🇮🇱❌🇮🇷 Israel’s leaders believe they now have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reshape the Middle East, one that goes well beyond pulverizing Hamas and Hezbollah.

Even before Israel launched what it described as a “limited” ground offensive into Lebanon Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made clear that his ultimate target in the regional power shift is to undermine the authority of Tehran’s clerical leadership, defanging the Iranians who are the bankrollers, trainers and supposed protectors of both Hamas in Gaza and the Lebanese Shi’ite militia Hezbollah.

In an address in English on Monday, Netanyahu promised the “noble Persian people” that the day when they were free of rule by “tyrants” and could have peace with Israel would come “a lot sooner than people think.”

“There is nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach,” he warned ominously.

For Iran, that will not sound like idle posturing. Israel is not just fighting Tehran by smashing its allies and proxies — such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen — but is showing its supremacy both in terms of technology and espionage on Iranian soil.

Ground offensive in Lebanon. On Tuesday Israel made it clear it won’t stop there.

Netanyahu’s once electorally fatal opinion poll numbers are rising since Nasrallah’s assassination, meaning there’s every political inducement for him to prolong the offensive and ignore repeated cease-fire calls from Western allies and aid groups, who fear a humanitarian crisis worsening in Lebanon.

“The elimination of Nasrallah is a very important step, but it is not the final one,” Gallant told troops serving with the army’s Golani Brigade. “We will employ all the capabilities at our disposal, and if someone on the other side did not understand what those capabilities entail, we mean all capabilities.”

U.S. officials believe the Israeli incursion will be limited, targeted and not as extensive as 2006, which triggered a short but fierce war that hurt both sides. But there remain fears in Washington of an Iranian attack against Israel, prompting some U.S. forces being moved “to defer and defend as necessary.” And there are worries of Israeli overreach.

It isn’t only domestic political logic driving Netanyahu — but military rationale, too. “The military incentives for Israel are to continue,” observed Matthew Savill of Britain’s Royal United Services Institute, a think tank, speaking before the incursion.

“It has destroyed Hezbollah’s senior leadership, compromised its ability to coordinate and has the initiative. In spite of the risks a ground incursion would face, the long-range threat from ballistic missiles, and the stretched nature of current IDF operations, it is possible to imagine that many would argue there will never be a better time to go into southern Lebanon to destroy Hezbollah’s military infrastructure there,” he added.

🔗 https://www.politico.eu/article/target-iran-israel-seizes-reshapes-middle-east-hamas-hezbollah-tehran/

🇨🇴❌🇪🇨 — Colombia suspends the export of electric energy to Ecuador.

🇲🇽🤝🌹🌍 — In the inauguration photo of Mexico's newly elected president, Claudia Sheinbaum, and the farewell of Andrés Manuel López Obrador as president, Latin American heads of state from the political left gathered to show ideological support for the new government. In the photo are the leaders of:

🇨🇺 Cuba: Miguel Díaz-Canel
🇧🇷 Brazil: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
🇨🇴 Colombia: Gustavo Petro
🇨🇱 Chile: Gabriel Boric
🇬🇹 Guatemala: Bernardo Arévalo
🇧🇿 Belize (Prime Minister): John Briceño

🤡 Before this meeting, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva noted during the Mexico-Brazil Business Forum, organized by the Brazil-Mexico Business Council (Cebramx) and the Mexican Business Council for Foreign Trade, Investment, and Technology (Comce), that he understands the importance of the United States for Mexico as its main trading partner.

⁉️ However, he urged Mexican business leaders not to distrust Brazilian private investment and to also look toward the southern part of the continent.

🇮🇷❌🇮🇱❗️ — Iranian opposition media claims that some of the Ballistic missile salvos were seen over Shahin Shahr to Israel

🇮🇷❌🇮🇱❗️ — Locals in Western Tehran shows us videos of ballistic missiles flying from launching sites in Iran capital towards Israel

🇮🇷❌🇮🇱❗️ — Visuals from Mallard Karaj, Western Tehran as missiles fly towards Israel!

🇮🇷🇮🇱🚨 Ballistic missiles launched towards Israel flies over Tabriz, Iran.

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🇮🇷❌🇮🇱 — Sky over Tehran minutes ago

🇮🇷❌🇮🇱❗️ — Footage shows dozens of Iranian Ballistic Missiles raining over Israel minutes ago

#BREAKING

🇮🇷❌🇮🇱❗️ — Missile impacts in Tel Aviv!

🇮🇷❌🇮🇱❗️ — The skies over Israel as Iranian missiles rain down over Israel

🛢📈❗️ — Crude Oil prices rose to 71.6 USD/barrel (+5%) after the Iranian missile barrage against Israel

🇮🇷❌🇮🇱 — Iranian opposition channels shared a video showing the launch of missiles from Tabriz, Iranian Azerbaijan

🇮🇷❌🇮🇱 — View from an Israeli civilian as Iranian missiles rain down over the Jewish State