![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")
JNS publishes a weekly listing of antisemitic incidents recorded and found by Jewish, pro-Jewish and pro-Israel organizations; national and international news; and social media. By the Anti-Defamation League’s count, an average of seven instances of varying measure occur daily in the United States. (Dates refer to when the news was reported, not when the events took place.) Also included are news items detailing efforts to combat antisemitism and research anti-Jewish bigotry.
Aug. 19
Two unknown persons, a man and a woman riding a Citi Bike, struck two Jews on their heads, a man and a woman each wearing traditional religious clothing a half-block apart, in Brooklyn’s Chassidic Williamsburg neighborhood. Neither required medical attention, and police have released three images of the suspects. In Blooming Grove, N.Y., a yard sign proclaiming “No Jew Get Out” has inspired outrage from state officials. Also in Brooklyn, Maritza Ming, the district attorney aide accused of antisemitic remarks (see Aug. 3), has reportedly not appeared in the office since news of the claims against her broke. On his GZERO World podcast, political scientist Ian Bremmer interviewed Noa Tishby about the global rise in antisemitism.
Aug. 20
In France near Paris, authorities apprehended a man accused of antisemitic vandalism on a kosher restaurant. A leading Australian Jewish group and a police union have come together to warn that proposed federal government bans on the swastika (see Aug. 16) will fail since neo-Nazis can find loopholes to circumvent the too-narrow laws.
Aug. 21
Abdelhamid Youness, the co-founder of the Islamist-influence operation the Muslim Public Affairs Council, died; the antisemitic organization he helped create lauded him as “a visionary leader and tireless advocate.” Last weekend in Marietta, Ga., residents found antisemitic fliers in distributed their neighborhood. In Newport News, Va., five homes featuring yard signs supporting the state senate candidate Danny Diggs received swastikas painted on the street in front of them. Diggs is not Jewish. In Germany’s capital of Berlin, a drunken man hit a Jew in the neck and said an antisemitic insult.
Aug. 22
New research shows that antisemitic incidents in Berlin for the first half of 2023 remain high, at the same rates as the last two years, accounting for a third of the country’s total. In Round Lake Beach, Ill., David M. Dolan, 18, and Anthony P. Shields, 19, face multiple hate-crime charges for allegedly spray-painting swastikas and racial slurs on buildings. In Belmullet, Ireland, vandals painted a swastika on a doctor’s office, while in West Belfast, Northern Ireland, someone erected swastika flags near the Belfast Iqraa Mosque. Legislators in Finland are considering banning public displays of Nazi symbols. In Long Island, N.Y., police investigate swastikas discovered near a Holocaust memorial. The “Fresh & Fit” YouTube channel, which regularly offers misogynistic content to its 1.4 million subscribers, lost the ability to monetize videos shortly after featuring neo-Nazi podcaster Nick Fuentes in an episode where the young Holocaust-denier labeled women as “baby machines,” claiming “that’s what their brains are about.”
Aug. 23
In Manhattan, N.Y., someone scrawled antisemitic graffiti near Hebrew Union College. In San Diego, Calif. police released photos of a man who allegedly assaulted a rabbi. The award for tips leading to his arrest rose to $3,500 with StandWithUs increasing the original $1,000 with an added $2,500. Police arrested a Florida man, preventing his neo-Nazi-inspired terrorist plot to blow up Maryland’s power grid. In Virginia and Maryland, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) will host two 29th-anniversary banquets. The ADL released research documenting that the man arrested for allegedly murdering a woman in Cedar Glen, Calif., in a dispute over an LGBTQ flag also believed traditional Jewish-Masonic conspiracy theories and anti-Zionist narratives of Israel as an “apartheid” state. The Archdiocese of Toronto has organized a webinar to educate on the Holocaust and how to counter hate.
Aug. 24
In Canada, law enforcement suspects that recent distributions of antisemitic literature across the country have come from the neo-Nazi hate group Goyim Defense League. The province of Newfoundland and Labrador announced a $250,000 multi-year fund to fight antisemitism; at the same time, the Muslim Association of Canada plans to host the Qatar-based, Egyptian Sheikh Nashaat Ahmed, who has made antisemitic statements. Police have chosen to investigate the destruction of graves in a Jewish cemetery in Rochester, England, as a hate crime. In Maine, state officials have started to explore legal options to counter the neo-Nazi “Blood Tribe” hate group from developing a paramilitary organization. At the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, the school’s Jewish Center was vandalized with red and black “end apartheid” spray paint. New research revealed that Bostjan Zupancic, a former judge on the European Court of Human Rights, made antisemitic posts on social media, including calling Jews “the central enemies of Western civilization.”
Aug. 25
In Italy, a government official faces outrage as researchers uncovered that he recorded an antisemitic song while in a far-right rock band in the 1990s. In Finland, authorities arrested Yan Petrovsky, who led an explicitly neo-Nazi division of the Wagner Group, which the U.S. government described as a transnational criminal organization. Law enforcement apprehended a man who allegedly knocked over and damaged graves in a Jewish Cemetery in Rochester, England (see Aug. 24.) A Jewish man has confessed to committing the act of antisemitic graffiti outside the kosher restaurant in France (see Aug. 20), driven by a dispute over unpaid rent. Police arrested a teenage boy for allegedly vandalizing a playground in Long Island, N.Y., with a swastika. The Campaign Against Antisemitism successfully persuaded bookseller Waterstones to remove a “deluxe hardbound edition” of Hitler’s Mein Kampf.