![Israel must continue to be able to deter Hezbollah, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar stressed on Wednesday, speaking amid efforts to reach a ceasefire with Iran's Lebanese terrorist proxy. "We need to keep the freedom to act if there will be violations. And we will have to act in time, before the problem will grow," the minister told a gathering of nearly 100 foreign ambassadors in Jerusalem, the Times of Israel reported. A deal to end more than a year of fighting on the northern border must be durable, Sa'ar said, saying Jerusalem “would like to reach an agreement that will stand the test of time." He added that a ceasefire would be an "opportunity" for Lebanon to regain its sovereignty after the Israeli military severely degraded the Iranian-backed group in recent months. He called for the Lebanese Armed Forces to be strengthened and urged the international community to invest more in the economically devastated country, which is drowning in debt following years of mismanagement and corruption. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz also emphasized on Wednesday the necessity for Jerusalem to be able to act against any Hezbollah threats that may arise after a ceasefire deal is implemented. “The condition for any political settlement in Lebanon is the preservation of the intelligence capability and the preservation of the [IDF’s] right to act and protect the citizens of Israel from Hezbollah,” Katz said. Meanwhile, U.S. special envoy Amos Hochstein remained in Beirut for a second day on Wednesday to discuss "technical details" of an American ceasefire proposal with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who heads the Hezbollah-allied Amal movement. President Joe Biden's point man in the Land of the Cedars announced he would travel to Israel on Wednesday night, speaking after he made "additional progress" in a second meeting with Berri. Hochstein was scheduled to meet with Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer shortly after his arrival, followed by a tête-à-tête with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the following day. “The meeting today built on the meeting yesterday, and made additional progress,” Hochstein said. “So I will travel from here in a couple hours to Israel to try to bring this to a close if we can.” The Biden envoy added that he will work with the incoming Trump administration on ceasefire efforts, saying that he has kept the president-elect's transition team informed of progress. Hochstein described as "very productive" his meetings with Lebanese officials on Tuesday. “We have a real opportunity to end the conflict, and now is the moment to decide. We are committed to doing everything we can to work with Lebanon and Israel to end this conflict,” Hochstein said at a press conference on Tuesday. Hochstein also met on Tuesday with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, and he was scheduled to meet with Lebanese Armed Forces commander Gen. Joseph Aoun. Mikati emphasized that Lebanon’s primary objectives are achieving a ceasefire and safeguarding its sovereignty. He highlighted the need to implement international resolutions and bolster the Lebanese Armed Forces in the southern part of the country. Lebanon delivered its written response to the latest U.S. proposal on Monday. According to Ali Hassan Khalil, an aide to Berri, the response included “comments” that were “presented in a positive atmosphere.” He did not provide details on the nature of the comments, saying only that they “affirm the precise adherence to [U.N. Security Council] Resolution 1701 with all its provisions,” according to Reuters. Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem said in a speech on Wednesday that the terrorist group had "read the ceasefire proposal. "We have our comments, and Nabih Berri has comments, and ours and the Lebanese government's comments are, Inshallah ['God willing'], identical," Qassem said. "We have decided not to discuss these ceasefire proposals or our comments in the media. All I will say is that Israeli is trying to obtain through negotiations what it couldn't through war." The terrorist leader vowed to “continue our efforts on the ground, whether the negotiations succeed or not. “We are confronting a savage enemy, and we will remain on the ground, no matter the cost, as we will also increase the cost for the enemy. We are facing Israeli human monsters supported by American human monsters,” threatened Qassem. Disarm and retreat Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War, stipulated that Hezbollah must disarm and retreat north of the Litani River, but was never enforced. The Litani lies some 20 miles from the Israel-Lebanon border. Its enforcement, along with Israeli freedom of operation in Lebanon should Hezbollah violate the terms of a ceasefire agreement, are the key sticking points in the current negotiations. Netanyahu emphasized during a speech in the Knesset plenum on Monday that Israel will not allow Hezbollah to “return to the state it was in on Oct. 6, 2023. “We will be required, in order to ensure our security in the north, to systematically carry out operations—not only against Hezbollah’s attacks, which could come. Even if there is a ceasefire, nobody can guarantee it will hold. So it’s not only our reaction, a preventive reaction, a reaction in the wake of attack but also the capacity to prevent Hezbollah from strengthening,” he said. Hezbollah has launched some 16,000 rockets, missiles and drones from Lebanon at Israel since joining the war in support of Hamas on Oct. 8, 2023, a day after the Gaza-based terrorist group’s massacre in southern Israel. More than 60,000 residents of northern Israel remain internally displaced due to the ongoing rocket and drone attacks from Lebanon. Seventy-six people in northern Israel have been killed by Hezbollah cross-border rocket, missile and drone attacks since the start of the war, including 31 soldiers and six foreign citizens, according to the latest data provided by the Prime Minister’s Office, updated on Sunday. In addition, 729 people have been wounded, including 497 civilians and 232 soldiers. Of these, 29 civilians and 37 soldiers were severely injured; 63 civilians and 38 soldiers were moderately injured and 405 civilians and 157 soldiers were lightly injured. Hezbollah’s leadership has been left in tatters following a series of targeted killings by Israel, including that of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut on Sept. 27. This was preceded by Israeli sabotage of Hezbollah communication devices that killed 39 people and wounded more than 3,400 members of the terrorist group. Israel has been waging a devastating aerial campaign against Hezbollah throughout Lebanon, including its stronghold of Dahieh south of Beirut. According to Israeli estimates, the terrorist group has lost most of its arsenal to the ongoing strikes. Then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in late October that Hezbollah had lost an estimated 80%-plus of its long-range rockets since the start of the war. Israel also continues to battle Hamas terrorists in Gaza. The terrorist group still holds 101 hostages in the Strip, 97 of whom were kidnapped on Oct. 7. Many of the captives are believed to be dead. Brazil summit Meanwhile, G20 leaders gathered in Rio de Janeiro for a summit put out a joint statement on Monday calling for “comprehensive” ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon. The leaders of the world’s biggest economies called for U.S. proposals to end fighting in Gaza and free the hostages, and one for Lebanon “that enables citizens to return safely to their homes on both sides of the Blue Line.” The 13-point U.S. proposal presented to Lebanese officials on Nov. 14 includes a 60-day truce, during which Lebanon would redeploy its troops along the border. The proposal also calls for Moscow to prevent Hezbollah from resupplying itself via Syrian land routes. Hezbollah would retreat north of the Litani River, with the border area then being under control of the Lebanese Armed Forces, overseen by the United States and Britain. Israeli officials are emphasizing, however, that the Israel Defense Forces must retain freedom of operation in Lebanon to thwart attempts by Hezbollah to violate the agreement and rearm and reestablish itself. A senior Israeli diplomatic official told Israel Hayom on Saturday that the IDF will retain operational freedom to respond to any security threats from across the northern border, regardless of any diplomatic arrangements. However, a source close to Hezbollah told The Washington Post that the group’s “condition for progress remains clear: Israel must be prohibited from conducting operations within Lebanese territory.” Berri emphasized at the time that any ceasefire agreement must not include the ability for Israel to attack by land, sea or air, Channel 12 reported. “Otherwise, what’s the purpose of an agreement?” he remarked. Another sticking point is Lebanon’s objection to the United Kingdom and Germany monitoring the implementation of U.N. Resolution 1701. Beirut reportedly favors the United States and France. If the ceasefire efforts fail, there are plans in the works to expand ground operations in Lebanon, an Israeli military official told the Post. Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer discussed the proposal with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump during a visit to his Florida estate earlier this month, as well as with senior Biden administration officials in Washington. Dermer also traveled to Russia to discuss the ceasefire proposal. Tehran is telling its Lebanese terrorist proxy Hezbollah that it supports ending the war against Israel, The New York Times reported over the weekend. Ali Larijani, senior adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, met with senior Lebanese officials in Beirut on Nov. 15 to discuss the matter. Two Iranians affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps told the Times that Larijani conveyed messages to Hezbollah from Khamenei that he supported the end of the war and that the regime would assist with rebuilding the terrorist group’s forces and recovering from the war.](https://jewishwebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Gideon-Saar-1320x880-2-218x150.jpg "Sa’ar: Israel must be free to act against Hezbollah truce violations")
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris sent strong signals to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week on what to expect from a relationship should she succeed U.S. President Joe Biden in the Oval Office.
Netanyahu touched down in the United States on Monday with little fanfare. Neither Biden nor Harris, not even U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken—America’s top diplomat—came to greet him upon his arrival at Andrews Air Force Base, unlike the overwhelming welcome that Biden received twice when he came to Israel for diplomatic reasons in July 2022 and October 2023.
For the first time in her term as vice president, Harris opted not to preside over the joint session on July 24 when Netanyahu addressed Congress, claiming to have a pre-planned campaign stop that would keep her out of town.
Meanwhile, several other Democratic lawmakers intentionally boycotted the address.
Harris did have a one-on-one sit-down with the prime minister on Thursday shortly after his afternoon meeting with Biden. It was an opportunity for Harris to interact with one of the most experienced and consequential leaders of the free world with the rest of the planet watching, including American voters.
Neither Harris nor Netanyahu made comments at a pre-meeting photo opportunity. Shortly after the meeting, and after Netanyahu had already left the White House, Harris addressed the media with a prepared statement.
She called her meeting with Netanyahu “frank and constructive.”
In a press statement following her meeting with Netanyahu, Harris said “we cannot look away in the face of these tragedies” in Gaza … “we cannot look away from the suffering.”
And she insisted, “I will not be silent.”
It was her first major diplomatic meeting since Biden announced his intention not to seek re-election and threw his support for the democratic nomination to his deputy.
She established that as current vice president and former California senator, she has had “an unwavering commitment to the existence of the State of Israel, to its security and to the people of Israel,” and pledged that the US “will always ensure that Israel is able to defend itself, including from Iran and Iran backed militias such as Hamas and Hezbollah.”
She also stated that Hamas is a “brutal terrorist organization,” reciting a litany of the atrocities Hamas committed in Israel on Oct. 7, including taking American hostages, whom she listed by name. And she added that “President Biden and I are working every day to bring them home.”
‘It is time to get this deal done’
But Harris also used a phrase oft-repeated by Blinken that while Israel has a right to defend itself, “how it does so matters.”
She pivoted to express her “serious concern about the scale of human suffering in Gaza, including the death of far too many innocent civilians.” Calling what has “happened in Gaza over the last nine months devastating,” Harris expressed concerns about “the dire humanitarian situation there” and “catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity.”
“We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering, and I will not be silent,” she pledged.
Harris discussed a two-phased ceasefire agreement, only within the terms of Israeli military withdrawals—first from Gazan population centers and then “from Gaza entirely.”
“I just told Prime Minister Netanyahu, it is time to get this deal done,” Harris said.
Harris made no demands on Hamas, and from her remarks, it was clear by stunning omission that removing the terrorist group from power was not among her goals or priorities.
And while Harris mentioned some of the talking points she delivered to Netanyahu, she did not comment on anything that he told her.
Israeli officials said following the tête-à-tête that the delegation was uncomfortable with the “tone” of Harris’s press statement and worried that her remarks might demonstrate to Hamas and the world that the United States and Israel are not completely aligned in their policies.
On condition of anonymity, a senior Israeli official told reporters following the meeting that “the more our enemies see the complete alignment of positions between Israel and the U.S., the more we increase the chance of securing the release of hostages and decrease the chances of a larger regional war. The more the gap widens, the greater the possibility of a broader conflict.”
Officials worried that Harris’s calls for Israel to “end the war” could lead to a breakdown in the negotiations, as they provide an incentive for Hamas to harden its demands, making a swift deal less likely.
The officials also pushed back on her comments regarding a “dire humanitarian crisis” and “acute food shortage.” The officials noted that detailed evidence had been presented that there was no lack of food for Palestinians in Gaza.
On provisions for Palestinians, sanctions on settlers
During his speech to Congress, Netanyahu detailed Israeli efforts to bring humanitarian aid into the Strip, stating that “Israel has enabled more than 40,000 aid trucks to enter Gaza. That’s half a million tons of food, and that’s more than 3,000 calories for every man, woman and child in Gaza. If there are Palestinians in Gaza who aren’t getting enough food, it’s not because Israel is blocking it, it’s because Hamas is stealing it.”
Officials said often when they arrest terrorists, they find that not only aren’t they starving, “it’s the complete opposite.”
Officials also noted that Harris’s tone was not indicative of the broader Israel-U.S. relationship and speculated that ties with the current administration would not break down with Harris assuming a larger role over the next several months.
Commenting on Netanyahu’s meeting with Biden, which included Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, officials were told that Washington intends to continue sanctioning what they consider “extremist and violent settlers” in Judea and Samaria, in addition to protesters who have attempted to block humanitarian aid from entering the Gaza Strip.
Officials pushed back, saying that there is no comparison between the number of terror attacks committed against Jewish residents by Palestinian jihadis and counter-attacks by Jews. They noted that the ratio of terror attacks to counterattacks is at least 50-1.
American officials also told the Israeli delegation that large 2,000-pound munitions still would not be delivered. The issues of sanctions against Israelis and delivery of weapons were two that Israel hoped to resolve during their meetings.
Despite not getting everything hoped for, one senior official privately told JNS that he was satisfied with how the meetings had gone and how the congressional address was received. The official noted not being blindsided by anything heard from the Americans, saying: “We basically got exactly what we expected.”
Another official said that generally, Israel and the United States are “on a path of cooperation and closing gaps,” while at the same time expressing “that is why Harris’s press conference was so problematic.”