For Iran, Israel First, America Next
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the assembled members of the U.S. Congress last week.
Israel, Protecting America
When the Jewish state retaliates against Hamas, when it strikes positions occupied by Houthi or Hezbollah fighters, when it successfully intercepts an unprecedented volley of rockets and drones fired from Iran, Netanyahu continued, “we’re not only protecting ourselves. … We’re protecting you.”
In NRO, Noah Rothman talks about Israel’s retaliation against Hezbollah, striking a soccer field, killing 12 children, and injuring 30 others. Israel struck a complex in Beirut targeting Fuad Shukr, also known as al-Hajj Mohsin. “According to both Israeli officials and the Saudi-owned news outlet Al-Arabiya, (Israel) got him.”
Eliminating Shukr was not just reciprocity for the atrocity at the soccer field last weekend. It also was delayed justice for the 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Beirut. That bombing took the lives of 241 U.S. service personnel, continues Mr. Rothman.
The U.S. Department of State designated Shukr a Specially Designated Global Terrorist pursuant to Executive Order 13224, as amended,”  according to a State Department primer on. “Shukr serves(ed) on Hizballah’s highest military body, the Jihad Council, and has aided Hizballah fighters and pro-Syrian regime troops in Hizballah’s military campaign against Syrian opposition forces in Syria.”
Shukr wasn’t just an enemy of the Jewish state. He was an enemy of the United States. If Israel has successfully taken him off the battlefield, America is all the safer for it. Not that Jerusalem will get the thanks it deserves.
