Hezbollah & IDF Trade Fire Amid Nominal Ceasefire, As Trump Says Iran Deal Coming 'Over Next Week'

Hezbollah & IDF Trade Fire Amid Nominal Ceasefire, As Trump Says Iran Deal Coming 'Over Next Week'

TYLER DURDEN

Various regional and international reports have documented serious ongoing fighting in Lebanon, despite President Trump the day prior having declared that the shooting will cease and that Hezbollah and Israel were forging a limited ceasefire. Trump had said of both sides that "they agreed that all shooting will stop" - after Iran announcing it had suspended peace talks with the US over Israeli military action in Lebanon.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did affirm he would adhere to the agreement, and reports say that planned new airstrikes on Beirut were called off, but he also warned the attacks on the capital would go ahead "if Hezbollah does not stop attacking our cities and civilians" - and that forces in the south would continue operating.

BBC has freshly written that "While the ceasefire appears to be largely holding, there was further violence overnight." The same report details:

Hezbollah said its fighters had targeted Israeli tanks in the southern Lebanese towns of Haddatha and Bayada with missiles and shells. The Israeli military said it had intercepted two projectiles that had been fired from Lebanon in the early hours of Tuesday. No injuries have been reported.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported Israeli strikes on several southern areas and said a "very violent" explosion from a large-scale demolition rocked the town of Debbine.

Tuesday has witnessed some ongoing attacks on south Lebanon, as well as Hezbollah drone attacks on Israeli troop positions, wounding some. According to some of the latest from Al Jazeera:

Israeli forces have carried out multiple air raids on the city of Nabatieh, one of the largest in southern Lebanon, our colleagues on the ground report. The city, a strategic hub for Hezbollah, has been encircled by Israeli forces in recent days as troops continue pushing north.

Israeli attacks were also reported across the wider Nabatieh district as Israel deepens its occupation of surrounding areas. Drones hit the towns of Kafr Sir and Aabba, while a strike targeted the road leading to Houmine al-Fawqa. The outskirts of Yahmour al-Shaqif were also hit.

There's also been a lot of explosions in the southern city of Tyre, with Israeli jets active in the airspace above on Tuesday. And rescuers have recovered six bodies from another town, with Lebanese civil defense agency having said in a statement: "Since yesterday evening and continuing until this morning … personnel have been carrying out search and rescue operations in a residential building that was targeted in the town of Marwaniyah – Sidon district."

Hezbollah's fiber-optic drone attacks have at the same time not ceased: "Two Israeli soldiers have been wounded in a Hezbollah drone attack in southern Lebanon, the military says, describing their injuries as minor," Al Jazeera reports Tuesday. This is after "Two other Israeli soldiers were killed over the weekend, also in drone attacks, bringing to 26 the number of soldiers killed since fighting escalated three months ago. Four Israeli civilians have also been killed."

President Trump's angry dressing down of Netanyahu may have had very limited effect, it appears. To review, per Axios during a Monday call Trump was reportedly heard cussing at the Israeli leader and essentially 'steamrolled' him - angry over breaking the Lebanon truce and demanding that Israel's military not attack Beirut.

There's been some reaction from Iran to the Axios report, with Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi having remarked, "In this regard, the US president’s claim of having dissuaded Netanyahu from launching a major attack on Beirut is more than a sign of Washington’s peace-seeking, it’s confirmation of America’s direct role in managing the Zionist regime’s aggressions."

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Lies, Innuendo and Misinformation: Five Current Hoaxes Pushed Daily

Five greatest hoaxes Palestinian supporters mistakenly believe

James Sinkinson

Like American mainstream media, supporters of Palestinians are mostly “progressives”—leftist Democrats and independents, and young people, ages 20 to 35. Indeed, the Gallup poll reveals that 65% of Democrats, 41% of Independents, and 53% of Americans aged 18 to 34 side with the Palestinians over Israel.

Specifically, according to polls, the top five reasons most Americans support Palestinians over Israel include:

1. Humanitarian empathy for victims of the Gaza conflict;
2. Perceptions of Israeli occupation and a power imbalance;
3. The cause’s alignment with progressive values;
4. Opposition to US foreign policy and aid; and
5. Support for a two-state solution.

However well-meaning supporters of the Palestinians may be—and however noble their reasons sound on the surface—the truth is, these justifications are hoaxes: misinformation, fantasies and outright slanders. In short, progressives who support Palestinians are either at best victims of massive media propaganda or, at worst, themselves authors of anti-Israel slanders, such as The New York Times.

Hoax #1: The humanitarian crisis and civilian suffering in Gaza. Media would have Americans believe that Israel killed more than 70,000 innocents (mostly women and children) in Gaza and caused the starvation of tens of thousands more—adding up to a cruel, disproportionate and unnecessary response to Hamas’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Disgracefully, such media reports seldom mention that Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza ensued only because the Palestinians started it, as they have started every war with Israel, as part of their 78-year campaign to destroy the Jewish state.

The media also fail to note that the Gaza death toll includes some 35,000 Hamas fighters and represents what experts call the lowest ratio of civilians to fighters—about 1:1—in military history. Finally, while the media hammer unsubstantiated reports of “imminent starvation” in Gaza, they ignore the fact that hunger never reached starvation levels, largely because Israel delivered some two million tons of humanitarian aid to Gazan civilians. They also forget to mention that huge amounts of aid were stolen by Hamas and sold for a profit on the black market to their own people at exorbitant prices.

Hoax #2: Palestinians live under Israeli occupation. The media rarely ever tells Americans historical facts about the land of Israel, especially that the Romans renamed it “Palestine” in 135 CE, hundreds of years before Arabs arrived there. Nor do they clarify that before Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, no Israeli—civilian or military—had set foot in Gaza since 2005. For 18 years, Gazans were self-governing. While Israelis live in Judea and Samaria (aka the West Bank) with Palestinians, none of this territory “belongs” to the Palestinians; it is legally disputed land. In fact, there has never been a country called “Palestine,” nor have the Palestinians ever held sovereignty anywhere. Israel governs part of this territory according to the Oslo Accords, signed by the Palestinian Authority, but the Palestinians rule themselves on all civil and security issues day to day in most of this territory. In short, it’s a lie that Palestinians live under Israeli “occupation.”

Hoax #3: US foreign policy and military aid are biased against the Palestinians. American media virtually never mention that the United States has, on numerous occasions, negotiated with the Palestinians and Israel to establish a Palestinian state. In the years 2000, 2001 and 2008, the United States presented generous offers to the Palestinians, granting them independent territory in almost all of Judea and Samaria, and a capital in Jerusalem. More recently, Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump offered to help the Palestinians form a state, but the Palestinians refused all offers. Instead, they renewed their terrorist campaigns and rocket attacks on Israel and were later joined by the Iranian terrorist proxy group, Hezbollah from Lebanon. US military aid to Israel has been motivated by efforts of jihadists over the decades to attack American military and to destroy Israel. Such aid to Israel is used exclusively for defensive actions.

Hoax #4: The Palestinian cause aligns with progressive identity-based values. Ultra-leftists divide the world into “oppressed” people and “oppressors.” Not only do progressives consider people of color (like Palestinians) oppressed, but they also consider LGBTQ+ people and women generally to be oppressed. Mainstream media never point out the irony—that Palestinians are some of the least progressive people on earth, since they oppose all non-Muslims (no matter their color) and all LGBTQ people. Palestinian culture also staunchly denies personal and civil liberties to women, treating them as property of men. Studies have also ranked Palestinians as the most antisemitic people in the world.

Hoax #5: The Palestinian goal is to form an independent state alongside Israel. Legacy media never reveal the true political goals of the Palestinian Arabs because they contradict the progressive narrative. Ask yourself: Have you ever heard of a Palestinian leader who speaks in favor of two states for two peoples and who demands a “two-state solution”? You haven’t, because the Palestinians—whether radical Hamas or the “moderate” PA—have one goal only: to end the State of Israel. The spoken and published words of Palestinian leaders, both secular and religious, consider Israel an occupier of Muslim land. Indeed, polls confirm the majority of Palestinians reject the two-state solution. Progressives who insist Israel is preventing a two-state solution are perpetuating a hoax.

American support for the Palestinians is a hoax—a product of both traditional and social media. They parrot the narrative of Israel’s enemies—the lie depicting the Palestinians as an innocent people fighting to free their indigenous land from colonialist Jews. Although this fictional narrative appeals to many uninformed progressives, it has no factual basis.

Hezbollah's Lebanese deep state is the weak link Israel must exploit

Hezbollah's Lebanese deep state is the weak link Israel must exploit

Shachar Kleiman

The terrorist organization is once again setting an equation for Israel, believing it can wear it down and that Tehran will come to its aid. Alongside a ground maneuver, Israel will again need surprises to achieve victory. In addition to the military effort, it must strike Hezbollah's "deep state" and remove the elements cooperating with it.

About two and a half years after Hezbollah opened a front against Israel, its replacement leadership has repeated the same strategic mistakes that led to its defeat in 2024.

On Oct. 8, 2023, the terrorist organization began launching attacks at northern Israel in an effort to impose an equation: a false calm in exchange for a ceasefire in Gaza that would preserve the full Hamas threat and not include a hostage deal. Hezbollah was also working then to wear Israel down while benefiting from the evacuation of masses of residents.

In Dahiyeh, Hezbollah believed that fear of the Lebanese quagmire would lead the leadership in Jerusalem to surrender to its dictates and live with the threat of invasion. In other words, to accept life inside the "ring of fire" while Tehran advanced its project to obtain a nuclear bomb.

Nevertheless, Israel broke Hassan Nasrallah's equation. The ground maneuver, the pager operations, the assassinations of Hezbollah's leaders and other operations all led the organization to accept a ceasefire on terms that were bad from its perspective. The fighting in Gaza continued, the Israel Defense Forces continued to hold five control points in southern Lebanon, and strikes against Hezbollah terrorists continued.

Beyond that, a new, pro-Western leadership arose in Lebanon, one that was willing to cooperate in disarming Hezbollah, and not only in the area south of the Litani River.

Some 15 months have passed since that agreement, and Hezbollah returned on March 2 with a new set of demands: The IDF must withdraw completely from southern Lebanon, cease fire, release the organization's detainees, allow the Shiite population to return to the southern villages, and agree to a process for rehabilitating the destruction. Until these demands are met, Hezbollah is threatening to continue launching missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles.

Once again, Israel is being presented with an equation, whose meaning is the renewal of the long-term invasion threat to the north in exchange for a false calm. Once again, the gamble is on wearing Israel down. Once again, the Lebanese front is being opened to serve the regional interests of the Iranian axis.

In this sense, the claim that the continued IDF presence in southern Lebanon while dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure "serves Hezbollah" and "grants it legitimacy" is rather puzzling. The Lebanese public is divided, and there is no sufficiently good reason to align with the different winds blowing through it. Most Shiites fully support Hezbollah, while some Christians are as hostile to it as Israel is. Even a longed-for agreement between the countries has a heavy limitation, which I will detail later.

Hezbollah has indeed drawn tactical lessons from the fighting in 2024. The fiber-optic-guided drones are one example, but so is the change in the deployment of the organization's terrorists in Lebanon. Some of the terrorists are hiding in "nontraditional" areas populated by Christians.

The goal is to exact a price from Hezbollah's rivals as well, and thereby erode support for agreements with Israel and direct negotiations with it. In this sense, strikes in Beirut's Dahiyeh are not enough. Still, it is clear that Hezbollah has not internalized how difficult it is to wear Israel down, or that loyalty to Tehran's interests does not bring an equivalent guarantee from Tehran in return.

In any case, Israel will need surprises to turn the tables. About a week ago, Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem delivered a speech in which he complained about the damage to the financial institution Al-Qard Al-Hasan Association, which serves as part of the organization's economic infrastructure.

That institution is one example of Hezbollah's "deep state" within the Lebanese state: a network of civilian bodies and figures in the Land of the Cedars that serve the organization's interests. New sanctions imposed by the US administration have shed light on some of these elements, including members of Hezbollah's parliamentary faction and officers in the Lebanese Armed Forces. However, there is considerable doubt that economic sanctions will be enough to isolate those elements and prevent them from serving Hezbollah's interests.

This deep state is also one of the main obstacles facing the Lebanese government. Even if President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam reach the right decisions regarding disarmament and seek a security agreement, Hezbollah associates on the ground are not enthusiastic about carrying out orders. Striking these elements or removing them from their positions would serve Israel in two ways: hitting Hezbollah's soft underbelly and strengthening the camp of its rivals in the Lebanese government.

For example, Hezbollah's rivals in the Lebanese parliament are already calling for the dismissal of the organization's two ministers, who are still sitting around the government table in Beirut. There is no reason Israel and the US should not raise that demand. Such steps, alongside the military effort, could contribute to another defeat for Hezbollah.

The condition appears mainly to be a diversion meant to shift attention away from more problematic clauses. If Tehran nevertheless surprises everyone and blows up the talks over escalation in Lebanon, Israel will benefit from foiling a dangerous agreement that would strengthen the Iranian regime and preserve its survival.

Daniel’s Ten Kingdoms Emerging

Daniel’s Ten Kingdoms Emerging

Terry James

Yet another pointer to where this generation stands upon God’s prophetic timeline is the emerging of globalism’s powers as they construct the final world kingdom. We have God’s Word on what I believe we see beginning to form as Daniel the prophet foretold through interpretation of Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar’s strange dream:

And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. (Daniel 2:40-43)

This is the description of the ten-kingdom power base that will form Antichrist’s regime for controlling all peoples of the world. This power platform, too, is described in a brief mention by John, another of God’s great prophets:

And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (Revelation 13:7-8)

Fifth and Final World Power

Daniel prophesied that the fifth world power will come out of the fourth. We know the order of world empires from history. The first Daniel interpreted was Babylon. The second would be the Medo-Persian. The third would be the Greek Empire, and the fourth would be the Roman Empire, represented in Nebuchadnezzar’s night-vision by the legs of iron. The fifth empire–the final empire, and the only one that is yet to come into being as fulfilled prophecy–is represented by the feet and toes of that metallic monstrosity.

To my understanding, the five world empires given to Daniel in metallic representations–i.e., gold for the head, silver for the breast and arms, brass or bronze for the belly and thighs, and iron for the legs, feet and toes–is indicative of money and the power to rule over the inhabitants of planet earth. Metals have most always been at the center of any economy throughout history. And when the metals represented the power to mold and construct weaponry–e.g., spears, bullets, bombs, warcraft-like tanks, planes, and ships, et cetera–the power of the metal and the economies of the world powers become understandable. Money is power, and power is control. These are inextricably linked.

The fifth world power will come from the Roman Empire, which disintegrated but is reforming, we who observe prophecy from the pre-Trib view believe. We believe the European Union is almost certainly the nucleus out of which this last Gentile power is emerging. This is the area of central Europe in particular. Rome is the very heart of that nucleus.

Antichrist Comes Forth

Daniel also prophesied about the last world empire’s leader who would leap to center stage at just the right moment in Satan’s plans to bring him to power:

And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. (Daniel 9:26-27)

Antichrist, “the beast,” as this vicious future tyrant is termed, will come to power and rule ruthlessly. His power will emanate from economics–the ability to call all to worship him through a mark-and-numbering system that will control buying and selling. (Read Revelation 13:16-18 to understand this 666 system of absolute control.)

We are witnessing economic rearrangements at present like no other generation has seen. Even the United States–as anyone with any sense of what’s been going on in the news will attest–is being forced into a mold of one-world economic order. It is all leading toward the mark-and-numbering system that will give Antichrist his power. (Read Revelation 17:12-13 to learn of the ten economic power blocs that will develop, then give power and authority to the Beast–Antichrist, the ruler of the fifth and final world empire.)

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Top AI Experts Forbidden to Leave China without Approval

Top AI Experts Forbidden to Leave China without Approval

Martin Armstrong

China is now reportedly requiring leading AI experts at private firms to obtain government approval before traveling internationally. Beijing fears that top researchers could leak sensitive information, defect, or become targets for foreign intelligence agencies as the AI race intensifies. This policy is now expanding beyond government-linked entities directly into the private sector itself. That tells you everything about how seriously Beijing views artificial intelligence strategically.

People still think AI is just about chatbots, search engines, or replacing office jobs. Nonsense. AI is becoming military infrastructure, financial infrastructure, surveillance infrastructure, cyberwarfare infrastructure, and economic infrastructure simultaneously. Whoever dominates AI gains enormous advantages not only economically but also militarily and geopolitically.

China understands this perfectly. That is why Beijing is treating AI talent almost like strategic state assets. During the Cold War, nuclear scientists could not simply move freely because governments feared technological leakage. Now, AI engineers are entering the same category because advanced models increasingly intersect with military targeting systems, drone warfare, cyber operations, financial surveillance, intelligence gathering, and autonomous weapons development.

The United States is doing the exact same thing in a different form. Washington has aggressively restricted semiconductor exports to China, blocked advanced Nvidia AI chips, pressured allies like the Netherlands and Japan to limit lithography technology exports, and expanded investment restrictions tied to Chinese AI firms. The Biden and Trump administrations alike both viewed AI dominance as critical to national security because the geopolitical establishment in Washington now sees China as the primary long-term rival.

The AI race is replacing globalization itself. For decades the world operated under the assumption that economic integration would reduce geopolitical conflict. Instead, the exact opposite happened. Globalization created interdependence, but once relations deteriorated, every dependency became weaponized.

Semiconductors are weapons. Data is a weapon. Software is a weapon. Supply chains are weapons. Rare earth minerals are weapons. Financial systems are weapons. Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming one of the most valuable strategic assets on earth.

China knows it cannot afford a massive brain drain of elite engineers while competing directly against Silicon Valley and the U.S. defense establishment. Chinese firms like DeepSeek, Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu are now central players in Beijing’s technological ambitions while the government pours enormous resources into AI development. China already graduates vastly more STEM students annually than the United States, and Beijing understands human capital is now as important as oil reserves were during the 20th century.

The United States helped create much of this situation through sanctions, export controls, financial warfare, and trade restrictions. Once Washington froze Russian reserves and weaponized SWIFT, every major power on earth understood the world had entered a new era where economic systems themselves had become geopolitical battlegrounds.

What we are witnessing is the slow division of the world into competing technological spheres. One side centered around the United States and Western allies. The other increasingly centered around China and alternative systems. AI will sit at the center of this divide because whoever controls advanced AI systems gains advantages across finance, intelligence, defense, medicine, robotics, and industrial production.

The naval arms race before World War I intensified tensions between Britain and Germany. The nuclear arms race defined the Cold War. Now the AI race risks becoming the defining geopolitical competition of the 21st century.

AI may ultimately centralize power further than any technology in human history. Whoever dominates AI infrastructure could potentially dominate information, finance, labor markets, surveillance, and warfare simultaneously.