Former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman pushed back at Israel's critics following the explosion of thousands of Hezbollah communications devices in Lebanon this week.
"Memo to the USA/rest of the World: You say you don’t want a war in Lebanon. So then bring Israel a deal where it’s citizens are safe to go home. Israel has no territorial aspirations towards Lebanese soil. It just wants peace," Friedman wrote on X on Thursday.
"But," he said, "If you can’t control Hezbollah, just shut up, get out of the way and let Israel do the world a favor by defeating these terrorists!"
On Tuesday, thousands of pagers recently purchased by Hezbollah exploded in the pockets and hands of Hezbollah operatives. The following day, radios and walkie-talkies purchased at about the same time as the beepers also exploded.
According to official reports, 12 people were killed in Tuesday's beeper explosions and 14 were killed when hand-held radios exploded on Wednesday. Nearly all of these were Hezbollah terrorists, though at least one was the young daughter of a terrorist, who was bringing her father his beeper when the device exploded.
In Israel, however, estimates are that the official figures are far lower than the truth, and that many dozen, if not more, people were killed in the blasts.
It is also estimated that the blasts significantly harmed Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force, which lost a large portion of its command chain. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is expected to speak later on Thursday, for the first time since the explosions occurred.