of 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 lebanon. for example, we have breaking news

today that explosive devices masquerading 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 beirot. and zakir ahmed, 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, of if you could please give us a quick update on how the clashes between hezballah and israel

has escalated to what we saw today and then we will delve into the different dimensions of these clashes. well, the clashes 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 israeli cyber attack where the page is exploded. uh, this indeed bears the homemarks of massacer, a full-fledged massacre. uh, 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, i hope i'm mistaken, will be probably left blind, um, some with their arms amputated or their hands amputated. so again

this is a full-fledged massaca uh israel has taken the um 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 uh 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 of 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 hazbullah will retaliate, hazballah possibly does has it have its own cyber capabilities, we have to see how that will unfold, but 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... 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 nine-year-old girl that was killed among the first uh casualties that were uh announced. and one of the first that was

pronounced dead was a 10-year-old girl, and we also do know that number of other civilians were affected by these. explosions as we received footage from social media, so uh, 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 gaza. in ghazza, the tactic is to hold the population to ransom, to keep unbelievable amounts of suffering upon the garzan people in the hope of breaking the spirit and resilience of the resistance. in this particular instance, it's an incredibly sophisticated. gated operation and it's definitely not just done by the israelis and the mosad 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 was spotted off the coast of lebanon uh 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 leave around 3000 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 hazballa, 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, and uh, israel security service said in a statement on the 17th of september today, that it thorted hezbolah plan to assassinate a former official with an explosive device, uh, how does that fit? in to the bigger picture, well not only did he say that, he also said the shinbait also said that hazbullah was responsible for an operation which took place last september, september 2023, they now 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 uh, first and foremost uh netanyahu is accused of being weak when dealing with hazballah, he's being accused by the israeli population by others, there are some figures like benny gance, the former member of the world cabinet, one of uh netanyahu's 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 mr. 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 parts of the strategy? you have to remember that the americans have been very vocal against an all out military war. 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 uh, 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, uh, we do have to wait and see what happens, but i think you know 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's not weak towards hazballah 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 hezballah and israel what could that mean for israel how many wars can it fight at the same time is already fighting a war in gaza so uh zakir what is your opinion well the war in in 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, it moved into the degrading the capabilities of the resistance, and even that is assumption when you look at israely. 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 magnet for anti-tank fire, the 105 strikes, buildings, tunnels, etc. nedzarim, they are trying extremely hard to broad in nezarim 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 the preparation is now for the north, the biggest issue for israel right now is not gaza, the biggest is israeli issue as has. the approximately 100 thous 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 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... 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 is... will inevitably. okay, so andy, 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 for a full-scale war uh on lebanon. um, that is, you're asking me about lebanon right, not on gaza. we're talking about gaza now, oh sorry, regarding the situation in gaza, um, yeah, again, the more this war goes on, the more the americans, i believe, stand to lose, the americans have been saying, i think since the start, since the opening months, that um, you're 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 also to israeli

interests, and in this particular case, i think that the americans are showing that they care more for more for israely interesting. 'the israel is care uh for their own interests, but i don't believe that um 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 uh netanyahu has outsmarted and has basically outwitted uh biden, he knows that biden is in a weak position, he knows that you know we're in election here, he knows the strength of 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 uh the added goal of netanyahu to return 60,000 displaced

israelies 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 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 in lunan or syria, the golan or in gaza. "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 uh this title within the israeli public, the discourses that is we, if if netanyahu was what he said that he was, he would be able to return us 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 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, i think the attrition war is going to continue, this is going 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 preserves, the depletion of munitions that have been resupplied now by the united states, but that too will fade eventually, and i think that

long term picture is what the resistance access is looking at. okay, so... "i saw that you were nodding uh, i believe that you agree with zakar, so let's bring hizbullah in this whole uh equation now, how do you assess uh israel's policy toward hazbollah, are they trying to eliminate hazbollah in order to achieve those goals? is this something that could practically happen, and how do you assess hezbollah's capabilities and uh sustaining retaliatory attacks." "i think that israel would like to eliminate hizbillah, there's no doubt about that, but i think if you look at the way israel has behaved 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 a full-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'. staff who was the highest, most senior american general, charles brown, in june he said basically to the israelis, 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 are 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... 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 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

uh the hoothies use the hypersonic missile targeting i think that it's safe to say hazballah possesses at least that much 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 all so 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 of 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 ris. writer and political analyst joining us live from beirot and zakir ahmad attorney and activist and political analyst 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 tinies and how they were treated in nice manner. fighters of a private army in the middle." midle east, the myth of the war on terrorism by terrorism, the adventure of the most horrifying terrorist organization in the world, claiming to grant

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the havine holds israel responsible. for the pajor explosions in lebanon, saying the regime will certainly receive a just punishment for its crime. condemnations pour in following the israeli terrorist attack in lebanon that caused simultaneous explosions in multiple occasions and israeli strikes kill more palestinian women and children across gaza as the death toll...