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→ 16 January 2019
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Israeli PM confirms weekend strikes in Syria against Iran | NZ Herald

Benjamin Netanyahu

Israel’s prime minister says the country struck an Iranian weapons storage facility over the weekend at the Damascus International Airport.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments on Sunday at his weekly Cabinet meeting mark a rare public acknowledgement of Israeli activity in Syria. Advertisement

Israel is believed to have carried out hundreds of airstrikes against Iranian and Hezbollah targets throughout the Syrian civil war but has generally refrained from commenting about them for fear of being drawn into the fighting.

Only recently has it begun to speak publicly about thwarting the weapons smuggling from Iran through Styria into Lebanon. Israel’s outgoing military chief, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, did so over the weekend in various interviews.

Netanyahu says Israel says the recent strikes prove “we are committed more than ever to act against Iran in Syria.”

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→ 17 December 2018
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By their tweets you shall know them | AIR

There is evidence that the traditional human rights non-governmental organisations (NGOs) such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW), have gone badly off the rails – especially, but not only, with respect to Israel. It is clear they are often no longer applying international human rights law without fear or favour, but are instead increasingly letting their “findings” be influenced by left-wing orthodoxies about imperialism, colonialism, and structural racism rooted in power imbalances. 

Their overall bodies of reports and official press releases are usually written in a way to provide plausible deniability. They concentrate mainly on the targets they want to attack in the name of these orthodoxies– such as Israel and Western governments and their allies – but include enough material on their enemies to claim they are willing to criticise all sides. 

But if you look at the tweets their officials put out you see the true picture. 

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→ 15 December 2018
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Australia recognises west Jerusalem as Israel’s capital | NZ Herald

  • Jerusalem

Australia has decided to formally recognise west Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, but won’t move its embassy until there’s a peace settlement between Israel and Palestinians, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Saturday.

He said in a speech that Australia will recognise east Jerusalem as Palestine’s capital only after a settlement has been reached on a two-state solution. The Australian Embassy won’t be moved from Tel Aviv until such a time, he said.

While the embassy move is delayed, Morrison said his government will establish a defense and trade office in Jerusalem and will also start looking for an appropriate site for the embassy.

“The Australian government has decided that Australia now recognises west Jerusalem, as the seat of the Knesset and many of the institutions of government, is the capital of Israel,” Morrison said. He said the decision respects both a commitment to a two-state solution and longstanding respect for relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions.

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→ 15 December 2018
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Lebanese wary as Israel destroys Hezbollah border tunnels | NZ Herald

  • Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah

MAYS AL-JABAL, Lebanon (AP) — As Israeli excavators dug into the rocky hills along the frontier with a Lebanese village, a crowd of young Lebanese men gathered to watch.

The mood was light as the crowd observed what Israel says is a military operation — dubbed “Northern Shield” — aimed at destroying attack tunnels built by the Lebanese Hezbollah militia. The young men posed for selfies, with the Israeli crew in the background, as they burned fires and brewed tea to keep warm. More about
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But Lebanese soldiers were visibly on high alert, deploying to new camouflaged posts behind sandbags and inside abandoned homes. About two dozen U.N. peacekeepers stood in a long line, just ahead of the blue line demarcating the frontier between the two countries technically still at war.

The scene highlights the palpable anxiety that any misstep could lead to a conflagration between Israel and Lebanon that no one seems to want.

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→ 14 December 2018
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Lebanon: Israel border tunnel operation won’t endanger calm | NZ Herald

Hezbollah’s tunnels

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s president said Tuesday Israel’s operation to destroy what it says is a series of cross-border attack tunnels built by the militant Hezbollah group won’t endanger the calm along the frontier, adding that his country takes the issue seriously.

Michel Aoun spoke hours before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the border where he said the Israeli military has discovered a third tunnel.

“If Hezbollah makes the big mistake and decides in any way to harm us or to resist the operation we are conducting, it will be hit in a way it cannot even imagine,” said Netanyahu.

The Israeli army said its soldiers placed explosives in the tunnel revealed Tuesday, warning Iran-backed Hezbollah against entering it.

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→ 7 December 2018
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Israel calls for international response to Hezbollah tunnels | NZ Herald

Hezbollah’s tunnels

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s prime minister on Thursday asked the international community to impose additional sanctions on Hezbollah and condemn the Lebanese militant group in response to the discovery of tunnels stretching from southern Lebanon into northern Israel.

Stepping up an international pressure campaign against Hezbollah, Israel also hosted the commander of a U.N. peacekeeping force, showing him one of the tunnels and urging the force to take action across the border.

The Israeli military this week launched an open-ended operation meant to expose and thwart what it says are tunnels built by the Lebanese militant group aimed at infiltrating Israel. The two sides are bitter enemies and fought an inconclusive monthlong war in 2006.

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, toured the operation’s area with a group of foreign ambassadors Thursday.

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→ 5 December 2018
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Israeli operation targets Hezbollah cross-border tunnels | NZ Herald

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military launched an open-ended operation Tuesday to destroy what it said was a network of attack tunnels built by Hezbollah, saying it had foiled a plot by the Iranian-backed militant group to carry out a deadly infiltration in northern Israel.

Israeli forces did not enter Lebanese territory, and there was no immediate reaction from Hezbollah. But the Israeli announcement threatened to push the bitter enemies closer to an open confrontation for the first time since a bruising 2006 war. The military said it had protectively increased forces along the border and warned Hezbollah to keep its distance from the tunnels.

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→ 2 December 2018
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For Israel, a rearmed Hezbollah in Lebanon is top concern | NZ Herald

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah

ON THE ISRAEL-LEBANON BORDER (AP) — On a moonlit night, some two dozen Israeli soldiers in full battle gear march near a Lebanese border village with a bomb-sniffing dog, searching for explosives and infiltrators.

Suddenly the force stops. Through night-vision goggles, two suspicious men appear over the ridge, holding what looks like binoculars. Could they be undercover Hezbollah guerrillas? Lebanese soldiers on a night patrol? Or perhaps U.N. peacekeepers?

The men appear unarmed and since they are on the other side of the internationally recognized “blue line” that separates the two countries, Israeli troops move on, completing another routine foot patrol along a scenic frontier that has remained quiet but tense since the bloody battles of a 2006 summer war.

Even with attention currently focused on Gaza militants along the southern front, Israel’s main security concerns lie to the north, along the border with Lebanon.

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→ 21 November 2018
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Israeli PM Netanyahu buying himself time | NZ Herald

Benjamin Netanyahu

In another twist in a roller-coaster week for Israeli politics, a key ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided not to quit as had been expected, allowing the right-wing Government to limp along and possibly avoid new elections.

Even in the best of times, Israeli politics is polarised and fractious, but the events of the past few days have been particularly fraught.

The turmoil was sparked by an intense bout of fighting with militants in the Gaza Strip last week and capped by an ultimatum from Education Minister Naftali Bennett. It is still unclear whether the Government will survive even the next few days, let alone finish its term a year from now.

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→ 21 November 2018
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Israel steps up boycott fight after Airbnb settlement ban | NZ Herald

KFAR ADUMIM, West Bank (AP) — Israel is threatening vacation rental company Airbnb with high taxes and legal repercussions over its decision to remove listings from Jewish West Bank settlements.

The threats step up Israel’s fight against a global movement advocating for boycotts over the country’s treatment of the Palestinians.

Israeli Tourism Minister Yariv Levin says Tuesday that Israel will seek to impose “very high taxes” on the company in order to restrict its operations in the country. He also says Israel will encourage hosts in settlements to sue the company to make it “pay” for its decision.

Airbnb’s decision on Monday sparked outrage among Israeli officials and settler leaders, but was welcomed by Palestinian officials and human rights groups that had long pressured the company to end its contentious West Bank settlement listings.

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