GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War – Day 261

The Real Threat

Somebody’s Not Telling The Truth

As the current spat between Israel and the US over arms shipments continues it’s obvious that one side isn’t telling us either the full truth or is flat out lying as we learn from a few reports from The Times Of Israel starting with this one:

At the start of the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended his decision to release an English-language video last week panning the United States for holding up weapons shipments, saying that he had only gone public after quiet attempts to solve the problem failed.

After expressing his appreciation for US President Joe Biden’s support during the war against Hamas, Netanyahu alleged that four months ago, there was a “dramatic drop” in the weapons pipeline to Israel.

The PM mentioned that this wasn’t a recent drop and he did try resolving it behind closed doors:

“For many weeks,” said Netanyahu, “we appealed to our American friends to speed up the shipments. We did it time and time again. We did this at the senior echelons, and at all levels, and I want to emphasize — we did it in private chambers. We got all kinds of explanations, but we didn’t get one thing: The basic situation didn’t change.”

According to the premier, “certain items trickled in, but the bulk of armaments were left behind.”

The US denies the lag in shipments:

The White House has repeatedly rejected Netanyahu’s claim, insisting that it only has withheld one shipment of heavy bombs it was concerned Israel would use in the densely-populated southern Gaza city of Rafah, while all other transfers have continued at a normal pace.

Rather than continue the tit for tat responses, the US would rather talk with the Israel Defense Minister in person:

Responding to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s latest claim, the White House sufficed with saying that it looks forward to hosting Defense Minister Yoav Gallant later this week.

“We have made our position clear on this repeatedly, and we aren’t going to keep responding to the Prime Minister’s political statements. We look forward to constructive consultations with Defense Minister Gallant in Washington this week,” said a White House official.

Netanyahu declined to comment on which weapons are affected, but the US insists that there hasn’t been any halt:

Netanyahu has yet to specify which weapons shipments the US has allegedly withheld.

A source familiar with the matter says there has been no halt in shipments. However, emergency procedures that fast-tracked the transfer of weapons toward the beginning of the war are no longer in place, as the Biden administration remains concerned about Israel sparking a regional war.

Perplexed

In another Times report we hear more from the US side of this saying that the change was a response to how the US views the fighting:

The Biden administration in recent months removed emergency procedures that were in place to fast-track weapons to Israel toward the beginning of the war, an American official familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel on Sunday.

The revelation helps explain the claim Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began making last week that the United States has been withholding weapons shipments to Israel. The US has denied the assertion, explaining that it has only withheld one shipment of heavy bombs it was concerned Israel would use in the densely populated southern Gaza city of Rafah.

All other shipments have continued at a normal pace, the White House explained.

In essence the arms supplied to Israel have gone to a pre-war pace:

The US official told The Times of Israel on condition of anonymity that a “normal pace” does not mean the fast-tracked rate that the US allowed during the early months of the war. In recent months, the US resumed its normal procedures for weapons transfers, including various Congressional authorizations.

The US official added that the move has coincided with a significant slowdown in the IDF’s operations in Gaza along with concern in Washington about a potential Israeli preemptive offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon that could lead to a regional war.

The pace was explained this way:

Channel 12 reported Sunday that during the first part of the war, some 240 weapons shipments were delivered to Israel. That number has dropped to roughly 120 shipments in recent months, the network said, without citing any sources or providing specific dates for the two timeframes.

The current pace isn’t stopping the IDF in its fights against both Hezbollah and in Gaza:

A second official — an Israeli one — insisted that the return to the pre-war pace of US weapons shipments has not impacted the IDF’s operational capacity in Gaza or Lebanon.

Why the apparent panic then? The US is confused:

Accordingly, Netanyahu’s decision to publicly attack the US has perplexed and frustrated the Biden administration, the US official said.

The United States may see this as a political move:

The US official speculated that Netanyahu either feels he might benefit politically at home by provoking a spat with Washington or that he is concerned Defense Minister Yoav Gallant will manage to convince the US to resume faster-paced weapons transfers during his meetings at the White House this week and that the premier will not be credited for resolving the issue.

The White House expressed deep frustration with Netanyahu’s criticism last week.

“It was perplexing to say the least, certainly disappointing, especially given that no other country is doing more to help Israel defend itself against the threat by Hamas,” White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters last week.

“The idea that we had somehow stopped helping Israel with their self-defense needs is absolutely not accurate,” he said, describing the claim as “vexing and disappointing to us as much as it was incorrect.”

So who is right? As for me, I’d rather trust Netanyahu in this matter mostly because I know there are people in the US administration that are not only antisemitic, but very pro-Palestinian. Unfortunately the spinning will continue.

We’ve Always Known This

In an article from WND.com we hear what is the most dangerous threat to Israel is:

With the war against Hamas to its south and the steady prodding of Hezbollah to its north, Israel is facing a two-front war. As the bloody battle continues against Hamas, experts agree Hezbollah is the greater threat to the Jewish state, should it decide to go full throttle.

In 1982 and 2006, Israel fought two wars against Hezbollah – and now finds itself on the brink of a third. Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Jewish civilians, Hezbollah has ramped up its efforts to bombard Israel from Lebanon with a barrage of missiles, rockets and drones.

Someone who should know went public about this recently:

A former Israel Defense Forces spokesperson recently told Fox News that the announcement by the IDF that it had approved an "offensive in Lebanon" is "another step towards a significant escalation" against Israel's adversary to the north.

WND spoke to Middle East expert and terrorism scholar Adrian Calamel, a senior fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Arabian Peninsula Institute, who noted that Hezbollah has been a proxy of Iran and a thorn in Israel's side since its inception.

Calamel backs up his assertion this way:

Calamel believes Israel faces a formidable opponent to its north with Hezbollah, far more powerful than Hamas. He suspects Hezbollah has accumulated over 120,000 precision missiles and other weapons. "They're hiding them within their population," he told WND. "The World Factbook" of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency estimates Hezbollah's missile and rocket strength to be as high as 150,000. And according to a 2018 report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, "Hezbollah is the world's most heavily armed non-state actor."

Elaborate and complex tunnels are also a major problem for the IDF:

In addition, Calamel said, "The tunnel structures the world has seen in Gaza are nothing compared to the tunnel structures in south Lebanon." He describes Hezbollah's tunnel system as "a three-dimensional chessboard," inside of which are command centers and "near endless" ways to move weaponry around, he added.

And they are well funded:

Calamel also pointed out that Hezbollah receives $700 million every year from the Iranian regime. "The state of Lebanon is bankrupt, [as] Hezbollah has completely bled the economy," he noted, adding that "the money [received from Iran] is going to their war-making machine to destroy Israel."

He then adds a reason why Israel needs to deal strongly with Hezbollah sooner than later:

By normalizing warfare at Israel’s northern border, Calamel said, Hezbollah is becoming "more brazen" and they are increasing their number of attacks against the Jewish state. "They're even hinting that a war is coming," he noted. "All the while, they're backing Israel into a corner where they'll have to respond."

While Israel remains focused on eradicating Hamas terrorists from Gaza, Calamel warns, "Hezbollah is, without question, the most dangerous weapon the Islamic Republic can use against Israel and they could strike at any moment."