NASRALLAH'S DEATH A BLOW TO HATERS OF JEWISH PEOPLE

Israeli government officials are clear about the objective of the newly-launched Operation Northern Arrows-to ensure that the civilians in the north get to return home and have a normal life, free from Hezbollah rocket fire.

- JOYEETA BASU

Chutzpah is a Jewish word. Like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or not, it takes a lot of chutzpahaudacity, guts, cheek, boldness to launch a verbal attack on the United Nations, which has been insisting on a ceasefire with the Hezbollah, while he has already ordered the flattening of the headquarters of the Hezbollah in Beirut. And all this while he is at the UN. If the diplomats of the countries that walked out of Netanyahu's UNGA speech on Friday were hoping to send him a message by protesting the bombing of Gaza and Lebanon, it stayed undelivered, for he couldn't care less. Instead, Bibi just thundered on: "The singling out of the one and only Jewish state continues to be a moral stain on the United Nations. It has made this once-respected institution contemptible in the eyes of decent people everywhere."

He was categorical that it was the Hezbollah that had declared a war on Israel on 8 October 2023-and not Israel a day after the Hamas' genocidal attacks on the Jewish people on 7 October. Ever since "they have fired over 8,000 rockets at our and cities, at our civilians, at our children." He added that the Hezbollah, the Houthis, Iran's militias in Syria and Iraq, all have been targeting Israel "dozens of times over the past year". Interestingly, even as he was speaking, the Israeli military was pounding the Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut with bunker buster bombs as the terrorist group's offices were located underground, below civilian buildings. By the time the speech got over, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had done the job it had been given by him and Netanyahu was given the news when he stepped out to speak to journalists. Surprise was the main element of the attack. Hezbollah didn't think that Israel would launch an all-out attack when its Prime Minister was in New York, where he would face criticism for any military action, but that's what exactly happened.