October 212, 2023, "The War"

My 161st post on The War

Three rockets were fired form Gaza towards the Israeli city of Ashdod today. One rocket was intercepted and two fell in the sea. IT is IMPORTANT to note that most of the aid entering Gaza now comes through the port in Ashdod. But that never stopped Hamas from launching attacks before. In fact, they attacked the US forces working on building the Biden Pier off the Gaza coast just last week. The IDF reports two casualties today: Master Sgt. (res.) Kalkidan Meharim, 37 (Z’’L) and Master Sgt. (res.) Ido Aviv, 28 (Z’’L). I post their photos above. Kalkidan is in the photo on the left. He is an Ethiopian Jew, he and his family endured great hardship leaving Ethiopia for Israel. Apparently his mother was in Ethiopia at the time of his death and was informed there by the Israeli Embassy in Addis Ababa. He is one of nine children.

In northern Gaza today, the IDF combat engineering corp destroyed two attack tunnels belonging to Hamas. The IDF has classified the tunnels in three buckets - strategic, passageway and attack. As the IDF finds strategic tunnels and clears them, they are destroyed. And more and more attack tunnels, those used to stage attacks into Israeli territory, are being destroyed. Those used as passageways are left for last and receive the lowest priority. Most likely, not all of those types of tunnels will be destroyed.

This morning, Hezbollah fired over 45 rockets today across the Lebanese border into Israeli territory. Later today Hezbollah fired 3 anti-tank missiles into the town of Metula. No injuries or damage reported. The IDF conducted fighter jet strikes on several Hezbollah military facilities. Hezbollah casualties are unknown.

And here is something different…. the Italian Navy announced that it shot down a drone fired by Yemen’s Houthis that was targeting a European container ship near the tip of the Red Sea. Also today a Malta flagged container ship that was moving from Djibouti to the Saudi City of Jeddah, all in the Red Sea, came under attack from missiles fired by the Houthis. No damage or injuries were reported, but it is still possible we might hear something later tonight.

More than 350 aid trucks entered Gaza today, many bringing aid from the Ashdod Port that came under Hamas fire.

In what would have to be classified as a “developing story”, reports are coming in late about a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp operative in Tehran, Iran, who was eliminated today, presumably by Israel. No official statement has been released by either Iran or Israel. The target was involved in operations against Jews in various parts of Europe.

Here in Tel Aviv the War Cabinet has been meeting to deliberate on the state of negotiations on a hostage/ceasefire deal. They are working on deciding the scope of leeway the negotiating team will have that is scheduled to depart for Cairo tomorrow. They are also discussing both the persistent rumors that the ICC intends to issue warrants for the arrest of senior ranking Israelis on the charges of “war crimes” as well as US State Department report accusing five IDF units of “gross human rights violations”. You can read more about the ICC story here. It is written by Col. Richard Kemp, a former British Army Officer. If either the ICC or US Government follow through with these actions, it is my opinion that it is likely to blow up any progress in the negotiations. It will harden the position of Hamas and will infuriate our government and the general population here in Israel.

Despite President Biden warning Israel not go proceed with its Rafah Operation, needed to complete the destruction of the remaining Hamas Brigades, it appears that most US citizens, as reflected in a recent poll, think otherwise. Of those polled 70% favor Israel proceeding with an operation in Rafah. Moreover, 78% supported the removal of Hamas from power. I guess that President Biden is out of touch with the voters and is listening to the advise of the leftist, progressive wing of the Democratic Party…. or worse those idiots and fascists guising as demonstrators on the US University campuses.

On occasion I have reported on economic news here in Israel. Late last month Nvidia, the AI hardware/software giant, purchased its third company in Israel, Run:ai, for an estimated $800M. The high tech sector has taken a hit in Israel due mostly to the call up of reservists. However, they continue to do what they do great. My understanding is that at least 3-5 more Israeli companies are preparing public offerings for later this calendar year.

A couple of you have sent me private messages regarding the OpEd I posted that was found in Newsweek. Either you or others in your extended network questioned the validity of the author and whether it was “fake” news or not. I will not provide a 100% guarantee that everything I post is 100% factual because I am only a human being, after all. However, I do invest considerable time doing background checks before I post things to convince myself that the stories are real. So, the article called into question is this one - in Newsweek. Before posting I did check and the author had a longstanding Twitter account dating back to 2013, which I had checked before posting. But, more importantly, after Newsweek published the article the author was interviewed ` on CNN here.

So this brings up an important topic. When I was a student at UC-Berkeley in the PhD Chemistry program I naively invested much time and energy thinking I could engage in a constructive debate with those having opposing views. I was wrong and it was generally a waste of time. Most of these people have made up their minds and they are looking for evidence and others they think reinforce their beliefs. Since those days I no longer waste my time trying. The one exception to that rule happened in 2008 when I entered a debate on the UC-Berkeley campus at the request of the students there with Hatem Bacian. Hatem Bacian is the founder of Students for Justice in Palestine and is largely behind most of these Pro-Hamas/Iran demonstrations spreading across the USA. I debated him NOT because I expected to “win any hearts and minds” but because the students on the campus felt totally isolated by both the Israeli Consulate in San Francisco as well as the organized Jewish Community. I did it to try and bolster their spirts.

I am writing these posts because I am addressing them to friends and family who have open minds and wish to understand what is going on from the view of someone living through the experience in Israel. If you choose to forward these to some acquaintance in the hopes of convincing them that support for Hamas is wrong, you cannot expect me to come to your aid when you find someone who will totally discredit an opinion different from their own, and most likely someone who likely believes that October 7 was a total fabrication of the IDF to provide an excuse to enter Gaza….