Tuesday,
July 16, 2024

News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:

Israel Surveilled Hamas Compound for Weeks, Waiting for Deif to Arrive - Ronen Bergman
For weeks, Israel kept watch on a palm-tree-dotted villa in southern Gaza where a top Hamas lieutenant was staying and held off on a strike, according to Israeli defense officials. On Saturday, after learning that Muhammad Deif, the elusive leader of Hamas's military wing, appeared to be at the villa, Israel sent in fighter jets that devastated the compound, killing Rafa Salameh, the leader of Hamas forces in Khan Yunis. There is still no absolute certainty on whether Deif had been killed. (New York Times)

Houthi Officer: A Year from Now We'll Have Missiles that Can Threaten Europe and America
On July 13, 2024, the Al-Jazeera website published an interview with Aziz Rashed, a brigadier-general in the Defense Ministry of Ansar Allah, as the Houthi movement is officially known. Rashed begins with the Houthis' cooperation with the Iran-backed Shi'ite militias in Iraq and their joint attacks on Israel, "coordinated in a joint operations room."
    He assesses that the U.S. "will not intervene directly in any war in this region, because Iran, Iraq and Lebanon are a terrifying force." He says the Houthis are dictating the boundaries of the battlefield, which stretches from the Red Sea through Bab Al-Mandeb, the Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea to the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean.
    Rashed threatens that "in exactly one year, Yemen will have missiles that can reach Europe or the Atlantic Ocean, so America's nuclear targets will be within the range of the Yemeni missiles."  (MEMRI)
    See also The U.S. Hasn't Been Able to Stop the Houthi Assault on Shipping in the Red Sea - Editorial
The Houthis in Yemen are still firing missiles at commercial ships in a now near constant barrage. U.S. naval forces are operating at a pace not seen since World War II as they try to block threat after threat. The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier strike group on station in the area for months returned to the U.S. after conducting more than 750 engagements while deployed, having expended 135 Tomahawk missiles.
    In other words, the U.S. is burning through missiles with no apparent larger plan to restore order to the region. The obvious answer is to punish the Iranians who arm the rebels, but the U.S. Administration hasn't. Unchecked chaos in the Red Sea won't stay there. America's options won't improve the longer the Houthi threat is allowed to expand. (Wall Street Journal)

Shi'ite Militias in Syria and Iraq Are Targeting Eilat with Long-Range Drones - Yaakov Lappin
Iranian-backed Shi'ite terrorist militias in Syria and Iraq are consistently using long-range unmanned aerial vehicles to target Israel's Red Sea city of Eilat on a regular basis. These UAVs, launched from areas where Iran has entrenched itself, represent a persistent threat to Israeli security and will require more than defensive action to neutralize.
    On Saturday, two UAVs approached the area north of Eilat from Syrian territory and were intercepted before they could inflict any damage. In retaliation, the IDF launched strikes against a Syrian military command center and targets used by the Syrian military's Aerial Defense Unit.
    Yet only Israeli strikes on the Shi'ite terrorist entities themselves in Syria and Iraq will remove the threatening capabilities. The latest drone attacks from Syria and Iraq indicate a coordinated Iranian effort to create a multi-front threat against Israel, one that, without a direct offensive response, will only grow. (JNS)

News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:

Four IDF Soldiers Hurt in Palestinian Car-Ramming Attack at Bus Stop in Central Israel - Yoav Zitun
Four IDF soldiers were wounded, two severely, in a car-ramming attack near the Tzrifin military base in central Israel on Sunday. Border Police reservists who were nearby eliminated the assailant, a Palestinian resident of eastern Jerusalem. (Ynet News)
    See also Soldiers Wounded in Ramming Attack Were in Rehabilitation following Gaza Service - Ido Efrati (Ha'aretz)

Three Israelis Wounded in Shooting Attack in Samaria - Yaniv Kubovich
Three Israelis were lightly wounded from shattered glass in a shooting attack at a car near Shavei Shomron in Samaria on Tuesday. (Ha'aretz)

Israeli President to British Foreign Secretary: Israel Is Fighting a "Just War" in Gaza - Lazar Berman
Israeli President Isaac Herzog told visiting British Foreign Secretary David Lammy in Jerusalem on Monday that there is "no more just war than the one Israel is fighting now." Herzog added that the country is fighting not only against Hamas, but also against Iran, "an empire of evil that wants to undermine the stability of the world and is rushing to the bomb [and] undermining international trade. We are a nation seeking peace, and I believe that we must find peace with our neighbors."  (Times of Israel)

IDF Computer Systems Targeted by Billions of Cyberattacks during War - Oded Yaron
Col. Racheli Dembinski, commander of the IDF's Center of Computers and Information Systems, said Wednesday that the number of attempted cyberattacks on IDF computer systems has reached 3 billion since the war started. All the attacks were foiled, she added, noting that they did not lead to even one occasion in which the army's systems had been taken out of service.
    During the war's first few weeks, due to "the huge number of users who entered our system," her unit focused on regulating resources and adding new servers. They also increased their reliance on the civil cloud systems by collaborating with companies such as Google and Amazon, who are members of the army's cloud computing Nimbus project. (Ha'aretz)

Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:

Hamas's Gaza Leader Sinwar Was Sure He Was Winning. Now the Momentum Has Shifted - Lazar Berman
"We have the Israelis right where we want them," Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar told other Hamas leaders, according to a June report in the Wall Street Journal. But something shifted in recent weeks as the IDF campaign in Gaza has been expanding in Gaza City and Rafah.
    It is also clear that Hamas's dream of rousing the West Bank to a third intifada has failed, as the number of terrorist attacks is down drastically from the year before Oct. 7. Much of that is due to the IDF taking off its gloves against Hamas and other terrorist groups in the West Bank. Moreover, the Palestinian Authority understands what a Hamas-led future would mean for its own survival and has been sharing intelligence with Israel and arresting terrorists in West Bank cities.
    Israel still has not confirmed whether it killed Hamas's elusive military leader Mohammad Deif in Saturday's airstrike. Even if Deif turns out to have escaped, the fact that Israel knew exactly where he was and determined that bombing the compound was legitimate - even with civilians in the area, because of the essential military value of the target - should give Sinwar further reason to worry about his own fate. Israel's intelligence on Gaza is only improving the more its soldiers map out tunnels and interrogate captured Hamas fighters. (Times of Israel)

IDF Officer: "We've Learned that Those Who Say They Want to Destroy Us Will Really Do It in the End" - Josh Breiner
Col. Nissim Hazan has been in Gaza since Oct. 7, beginning with two days fighting in Kibbutz Be'eri. He said in an interview: "After you've seen not dozens but hundreds of bodies that day and you take massive RPG fire, you realize that you are in one long and very, very intense battle, and there's no choice."
    "They always said 'we intend to destroy the State of Israel.' We underestimated them - we didn't think or believe they were that serious. But then you see how their intentions were connected with their actions on the ground."
    "We were a society that normalizes terrorism, that preferred temporary peace and was addicted to peace. We knew - but we had compartmentalized it - that there were bad people on the other side of the fence, and we preferred that they stay there. We didn't think they could reach us. We've learned that those who say they want to destroy us will really do it in the end."  (Ha'aretz)

Deceiving the American Public about Hamas's Popularity - Bassam Tawil
President Joe Biden told a news conference on Thursday, "There is a growing dissatisfaction in the West Bank, from the Palestinians, about Hamas. Hamas is not popular now." This bizarre statement goes against every public opinion survey released in the past few months. Biden's claim also contradicts analysis by U.S. intelligence agencies showing that Hamas's popularity has significantly grown after its attack on Israel on Oct. 7.
    It seems that Biden does not want the American people to be aware that most Palestinians in the West Bank are enthusiastic supporters of Hamas. Hiding this fact makes it easier for him to pressure Israel to accept a Palestinian state that is controlled by Hamas and other Iran proxies. The broad support Hamas enjoys among the Palestinians, including those who live in the West Bank, means that a Palestinian state would be ruled by the same terrorists who carried out the Oct. 7 atrocities against Israelis.
    The latest poll, released on July 10, 2024, showed that satisfaction among the Palestinians in the West Bank with the performance of Hamas has risen to 82%. Hamas Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar, one of the masterminds of the Oct. 7 massacres, enjoys the support of 76% of Palestinians in the West Bank.
    Every Palestinian child knows that Hamas would easily win if elections were held today for the Palestinian presidency and parliament. The reason is because Hamas seeks to destroy Israel through jihad (holy war). Hamas enjoys immense popularity among the Palestinians because it has been waging terrorist attacks against Israel and Jews since its founding more than 35 years ago. (Gatestone Institute)

How to Explain the Massive Support for Hamas among the Palestinian Population - Yaakov Lappin
Professor Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University and former head of the Palestinian desk at Israel's Ministry of Strategic Affairs, was asked to explain the massive support for Hamas among the Palestinian population, especially following the widespread destruction in Gaza caused by Hamas's war.
    Michael highlighted a "sick psychological infrastructure, rotten to the core, [that] has been systematically built and nurtured by the PA and its leaders in local society - through education, media, payment to terrorists and their families, glorification of terrorism and terrorists, and systematic, ongoing indoctrination against Israel and Jews by cultivating the ethos of victim-refugees and armed resistance."  (JNS)

Losing Is Victory in Hamas's Orwellian World - Andrew Garfield
The initial outrage over the brutal Oct. 7 pogrom has been all but eclipsed by anger over Israel's response, as it has been hauled before both the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court amid charges of genocide and war crimes.
    For Israel, winning the real war is really what counts. PR is secondary. For Hamas, this war was always only about PR. In those Orwellian terms, losing is victory, as the more suffering, the more victims, the more utter the devastation of Gaza, the greater the pressure on Israel to suspend hostilities and agree to a deal on humiliating terms.
    War is unbelievably nasty and modern urban warfare against a ruthless enemy which wants you to kill as many of their civilians as possible, doubly so. Once civilian casualties started piling up, Israel's determination to eliminate Hamas was never going to win it friends.
    None of the Arab states who have established relations with the Jewish state have broken them off. The idea of a pan-Arab entity taking over Gaza once the war is over is not as fantastical as people think. The Arabs seeking peace with Israel are doing so not because Israel is weak but precisely because of Israel's position as a formidable military and economic superpower. They need Israel to win.
    The writer is a member of the Board of Deputies of British Jews.  (Jewish News-UK)

Today's Antisemitism Is a U.S. National Security Threat - Ilan Berman
On July 9, the U.S. intelligence community divulged that Iran has been playing an active role in stoking the protests, encampments, and civil unrest in the U.S. regarding the war in Gaza. Antisemitism and anti-Zionism are being harnessed to harm American interests abroad. Amplified by outlets such as Qatar's Al Jazeera network, regional anti-Israel and anti-American attitudes have contributed to a precipitous decline in approval for the U.S. among Mideast publics.
    These same forces are being used to drive wedges in America's Mideast alliances, most clearly the U.S.-Israeli partnership itself. Most significantly, antisemitism is being instrumentalized by radical activists and foreign actors to deepen cleavages in American society.
    In May, the Network Contagion Research Institute reported: "While nominally focused on Israel, the current protests can be better understood as a well-funded initiative driving a revolutionary, anti-government, and anti-capitalist agenda, with the leading organizations serving as versatile tools for foreign entities hostile to the U.S. The methods of these organizations exacerbate societal tensions, polarize the younger generation, and appear to seek the destabilization of American institutions."
    There's an old saying: "Whatever starts with the Jews never ends with them." The rampant antisemitism visible on elite university campuses, on social media, and on the streets of major cities is a clear and present danger to our social cohesion and our standing in the world. That makes it a national security threat which needs to be addressed without delay.
    The writer is Senior Vice President of the American Foreign Policy Council. (Newsweek)

How Stanford Can Do Away with Campus Antisemitism - Larry Diamond and Jeffrey Koseff
Stanford University has a serious antisemitism problem. It is not only Jews and Israelis who suffer. Many students now censor themselves for fear of crossing a demand for solidarity against "oppression." We have come to this unfortunate conclusion after six months of research documented in a recently released report by Stanford's Subcommittee on Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias (which we chaired).
    Restoring a climate in which ideas can flow freely and the dignity of all groups can be respected will require confronting painful realities. Underlying the hostility experienced by Jewish students and faculty is an ideology that divides the world into "colonizer" and "colonized," the powerful and the oppressed. Just three days after the Oct. 7 terrorist attack in Israel, a Stanford instructor made this division literally, separating his freshman students by ethnicity into these categories. Such binary thinking easily slides into an antisemitic narrative.
    It is possible to stop the spiral of polarization and discrimination: Universities must return to core principles and restore a culture of pluralism and tolerance. Schools have an obligation to protect students from identity-based harassment. They must preserve the university's ability to function. Stanford has free speech zones where protests can take place. But parts of the campus where the essential business of teaching, research and administration would be disrupted are off-limits. Students must be held accountable for violations of the rules.
    Students, faculty and staff must also work to create a culture of critical inquiry. This means weighing their arguments against evidence and competing values - and seeing their peers as human beings of equal worth and potential.
    Larry Diamond is a senior fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution. Jeffrey Koseff is professor of civil and environmental engineering and oceans at Stanford.  (Washington Post)

Start-Up Nation Co-Author Optimistic on Israel - Ariel Whitman
Dan Senor, co-author of the 2009 bestseller Start-Up Nation, says Israel still has more startups per capita than any country in the world. It attracts the most global venture capital on a per capita basis than any country in the world. It is number one in the world in R&D as a percentage of GDP. And it is number four in the world in terms of Israeli public companies listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange.
    "Israel has hundreds of venture capital firms, 120 accelerators, 35 incubators, [and] over 400 multinational companies [that] have set up shop in Israel. Now Israelis are starting to build big standalone companies that remain in Israel." In 2013, "there was only one company in Israel that was generating over a billion dollars in annual revenue, and that was Check Point. Today, there are nearly a dozen Israeli companies that are generating over a billion dollars in revenue."
    "There's virtually no major global tech company in the world today that doesn't have an operation set up in Israel. All these non-tech companies have [also] set up R&D operations in Israel: Coca-Cola, Walmart, Mercedes-Benz, Procter & Gamble. All these companies have really complicated problems that they can only solve through innovation - and Israeli talent is unique in the world." (Globes)

Observations:

In May, the International Criminal Court announced applications for warrants for the arrests of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defense minister, Yoav Gallant. As someone who has visited the frontlines in this war, and who has written about, visited, and engaged in various urban battles over the past two decades as a U.S. Army officer and researcher, I believe the ICC's decision is wrong about Israel.

Worse, the ruling could perversely have the opposite effect intended: By holding all states to such a high standard when it comes to avoiding civilian harm, governments may feel hamstrung to respond to attacks in the future, even in self-defense. That could have a chilling effect on countries that adhere to international legal norms, while providing a bonanza for rogue states like Russia or nonstate actors like Hamas that ignore these norms.

In Gaza, the terrain, the density of tunnels under population centers, the nature of the enemy, and the presence of hostages all combine to make this war an exceptionally fraught one for Israel to fight bloodlessly. What I saw in Gaza convinced me that Israel has taken the necessary steps to avoid civilian casualties. As the war continues, Israel continues to announce temporary evacuations instructing civilians to move out of harm's way. Israel has gone above and beyond what is traditionally required of armies.

The ICC has accused Israel of "starvation of civilians as a method of warfare," and "intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population." This kind of accusation ignores mountains of evidence to the contrary which I saw firsthand.

Israel has implemented almost all the civilian harm mitigation practices required of urban warfare and legal norms spelled out by international humanitarian law (IHL), as well as created a few new ones no military has ever tried. The IDF fields legal officers at the brigade and division level to approve legitimate targets and provide guidance to avoid civilian casualties and violations of IHL.

The ICC ruling makes a mockery out of Article 51 of the UN Charter, which allows countries to act in self-defense. If any country takes all these precautions and is still considered beyond the pale of modern war, can any country that tries to adhere to international humanitarian legal norms fight wars at all, even to defend themselves?

By singling out the Israeli leadership for war crimes, the result could be a blank check to rogue actors like Hamas as well as rogue states like Russia, Iran, or North Korea. The IDF should be commended for its efforts to reduce civilian harm, not charged in an international court alongside Hamas leaders.

The writer is chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point.

---

Subscribe | Search | Back Issues