GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War – Day 369

They’re Not Going Away

They Talk

After a week of silence, Biden and Netanyahu talk as we learn from an article in The Jerusalem Post:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with US President Joe Biden on Wednesday about the IDF’s pending retaliatory strike on Iran amid tensions between the two leaders.

The call, which lasted about 45 minutes, marks the first time Netanyahu and Biden have spoken since August. Vice President Kamala Harris, who is also the Democratic contender for the presidency, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken were on the call.

The White House press secretary tells us about the call:

“The two leaders were able to have a productive straight forward honest conversation,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters in Washington.

She confirmed that the two men had discussed Iran but refrained from any further details.

“They continued that discussion about how they're how Israel is going to respond to Iran's attack from last week and a bunch of other things that are incredibly important to both leaders,” Jean-Pierre said.

She then asserted what Biden has said repeatedly that the US has Israel’s back:

She recalled that the US military had helped defend Israel against Iran’s ballistic missile attacks, stressing that, “our commitment to Israel’s security continues to be ironclad.”

We get more details on the call between the two world leaders from an article from The Times Of Israel:

The phone call earlier this evening between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden was conducted “in a positive atmosphere,” says Channel 12 news, citing an Israeli official.

The discussion focused on Israel’s response to the Iranian attack, says the outlet.

In addition, Biden urged Netanyahu to plan for the “day after” the ground operations in Lebanon.

So far, neither the White House nor the Prime Minister’s Office has issued a readout of the phone call, the first between the leaders since late August.

These updates on the call, if true suggest that yet again, the US wants to be seen as the wise father to Israel as the rebellious child who acts before they think. It is insulting and demeaning to suggest that Israel isn’t planning ahead for both eliminating Hamas and Hezbollah. Fortunately, Netanyahu has been leading Israel longer than any other Prime Minister and knows how to handle such advice.

Hezbollah Is Still Active

Although their leadership is in tatters and a large majority of their rocket launchers have been taken out, Hezbollah is attacking Israel more and more as we are told in a report from The Times Of Israel:

Two people were killed in a rocket attack on the border town of Kiryat Shmona Wednesday, as Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel and military forces aimed heavy air and ground fire at the Lebanese terror group.

Israel has avoided losing lives since their attacks on Hezbollah intensified recently until now:

The pair of fatalities, which marked the first deadly attack on civilians since fighting between Israel and Lebanon intensified late last month, came on a day that also saw five people injured in a large rocket barrage on Haifa.

The IDF continues to work in southern Lebanon as troops carry out close quarter strikes:

In southern Lebanon, Israeli troops continued to carry out raids, engaging in close combat with Hezbollah forces and carrying out strikes from the air, including against operatives who killed an officer last week, the Israel Defense Forces said. Three soldiers were seriously injured in fighting over the past day, according to the IDF.

The terrorists from the north said they were the ones attacking and we get more details on just how many attacks they performed today:

Hezbollah took responsibility for the strikes Wednesday, including a volley on Kiryat Shmona early Wednesday afternoon that it claimed had targeted “enemy forces” mustering outside the Galilee Panhandle city.

According to the IDF, some 20 projectiles were fired at the Kiryat Shmona area from Lebanon in the attack, with an unspecified number impacting inside Israel.

At least 40 more rockets were fired at Haifa from Lebanon early Wednesday afternoon, the IDF said, and rockets also rained on other cities across the Galilee, including Safed, which appeared to come under major attack before 5 p.m.

At least one rocket impacted in the Haifa suburb of Kiryat Bialik, causing power outages in the city.

The report then summarized the battle against Hezbollah overall:

Hezbollah has lobbed over 3,000 rockets at Israel’s north — and in some cases beyond — since Israel launched an offensive on September 23 aimed at removing the terror group from southern Lebanon following a year of near-daily cross border attacks. Israel says it is seeking to make it safe for some 60,000 people displaced by the Hezbollah attacks since October 2023 to return home, including by eliminating the threat of a Hamas-style cross-border rampage it alleges Hezbollah had planned to unleash on northern towns.

The IDF also summarized recent fighting in the north:

The Israeli military said it has dismantled Hezbollah infrastructure along the border and killed hundreds of Hezbollah fighters. It has also carried out airstrikes deeper inside Lebanon, including an attack on a coastal town near Sidon that Lebanon said killed four people Wednesday. It did not say if the four were civilians or combatants.

All in all, Israel is fighting on no less than 7 war fronts and is doing so effectively so far. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem as I see the attacks increasing in the coming days and even exploding when Israel attacks Iran. All the proxies are prepping for that time and will certainly open fire from all sides even from Gaza and the West Bank and even from Jordan, Iraq , and Syria. It’s not the kind of fireworks we want, but we pray that it’s the kind that ends the war.