radio, the attack targeted the commander of Hezbollah’s drone unit and hit a specific floor of a multi-story building in Beirut’s Dahieh.

Israel has yet to comment on whether the strike was successful. The Lebanese Hezbollah-affiliated news outlet Al Mayadeen claimed four had been killed and others were wounded as a result of the strike.

Lebanese media reported three separate missiles hit the building.

And just to underscore the point about the cease-fire talk, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant issued a green-light order to continue operations in Lebanon until further notice. 

The Pentagon offered its own counterpoint this morning. A spokesperson insisted that the US is providing no support for Israel’s operations in Lebanon, although it’s not clear whether that means intel or just operational support:

The US military is not providing intelligence support to Israel for its operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh also said no Israeli ground incursion into Lebanon appeared imminent, but referred reporters to Israel for questions about its operations and plans.

Asked about whether the United States was supporting Israel’s operations in Lebanon, including with intelligence support, Singh said: “No. No support.”

“When it comes to Lebanon, the US military has no involvement in Israel’s operations,” Singh said.

That perfectly matches Western investment into its cease-fires, including and perhaps especially UNSC Resolution 1701. The Israelis understand that they will have to go it alone against Hezbollah, and have almost certainly planned for that. At least they realize that their partners for peace are pusillanimous at best about Israeli survival, and that they better act in their own interests rather than the domestic political interests of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.