Habib Baar: Beirutreport.com Journalist and founder believes Israel has no incentive to stop

Iran has sent up to 350 missiles and drones into Israel, setting off the sound of explosions and sirens.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan says the US Navy destroyers stationed in the Mediterranean Sea intercepted Iranian missiles.

He says it was a significant escalation from Iran and it was equally important they could step up to defend Israel.

Habib Baar, Journalist and founder of Beirutreport.com speaks to Heather du Plessis-Allan saying he believes Israel has no incentive to stop as they have the full backing of the Western allies of the United States.

Israel says nobody was killed because the iron dome worked.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We'll go straight to the Middle East, where the situation
is moving fast. In just the last few hours, Iran
has sent up to three hundred and fifty missiles and
drones into Israel, setting off the sound of explosions and sirens.

(00:21):
Now this is in response, i Ran says to Israel
killing senior Chzboula figures rather than necessarily yesterday's ground invasion
of Lebanon with US now, as journalist and founder of
new site by Rootreport dot com, Hbib Batahabi, Hello.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Hi there.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
What do you reckon happens?

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Now?

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Does the US get involved?

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Well, I mean, it's hard to say what's on the
mind of US military officials. The US might be already
be involved in in the US is quite involved in
sharing intelligence with Israel, and there has been talk about
all kinds of you know, billions of dollars worth of weapons.
All the bombs that are being dropped are American made,
So I said, I said, the US has already involved,
it's unclear if they're going to be involved in to

(00:59):
more extent.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Israel says no one was killed because basically the iron
dome worked. Iransi's eighty percent of the missiles hit their targets,
which is more likely to be true.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Well, I'm watching videos online of the missiles hitting the ground,
several missiles. I've seen at least five or six of
the missiles hit the ground. So it depends on what
you're watching. And there have been videos of missiles touching down.
So I think it's important to, you know, not always
take the Israeli government's position as fact because it could

(01:30):
also be a more of propaganda. In a time of war,
militaries say things that will strike fear into their enemies
and not cause any kind of fear into their own
population and try to reinforce, you know, a kind of
confidence in their governments. So you know, there is the
missiles are landing, We've seen them videos of that.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
The smart thing for Israel to do right now is
not to respond to this, obviously at the risk of
escalating the thing. Further, is that what Israel does? Do
you think it just doesn't respond?

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Well, I mean Israel has shown that it has no
acts with impunity. I mean Israel has not been stopped,
you know, only more billions and billions of dollars and
more weapons are pouring on Israel. So Israel has no
incentive to stop. It seems Israel has the full backing
of you know, the European the Western allies of the
United States. There's been no real strong criticism, no no

(02:18):
pausing in the weapons shipment. So I think Israel believes
that it can do whatever it wants. It can. It
can flatten Lebanona, has has flatten eighty percent of Gaza,
and we're seeing huge neighborhoods and Berio being flatten, and
we're seeing civilian areas being targeted there. There there's no
distinction often between military targets and civilian targets. So, you know,
Israel has been acting with impunity and it seems that

(02:40):
that's set to continue.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Is it possible that Iran has achieved what it wanted
to achieve, which would simply being seen to act right
because they've done that before. Is it possible there five
these missiles and had a few spots here and there,
and then they just let it go.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
Yeah, I mean, I think you know Iran, you know,
it would be difficult for Iran to take on the
United States and Israel the time, you know, so they
probably do want to do some kind of limited action,
it seems, but you know, the rockets are major rockets
and missiles, and they're falling down, and people, you know
in other Arab countries, you know in Palestinians, Lebanese probably

(03:16):
feel a bit of retribution now because they've been that's
what they've been dealing with. Although you know, it's important
to note that the missiles that Israel drops on the
Palestinians and Lebanese there are no bomb shelters for them
to go to. So Israelis are very well prepared. They
get a lot of warning to have all kinds of
radar systems, but most Lebanies and Palestinians have no warning,
maybe a few minutes at maximum, not enough time to evacuate,

(03:38):
and they're often bombed to the next place that they go.
So it's a very uneven battlefield.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Habib, it's good to talk to you. Thank you for
filling us in. Hebi Batahu's journalists and a founder of
Beirut Reports dot com. The UN has just let it
be known that they're going to be meeting tomorrow about
the situation. Interestingly, it takes twelve minutes for a missile
that's fired in Iran to reach Israel, and it appears
at most of them would have been intercepted over Syria.

(04:02):
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