Today’s photo was taken at the Lone Soldier Center Community Center in Beer Sheva. One of the largest newspapers in Israel published this article on the Lone Soldiers affiliated with our organizations. You can read it in English here and in Hebrew here.
No rockets were fired into Israel in the past 72 hours. No IDF casualties reported on either the northern or southern fronts in the past 48 hours.
During infantry operations in central Gaza, several Hamas cells attempted to launch mortars at both IDF positions and the floating pier being constructed by the US Army. Air strikes were called in by the infantry units and the cells, along with their weapons, were destroyed. Several tunnel entrances were also destroyed as part of the operation.
Last night IDF fighter jets conducted several strikes against installations where Hezbollah fighters were actively engaged in preparations for missile attacks against Israel.
Nothing reported coming out of the Yemen battle arena today.
Progress is being made on the floating port being constructed by the US Army and its contractors. Three times they have now come under fire by Hamas while working on building a facility to aid in the distribution of humanitarian aid. Each time the IDF has provided cover, per the understandings between the two allies. My guess is that it should be operational some time next week, ready to start receiving marine based aid shipments.
The IDF has informed the government that all of its preparations for its Rafah Operations, starting with the evacuation of civilians to a humanitarian corridor, are ready to deploy and they are just waiting for the “green light” from the government.
It seems that everyone here is out in the streets protesting for any one of a dozen reasons. There are the hostage families that blocked a major artery in Tel Aviv this afternoon demanding the government forsake everything gained in the war so far, capitulate its gains, thinking that this will get their loved ones back. Then there are the ultra-orthodox blocking a major north south traffic artery east of Tel Aviv. They are demanding that they be exempted from the draft. This morning a 58 year old was arrested for attempting to physically block the Prime Minister’s security motorcade while it was taking him to a critical War Cabinet meeting to discuss the hostage/ceasefire negotiations. Then, far right extremists blocked a major thoroughfare in Judea/Samaria (West Bank) setting tires on fire to protest the arrest of several other extremists when they tried to establish an illegal settlement. I guess that whatever infected the USA is contagious.
Today, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken made public that he informed Prime Minister Netanyahu that if the IDF were to initiate an operation in Rafah it would likely end discussions about normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia. I guess he was following a theme established by Thomas Friedman of The New York Times who published an editorial over the weekend entitled “Riyadh or Rafah”? I do not believe any of this, personally. I think that it is all an orchestrated fake. If Saudi Arabia is motivated to normalize relations with Israel it will just as motivated after a successful Rafah Operation. What is at issue is how Israel deals with its demand on progress in some form of a Palestinian State. That is real. But, that issue is there regardless of what the IDF does with respect to Rafah. Thomas Friedman is just mouthing a policy adopted amongst some members of the Biden Administration. But that attitude is not universal even with the US Administration. At least this is my opinion. The deal with Saudi Arabia will be there after Israel deals with Hamas. But, it is not likely to move forward unless the Saudis can show the muslim world that there is some form of progress on a Palestinian State - whatever that might look like.
Speaking of Saudi Arabia, there are reports that the government has stepped up arrest of its citizens over incitement on social media platforms related to the Gaza War.
Netanyahu, in a speech commemorating fallen members of the pre-state Etzel Underground, headed by former Prime Minister Menachem Begin (Z’’L), stated that “Israel will do what we must in order to win and triumph over our enemies, including in Rafah.”
Leaders of Hamas have left Doha, Qatar for Cairo, Egypt to discuss their remaining issues with the ongoing negotiations. Reports seem clear that Yahiya Sinwar still demands that there be a full and complete end of IDF operations in Gaza, he wants clarification on materials on the restricted list prevented by Israel to enter Gaza and a full/immediate IDF retreat from Gaza, leaving him in control. This position was confirmed today by the Hezbollah affiliated TV station in Lebanon, Al-Manar, during an interview with one of the Hamas spokesmen - Osama Hamdan. Those of you who have been reading my posts since the beginning will remember that I have been saying since the beginning that there is no way Sinwar will agree to anything which prevents him from resuming control of Gaza. He has invested his life in creating a “nation” of terrorists who are willing to go on Jihadi missions to kill, and be killed if allowed, in order to create a greater Islamic Order that returns Islam to the glory it held in the 7th and 8th Centuries. It is in the Hamas charter and they repeat this goal each time they get a chance. I have posted links to the Hamas Charter in previous posts, but do it again here and here. It is not just about the elimination of the Jews and their state. They, and the other Jihadis, have the West fully in their target finder.
The two leaders of the far right parties in this government, Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, have launched very public and ugly attacks against Defense Minister Yoav Gallant claiming that he is to blame for the terrible IDF response to the October 7 attack. I really wish these two guys would leave the government. In my view, Gallant is one of the few true and dedicated heroes of this war. Netanyahu fired him and then retracted after he reported that the Judicial Reforms being ramrodded by these two jerks, and others, are jeopardizing the readiness of the IDF.
Well, here is one of the best ideas I have heard of in awhile…. Shiraz University in Iran has offered free room, board and tuition to any US student expelled from their University resulting from pro-Hamas/Jihadi demonstrations. Now someone just needs to add free air fare.
I reported a couple of days ago on the Nvidia, the AI giant, acquisition of Run:ai, an Israeli high tech firm. And today it was announced that Nvidia is purchased an Israeli AI firm - Deci. The deal is being valued at $300M.
As I have mentioned in previous posts, unlike those of you in the West, we view this war forced on us by Hamas as one between “civilizations”. That is, there are Jihadis whose goal is to bring down the Global Infrastructure established after WW2 and establish, instead, some form of Islamic Caliphate. This is what Hamas professes in everything it does. It only differs in minor respects from ISIS (which is growing stronger again), Al-Qaeda, Iran, Hezbollah, Taliban, Qatar, Houthis, etc. I strongly urge you to read this commentary by the Editor of the respected British newspaper, The Telegraph. He describes the pro-Hamas “demonstrations” across the US University campuses and European capitals from a view point not too different from our view on this “conflict of civilizations”.
And, if you really have the time to spare, I recommend listening to this podcast from Dan Senor’s channel - “Call me Back'“. He and his guest Haviv Rettig Gur, whom I have previously recommended, talk about the dilemma facing Israel between the hostage negotiations and the necessity of entering Rafah. Appropriately, they title the pod case “Israel’s Sophie’s Choice”, alluding to the famous movie starring Meryl Streep in which the Nazis forced her character to choose which of her daughters would live and which would die. The podcast can be found here and here.