The Lebanese newspaper "Al-Akhbar", thought to be connected to the terror group Hezbollah, reported on Monday that the Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip have in the last two weeks increased the security measures around certain “activists,” the term they use to describe terrorists. The increased security measures, which were also reported to be enforced in Judea and Samaria are due to fear of an "assassination attempt” executed by Israeli security forces.
In recent months Israeli experts along with the entire world have been paying close attention to the developments in Palestinian Authority-controlled territories. A concerning future is being mapped out, one in which the PA collapses and local terrorist organizations assume power.
The Palestinian Authority is the recognized 'democratic' government of the Palestinian territories, despite its leader Mahmoud Abbas having been elected in 2008 to for a 4-year term with no elections having been held since. Many believe the reason no elections have been held is that Hamas would be victorious and the elections would be heavily monitored so the chance of rigging it as has happened in Gaza in the 2006 legislative elections.
After the signing of the maritime border agreement between Lebanon and Israel, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah delivered a statement and said that "the maritime border demarcation agreement is a historic achievement and a victory for Lebanon."
According to Nasrallah, "the organization is outside the discussion that deals with Line 23 and Line 29, if the country declares that line 29 belongs to Lebanon, the resistance will do everything to protect this area. This is a great victory for Lebanon, as a nation and as a resistance. The negotiations were indirect, Lebanon did not sit next to Israel under the same roof." The Iranian puppet who leads Hezbollah was referring to the two demarcation lines that were discussed. In 2018, Lebanon accepted line 23 but went back on that after it natural gas was discovered underneath. Line 29 lies directly over Israel's Karish gas field.
Two things I think everyone needs to understand about the deal: 1) Lebanon still DOES NOT recognize Israel or our right to exist - that qualifier was NOT part of the deal
2) @yairlapid billed this as 'peace' deal - it is no such thing. He was pressured by a) elections b) Biden.
— Jay Engelmayer | Judea & Samaria Are In Israel (@jengelmayer) October 30, 2022
Nasrallah continued and said that “the Lebanese document does not contain an Israeli signature and the government was careful to act towards something that even smells like normalization. This is not an international agreement, this is not normalization or recognition of Israel and there are no security guarantees." Interim Prime Minister Lapid billed the deal as a peacemaker, without using that terminology - saying it will bring security to Israel, however, the terror group's leader dispelled this saying that not only has nothing changed, the agreement does not even contain an Israeli signature as Lebanon does not acknowledge Israel's right to exist.
Before Nasrallah’s speech, the President of Lebanon, Michel Aoun, who is scheduled to leave his position this week, was interviewed by the news agency "Reuters" and spoke of Hezbollah's role in reaching the agreement. The Lebanese president also attacked Israel on his personal Twitter account and tweeted that "Israel used to take from the Arabs, but this time we are the ones who took from it."
Aoun also wrote that “Hezbollah served as a deterrent in the indirect negotiations to demarcate the maritime borders with Israel.” According to him, "launching the UAVs towards Karish was a useful initiative."
The agreement between the countries was signed last Thursday at the UN base in Nakoura, just on the northern side of the Israeli town of Rosh Hanikra. Prime Minister Yair Lapid referred to the signing of the agreement, and also to the threats from Hezbollah in a government cabinet meeting. "I am happy to open this special government meeting, to approve the historic agreement on the Maritime border with Lebanon. This is a great achievement for the State of Israel, and an achievement for the Israeli government. This is an agreement that strengthens and fortifies Israel's security and our freedom of action against Hezbollah and the threats from the north."
"This is a political achievement, it is not every day that an enemy country recognizes the State of Israel, in a written agreement, in front of the entire international community. It is not every day that the United States and France stand behind us and provide security and economic guarantees for the agreement"
Sayyed Nasrallah: Israel Signed Maritime Deal with Lebanon to Escape War with Resistance https://t.co/JMeBioB0vc
With elections on Tuesday, many are claiming that Lapid did this for the optics, however with no security and no actual benefit to the deal, analysts are saying his gamble might have backfired, costing him seats in the election. Votes that would normally have gone to Lapid will most likely strengthen the party being led by former Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff and current Defense Minister, Benny Gantz.
When the American administration of President Joe Biden unilaterally withdrew from Afghanistan, the criticism he faced was that close to $8 Billion of military equipment was gifted to the Taliban. Items like armor, guns, ammunition, night-vision equipment as well as heavy arms and vehicles were abandoned and images of Taliban soldiers outfitted with the new equipment dominated anti-Biden memes and articles.
Today, a similar problem is happening. While Hezbollah and Iranian forces are in Ukraine helping Russia, the United States has been giving Ukraine billions of dollars worth of equipment to help them fight the Russian invasion, and some of those weapons are finding their way to Israel's unfriendly northern border.
Iran claims that they have arrested ten agents who acted "for Israel" in the province of West Azerbaijan. According to Tehran, the detainees had direct video contact with agents of Mossad. According to another report in the local "Tasnim" newspaper, the same agents planned to kidnap members of the Iranian security forces in order to extract information from them. It is also claimed that the agents received money from Israel and Mossad for the tasks they executed on their behalf.
