Hezbollah leader says Israel’s pager attacks amounted to ‘declaration of war’
by Brad Dress - 09/19/24 11:43 AM ET
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Thursday that Israel’s deadly pager and hand-held radio attacks that targeted his fighters across Lebanon amounted to a “declaration of war,” calling it a “major aggression” against his people.
In a highly anticipated speech, Nasrallah said this week’s attacks were a genocide and a war crime against Lebanon in addition to a declaration of war.
“You can call it anything, and it deserves to be called anything,” he said, adding later that “some people might go further and say that this was an introduction, and hours later, there will be a large scale, major military operation. This is up for debate.”
As Nasrallah was speaking, Israeli fighter jets struck southern Lebanon in a new strike, the Israeli military said in a statement.
Israel has not publicly commented on the pager and hand-held radio explosions, which killed more than 30 people and wounded thousands of others Tuesday and Wednesday in Lebanon, but reports indicate Israeli officials were behind the attacks.
Hezbollah, which has been using low-tech devices like pagers to avoid Israeli surveillance and tracking, suffered one of its most serious security blows in the round of explosions that burned up homes, cars and buildings across Lebanon. It pointed to the Israeli penetration of a supply chain for the devices, which appeared to be laced with explosives and activated remotely.
Nasrallah said Thursday that Hezbollah “received a heavy, painful blow” from the targeted attacks this week but blamed it on superior technology and intelligence from Israel because it has the backing of the U.S. and the Western security alliance NATO.
Israel exchanges strikes with Hezbollah following waves of exploding electronic devices in Lebanon
"The IDF will continue to operate against the threat of the Hezbollah terrorist organization in order to defend the State of Israel."
In the wake of this week’s exploding pager and walkie-talkie attacks, Israel and Hezbollah intensified their border war on Sept. 19, stopping short of a total ground war.
Israeli jets and artillery hit multiple targets in southern Lebanon during the night, while Hezbollah fired a new barrage into northern Israel on Thursday.
The Israel Defense Force (IDF) reported hitting Hezbollah targets in six Lebanese towns, as well as a Hezbollah weapons storage facility near Khiam. Lebanese security sources said there were dozens of strikes across south Lebanon in some of the most intense bombings since the Oct. 7, 2023, war began.
Israeli media reported that Hezbollah anti-tank missiles wounded a number of civilians, but there was no official confirmation. One reportedly hit a vehicle, injuring several people who were treated at a Haifa hospital.
Hezbollah fired around 20 projectiles into Israel’s north, plus another 10 at its Mount Hermon base in the Golan Heights, which has espionage, surveillance, and air defense installations.
On Tuesday, as Hezbollah members attempted to use their pagers, they exploded, killing nine and wounding more than 2,800.
Stockard on the Stump: Governor’s private-school vouchers already struggling for votes
Lee’s ethics questions to be answered in December; Ragan reaches end of road
Sam Stockard September 20, 2024 5:02 am
Gov. Bill Lee hasn’t even presented a new education voucher bill for 2025, and its prospects are dimming already, especially if it seeks money for all students to attend private schools.
Street talk hasn’t been kind to to the governor’s obsession with school vouchers the last two months. Echoing that sentiment, state Rep. Rick Eldridge told the Lookout this week he’s heard East Tennessee commentators discuss the issue and notes, “They don’t see it.”
Rural Republicans, especially, are feeling the heat from school boards and administrators. Many lawmakers, when asked about it, hem and haw, saying they don’t know what will happen.
“I don’t personally have an issue with it, but I want to see what the bill looks like and what it is actually going to do,” says Eldridge, a Morristown Republican. “But a lot of people don’t think that the votes are there.”
One of the biggest sticking points is Lee’s push for a “universal” scholarship — if it remains in the new version — after the governor wanted passage of a bill last session that in the second year would have offered $7,000 for every student in the state to enroll in private schools, a proposition likely to cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
Lee sustained a crushing political loss in the session as the private-school voucher bill died, even though backers such as Americans for Prosperity and the American Federation for Children spent $1.125 million lobbying lawmakers. Despite the setback, Lee then took the unusual step of endorsing pro-voucher candidates in this summer’s Republican primaries but made only minimal headway — if any — even as secretive groups, including the School Freedom Fund, spent more than $4.5 million manipulating voters and squashing candidates.
Lee says he will continue to work on “school choice” in every county, even though competing proposals from the House, Senate and governor couldn’t find enough support from either chamber this year.
Passing it could prove even more difficult than it did in the 2024 session.
The Senate is losing Bristol Republican Jon Lundberg, who carried the fight for Lee, in favor of Bobby Harshbarger, who hasn’t made clear his stance on the matter. Then again, outgoing Republican Frank Niceley of Strawberry Plains lost his seat, in part because he opposed vouchers. He thinks he might have gotten sideways with the governor, too, over a farm bill and started cleaning out his Senate office this week.
Asked what he’s going to do with all of his memorabilia — besides the nice paintings on the wall — Niceley quips that nobody wants it, so he might use the stuff for target practice in the backyard.
Republican Sen. Brent Taylor Memphis, a 2004 congressional candidate, is among those who doesn’t shy away from saying he supports the governor’s proposal, noting he sent his children to private schools, instead of Memphis schools, and it helped them excel.
Congressional Report: Over 85% of Migrants Arriving at Southern Border Released into U.S. as Biden-Harris Slash Detention Space
John Binder19 Sep 2024
More than 85 percent of migrants arriving at the United States-Mexico border are released into the U.S. interior, a report from the House Homeland Security Committee details. At the same time, the report accuses President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris of seeking to slash federal detention space.
The report — which breaks down how Biden and Harris have welcomed nearly eight million migrants to the U.S. since early 2021 — suggests that while Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has mass released migrants into American communities, the agency has simultaneously cut detention space.
‘MAGA,’ Crosses, prayer not allowed; burning pregnancy center A-OK?
By Eric Utter September 20, 2024
As many of you who live here know, this used to be America. Now? Not so much. America’s precipitous moral decline started about the time “Google it” became a common phrase. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not.
In any case, in recent years, one can get kicked out of school for wearing a hat stating “Make America Great Again.” That seems painfully ironic. But it is not just America that has gone mad. Much of the Western world has, too. Case in point: a Serbian judo champion named Nemanja Majdov was recently suspended for five months by the International Judo Federation (IJF)…for making the sign of the cross while taking part in this year’s Paris Olympic Games. The organization apparently has a rule against an athlete making “a clear religious sign when entering the field of play.”
But back to what used to be America. According to a report in the Washington Examiner, 75-year-old Paulette Harlow was recently sentenced—by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly—to two years in prison for praying outside of a Washington, D.C. abortion clinic four years ago. Praying?! Just another vicious Christian terrorist! She’s lucky she didn’t get life in prison! Well, actually, maybe she did. But she deserves it, and she’s probably a “nationalist,” too! Praying?! Praying?! The nerve! I mean, the “free speech” thing can only go so far, right?! Surely it doesn’t protect praying, silently or otherwise!
Conversely, the Minnesota Abortion Action Committee (MNAAC) is selling hoodies and t-shirts adorned with the words “The Christian Right Is Wrong” and sporting a picture of a burning building labeled “Anti-Abortion Center.” The burning building appears to be a First Care pregnancy clinic, a Minnesota-based clinic that provides free support to pregnant mothers. But then again, it’s Minneapolis, so it could be any one of many burning buildings. I’m sure they’re selling like hotcakes. I’d bet money that Tampon Timmy Walz’s wife Gwen owns a couple of them.
Publicly acknowledging one’s desire to see America made great again is unacceptable in some parts of the fruited plain nowadays. Making the sign of the cross or praying in the vicinity of an abortion mill might get you suspended or arrested.
Selling anti-Christian apparel depicting burning pregnancy centers—to raise money to support killing babies in the womb? No problem! That is protected.
In fact, I bet the MNAAC could sell the m just outside the entrance to the First Care pregnancy clinic.
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