Today’s Image
This is a photo taken from an IDF drone operating inside a private home in Rafah. What you see is a tunnel entrance that was hidden by a girl’s bed in what was obviously a child’t bedroom. This has become typical. The IDF is finding tunnel entrances in every other residential home throughout Gaza. They also found arms hidden in this bedroom. You can see the video footage here.
Excuse this Important Digression
Those of you following me from the beginning, back in October, know that I have a very strong opinion on the “objectivity” and “the pursuit of truth” exhibited in the main media outlets of Western Civilization. I included in this list - The New York Times, BBC, SKY, The Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, (I would list FOX, but I am not even sure they qualify for this list.), etc. If I could read/understand French, Norwegian, Swedish or Danish I would be qualified to list their leading papers as well. Despite what these outlets say, “the pursuit of truth” is not high on their priority list or how they compensate their staff. Instead they are in a rush to be first with the story and in so doing shortcut any reasonable verifiability/credibility test of their inbound feeds. Those that can afford it, hire staff working for them here in Israel. They sit in comfortable offices, homes and, more often, bars while composing the story of the hour. It is a nice life for these people. Then, when they need a story on some event unfolding in Gaza or Ramallah or Jenin or Sh’chem (Nablus) they hire runners. These are local individuals who are paid by the hour to file “on the spot reports” with photos that are then edited by these “comfortable people” sitting in Jerusalem before they are forwarded to the “home office”. These reports are never verified and the credibility of those “runners” is never really checked.
Yet these runners WILL NEVER PRINT ANYTHING that contradicts what either Hamas or the PA wishes the world to see or read. Either these runners work for these terrorist organizations directly or indirectly or they are directly intimidated or indirectly intimidated by those holding the guns. I have seen this over and over and over again. I have talked about this before. But I think I need to remind everyone since I have many new readers AND since there are stories that are either breaking now or will break over the near future proving much of what I say.
And here is the first one - The Washington Post. In this article appearing in The Washington Free Beacon the author details many issues with WP reporting, one of which is that their new Editors in Chief are British and hired six former reporters from Al-Jazeera to report on the Gaza War Conflict. I assure you that this is just the beginning. The biased and skewed reporting from the BBC is even worse and more lopsided. Much of what is reported on their Arabic Channel is more extreme than what you would hear on The Moslem Brotherhood State of Qatari Funded Al-Jazeera.
There are three other areas that I believe are going to be more and more exposed with time that relate to Israel and The War. The Corrupt Western Media is the first pillar. The second is the directed funding at premier Universities coming from major wealthy Gulf States, led by The Moslem Brotherhood State of Qatar. Some people have started talking about all the money that these Universities are taking from the Arab States. But the problem is even worse. Many of these Universities have not only taken money, but have deliberately hidden how much they have taken from the US Government. Here is another breaking story from the Washington Free Beacon on how Yale University deliberately hid millions of dollar in donations from The Moslem Brotherhood State of Qatar in its reports to the IRS. And just so you don’t think that I am favoring one media outlet, here is a report from The Washington Examiner talking about how much money Northwestern University accepted from The Moslem Brotherhood State of Qatar.
And here is the one you should really spend time reading called “'Dark Money Nightmare': How Qatar Bought the Ivy League” written by Robert Williams in Gatestone Institute. In this investigative report Williams cites investigations showing more than 100 US Colleges and Universities receiving larges sums of money from The Moslem Brotherhood State of Qatar while avoiding to report at least $13B of it. In his report Williams cites the in depth research by fourteen academic researchers underwritten by The Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism & Policy ISGAP. You read and download it here.
And then there is the third leg of the stool. The first is the corruption of the Western Media. The second is the corruption of USA’s finest institutions of higher education. At one point in history these institutions were destinations for the world’s best and brightest. And the third is the programming and funding for the Pro-Hamas, Anti-Western organizations we see invading US college campuses and major capitals around the Western World. It is no accident of fate that these organizations were “in the streets” on October 8, 2023 promoting vicious anti-Israel, anti-Western and Pro-Hamas themes. These protests were incredibly well organized and happened within less than 24 hours of the October 7 attack. The protests on many of these campuses are being led by paid professionals who have undergone training over the years for the sole purpose of staging violent demonstrations of this type. Two of these groups are “nominally” Jewish - Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow. Both have been very active in these campus “encampments”. And both receive funding through the George Soros’ Tides Foundation. That same organization donated to the Adalah Justice Project in Illinois. That fine organization sponsored a rally in NYC’s Bryant Park on October 20 where protesters yelled antisemitic slogans and said “I do not condemn Hamas.” More and more stories on this subject are appearing and we are going to see more and more appearing in the future. As these stories unfold you will continue hearing these names over and over again - George Soros, The Pritzker’s, The Rockefeller Brothers Fund and a whole myriad of organizations bearing names such as “Palestine” or “Moslem”. Here are links to a few:
And I have saved the “best for last”, the total through and through corruption of International NGO institutions including UNWRA and many other UN Agencies. I have spoken and written, ad infinitum, about all the Palestinian Terrorist guns, ammunition, rockets, rocket launchers, tunnel entrances, data centers found by the IDF in all the UNRWA run schools, hospitals and even their headquarters. There is absolutely no way that UNRWA could claim any lack of knowledge that this has been going on for a long time. Moreover, the curriculum taught by UNRWA in Gaza, Ramallah, Jenin, Hevron is rampant with lessons on how to kill a Jew, what is the best Rat Poison to use on a knife, the nobility of being a “Shahid”, someone who dies in the course of a suicide bombing.
You have heard me rant previously about The Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese. In my last post I listed an early report from Hillel Neuer of UN Watch one his findings about some very liberal reporting on her use of cash. Here it is in case you missed it.
I think it is too early to say about these International Courts, whether they are corrupt or not. For sure, they are very political and often swing their voting to align with the policies of their countries of origin. But here is an interesting report from a South African media watch organization called Daily Maverick. The organization attempts to support or refute charges that the ANC, the leading and ruling political party in South Africa, took money directly from Iran in order to file the charges against Israel in the International Court of Justice. The bottom line is that the ANC was almost broke (not the country of South Africa, but its leading political party) until all of a sudden in January it announced that it no longer had a financial problem, being very sketchy on where the money came from. And then suddenly, within less than two months, the country of South Africa ruled by the ANC files its case against Israel.
So, let me summarize. It is my belief that there are four forces in play that are being used not only to delegitimize Israel but Western Civilization in play since October 7:
The Corruption of Western Media News Reporting,
The “Buying” of Western Civilizations Finest Universities by Gulf States,
The Well Funded, Organized and Professional Organizations orchestrating these Pro-Hamas, Anti-Western protests/riots across the Western World,
The Corruption of United Nations Agencies and other International NGOs
At this point the casual reader might be saying to themselves “What happened to Eric? Did his COVID illness affect his mind? Why does he claim that there all these conspiracies? Is he stalking Julia Roberts, too?”
The answer is I am not stalking Julia Roberts (for those not following, this is a reference to the 1997 movie “Conspiracy Theory” starring Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts). And I am not a believer in Conspiracy Theories. But the evidence that is piling up, and will continue to grow, is showing that these four forces are playing out for the purpose of not only undermining Israel, but eventually Western Civilization. Hamas’, Hezbollah’s and Iran’s stated goals do not end with the annihilation of Israel. We are just the first step, for them, of a much grander scheme in play. And that is not a theory, it is written in their raison d’être. Remember, we are the “little Satan”.
Gaza Rockets
No rockets were fired from Gaza and crossed the Israeli border in the past 12 days.
Casualties
Since I last reported 11 IDF soldiers died during combat: .Cpt. Wassem Mahmoud - 23 (Z’’L), Sgt. Eliyahu Moshe Zimbalist - 21 (Z’’L), Sgt. Itay Amar - 19 (Z’’L), Staff Sgt. Stanislav Kostarev - 21 (Z’’L), Staff Sgt. Orr Blumovitz - 20 (Z’’L), Staff Sgt. Oz Yeshaya Gruber - 20 (Z’’L), Sgt. Yakir Ya’akov Levi (Z’’L), Sgt. Shalom Menachem - 21 (Z’’L), Sgt. Tsur Avraham - 22 (Z’’L), Captain Eitan Koplovich - 28 (Z’’L) and Senior Staff Sergeant Major Elon Waiss - 49 (Z’’L). The first nine were members of the Combat Engineering Corp. They died on June 15 in Rafah when an anti-tank missile fired at the APC Armored Personnel Carrier, Namir. It took some time for the IDF to collect all the body parts and organize them so they could be buried together as it is required by Jewish Law. Note that Mahmoud is a moslem IDF soldier. Ordinarily, the Namir has the Israeli invented Trophy System which can actively detect and neutralize inbound RPGs/ anti-tank missiles But it appears that the missile was fired as the APC drove over a tunnel shaft and the missile was fired from below, not the side. The other two soldiers were killed during a battle in northern Gaza when an IED exploded then detonated their tank.
Gaza Operations
The main focus of activity now is in Rafah. The commander in charge of the Rafah Operation announced that he expects it to last 3-4 weeks more. So far the IDF says that they have uncovered more tunnels per square meter in Rafah than anywhere else in Gaza. It is not clear yet how many of the tunnels, including those running across the border with Egypt, have been destroyed. The IDF cannot destroy all the tunnels because apparently there are not enough explosives throughout the entire world to destroy them all. So far in the Rafah Operations the IDF has killed an estimated 600 Palestinian Terrorist Combatants. This is about ½ a brigade. They estimate that a least two full Hamas Brigades had escaped Rafah to relocate either in Khan Younis or blend in with the civilians in the humanitarian corridor. This is what happens when you announce your intentions well in advance to enable civilians to escape to safer ground.
Lebanon Operations
This evening Israeli fighter jets struck major Hezbollah weapons storage facilities in the southern Lebanese villages of Houla and Tallouseh. Nearby Hezbollah military facilities were also destroyed.
Earlier today Hezbollah launched a barrage of 20 rockets entering Israeli airspace. All landed in open fields without any injuries. This follows an earlier attack of 25 rockets, again landing in open fields without injuries.
Early this morning an IDF drone successfully assisinated Hezbollah’s regional commander in the Jouaiyya Area of southern Lebanon. It is one of the three sections bordering Israel. Abbas Ibrahim Hamza Hamada was responsible for planning and carrying out many attacks against Israel. The number of Hezbollah combatants killed so far numbers about 350 since the start of The War.
Yesterday, at a memorial event for slain Hezbollah senior commander Taleb Abdullah, killed last week in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon, Supreme Leader Hanan Nasrallah announced during a speech that:
The enemy wants to intimidate us, but they are the ones who should be afraid.
He went on to say that Cyprus might be held jointly responsible for any attack Israel conducts on the terrorist organization. Cyprus and Israel have a very close working relationship. Cyprus also has diplomatic relations with Lebanon. Cyprus occasionally permits, by prior agreement, Israel to use its airspace for drills at well coordinated times. Finally, Cyprus and Israel have a clear delineation of their maritime border and collaborate on the exploration of those areas for natural gas. I guess this is what has Nasrallah all wound up in a knot. Well today the European Union did something out of character… they said something smart. The spokesman for their executive arm announced that any threat against Cyprus was a threat against all the bloc’s 26 other member nations.
According to reports on Israeli TV, US Special Envoy Amos Hochstein warned Lebanese officials that if Hezbollah does not cease its nearly daily attacks on northern Israel, it could find itself the target of a major Israeli Operations, getting the US backing. The tricky part is “US Backing”. We will see if the Lebanese take that threat seriously or not.
Yemen Operations
Yesterday, for the second time since the start of The War, a commercial ship sunk as a result of attacks from Iranian proxy Houthis. The ship called Tutor bore a Liberian flag and was Greek owned and operated. One crew member was killed in the strike and the rest were rescued at sea by a British military vessel. Back in March a Belize flagged ship Rubymar carrying a load of fertilizer sank due to an attack by the Houthis. Traffic through the Suez Canal is now off by 90% from its regular seasonal traffic as most commercial shipping has been diverted around the South African Cape of Good Hope in order to avoid coming under Houthi attacks. In an ironic consequence of this Egypt’s economy, which was already on verge of collapse, is in very serious trouble as this forms a major income stream for them.
Aid
The US sponsored and build floating pier is up and operational again after a recent storm broke it apart once again about two weeks ago. In 20:20 hind sight this does not look like the most well thought out action.
COGAT, the IDF’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories publicly pressed the UN to do more to distribute the aid that Israel has processed, transferred and is sitting on the Gaza side of the border waiting to be sent to those Gaza residents in need. More than 1,000 trucks of aid have piled up inside Gaza, waiting to be distributed. Yesterday alone, no less than 285 new truck shipments of aid arrived. Here you can see a COGAT video posted showing the enormous amount of aid waiting to be distributed.
On a related meeting held between Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz and UN Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza, Sigrid Kaag, Kaag informed Katz that chaos and crime are spreading in Gaza. If something isn’t done, he said, the UN won’t be able to continue operating. Katz responded saying that there were more than 1,000 trucks worth of aid waiting to be distributed. Kaag responded saying that the UN workers were fearful of gangs and looting. If the Gazan residents start turning against the UN workers, the IDF may need to figure out how to distribute the aid.
Hostages/Ceasefire
Nothing new to report here. Although there is an Israeli delegation in Doha, Qatar that is nominally conducting negotiations.
In an in depth report in The Wall Street Journal, reported quoting US military officials estimated that fewer than 50 of the remaining 100+ hostages are likely still alive.
IDF General
Yesterday, the IDF’s chief spokesman, Read Adm. Daniel Haggari during the course of an interview on a prominent TV station stated that it is not possible to kill Hamas and that the Israeli government must come up with an alternative governing entity. This was met by a major faux pas from the Prime Minister’s Office. It turns out that the statement was taken out of context. The spokesman continued saying, in the interview, that as an ideology Hamas cannot be defeated because ideas cannot be destroyed. But as a governing and military power it can be destroyed. Because of the flare up, the Spokesperson’s office issued a clarification that the IDF supports the military goals of the war as presented by the government. The issue seems to be over.
Politics/Protests
Signs are growing, on a daily basis, that this government is likely not to last through the summer. One of the coalition partners, a party called Shas, mostly represents many of the ultra-orthodox Jewish community with Mizrachi origins. That is they or their parents came from either North Africa or the Middle East. The party has a sizable representation in Parliament of about 11 seats out of 120. A bill was submitted that would create jobs in local municipalities for many rabbis so they would receive a financial stipend from the government. It was intended as a fulfillment of a coalition agreement that Shas signed with Likud. Well, Likud members of the committee reviewing the law started verbally attacking the legislation as it was a clear payment scheme of jobs that served no real purpose. There is already a network of Rabbis and Imams around the country to service Jewish and Moslem citizens of the state. This was redundant. After this hit the press, the head of the committee (Simcha Rothmann, a real fascist jerk in my opinion) started talking about firing the ministers objecting to the legislation from their committee posts. Rather than see this get real messy, Prime Minister Netanyahu pulled the bill from consideration without informing his close ally Aryeh Deri (a convicted felon), leader of the Shas Party. Later in the same day Deri was heard telling his party comrades that there is no longer party discipline within the coalition and that there were signs it might break up.
Then, issues arose regarding the new bill being reviewed in committee that would alter the draft exemption age of the ultra-orthodox from its current 27 years old to 21 years old. By Israeli law all men and women, by the age of 18 are eligible to be drafted into the army. It is possible to choose National Service instead. This government and nearly all previous Netanyahu Governments before have done whatever they could to avoid addressing this obvious disparity in the enforcement of the draft. The Israeli Supreme Court had previously ruled that the government had a deadline of April 1 to address the issue with proper legislation. And like everything else associated with Benjamin Netanyahu, there is a request to postpone judgement. The court has been incredibly lenient in giving the Government time to properly address this disparity in the law. Personally, I do not see how the court could permit the current bill being pushed through parliament since all it does is change an exemption age. It doesn’t address the obvious disparity in the application of the same law to all citizens. But, I am neither a lawyer, parliamentarian nor judge. BUT, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, one of my few heroes in this Government, has publicly stated that he will vote against the bill as currently drafted when it comes to a vote in parliament. And yesterday he was joined by Economics Minister Nir Barkat, one of the other few sane heads in this government. Barkat announced that he would not support the bill as currently drafted when it came time to vote. In my opinion, this means that whenever and whatever kind of bill surfaces from committee in this parliament there is not likely to be enough votes to pass the bill. should that happen the government will fall. Passing a bill which effectively exempts most of the ultra-orthodox from either the IDF or national service was part of the legal contracts signed between the ultra-orthodox parties in this coalition and Likud. Without it, they will leave the government. I do not see any way that Netanyahu can play some kind of magicians’s trick here. This process will likely take another 3-4 weeks to unfold. Then there will be summer recess of parliament. From when a government “falls” elections are scheduled for approximately 3 months from that date. So we are likely to see elections sometime in December or January at the latest. The Rafah Operations are about a month from completion. I suspect that there will be a need for one more major operation in Khan Younis. After that the IDF will be dealing with “whack a mole” for many years to come. So having a lame duck government starting in 2-3 months is not a huge issue, I believe.
International
In a CNN report appearing today, several unnamed US officials stated that they were worried that Israel’s air defense systems are likely to be overwhelmed in the event of an all out war with Hezbollah. Duh!! This is why the Government Home Defense Organization has been advising people to stock up on canned goods, bottled water, large reservoirs of water to be used in “emergencies”. That is, the government expects that some of Israel’s critical infrastructure will be seriously damaged by an all out attack by Hezbollah. After all, it is estimated that Hezbollah has more than 160,000 drones, rockets, missiles in its arsenal and could easily launch 5,000 in a single day. It is estimated that since October 7, Hezbollah has used up only 5% of its arsenal but has managed to set fire to large parts of our north. So I am not sure what they are trying to accomplish with these leaks. For sure, the Biden Administration does not want Israel to enter full scale war with Hezbollah and has been doing what it can to dissuade Israel. But more than 60,000 people left their homes from the north in early October and are still not permitted to return. This cannot continue.
There is a minor and very public spat taking place at the moment between our Prime Minister and the US Administration. Previously, we all learned that the US was holding up shipments of the large (> 1,000 lb.) bombs on the pretense and worry that they would be used during Israel’s Rafah Operation. Apparently, those are still on hold. But, Israel is reporting a major hold up on initial shipments of F-15s it had ordered a long time ago and was approved by both the US Administration and us Congress. I am not sure, but I believe that these aircraft were ordered prior to The War and were part of an ongoing delivery. But I am not 100% sure. What makes this whole incident so bizarre is that The Wall Stree Journal reported on this exact issue in its June 18 issue, basically confirming what Netanyahu was saying. Well Netanyahu’s statement that there is a bottleneck of arms shipments coming from the US Administration in the middle of a war is not sitting well with President Biden and his aids. And it is not sitting well here in Israel. Somehow, one would think that these issues would get sorted out behind closed doors, not in the open media. The Biden Administration also seems to responding to what they are viewing as “an ungrateful ally”. In the meantime, the US Administration was careful when it announced that it was rerouting missiles to be delivered to Ukraine but those wouldn't affect Israel. That is true, Israel does not use the Patriot missiles involved in this shipment to Ukraine. According to reports here in Israel, Netanyahu went public with his statements regarding withholding of arms despite advise to the contrary from his aids.
In the meantime, Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi are in Washington DC meeting with senior White House officials Today they met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken. According to reports they were discussing the situation of the hostage/ceasefire negotiations. Earlier today they met with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
And In Your Copious Spare Time…
Hear Natasha Hausdorff, a barrister and expert commentator on international law, give a strong defense for Israel during the “Munk Debates”. You can read more about her background here and you can read more about the “Munk Debates” here.
There is an excellent NGO here in Israel that goes by the name, Shurat Ha Din, Here its director, Nitsana Darshan Leitner, describes the blatant lies and distortions of various UN organizations including the World Health Organization regarding starvation in Gaza. She cites a report of the Famine Review Committee (FRC) published its May, 2024 report on behalf of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). Apparently, this organization is a recognized authority in the analysis of famine. My guess is that Leitner is gearing up her group to take on the ICC should arrest warrants be issued against Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant. The reality is that despite all the screaming that the “sky is falling” from every UN agency around, not a single person in Gaza has been reported to die from hunger. Remember #4 on my list - The Corruption of United Nations Agencies and other International NGOs?
Regarding George Soros.... you must know that he is the bogeyman of the Far Right in the US, being accused of funding a world-wide Jewish cabal with all sorts of nefarious goals, including "replacement theory" (to give the vote to leftist immigrants to vote for the Democratic Party long-term)). A great many conspiracy theories target Soros as the root of all evil and are overtly antisemitic in doing so. So I did a double-take when you wrote:
"Rachel Ehrenfeld, author of “The Soros Agenda,” told JNS in August that former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman once said that nobody has done more damage to Israel than Soros. “He’s funded the New Israel Fund, the Palestinians, Birzeit University, anti-Israel organizations in Israel,” said Ehrenfeld."
This seems on the face of it to run counter to everything I have read about right wing complaints about Soros. I can't speak to "... the Palestinians, Birzeit University, anti-Israel organizations in Israel," but I can address the New Israel Fund (nif.org -- to which we have contributed for years). I have attended several NIF webinars and other online events, particularly those in which Daniel Sokatch (who has served as the CEO of the New Israel Fund since 2009) is featured. Not once have I heard a Pro-Hamas statement from the NIF. Their work since founding is in Israel with much (all?) grant making going toward Arab-Israeli (often Palestinian-Israeli) community building and peacemaking.