Today’s Image
Many of you have either participated in, attended or administered a Jewish wedding. This image shows the groom crushing a glass towards the end of the ceremony. Despite what you might have been told, here is the real scoop on this tradition and why it is relevant to what is going on in the Middle East today. Like most weddings, a Jewish wedding is a festive event. But, while enjoying the blessings of the moment in order to keep life in balance, Jews are to be reminded of sadness. Prior to the crushing of the glass, the groom reads a passage from Psalm 137 in Hebrew, which goes “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, If I remember thee not; If I set not Jerusalem above my highest joy.” This psalm is connected to the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BC, the saddest moment in Jewish history. It is also said that through this connection to Jerusalem (physical and/or spiritual), the newlyweds are connected to the spiritual and national destiny of the Jewish people.
As you recall, on Monday evening this week the annual day of mourning, Tisha B’Av, began. Jews all over the world fasted for a day. Many joined communities in the reciting of the Book of Lamentation. I provide you all this background so you can appreciate the context of this video I recommend you watch. It shows observant Jews in Rome singing in front of the Arch of Titus on Tuesday of this week. Titus, as you might recall, was the Roman General and Emperor responsible for destroying the Second Temple in 70 AD. On this arch one can see a carving of the Romans sacking the Temple and bringing the artifacts back to Rome. By singing Psalm 137 in this location it carries great symbolic significance as Jews all over are bound tightly to Jerusalem and the land of Israel. Psalm 137 starts with “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea we wept, when we remembered Zion….”. Many of you will also recall that famous Rastafarian Song “Rivers of Babylon” which you can listen to here. The Psalm and the song recalls the mourning of the Jewish exiles crying at the side of the Euphrates River in Babylon (now Iraq) after being forced into exile. For you opera lovers, here is the same episode in history captured by Verdi in his famous opera, Nabucco - Va Pensiero (Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves). We, here in Israel, have no intention of being exiles again.
Gaza Rockets
No rockets fired from Gaza landed in Israel in the past 24 hours.
Casualties
There have been no IDF casualties reported in the past two days.
Gaza Operations
Today, Hamas announced that one of its “guards” shot a hostage under his charge in a fit of rage and vengeance after hearing that members of his families were killed. And according to Hamas this act violated its regulations. As it released this statement it published an image of the body of the victim First of all, Hamas has no regulations preventing its operatives acting in this way. It is a poor attempt at trying to draw equivalence to how the IDF operates and enforces its regulations. The statement came from Hudhaifa Kahlout (known as Abu Obeida) who is the spokesman for Hamas’s Al Qassam Brigade. At the beginning of the war Obeida threatened to execute the Israeli hostages. I wonder if that was a violation of Hamas’s code of conduct??? Secondly, the hostage shown in their photo is that of a hostage murdered long ago, Ofir Tzarfati (Z’’L). His mother identified his body this afternoon based on the photo. You can read more here. His body was recovered by the IDF back in November and returned to his family for burial shortly thereafter. So, they are caught in a double lie, depending on how you count.
Today the IDF provided an update on its operations in Gaza. At this point, they have discovered more than 50 tunnels in the Rafah area. To date all these have been demolished. They did not announced how many of these traversed the border to Egypt. This is a sensitive subject as Egypt has insisted that it was not collaborating at all with Hamas in smuggling weapons into Gaza. But the reality is that there is no other way that these arms could have arrived. And you can say that multiple tunnels with rail tracks and the ability to permit trucks to pass are so well hidden that you knew nothing about it. So the IDF avoids saying to much in an effort not to embarrass the Egyptians. Over the past day, dozens of terrorist combatants were killed in Rafah. I suggest you watch the videos in this article released by the IDF. They show the tunnels as they are destroyed right up to the border crossing with Egypt.
And more than 30 sites combining, booby trapped buildings, tunnels, arms storage facilities and operations centers were destroyed. Also, in Khan Younis fighting dozens of combatants were killed and arms storage facilities, including rockets, were destroyed.
As part of the update, the IDF said that about 17,000 Hamas combatants have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war. Another 1,000 were killed inside Israel in the aftermath of the October 7 massacre. The IDF did not say, but estimates are that about 2,000-4,000 combatants have been taken prisoner. That suggests that about 21,000 combatants have been either killed or taken prisoner. Initial estimates of the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighting force was about 33,000. It is not known how many fighters have been seriously injured.
Many of the IDF’s recent successes in Gaza are causing panic amongst Hamas senior officials as they have launched a witch hunt to locate and “interrogate” Gazans they think are informing and conspiring against them. History suggests that when leaders start such witch hunts it suggests that the “end is near”. Read more here.
Many of the displaced Israelis who had lived in the settlements surrounding Gaza are now returning to their homes, or what is left of them. The subsidies from the government to cover their housing in temporary facilities ran out two weeks ago. As you might expect, not everyone is happy about this but they do need to return at some point. And the pace of rocket fire is actually less than it was prior to the October 7 attack.
Lebanon Operations
One kamikaze drone and more than 25 rockets were fired by Hezbollah this afternoon. The drone was knocked out by air defenses. Most of the rockets were also taken out by air defenses and the others landed in open fields. No injuries reported. Earlier in the day rockets were fired into Israel triggering fires but no other damage or injuries.
This evening IDF fighter jets struck the sights from where the rockets were fired and several nearby Hezbollah facilities.
In this report, Lebanese are claiming that Israel has started using bunker busting bombs in some of its air attacks on Hezbollah facilities. The IDF claims that the unusually large explosions are a result of underground arms storage facilities used by Hezbollah, as they are secondary explosions. However, I would not be surprised if the IDF is using such bunker busting weapons. It is believed that the Hezbollah tunnel infrastructure is much more sophisticated than the Hamas undergound system.
There are reports that tensions between Hezbollah and Syrian Intelligence may have increased recently. In this report, it claims that Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah refused a meeting with Syrian General Intelligence General Hussam Louka. Louka was sent under orders of President for Life of Syria, Bahar al-Assad. Apparently, Hezbollah is upset that the Syrians reduced their attacks on Israel after being told to do so by Russia.
Drills were conducted at Haifa Bay today, coordinated with the police and Israeli Navy, simulating what a war with Lebanon might look like. The drill also involved staff at the local hospitals.
Yemen Operations
The US Treasury Department announced that they have managed to trace organizations involved in the movement of Iranian commodities, including oil and liquified gas, to Yemen and the UAE on behalf of the Houthis. The action is intended to apply financial pressure on these organizations.
Syria/Iraq/Egypt/Jordan/Turkiye/Iran
On Monday I wrote that the Syrian media reported on a drone attack in the Homs area. Today it was announced by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp that one of its military advisers died from injuries sustained in an attack earlier in the week. According to this report the victim was Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Afshari, head of the missile and drone unit of the IRGC.
White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said today that the Whitehouse doesn’t know if and when an Iran attack might ensue but they do not expect any advanced warning. I was in the open air market today in Jerusalem meeting a friend for lunch. It was packed with many families and shoppers. One would not know that the country is anticipating a large missile attack from Iran now.
IDF General
The summer draft cycle into the IDF is in full swing now. The son of friends of mine just drafted this afternoon. And here is a photo of former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett alongside Chief of Staff, Herzi HaLevy. Bennett’s son is drafting into an elite unit. Significant enough to get the attention of the Chief of Staff. Yesterday, in a public address Bennett said that the current government and the top echelon of the IDF should all resign due to the failures of October 7 and policies leading up to it. Here you can see the photo of the two with Bennett’s son.
In his comments today, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said today that Israel has achieved nearly all its military goals. He said that Israel has killed thousands of Hamas fighters and dramatically reduced its military capabilities. But, he said, Hamas still has active fighters and they are able to maneuver between locations in Gaza using those tunnels that remain. He cast doubt on whether the IDF can do much more in the coming weeks beyond what it has already done.
This has prompted comments from several other prominent people, in the know. In this New York Time analysis, the paper notes that the Israeli military has likely achieved all the goals in Gaza that it is likely to achieve. In the article it quotes General Joseph Votel, former head of US CENTCOM. He said:
Israel has been able to disrupt Hamas, kill a number of their leaders and largely reduce the threat to Israel that existed before October 7… Hamas is largely depleted but not wiped out, and the Israelis may never achieve the total annihilation of Hamas.
And then in the same article they cite Retired IDF Major General Yaakov Amidror who disagrees. He said:
If Israel evacuates its forces now, within a year, Hamas will be strong again. Israel needs another two or three months in central and southern Gaza, before shifting to “intelligence-based raids and strikes” for a year to eliminate the rest of the terror group.
While there are many opinions here in Israel, I think that most would agree with Amidror’s assessment.
Aid
According to COGAT, 203 trucks unloaded humanitarian aid yesterday into the staging areas inside Gaza. And 218 trucks worth of aid were picked up by the aid groups and distributed to those in need. This still leaves about 600 truckloads of goods still waiting to be distributed.
Politics/Protests
Back in May, Minister Benny Gantz went to the USA and held meetings with Vice President Kamala Harris and senior officials in the Biden Administration. At that time, relations between Prime Minister and the Administration were very low. The visit was not approved, in advance, by the Prime Minister’s Office which is typical in these situations. Now the Prime Minister’s Office is demanding that Gantz pay back for the costs of the trip, about $19,000. Petty politics have no limits I guess.
Despite the “summer recess” two committee votes on minor issues in the Knesset earlier this week failed to pass because certain coalition members did not show up for the vote. This along with a great deal cross accusations amongst senior members of the coalition have analysts in the country talking “elections” again. Nothing can happen until the government reconvenes after the Jewish holidays, sometime in late October. And even if things got out of hand, it would take another month for events to precipitate a government fall. But, Netanyahu has been known to be the great “magician”, always able to find a way out of a political “pickle” and keep a coalition together. This article provides more detail about what has been going on.
Hostages/Ceasefire
Despite its public announcements, Hamas is indirectly participating in the talks in Doha using communications between intermediaries. The Qataris, Egyptians and Americans report that there is not much difference between the processes taking place now and those in the past.
International
Tomorrow, the Foreign Ministers of France and Britain are scheduled to arrive in Israel. The publicly announced reason for their visit is to discuss efforts to prevent regional escalation. There is a large international campaign to apply pressure on the parties to reach a hostage/ceasefire deal soon. The parties, less Hamas, are meeting in Doha now.
Today in his address to the Turkish Parliament, President for Life Mahmoud Abbas announced that he will physically go to Gaza, even if it costs him his life. You can read more about it here and see photos of the two Presidents for Life playing “buddy-buddy”.
Some of you reading these posts may recall my prior discussions regarding the issue of “complementarity”. In reference to actions by the International Court of Justice or the International Criminal Court, they must prove that the countries/individuals they intend to arrest or prosecute reside in a country or environment in which laws against international war crimes or basic humanitarian laws are not enforced, arrests are not made and those found guilty not sentenced. In Israel both the civil and military courts are active with many investigations in actions since October 7. This article by a reported I respect outlines many of the cases that either have reached conclusion or “in process”.
Speaking of the ICC and ICJ, Israeli legal institutions are now gearing up to press their cases. This article describes how and what they are doing.
And In Your Copious Spare Time…
In this analysis, a former Iranian and former editor of major newspapers in Europe and the USA describes how Iran is risking its regime should it attack Israel. His arguments are compelling.
And here is an analysis by Retired IDF Major General Yaakov Amidror (cited above as well) that explains why CNN and much of the Western Media just don’t get it. These back seat drivers and their cadre of “military analysts” they bring on their shows work hard to describe how the IDF efforts to eliminate Hamas’s fighting capabilities are useless as all they do is recruit new fighters. You should read this.
And Israel has started gearing up to manufacture some of the arms it currently imports from the USA and other Western Powers. The slowing down of arms shipments by the USA a month ago has scared people here. Some arms purchases will shift from the USA to domestically produced arms. And with the worldwide shortage, it might also lead to exports. Read more here.