This blog has now closed. You can see all our coverage of the Israel-Gaza war here, and our latest report on Israel’s attacks on Lebanon here.
Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Lebanese people that they could face “destruction and suffering” like the Palestinians in Gaza if they don’t “free” the country from Hezbollah.
“You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza,” the Israeli prime minister said in a video address directed to the people of Lebanon.
"I say to you, the people of Lebanon: Free your country from Hezbollah so that this war can end."
That ad is fake. It's propaganda from a small, extremist organization that advocates for Israeli settlement of southern Lebanon. They've also sent eviction notices to residents of Labanon via balloons and drones.
The ad was made by an Israeli settler organization, but that doesn't make it fake. The Israeli government pretends to have nothing to do with these things then defends them; that's how their settlements have always work. In the case of an occupation, I don't see any difference between South Lebanon and the West Bank, in which case this ad is very much real.
It's propaganda designed to look like an ad. The group that made it does not sell or develop property. It is impossible to buy the "advertised" property because it doesn't exist and they are not selling property.
The threat from the group is real. Their intention is to legitimize the idea of occupying and settling southern Lebanon. They themselves say that they are not selling property but promoting a future where it's possible for Israelis to buy/sell property in southern Lebanon.
Sure. First, is that an advertisement for property? No, it isn't. The statement that it's advertising property is false. It's political propaganda designed to look like an advertisement.
The state of Israel and political groups within that state are different entities. When the Proud Boys release some vile statement, I'm sure someone, somewhere is like "OMG look what the US is doing!" But the Proud Boys and the US state are different entities, even if the Proud Boys reside within the US state. Even if there are US officials whose values align closely with those chuds.
The comment I replied to was wrong about both who was speaking and what they were saying.
Is there some way that 'The state of Israel is advertising property for sale in Lebanon' is a true statement?
I really didn’t think you’d just outright say you think trump is innocent in regards to his supporters attempting a coup
I don't see that. Perhaps the edit status didn't federate but the earlier commenter's comment says nothing about that guy. Rather the commenter was just saying that Jan 6 was not officially encouraged by the US gov't or someone acting in his or her official capacity. Which may not be true (I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the SC has given that guy immunity for everything on Jan 6 on account of it somehow being part of his "official duties" which means the above would have to be wrong.)
But we can all agree that this guy definitely was associated with 1/6 in is personal capacity as a private person - and the same would be true of "“far right citizens of Israel that agree with their government" and perhaps of Bibi in his personal capacity.
Yeah, I'm not buying that for a second. Just because there's no clear link between these settler groups and the Israeli government doesn't mean it doesn't exist. This is what Israel does. Displaces a population through force and violence and then settles the land for their own people.
Ben-Gvir has been convicted eight times for offenses that include racism and supporting a terrorist organization. As a teen, his views were so extreme that the army banned him from compulsory military service.
Ben-Gvir gained notoriety in his youth as a follower of the late racist rabbi Meir Kahane. He first became a national figure when Ben-Gvir famously broke a hood ornament off then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s car in 1995.
“We got to his car, and we’ll get to him too,” he said, just weeks before Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish extremist opposed to his peace efforts with the Palestinians.
Two years later, Ben-Gvir took responsibility for orchestrating a campaign of protests, including death threats, that forced Irish singer Sinead O’Connor to cancel a concert for peace in Jerusalem.
When you put a racist terrorist in charge of National Security. It’s pretty impossible to seperate the administration from racist terrorists…
That's a good point. So, as far as I know, Ben-Gvir isn't directly associated with the folks behind the fake ad. However, that's missing the forest for the trees. The point is that it's too easy to see him and Bibi being behind the group.
It is literally not an advertisement for property. No one is advertising property for sale. Your speculation about the relationship between two groups not selling property seems pretty pointless in this case.
There are plenty things to be angry at Israel about. You shouldn't waste your time being angry about imaginary things.
I'm not buying the fact that Israel has no plans to settle Lebanon once they manage to displace enough people. We've seen it done many times to the Palestinians over the past 70+ years. There's no reason for anyone to believe they don't want to do the same here. They literally tried doing that in the 90s with the south of Lebanon, and Hezbolllah harassed them so much that they were forced to leave the area and give it back to Lebanon.
What's that got to do with me? I wasn't talking about whether Israel has plans to occupy or settle Lebanon. I was commenting on whether they are advertising property for sale, which they are not.
I’m not buying the fact that Israel has no plans to settle Lebanon
I'm not selling that.
I'm not commenting on Israeli intentions in Lebanon. I'm not defending Israel or their aims. I'm just commenting on one small thing:
Is Israel advertising property for sale in Lebanon?
And they aren't.
I'm not trying to convince you that it has some big implication for their intentions in Lebanon. It doesn't. They just aren't advertising property for sale in Lebanon. Whatever Israel's intentions are, that claim is false.
The advertisement was made by an extremist settler group that went so far as to rename the areas in Lebanon with Hebrew names. There are too many extremists currently in the Israeli government for me to believe this some fringe group. And even if that were not the case, history has shown this is exactly the kind of thing Israel does.