![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")
“The background is still unclear.”
That was the refrain that German broadcasters repeated throughout Yom Kippur on Oct. 9 as news of the attempted attack on the Halle synagogue that killed two bystanders came to light. The options were obvious: either extremist Muslims or extremist right-wingers.
German media treaded lightly until the perpetrator was confirmed: a neo-Nazi, with suspect Stephan Balliet, 27, going so far as to brazenly document his attack and its planning. The style and rhetoric were similar to the shootings at the Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Synagogue in Pittsburgh and Chabad of Poway in Southern California in the United States, which raised the alarm to the growing prominence of right-wing hate groups in America.
Outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel of the Christian Democrats (CDU), who lost political ground to the right since her decision to welcome more than a million Muslim refugees and migrants since 2015, made a generic, televised statement: “We must use all the means of the rule of law to combat hatred, violence and enemies of mankind. There can be no tolerance whatsoever.”
The rise of the violent right
At a press conference the next day, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer claimed, remorsefully, that the “anti-Semitic threat from the extremist right and right-wing terror is very high in Germany.”
The German Jewish community criticized the country’s negligent security and surveillance systems. The synagogue was not given police protection during the holiday; it was the heavy, bolted door that kept the gunman out and protected the 80 or so worshippers inside.
Erstes 1, Germany’s largest public broadcaster, dedicated coverage to right-wing extremism, highlighting its social media hang-outs and recent history of attacks against Jews and foreigners alike.
Some analysts and activists, however, question German political sincerity when reactions seem to differ depending on the anti-Semitic source.
“Obviously, the terrorist was a native German, and this made it very easy for politicians to condemn the attack as right-wing and anti-Semitic, and to make nice, moving comments about solidarity with the Jewish community,” said Andreas Boldt, a German pro-Israel activist who founded the 38,000 member-strong “German-Israel Friendship” Facebook page, which saw a spike in likes since the attack. “However, for me, these are empty words. A lie. A bluff. Very dishonest behavior. Why? Germany regularly condemns Israel along with Islamic dictatorships in the United Nations.”
“The time of abstract confessions against anti-Semitism is over.”
Germany came under fire from the Jewish community and Israeli politicians when it voted down a motion in the Bundestag to change anti-Israel voting patterns in the United Nations. It has also been widely criticized by Jewish leaders, as well as the Trump administration for refusing to outlaw the political arm of Hezbollah that claims more than 1,000 operatives in Germany.
“The alleged neo-Nazi suspect arrested on Tuesday shared a global anti-Semitic worldview of a ‘Zionist Occupied Government’ theory,” stated Benjamin Weinthal, fellow for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and an analyst of German politics. “The interconnections of modern anti-Semitism among Islamists, the far-left and the far-right are patently obvious, and Merkel offers no program of action to blunt the rise of this highly dangerous form of Jew-hatred.
“What can be done? Merkel can, with the swipe of a pen before next week, ban Hezbollah and the Palestinian terrorist entity Popular Front for the Liberation for Palestine in Germany.”
Weinthal regularly highlights the German political disconnect between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, most recently illustrated with Merkel’s downplaying Iran’s call to wipe Israel off the map as “anti-Israel” rhetoric as opposed to blatant anti-Semitism.
The Merkel government vs. the AfD
Anti-Semitism is often utilized by German political groups to make jabs at each other, particularly between the governing coalition and its arch-enemy in the domestic political sphere: the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD), which made significant gains in regional elections in former East Germany, where the Halle attack occurred, easing a connection between AfD and the attack.
SPD parliament member, Karl Lauterbach, as just one example, tweeted: “It’s the hate spread by the AfD that gave the far right a voice. This hate speech legitimized individual perpetrators to commit such acts of cruelty. These criminals want to do the AfD’s bidding. The AfD carries a large share of the blame for this attack.”
The AfD quickly tried to deflect such accusations, with party leaders condemning the attack with its own political twist: “Jewish life belongs to Germany. We must defend it against the attacks of neo-Nazis, left-wing extremists and Islamists!” declared party leader Beatrix von Storch in a statement.
Von Storch was a mastermind behind a motion in the Bundestag to ban Hezbollah that was rejected in large part because of the messenger, which was accused of instrumentalizing Jews to bash Muslims.
Vice president of the Jews in the AfD faction, Artur Abramovych, conceded that had the attack been motivated by Islam, the AfD would have likewise used it to castigate Merkel’s seeming Islamic appeasement. A popular AfD refrain is: “Islam does not belong to Germany.”
“But at least the AfD isn’t ignoring the far-right anti-Semitism,” he said. “There were many statements today and already yesterday, while the mainstream is trying to ignore the Islamist and leftist anti-Semitism.”
As case in point: Merkel issued no statement after an attempted knife attack by a Syrian refugee at the central New Synagogue in Berlin days before Yom Kippur. The perpetrator was let go by authorities the next day, much to the anger of Boldt and other pro-Jewish activists.
“When a Muslim attacks a synagogue, they will release him a few days after as if nothing happened, and nobody comes out in solidarity. They even try to understand him and try to explain why he did it,” said Boldt.
For example, a German court ruled that a 2014 firebombing of a Wuppertal synagogue by Palestinians was not anti-Semitic, but a protest against Israeli policies.
“It is incomprehensible how someone who tries to penetrate a synagogue with a knife can be free again after less than 24 hours, as was the case last weekend in Berlin,” acting director of AJC Berlin, Dr. Remko Leemhuis, said in a press release on the Halle attack, concluding: “The time of abstract confessions against anti-Semitism is over. Anyone who wants to do something against Jewish hatred must above all begin by relentlessly naming it from every direction and in every shade, and not always picking out the group of perpetrators that fits into their own political agenda.”