![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")
Five hundred rivets—that was Oskar Jakob’s goal. Failure to meet the quota in a 12-hour shift meant severe punishment.
“If I didn’t make the minimum, I got beaten,” he said.
Jakob, 94, is a Jewish resident of St. Louis and a Holocaust survivor. In 1945, he was a prisoner at the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp. He was 14 years old and forced to work in a German munitions plant, making rivets used to build the V-1 flying bomb.
Jakob has shared his story previously, but on Thursday, May 16, he will sit alongside the granddaughter of one of the designers of the V-1 bomb and discuss their shared history. The event at the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum is a rare conversation between a Holocaust survivor and a descendant of a Nazi scientist. It’s also an opportunity for forgiveness, understanding and hope.
The ‘Doodle Bug’
The V-1 (Vengeance Weapon One) was the world’s first cruise missile. It was powered by a single, noisy jet engine. Allied forces nicknamed it the “Doodle Bug.” From June 1944 to March 1945, Germany launched 20,000 V-1s at British targets.
Robert Lusser was one of the German engineers who helped design the V-1. In 1937, Lusser became a university professor. In return for the appointment, he had to join the Nazi Party. He was a brilliant aeronautical engineer. After World War II, he was brought to the United States, where he worked for the Navy and Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Searching for answers
Suzanne Rico is an actress and journalist. On the HBO series “True Blood,” she played a fictionalized version of herself as a TV anchor. Offscreen, Rico is inquisitive and intent on finding answers. For years, she tried to learn more about Robert Lusser, but her mother would only volunteer that he “was a genius.” That didn’t satisfy her curiosity.
“As I got deeper, I discovered the connection to the Holocaust, which was that my grandfather’s bombs were made in this underground concentration camp at Mittelbau-Dora,” said Rico. “There was an incredible, painful realization of the cost, and the concentration camp prisoners who had died by the thousands making these bombs.
“I felt it was important to have a dialogue between me and someone who had been there,” she said. “Nobody wanted to put me—the granddaughter of the creator of the V1 flying bomb—together with a Holocaust survivor and somebody who had been at Mittelbau-Dora.”
The apology
After three years of searching, Rico learned of Oskar Jakob. A trip to St. Louis was arranged and they met face to face. At first, Jakob was dubious about her motives. When he was convinced she was sincere, he didn’t know how much intelligence he had to offer.
“I was trying to figure out why was she doing this because I really couldn’t give her as much information as she would have liked,” Jakob said. “In the tunnels where we were working, there was all kind of Nazi officers going back and forth and checking. It was a big, big tunnel complex. Nazis and SS officers were all over, and we were not even allowed to look in their faces. When they talked to us, we had to look down on the ground.”
Making rivets for the V-1 flying rocket was exhausting and tedious work. Jakob and the other slave labor workers weren’t fed and the little available water was contaminated. Eventually, he was moved to a concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen. That’s where he was imprisoned when British tanks arrived on April 15, 1945, announcing their liberation.
After learning of her grandfather’s past, Suzanne Rico felt the need to make amends. When she met Jakob, besides gathering information about Mittlebau-Dora, she also wanted to express her sentiments.
“The main thing is that she’s sincere in the things that she’s doing,” Jakob said. “No Germans have ever said, ‘I‘m sorry what happened to your family.’ But she did.”
Never forget
Suzanne Rico said she wants to help create awareness of the horrors of the Holocaust and help more people learn the dangers of hate. That’s why she was eager to participate in the “Conversation Builds Character” event in St. Louis.
“I think this is a way to bring the issues front and center again, and maybe actually make people think,” she said. “Everything that I can do to bring awareness up and get people to think is my way of redemption, right? I can’t redeem my grandfather because he’s dead, but maybe his redemption can be found in me.”
She hopes that the audience members who attend her conversation with Oskar Jakob will walk away with a deeper understanding of why it’s important to capture stories of Holocaust survivors. She also believes that her crossing paths with Jakob was meant to be.
“It almost felt like it was Divine, because the way that Oskar and I connected, the memories he shared and the memories I shared, it flowed, it felt right,” she said. “At the end of that conversation, what happened for me was that all of a sudden, the Holocaust was more than just a story in history to me. All of a sudden, it was personal. And Oskar did that for me, and it’s opened my eyes. What a gift that we can sit down and have a rational, emotional, connective conversation about this era in history that was probably the most destructive the world has ever seen.”
This story originally appeared in the St. Louis Jewish Light.