The IDF reportedly moved Iron Dome anti-missile systems to defend northern communities Monday night in the wake of Hezbollah threats to punish Israel for Sunday’s spectacular counter-terror bombing raid that killed approximately a dozen Hezbollah and Iranian Revolutionary Guards fighters.

The IDF told The Jewish Press, “We do not confirm or deny movements” of the Iron Dome systems, although the military previously has announced their redeployment against rockets from Gaza.

A picture of the Iron Dome being transported was posted on social media, but its location could not be verified.

Farmers in Metulla, which is smack on the northern border, were ordered off their fields by the IDF in SMS messages sent out Monday morning. Farmer Chaim Hod was quoted by Yediot Acharonot as saying that he and is workers began pruning apples tress at 6 a.m. and were ordered away from the orchards by mid-morning.

Several Metulla farms are located at the border, beyond a barbed wire fence, and are off-limits to anyone except the farmers and the IDF.

Reserve units stationed along the Lebanese border are on high alert, and several leaves of absence for regular soldiers have been cancelled.

Increased patrols were observed on both sides of the border, with UNIFIL, Lebanese and Israeli troops keeping an eye out for any suspicious activity.

UNIFIL troops are using night goggle and binoculars, according to sources quoted by the Beirut Daily Star.

Israel soldiers were seen patrolling the streets of Metulla, but civilians on both sides of the border do not seem concerned,

Hod said he actually feels safer when he sees both UNIFIL and Israeli soldiers beefing up patrols, and a Lebanese construction worker told the Star, “We are not afraid. As you see we are continuing construction work just a few kilometers from the Israelis.”

IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz said, “The IDF is prepared, tracking all developments, and ready to act as needed.” The air strike highlights the excellent level of Israeli intelligence operations, which are the key to carrying out counter-terror strikes and make Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah think twice and three times every time he moves.

As in the past, Israel warned Lebanon that it will be held responsible for any attacks by Hezbollah, which controls southern Lebanon and is an influential part of the fragile government.

The threat of a fierce Israeli retaliation to any Hezbollah aggression is a strong deterrent. Hezbollah has fallen into growing disfavor in strife-torn Lebanon because it has brought the war in Syria into Lebanon by fighting rebels to the Assad regime. Lebanese hate Israel but a devastating retaliation by the IDF to Hezbollah rockets would make the terrorist army and party even more unwanted.

Below is a video of the aftermath of the attack on Hezbollah and Iranian commanders, as seen in a telecast from southern Lebanon.

Visiting Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird told Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Monday, “Canada doesn’t stand behind Israel; we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with it.”

Baird won a warm welcome in Jerusalem after Sunday’s visit to his Palestinian Authority counterpart in Ramallah, where his car was pelted by eggs thrown by demonstrators waiting outside the Canadian offices in the city.

Netanyahu told Baird Monday, “To fight Islamist terrorism, we need clarity and courage. Canada has both. You know who is the aggressor; you know who is the defender. You know that Israel legitimately defends itself against the war crimes of Hamas and other terrorist groups. You know that it’s a travesty of justice to haul Israel to the dock in The Hague, and you know that the entire system of international law could unravel because of this travesty.”

Baird declared, “The great struggle of our generation is terrorism and far too often the State of Israel and the Jewish people around the world are on the front lines of that struggle.”

The Likud election committee has ruled in favor of Knesset Member Tzipi Hotovely after a recount of votes in the party primaries elections and decided she won the 20th spot on the Likud list of candidates.

The decision means that former Likud MK and Cabinet minister Avi Dichter is bumped back to the 26th place because the spots in between are reserved for sectorial candidates.

Dichter is not expected to surrender so quickly and probably will appeal to the District Court if the Likud does not re-consider and decide in his favor. He claimed that there are strong suspicions of foul play in the counting of the votes.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu still has the option of choosing Dichter to fill one of the reserved places farther up in the list, a move that would prevent another recount and possibly an even more embarrassing situation.

Hotovely said after the Likud elections committee decision, “I congratulate the committee to do justice for the voters and correct the mishaps that occurred during the election process. I have no doubt that most of the defects in the counting of the votes were a result of human error….

“During my appeal, I emphasized that there is no personal quarrel between me and Dichter, and I am sure he also will be a part of the next Knesset.”

Her victory is likely to boost the Liquid’s appeal among right-wing Likud supporters who are drifting towards the Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) party.

Hezbollah is threatening to take deadly revenge on Israel for Sunday’s strike on terrorists in Syria, but more significant is that Iran has admitted that one of its generals and (five or) six soldiers were killed in addition to Hezbollah’s casualties.

Lebanese sources identified the Iranian field commander as Abu Ali Tabtabai.

Also reported killed was Iranian General Mohammad Aji Alladadi, who was there as an advisor to the Syrian government.

Mohammad Issa “Abu Issa” who was a senior commander of Hezbollah’s Syrian and Iraq network.

Jihad Mughniyeh who was Hezbollah’s point man on the Golan Heights, setting up the terror infrastructure there.

Also presumed killed are Ali Hassan, Hussein Hassan and Majdi al0Musawi.

The IDF is on high alert for a Hezbollah attack and communities on the Golan Heights and the Upper Galilee are on a virtual war-footing.

Unlike previous attacks in Syria on missiles and other weapons destined for Hezbollah, Sunday’s raid struck Hezbollah terrorists on the ground, hitting three vehicles traveling in the Golan Heights.

As usual, Hezbollah responded with threats, especially since Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last week warned that he will order an attack on Israel at some time or another.

Hezbollah has denied that its fighters are on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, but the aerial bombing on Sunday erased that lie. It said one of the dead was a leading commander, Mohammed Amed Issa, and it admitted that an Iranian also was killed.

The established  presence of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Israel’s border will make it even harder for President Barack Obama to take a dovish position on the Iranian nuclear threat without Congress, as well as Israel, doing everything possible to stop an appeasement policy. J. E. Dyer wrote in The Jewish Press here on Sunday:

Syria is now uniquely important to Iran’s nuclear aspirations because of the internal turmoil.  There is no meaningful mechanism for enforcing “national” Syrian accountability to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.  This is an ideal situation for Iran, and is only enhanced by the fact that the Syrian nuclear program has been on the alternate path to a plutonium bomb, as opposed to Iran’s well-advanced path to a uranium bomb.

A nuclear weapon aimed at Israel is Hezbollah and Iran’s ultimate revenge.

Meanwhile, no one is discounting Hezbollah threats, but it will not have an easy time to attack Israel, especially now that it is clear that Iran is operating across the Golan Heights border.

Hezbollah has enough rockets to cripple Israel, but the price of an attack could be suicidal for the terrorist army as well as Lebanon.

It will be a lot easier and less risky if Hezbollah takes revenge by attacking Jews outside Israel.

It remains to be seen if the death of Alberto Nisman, the state prosecutor in the Hezbollah-directed bombing of the Argentine Jewish Center bombing, was a suicide, as originally suggested, or was murder.

Was it a coincidence that he was shot dead hours after Israel killed six Hezbollah commanders?

Eli Yishai has asked Moshe Hager, a prominent figure in Judea and Samaria and among Army Reservists, to run on his Yachad (Together) party. Hager told The Jewish Press Monday he has not yet decided whether to enter politics.

Pre-election polls so far have left Yishai’s party on the borderline of winning the minimum number of votes necessary for a party to enter the Knesset.

Hagar is a Colonel in the Reserves and founded the first “mechina” religious pre-army Torah Academy in 1991 in Beit Yatir, located on the southern edge of Judea and Samaria, northeast of Be’er Sheva. He also is a nephew of former Chief Rabbi Yisrael Hager-Lau.

Yishai’s choice of Hagar indicates he is not interested in Michael Ben-Ari, who heads his own Otzma party that has no chance of succeeding in the elections.

Unlike Ben-Ari, noted for provocative gimmicks to embarrass leftists, Hagar has an image of moderation and co-existence with those of different opinions although he is strongly rightwing.

A descendant of the Vishnitz dynasty, his running with Yishai might attract more Ashkenazi voters as well as thousands of Israelis who have learned in his mechina and served under his command in active and reserve duty.

When Hager took a leave of absence several years ago, he was replaced by Rabbi Avichai Ronski, who now is candidate on the Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) list of candidates.

The Herzog-Livni party, billed as the “Zionist Camp,” and the Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) party headed by Naftali Bennett would be the two largest parties in Israel if university and college students were voting, according to a poll published by Globes.

The Likud party came in a distant third place, winning only 16 of 120 Knesset seats in a poll of nearly 2,600 students.

The Herzog-Livni combo won 30 seats, and Bennett’s party was only four seats behind.

Bennett topped the list on the question of trust, while Herzog was favored when it comes to social issues, housing and future employment, which are of the utmost concern to students.

Herzog and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu were even-Stephen in the poll that asked who is best suited to be Prime Minister.

Political leaders should pay serious attention to the results because they show that those who soon will be in the forefront of society are tired of slogans, talk and lack of change in a social and political system that is overweight, tired and self-fulfilling.

The lists of candidates of the Jewish Home party and the in the merged Labor-Livni party, even if it is called the “Zionist Camp,” are clearly left-wing and right-wing.

The Likud, under Netanyahu, has tried so hard to be so centrist that it has no clear direction.

Israel’s establishment launched the election campaign by trying to convince the public that Labor-Livni is not leftwing but is a centrist party.

The Labor party primaries killed that hoax with the election of bona fide leftists, including one who wants to divide Jerusalem, to spots that guarantee them a seat in the next Knesset.

Similar, voters in the Jewish Home party made it look like a resurrection of the old National Religious Party, except for the spectacular victory of secularist Ayelet Shaked.

Bennett can make the list a bit more secular but even stronger as a right-wing faction if he exercises his option of choosing a candidate for a top spot and nominates Dani Dayan, a spokesman for Judea and Samaria but not religious.

A Facebook post of Miss Israel and Miss Lebanon together has proven that peace may be beautiful, but beauty is not necessarily peace.

The young women representing Israel and Lebanon in the Miss Universe contest were picture together, prompting widespread anger in Lebanon for their lovely woman disgracing the country by being displayed next to one of those ugly Zionists.

Saly Greige, Miss Lebanon, claims that she made every effort to distant herself from her Israeli counterpart, Doron Matalon, but that the Zionist beauty occupied an opportunity to push her way next to Greige when she took a “selfie” along with Miss Slovenia and Miss Japan and posted it on Instagram.

“Since the first day of my arrival to participate to Miss Universe, I was very cautious to avoid being in any photo or communication with Miss Israel (that tried several times to have a photo with me),” Greige wrote in English on her page.

“I was having a photo with Miss Japan, Miss Slovenia and myself, suddenly Miss Israel jumped in, took a selfie, and put it on her social media.”

Matalon responded to the rejection of the joint photo. “It doesn’t surprise me, but it still makes me sad. Too bad you cannot put the hostility out of the game,” she wrote.