October 278, 2023, "The War"

My 217th post on The War

Today’s Image

On Wednesday morning we attended the Tekes Kumta of the November, 2023 draft of IDF soldiers into Tsanchanim. Let me explain…. The IDF has three major draft cycles each year. The soldiers pictured in the photo were drafted into the November draft cycle. In January, they had their swearing in ceremony called Tekes Hashba’a. At the Western Wall each drafted soldier swears on either a bound version of the Torah (with subsequent book of judges, kings, etc.), the Christian Bible or the Koran. They swear to defend Israel, its inhabitants even at the cost of their lives. Since their draft the soldiers have been in basic training. At the completion of that training, they have a second ceremony, Tekes Kumta, or Beret Ceremony. At this ceremony, they trade their generic army green beret for the beret of the battalion in which they are serving. These soldiers are receiving the maroon beret of the Tsanchanim Battalion. Tsanchanim are the parachutists. And some of them, not all, will actually go through the drills of learning how to jump out of a plane with a parachute and land properly.

The ceremony was held at a monument in Jerusalem called Givat HaTachmoshet, or Ammunition Hill. This location carries great symbolism for the Tsanchanim as a major battle in 1967 was fought there, with many Israeli casualties. But once they took that hill, they were able to quickly overrun the Jordanian troops to enter the Old City. It was from that hill and another one located in a neighborhood of Jerusalem called Abu Tor ( I used to live there.) from where the Tsanchanim led the charge to recapture the Old City and the Har Habayit, the site of the First and Second Temples.

In this photo, at the bottom, you will see one soldier without a beret, right near a soldier with a “green” beret. The one without the beret is the son of my first cousin, Myles Rosenblum, from St. Louis, MO. He volunteered into the IDF as a Lone Soldier, as his family lives in St. Louis. I capture this photo in between the transition. the commander in front of Myles had just removed Myles’ green beret, after Myles saluted the commander hidden by the flags. Within a couple of seconds the second commander placed the maroon beret on Myles, then they saluted and hugged. The soldier in the green beret is waiting for his turn. I am always very moved by these ceremonies.

For the three days preceding this ceremony all three divisions hiked with full 40 kilo packs from their base in Nir Oz (on the border with Gaza) to Jerusalem, stopping only for bio breaks, food and water. A three day continuous hike, in all. It is part of the training. They will have about 4-5 days to spend with their families and will then return to base, ready to actively serve the State of Israel. May G-d protect them and keep them from harm….

Gaza Rockets

No rockets fired from Gaza crossed into Israel in the past 24 hours.

Casualties

The IDF reports two commanders killed in separate battles in northern Gaza from yesterday, Cpt. Elay Elisha Lugasi -21 (Z’’L) and Cpt. Roy Miller - 21 (Z’’L). Lugasi was a member of the Armored Brigade, Shiryon (Tanks Corp). Miller was a captain in the Givati Brigade. You can tell from his beret which is violet. The total number of soldiers killed in battles in Gaza are now 324.

Gaza Operations

The Tsanchanim Battalion, paratroopers, continue their operations inside the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City. Within the past day they report that they have destroyed more than 50 facilities used by Hamas combatants and killed whatever combatants they encountered trying to defend the facilities. They found many tunnel entrances as well as weapons storage locations in residences, schools and mosques. As I have said before, they find weapons and tunnel entrances in every other building within Gaza. They estimate killing “dozens” of combatants in the past two days of fighting. They also reported on the destruction of several of the tunnels in Shejaiya.

And operations are continuing in Rafah and the Netzarim Corridor. In both cases the infantry called in IDF UAVs when they found combatants and Hamas facilities.

There are reports coming out of Gaza of an increasing level of dissent emerging against Hamas and specifically its leaders. Apparently some donkey owners are now naming their animals Sinwar as an insult to the Hamas leader. Everything is anecdotal. Every survey conducted so far, however, suggests that there is widespread support for Hamas in Gaza as well as Judea/Samaria (West Bank), at the level of 70% or so. Here is an article that appeared in BBC online that goes into more detail.

Lebanon Operations

You know that the IDF did something good when Hezbollah launches a large rocket attack. Yesterday, I reported on the assassination of one of the five top Hezbollah commanders in southern Lebanon. Today Hezbollah launched more than 160 rockets and 15 kamikaze drones targeting various communities in northern Israel. Many of these airborne threats were removed using IDF aerial defenses, those that got through caused numerous fires. There was one injury reported, a young man in his 20s suffered minor injuries incurred from falling shrapnel. One fire broke out on the roof of a shopping mall in the Israeli city of Acre. The fire is thought to have been triggered by falling shrapnel. Firefighters are working to extinguish other field fires triggered by the falling shrapnel. This constitutes the largest barrage of firepower launched by Hezbollah in a single day.

Able to trace the launch sites of these rockets, the IDF immediately attacked the launch sites using missiles launched from fighter jets. These missiles must carry enough firepower to hit underground facilities as many of these rocket launchers are hidden inside Hezbollah built tunnels that are thought to run throughout much of Lebanon, some of which are large enough for vehicles.

Very early this morning, Israeli fighter jets attacked numerous Hezbollah military facilities throughout southern Lebanon.

As follow up to yesterday’s report about the assassination of Senior Hezbollah commander Muhammed Newman Nasser, here is a more detailed description about this terror leader and the implications of his elimination. The article was co-authored by Ron Ben Yishai, who I have often cited in these posts. Nasser was one of three commanders of the three major combat divisions of Hezbollah. So far Israel has eliminated two of them and then a Wissam al-Tawil who commanded the entire Radwan Force, considered by Hezbollah to be its elite, special forces corp. That means that Israel has effectively wiped out the military leadership of Hezbollah. For sure, these murderers will be replaced, but they will not have the respect nor experience leading that these men had. The fact that the IDF is not only able to track these commanders but kill them so effectively is a testament to the incredible intelligence at Israel’s disposal. If they know where, when and how to take these military leaders out, the IDF certainly knows where the full leadership is hiding and must be able to kill them as well.

Yemen Operations

US Army’s CENTCOM announced yesterday that it successfully destroyed two radar sites in Houthi controlled area of Yemen and two UMV Unmanned Marine Vehicles. Destroying the radar sites is a significant advancement in limiting their ability to target merchant vessels.

Hostages/Ceasefire

Yesterday, Hamas submitted a formal response to the “Three Stage” proposal offered by Israel and announced publicly by President Biden on May 31, 2024. The Israeli Security Cabinet is meeting with the Israel negotiating team later this afternoon to discuss the details and formulate a response. In the meantime, President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu discussed the negotiations by phone today. Leaks coming from the Israeli negotiating team are suggesting that there is reason to be optimistic that this effort might lead to an actual deal. This article provides some additional background to the hostage situation. In it, one of the Gaza terrorist organizations, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, claimed that some of the hostages have attempted to kill themselves. They claim that this is because they feel that their government has neglected them. All these organizations use tactics such as these to get more of the Israeli protestors out demonstrating against the government. There is no clear evidence that what they say is true, although it is certainly possible.

Aid

More than 300 aid trucks crossed into Gaza today unloading onto the staging areas. Of these, 257 entered through the southern Karem Shalom border crossing straddling Egypt-Israel-Gaza. And of the staged supplies, the aid agencies picked up the equivalent of more than 164 truck loads of aid for distribution. It would seem that the IDF’s new tactics of placing snipers in position to chase off would be looters is helping the aid distribution effort.

IDF General

An Israeli soldier launched an initiative to deal with a problem plaguing those soldiers fighting in Gaza. We are experiencing an unusual hot summer this year, like much of the northern hemisphere. Soldiers fighting in Gaza return to their bases to sleep in tents, often during daylight. But the heat is keeping them from catching up on their sleep. So this soldier initiated an effort to buy A/C units that would serve to help cool down the tents so the soldiers can sleep. I CANNOT personally vouch for the authenticity of this campaign and the people behind it as I am not familiar with the organization. For that reason I have not posted a link to their donation page.

Some of you have asked me about appeals appearing in Jewish Community newspapers as well as online social media for donations in order to purchase needed equipment for soldiers. Responding privately I said that I was not aware of any REAL shortages in supplies to the IDF soldiers at this time. The only information I had was anecdotal and I had only heard of a shortage of kevlar vests, bullet-proof vests. But this article describes a serious problem that is now getting the attention of the government. Individual organizations unconnected to the IDF have been soliciting funds to buy equipment for soldiers and having it shipped to Israel. But much of the equipment is being held up at customs because it does not meet required standards here in Israel. You can read more here. There does not appear to be any malicious intent here, only a bit of misdirected goodwill.

International

Here is an article reporting on the major disregard by UN Aid Organizations to properly portray the reality of aid reaching Gaza and its distribution. According to the research conducted by the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) the UN Agencies misled international opinion and the legal proceedings against Israel and its leaders by omitting large amounts of aid entering Gaza by air drop, from the northern Israeli border crossings and by the floating pier, which is still not operational after the last round of damage. According to this report:

Dr. Tammy Caner, the lead researcher, conducted a comparative analysis of aid volume data published by Israel against figures released by UN agencies, including UNRWA, OCHA, and IPC. The investigation uncovered a startling discrepancy: approximately 10,000 aid trucks that entered Gaza during the conflict months were omitted from UN reports. While UN figures cite about 28,000 trucks, the Israeli Defense Forces' District Coordination and Liaison (DCL) reports a significantly higher number of 38,000.

You will recall my fourth item constituting the corruption of Western Institutions, that I described on my June 20th post,

#4 The Corruption of United Nations Agencies and other International NGOs

Politics/Protests

Anti-government protesters blocked two major freeway arteries in central Israel today bringing traffic to a halt for many kilometers of cars. They ignited flares and blocked traffic with signs and their bodies. The protestors are calling for a “national strike”.

And In Your Copious Spare Time…

• This article describes some of the preparations that Hamas combatants went through in the hours before they struck on October 7. The information is based on documents and information captured by IDF troops amongst their many raids into the tunnel infrastructure inside Gaza.

• Here is an academic level article authored by Daniel Pipes, a friend and founder of the Middle East Forum. In this article Pipes describes the massive migration of Arab migrants to the Ottoman province of Falestin and the British Mandate colony of Palestine. Our very bright university students at the Ivies are quick to point out that the Jews are colonialists, when in fact it appears that the Arab are.

• And here is a message from our Prime Minister to all Americans on their Independence Day. A quick, but worthwhile read.