Biden: Nasrallah’s Death ‘Justice for His Many Victims’

September 30, 2024

by: Joshua Spurlock ~ Middle East Update

Monday, 30 September 2024 | US President Joe Biden on Saturday called the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah “a measure of justice for his many victims”, while a former Trump Administration Presidential advisor has gone further by calling for Israel to finish defeating Hezbollah while they have the opportunity. Israel assassinated Nasrallah on Friday in what marks the most dramatic moment in the 11-month conflict with Hezbollah. President Biden noted Nasrallah deserved what happened to him in an official statement published to the White House website.

“Hassan Nasrallah and the terrorist group he led, Hezbollah, were responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade reign of terror. His death from an Israeli airstrike is a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis, and Lebanese civilians,” said President Biden.

The US leader noted that Hezbollah started the current fight with Israel, making the “fateful decision” to join Hamas in attacking Israel in October last year. He reiterated America “fully supports” Israel’s right to defend itself against Hezbollah and other Iran-backed terror groups, but also restated that “it is time” for the conflict to be resolved diplomatically.

Despite the comments about justice for American victims, the US was not partner to the killing of Nasrallah. Separately on Friday, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin clarified in comments published to the Department of Defense website that the US was “not involved” in the Nasrallah assassination and only learned of the operation after it was underway.

US Vice President Kamala Harris, who is also running to replace Biden as the next US president, published a similar statement to Biden’s on the White House website. She said Nasrallah had “American blood on his hands” and “led to the killing of countless innocent people” around the world. She also called diplomacy “the best path forward” for protecting civilians and providing regional stability.

However, former Presidential Advisor Jared Kushner—a key player in the Abraham Accords process that saw Israel sign peace agreements with multiple Arab neighbors—sees a better path to prosperity in the Middle East: An unrestrained Israel allowed to finish Hezbollah.

Kushner, who hadn’t written a post to X (formerly Twitter) since March, issued a lengthy argument in multiple posts that called for the US to tell Israel to take this stunning opportunity while they can. Wrote Kushner, “Anyone who has been calling for a ceasefire in the north is wrong. There is no going back for Israel. They cannot afford now to not finish the job and completely dismantle the arsenal that has been aimed at them. They will never get another chance.”

Kushner, who is also the son-in-law to former-US President Donald Trump, said the recent “brilliant, rapid-fire tactical successes” by Israel in the pager attack and subsequent assassinations of Hezbollah’s leadership have the terror group in disarray. And not just them.

“Iran is now fully exposed” wrote Kushner. “The reason why their nuclear facilities have not been destroyed, despite weak air defense systems, is because Hezbollah has been a loaded gun pointed at Israel. Iran spent the last forty years building this capability as its deterrent…Iran is reeling, as well, insecure and unsure how deeply its own intelligence has been penetrated. Failing to take full advantage of this opportunity to neutralize the threat is irresponsible.”

He said he has spent “countless hours” studying Hezbollah and “there is not an expert on earth who thought that what Israel has done to decapitate and degrade them was possible.” To illustrate his point of the degree to which Hezbollah has been diminished, he noted dryly of Hezbollah fighters, “Anyone still around was not important enough to carry a pager or be invited to a leadership meeting.”

Kushner, in his comments, included a profound vision of hope for the Middle East. “Today, with the confirmed killing of Nasrallah and at least 16 top commanders eliminated in just nine days, was the first day I started thinking about a Middle East without Iran’s fully loaded arsenal aimed at Israel. So many more positive outcomes are possible.

“…The philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy wrote on X, ‘I keep reading everywhere that Lebanon is ‘on the brink of collapse.’ No. It is on the brink of relief and deliverance.’ Moments like this come once in a generation, if they even come at all. The Middle East is too often a solid where little changes. Today, it is a liquid and the ability to reshape is unlimited. Do not squander this moment.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems to sense the moment as well. In his public comments, published and translated into English by Israel, the Israeli leader said on Saturday night, “All those who oppose the axis of evil, all those who are fighting under the violent dictatorship of Iran and its proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Iran itself and other places, they are all filled with hope today.

“I say to the citizens of those countries: Israel stands with you. And to the ayatollahs’ regime I say: Those who strike us, we strike them.”

Posted on September 30, 2024

Source: (This article was originally published by the Middle East Update on September 29, 2024. Time-related language has been modified to reflect our republication today.)

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore/Flickr.com

Photo License: Flickr