a tale of disloyalty and shame, sorrows and miseries. get ready to be moved, inspired and forever changed by the extraordinary story of muhammad riza salavati. hello and welcome to spotlight where we bring you breaking news from the heart of global affairs. now today, our main topic is the clashes. between hazballah and israel, and

we're delving into tragic events unfolding in of lebanon. for example, we had breaking news today that explosive devices, maskerading as pagers have been unleashing chaos and claiming the lives and uh overburdening the hospitals. now, in order to discuss that further, we're joined by two of our guests. ali risk, writer and political analyst joining us live from beyrut and zakir ahmad, also political analyst joining us from johannesburg. thank you very much to both of you gentlemen, let's begin with ali risk who is joining us live from beirot, from the heart. of what's happening right now, uh,

ali, if you could please give us a quick update on how the clashes between heizballah and israel has escalated to what we saw today, and then we will delve into the different dimensions of these clashes. well, the clushes of course are ongoing, have been on escalatory spiral if you would like, but the main event, the the issue everyone is focusing on is this latest uh is ready. cyber attack where the page has exploded, this indeed b bears the homemarks of massacer, a full-fledged massacker, as you mentioned, we have thousands of injuries in addition to nine deaths, unfortunately, i think that those that number nine is going to rise from now until the coming hours, possibly the coming days, from what i've heard, many of the injuries are facial injuries, those many of those who won't be killed, unfortunately will be probably or... by mistaken, we

probably left blind, um, some with their arms amputated or their hands amputated, so again this is a full-fledged massicr, israel has taken the the the clashes or the confrontation to a whole new level uh with this attack, but i think that uh something important is that it appears that israel is resorting to the security kind of war rather than the full-fledged military. war which everyone has been warning about, meaning that um, just after the israelis said that one of their goals in the north would be the return of the settlers who were forced to evacuate their settlements due to the cross border fire of hazballah, israel has announced that one of its goals is to return these people, but it hasn't resorted yet, the first step it took after that particular announcement was this attack, the this cyber attack or... i

don't what you want to call it, edward snowden has has a theory saying that some explosives were actually placed within the pages themselves, but in any case i think that this this has taken the situation to a whole new level, we have to wait and see how hazballah will retaliate, hazballah possibly does has it have its own cyber capabilities, we have to see how that will unfold, but um this is something which came as a surprise as a shock. everyone, i think it's the first cyber attack of its kind, i believe the world has yet to have witnessed. okay, so let's bring in our guest from johannesburg, um, sir, we've seen the same strategy in gaza as well, when israel is not achieving its goals and objectives, it starts attacking ordinary civilians, and now today, this is exactly what we witnessed happening in beirot, we have. have nine-year-old girl that was killed

among the first uh casualties that were announced and one of the first that was pronounced death. was a 10-year-old girl and we also do know that number of other uh civilians were affected by these explosions as we received footage from social media, so do you believe that israel is uh doing the same thing it's doing in gaza now in lebanon simply because it is not able to achieve the objectives that it had in mind, i think there's two parts to this, the first is that we must understand the israeli view of the people around them, and that is very clear from the statements of individuals like your galant when he referred to palestinians as human animals, this is no different to the lebanese, to the people of syria, to the people of the islamic republic of iran or the people of yemen. this is the manner in which

the israeli administration regime, and unfortunately a large part of the population in israel views their neighbors, so... "when you have casualties that are civilian, this is of no consequence to them, they do not differentiate between military and civilian at all. when you look at the purpose of this operation, i don't believe that it is tactic to punish the civilian population to pressure hazballah, as we see in gazza. in ghazza, the tactic is to hold the population to ransom, to keep unbelievable amounts of suffering upon. the garden people in the hope of breaking the spirit and resilience of the resistance. in this particular instance, it's an incredibly sophisticated operation, and it's definitely not just done by the israelis and the mossad in 8200, the signal intelligence units and aman, it's going to be

done tandem with other operators and if we look at the flight patterns, what happened 22 hours ago was that there were two american aircraft that is spotted off the coast of lebanon, this is electronic warfare, ec 138 aircraft from the united states and these have been utilized to scramble networks, to invade networks etc. and there's a very interesting article dating back to 2015 about this capability, so we can't miss this coincidence and that hours later we have this massive attack. "i think what is very concerning is the timing of the attack, what is the purpose? if we look at the figures, the figures that are most recent, i believe around 300 injured, 250 critical, nine marters, this if we view it that this was a

target operation against hazballah, it's not just soldiers, it's those that form part of the structures of hazbullah, those that are part of civilian infrastructure as well, and when you look at this attack..." why now? i think that's the biggest question that's mulling in our minds: are we preparing to see a ground invasion, is it something else? where the israel is about to be discovered, i think that requires unpacking. okay, you're saying why now, and something else that has happened at the same time, which doesn't seem to be a simple coincidence, i uh, israel's shinbet security service said in a statement on the 17th of september today, that it thorted a... has bull plan to assassinate a former official with an explosive device, how does that fit in to the bigger picture? well, not only did he say that, he also said the shinbait also said that hazballah was

responsible for an operation which took place last september, september 2023, they not made that announcement today alongside the announcement you just referred to, so it seems that um what is happening is that they're focusing on hazbullah as being a security threat, a threat to former officials, a general security threat. now as to the question which was posed by my colleague, why now? i think there are a number of factors. first and foremost uh netanyahu is accused of being weak when dealing with hizballah, he's being accused by the israeli population by others, there are some figures like benny guns, the former member of the world cabinet, one of uh domestic opponents who has been calling for escalation against hazballah, so i think that netanyahu might have found that uh, in order to deflect this criticism away, he carried out this operation to say, look, i'm able of inflicting heavy blows on hazballah, look

what i did, now i think the big question is, is this only an isolated or just incident for netanyahu to silence his critics and to prove himself as being? security because that is how he used to be described before october 7, or is this part of a broader campaign which would include a military confrontation as well, does it complement other? part of a strategy, you have to remember that the americans have been very vocal against an all-out military war uh on lebanon, on the lebanese israeli front, they said that time and again, so will the americans be more accepting of of kind of security warfare which israel could wage? what the americans have been saying is that israel will probably not be able to deal with hazballah alone if there were to be a military... confrontation, but now security wise, especially given the very huge capabilities which israel has when

it comes to cyber warfare, maybe that might be the pre preferred israeli option. it's also possible, again it's possible, i'm not sure that it might be the preferred american option. now the americans, i think i was reading a statement just before i came into the studio, they said we had nothing to do with this operation, we do have to wait and see what happens, but i think we have. to uh look at how this figures in again, is it just a way for netanyahu to prove his security credentials to show that he is not weak towards hazbullah, or is this indeed part of a broader strategy in the next phase of much bigger escalation on this front? okay, so if there is escalation between hazbillah and israel, what could that mean for israel, how many wars can it fight at the same time? it's already... fighting a war in gaza, so zakar, what is your opinion? well, the war in in

gaza has been a complete failure if we look at the israeli military sources, they are admitting that none of the objectives have been completed or achieved. in fact if we look at what was stated initially that they were going to uproot hamas, were going to completely remove the resistance from the ghaza strip, this objective moved into something else, moved into the degrading of the capabilities of the resistance, and even that is assumption when you look at israeli military statements, they say they have degraded the capability of hamas of islamic jihad of the various factions, and yet you see consistently ambushes, you have video footage bearing testament to the fact that they are bleeding in ghazza, they are finding it extremely difficult to hold to the philadelphia corridor which is becoming a mag it uh for anti-tank fire, the y 105 strikes,

trap buildings, tunnels, etc. and netzzarim, they're trying extremely hard to broad in nedzarim and it's not working, if we look at that, and we understand that's a failure, the israelies have no military answer to razza, what they are doing now is they downscaling their capabilities within gaza, resting their troops, trying to cycle them and preparation is now for the north, the biggest issue for israel right now is not gaza, the biggest is israeli issue as hasballah, the approximately 100 thousand settlers that have been pushed out from the north need to be returned, it's the start of the schooling year very soon, this is major concern for israel, economically it's hembraging and they are not at a recession but the economy is shrinking and this is huge problem for them, so the only... way that they can achieve some sort of victory is to do these theatrical

operations, we saw it with hodeda, we see it now with the pages in lubnan, and we must also place this within the context of what has happened, they were hit with a hypersonic missile from yemen, so all of these factors indicate to us that israel is trying desperately to regain the confidence of their people, however i do believe that they are trying to draw lebanon into a war. particularly hazballah with the hopes of reestablishing an american presence within the region for their own protection, the access of resistance is very clear on this, they find extremely hard to avoid a situation of that nature, because it would do on, it would rather undo all the years of work, the work to remove and uproot the americans from the middle east, so these are the two wearing positions that are now being weighed up and being fought and we we hope that this doesn't lead to a large scale regional war, i believe that hazballah will continue with the war

vitrition which israel will inevitably. okay, so and in that case, do you see a strategic significance in the us onvoice warning to netanyahu regarding the continuation of the war in gaza? well, the americans from day one have been very vocal, as i said before, in opposition, they declared opposition. we're talking about gaza now. sorry regarding the situation in gaza, um uh, yeah, again, the more this war goes on, the more the americans, i believe stand to lose, um, the americans have been saying, i think since the start, since the opening months, that um, your risking tactical success, but at the same time a strategic defeat, especially the military personnel, defense secretary lloyd

austin made those statements, um, this is doing damage to american interests, it's doing damage ironically. to israeli interests and in this particular case, i think that the americans are showing that they care more for more for israeli interest and the israelis care uh for their own interests, but i don't believe that whatever the warnings the americans give to israel that israel will heat to these warnings, i think that in gaza at least we're going to see a continuing escalation, natanyahu has outsmarted and has basically outwitted uh biden, he... that biden is in a weak position, he knows that, we're in election here, he knows the strength the pro israeli lobby in washington, so he knows that basically washington will not take a firm, tangible stance, a real stance opposing such a war, so for the time being in gaza at least, i think that uh this situation is going to continue. okay, and with that

continuing, let's add the added goal of netanyahu to return 60,000. displaced israelis to their homes uh as he suggested. um, is this a shift in israel's objectives in gaza? zakir. i don't think so. i think that israel has consistently worked on the concept of defensible borders. it's always been a sticking point in any negotiations uh for the establishment of the palestinian state. for the first time, however, we are seeing that the buffer zone is now within israeli territory. not on the zones of for example or syria, the golan or in ghazza, and this is tremendously painful for the israelis to to witness, and it goes together with my colleague ali what he said about mr. security losing this, this title within the israeli public, the discourses that is weak, if if

natanyahu was what he said that he was, he would be able to return. as to the north and we would have security as well has made sure that those settlers would not return in after today's attack i really am of the opinion that it is going to be impossible for those settlers to return. i think there will be increase escalation but the pace of increase will be dictated to hezballah and i don't believe that you will see a regional war unless israel is stupid enough to embark on invasion of the plan, i think the attritian war is going to continue, this is going to part of the tritian war is to keep the settlers out of their homes, burdening the the system, keeping them out of the economy, and this increases the pressure internally, the pressure cooker will continue, and this will break the internal system of israel together with the increased burden on

preservers, the depletion of munitions that have been resupplied now by the united states, but that... to will fade eventually, and i think that long term picture is what the resistance access is looking at. okay, so i, i saw that you were nodding uh, i believe that you agree with zakir, so let's bring hizbillah in this whole equation now, how do you assess uh israel's policy toward hazbollah, are they trying to eliminate hezbulah in order to achieve those goals? is this something that could practically? happen and how do you assess hezballah's capabilities in uh sustaining retaliatory attacks? i think that israel would like to eliminate hizballah, there's no doubt about that, but i think if you look at the way israel has behave during this war um, they it appears that they don't, they are not ready to go ahead with a full-scale war, absent the

backing of the americans, i'm talking about four scale war against hazballah, and the americans have been clear. that they're not ready to back israel in a full-scale war against hazballah. i recall a statement which was made by the joint chief of staff, the american joint chief of staff who is the highest, most senior american general, charles brown, in june he said basically to the israelies, we won't be able to protect you uh in case of a mil missile barrage coming from the lebanese front. uh, that's the statements which are being made by senior military officials, uh, so israel's options. limited, that might be one of the reasons why it resorted to this method which we saw today, instead of launching a full-scale war, it resorted to a cyber war tactic or security war, incidentally, "this won't achieve anything in terms of allowing the residents to return. what it will achieve, it it might um improve the image of netanyahu in front of the israeli public, and i think that

netanyahu is focusing lot on that particular perspective. uh, in light of what hazballah, the capabilities hazballah possesses, we saw that the hoothies use the hypersonic missile, targeting tel aviv, i think that it's safe to say hazballah possesses at least that..." capabilities, if not more, and i think it's likely it possesses much more than that, so hazballah is a force to be reckoned with, we have to wait and see also, as i alluded before, what kind of cyber warfare capabilities hazballah has. hazballah is often described as the most strongest non-state actor in the world, so it wouldn't be surprising if it had significant cyber warfare capabilities, maybe not as much the as the israelis, but possibly enough to inflict some serious damage. on the opposing side, thank you very much, we would love to continue this conversation, but unfortunately we're running out of time, that was ali risk, writer and political analyst joining us live

from beirot and zakir ahmad, attorney and activist and political analys joining us from johannesburg, thank you very much to both of you gentlemen for joining us on this edition of spotlight and thanks to all of you viewers for watching this edition, we're the big bad americans, the laws don't apply to us, get out of our way. black water is a company that we contracted out to in iraq and afghanistan, many parts of the world. did your people ever kill innocent civilian? it's entirely possible. where is freedom? where are human rights? "there's a instance of the tainees and how they were treated in nice manner, fighters of a private army in the middle east, the myth of the war on terrorism

by terrorism, the adventure of the most horrifying terrorist organization in the world, claiming to grant freedom to the people of a country. they don't care about the men they hire, the only thing they care about is the money." مردم اینجا می بافن مثل یک سبد و داخل این دیوار ها کار می گذارن غروبه و وقت جمع شدن گله به سمت روستای نابه انقدر خوب خوابیدن دیشب که

حد و اندازه نداشت یکی از بهترین خوابایی بود که تو عمرم توی طبیعت داشتم. where the landscape is in touch with the quiet of the sky, there is sight for sore eyes. iran tratar, haraman.

this week we explored the surprising results of jordan's recent parliamentary elections where the muslim brotherhood has made unprecedented gains, reshaping the political landscape and raising questions about the future balance of power. then we shift focus to the israeli entity where resignations in

the intelligence and police sectors are stiring. controversy, we'll analyze the implications of these high profile exits following hesbollah's recent attacks on unit 8200 and other key targets. don't miss this comprehensive look at how these events are influencing regional dynamics, victories in jordan, resignations in tel aviv, this week on the mediast stream.

you're pressing your headlines has below holds. israel responsible for explosions of pageers in lebanon, the regime will certainly receive a just punishment for its crime. iran strongly condemns israel's terrorist operation in lebanon as a grave violation of international law, calling for international prosecution of the perpetrators and israely forces continue targeting palestinian civilians across gaza, this time killing several people in.