My daughter called me today from Paris, really worried after seeing the horrific images of the huge fires all over the north. I actually took her call as I was sitting by the pool, relaxed after a swim and an aerobics class. Except for an unusual number of planes overhead, it has been absolutely quiet in this part of Israel, between Haifa and Tel Aviv. But that is about to change. A major war with Hezbollah is just a matter of time.
Lebanon is also burning. With the current summer heat and dryness, Lebanon is just as vulnerable to fires, and in fact, only a little while back fires consumed seventy thousand dunam (1,800 acres), and Lebanon asked for international help putting them out. People in glass houses…
So, the question is, what are we going to do about Hezbollah? Israel was waiting for the promises made in the international community about pushing Hezbollah forces back using international pressure. But after seven months, looks like international pressure only works in one direction, Israel’s. It’s disgraceful. The disregard for all signed treaties with international and American guarantees when Israel left Lebanon have been consistently broken with no consequences. There is a huge stockpile of weapons in Lebanon for one purpose only and no one to get rid of it before it falls on our heads, except the IDF.
The good news is that we are prepared and Hezbollah, unlike Hamas, isn’t going to surprise us. The Israeli public is absolutely united that only a war against Hezbollah will make it possible for the residents of the north to return home because from past experience, no diplomatic agreement with Hezbollah will be honored. Israel has been eroding some of Hezbollah’s capabilities in recent months, and while it would have been much much better if Trump was in the White House instead of Biden, we can’t wait for the American elections to take action.
I agree with Abu Ali Express that “just as Israel realized in retrospect (and too late) that it made a huge mistake by delaying the entry into Rafah for many months to please the US and the international community, so it will realize that in delaying the inevitable war against Hezbollah, it will be much more costly.”
The time has come to gird our loins with courage and strength and enter the war against Hezbollah with all our might. I say this even though I know that it will bring rockets down on my own head. There is simply is no other option. IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevy, now in northern Israel, said: “We are approaching the point where a decision will have to be made, the IDF is prepared and ready to go on the attack.”
Meanwhile, back in Gaza, IDF forces are in an intensive battle, on the ground and in the air, in the Bureij area in the center of the Gaza Strip. This is another case of the IDF returning to areas already swept clean of terrorists, only for the terrorists to return in force from areas to which they retreated, like the border with Egypt. Yesterday, the IDF downed four residential towers in Bureij after warning residents to evacuate.
It just seems endless. We are being attacked from all angles. Soon the joke that is the U.N. will pass a resolution for us to stop fighting in Gaza, a resolution the U.S. under Biden will not veto. This will tie our hands legally and diplomatically, even as Hamas ignores anything in such a resolution pertaining to them.
Israel is a valiant, heroic little democracy; a country of superheroes. She and her people are so admirable, so heartbreakingly brave and accomplished. I’m so proud to be an Israeli. Even in the midst of all that is happening, I would rather be here than anywhere else in the world. It’s a beacon of righteousness, of moral strength, radiating its light on an ever darkening planet.
As the forces of evil take over our democracies, it’s worth reading this essay by Ayaan Hirsi Ali on exactly how this is being accomplished.

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