SHILOH, Palestinian Territories: Less than a week before the United States presidential election, Americans living in settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank know exactly who they want to win: Donald Trump.
Recent polls show that a majority of Israelis, 66 percent according to one conducted by Israel’s Channel 12 News, dream of the days when the former president inhabited the White House.
Trump prioritized Israel during his previous term, moving the American embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights and helping to normalize ties between Israel and several Arab states under the so-called Abraham Accords.
Now, many Israelis believe Trump will offer yet more support as the country battles Iran-backed militant groups in Gaza and Lebanon, as well as Iran itself.
“I’m proud to tell you that I voted for President Trump,” Eliana Passentin, 50, who moved to Israel from San Francisco as a child, said.
For Passentin, a mother and grandmother, the stakes are higher than for the average Israeli.
For the past 29 years she has lived in Eli, part of a cluster of Israeli settlements located in the heart of the West Bank.
The area has been occupied by Israel since 1967, but it could become Palestinian sovereign territory under a two-state solution favored by the international community.
Passentin is employed by the local regional council.
She recalls how successive administrations in Washington pressured Israel to stop expanding settlements in an attempt to mediate peace between Israelis and Palestinians and reach a two-state solution.
“United States of America, our greatest ally, we thank you, but please understand we know how to run our country,” Passentin said.
In her backyard, with sweeping views of the entire area, Passentin points to nearby Israeli and Palestinian towns.
“I don’t think that Israelis living here are an obstacle to peace. On the contrary, I think that the Israelis living here are building the region for everyone,” she said.
She said the region was a hub for Jews in Biblical times, and claims that under international agreements Israelis have a right to live here.
International law says otherwise, however, and Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are considered illegal by the international community.
Among Israelis who vote for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling right-wing coalition, 93 percent support Trump’s candidacy, according to the Channel 12 poll.
“Things have changed since October 7,” Passentin said, referring to Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on that day in 2023 which sparked the war in Gaza.
“Now it’s a whole different story — it’s not about Judea and Samaria, it’s about Israel,” she said, using the Biblical terms for the southern and northern West Bank.
“We have a right to defend ourselves... and I think President Trump respects and understands that.”
Gedaliah Blum, 45, a neighbor who was born in New Jersey, also said he voted for Trump based on the question of “what kind of future we want to have here in Israel.”
“Do we want a future that has an embargo threatened on Israel every time we defend ourselves?” he asked.
“Trump is not going to pressure Israel to sign a ceasefire that will let Hamas remain in power in Gaza. They’re not going to push Israel to sign a peace agreement with Lebanon that will allow Hezbollah to remain in power.”
With Kamala Harris in the Oval Office, Israel will be under constant “pressure,” Blum said.
“We’re going to get pressure, we’re going to get embargoes, we’re going to get Iranian money in their pockets. It’s not in the best interest of Israel.”
In the nearby settlement of Shiloh, where an estimated 20 percent of residents hold US citizenship, New York-born Yisrael Medad, 77, said he believed Trump would be good not only for America but also for “America’s friends abroad, including Israel.”
“I think the policies that a Republican candidate such as Trump are promoting are most beneficial for the administration, Congress and the American people,” he said.
On Israel, Medad said he believed that Trump would treat Israel more “fairly in terms of not denying its rights to defend itself... not only in a physical sense but also on the ideological front.”
Referring to a recent incident at a Democratic campaign rally in which Harris did not push back against a demonstrator who said Israel was committing a “genocide” in Gaza, Medad said: “That’s not the type of candidate I want in the White House.”
US-Israeli settlers hope to see a second Trump term
https://arab.news/nsum8
US-Israeli settlers hope to see a second Trump term
- Recent polls show that a majority of Israelis dream of the days when the former president inhabited the White House
- Donald Trump prioritized Israel during his previous term, moving the American embassy to Jerusalem among his other actions
Israel army says intercepted three drones over Red Sea
Jerusalem: The Israeli military said on Saturday it had intercepted three drones launched from the east over the Red Sea, without specifying where they came from.
“A short while ago, three UAVs that were launched from the east were intercepted over the Red Sea.... the UAVs were intercepted prior to crossing into Israeli territory,” the military said in a statement.
Jordan warns of increasing regional unrest and vows to protect its airspace, borders
CAIRO: Jordan on Saturday warned against intercepting its airspace and the infringement of its borders as unrest increases in the region.
Jordan reaffirms its “rejection of attempts by some regional parties to violate its airspace, especially by launching drones that some of which have entered the Kingdom’s airspace and parts had fallen inside Jordanian territory,” said government spokesperson Mohammad Momani according to Petra news agency.
The spokesperson pointed out that two incidents of this sort had occurred recently in the governorates of Irbid and Jerash, describing it as “a threat that Jordan was dealing with within the military rules of engagement, and that it was taking all necessary measures to confront these violations.”
The minister warned of “increasing regional unrest, reiterating that Jordan will not be a conflict zone for any party, and will not allow warplanes, missiles or drones to pass through its airspace.”
Israel’s path of destruction in southern Lebanon raises fears of an attempt to create a buffer zone
- Israeli warplanes and ground forces have blasted a trail of destruction through southern Lebanon the past month
- More than 1 million people have fled bombardment, emptying much of the south
BEIRUT: Perched on a hilltop a short walk from the Israeli border, the tiny southern Lebanese village of Ramyah has almost been wiped off the map. In a neighboring village, satellite photos show a similar scene: a hill once covered with houses, now reduced to a gray smear of rubble.
Israeli warplanes and ground forces have blasted a trail of destruction through southern Lebanon the past month. The aim, Israel says, is to debilitate the Hezbollah militant group, push it away from the border and end more than a year of Hezbollah fire into northern Israel.
Even United Nations peacekeepers and Lebanese troops in the south have come under fire from Israeli forces, raising questions over whether they can remain in place.
More than 1 million people have fled bombardment, emptying much of the south. Some experts say Israel may be aiming to create a depopulated buffer zone, a strategy it has already deployed along its border with Gaza.
Some conditions for such a zone appear already in place, according to an Associated Press analysis of satellite imagery and data collected by mapping experts that show the breadth of destruction across 11 villages next to the border.
The Israeli military has said the bombardment is necessary to destroy Hezbollah tunnels and other infrastructure it says the group embedded within towns. The blasts have also destroyed homes, neighborhoods and sometimes entire villages, where families have lived for generations.
Israel says it aims to push Hezbollah far enough back that its citizens can return safely to homes in the north, but Israeli officials acknowledge they don’t have a concrete plan for ensuring Hezbollah stays away from the border long term. That is a key focus in attempts by the United States to broker a ceasefire.
Orna Mizrahi, a senior researcher at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, said Israel’s immediate aim is not to create a buffer zone — but that might change.
“Maybe we’ll have no other choice than staying there until we have an arrangement that promises us that Hezbollah will not come back to the zone,” she said.
A path of destruction
Troops pushed into southern Lebanon on Oct. 1, backed by heavy bombardment that has intensified since.
Using satellite images provided by Planet Labs PBC, AP identified a line of 11 villages — all within 4 miles (6.5 kilometers) of Lebanon’s border with Israel — that have been severely damaged in the past month, either by strikes or detonations of explosives laid by Israeli soldiers.
Analysis found the most intense damage in the south came in villages closest to the border, with between 100 and 500 buildings likely destroyed or damaged in each, according to Corey Scher of CUNY Graduate Center and Jamon Van Der Hoek of Oregon State University, experts in damage assessments.
In Ramyah, barely a single structure still stands on the village’s central hilltop, after a controlled detonation that Israeli soldiers showed themselves carrying out in videos posted on social media. In the next town over, Aita Al-Shaab — a village with strong Hezbollah influence — bombardment turned the hilltop with the highest concentration of buildings into a gray wasteland of rubble.
In other villages, the damage is more selective. In some, bombardment tore scars through blocks of houses; in others, certain homes were crushed while their neighbors remained intact.
Another controlled detonation leveled much of the village of Odeissah, with an explosion so strong it set off earthquake alerts in Israel.
In videos of the blast, Lubnan Baalbaki, conductor of the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra, watched in disbelief as his parents’ house — containing the art collection and a library his father had built up for years — was destroyed.
“This house was a project and a dream for both of my parents,” he told the AP. His parents’ graves in the garden are now lost.
When asked whether its intention was to create a buffer zone, Israel’s military said it was “conducting localized, limited, targeted raids based on precise intelligence” against Hezbollah targets. It said Hezbollah had “deliberately embedded” weapons in homes and villages.
Israeli journalist Danny Kushmaro even helped blow up a home that the military said was being used to store Hezbollah ammunition. In a television segment, Kushmaro and soldiers counted down before they pressed a button, setting off a massive explosion.
Videos posted online by Israel’s military and individual soldiers show Israeli troops planting flags on Lebanese soil. Still, Israel has not built any bases or managed to hold a permanent presence in southern Lebanon. Troops appear to move back and forth across the border, sometimes under heavy fire from Hezbollah.
October has been the deadliest month of 2024 for the Israeli military, with around 60 soldiers killed.
Attacks on UN peacekeeping troops and the Lebanese Army
The bombardment has been punctuated by Israeli attacks on UN troops and the Lebanese Army — forces which, under international law, are supposed to keep the peace in the area. Israel has long complained that their presence has not prevented Hezbollah from building up its infrastructure across the south.
Israel denies targeting either force.
The Lebanese military has said at least 11 of its soldiers were killed in eight Israeli strikes, either at their positions or while assisting evacuations.
The peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, said its forces and infrastructure have been harmed at least 30 times since late September, blaming Israeli military fire or actions for about 20 of them, “with seven being clearly deliberate.”
A rocket likely fired by Hezbollah or an allied group hit UNIFIL’s headquarters in Naqoura on Tuesday, causing some minor injuries, said UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti.
UNIFIL has refused to leave southern Lebanon, despite calls by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for them to go.
Experts warn that could change if peacekeepers come under greater fire.
“If you went from the UN taking casualties to the UN actually taking fatalities,” some nations contributing troops may “say ‘enough is enough,’ and you might see the mission start to crumble,” said Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group.
The future of the territory is uncertain
International ceasefire efforts appear to be centered on implementing UN Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
It specified that Israeli forces would fully withdraw from Lebanon while the Lebanese army and UNIFIL — not Hezbollah — would be the exclusive armed presence in a zone about 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the border.
But the resolution was not fully implemented. Hezbollah never left the border zone, and Lebanon accuses Israel of continuing to occupy small areas of its land and carrying out frequent military overflights above its territory.
During a recent visit to Beirut, US envoy Amos Hochstein said a new agreement was needed to enforce Resolution 1701.
Israel could be trying to pressure an agreement into existence through the destruction wreaked in southern Lebanon.
Yossi Yehoshua, military correspondent for the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, wrote that the military needs to “entrench further its operational achievements” to push Hezbollah, the Lebanese government and mediating countries “to accept an end (of the war) under conditions that are convenient for Israel.”
Some Lebanese fear that means an occupation of parts of the south, 25 years after Israel ended its occupation there.
Lebanese parliamentarian Mark Daou, a critic of both Hezbollah and of Israel’s military operations in Lebanon, said he believed Israel was trying to degrade Hezbollah’s capabilities and turn the Lebanese public “against the will to resist Israeli incursions.”
Gowan, of the International Crisis Group, said one aim of Resolution 1701 was to give the Lebanese army enough credibility that it, not Hezbollah, would be seen “as the legitimate defender” in the south.
“That evaporates if they become (Israel’s) gendarmerie of southern Lebanon,” he said.
Lebanon PM says expanded strikes suggest Israel rejects truce
- Caretaker PM Najib Mikati on Friday accused Israel of blocking progress in negotiations
- US envoys have been working to secure truces on both fronts ahead of US election next week
BEIRUT: Israel bombarded the southern suburbs of Beirut on Friday as caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati accused it of “stubbornness” in negotiations.
Israeli attacks came amid stalled talks by two US envoys in Israel in an attempt to reach a ceasefire in Lebanon.
Mikati reaffirmed Lebanon’s continued commitment to UN resolution 1701 and its provisions.
Mikati said he believed that Israel’s “renewed expansion of the scope of its aggression on Lebanese regions, its repeated threats to the population to evacuate entire cities and villages, and its renewed targeting of the southern suburbs of Beirut with destructive raids are all indicators that confirm Israel’s rejection of all efforts being made to secure a ceasefire in preparation for the full implementation of UN Resolution 1701.”
He said: “Israeli statements and diplomatic signals that Lebanon received confirm Israel’s stubbornness in rejecting the proposed solutions and insisting on the approach of killing and destruction.
“This places the entire international community before its historical and moral responsibilities to stop this aggression.”
Mikati denied the claims of two Reuters sources on Friday, which stated that the US “had asked Lebanon to declare a unilateral ceasefire to inject momentum into stalled talks on a deal to end hostilities.”
His media office said that the Lebanese government’s stance was “clear on seeking a ceasefire from both sides and the implementation of Resolution 1701.”
Mikati’s warning came as the Israeli Air Force carried out 14 raids against neighborhoods in Beirut’s southern suburbs after two weeks of cautious calm in the area.
The raids affected Burj Al-Barajneh, Rweis, Haret Hreik, Hadath and the old airport road.
Twelve raids targeted Baalbek-Hermel, causing further casualties, including entire families.
In Amhazieh alone, 12 people died in a raid, most of whom were children, while a woman was killed and five were injured in a raid in Taraya, west of Baalbek.
Three people were killed in Hrabta, while another was killed in Kasarnaba.
Before the raids, Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee sent evacuation warnings to residents at about 3.30 a.m., which was followed by heavy shooting by Hezbollah members to alert sleeping residents in the areas targeted.
People left their homes in pyjamas, carrying their children along the streets near the old airport road, one of the targeted areas
During a week-long period of relative calm, many residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs returned to their homes, which were not affected by previous raids.
The raids caused widespread destruction in these areas, which are considered by the Israeli army as Hezbollah’s security square, although the Lebanese consider the area residential.
In a statement on Friday, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, expressed concern over “the impact of the Israeli operations on civilians and infrastructure in Lebanon.”
Israeli strikes on the ancient cities of Tyre and Baalbek, home to UNESCO-designated Roman ruins, were endangering Lebanon’s cultural heritage, said UN special coordinator Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert.
“Ancient Phoenician cities steeped in history are in deep peril of being left in ruins,” Hennis-Plasschaert said in a social media post, adding that Lebanon’s cultural heritage “must not become yet another casualty in this devastating conflict.”
Her appeal came as Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said: “Since last September, Israel has wasted more than one opportunity to reach a ceasefire, implement Resolution 1701, restore calm, and return the displaced to both sides of the border.”
He underlined Lebanon’s “commitment to implementing Resolution 1701 as the only option to achieve regional security and stability.”
MP Michel Moussa, a parliamentary Development and Liberation Bloc member, said Berri “has been informed that ceasefire negotiations have reached an impasse.”
Moussa said Israel had shown no intention to negotiate, appearing to await US elections as a “significant turning point.”
During his meeting with US special envoys Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that Israel “is determined to confront the threats in the north. Any ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon must guarantee Israel’s security.”
He added: “There is pressure to prematurely achieve a settlement in Lebanon, and reality has proven otherwise.
“I did not set a date for the war’s end, but I set clear goals for victory,” Netanyahu said. “We respect Resolutions 1701 and 1559, but they are not the main thing.”
The Israeli airstrikes, which continued on Friday morning and during the day, targeted a residential apartment in the town of Qmatiyeh in Aley, killing three members of a family living there and wounding five.
They also targeted dozens of towns in the south and northern Bekaa after the city of Baalbek turned into a ghost town as a result of renewed Israeli warnings against the return of those who were displaced from it.
Israeli attacks on Baalbek-Hermel Governorate and Central Bekaa include 1,035 airstrikes, which have killed 528 and 1,069 injured people.
According to a report by the ministerial emergency committee, the toll has risen to 2,822 dead and 12,937 wounded since the first attack by Israel against Lebanon about 14 months.
Hezbollah MP Hussein Hajj Hassan estimated that about “60,000 people were displaced from Baalbek and Hermel, and the figure needs to be updated daily.”
In a report on its field operations against the Israeli army, Hezbollah said that “more than 95 soldiers were killed, 900 others wounded, and 42 Merkava tanks were destroyed” since the ground offensive began. “Three Hermes 450 and two Hermes 900 drones were shot down. Israeli forces are trying not to move or change their positions in the fields, fearing being targeted,” Hezbollah said.
The UNIFIL commander, Gen. Aroldo Lazaro, visited Mikati and Berri on Friday to discuss the ongoing military operations against Lebanon and the difficulties and threats UNIFIL faces while carrying out its mission.
Mikati emphasized the importance of “adhering to the role of UNIFIL, recognizing its importance in the south and not compromising its rules of work and the missions it is carrying out in close cooperation with the Lebanese army.”
In Israel, sirens sounded in several settlements in the Galilee panhandle, coinciding with an Israeli announcement “detecting around 10 rockets being launched from Lebanon, some of which were intercepted and others landed in open areas.”
Hezbollah announced targeting “Kiryat Shmona, Hatzor HaGlilit, Kidmat Tzvi, Yesod HaMa’ala and Karmiel,” and a group of soldiers near the Lebanese border town of Khiyam.
Also on Friday, a 17th Saudi relief plane, operated by the Saudi aid agency KSRelief, landed at Rafic Hariri International Airport in Beirut, carrying food, shelter and medical aid, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
Missile strike on central Israel wounds 19
- Hezbollah also said on Saturday it had launched rockets at an Israeli intelligence base near Tel Aviv
JERUSALEM: A missile strike in Israel’s Sharon area wounded 19 people, police said early Saturday, after the army reported three projectiles were fired from Lebanon into central Israel.
All 19, four of whom were “in moderate condition,” were taken to hospitals for treatment, the Israeli police added.
Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency medical service earlier said that several people had been wounded in a strike on the central city of Tira, including “a male around 20 with shrapnel injuries.”
Hezbollah also said on Saturday it had launched rockets at an Israeli intelligence base near Tel Aviv in the early hours of Saturday.
At 2:30 a.m. (00:30 GMT) militants “fired a salvo of rockets at the Glilot base of the 8200 military intelligence unit in the suburbs of Tel Aviv” the Iran-backed group said in a statement.
The militant group frequently claims to have fired rockets at Israeli bases or urban areas in Israeli territory, and has several times claimed the targeting of Glilot.
Videos posted by the Israeli Foreign Ministry on social media showed fire and smoke spilling from a building into the street and emergency responders swarming the site.
“This is the result of a direct hit of a Hezbollah rocket on a building in the Israeli Arab town of Tira, injuring 19 civilians,” the ministry said in the post.
“We cannot and will not rest until Hezbollah is dismantled,” it added.
The Israeli army said on Telegram that it had intercepted some of the three projectiles fired from Lebanon.
Tira, a predominantly Arab town, is located around 25 kilometers (15 miles) northeast of Tel Aviv, near the border with the occupied West Bank.
The war raging in the Gaza Strip has spread to Lebanon, where Israel has been carrying out air strikes against Hezbollah, an ally of Palestinian group Hamas.
According to Israeli figures, at least 63 people have been killed on the Israeli side since cross-border exchanges with Hezbollah erupted following Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
On Thursday, rocket fire from Lebanon killed seven people in Metula, northern Israel, including four Thai farmers.
Hamas’s October attack on Israel resulted in 1,206 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s response has killed 43,259 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which are considered reliable by the United Nations.
