Time for a TAT update, on the war (s) in Israel

TAT readers, welcome back from your Father’s Day weekend.

Today, I feel as if I need to catch everyone up on an ever more dangerous situation that can become less so, via cooler heads than Netanyahu and Sinwar. As longtime readers know, one of my daughters lives in Israel’s north and we talk multiple times per week. I also have deep personal and professional knowledge of Israel and the region historically, to include having spent time there.

From October 7th’s barbaric Hamas attack on the Jewish state, I have written often on the progress of the war and the ramifications of all that has transpired. I was one the first to call out the near antisemitic/ pro-Hamas western reporting as well as the UN’s tragically flawed efforts in Gaza. I also blamed the Netanyahu cabinet as one of six entities to blame for the war. When I write, I don’t put words onto paper, so-to-speak, unless I can back them with the best of sources and balanced by my expertise in CT/ Counterterrorism.

I am not writing to pat myself on the back but to tell everyone, with all due humility, that influence operations, millennia of antisemitism and geo-politics regarding the new Axis of Evil, Xi, Putin, theocratic terrorists in Tehran are involved… deeply. I explained all of this in excruciating detail in one of my earliest deep dives into the war. I will include links to all relevant deep reports before getting to the heart of today’s updates. It is fair to say, that the situation in Gaza and now on Israel’s northern border are as complicated a global security issue, as can be imagined.

Gaza’s Hamas and other jihadist thugs are no different from Hezbollah threats from Syria and Lebanon. Iran is the lynchpin for both, and Iran is largely in support of Putin by creating a diversion from his failures in Ukraine while the US GOP was depriving Ukraine of enough aid to survive their war against a genocidal Putin. Xi in China is playing the long game but depends on bad actors like Iran to help him achieve the end state of the Gaza war, that best supports his global BRI strategy to his China Dream goals. This last sentence is a mouthful and largely what makes how the war (s) in Israel ends, a key component of global security.

The simplest way to sum this up is, if there is a negotiated peace that leaves Hamas and potentially Hezbollah intact, Xi is the big winner and the people of Israel, Palestinians praying for peace and global security the primary losers. The non-negotiables to ending these massive tragedies are the elimination of Hamas as a force, the removal of the Netanyahu administration and the defanging of Iran as a global attack dog for Xi and Putin along with that little pipsqueak in N. Korea.

Now, let’s get into the heart of this update. Before beginning and as noted above, here is the list of consequential previous updates from TAT, in chronological order, beginning with the oldest:

1. Israel - by Paul Cobaugh - Truth About Threats

2. Let's unpack the complex, barbaric attack on Israel and those to blame. (truthaboutthreats.com)

3. Short Friday notes after yesterday's long report on Israel (truthaboutthreats.com)

4. A quick Sunday update regarding the Israeli/Palestinian conflict in Gaza (truthaboutthreats.com)

5. Three things about the war in Gaza that we all must understand. (truthaboutthreats.com)

6. 5th in the series, Israel and Hamas updates. (truthaboutthreats.com)

7. Has all media, good and bad, forgotten how to report with facts and context? (truthaboutthreats.com)

8. A short catch-up on Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Russia and China's hand in Hamas' barbarism for their own selfish purposes. 7th in the series (truthaboutthreats.com)

9. Friday updates - by Paul Cobaugh - Truth About Threats

10. What the hell is wrong with almost all media reporting on the conflict in Gaza and ignoring the brutality in Ukraine and other nations? (truthaboutthreats.com)

11. “If it bleeds, it leads” - by Paul Cobaugh (truthaboutthreats.com)

12. Mid-week, national security, news round-up (truthaboutthreats.com)

13. When we blame countries and terrorist groups for war, don’t forget to blame corporations and Wall Street too! (truthaboutthreats.com)

14. Cost - Benefit Analysis, the war in Gaza - by Paul Cobaugh (truthaboutthreats.com)

15. The road to hell, is paved with good intentions. (truthaboutthreats.com)

16. Mainstream news outlets are borderline antisemitic in their reporting about the war in Gaza. (truthaboutthreats.com)

17. An Explainer; US and UK attacks on the Houthis (truthaboutthreats.com)

18. Time for an honest update on the war in Gaza (truthaboutthreats.com)

19. Gaza protests are emblematic of willful tunnel vision... on all sides. (truthaboutthreats.com)

20. Protests and protesters: honorable intent or a product of foreign and domestic malign influence? (truthaboutthreats.com)

21. Don't go all in on the Gaza cease fire, just yet. (truthaboutthreats.com)

22. Iran, the Axis of Evil's role in campus protests and their support of genocide (truthaboutthreats.com)

---

This morning, in the Times of Israel, a preferable source for Israeli news, you will get a great deal of detail that is mostly missing from western reporting. For those unfamiliar with Israel, it would be nearly impossible to navigate to a comprehensive understanding of the situation, based on western reporting. Some of my formerly recommended sources like Reuters and the BBC have been so dishonest in their reporting about the war that I would fairly judge them antisemitic. Daily they blast out casualty figures from the “Hamas run Health Ministry,” a longtime and well-known Hamas propaganda sources. Not only are the figures inaccurate, but they are echoed by the UN and most western media without challenge.

The recent hostage rescue shows an even more dishonest side of the use of the word, “civilian” in casualty figures. As reported today in Newsweek, the hostages rescued, including others released prior, describe in detail, how they were held by Palestinian “civilians” and families, including civilians with bylines in prominent publications.

There is absolutely no doubt that thousands of civilians have been killed and wounded. The reports of famine and starvation though are substantially overblown. This does not mean that there isn’t suffering, but were it true as reported, those numbers would be blasted from media rooftops, hourly and as headlines. As with blame for the war itself, there is more than enough to go around. For deep details on this, I highly recommend the second essay listed at the beginning with the title, “Let's unpack the complex, barbaric attack on Israel and those to blame.”

So, let’s put those non-negotiables mentioned earlier into focus with some discussion

The non-negotiables to ending these massive tragedies are the elimination of Hamas as a force, the removal of the Netanyahu administration and the defanging of Iran as a global attack dog for Xi and Putin, along with that little pipsqueak in N. Korea.  

As terrorist thugs, HAMAS is a top tier movement, largely due to training, equipping and support primarily from Iran, but also from Russia. Had it not been for extended and deep Iranian support, there would have not been the capacity for the Oct 7th large-scale attack against Israel. This has not changed and in many ways, has become a more extensive threat since last October. Iran-sponsored Houthis in Yemen are playing a significant support role to both Iran and Hamas, by interfering with international commerce at the entrance to the Red Sea/ Suez Canal.

I will a short note here that I’ve covered in earlier essays that puts things into perspective. Iran is a prime supplier of critical military hardware and technology to Putin, for his genocidal war against our allies in Ukraine. Xi needs both Ukraine and Russia for his BRI strategy. So long as those Tehranian terrorists aid both Putin, Hamas and Hezbollah, Xi gains power, access and reach for his BRI enabled China Dream objectives. Removing Iran as a capable enabler of continued genocide against Ukraine and Israel merely makes Xi stronger while concurrently allowing Putin to survive intact. Removal obviously, does the precise opposite.

The entire free world will suffer immeasurably if this unholy Axis of Evil is allowed to sustain their aggression without serious setbacks. Degrading Iranian capability to sustain Putin and Xi’s aggression will save hundreds of thousands and deter both for maybe, another generation. That degradation would also likely move India into a position as a more reliable ally. Modi currently at a minimum, helps Putin to evade fossil fuel and banking sanctions that sustain his war against Ukraine.

Had the GOP not worked with Putin by denying funding to Ukraine, Putin’s efforts would likely have suffered critical setbacks by now. That GOP support by default, assisted Putin, Xi, Tehran, Hamas and Hezbollah, all hellbent on genocidal aggression. The final piece of this part of the ongoing tragedies, is that while we and NATO supplied Ukraine, N. Korea became far more important on the global stage by being a low-end but critical supplier to the Russian military in Ukraine. Maybe that the next time the N. Korean pipsqueak begs for aid to feed his people, as he does regularly, he’ll depend on Putin and Xi for help, instead of us.

Last but not least, Bibi, as Netanyahu is called, must go, along with all of those of extreme-right wing Ministers in his cabinet. They are particularly abusive and poked at the Palestinian people so hard that they had no choice but to land in the outstretched arms of Hamas. That allegiance by the way, is easily reversible by eliminating the right-wing extremists. It is actually the Palestinian people who suffer the most from the Nazi-like abuse of Hamas and this is every day of their lives, not just during a war such as we now see in Gaza. It is little better in the West Bank due to the abuse of the PA/ Palestinian Authority.

Israelis were well fed up with Bibi’s Trump-like attempts to limit legislative and judicial control over his Prime Minister powers. He’s simply a smarter and better-dressed Trump, under indictment for his own felonies, and serving his own personal selfish needs, not those of the people of Israel. Like Trump, he’s attempting to stay in office to avoid likely conviction and prison. Now, as noted from the Times of Israel, he’s under extreme, large-scale pressure to call for elections.

Bibi has now also dissolved his “war cabinet” in an attempt to keep the most extreme Ministers, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich out of the meetings. They are seen as visible reasons for the extremism that put undue pressure on Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank as well as part of the failures leading to October 7th. Ben-Gvir is the Minister for National Security and seen as a racist, provocateur of Palestinian anger. His personal history reads like something more akin to the KKK in the US, but somewhat more dangerous on a national level.

The extreme, right-wing religious parties within the coalition making up Bibi’s government, although a minority came to power with Bibi due to Israel’s democratic system, which is a fair amount different than US democracy. To add fuel to the fire domestically, Israel’s most orthodox Jews, do not serve in the IDF/ Israel Defense Forces. They make up roughly 14% of the population but their military exemptions have long been extremely unpopular. They also make up a great deal of some of the most right-wing extremist political parties in the coalition government that brought Netanyahu to power in 2022. With their extremism seen as part of the reason for the war, this long-smoldering issue is now nearly an open flame in many parts of the state. Both Ben-Gvir and Smotrich come from such parties.

To sum all of this up, the war itself is not only extremism on the Hamas, Iran sides but also partly so within Netanyahu’s own administration. This is why all extremists on both sides must go and become reduced to such minorities without support, as to be impotent. Globally, the wave of far-right extremism that has swept the globe for over a decade now, puts a great deal of pressure on such dangerous political entities, to not back down in support of the greater good. Xi, Putin, Iran, N. Korea and so many other nations, especially within the BRICS expansion operate with hardline governments.

Geo-politically speaking, stopping the extremism in Israel and Ukraine, is the best opportunity globally to significantly reduce the instability around the globe. As we all know, appeasement is a failed strategy. Anyone advocating for it, is encouraging more conflict and ever more dangerously. We have few good options but to support Israel, without Bibi and his henchmen, against Iran and their attack dogs, just as we must support Ukraine against Putin, Xi’s attack dog.

With talk of a new front in the war opening up against Hezbollah, I can assure you that things can get worse. Had the US not laid down the law to Netanyahu about how he prosecutes the war, things may of in fact, already been far worse. Hats off to our administration for so far, keeping both of these conflicts from becoming far more global. Think of it this way, Secretary of State Blinken and like-minded allied support, are running around the campfire trying to keep multiple people wielding gas cans, away from the fire. It’s not only thankless but also exhausting. Godspeed their continued success.

My very best for your week,

Paul