US Special Envoy Amos Hochstein offered a “guarantee” over the weekend that Israel would fully withdraw from Lebanon by the 60-day ceasefire deadline. The official US maintains this is still the plan, and with just 10 days left in that ceasefire, Maj. Gen. Jasper Jeffers, the Chairman of the US-run body meant to oversee the ceasefire, claimed the pullout was “on a very positive path.”
The reality on the ground seems quite different, with the Lebanese National News Agency reporting that Israeli ground troops have conducted new incursions into multiple southern towns, including Taybeh and Maroun al-Ras.
Israel first invaded Taybeh two weeks ago, burning a number of civilian homes and then “withdrawing.” Today the troops and bulldozers returned, firing machine guns in multiple residential neighborhoods and bringing bulldozers in, ready to “carry out excavation work.”
In Maroun al-Ras, Israeli soldiers blew up a gate in front of a house, and fired machine guns into a number of homes. Israel has not commented officially on why or what these operations are for, but they plainly violate the ceasefire.
Major General Jeffers, overseer of the ceasefire’s status, has not commented on any of the hundreds of Israeli violations. Instead, he praised Israel for departing from a handful of villages, omitting the fact that Israel nearly destroyed them before leaving.
All this raises further questions about whether Israel will actually complete its withdrawal by the deadline. Israel has only fully withdrawn from two Lebanese villages according to current reports and still has troops in roughly 60 others. That’s after 50 days of ceasefire, and with just 10 days left, the odds of total withdrawal in such a short time aren’t good.
Analyst Randa Slim from Johns Hopkins Foreign Policy Institute was quoted as saying the “chances are high” that Israeli ground forces “will eventually withdraw.” This accords with many others who are predicting that Israel will ultimately insist it needs more time.
What will happen after January 26 is anyone’s guess. Hezbollah officials have been warning their patience won’t last if Israel remains after the deadline, and Israeli officials have been talking about ditching the ceasefire. As Israel has been violating the ceasefire multiple times daily, it’s not clear what abandoning the ceasefire would actually mean. The next 10 days will be tense, and Israeli offensives will probably not stop.
OFF TOPIC BUT CHECK THIS OUT; The head of the Israeli lobbying group the Anti-Defamation League was in Israel last week, where he appeared to call for using Israeli terrorist tactics to maim and murder “antisemites” who criticize Israel policy on the internet. “We need the kind of genius that manufactured Apollo Gold Pagers and infiltrated Hezbollah for over a decade to prepare for this battle,” Greenblatt said. Notice that he looks like a Nosferatu. Maybe AW should take note.
The only antisemites are the ones killing Palestinians.
I just could not finish listening to the well rehearsed over decades propaganda. How can people still fall for it with all the visible pictures coming out daily of slaughter and genocide. Gee, some of us did not believe in it in the Sixties and we had no internet 24/7 pictures, just some newspaper articles here and there who allowed a couple of real journalists to tell the truth.
Israel is on a roll with Wash.'s blessing to annex other countries territories for the greater Israel policy. Watch out the rest of the countries around Israel. See map here for what's going down as I type.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0b844874ae9456e62a61d70773e01556b149c044173f249fe87562a4d57cab43.png
The Grater Israel ambition would go to six feet under before the Life Cycle is over…!
Well, Huckabee – the US ambassador to Israel under Trump – is pushing for exactly that. He does not even call it Gaza or the West Bank any more, says it all belongs to Israel. In the meantime Trump is negotiating and already taking lots of praise for the "peace deal". Why did Lebanon agree to the peace deal knowing Israel would violate it and why is Hamas agreeing to it now, knowing Israel would violate it and then when Hamas retaliates will be blamed and a new war starts?
Both Lebanon and Hamas knew Israel would do this… However, they went ahead signing papers because all three needed, need, or in need of a break…!
Death and destruction are a very positive path to strong military men.
”It’s every man’s war that keeps us apart, with stalwart convictions and affairs of the heart!… To struggle for victory, until we are free! The day will soon come, when we’ll all be released!”….
Maybe Trump can send his people in. But the inauguration is on the 20th, so never mind.
Somewhere along the line Nutty Yahoo and his merry band of mass murderers will stick their hand into the wrong electrical socket! "Ceasefire" is just a smokescreen for MORE Israeli atrocities. I suppose people around the world who turn a blind eye to what's happening in Gaza wouldn't mind seeing their families and friends raped and mutilated by a war machine gone mad?