But how did they get them?

Friday, November 18, 2016

Hezbollah's New Weapons Threaten Israel, Israel's Right Strengthening Alliance With Trump Gov't, Radical Israel Basher To Head Democratic Party?

Hezbollah's New & Advanced Stolen US Weapons To Threaten Israel

It is common knowledge, for over a year now, that Hezbollah has amassed over 160,000 rockets, according to Wikipedia. Quoting from sources in a BBC report and the Israeli paper Haaretz. Wikipedia lists the rockets by number and by type.

Boosting that claim, this week the Arabic press was covered with pictures of Hezbollah’s artillery: photos of tanks, armored personnel carriers, anti-aircraft weapons, even motorcycles for rapid response teams to quickly maneuver through rugged terrain. Pictures were posted on social media sites on Sunday, November 13, and the posts showed a huge parade of Hezbollah weapons. Social media reported that the area was closed and only Hezbollah members were permitted to participate and gawk and proudly strut around as the arsenal passed by.

It was a first. Hezbollah has never permitted pictures like this. They have always wanted their assets to be kept a highly guarded secret—and for good reason. The more that is known about Hezbollah’s resources, the better prepared Israel can be to defend against them or the greater Israel’s motivation to destroy the weapons caches.

According to Lebanese newspapers the pictures were not made available to them directly by Hezbollah media but, instead, were published by “Hezbollah-friendly” media.

Now we have two questions. Why release the pictures now? Why distribute the pictures in this circuitous way?

There are several answers, but first, more details about the pictures. The pictures seem to show U.S. tanks and light-tanks. Translation: heavy military equipment clearly taken from the Lebanese army now squarely in the hands of Hezbollah.

It is now obvious that the information we had a year ago about Hezbollah creating an armored division is absolutely correct. From the pictures it looks like they have T-72 US tanks and M-113 APC’s. There are also pictures of European-made, military-grade all-terrain vehicles. Mounted on the ATVs are Kornet antitank missiles. In addition, they have KS-12A anti-aircraft weapons, light tanks and 4×4 vehicles.

Hezbollah can now be categorized as a “Hybrid Army.”

Hybrid Army is a technical term, which means that, on the one hand they can fight among civilians and hide like terrorists, while on the other hand they can muster an official fighting force with an extensive artillery and armored corp.

Hezbollah was boasting.

Hezbollah is no longer a group of amateurs.

Hezbollah is conveying their message to the Arab Sunni world. They are there to defend Shiite honor.

They are also warning Israel. They are saying that the next full-frontal encounter between Israel and Hezbollah will be very different from past encounters. Those were kerfuffles, these will be all-out wars.

Hezbollah has matured and grown. Most importantly, they are better trained and better capable of striking significant blows against Israel and the IDF and all those whom they deem to be enemies. They will wage their wars on the ground and in the air and with impunity.

Top grade weaponry in the possession of hot headed extremists. That’s a scary scenario.

Hezbollah has U.S. armored personnel carriers. But how did they get them?

Over the weekend images surfaced online of a Hezbollah parade in Qusair, Syria, featuring U.S. armored personnel carriers affixed with antiaircraft guns. The images prompted a flurry of speculation about the vehicles’ origin and whether the group had pilfered the stocks of the U.S.-supplied Lebanese military.

The armored personnel carrier, known as the M113, is one of the United States’ most ubiquitous armored vehicles and has been in service since the 1960s. The tracked semi-rhombus-shaped vehicle comes in numerous variants and can be outfitted to carry troops and artillery; its chassis was even used as the basis for a nuclear-missile carrier. It has appeared in every major U.S. conflict since the Vietnam War and is used by U.S. police departments and dozens of others countries’ militaries around the world.

As a prominent political and military entity in Lebanon, Hezbollah’s possession of the vehicles could support the theory floated by the defense analyst Tobias Schneider, who tweeted that the personnel carriers were probably taken from the Lebanese Armed Forces, a major recipient of U.S. military aid.

Over the summer, the Lebanese military took possession of dozens of pieces of artillery, armored vehicles, semiautomatic grenade launchers and 1,000 tons of ammunition — all worth about $50 million — as part of the United States’ ongoing efforts to bolster the country’s capacity to fight extremists. The shipment, overseen by the Pentagon and the State Department, brought the amount of U.S. military aid sent to Lebanon in 2016 to $221 million, according to U.S. Ambassador Elizabeth H. Richard.

U.S. equipment falling into the hands of extremist groups and regional opponents has been a recurring theme in the Middle East and southwest Asia for the past 15 years as American wares have been distributed wholesale to those willing to fight for U.S. causes. Armored vehicles, weapons, night-vision devices and body armor have been diverted from places such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, subsequently showing up on battlefields throughout the region.

Israel’s Right strengthening alliance with Trump government

Israel’s right-wing camp will continue to align itself with US President-elect Donald Trump’s evolving administration next week, when Education Minister Naftali Bennett attends a Jewish gathering in New York City alongside controversial Trump adviser Stephen Bannon.

Bennett, the chairman of Bayit Yehudi, and Bannon, whom Trump has appointed as chief White House strategist, are scheduled to attend the Zionist Organization of America’s Louis D. Brandeis Award Dinner, which is honoring Republican Rep. Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Trump donor Sheldon Adelson is also slated to attend the event.

“Steve Bannon is as pro-Israel and pro-Jewish as anyone I’ve ever met,” ZOA President Morton Klein told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.

“Anyone who knows me and ZOA knows that nobody fights against antisemitism and for Israel stronger,” he added. “If there was a hint of antisemitism, I’d be all over that. I’m a child of Holocaust survivors, I lost my whole family to Hitler, I don’t tolerate antisemitism for a second.”

Bennett and other Israeli right-wing politicians in recent days have called for Trump to rethink US policy on Israel and the Palestinians. On Monday, Bennett said Trump’s victory was an opportunity to “rest and rethink everything.” Last week he said the election means the “era of a Palestinian state is over.”

‘Israel Looking Forward to Working With Trump Team — Bannon Included’

Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer told media in New York City on Thursday there’s “no doubt” President-elect Donald Trump is a “true friend of Israel.”

Dermer visited the Trump transition team at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on Thursday, and met briefly with media on his way out.

“We have no doubt that Vice-President-elect Mike Pence is a true friend of Israel,” Dermer added, noting that Pence was one of Israel’s “greatest friends” during his decade in Congress, and “one of the most pro-Israel governors in the country.”

Dermer said Israel looks forward to “working with the Trump administration, with all of the members of the Trump administration, including Steve Bannon, and making the U.S.-Israel alliance stronger than ever.”

Posted by Scott at Friday, November 18, 2016 No comments: Links to this post