Today’s Image
This is a photo of the Philadelphi Corridor taken looking from East to West. It was taken about two months ago. Try doing a search on “Philadelph” leaving out the last few letters. Surprisingly, what pops up is Philadelphi Corridor and NOT the city of Philadelphia (in The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania) NOR the Byzantine City of Philadelphia in Antalia (Now Turkiye) for which the modern city was named. Interesting how quick the issue reached prominence.
My View
One of you asked me about the tenor of the campaign rhetoric here in Israel and the perception it creates abroad. The question, specifically, was put into the context of “how can it be bad when pro-Hamas demonstrators on the US College Campuses protest if Israeli demonstrators are saying the same things”. I have refrained from making any comments regarding the encampments and pro-Hamas demonstrations/riots around the world and will continue to do so. But, there is a huge difference between barricading oneself in a University building in violation of the law, shouting “Intifada, Revolution”, “From the River to the Sea”, “Genocide Joe”, then burning Israeli and US flags - and what is going on here in Israel. While certainly the thinking (or lack thereof) taking place in these riots on US Ivy League schools might have a long term impact on how the world sees us, Israel, I think that these pro-Hamas demonstrators and the forces they represent are a more significant danger to the countries hosting them. Having said this, let me make some of my views on the civil discourse here in Israel more visible to you, my readers…
Israeli society is confronted today with forces that would cause any Democratic Republic to undergo severe strains. Our country has been under ongoing, constant physical attack long before it was founded, dating back as early as 1929 and even before. We have grown and lived with this constant threat largely because we have a very effective army which consists of conscripted males and females. (Women were fighting in combat roles before the founding of the state.) This civilian army is one of several fundamental strengths in our society. Families send their young men and women to serve on the assumption that should any be captured, the IDF will do everything within its power to recover them. This obligation is rooted in many of our biblical and rabbinic foundations. Some may see it as a weakness but we view it as a strength.
Likewise, there are biblical references in fighting absolute evil. You may hear on occasion some of our ministers refer to Hamas as “Amalek”. This is a biblical reference to a situation when the ancient Hebrews were attacked, unprovoked, soon after crossing the Red Sea. Through Moshe, the Hebrews were commanded to annihilate Amalek, which they did, and yet forgive the Egyptians who enslaved them for so many years. This is because there is a notion of absolute evil - Amalek = Hamas.
From the beginning of The War, the government outlined three goals, without placing a priority of one over another:
eliminate Hamas’s military capabilities,
block it from governing now or in the future, and
secure the return of the hostages.
The strategy to secure these objectives has been working. The government, with great help from the Biden Administration, has a proposal on a deal near done but there remain a couple issues preventing the consummation of a “deal”. The most talked about one is securing the Philadelphi Corridor and preventing the smuggling of weapons into Gaza. I provided the background details in one of my posts earlier this week.
The issue at hand now, is that one part of Israeli Society is saying that this strategy must end up with a deal that should be signed now and another segment of society is saying that the strategy must continue to play out. With the exception of a very, very, very small minority of voices, mostly from Arab Israelis, there is no one talking of giving up on objectives 1 and 2, in order to secure objective 3. Let me repeat because this is a fundamental misunderstanding being propagated by Western Media:
More than 92% of the Israeli population still insists that the country must eliminate Hamas’s military capabilities and block it from governing now or in the future. And if a hostage deal is secured, the IDF should return to its fighting as soon as the exchanges are complete.
The disagreement here is:
One part of the population insists that the government move forward with the deal that is on the table in order to secure as many living hostages as possible, but then return to fighting in Gaza for the purpose of securing objectives 1 and 2.
OR
The other part of the population insists that pausing the fighting now might result in an inability to return to the fighting after phase 1 of the ceasefire as a result of International Pressure. And that will block the ability to secure objectives 1 and 2 to the deference of 3.
That is it! That is the essence of the demonstrations you are seeing coming from Tel Aviv to your local network TV stations. While demonstrations took place across much of the country, the main focus has been in Tel Aviv where the families of the remaining hostages are encamped outside the Tel Aviv Art Museum. Until last Monday, September 5, the crowds in Tel Aviv were numbering in the single digit thousands. That surged on Monday when it was estimated that about 100,000 showed up. That was the day that the major labour union in Israel called for a General Strike. I am in Tel Aviv now and I can see the demonstrations from my apartment window. They have returned to the level before last Monday.
Beyond the “essence”, there are other mitigating issues affecting these public demonstrations:
Distrust of the Prime Minister based upon past actions. Many think that his actions are purely motivated by his desire to stay in power.
Actions/Statements/Positions of the two extremist parties in the government who publicly go around claiming credit for preventing a ceasefire.
Most members of the “Hostages and Missing Families Forum” are on the political left (coming from attendees of the Nova Festival or from the kibbutzim surrounding Gaza) and wish to bring the government down regardless.
Frustration within the upper military echelon with the government setting policy. Some feel that now is the time to cut a deal and then return to the fighting.
Hamas murdering hostages…. and there are others.
But to understand what is going on you also have to understand a bit about Israeli Society and our Politics. In case you have never met an Israeli before you should understand some things about Israelis. They are loud, opinionated (having multiple different opinions on the same subject), like to be heard, hate being ignored, lack diplomacy, determined, stubborn, warm, lovable, care about each other, etc.
Our politics here can be toxic. As a case in point, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said just the other day that this is a “Government of Death” and that it has the blood of the hostages on its hands. Even by Israeli terms this is totally out of bounds and I hope that this costs him support in any future election. No doubt he got caught up in his own rhetoric. But, he has just shown that he cannot be trusted either. No one should be making comments like this. The responsibility for the six dead hostages is on the hands of Hamas and no one else. They must pay for these murders.
Which brings me to my closing comments on this subject, for the time being… (I am Israeli, after all??) It is my view that all three objectives set out by the government in the early days of The War are still valid. And those advocating for one side of the disagreement have just as valid a position as those on the other side. For the sake of our society, we all must bear this in mind. This is a free country and one should advocate for one’s beliefs in a public forum. But for the sake of cohesion in our society, do so understanding that the real enemy is in Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis, Nuseirat, Doha, Beirut, Ankara, Tehran….. not in Jerusalem and not in Tel Aviv. We should not be delegitimizing the positions of those placing priority on one of The War goals over the other. Claims of both sides of this equation are legitimate.
There is another context from which to view the recent Netanyahu comments regarding the Philadelphi Corridor. The Prime Minister has made it clear, publicly, that he is very disappointed with the Israeli negotiating team, saying that they cave too easy and don’t know how to negotiate in the Middle East. I think that it is fair to say that the Prime Minister is injecting himself directly into the negotiations process. One way to negotiate is to throw your opponents off balance by introducing some issue that was either rendered as trivial previously as being very important in order to get something else in return. It was Netanyahu that insisted all along that there would be no deal that involved a permanent ceasefire. Israel would retain the rights to start the fighting after the first phase. It now appears that Hamas has caved on that position. Negotiating strategy or not, the issues being played out in the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem with the demonstrations are real and fundamental to our society.
And we are in this position because of past mistakes not just of this government led by Prime Minister Netanyahu. Yes, it was his policy to buy off Hamas and it was his policy to avoid bringing in ground troops in previous conflicts there. And, it is my opinion, that he should accept responsibility and step down in the near future. But, there is a lot of blame to assign here. Benny Gantz was Defense Minister (and before that Chief of Staff). In neither role did he advocate for moving and taking out the tunnel system in Gaza. He is now Leader of the National Unity Party. When Gadi Eisenkot was Chief of Staff, his boss the Defense Minister (at the time Avigdor Lieberman) drafted a report and a policy paper basically laying out the possibility of an attack just like on October 7, back in 2016. Eisenkot and the cabinet pushed back. In Netanyahu’s autobiography, “Bibi: My Story”, he proudly claimed that he stopped Avigdor Lieberman and, later, Naftali Bennett, when in the role of Minister of Defense they each pushed to go into Gaza with force after one or more Hamas cross border attacks. Today, Bennett when interviewed says that the entire government needs to be replaced as well as most of the military higher echelon as they are all guilty of complacency. It is my view that he is correct. It is time for a younger generation, hopefully some of those brave souls who fought in Gaza, to take the reins of the country.
I have also been asked to present my view on “victory” and what that means. I will do so in a future post.
Gaza Rockets
No rockets fired from Gaza crossed into Israel over the last 6 days.
Casualties
There were no casualties reported in the past 4 days.
Gaza Operations
Late last night, the IDF helicopters struck a facility used as a command center by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad not far from a hospital in Deir al-Balah. There appear to have been 5 operatives killed in the strike. The area was under surveillance for some time prior to the strike to ensure no civilians nearby. It was done at night since few civilians would use the facility then. Read more here.
Lebanon Operations
This evening Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets that never made it across the border, blowing up inside Lebanon.
Late this afternoon a few rockets were fired by Hezbollah at the Jewish Moshav of Elkosh and the nearby Christian village of Fassuta in the very north of Israel, about 3 km from the Lebanese border.
Last this morning, Hezbollah fired 5 rockets at Ramot Naftali, about 2 km from the Lebanese border. Around the same time three kamikaze drones were launched by Hezbollah targeting the Western Galilee area. One was neutralized over Lebanese air space, one was neutralized over Israeli air space and one landed near Ya’ara, about 2 km from the Lebanese border.
This morning an IDF drone strike killed a major Hezbollah terrorist in southern Lebanon, Abbas Anis Ayoub. His role in Hezbollah was not revealed but his death was confirmed by Hezbollah. You can see a video of the strike here.
Yemen Operations
It has been 51 days since the IDF struck Yemen’s port of Al-Hodeidah, and without any missiles fired from Yemen towards Israel.
Syria/Iran/Jordan/Egypt/Iraq
Egypt is getting a bit testy these days. Today it was reported in the Egyptian press that a high ranking Egyptian government official accused Prime Minister Netanyahu to trying to place the blame on other countries for his failure to achieve his goals in Gaza. Netanyahu, in his comments, did not place the blame on the Egyptian government but did state that the arms reaching Hamas in Gaza were smuggled across its border with Egypt.
And in related news, all of a sudden after years of neglect, Egypt’s Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Ahmed Fathy Khalifa made a surprise visit to Egypt’s border with Gaza. The visit was publicized as an inspection of the security situation. My guess is that this might be his first visit there. And most certainly it was politically motivated.
Aid
The Polio Inoculation Campaign in Gaza is now in its fourth day. No statistics relating to progress were released. And COGAT (Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories ) reports that 222 humanitarian aid trucks entered Gaza and unloaded their cargo. And only 150 were picked up on the other side for distribution.
Hostages/Ceasefire
There were reports, now being denied, that the families of US-Israeli hostages approached the Biden Administration asking if they could cut a separate deal with Hamas in order to recover their loved ones. Earlier NBC reported that the families met with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, urging him to work on a separate deal. There were seven hostages with US citizenship. Only four are believed to be alive now.
In a pre-recorded message, Hamas’s head of negotiations reiterated their position that any deal must require a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.
Yesterday, the Biden administration said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s repeated declarations that Israel plans to indefinitely remain in the Philadelphi Corridor have complicated the ongoing hostage negotiations. According to a senior official speaking with reporters:
I’ve never been involved in a negotiation where every day there’s a public statement about the details of negotiation. It makes it difficult. The less that is said about particular issues, the better. Staking out concrete positions in the middle of negotiations isn’t always particularly helpful.
Well, I think that this is often how things are done in the Middle East… And the official went on to say that in regards to the terrorist prisoners:
What Hamas has been demanding here, the Israelis have come forward to meet the terms as best they can and Hamas has made this part of the negotiations a pretty frustrating process.
And in reference to the execution of the 6 Israeli hostages he said:
The killings are coloring the discussions and have brought a sense of urgency to the process, but it has also called into question Hamas’s readiness to do a deal of any kind.
Also, in reference to the Philadelphi Corridor the official said:
A dispute emerged whether the Philadelphia Corridor, which is effectively a road on the border of Gaza and Egypt, is a densely populated area or not. Israeli reducing its presence along the depopulated area is technically consistent with the deal. But Hamas has rejected this proposal out of hand.
My view is that from these comments and those of Ambassador Lew, it is Hamas that is toughening its positions at the last minute. I think that in this light, we might view Prime Minister Netanyahu’s position as a counter move in order to avoid being pushed by the US to cave in to Hamas’s demands. This is actually a common, and recommended, negotiating tactic.
Politics/Protests
Lots of short tempers emerging from here now. The State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman launched an independent investigation into the failures surrounding the failure of October 7. This investigation is the third and will not be the last. The first was an internal IDF audit that commissioned by the Chief of Staff. Its report is nearly done and will be presented to high ranking officers in the IDF so that corrective actions will be taken. The second is a civilian launched investigation that has been soliciting testimony from inside and outside the government. And the State Comptroller’s is the third. Ultimately, there will be a truly independent commission set up to conduct a comprehensive and independent investigation. But that is likely only to happen when a new government is in place.
In any case, Leader of the Opposition Yair Lapid launched an attack on the Comptroller saying publicly that the investigation is biased. I fail to see what Lapid is trying to accomplish. I think that it is obvious to all that the government cannot investigate itself. But, if there are lessons to be learned in the interim, why not? But his comments drew rebuke from other government ministers telling Lapid he has unbridled arrogance. That is also true.
Ehud Barak, former Defense Minister and Prime Minister, launched another verbal attack against Prime Minister Netanyahu. Barak holds a personal grudge against Netanyahu, as do many politicians in the country. Netanyahu convinced Barak to bolt the Labor Party, years ago, and join his government as Defense Minister so they could plan attacks on Iran to take out their nuclear facilities. This was back in 2012-13. Benny Gantz was Chief of Staff at the time and absolutely refused to comply with orders from the government related to Iran. Since this time Barak has taken a regular public stance that agressively, non-stop attacks the Prime Minister. Today he said:
A worthy leader does not allow the country he heads to weaken like this, when he is repeatedly warned of the meaning of what he is doing.
While Barak has a serious point and his criticisms have some validity, his non stop attacks hurt his credibility. Barak made these comments during questioning in an independent civilian commission investigating the events of October 7. Earlier, in this same section I wrote about it.
An Israeli NGO has petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court on behalf of families with members killed by Hamas to stop the aid entering Gaza. I doubt that the case will win.
International
In a Press Briefing this morning, US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby briefed the reporters on the progress, or lack thereof, on reaching a hostage/ceasefire deal. When he was asked if Prime Minister Netanyahu and his positions were the obstacle, Kirby replied that the biggest obstacle to getting a ceasefire deal is Hamas.
This afternoon, Prime Minister Netanyahu was interviewed on the US Fox News Channel. It was 10 minutes long. You can listen to it here. He did not sound optimistic about the chances for a hostage deal, but perhaps this was all posturing.
Today at a National Security Studies Conference in Tel Aviv, US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew was asked about the status of the hostage/ceasefire deal. His comments are revealing. You can read more here. To quote:
Hamas has been putting some things on the table that have been complete nonstarters [regarding] the exchange, and they’re different than what was agreed months ago. Until that is worked out, you’re not going to have a deal.
He said that TODAY. He said that out of the 18 items in the outline agreement, 14 appear to have been agreed upon. One of the outstanding four appears to be technical. The other three relate to the freeing of the hostages and which/how many terrorist prisoners in Israeli jails are to be released. And according to Lew, those three issues are substantial perhaps more than the Philadelphi Corridor. You can, and should, watch the 30 minute interview here.
There were shooting attacks near the Israeli Consulate in Munich today. The attackers were neutralized by German Security forces. President Herzog called President Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany thanking him for the swift actions of the German Security apparatus. Here is a recording of the incident near the Consulate.
And In Your Copious Spare Time…
In this report from London’s Jewish Chronicle, sources from Israeli senior intelligence found evidence based on captured documents and interviews with captured senior Hamas officials that Yahya Sinwar had planned to escape with other senior Hamas officials and the hostages to Iran.
Matti Friedman, former AP Reporter, author and resident of Jerusalem, wrote this on The Free Press. He personally knew Hirsh Goldberg-Polin as he was friends with the family. This short report describes the situation well.
And here is another article from The Free Press worth reading, and if you have the time, listen to the podcast from Bari Weiss.
Finally, here is a 50 minute podcast on Dan Senor’s Call Me Back Channel. He invited two very highly respected military/political correspondents from Israel’s Press to argue over the issues pertaining to the Philadelphi Corridor. Appropriately, it is called “Bib’s message vs. Bibi the messenger”. On Apple. On Spotify.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/flashes/638755
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/395677
I’ve been to Israel more than 30 times, and attended university and graduate school there…
And it is such a passionate, complicated country, rich with meaning and spirituality and exceptional people . But I find it hard every day to keep up with the nuances of events, and changes from day to day… I don’t know how Eric does this… but he does an excellent job !