The Biden-Harris administration continues to undermine Israel’s security on its way out the door, joining France in claiming that Israel is violating the new ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon by flying surveillance drones over Beirut.
Israel’s Ynetnews reported Monday:
The United States has warned Israel that it is violating the terms of the cease-fire agreement with Lebanon. According to sources familiar with the details who spoke to Ynet, “there were Israeli violations of the cease-fire agreement, mainly the visible and audible return of Israeli drones in the skies over Beirut.”
…France first warned Israel that it was violating the cease-fire, first reported by Ynet on Sunday, but now the United States has joined these warnings as well. According to the sources, Amos Hochstein, who brokered the deal, accused Israel of the violations in a message to his counterparts in Jerusalem.
Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Monday morning told his French counterpart Jean-Noël Barrot that Israel was not violating the cease-fire agreement in Lebanon but enforcing it amid Hezbollah’s violations, that require a real-time response. France claimed Israel had failed to report Hezbollah’s violations to the international commission and had used lethal force resulting in the death of civilians.
There is nothing in the text of the ceasefire agreement that prevents Israel from flying surveillance drones.
However, the Jewish News Syndicate reported, France complained that Israel had reacted to alleged Hezbollah violations of the ceasefire by acting on its own, rather than going through the international “mechanism” in the deal.
Hezbollah has been violating the ceasefire, mainly by moving weapons and fighters into positions in southern Lebanon, when it is meant to be moving them out. Israel has arrested suspected Hezbollah fighters and has also launched airstrikes on mobile rocket launchers that it has discovered in operation south of the Litani River.
Over the weekend, Israel also forced a cargo plane from Iran, apparently laden with weapons for Hezbollah, to turn around, intercepting it with fighter jets in Syrian airspace. Iran wants to rebuild Hezbollah, despite the ceasefire.
On Monday, Hezbollah fired two rockets into Israel — the first since the ceasefire, threatening the entire deal.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.