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In 21st-century Europe, Jews need new allies
If many French Jews are backing Marine Le Pen andNational Rally, it’s because the alternatives are an antiSemitic left and a center that can’t or won’t defend them.
(July 2, 2024 / JNS)
The shock and dismay about the results of the first round of the French parliamentary elections held last weekend on the part of most liberal observers of European politics is palpable. The victory of the right-wing National Rally Party led The New York Times to publish a number of dirge-like analyses declaring that the French were on the verge of catastrophe. That echoed the pronouncements of the country’s own liberal establishment about the vote. The possibility that the party led by Marine Le Pen would win a majority of the National Assembly after the second round to be held next Sunday is viewed by the leaders of the traditional mainstream parties of the center and left as nothing short of a disaster. For them, the likes of National Rally, Le Pen and even her 28-year-old protégé Jordan Bardella, who is in line to be France’s next prime minister if his party controls parliament, are no better than fascists.
One of the most curious elements of National Rally’s triumph is the fact that what may well be a significant percentage of the demographic slice of the French public that had hitherto been most deeply opposed to the party is now backing it. As a panicked article in Foreign Policy magazine plaintively asked this week, “Why are French Jews supporting the far right?”
Figures like famed Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld, as well as leading intellectual and author Alain Finkelkraut, have said that voting for National Rally is now an acceptable and even perhaps necessary action on the part of French Jews. As much as its steady progress towards electoral success in the last two decades, this is also a measure of both the sea change in opinion about the party and the increasingly desperate position of the French Jewish community as antisemitic invective and violence have become commonplace.
Antisemitism on the left
While historian Robert Zaretsky, the author of the Foreign Policy article, thinks that there is no excuse for this shift in opinion, the reality of contemporary France and the efforts of the National Rally party to move beyond its origins have made it inevitable. And the circumstances of the elections may have even made it necessary.
A huge immigrant population of Muslims—estimated to make up anywhere from 8% to 10% of the population—brought with them their contempt and hatred for Jews and Israel from their countries of origin. Suburban neighborhoods known as banlieues, where Muslims predominate on the outskirts of cities like Marseilles have been referred to as “no-go” zones for non-Muslims, as well as a source of violence against Jews. At the same time, the parties of the French left have largely embraced the same spirit of intolerance for Jews and Zionism that has been so apparent on American college campuses since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the founder of France Unbowed—the coalition of Socialists, Communists, Greens and others on the left, and its candidate for president in the last three elections—is a virulent opponent of Israel.
These two forces have combined not merely to mainstream antisemitic attitudes and positions, but to be seen as incitement to the string of antisemitic hate crimes that have rocked France in recent years.
French President Emanuel Macron has opposed National Rally and the parties on the left. But in the current circumstances, he is allying himself with the left to stop Le Pen’s party from winning a majority. That feels like a betrayal to many French Jews, who rightly see the alliance of Marxists and Islamists—and not the right—as the main threat to their precarious existence.
Yet if they are now voting for National Rally, it’s not so much a case of them taking leave of their senses as it is one in which they are rationally assessing the situation and choosing new allies rather than allowing the past to dictate their actions.
From Dreyfus to Vichy to Le Pen
In the late 19th and throughout much of the 20th century, there was no doubt about which end of the French political spectrum was fundamentally antisemitic. The treason accusations against French Jewish Army officer Alfred Dreyfus in the 1890s helped galvanize a right-wing movement that coalesced behind the toxic myth that French Jews were a foreign and traitorous presence in the country. The anti-Dreyfusards were a manifestation of the same argument that had raged in France since 1789 about the legitimacy of the French Revolution. But it was only in the white heat of that controversy that old religious prejudices against Jews merged with modern notions of racism that had recently created the term “antisemitism.”
Jew-hatred was a feature of the French right throughout the decades that followed and became a core tenet after the collapse of the Third Republic after France was defeated by Nazi Germany in June 1940. The collaborationist Vichy regime that ruled part of the country under the leadership of Marshal Philippe Pétain and Pierre Laval actively assisted the Nazis in the roundup of Jews, dooming approximately 21% of them to death.
While the open antisemitism of Vichy was suppressed in French political culture in the decades after the war, and especially on the right by the dominance of Charles De Gaulle (who is remembered for his hostility to Israel in his last years in power, though embodied the resistance to Vichy and was opposed to antisemitism in France), it lingered on the margins of society. It seemed to come back to life in the waning years of the 20th century, and then at the start of the 21st, with the emergence of Jean Marie Le Pen and his National Front Party.
Le Pen was open about his antisemitism and even Holocaust revisionist beliefs. He represented not just traditional antisemitic rightists but the spirit of resentment felt by those who regarded France’s loss of Algeria and the subsequent ouster of about a million French citizens from that country (known as Pied-noirs) as an unforgivable defeat. As the surge of immigration from North Africa and former French colonies boosted the Muslim population, that resentment grew and led to limited electoral success for Le Pen. France was shocked when he made it into the second round of the French presidential election in 2002. Still, Le Pen only garnered 17.8% of the vote as the forces of the center, traditional Gaullist right and the left united in revulsion at even the theoretical prospect of his attaining power to support President Jacques Chirac.
Marine Le Pen’s shift
Le Pen was replaced as the head of his party in 2011 by his daughter, Marine, who is now 55. She set about the long and difficult task of rebranding and remaking it into something that could appeal to more than just the extreme right. French intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy has referred to her as “the far-right with a human face,” but there is no denying that she has worked hard to transcend her father’s legacy. She even went as far as expelling him from the party she renamed National Rally for comments he made in 2015 dismissing the gas chambers used by the Nazis in the Holocaust as a “detail of history.” She forbade all mention of such Vichyite beliefs as well as any talk about France’s colonial wars.
While there’s little doubt that there are still some in its ranks who are more than comfortable with the prejudices articulated by the elder Le Pen, the party she currently heads is not the same as the one her father founded. And, to the chagrin of other parties, it has steadily gained support because of the growing influence of the Muslim population and the refusal of the parties of the mainstream right to do anything about it. Marine Le Pen made the presidential runoff in 2022 and won 33.9% of the vote, even though President Emanuel Macron easily won re-election.
But as Macron’s failures have grown, it is Marine Le Pen and National Rally that have now eclipsed his Renaissance Party, as well as what is left of the old Gaullist conservatives that the French president helped destroy as the main alternative to the parties of the left. And while her strong opposition to Islamism and support for the State of Israel, especially in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks, are dismissed by mainstream media and the French liberal establishment as merely an attempt to cover up her party’s past, her positions stand in strong contrast to those of the left and even Macron. Both still regard her raising the issue of immigration as a threat to the essential nature of the French Republic.
As is the case elsewhere in Europe, questions about the collapse of national identity are changing the political landscape of France. Leftist sentiment that despises the legacy of Western civilization and the rise of an aggressive Islamist presence in nations where there are large numbers of immigrants has fueled a response from populist rightist parties. Like National Rally, such political factions are despised by the political establishments in Europe. Some of them also have legacies from a fascist or antisemitic past that are worrisome. In the cases of Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party and Netherlands political leader Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom, such problems have been successfully eclipsed. In Germany, the AfD Party seems unable to do the same.
During the recent European Union elections where populist parties won big, the National Rally was particularly successful. Worried about the implications of that victory for his government in Paris, Macron called a snap parliamentary election, hoping that he could duplicate past votes when, faced with the possibility of Le Pen’s party actually gaining power, French voters recoiled from the prospect. But he miscalculated. The anger in France about the failures of Macron’s technocratic government to deal with the economy or the immigration issue led to the public more or less duplicating the results of the E.U. election last weekend, essentially eviscerating Macron’s party.
In response, Macron is trying to pull together a joint effort with the left to prevent National Rally from gaining a parliamentary majority. That would stop Bardella from becoming prime minister. Such a victory for Le Pen’s party would not only be unprecedented but also set her up for what might well be a successful run for the presidency of France in 2027 after Macron finishes his second term in office.
The Jewish dilemma
That leaves French Jews with an interesting dilemma. If they follow the lead of Macron, they will be empowering a left-wing faction that is not merely hostile to Israel but allied to forces that make it impossible for them to continue to live in the country due to justified fears of prejudice and violence. And that is why a great many of them have decided that throwing in with Le Pen is the only rational alternative.
Doing so requires not just disregarding the history of the French right. It also involves embracing the pushback against Islamism that can be branded as illiberal. Le Pen wants to ban the wearing of Muslim headscarves in public—an item of apparel that is considered a symbol of a dangerous shift in the culture of hyper-secular France and a threat to French national identity. In the past, Le Pen has also asked Jews to renounce their right to wear kippahs in public as a necessary sacrifice in order to defeat the threat of Islamism. That’s something the Jewish community can never accept.
We don’t know what a France led by Le Pen or Bardella will look like. Perhaps it will be like Hungary, where the populist right led by Viktor Orbán has proved to be both philo-semitic and pro-Israel despite Hungary’s troubled past. Perhaps not. But with French Jewish life more precarious than at any time since the Holocaust, supporting a party that is intent on rolling back Muslim political influence can be defended as a reasonable choice rather than a betrayal.
It’s easy for liberal Jews, especially those not currently living in Europe, to rule out alliances with groups that are opposed to intolerant Islamist and Marxist parties that present a clear and present threat to Jewish life. But to take such a stand is not so much a defense of liberal values as a refusal to live in the present. European Jewry must deal with the challenges of living in the 21st century rather than the past. Those who condemn French Jews for seeing Le Pen and National Rally as a lifeline are prioritizing the political interests of the left and European political establishments, not those of an embattled Jewish community.
Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS (Jewish News Syndicate). Follow him @jonathans_tobin.
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Trump’s Missed Debate Opportunity
By Sherwin Pomerantz
While the press is full of stories about how badly President Biden performed at last week’s debate with ex-President Trump, I believe that the big mistake was in Trump not extending an olive branch to Biden and showing a bit of humanity. Biden was in need of a helping hand and Trump should have extended it
I will admit I am a fan of Joe Biden’s. I think he is a real mensch, and he has made it possible for us to fight the war with Hamas by providing an unending supply of weaponry to the IDF even though some much needed assistance has, from time to time, been restricted. I also believe that if it were not for him, we would not have been able to successfully conduct the war and a lot more of us would have died as a result.
When I think of Joe Biden, I am reminded of Rabbi Michael Beals, of Temple Beth El in Newark, Delaware who tells the story that in 2003 he was a young rabbi, brand-new to Delaware, on his way to lead a shiva minyan (i.e. prayer service in a house of mourning) for a recently deceased individual by the name of Mrs. Greenhouse. She had lived in rent-controlled senior housing in an apartment too small to fit everyone, so he conducted the minyan in the building’s communal laundry room, in the basement of the high-rise.
Toward the end of the service, a door at the back of the laundry room opened, and who walks in but then Senator Joe Biden, his head lowered, all by himself. Biden stood quietly in the back of the room for the duration of the service. At the close of the service, Beals walked over to him and asked the same question that must have been on everyone else’s mind: “Senator Biden — what are you doing here?”
And he replied: “Listen, back in 1972, when I first ran for Senate, Mrs. Greenhouse gave $18 to my first campaign. Because that’s what she could afford. And every six years, when I’d run for reelection, she’d give another $18. She did it her whole life. I’m here to show my respect and gratitude.”
There were no news outlets at the service that day — no Jewish reporters or important dignitaries. Just a few elderly mourners in a basement laundry room. Joe Biden didn’t come to that service for political gain. He came to that service because he has character. He came to that service because he’s a mensch.
Fast forward to early 2012. I had just undergone spinal surgery and was in Washington, DC in a wheelchair as Israel’s representative to then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Economic Diplomacy Summit along with representatives of 180 other countries with whom the US had diplomatic relations. At the cocktail party on the afternoon of the first day of the conference, then Vice President Biden addressed those assembled after which, as he is wont to do, he worked the crowd.
The State Department employee who was pushing me around moved the wheelchair up to the rope that divided the Vice President from the crowd. As he approached, I started to get out of the chair at which point he looked at me and asked: “What are you doing?” I told him that my mother taught me to rise in the presence of people of national stature. He said: “Stay where you are I’m coming to you.” At that point he bent down and we spoke for a minute or two and you could see the excitement on his face when he found out that I was from Israel. He then spent the remaining time with me extolling the virtues of our wonderful country. A mensch in every way possible to be sure.
Last week at the debate he clearly was not in his best form, he was forgetful, he stumbled over words, lost his train of thought and mixed-up events. For me, it was extremely painful to watch even though I was impressed that someone his age was able to stand there for 90 minutes….I an just a few years older and cannot do that any longer.
But it did open up an opportunity for Trump to display the humanity that many people wonder if he possesses? To be specific, 30 minutes into the debate Trump, realizing that Biden was below zero on performance that evening, could have walked across the stage, put his arm around Biden and said: “Joe, I know you are suffering with a cold and this is not your best night. We don’t have to do this tonight. Why don’t we just stop now and tell the moderators and CNN to re-schedule this for a later date when you are feeling up to par?”
I agree, it would have been extremely out of the ordinary, perhaps wildly out of character for Trump, and totally unexpected by everyone, least of all by Biden. But it would have been a nice thing to have done and would also have raised the image of Trump as a human being with feelings higher than the vision most people have of him, even his supporters.
People will read this and say I am seeking unreachable goals. My response will be that of Indian business person Azim Premji, the former Chairperson of Wipro Limited who said: “If people are not laughing at your goals, your goals are too small.” At the end of the day setting high goals is what makes life worthwhile for all of us.
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'If Israel falls, the West falls': Geert Wilders is Europe's last stand against Islam - opinion
By Peter levin
In December 2010 in Tel Aviv, Wilders said: “Israel is often being mistreated. Israel is not to blame for the hardship of the Palestinians."
Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders speaks to media in The Hague, Netherlands after polls closed in an EU election on June 6, 2024. (photo credit: Lewis Macdonald / Reuters)
Many in Israel have never heard the name Geert Wilders, the leader of the Dutch right-wing Party for Freedom (PVV) that recently stormed the elections in his country. Anyone who reads this article will remember his name. I will discuss him in detail below.
After the world has turned against us, directly due to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his extremist messianic government, the first sparks of hope for change are beginning to emerge. And if this is indeed the case, it is not due to Netanyahu, who is detached and self-interested in his personal affairs - who continues to start fires remotely to keep the justified media fire away from him, but despite him.
Europe has shifted to the right because of Islam. Since October 7, Israel has also moved right. And looking for a sane state-liberal right, which in my view, is represented by Avigdor Lieberman, leader of Yisrael Beytenu. Other than those justifying the terrorist act, such as Gideon Levy, a journalist, and Ofer Cassif, a member of the Knesset for the Joint List, it is difficult to find even left-wing supporters who continue to empathize with the Palestinian militants.
Europeans are beginning to wake up to the occupation - the occupation of their countries by veils, hijabs, sharia laws, and thousands of mosques, increasing crime, and “Free Palestine" demonstrations, because of the opportunity given to Islamist immigrants to settle in their countries who, instead of assimilating into the local customs, insist on being open Islamists even in the countries hosting them, without generalizing. There are, of course, wonderful Muslims who spearhead ‘live and let live’. It goes without saying that alongside a large number of extremist Muslims involved in organizing activities against the modern Western world, there are, of course, many who prefer a quiet and peaceful life - and some of them even voted for Wilders.
There are governments in Europe that have made it clear that anti-Israel protests are equivalent to demonstrations against the country itself. For example - there are almost no Free Palestine demonstrations in the Czech Republic and Austria, but there are demonstrations in support of Israel.
A detailed digital painting of Geert Wilders, a 60-year-old Dutch politician with distinctive silver hair, shown from the side and very close up. (credit: Illustration. DALL·E)
Back to Geert Wilders - an enthusiastic supporter of Israel and a highly fierce critic of Islam, leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV). In the past, his party promised to close mosques and “ban the Koran.”
In the Dutch elections in Holland approximately seven months ago, on November 22, 2023, Wilders pulled a stunning victory when he won a crushing majority with 23% of the votes, giving him 37 of the 150 seats in Parliament. The two parties after him won far fewer 24 and 25 seats. Wilders, riding the waves of exposing the true face of the Islamic immigrants, encountered difficulties in forming a coalition. After six months of negotiations, he recently managed to establish a right-wing government in which he, although not serving as prime minister, will dictate its policy (the government will be sworn in soon. The new prime minister will be Dick Schoof, former head of the Dutch spy agency).
A right-wing victory indicates that Europe is waking up. Too late, but it's terrific. It remains to be hoped that the countries' leaders will be able to implement far-reaching decisions to stem the dangerous tide before it becomes a hostile takeover of their countries. Once they realize that fundamentalist Islam - an extension of the Iranian Satan - aims to kill not only the Jews but also the Christians, they will know what to do, and not in a violent way, God forbid, but through legislation that mandates that anyone wishing to live in the country with them must act accordingly, and any transgression will result in their deportation to their country of origin. There are 57 Islamic and 22 Arab nations.
In May 2024, Geert Wilders said in the Dutch Parliament: “I lived in Israel for a while, a long time ago. Then, it was still from Jordan where the terrorists entered... And then the army... looked where people were, to protect their population.” (In other words, avoid harming innocent people.) ...it’s hatred from these kinds of Islamic groups like Hamas, the Islamic Jihad group, and also Hezbollah. They deny the Jewish State’s right to exist.
Israel does not attack another country and has never attacked another country without first being attacked. Radical Muslims, terrorist scum, are out to destroy the Jewish State and kill its inhabitants.
In December 2010 in Tel Aviv, Wilders said: “Israel is often being mistreated. Israel is not to blame for the hardship of the Palestinians and is therefore not required to resolve the problem of Palestine. The Arab leaders are to blame - and Islam is to blame. So, why are there refugee camps for Palestinians in areas surrounding Israel? Because the Palestinians were not welcomed in the neighboring Arab countries. The refugees were forced into camps and slums, where many of their descendants still linger today. Instead of blaming the inhospitable Arab regimes, many blame Israel.
Israel is "a beacon of light"
Israel, on the other hand, is a beacon of light. It is like a Hanukkah menorah whose lights have been kindled in a region that, until 1948, was engulfed by darkness. Israel is not to blame for the situation in the Middle East. The problem is Islam’s rejection of Israel’s right to exist. Islam, however, conditions Muslims to hate Jews. It is a religious duty to do so. Israel must be destroyed because it is the homeland of the Jews.
The problem is also our Western leaders’ refusal to understand that Israel is the West’s canary in the coal mine: If the Jews are denied the right to live in freedom and peace, soon we will all be denied this right. If the light of Israel is extinguished, we will all face darkness. If Israel falls, the West falls. That is why we are all Israel.
But as long as the West refuses to understand how the Palestinians are used as a weapon against Israel, it will not be able to see who is truly to blame; it will not be able to see that it is not Israel’s duty to provide a Palestinian state for the simple reason that there already is a Palestinian state. That state is Jordan.
Israel, including Judea and Samaria, has been the land of the Jews since time immemorial. Jews had been living in the Jordan Valley for centuries until the Arab invaders drove them out in 1948 when the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan occupied the provinces of Judea and Samaria.
Until 1967, when Israel regained the ancient Jewish heartland of Judea and Samaria, no one, not a single Islamic scholar or Western politician, ever demanded that there be an independent Palestinian state in the so-called West Bank. My friends, let me be obvious: The conflict in the Middle East is not a conflict over territory but rather an ideological battle.
Ideologies must be confronted with the iron will never to give in, “never, never, never – in nothing, great or small, large or petty.” That is the lesson which the world learned from Winston Churchill when he confronted the evil ideology of Nazism.
This conflict here in the Middle East is not about land and borders but about Islamic jihadism opposing Western liberty. No territorial concession on Israel’s part can ever change that.
For the sake of its survival and security, Israel needs defendable borders. A country that is only 15 kilometers wide is impossible to defend. That is the strategic reason why Jews need to settle Judea and Samaria.
Islam threatens not just Israel. Islam threatens the entire world. Without Judea and Samaria, Israel cannot protect Jerusalem. The future of the world depends on Jerusalem. If Jerusalem falls, Athens and Rome - and Paris, London, and Washington - will be next.
Thus, Jerusalem is the central front protecting our common civilization. When the flag of Israel no longer flies over the walls of Jerusalem, the West will no longer be accessible. The world must recognize that there has been an independent Palestinian state since 1946, the Kingdom of Jordan.
And to the Western world, I say: Let us stand with Israel because the Jews have no other state. Let us stand with Israel because the history of our civilization began here, in this land, the homeland of the Jews. Let us stand with Israel because the Jewish state needs defendable borders to secure its survival. Let us stand with Israel because it is the frontline in the battle for the survival of the West.
Israel is the light of freedom. Europeans and Americans must help the Israelis to keep that light shining in the darkness. For Israel’s sake and the sake of all of us.”
Wilders' positions have remained the same and even strengthened since October 7, and thanks to them, he probably won the elections. Simply speaking, Wilders makes it clear that Israel is the West's protective wall against Islam's military takeover of Europe. So, who said there is no hope and chance for the West to become disillusioned? All Israel needs is a massive investment in advocacy and to flood Europe with at least one Geert in every country. This is not Geert-Vet.
The author is a strategic consultant at Peer Levin Communications.
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50 Synagogues Receive Bomb Threats in One Week. When Is It Enough?
I spend a part of my mornings and a good chunk of my Saturdays running errands. It's something I look forward to. I enjoy the mundanity of checking the mail or picking up a box of nails or sprinkler parts. On my way home this morning, I passed the local splash park, which was filled with moms and kids and doubtless already littered with a healthy number of juice boxes, popsicles, and containers of sunblock. That is the kind of sight that eases a man's heart and gives him some semblance of hope that the nation is not quite done for.
Reality is always lurking around the corner or in the back of the mind, no matter how much joy one finds in the simple things in life. And no, I am not talking about the aftermath of the debate, which seems to have found a permanent home in the news cycle.
There is much to celebrate on America's Birthday this year, and you really should give yourself permission to enjoy the day, if for no other reason than to maintain your mental health. And while evil has always found a way to creep into the nation, it has never before been this widespread. It has never been so bald-faced, bold, and pronounced, at least not within the last two decades.
Rabbi Yisroel Spalter at the Chabad of Weston Center for Jewish Life in Weston, Fla., commented, “I think that we find ourselves in difficult times with so much unexpected anti-Semitism that has reared its ugly head ...especially since Oct. 7."
There was a time when such behavior was relegated to a group of skinheads clustered in a basement draped in swastikas. But we have heard antisemitism from elected officials, and we have seen it on the biggest exporters of Jew-hatred, college campuses. However, people such as Alvin Bragg, who are supposed to be promoting the general welfare, have turned blind eyes and deaf ears to the odious behavior of these entitled, uninformed, and radicalized "students" and their accompanying paid protesters.
History is threatening to repeat itself on these shores. I would go so far as to assert that history is already repeating itself here and across Europe. Some of it has been overt, such as on college campuses, and some almost flies under the radar.
The nation grappled with the sin of slavery during the Civil War. It would turn around a relatively short time later (in terms of the rather long arc of history) and take on civil rights and demolish the evils of Jim Crow. Conversely, the reason so many Japanese Americans were herded into internment camps during World War II is that no one wanted to stand up and say, "No, you cannot incarcerate innocent Americans based on their DNA, country of origin, or ancestry."
The bravery displayed during the Civil War and the struggle for civil rights was absent when the U.S. government began rounding people up. Yes, there was a war on, and a global one, at that. But a "greater good" should never serve as an excuse for evil.
If, indeed, there are truths that we hold to be self-evident, and you know which ones I mean, now is not the time to remain silent.
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One injured after Hezbollah fires 200 rockets towards northern Israel
For over an hour and a half, Hezbollah has been launching UAVs and rockets towards northern Israel, in response to Israel's elimination of a top terrorist.
The barrage on northern Israel
A series of sirens which began at 10:00a.m. Thursday morning has continued nearly incessantly for over an hour and a half, as Hezbollah launches dozens of UAVs and rockets towards Israeli territory.
The launches are aimed at various locations in northern Israel, and included rockets which crossed into Israel, in addition to the UAVs.
One man of about 20 suffered severe injuries in barrage, which Hezbollah claimed included over 200 rockets and about 20 UAVs.
Though the rockets fell in open areas, shrapnel from an interception fell in an Akko (Acre) mall.
Firefighters are now working together with the Nature and Parks Authority to extinguish the fires which broke out following the launches.
It is believed that the launches were a response to the elimination of a top Hezbollah terrorist on Wednesday.
The IDF confirmed: "Following the sirens that sounded in northern Israel, numerous projectiles and suspicious aerial targets crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory. The IDF Aerial Defense Array and the IAF operated to intercept them and successfully intercepted several targets and projectiles. As a result of UAVs and shrapnel from the interceptions falling in the area, fires broke out in a number of areas in northern Israel. The Israel Fire and Rescue Services are currently operating to extinguish the fires."
"Following the sirens that sounded in the area of Ilaniya regarding a hostile aircraft infiltration at 10:36, it was determined to be a false alarm.
"The IDF is currently striking launch posts in southern Lebanon."
Later, the IDF reported that a total of 160 rockets were launched from Lebanon, and 15 UAVs crossed into Israeli territory, most of which were intercepted.
On Wednesday afternoon, Abu Ali Nasser, the commander of the Hezbollah terrorist organization's Aziz unit, was killed along with another individual in an airstrike on a vehicle in Tyre, Lebanon by an Israeli UAV.
Hezbollah later confirmed that Ali Nasser was assassinated. The IDF also confirmed the airstrike.
"Earlier today (Wednesday), the IDF eliminated the terrorist Muhammad Neamah Naser, the commander of the Hezbollah terrorist organization’s Aziz Unit which is responsible for firing from southwestern Lebanon at Israeli territory," the IDF stated.
"Muhammad Neamah Naser entered his position in 2016 and led the firing of rockets and anti-tank missiles from southwestern Lebanon toward Israeli civilians, communities, and security forces. Furthermore, Naser directed a large number of terror attacks toward Israel both during and before the war, and he previously held several central roles within the Hezbollah terrorist organization."
Naser was the counterpart of Sami Taleb Abdullah, the commander of the Nasser Unit, who was eliminated last month. Together, they served as two of the most significant Hezbollah terrorists in southern Lebanon.
Lebanese media reported that following the assassination, Hezbollah fired about 50 rockets at northern Israel in retaliation.
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