Eylon Levy on UNIFIL

I see in the news that the UN is now accusing Israel of war crimes (again), this time for purposely targeting UNIFIL. I've got to say, I'm beginning to regard everything the UN says about Israel as BS unless otherwise proven.

But anyway, here Eylon Levy explains what's happening between Israel and UNIFIL.

We're doomed

On Meet the Press today. Harris has lost what little lead she had over Trump, and now they are tied. I will vote for Harris, of course - I would vote for a dead bug over Trump - but I don't really care for her policies.

She makes no mention of the most needy in our country, but for the upper middle class we have promises of student loan forgiveness and money for starting a business and buying a new home. People living on Social Security, people who are homeless, people on disability ... they usually aren't considering buying a new home, they are worrying about making it to the end of the month.

She's the candidate for the complacent. That would be understanable if she was a Republican, but she's not. If she loses, it will be because of her stance on the economy.

The naimals

In the news ...

Activists risk their lives to rescue animals in areas of Lebanon hit by Israeli airstrikes

Hours after an Israeli strike destroyed a three-story building in Beirut, killing at least 10 people, Maggie Sharawi received a telephone call from a person living nearby saying that the attack had killed a cat that had several kittens.

While civil defense members were combing through the rubble for human victims or survivors, Sharawi and other members of Animals Lebanon, an animal protection organization, also rushed to the scene in Beirut’s central Burj Abi Haidar neighborhood Friday.

They began climbing through rubble, twisted metal and collapsed walls to reach the kittens. The animals, just a few days old, were pulled out ...

Seeing this story tonight made me feel kind of sick, not just because I'm worried about all the animals that are getting hurt in the wars, but also because I'm pretty sure that I should be feeling that way about the humans too. But I'm mostly not. Not a good sign :(

Podcast

If you want to understand what Israelis are thinking/feeling since Oct 7 2023, this is a great Times of Israel podcast to listen to. It seems so many people don't want to understand - they have already made up their minds about Israel - but if anyone wants to know why I myself have been so on Israel's side since this war started, take a listen ...

UNIFIL

- deployment of UNIFIL

In the news, the international community is mad at Israel because they accidentally wounded some members of UNIFIL while shooting at Hezbollah in Lebanon. Apparently, the IDF did warn them, asking them to move, but the UNIFIL forces declined to do so. Israel says Hezbollah is hanging out near UNIFIL bases as cover.

So what is UNIFIL? It's the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, ...

a UN peacekeeping mission established on 19 March 1978 by United Nations Security Council Resolutions 425 and 426, and several further resolutions in 2006 .... It is composed of 10,000 peacekeepers from 46 nations, tasked with helping the Lebanese Army keep the south of the country protected from "unauthorized armed personnel, such as Hezbollah" ...

Post 2006, UNIFIL was deployed throughout Southern Lebanon, south of the Litani River, and primarily along the United Nations-drawn Blue Line, the border between Israel and Lebanon. Since then, the force's activities have centered around monitoring military activity between Hezbollah and the Israeli Defense Forces with the aim of reducing tensions and allaying tension along the border. UNIFIL has played an important role in clearing landmines, assisting displaced persons and providing humanitarian assistance to civilians in the underdeveloped region of Southern Lebanon ...

The Wikipedia article on this subject is quite detailed, including about the UNIFIL/Israel/Hezbollah problems, and worth a read.

I don't know much about UNIFIL, except it seems that it has utterly failed in its mandate to de-militarize Hezbollah and keep them north of the Litani River (the Blue Line).

More: UN says some peacekeepers moving as Israel blasted over fire on UNIFIL posts

Eruption

My latest sci fi read from the library is Eruption by Michael Crichton and James Patterson. As Wikipedia notes, the novel is ...

based on an unfinished manuscript by Crichton at the time of his death. It is Crichton's 29th novel, the nineteenth under his own name and the fourth of his novels published posthumously. A thriller about an eruption of Mauna Loa on the Island of Hawaii, the novel was unfinished at the time of Crichton's death in 2008, but was completed years later by Patterson, at the behest of Crichton's widow Sherri. In June 2024, it was reported that Steven Spielberg was in talks with Sherri Crichton about a possible film adaptation.

Crichton's two Jurassic Park novels are among my most favorite books, so I was guardedly hopeful that this would be good. I had to wait a long time, too - I was like # 300+ on the hold list at the library!

The story started out kind of so-so, and the main character, named John "Mac" MacGregor, cannot help but remind mo of MacGyver in both name and can-do personality ;)

But it's getting better. Right now I'm reading about Mac saving people from a helicopter that crashed in the crater of the lava lake, Puʻu ʻŌʻō ...

If you like the writing of Michael Crichton, or of James Pattersn, or are interested in volcanoes, you may find the book worth a read. Here's a bit from a book review in The Washington Post ...

James Patterson finishes Michael Crichton’s book, with explosive results

[...] As author partnerships go, this is Godzilla’s head grafted onto King Kong’s body. Of course, Hollywood is already buzzing around it, and why not? Together, these two authors — or their brands — have sold an estimated 675 million copies, one for every year since the Neoproterozoic era ....

36-year-old John “Mac” MacGregor hears a deep rumbling and feels the beach shaking. As director of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, Mac understands what that means. “He’d always known this day would come.” Steam is already wafting up from the top of Mauna Loa, the planet’s biggest active volcano, a colossus that rises almost six miles off the ocean floor. “The eruption was only days away.” ....

Hamas

More from General Barry McCaffrey ...

Hamas must be attacked wherever they appear until they are destroyed. No ceasefire. If it’s permanent war….so be it. Israel has a right to exist. 7 Oct changed reality going forward. … permanently. Where is a Pan Arab force to take Gaza authority? https://t.co/CTxyVzduyT

— Barry R McCaffrey (@mccaffreyr3) October 8, 2024

Bill Maher

Bill Maher on how badly women are treated in Middle Eastern countries, and the irony of liberals supporting reactionary theocratic terrorist regimes like the one in Gaza ...

Another annicersary

- Israel/Lebanon/Syria border

Today is the one year anniversary of war declared by the terrorist group in Lebanin, Hezbollah, against Israel, in solidarity with Hamas' attack the day before ...

[...] Hezbollah on Sunday said it had launched guided rockets and artillery onto three posts in the Shebaa Farms [in Israel] "in solidarity" with the Palestinian people.

"Our history, our guns and our rockets are with you," said senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine at an event in the Hezbollah stronghold of Dahieh on Beirut's outskirts in solidarity with the Palestinian fighters ...

Since that day, Hezbollah has launched more than 9,000 rockets, drones, and anti-tank missiles at Israel. More than 60,000 Israelis have been displaced from their homes in the north.

Israel has finally decided to push Hezbollah back from the border, and has stated that returning its citizens to their homes in the north is now one of their war goals. If Hezballah had kept their part of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 in 2006, if Lebanon or the UN had enforced that resolution, this probably would not be necessary.

So Israel, worried about an attack from Hezbollah like the one by Hamas on Oct 7, has been clearing out Hezbollah infrastructure in the villages near the border in Lebanon, Israel has been striking Hezbollah operatives and leadership in Beirut. And Israel has closed a border crossing to Syria to keep weapons from coming from Iran to Hezbollah. As Israel does this, it warns civilians to get out of dangerous areas.

What I see in the news is that Israel is "escalating" the war. Israel is deiplacing, trapping, killing civilians. There's never condemnation of Hezbollah ... why do they put their headquarters under apartment buildings, why do they put their rocket launchers in civilian homes, why did they started the war in the first place? I have no doubt they knew what would eventually happen.

Israel was attacked. It put up with that ongoing attack for a year while they tried diplomacy. Now it is fighting back. That's what anyone else would do.

Ginally, in the State Department press briefing today, Matt Miller made clear that the US believes Hezbollah is untrustworthy and that the US supports Israel's efforts in Lebanon. Start watching at 47:53, when a reporter asks about that war ...

October 7

In the news today, a year after the October 7 attack - thousands at anti-Israel protests around the word, both Hezbollah and Hamas shooting rockets at Israel, and anti-Jewish threats spiking actoss the US.

I don't understand it, I guess. The facts are that ...

1) Hamas began a war, with hundreds of terrorists and civilian Gazans swarming into Israel on October 7, 2023, murdering, raping, torturing, and kidnapping, while they rained down rockets on Israel.

2) The next day, Hezbollah declared war on Israel too and began firing rockets, which has continued for a year, displacing tens of thousands of Israelis.

3) Israel has fought back. While doing this they have made more efforts than any other nation before to preserve civilian life in Gaza and Lebanon.

4) And Israel is winning the wars started by Hamas and Hezbollah.

Is that the problem? We're they not supposed to fight back, to be so effective at it? Were they just supposed to bury their dead and move on? Were they just supposed to leave the hostages to rot? Were they just supposed to give up the northern part of their country as a Hezbollah firing range? What exactly does the world demand of them? To just lay back and die?

And speaking of dying, yes, a lot of people are dying. Too many. If the world didn't want to see that, they should have made Iran and Turkey and Qatar call off the terrorists, they should have helped Israel save the hostages and defeat the terrorists as quickly and efficiently as possible. Why didn't they?

More: 14 images of Israel from a year of war

Hezbollah

As anti-Israeli protests surge around the world, Israel continues to crush Hezbollah ...

If confirmed … a final stunning blow to Hezbollah. Not a decapitation strategy. The IDF and Mossad have actually shattered the terrorist chain of command from the bottom to the top. I’d hazard 3500+ experienced Hezbollah leaders obliterated or mangled. https://t.co/8qYyjYbGz4

— Barry R McCaffrey (@mccaffreyr3) October 5, 2024

Last episode

- Sauron

Just watched the last episode of season 2 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

- Elendil is the ancestor of Aragorn

It was really pretty good. We see the end of Eregion and the beginning of Rivendell, we see Aragorn's ancestor aquire the sword Narsil, we see a Balrog :), and we see a great fight scene between Sauron and Galadriel. This video below doesn't do it credit but it was the best I could find ...



I first read The Lord of the Rings when I was a teen, and it still has the power to touch me all these zillions of years later.

Iran's nuclear facilities

John Bolton on Meet the Press Now yesterday. He was asked about the targets Israel might choose to fire on in Iran. I've always thought of Bolton as a scary ultra conservative, but since the Trump years, when Bolton came out against him, I've reconsidered him ...



To me, the most logical choice of targets would indeed be Iran's nuclear sites. Here's a map from Wikipedia, Nuclear facilities in Iran, showing what there is to choose from ...

Israel rescues Yazidi woman from Gaza

After more than a decade in captivity in Gaza: the IDF led by COGAT, in collaboration with the U.S. Embassy in Israel, rescued a young Yazidi woman held by a Hamas terrorist affiliated with ISIS in the Gaza Strip

In an operation coordinated by IDF and led by COGAT, with the U.S.… pic.twitter.com/9GbyU4oJw9

— COGAT (@cogatonline) October 3, 2024

Read more: Hostage kidnapped by ISIS at age 11 — and then held by Hamas for 10 years — is freed in operation led by US, Israel

VP debate

I watched the debate between Vance and Walz last night. I just want to point out here some of the lies told by Vance on the subject of reproductive rights. I say "lies" because he's a smart guy and I'm sure he knows the actual facts, but chose to misrepresent them at the debate to mislead voters.

1) Vance said that he supports abortion laws being made in the states, and that he doesn't want a federal ban against abortion. But up to this point, he has indeed supported a federal ban.

2) Vance also said he supports IVF. This is an odd stance for a conservative Catholic ... the church is against IVF because it usually includes the destruction of embryos. He had a chance recently to vote in the Senate for protections for IVF ... he didn't vote.

3) Then Vance lied about the Minnisota reproductive rights law that Walz signed as governor, saying that it allowed doctors to deny medical care to babies born alive after a "botched" abortion. Here's some fact checking from CBS news ...

Vance's statement omits key context about the law. In 2023, Walz signed a bill that updated state law regarding medical care for infants "born alive" as a result of an abortion. Both the previous and updated law state that an infant "born alive shall be fully recognized as a human person, and accorded immediate protection under the law."

Previously, the law required medical professionals to take all reasonable measures to "preserve the life and health of the born alive infant." After the update, medical personnel are required to take all reasonable measures "to care for the infant who is born alive" — a change advocates say allows parents of infants not expected to survive to forgo extraordinary and futile interventions.

Late-term abortions typically occur to save the mother's life or when families are facing situations where the fetus is unlikely to survive long after birth. The Minnesota Department of Health reported eight infants "born alive" from 2019 to 2022. According to the records, three of those infants were classified as "previable" or not developed enough to survive outside the uterus; three were provided "comfort care as planned;" and two had fetal anomalies.

4) Then Vance implied that Catholic hospitals are (or will be?) forced to perform abortions against their will. But it is federal law that no medical practicioner is forced to do any procedure that is agains their conscience. And - U.S. can't punish Christian hospitals for refusing to do abortions, gender surgery

JD Vance said he and Trump are for women, for children, for families. This is untrue ... the Republican party in government has consistently slashed funds for these groups. Vance wants the Republicans to "win back women's trust". Women don't trust people who lie to them. And given that the man at the top of the Republican ticket is a rapist, well, that doesn't exactly inspire women's trust either.

In Lebanon

The IDF describes details (with vvideos, photos) of what it's doing in Southern Lebanon ...

UNRWA

From The Wall Street Journaal ...

Hamas Leader Killed in Lebanon Was Also a U.N. Staffer

Palestinian militant group Hamas’s top leader in Lebanon—killed in an Israeli airstrike Monday—also was a high-ranking employee of the main United Nations relief agency serving Palestinians, a revelation likely to heighten suspicions about Hamas’s influence in the aid organization.

Palestinian militant group Hamas’s top leader in Lebanon—killed in an Israeli airstrike Monday—also was a high-ranking employee of the main United Nations relief agency serving Palestinians, a revelation likely to heighten suspicions about Hamas’s influence in the aid organization ....

No! Really? I'm shocked, shocked, I say! Israel has been telling the world all year, since the Oct 7 attack, that UNRWA employees are Hamas members, some of them participating in the attack. UNRWA has denied that, even as it fired a number of it's employees for, you know, being members of Hamas and taking part in the attack. Meanwhile, most European countries still fund UNRWA, and some 60 Democratic lawmakers work to restore aid from the US to UNRWA (House lawmakers maintain support for restoring UNRWA funding despite new Hamas revelations).

More from The Los Angeles Times: Top Hamas commander killed in Lebanon was U.N. relief agency employee

The State Dept on Nasrallah's death

Certainly, I think it is an unalloyed good for the people of Lebanon and the people of the broader region that Hassan Nasrallah is no longer walking the face of this Earth. He is someone, as I said, who held Lebanon's political governance from moving forward, he is someone who has attacked the civilians of Lebanon over the years, he is someone who has attacked obviously civilians of Israel, he has attacked American citizens, and he has attacked civilians in Syria. So, it is good for the region and the world that he is no longer with us ....

[Israel] has a right to go after legitimate terrorist targts like Hassan Nasrallah, and we support them taking those steps, just as we have brought terrorists who targeted American citizens to justice over time ...

Comments by Matt Miller at today's State Department press briefing, on being asked about Israel having killed Nasrallah.

Yoda

Yoda is is trying to enjoy a peaceful morning, lounging on her cat furniture, looking out the screen door, thinking "If Crystal doesn't leave me alone, I'm going to chomp her".

General McCaffrey

Makes no sense to call for a cease fire. Hezbollah has fired 8000+ missiles into Israel since the 7 October Hamas brutal murder and abduction of Israeli civilians. The IDF and Mossad have paralyzed this terrorist group. Next.. destroy the missiles.

— Barry R McCaffrey (@mccaffreyr3) September 29, 2024

The Pope in Belgium

- the Grand Place in Brussels

So, the Pope, who has been visiting Belgium, has criticized Israel for a disproportionate response to almost a year of daily rocket attacks from Hezbollah.

Meanwhile, Pope Francis somehow flips the script and demands that pedophile priests in Belgium be held accountable ...

‘Condemn the abusers’: Pope demands judgement for pedophile priests as Belgium tour ends

[...] Since 2012 there have been over 700 reported cases of clerical child abuse in Belgium. Among the most excruciating episodes was the Church’s indulgent treatment of Bruges Bishop Roger Vangheluwe, who was allowed to retire in 2010 after admitting to having sexually abused his nephew for 13 years. The bishop was only defrocked by Francis earlier this year in an apparent effort to draw a line under the saga ...

I find it hard to get upset about this anymore. Nothing changes, and no one cares.

Authorities can't make the Pope do anything, can't hold him accountable ... he's basically the lifetime dictator of his own country, with sovereign immunity. Why do you think B16 retired in Vatican City? (Pope will have security, immunity by remaining in the Vatican)

And the people who might be able to force a change, ordinary Catholics, seem happy to let things continue as they are.

People ask, what can be done. The Pope has many concrete steps he could take to make clergy sex abuse less likely to happen. Just one of those steps would be to make all priests mandated reporters of sex abuse to civil authorities (like teachers, etc.).

The Pope won't do that. Instead he decided that priests should be obligated to tell their superiors in the church about sex abise they knew of (but not stuff learned in confession). Do you see how that works? Pedophile priest asks his superior to hear his confession ... problem solved. (Critics say pope's law requiring priests, nuns to report sex abuse does not go far enough)

But we'll all just go on seeing the Pope as some kind of moral authority, while he evades any responsibility for past and future crimes of his church.

Nasrallah

The Times of Israel's daily briefing, discussing the death of Hezbollah leader, Nasrallah.