Today a rocket hit a playground soccer game in a small town, Majdal Shams, in the Golan Heights (which was Syria before the 1967 war), and killed 12 kids from 8 to 14 yrs old), injured 20 others.

   Majdal is a Druze community. Druze are ethnically Arab but a sect that left Islam hundreds of years ago. They make up 2% of the Israeli population, keep to themselves. In Israel, Druze people have served honorably in high positions of government and the IDF, although they, like other non-Jews, do not have legal equality.

   IDF immediately blamed Hezbollah for the atrocity. David Ben-Gvir and other genocidal maniacs in Netanyahu's cabinet are saying that Israel must invade Lebanon to avenge the massacre. Hezbollah denies having fired the rocket. Hezbollar is widely regarded as highly credible in admitting or denying their role in military successes and defeats, so their denial might be genuine, setting up the alternate view that this could be an Israeli provocation. israel has a very deep history and zero credibility of misdirection and false flags.

   Netanyahu has conferred with his cabinet from Washington via the secure electronics in his jet plane. He has said that there will be a "strong response," which is no doubt code for typical Israeli overwhelming overreaction. Hebrew media in Israel reported yesterday that Netanyahu's main objective in going to DC was to get Biden/Kamala's backing for his plan to invade Lebanon. Israeli military leaders have publicly said the IDF is in fine form to take on Hezbollah. All that needs is a triggering event.

    Analysts say that whether or not Hezbollah caused this atrocity, they will not react to an intense Israeli assault in such a way as to touch off a sharply intensified war.

    As with a lot of horrific events in the last 10 months, the ambiguity suggests a sinister plot. Hezbollah has consistently limited itself to responding in kind to Israel, not deliberately escalating. This bombing surely escalated the horror index. If it's an Israeli false flag event, it achieves the ends of framing the invasion of Lebanon as a righteous Israeli undertaking while not having cost Israeli lives as a provocation. There are many Israelis who believe nothing that Netanyahu says, so a planned provocation that takes "less worthy" non-Jewish Druze lives would certainly fit Bibi's scheme to have another excuse to expand the warmaking to avoid his ever being held to account for October 7 or the things he's facing prosecution for.

     There also was another school bombing in Gaza today, with at least 30 dead and multiples of that injured. Things continue at the boiling point in the region, so an overwhelming retaliatory response by the IDF might touch off the conflagration everyone's itching for.

      Stay tuned.