| DAILY ALERT |
Tuesday, August 20, 2024 |
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
Hamas on Sunday rejected an updated U.S. proposal for a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza. The White House had claimed significant progress had been made during talks in Qatar over the last several days. (Axios) See also Netanyahu: "We Stand on the Principles Vital for the Security of Israel" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Cabinet on Sunday: "We are holding very complex negotiations in which the other side is a murderous terrorist organization that is unbridled and obstinate....However, I would like to emphasize: We are conducting negotiations and not a scenario in which we just give and give. There are things we can be flexible on and there are things that we cannot be flexible on, which we will insist on. We know how to distinguish between the two very well." "We stand on the principles that we have determined, which are vital for the security of Israel. I reiterate: These principles are in keeping with the May 27 framework, which has received American support....Therefore, the pressure needs to be directed at Hamas and Sinwar, not the Government of Israel." (Prime Minister's Office) See also Israel Firm on Holding Philadelphi Corridor after Netanyahu-Blinken Meeting - Tovah Lazaroff After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with U.S. Secretary Antony Blinken in Jerusalem for three hours on Monday, Israeli government spokesperson David Mercer said, "The Prime Minister stands firmly by the principle that the IDF will physically remain on the Philadelphi Corridor that borders with Egypt to prevent the resupply of Hamas's deadly weapons." "Israel is conducting these negotiations with a firm eye on the vital security interests of Israel, as opposed to those who advise that Israel just give in," Mercer said. (Jerusalem Post) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
IDF Chief Warrant Officer Mahmood Amaria, 45, a Bedouin tracker, was killed in a Hizbullah drone attack on Western Galilee on Monday. Several other soldiers were injured in the attack, one seriously. Of the five drones launched from Lebanon, three were intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system. (Times of Israel) See also IDF Strikes Hizbullah Weapons Depots Deep in Lebanon - Emanuel Fabian Israeli airstrikes targeted Hizbullah arms depots deep inside Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, the IDF said Monday. "Following the strikes, secondary explosions were identified, indicating the presence of large amounts of weapons in the facilities struck." (Times of Israel) Gideon Peri, 35, an Israeli civilian security guard, was struck in the head with a hammer by a Palestinian worker in the Bar-On industrial park in Samaria near Kedumim on Sunday. The assailant seized the guard's gun and fled the scene in a stolen vehicle. Peri died from his injuries and is survived by his wife and three children. (Ynet News) The Israel Police and the Israel Security Agency confirmed on Monday that a powerful explosion in Tel Aviv on Sunday night was a failed terrorist attack. The Palestinian terrorist who was killed in the explosion was from the West Bank city of Nablus. One Israeli was wounded by shrapnel. (Jerusalem Post) Israel recovered the bodies of hostages Nadav Popplewell, 51; Yagev Buchshtab, 35; Yoram Metzger, 80; Haim Peri, 79; Alexander Dancyg, 76; and Avraham Munder, 79, from a tunnel in Khan Yunis in Gaza, who were murdered in Hamas captivity, the IDF announced on Tuesday. (Jerusalem Post) See also IDF Captures Gaza Weapons Storage Tunnel as Terrorists Flee - Yoav Zitun IDF troops eliminated terrorists and destroyed combat compounds above and below ground in Khan Yunis and the outskirts of Deir al-Balah, the IDF spokesman said Monday. In one such compound, troops located dozens of rockets, launchers, and several anti-tank missiles. An active compound of Hamas terrorists was located along a tunnel route where weapons, explosives, and equipment for long-term stay were found, used by terrorists who left the compound as the troops arrived. (Ynet News) See also IDF Expands Operations in Gaza, Eliminates Dozens of Terrorists - Yoav Zitun The IDF has expanded its operations in Gaza, killing dozens of terrorists and dismantling significant terror infrastructure following intelligence warnings about terror activity and rocket launches from the humanitarian zone, the army reported Sunday. The IDF is also operating in the Qatari-built Hamad neighborhood in Khan Yunis and near Deir al-Balah. (Ynet News) Localized terror battalions, funded by Iran, are operating in the West Bank against Israeli civilians and security forces. Security forces estimate there are 15 battalions currently active, mostly in Samaria in the northern West Bank. The most notorious are in Jenin, Nur Shams near Tulkarm, and Balata in Nablus. They operate where the Palestinian Authority struggles to enforce order. An attempt to create such a terror battalion in Kalkilya recently has been thwarted by Israeli security forces. Security officials say they observe attempts to copy Hamas practices: placing IEDs on roads, digging attack tunnels, launching rockets at Israeli communities and infiltrating into communities. These relatively new changes in Palestinian tactics have prompted Israel's security forces to operate more aggressively than they had in the past. (Ynet News) According to the World Health Organization, about 90% of the population in Gaza was vaccinated against polio in the first quarter of 2024. Since the beginning of the war, the IDF has coordinated the entry of 282,126 vials of the polio vaccine, sufficient for 2,821,260 doses, into Gaza. The IDF conducts in-depth situational assessments twice a week with the Ministry of Health, the WHO, and UNICEF to understand the status of the spread of the virus in Gaza. Since the beginning of the war, Israel has facilitated the establishment of 14 field hospitals in Gaza, alongside the entry of 2,566 trucks carrying 25,955 tons of medications and medical equipment into Gaza, which have been distributed to the population. (X) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
The Gaza War Under heavy U.S. pressure last week, Israel accepted a "final bridging proposal" for a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza also supported by Egypt and Qatar. Yet Hamas refused even to show up for the negotiations in Doha, and on Sunday it outright rejected the U.S. compromise. A main sticking point is the Philadelphi Corridor, separating Gaza and Egypt. Israel insists on keeping forces there to prevent Hamas from rearming. Hamas insists Israel leave, because it wants to rearm. Neither the Palestinian Authority nor Egypt can be trusted to control the corridor and thwart Hamas. Israel has discovered more than a dozen tunnels from Gaza into Egypt, including one big enough for military jeeps to pass through. Israel cannot countenance a deal that would let Hamas go back to plotting and preparing for the next Oct. 7 massacre. (Wall Street Journal) Ten months after Hamas, along with thousands of "ordinary" Palestinians from Gaza, invaded Israel, the Biden administration is continuing to exert pressure on Israel to agree to a ceasefire with Hamas. Bizarrely, the Biden administration is working with Hamas's friends in Qatar and Egypt to force Israel to make concessions, including ending the war and abandoning control over the border between Gaza and Egypt. Qatar is the only Arab country that has long been hosting and supporting most of the Hamas leaders. Egypt, meanwhile, turned a blind eye to the vast network of tunnels dug by Hamas under the border between Gaza and Egypt over the past two decades. Hamas is now in dire need of a ceasefire because its leaders want to hold on to power in Gaza. If the U.S. manages to impose a ceasefire on Israel, it will be viewed by many Arabs and Muslims not only as a reward for the Oct. 7 massacres, but specifically as a lifeline for Hamas. Allowing Hamas to stay in power will facilitate its mission of carrying out more atrocities against Israel. The Biden-Harris administration is, sadly, dead wrong if it believes that a ceasefire will open the door to security and stability in the Middle East. A ceasefire would simply give the Iranian regime and its terrorist allies more confidence, especially when they have nuclear weapons, to pursue their Jihad (holy war) against the Jews and Israel, and then their neighbors in the Gulf. (Gatestone Institute) Iran Since Iran's unprecedented attack on Israel in April 2024, the landscape in the Middle East has shifted sharply. For decades, Tehran has projected its military force across the region through a network of proxies and militias, a strategy intended to keep fighting out of its territory and to maintain some deniability. But in April, when Iran ignored Washington's warnings and directly attacked Israel for the first time, Iran moved the goal posts. An air defense coalition, which included the U.S., Israel and European and Arab partners, managed to intercept nearly all of Iran's attack drones, and most of Iran's missiles failed or were intercepted by Israel. But President Biden's efforts didn't stop Iran from attacking Israel in the spring; it is difficult to see how the same moves will be sufficient now. Tehran has paid no significant price for its actions. Tehran is most likely to stand down if its leaders perceive the regime's own security is at risk. Mr. Biden should consider signaling that he is ready to shift the use of American military force from targeting Iran's proxies to targeting inside Iran, such as weapons storage or production facilities. The additional forces and capabilities he has sent to the region could be used not only to defend Israel after an Iranian attack but also to punish Iran directly. Iran appears to be seeking to legitimize its use of force against Israel. If that's true, all those who want to prevent the big war should reject Iran's cynical play and prepare actions to break Iran's stranglehold over the region. The writer, Director of Research at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East in 2021-23 in the Biden Administration. (New York Times) Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei believes that conflicts worldwide are won via the media, and that the media's influence in overcoming enemies is greater than that of a missile or a warplane. He now understands that a psychological counterattack could defeat even him and his regime. In the psychological battle, Israeli statements about targeting oil and gas facilities have likely taken their toll. A regime-affiliated channel specializing in military matters declared that Iran already suffers from frequent water and electricity outages that have caused significant losses to industry, and all that remains for the enemy is to strike power plants, oil refineries, and energy centers to bring the country to catastrophe. The writer, Senior Director for Security, Diplomacy, and Communications at the Jerusalem Center, has served in senior government positions for over 25 years. (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Hizbullah In the media battle Hizbullah is waging against Israel, the Shiite movement recently broadcast a video about a mega-tunnel called Imad 4 in which heavy trucks could be seen speeding on a long underground road towing ballistic missiles and then erecting launch positions. Nasrallah has threatened to expand the war to areas left untouched in the past ten months, such as Akko, Nahariya, Safed, Tiberias, and other localities in the north of Israel that were not evacuated. Since the beginning of the war, Iranian-backed Hizbullah has been boasting about its successes including the incursion of spy drones which took pictures of sensitive targets in northern Israel on several occasions. With the evacuation of Israeli citizens from their homes in the north, Nasrallah boasted that he had imposed on Israel a security zone inside Israel just like the one that used to exist inside Lebanon. He also hinted that a repeat of the October 7 attack might be carried out by Hizbullah's Radwan forces on the northern front. These themes are part of the psychological warfare conducted against Israel. At the same time, Nasrallah faces a very different reality. Almost 600 Hizbullah combatants, including senior commanders, have been killed and thousands wounded. Hizbullah has seen the destruction of nearly 8,000 houses in the south of Lebanon and the flight of 120,000 civilians to Tyre, Sidon, and Beirut. The writer, former Deputy Head for Assessment of Israeli Military Intelligence, is a fellow of the Jerusalem Center. (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Antisemitism Many of the slogans chanted by antisemitic mobs on university campuses and in major cities following the October 7, 2023, atrocities are propelled by an extensive network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that carry the flags of human rights and international law. Similarly, the statements and reports of international bodies and courts directly reflect the impact of these NGOs. Immediately following the Oct. 7 attacks, these NGOs launched major political campaigns that downplayed or whitewashed Hamas and targeted Israel. Their "experts" were interviewed on major media platforms. The litany of demonization and modern blood libels, accompanied by expressions of support for Hamas and other terror organizations, is systematically repeated and amplified by a broad network of hundreds of localized NGOs. The role of NGOs in promoting antisemitism through anti-Zionism and demonization of Israel has become an enduring feature of the public discourse - paralleling a resurgence of physical violence against Jewish targets. The writer, emeritus professor of political studies at Bar Ilan University and president of NGO Monitor, is a fellow of the Jerusalem Center. (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) For more than 50 years we have seen the steady drip of anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and anti-Jewish ideology being embedded in the curriculum, hiring, and even administration of U.S. colleges and universities, especially in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. The impact of this is now coming into full force, impacting even elementary and middle school students. The lies at the basis of campus antisemitism today include: Zionism is equal to racism, Israel is an apartheid state, Israel is a European post-colonial settler state, Palestinians are the indigenous people of the area, being anti-Zionist is not being antisemitic, Israel is perpetrating genocide against Palestinians, Hamas casualty figures are accurate, Hamas "freedom fighters'" rape and murder was an act of resistance, and creating a Palestinian state requires the eradication of the Jewish state of Israel. This article refutes each of these lies. The writer is an emeritus professor of Israel Studies and former executive director of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East. (Times of Israel) One reason Josh Shapiro isn't on the Democratic ticket is because of his identity. Among the possible reasons Kamala Harris chose Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota over Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, according to a report in The Times, was that Mr. Shapiro's selection could "inflame the left." And chief among the reasons given for this potential inferno was Mr. Shapiro's allegedly extreme pro-Israel views. An article in The New Republic called Mr. Shapiro "the one vice-presidential pick who could ruin Democratic unity" and claimed that he "stands out among the current field of potential running mates as being egregiously bad on Palestine." A group of far-left congressional staffers and the Democratic Socialists of America teamed up to produce an open letter demanding that Ms. Harris "say no to Genocide Josh Shapiro for vice president." Critics dug up a column Mr. Shapiro wrote for his college newspaper over 30 years ago when he was 20 arguing that the Palestinians were "too battle-minded" to co-exist with Israel. They conveniently ignored his longtime support for a two-state solution and his harsh criticism of the country's prime minister. Mr. Shapiro is a thoroughly mainstream liberal Zionist whose views on the Middle East were virtually indistinguishable from those of his vice-presidential rivals, so the effort to single him out and target him in an open and organized campaign against his selection had to have been motivated by something else. It's hard to escape the impression that some of Mr. Shapiro's detractors were riled because he is Jewish. If having a commitment to Israel is a barrier to being on the Democratic presidential ticket, it bodes ominously for future Jewish participation in Democratic Party politics. When Joe Lieberman became the first Jew to serve on the presidential ticket of a major American political party as the Democratic Party nominee for vice president in the 2000 presidential election, running with then Vice President Al Gore, he was a more highly observant and hawkishly pro-Israel Jew than Mr. Shapiro. This was widely considered to be an asset. Whereas other minority identities are celebrated within the party, being a proudly pro-Israel Jew is becoming a hindrance. (New York Times) The Scottish establishment is worked up after it emerged that Angus Robertson, the Scottish government's pretendy foreign secretary, met with Daniela Grudsky, Israel's deputy ambassador to the UK, on August 8. They discussed fairly routine and low-level matters like cultural cooperation and renewables. But to hear the howls from politicos and activists, you'd think Robertson leapt into a tank and rolled into Gaza. His colleagues have lined up to denounce the meeting, with one even calling for his dismissal. This is for sitting down with a representative of a country which has good diplomatic relations and trading links with the UK. The uncontrollable loathing that Israel inspires in certain sections of the Scottish National Party (SNP) is pitiful but it's also a shame. The late Winnie Ewing, the great matriarch of Scottish nationalism, was a passionate Zionist who holidayed in Israel. Things have changed. Where progressives once used Israel to live out their own political fantasies, with the socialist kibbutzniks cast in the role of romantic revolutionaries, the Jewish state now fulfills the role of universal malefactor, an evil-doer of near-demonic depravity with whose wickedness the enlightened can contrast their own virtue. None of this matters a jot to Israel. They can look after themselves and there are any number of countries keen to buy their life-saving medicines and cutting-edge technology. But it creates the impression that Scotland's political elite are spiteful, closed-minded, irrational and easily led, a miserable assemblage of provincial, low-information haters. We wouldn't want anyone getting that idea. (Spectator-UK) Other Issues The Oct. 7 attack on Israel and its aftermath have had significant emotional and behavioral impact on the Israeli public. On a national and communal level, daily life continues to flow in the face of an ongoing and unresolved conflict, with an ever-present threat of additional and expanded conflict. The continued imprisonment of Israeli hostages and the forced displacement of tens of thousands of residents in the north has created significant trauma for those affected. Externally, the reality of international criticism against Israel, even from allies, along with the revival of massive international antisemitism, has created a feeling of isolation and a siege mentality. The concept of psychological asymmetry, where Israel, despite its military advantage and legitimate goals, is at a disadvantage to an enemy who deliberately sacrifices civilians for perceptual gain, applies here. Despite all this, Israelis have also benefitted from an inoculation effect where resilience has developed through repeated coping with terrorism in its many forms over the years. The writer is a clinical psychologist and a fellow at the Jerusalem Center specializing in political psychology. (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas spoke to the Turkish parliament on August 15, giving a full endorsement of Hamas and claiming that every Hamas terrorist killed by Israel is a martyr. Referring to America, he said: "America is the plague, and the plague is America." According to the State Department, the U.S. has provided more than $674 million to the Palestinians over the past eight months. The U.S. is the largest single humanitarian donor to the Palestinian people. In the last thirty years, total U.S. aid to the Palestinians is over $5 billion. One wonders what the average American would say if confronted with those words from Abbas, and then asked if American tax dollars should continue to flow to that man. Actually, one does not wonder. The U.S. will be treated this way by Abbas, and others, as long as they think they can get away with it. Abbas should not get away with this. A retraction and apology should be demanded, and until it is received, not one more dime should move. No self-respecting country should permit itself to be treated this way. Paying for such insults ought to be out of the question. The writer, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, served as deputy national security advisor, where he supervised U.S. policy in the Middle East for the White House. (Council on Foreign Relations) When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the U.S. Congress on July 24, he named four Israeli soldiers who had been heroes. The first was 2nd Lt. Avichail Reuven, who ran 12 km. (8 miles) to the Gaza border on Oct. 7 to help fight off the terrorists. He was interviewed by Israel's Channel 12 News on Aug. 16. Reuven, in the midst of officer training, was home that Saturday in Kiryat Malachi when he was awakened by sirens. After hearing the news of a massive terrorist infiltration into the Gaza border communities, he decided to go and help even though he had not been called up. He went out to the main interchange near his home and started running, "with sirens all the time and rockets falling in the area." He finally caught a ride with a civilian whose child had been at the Supernova music festival, and then another with a police car, to reach the fighting at the Zikim training base, which had been infiltrated by terrorists that day. "Half the base was burned....You could see terrorists running all around the area." He helped fight off terrorists and reached a bomb shelter where some 30 female basic training soldiers were waiting, one of whom was injured. Reuven tended to her wound. He then went on to nearby Yiftah, Kfar Aza, and Kibbutz Be'eri, together with Col. (res.) Erez Eshel, who had driven to Zikim from his home. "I meet a mission-driven young soldier," Eshel told Channel 12. "He's completely in it, he can handle his gun, he's calm, he's focused, and he can handle anything. He is a real super soldier." Reuven is now a company commander for paratroopers in basic training. He comes from a family of immigrants from Ethiopia. Reuven told Channel 12, "I want to continue in the army. It's my mission, it's what I believe in." (Times of Israel) Observations: So Now We're Not Allowed to Eliminate Terrorists? - Yair Lapid (Times of Israel)
The writer is a former prime minister of Israel and currently the leader of the Opposition in the Knesset. |
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