Is Israel implosion drawing near?
Updates from Israel, Palestine, Yemen, Lebanon and Iran.
Let’s start our update from the Middle East today within Israel, as recent developments in the country risk to bring it to implosion… or at least to the fall of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a.k.a. “Satanyahu”.
In the early morning of last Friday, 21st March 2025, Satanyahu’s cabinet voted unanimously to fire Ronen Bar, the head of Shin Bet, the domestic security agency, due to a lack of confidence, following the investigations on the intelligence failure on 7th October 2023, as reported in this article by Al Mayadeen, which also quoted a poll from Israeli Channel 12 according to which “51% of Israelis oppose Bar’s dismissal, while 46% trust him more than Netanyahu”. No wonder mass protests erupted across Israel on the same day, with thousands demonstrating outside Satanyahu’s office, chanting “We will never give up” and clashing with the police, which resorted to water cannons to forcibly remove protesters blocking roads. Interestingly, Ronen Bar’s sacking came after the opening of an investigation into Satanyahu’s senior aides’ financial ties with Qatar, launched in February by Ronen Bar and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who has just been dismissed today, following a no-confidence vote unanimously approved by Satanyahu’s cabinet (source: Al Mayadeen). Hence Bar’s letter dismissing Netanyahu’s claims unfounded and arguing that his decision is politically motivated. Opposition leaders also condemned Bar’s firing: Yair Lapid alleged that it was designed “to obstruct the Qatar investigation”, whereas Benny Gantz called it a “mark of Cain” on ministers who supported it.
On the other hand, Satanyahu tried to spin the story in his advantage claiming in a video on X that Gali Baharav-Miara and Ronen Bar launched their investigation into his senior aides' financial ties with Qatar to prevent Bar's dismissal; however, his “claim lacked evidence and contradicted the known timeline, as the dismissal process began after the investigation was already underway”, as explained very well by Al Mayadeen here.
In another article Al Mayadeen quoted the following statement by the Israel Business Forum, “representing most private sector workers from 200 of the occupation entity's largest companies” (emphasis mine):
If the Israeli government does not honour the order and leads Israel into a constitutional crisis, we will call on the entire Israeli public to stop respecting the government’s decisions… and we will shut down the Israeli economy.
Read that again: “we will shut down the Israeli economy”. The Israel Business Forum is ready to paralyze the country if the government does not comply with the Supreme Court’s temporary injunction blocking the dismissal of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar!
The same Al Mayadeen article also quoted Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara as saying through her spokesperson:
According to the decision of the Supreme Court, it is prohibited to take any action that harms the position of the head of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar.
It is prohibited to appoint a new head of Shin Bet, and interviews for the position should not be held.
…referring to the Supreme Court’s freeze on Satanyahu’s dismissal order until Tuesday 8th April 2025, when the Supreme Court will review the appeals filed by opposition parties and a non-governmental organization (NGO).
Yet, Satanyahu defied her, by responding to her message with the following tweet on X (formerly Twitter):
There will be no civil war! The State of Israel is a state of law and according to the law, the Israeli government decides who will be the head of the Shin Bet. Shabbat Shalom.
There may not be a civil war in Israel (yet!), but apparently yesterday mass protests against Satanyahu and his government were “larger, louder, and angrier than usual”, as reported by Al Mayadeen, citing The Times of Israel, according to which the number of participants (already in the thousands) nearly doubled, compared to recent weeks. During the protests Yair Lapid issued the following fiery statement (emphasis mine):
If the 7th October [2023] government decides not to comply with the court ruling, it will, at that very moment and on the same day, become an outlaw government. If that happens, the entire government must come to a halt, as the only system that must not stop is the security apparatus.
The economy must come to a halt, the Knesset must come to a halt, the courts must come to a halt, and the local authorities must come to a halt. It is not only universities that must stop but also schools.
Dani Elgarat, brother of the deceased captive Etzak Elgarat, said:
It’s [Netanyahu's] direction that killed them. [Referring to Israeli captives held by Palestinian Resistance factions and killed by Israeli carpet bombing of Gaza]
He is directing events, he is acting against the interest of the country. He wants the captives dead, silent and not telling details.
Yehuda Cohen, the father of captive soldier Nimrod Cohen, stated:
Today marks 533 days since 59 hostages remain trapped in the hell of Gaza. After sabotaging the agreement, Netanyahu is now destroying the lives of those still held captive.
Netanyahu is endangering the hostages and ruining everything. Take to the streets—this is a state of emergency. Netanyahu has deliberately chosen to sacrifice my son's life and sided with Smotrich and Ben Gvir. This is the truth that must be spoken everywhere. Instead of choosing to save lives, Netanyahu has chosen death.
It is also worth reporting that 40 former Israeli captives and 250 relatives of hostages still held in the Gaza Strip signed a letter urging Satanyahu to stop the ongoing aggression on Gaza and resume negotiations, as per Al Mayadeen, which reported the following excerpts of the letter, accusing the government of “choosing an endless war over rescuing and returning hostages, thereby sacrificing them to their deaths”:
Stop the fighting. Return to the negotiating table and fully complete an agreement that will return all of the hostages, even at the cost of ending the war.
Military pressure kills hostages and disappears bodies. This is not a slogan, this is reality.
They could have returned to embrace and rehabilitate, and they will not return.
You have no mandate to sacrifice 59 hostages.
Returning to fighting will cost additional hostages their lives and increase the risk of additional Ron Arads [an Israeli airman captured in Syria in 1986, whose fate is still unknown].
We must stop the fighting and immediately return to the negotiating table to reach a comprehensive agreement for the hostages’ return: All of the hostages in exchange for ending the war and finding a solution for the day after. If you do not do this, the blood of the next hostage and the fate of all the hostages will be on your hands.
According to a survey performed by Israeli Channel 12 published on Friday and cited by Al Mayadeen, 63% of respondent expressed concern about the future of Israeli “democracy”, whereas the 33% were not concerned, with the remaining 4% unsure. Another survey, conducted by Reichman University's Institute for Liberty and Responsibility, showed that only 17% of respondents had trust in the government, whereas 44% expressed faith in the Supreme Court and 43% in the Attorney General. You can clearly see that Satanyahu’s claim of no risk of civil war is completely unfounded, given the growing discontent and mass protests, as well as the divide between the government and its security establishment. In my opinion, Israel is on the brink of collapse and, if it keeps like this, it will not last long.
Despite internal problems, Israel carries on its siege and aggression on the Gaza Strip, as reported in these two Al Mayadeen article (1 and 2), as well as on the West Bank (see this other two articles by Al Mayadeen: 1 and 2). Among the several war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza by Little Satan (a.k.a. Israel) is worth mentioning the demolition of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, the only cancer hospital in the Strip and that was built only 8 years ago, in 2017, as per Al Mayadeen. The Israeli soldiers are so proud of their disgusting crimes that they even record them on video:
Hopefully such videos will be used as proof of their crimes in a criminal court, either the International Criminal Court (ICC) or the International Court of Justice (ICJ) or a dedicated one, it does not really matter, as long as these criminals are finally prosecuted and brought to justice.
However, for the time being, not only Little Satan is continuing its assault on Gaza, but it is also plotting a major invasion of the Strip in collaboration with Great Satan (a.k.a. the Oulaw US Empire), as mentioned in this Al Mayadeen article, citing Haaretz. Apparently, the plan has been devised by Major General Eyal Zamir, the new Chief of the General Staff of Israel “Defense” Forces (IDF), and it “involves a large-scale ground offensive in Gaza, utilizing several divisions and a significant number of reserve units”. Haaretz is also quoted as saying that the right-wing parties in the Israeli government “are pushing for the return of settlements in Gaza and for the forced expulsion of Palestinians”, as per US President Donald J. Trump’s plan, which I covered here. Families of Israeli captives in Gaza with US citizenship “have reportedly been informed by Trump administration officials that the president is prepared to offer his support to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding a large-scale ground invasion” and were quoted as saying that…
communications have come to a complete standstill at this stage, and expectations for reaching another agreement are bleak.
Nevertheless, according to Haaretz, Israeli “reserve soldiers—including pilots and navigators in the Israeli Air Force—are considering ending their voluntary service in response to the developments”, as reported in the aforementioned Al Mayadeen article.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered the deployment of the USS Carl S. Vinson aircraft carrier to the Middle East, as reported by Al-Monitor (paywalled) and Al Mayadeen. The Vinson will thus “join the USS Harry S. Truman strike group, which has been involved in the campaign against Yemeni operations in the Red Sea and was expected to return to port at the end of the month”, but it will now stay in the area for another month. So, this will be the second time in 6 months that two carrier strike groups stay in the region, most likely to escalate the aggression on Yemen, as Ansar Allah do not intend to stop its military operations in support of Palestinians in Gaza, if not to launch attacks on Iran!
Speaking of Yemen, in the night between Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd March 2025 the Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) targeted the Israeli Ben Gurion Airport in Jaffa (Tel Aviv) with a Palestine 2 ballistic missile, the third operation in 48 hours, as reported by Al Mayadeen and Yemen News Agency Saba, which also quoted YAF spokesperson, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, warning that the Ben Gurion Airport is no longer safe for air traffic and that it will remain a target until Little Satan stops its aggression on Gaza. Yahya Saree stated also that the UAV (Unmanned Air Vehicles) Force of the YAF “carried out a military operation targeting several warships belonging to the US aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman using a number of drones” in response to the US airstrikes, which continued also last night, as reported by Al Mayadeen and Saba (1, 2, 3, 4): the latest raids targeted the Hodeidah International Airport, the Al-Manzar area, south of the coastal city of Hodeidah in western Yemen, the Manzar directorate in north-eastern Yemen, the Al-Salif port on the Red Sea, the Majzar district in Marib and the districts of Sahar and Kitaf in the Saada province. In retaliation to these raids, earlier today YAF missile forces and UAV forces “engaged with the US aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman and several enemy warships in the Red Sea with missiles and drones” for several hours, as per Saba and Al Mayadeen, which also reported that the YAF missile force targeted the Ben Gurion Airport with another Palestine 2 ballistic missile, causing the suspension of air traffic at the airport for more than half an hour.
It is also worth reporting that last night Yemeni Ansar Allah leader Sayyed Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said that Pete Hegseth’s decision to deploy the USS Carl S. Vinson aircraft carrier strike group in the region is a “clear admission of failure and defeat” (source: Saba). I cannot argue with that!
Moving to Lebanon, you may have heard/read about rockets being fired from Lebanon towards Metula settlement in Israel yesterday - see for instance this Al Mayadeen article. At first I thought/hoped that Hezbollah was finally re-entering the fray, instead they later issued the following statement (from this post on the Resistance News Network (Unofficial) Telegram channel) denying its involvement and reiterated its commitment to the ceasefire (see also this other Al Mayadeen article):
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
Hezbollah denies any involvement in the rocket fire from southern Lebanon into the occupied Palestinian territories, stressing that the “israeli” enemy's allegations are merely pretexts for its continued attacks on Lebanon, which have not ceased since the ceasefire was announced.
Hezbollah reiterates its commitment to the ceasefire agreement and stands behind the Lebanese state in addressing this dangerous zionist escalation against Lebanon.
Saturday, March 22, 2025
Ramadan 21, 1446 AH
Of course, the Zionists used this pretext to renew their aggression on Lebanon, with airstrikes and artillery shelling on the town of Tulin in the Marjeyoun district, on several towns and villages, as reported here and here by Al Mayadeen.
Finally, moving briefly to Iran, it is worth mentioning a few recent statements by the Navy Commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri, who was quoted by Al Mayadeen as saying (emphasis added):
If the enemies make a mistake, we will send them to the depths of hell.
Iranian combat units are at the highest level of readiness in the Strait of Hormuz, monitoring all enemy movements and not losing sight of them for a moment.
[In the case of battles breaking out] the enemies will receive strikes from where they least expect.
The Outlaw US Empire and its Emperor Donald J. Trump have been warned: better call back to port both USS Carl S. Vinson and USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier strike groups!
Hi Ismaele - great article - just part way through tight now - the Hostage supporters say this " If you do not do this, the blood of the next hostage and the fate of all the hostages will be on your hands." Wow - what about the other million souls who have crossed the threshold in the past 3 years ? Thanks for the info. I know you are saddened by the passing of Nasrallah - and you don't have as much respect for the new leader of Hezbollah - but do you think Nasrallah would have broken the ceasefire. Lebanon is so divided in its leadership, it seems. I think the people stand with Hezbollah.
"Is Israel implosion drawing near?"
We can only hope & pray🙏