Caroline B. Glick
This is What We’re Fighting For – Caroline B. Glick
A week into the war against Hamas, it is important to remember why Israel is vital to the Jewish people. The Caroline Glick Show IN FOCUS
(October 13, 2023 / JNS) With the end of a week that started with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declaring war on the Hamas terror organization that rules Gaza and Jews being threatened by Hamas supporters worldwide, Caroline discusses Israel’s role in the survival of the Jewish people.
ISRAEL AT WAR – WEEK 1: The War for Jewish Survival | The Caroline Glick Show. IN FOCUS
Posted 13October2023:
As Jews worldwide are threatened by Hamas supporters, Caroline discusses the purpose of Israel and its role in the survival of the Jewish people in Israel and worldwide.
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T. Belman. This is a great interview. The protest movement in Israel is growing. The soldiers and their families are opposed to the elite policies. And the country supports them big time. Watch it grow. A clear victory means Palestinians must be allowed to leave and Gaza must be annexed. |
Caroline B. Glick
Major in reserves ‘This time, we must demand complete victory in Gaza – Caroline B. Glick’
“The Caroline Glick Show,” Ep. 87
(January 8, 2024 / JNS) This week, Caroline Glick spoke with the founder of “Courage for Israel” Gilad Ach, a major in the Israeli reserves. This group of reservist Israeli Defense Forces soldiers demands from the government that the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip continue until the terror group is completely destroyed.
They discuss the breaking of morale among veteran soldiers who feel that they have been fighting Hamas for decades because of government indecision; what complete victory in Gaza would look like; as well as the disconnect between the dedicated soldiers on the ground and Israeli leadership at the top.
Posted 8January2024 JNS TV:
This week, Caroline Glick spoke with Major in Reserves and founder of Courage for Israel Gilad Ach. Courage for Israel is a group of reserve soldiers that are demanding from the government that they do not stop the war in Gaza until Hamas is completely destroyed.
They discuss
– the breaking of morale amongst veteran soldiers who feel that they have been fighting Hamas for decades because of government indecision
– what complete victory in Gaza looks like
– the disconnect between the wholly dedicated soldiers on the ground and the Israeli leadership at the top.
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Israel’s reality in 10 seconds.
Israel Defense Forces-tweet-13October2023-Israel’s reality in 10 seconds
Israel’s reality in 10 seconds.
Israel Defense Forces-tweet-13October2023-Israel’s reality in 10 seconds
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We are coming back!
Malkah Fleisher-tweet-26February2024-We are coming back
We are coming back.
With our tractors, with our builders, with our rabbis, with our children.
We are coming back. 🇮🇱
Jeremy Gimpel-tweet-22February 22, 2024-Jewish Farmers from the South
AMAZING!!! Jewish Farmers from the South going past the fence in Gaza and starting to plow the fields to plant new crops. That is Redemption!
Malkah Fleisher-tweet-26February2024-We are coming back
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Israel Victory Project https://www.meforum.org/israel-victory-project/
by Nave Dromi
JNS
18October2023 https://www.meforum.org/israel-victory-project/65002/israeli-victory-is-the-only-proportional-response
Published originally under the title “Victory Is the Only ‘Proportional’ Response.”
Once again, the international community and the media are becoming obsessively focused on the ridiculous notion of “proportionality” in regard to Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre.
First, it should be clearly understood that there is no accepted or exact definition of the term “proportionality” or a formula for calculating it.
In general, the principle of proportionality involves a balance between the military advantage that will likely result from a proposed operation and the harm that is likely to be inflicted on civilians and noncombatants.
This is extremely hard to assess for those outside of a military and intelligence apparatus, simply because outsiders do not have access to all the information necessary to make such an assessment.
Unfortunately, however, many ill-informed commentators believe proportionality is simply a numbers game, as if war and conflict were some sort of sports match.
Already, the international media is presenting the casualties among Israelis and Palestinians side-by-side and asking if Israel’s response to the horrors and atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists is proportionate.
Israel seems to be the only country in the world who are never allowed to win a war. Whenever Israel begins to win it is told to stop.
This is outrageous. It implies that once Israel has killed more Palestinians than Palestinians killed Israelis, Israel’s war suddenly becomes illegitimate.
British author and journalist Douglas Murray said during a recent interview that this “would mean that, in retaliation for what Hamas did in Israel on Saturday, Israel should try to locate a music festival in Gaza, for instance—and good luck with that—and rape precisely the number of women that Hamas raped on Saturday. Kill precisely the number of young people that Hamas killed on Saturday.”
“They should find a town of exactly the same size as Sderot, and make sure they go door-to-door and kill precisely the correct number of babies that Hamas killed in Sderot on Saturday, and shoot in the head precisely the same number of old age pensioners as were shot in Sderot on Saturday, just to choose one town,” Murray added.
This response immediately shut up the interviewer who had tried to press Murray on the issue of proportionality. It was an excellent retort, but I would like to turn to another comment of Murray’s that is even more important.
In a recent meeting with Jewish leaders in the U.K., Murray said, “Israel seems to be the only country in the world who are never allowed to win a war. Whenever Israel begins to win it is told to stop.”
This is the crux of the issue.
The proportionality obsessives know Israel cannot be defeated by Hamas, so they want to ensure that Israel does not defeat Hamas.
By mercilessly pushing the proportionality narrative, Israel is being told that, in its wars of defense, it will not be allowed to achieve victory. The proportionality obsessives know Israel cannot be defeated by Hamas, so they want to ensure that Israel does not defeat Hamas.
This diminishes Israel’s security, to which every sovereign nation has a right.
Even if were possible to put aside the bestial manner in which Hamas mercilessly raped women, beheaded and burned babies, and kidnapped old women and children, it is almost trite to say that any nation that lost the same proportion of Israelis in one day to terrorist attacks would use overwhelming force to ensure that those who perpetrated the attacks could never do so again.
We have seen such reactions around the world and the word “proportionality” was never once used during or after such military operations. It is a word that seems to apply only to the Jewish state.
Israeli leaders and the IDF should dismiss such hypocritical criticisms from the international community. They should seek victory and nothing else. Victory must be the only word in our lexicon when we decide how to respond to Hamas’s atrocities.
Hamas must never be allowed to raise their heads again to massacre Israelis. This must be the last war against Hamas.
Hamas cannot be allowed to stand after this war. They must never be allowed to raise their heads again to massacre Israelis. This must be the last war against Hamas. The international community must understand why victory is essential for Israel, for the innocent Gazans who are oppressed by Hamas and for the region and beyond.
Hamas’s defeat will immediately make millions of innocent people more safe and secure. It will end the group’s genocidal actions and aspirations. It will also stand as a warning to other extremist and terrorist organizations around the world who threaten the lives of tens if not hundreds of millions of people.
Clearly, defeating Hamas is the only proportional response possible.
Nave Dromi is director of the Middle East Forum’s office in Israel and head of the Israel Victory Project. She is the author of the book, Rifle Full of Roses, which examines how radical agendas have influenced the IDF in recent decades.
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The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies BESA https://besacenter.org/
By Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen | 8January2024 | https://besacenter.org/a-new-existential-war-part-iii-forming-a-clear-post-war-national-vision-means-returning-to-the-roots-of-zionism/
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 2,251, January 8, 2023
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: On the morning of October 7, 2023, the strategic Israeli security concept collapsed, marking the end of the 30-year era since the Oslo Accords. With the shocking force of an earthquake, a cultural concept that had its roots planted in the dream of peace, and in the illusion that the State of Israel could aspire to become a kind of Denmark, disintegrated completely. For Israel to achieve victory in the war with Hamas, it will have to adapt its security concept to reflect a new and deeper understanding of the enemy’s perception of the nature of its struggle with Israel.
In the wake of October 7, the State of Israel, its society, and all its institutions are at a critical crossroads. One path forward demands a thorough investigation and examination of everything that failed on that day so the necessary corrections can be made. The second path directs Israel towards a comprehensive inquiry across all dimensions and urges the formulation of a new and updated national narrative in the face of the existential challenge. The question is, which of the two paths is worth pursuing?
This article is divided into three parts. The first examines the roots of the failure of October 7 and Israel’s perception of the struggle on the opposing side. The second describes the ways in which the Israeli security perception needs to evolve to provide a proper response to the opposing side’s perception of the struggle. This, the third, presents the components of the national vision and the principles of action that will ensure the existence of the State of Israel in the face of emerging threats.
“Nation of Israel, for what purpose do you live?”
Despite broad Israeli agreement on the immediate goals of the war as formulated by the cabinet, the debate over its ultimate objectives is intensifying.
This dispute will likely be reflected in the fundamental questions that will be asked post-war, and may also penetrate the discussions of the state inquiry committee that will undoubtedly be established. The committee will naturally address operational and technical questions, the workings of the IDF, General Staff, Southern Command, and Air Force, and regulatory relations between the IDF and the civil leadership. But the depth and scope of this crisis require a comprehensive cultural and spiritual rethinking of how we perceive ourselves and the enemy, focusing on the question of why the enemy fights and what we are fighting for.
Hamas and Hezbollah fight out of religious belief. By contrast, we are not clear on our reasons for uniting to fight wars beyond our desire to safeguard our existence and survival.
A.B. Yehoshua once posed an existential question: “Nation of Israel, for what purpose do you live?” Later, he clarified: “Survival is considered the most prominent aspect of the Jewish people… but it is not survival that is the prominent aspect, but rather how it is done, what its agenda is, what values it holds, and primarily, what its cost is.” (A.B. Yehoshua, Haaretz Books Supplement, 20.2.2013)
This question must be applied to clarify the central inquiry: Nation of Israel, for what purpose do you fight, and how do you fight?
I am not aware of a framework for a state inquiry committee that would know how to address such questions and critically examine the connections between them and the focal points of failure in the security system. Nevertheless, this inquiry, whether conscious or subconscious, will shed light on the investigation into everything that happened at the outset of the war and everything that will happen from its conclusion onwards in the context of the ongoing internal struggle in Israel over conflicting dreams.
What has Zionism achieved? The imposition of doubt
The sudden strike by Hamas thrust the Zionist idea back to the dilemma of its earliest days. It prompted an echoing of the doubt cast during Herzl’s visit: “You might solve the Jews’ problem, but you won’t solve the problem of Judaism.” On October 7, we were forcefully confronted with the fundamental Zionist question: What do the Jews want in the Land of Israel?
The current war, which has enveloped us all, is intertwined with the anxiety of the cultural war that erupted in Israel last year. The crisis of the Jews, which focuses on the question of physical existence, has become entangled with the crisis of Judaism, which has lost its spiritual path.
As early as 2005, Dan Meron touched upon the Zionist dilemma in his book Healing for Touching. A professor of 20th century Hebrew literature, Meron cast doubt on the ultimate goal of the Zionist enterprise, questioning what it has truly achieved since its inception:
…[T]he expectation of Zionism that the distancing of Jews from European societies and their concentration in their own country would lead to the disappearance of antisemitism did not materialize. Even the security of Zionism, which was supposed to be able to extricate the Jewish people from existential threats, leading to a new Jewish existential activism, did not come to fruition and may not reach the goal it set for itself…The historical development of Zionism and its success in achieving Jewish statehood have only led to the replacement of one type of existential threat with another. (Dan Meron, 2005, Healing for Touching, p. 63, translated from the Hebrew)
With these words, Meron raises two challenging questions about the state of Zionism, both of which have been debated since its beginnings.
In one dimension of the Zionist vision, Herzl sought a response to antisemitism. With his visionary breakthrough, he acknowledged that the Jews had not succeeded in finding a solution to the problem of antisemitism even though they had exhausted every possible avenue, including assimilation. He believed that if the Jews could only gather in their own normal state, where they could be accepted as a nation among nations, a state among nation-states, it would bring an end to antisemitism.
We must ask whether over the hundred years since the beginning of the Zionist effort to gather the Jews in their homeland, Herzl’s expectation of the disappearance of antisemitism has been realized. It appears that the opposite has occurred. Antisemitism has emerged in a new form that is more sophisticated, as it is shielded by a kind of vaccine: it is ostensibly not hatred of Jews as Jews, but merely criticism of the State of Israel. Yet fierce antipathy is directed against Jews worldwide whenever they voice complaints about actions that threaten the State of Israel, actions they feel endanger them as well. Jews around the world are thus forbidden to defend Israel or the Jews who live in it or be themselves the victims of antisemitism. The process that was supposed to solve antismitism has instead generated, over the past two decades, a new and equally dangerous form of it. In this way, Meron argues, the Zionist vision has become caught in a deadlock.
In the second dimension, Zionism sought a response to the problem of the need to physically protect Jews, who have never ceased suffering persecution, pogroms, and other threats around the world. In this dimension as well, Meron raises a concern that has troubled many Israelis. There is a fear that despite Israel’s independence and military strength, Zionism has achieved nothing more than to replace one existential problem, like pogroms in Kishinev, with another one, like the Iranian nuclear threat that threatens Tel Aviv or the Simchat Torah massacre of the northwestern Negev. In essence, Zionism has merely swapped ailment A for ailment B.
Yet despite Meron’s reservations, to those who witness the combat spirit of the IDF soldiers and the full support of their parents, the Zionist narrative manifests itself in all its practical simplicity by demonstrating a readiness to fight without hesitation to defend the people and the country. This is a major historical achievement.
Cracks in the “Iron Wall”
A hundred years ago, in the article “The Iron Wall,” Ze’ev Jabotinsky laid the cornerstone for the foundations of Israel’s security perception. As early as 1923, he identified the motivations behind Arab resistance to the Zionist enterprise in the Land of Israel and proposed a strategic approach to achieving Zionist goals.
The relevance of his article to the security challenges of modern-day Israel can be summarized in three statements.
First: The Arab resistance and struggle against Zionism express a religious-nationalist struggle with enduring motivational roots. The idea promoted by the American government and European Union leadership that a positive, lasting solution to the conflict can be arrived at through suitable compensation and willing compromise has been repeatedly revealed as overly optimistic.
Second: The Arab struggle and adoption of terrorist methods and violence do not stem from economic hardship, poverty, and despair, as many in the West and certain prominent Israeli “peace-seekers” claim. Instead, it arises from the Arab hope that Zionist dominance can be consistently challenged and weakened until its ultimate demise. It is not despair that generates Arab terrorism but hope.
Third: In recognizing the first two statements as true, the concept of the “Iron Wall” negates the Arab hope of achieving gains through incessant resistance to the Zionist Israeli presence and authority.
In 1936, during a discussion at the Mapai Center, David Ben-Gurion stated that “there is no chance for an understanding with the Arabs.” Therefore, efforts should be directed towards an understanding with the British. He said, “What can push the Arabs towards mutual understanding with us? Facts! Only after we manage to create a significant Jewish presence in the Land of Israel, with a Jewish force that everyone will see cannot be moved, only then will the preliminary conditions for discussion with the Arabs be established.”
The language and spirit of these words express the Iron Wall position as articulated in Jabotinsky’s article: “As long as the Arabs have even a glimmer of hope of getting rid of us, they will not give up on this hope… A living people agrees to concessions on fateful questions whose importance is immense only when it has no hope, only when not a single crack is visible in the Iron Wall.”
In recent years, deep cracks have appeared in the Zionist Iron Wall. The goal of the current war should be to restore the Zionist Iron Wall and establish it with renewed strength for the next hundred years.
Within this context, the rehabilitation of the communities damaged in Hamas’s attack and the return of the communities to the Galilee and Negev are critical components in the reconstruction of the Iron Wall. This means far more than simply renovation and construction. Ben-Gurion wrote about the sources of strength for victory in 1948: “We reached victory through three paths: the path of faith, the path of pioneering creativity, and the path of suffering.” These will be the paths to victory in today’s war as well.
The collapse of the dream of peace
In his eulogy at the grave of Ro’i Rothberg in Nahal Oz in April 1956, Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan said: “A generation of pioneers we are, bareheaded, with steel helmets and the rifle. We cannot plant a tree and build a home. Our children will not have a life if we do not dig shelters…” The speech concluded with the statement: “Ro’i – the light in his heart blinded his eyes, and he did not see the flash of the mortar. The yearning for peace silenced his ears, and he did not hear the voice of the ambush…”
In the midst of the War of Attrition, at the end of the Command and Staff College course in 1969, Moshe Dayan stated his existential philosophy: “Rest and heritage are longed-for aspirations for us, not realities. And if we occasionally achieve them, they are only short intermediate stations – aspirations for the continuation of the struggle.” Explaining the necessity of an endless struggle, he said: “The only basic answer we can give to the question ‘what will be’ is – we will continue to fight, just as we did in the past, and now too. The answer to the question ‘what will be’ must focus on our ability to withstand difficulties, our ability to cope – more than on absolute and final solutions to our problems. We must prepare ourselves mentally and physically for a prolonged process of struggle.”
These words differ significantly from those expressed by the Israeli leadership in recent decades. For instance, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, in his speech at the UN, chose to emphasize: “What Israelis want is a good life for themselves and their families and a future ready for their children.”
Moshe Dayan, despite his emphasis on normalcy, always highlighted the presence in our consciousness of the struggle. This was brutally expressed in his will, where he instructed his three children: “Serve the inheritance of the fathers each one, and the sword over your beds, and in the evening, it will become a legacy to your sons. And now, let each one take his backpack and stick and cross the Jordan in his own way…” (Yael Dayan, My Father’s House, p. 207).
Yael Dayan, representing a generation that has refused to reconcile with the inevitability of constant struggle, described in her book her deep dissociation from her father’s will: “I felt like a person banished from paradise, a curse more than a blessing. We were all destined to work the land and fight, and this was a commandment for our children.” (ibid.)
On Saturday, October 7, the dream of an Israeli paradise collapsed. With the war in Ukraine and even in Western Europe, it has become clear that despite hopes for peace everywhere, there is no paradise on Earth. As expressed in the Negev lullaby my mother sang to me in my childhood, “There is no deep silence without a weapon…sleep, son.”
Conclusion
The State of Israel is in one of the most difficult crises it has ever known. It suffered an unprecedented blow and is required to receive an unprecedented punishment. Asking to return to the familiar track after making technical repairs is asking to escape the true magnitude of the repair that is required. The national leadership of the State of Israel, together with the security system, must be committed in the face of this crisis to formulating a new national security concept.
After the surprise attack by Hamas on October 7, will residents of Rosh HaAyin and Kfar Saba lend a hand in the establishment of a Palestinian state that would turn them into border settlements akin to Nahal Oz or Metula? Any arrangement of the territory of Israel between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea that aims at a Jewish withdrawal from Judea and Samaria, an uprooting of Israeli settlements, and a defining of the eastern border of the State of Israel in the Rosh HaAyin-Kfar Saba region along Highway 6 would be a Palestinian national victory and an Israeli defeat.
Despite all our faith in the IDF and its capabilities, there is not now, and there will not be, an option to defend the State of Israel along the coastal strip. This fact must be brought to broad national consensus and placed at the center of the Israeli security perception.
view PDF
Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen is a senior research fellow at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. He served in the IDF for 42 years. He commanded troops in battles with Egypt and Syria. He was formerly a corps commander and commander of the IDF Military Colleges.
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Israel to launch the largest military campaign in West Bank history
Mudar Adnan Zahran-tweet-8January2024-Israel to launch the largest military campaign in West Bank history
Israel is about to launch the largest military campaign in the history of the West Bank to completely exterminate armed cells, dozens of names on the target list…
The operations will introduce “a different utilization of drones “, fighting will be parallel the war in Gaza at the hottest points; those are Jenin and its camp, Nablus and Balata camp, Tulkarm camp, and Shuafat camp…
♾
Mudar Adnan Zahran-tweet-8January2024-Israel to launch the largest military campaign in West Bank history
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For far too long, Zionism has been stuck in a defensive mode. Op-ed.
Howard Rotberg 9December2023 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/381680
Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who that it’s namin’
For the loser now will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’
– Bob Dylan
Watching the protests in American and Canadian and European cities where predominantly young people call for a genocide of the Jews in Israel – “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free” – one is struck by some important facts.
First, a lot of the protests are in universities and while Antifa and other anti-liberal groups participate, one can assume that the protesters have a high representation among Muslims and/or university students. Looking at the female protestors, anywhere from 50% to 75% are wearing hijabs.
Second, university professors, mainly in Middle Eastern studies and gender and diversity studies, are indoctrinating their students to hate Israel and Jews everywhere.
Third, while many may be in a country on student or other temporary visas, looking at the population figures for Muslims in the West, they are a growing presence and a growing influence. Surely if we allow people with vile opinions into the country, we must be prepared to live with the consequences once they assume elected office.
Third, this growing influence can be seen in American Muslim areas like Dearbor, Michigan and Minneapolis, Minnesota..
Fourth, although not all the residents there are radical Islamists, we see that they are electing university trained Islamists, such as Ilhan Omar in Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib in Dearborn.
Fifth, these elected representatives organize themselves into radical caucuses allying with left-wing Black radicals and spend a lot of time trying to pressure their governments to take anti-Israel actions.
Sixth, we see in the case of American Secretary of State Blinken, who is apparently Jewish, that efforts are made to pressure Israel to lose the war against Hamas by allowing some Palestinian Arab group, be it the corrupt and hateful Palestinian Authority or others, to participate in the governance of Gaza after the war. Anyone who understands the facts about the history of Palestinian Arab terrorism and rejectionism of peace proposals should understand that America and other western countries have become financial backers of Palestinian Arab terrorism and leaders in the international efforts to isolate and endanger Israel.
And so, in this context, we who support Israel must begin to look at a paradigm shift. According to Merriam-Webster is “an important change that happens when the usual way of thinking about or doing something is replaced by a new and different way.”
We need a new way of looking at those who support Islamist terrorism whether it is in the UN, in the universities, in the media, or from elected officials who are Islamists – and a new way of dealing with them.
For far too long, Zionism has been stuck in a defensive mode, whether it is trying to deal with an evil United Nations, UNRWA and UNHCR, or international NGOs, including those funded and controlled by antisemites such as George Soros and including BDS boycotters and advocates for diversity and inclusion – which promises inclusion for everyone except the Jews of Israel and their supporters.
Israel has become a powerful country in terms of its military, its high tech sector and its finances, but what good is power if you don’t use it? I am thinking here of using power to shift the paradigm. Specifically the paradigm that Muslims are growing all around the world and have through immigration and demographics grown so much in terms of power in the West that there is nothing we can do, except submit. I discuss this sad submission in my book The Ideological Path to Submission … and what we can do about it. We must address the issue head on – we shall never submit to Sharia Law, jihad and a world-wide Caliphate just as we shall never submit to Hamas, no matter what naive talks emanate from the talking heads in the media.
I have written a lot about Germany and the gradual evolution of its Israel policy from that of “special relationship” to that of a typical European antipathy. See my essays in israel National News: “Germany’s Moral Choice”, January 20, 2020, “Michelle Goldberg and Angela Merkel seek moral absolution in the wrong place”, October 31, 2021 and “A two-state solution for Germany and other migrant-filled European countries”, November 17, 2023.
The demographic situation in Germany, France, Sweden, Belgium etc., and the rise of European leaders on the right, including Orban in Hungary and Gert Wilders in the Netherlands has perhaps opened the floodgates, where the alliance between leftists and Islamists is seen to be bad for society, and people are unafraid to say so and risk the opprobrium from the politically correct.
Here is a speech given by German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck on Nov. 2.
“Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel took place almost four weeks ago now. A lot has happened since then. Not only politically, but especially for the people. So many people’s lives are now consumed by fear and suffering. Public debate since the attack has been heated, sometimes muddled.
“Too much seems to me to have been mixed up too quickly. The phrase, ‘Israel’s security is part of Germany’s raison d’état’ has never been an empty phrase, and it must not become one. It means that Israel’s security is essential for us as a country. This special relationship with Israel stems from our historical responsibility.
“It was the generation of my grandparents that wanted to exterminate Jewish life in Germany and Europe. After the Holocaust, the founding of Israel was the promise of protection to the Jews — and Germany is compelled to help ensure that this promise can be fulfilled. This is a historical foundation of our republic.
“Our historical responsibility also means that Jews must be able to live freely and safely in Germany.”
This statement shows to me that classical antisemitism rising in places where Islamists are taking power means the beginning of a realistic assessment of liberalism and whether individual human rights can coexist with radical Islam.
Germany, despite the passage of time is still known for Naziism just as the Arabs should be known for their terrorist groups. Hamas, while it has awakened the protesting antisemites, has also awakened Good people everywhere to advocate for Good over Evil. It should also awaken the Arab countries who were attracted to the Abraham Accord and who fear Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Toby Axelrod reports in JTA: “Recognizing Israel’s right to exist is now mandatory for those who want to become German citizens in the former East German state of Saxony-Anhalt.
“Applicants living in the state will have to confirm in writing ‘that they recognize Israel’s right to exist and condemn any efforts directed against the existence of the State of Israel.”
The paradigm shift must be that the advantages of citizenship in the freedom loving western nations must be reserved for those who do not hate our freedoms and wish to replace them with Sharia law and jihad. America under Biden not only has an open border policy but also does not properly vet regular immigrants. The shift in assumptions and policies must take into account that the world is a nasty place and evil must be constantly fought, and that multiculturalism must be adjusted to recognize that not all cultures are equal.
On the bright side, I believe some young people are ready for a paradigm shift away from the reflexive UN anti-Israel resolutions and the totalitarian leftist-Islamist alliance. For example, the youth wing of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD), called the Jusos, in late November, 2019, condemned its leadership’s anti-Israel voting record at the UN. This organization of 14 to 35 year-olds has over 70,000 members. who adopted a resolution that the “disproportionate condemnation of Israel, the only democratic state in the Middle East” is a problem affecting UN bodies “that is carried on not only by states of the Middle East, but also European states, who pass, or abstain from, anti-Israel resolutions”. They urged the leadership to “dissociate from the initiatives and alliances of antisemitic member states in the bodies and specialized agencies of the United Nations.
Donald Trump was a great U.S. President in foreign matters including Israel and specifically his Abraham Accord. Joseph Biden, perhaps just a tool of his far left and anti-Israel advisors has been one of the worst presidents, specifically for empowering and enriching Iran, the country that boasts of its intentions to use nuclear weapons against Israel.
A paradigm shift must take account of the damage wrought by Biden and how Israel will be able to live safely in a world full of appeasers and antisemites. Although he is helping Israel with arms, Biden wants a shrunken weakened Israel and a strong Iran.
Every Jew must see himself or herself as a Maccabee. From the Maccabees to the IDF, we fight, but on Hanukkah we don’t celebrate a military victory as much as a religious victory. Our Maccabees throughout history will sacrifice on our behalf, and our duty is to properly analyze the shifting paradigms so that we can win the war of ideologies.
Howard Rotberg is the author of The Second Catastrophe: A Novel About a Book and its Author, (about Israel during the Second Intifada), TOLERism: The Ideology Revealed, and The Ideological Path to Submission… and what we can do about it.
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Keppler, Victor. Buy war bonds: Third War Loan., poster, 1943; [Washington, D.C.]
Israel needs to Sell War Bonds to Rebuild her Industries.
It will take years to correct the damage the generals wrought by reducing the size of the IDF and inducing its total dependence on the United States
Caroline B. Glick
Caroline B. Glick is the senior contributing editor of Jewish News Syndicate and host of the “Caroline Glick Show” on JNS. She is also the diplomatic commentator for Israel’s Channel 14, as well as a columnist for Newsweek. Glick is the senior fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs at the Center for Security Policy in Washington and a lecturer at Israel’s College of Statesmanship.
https://www.jns.org/rising-from-the-ruins-of-a-generation-of-israeli-doctrine/
(December 22, 2023 / JNS) Two underlying assumptions guided Israel’s security establishment for the past generation. The first asserted that with the end of the Cold War, the era of conventional wars had ended. In the present age, brains, rather than brawn, would rule the roost.
The primary author of the “small and smart IDF” doctrine was Ehud Barak, who served as Chief of General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces when the Berlin Wall crumbled. In later years, the slogan was finessed.
A generation of IDF Chiefs of General Staff organized around the vision of a “small, technological and lethal army.”
As Maj. Gen. Yitzhak Brick, (retired) who served as the IDF ombudsman for ten years, has documented, operating under the spell of Barak’s doctrine, the IDF shut down multiple reserve divisions. It cut its artillery forces by 50%. Armored brigades were shut down. The reserve force was reduced by 80% between 2003 and 2017. The non-commissioned officer corps was gutted. The bulk of the IDF budget and nearly all the U.S. military aid were diverted to the Air Force—the strategic arm of the “small, technological and lethal” IDF.
The doctrine was repeatedly exposed as a farce. But to no avail. The air force didn’t defeat the Palestinian terror factories in Judea and Samaria in 2002. The ground forces did. The air force never had a response to missiles from Hezbollah to the north and Hamas to the south. Without regional brigades defending the borders, Israel’s “peacetime” borders with Jordan on the east and Egypt at its west became highways for weapons smugglers.
Brick’s warnings fell on deaf ears until the “small, smart army” fallacy was obliterated by Hamas invaders on Oct. 7. Israel’s multi-billion shekel “smart fence” was felled by bulldozers. Its automatic response system was obliterated by RPGs. Hundreds of soldiers manning these worthless technological wonders were slaughtered or kidnapped. Everything failed.
A microcosm of all things oppressive
This brings us to the second underlying assumption that guided Israel’s security establishment for the past generation. This assumption, also championed by Barak, asserted that Israel’s most important strategic asset was the United States.
Leaving aside the obvious fact that a strategy of dependence on an outside actor effectively gutted Israel’s national independence, on the surface, Barak’s dependence concept seemed reasonable.
The Americans rescued Israel with its weapons airlift in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. In 1992, the United States was the sole global superpower. Because Israel was seen as Washington’s “mini-me,” countries worldwide lined up to be friends with Israel, which they perceived as the gateway to Washington. The vast majority of Americans supported Israel. U.S. military aid to Israel enjoyed wide bipartisan support.
Under the spell of Barak’s U.S. dependence doctrine, Israel gutted its domestic military production capabilities. Nearly everything that it had produced domestically—from uniforms to rifles to bullets, to artillery and tank shells—was shut down. Thousands of military industry workers lost their jobs. Knowledge was lost. The contracts moved to the United States. Even projects developed jointly by Israeli engineers financed by America were transferred to the United States for production. So it happened that Israel’s Iron Dome missiles are solely produced in the United States.
Along with Barak, the dependence doctrine’s biggest champions were the air force generals. Under their leadership, Israel’s air force effectively became a U.S. asset. The air force cannot operate without U.S. platforms, spare parts and bombs. All air force ordnance is made in America.
But even during the 1990s and 2000s, the writing was appearing on the walls telling us that things were changing in America. A generation after the United States emerged from the Cold War as the sole global superpower, it struggles to contend with the threat of China, which surpasses it in several key technologies.
Under the spell of globalization, the United States gutted its industrial base. Even if it wanted to, today it is hard-pressed to repeat the 1973 airlift in real time.
Even worse, the end of the Cold War initiated changes in American society that over the past 20 years have exploded in convulsive transformations.
Since the early 2000s, hard-core cultural Marxist progressives have seized control over the U.S. education system at all levels. As a result, young Americans are emerging from high schools and universities with values unlike anything we have ever seen.
The new American values are built around a division of humanity into two classes: oppressor and oppressed. “Oppressors,” young Americans now believe, are evil and must be punished. “Oppressed” are pure and must be empowered. The United States is the chief oppressor. Its social and economic orders must be radically transformed to expiate its sins.
Israel (America’s “mini-me”), and Jews generally, are presented as a microcosm of all things oppressive.
The implications of this progressive indoctrination present America with an existential challenge. If allowed to continue into the next generation, the United States will be destroyed.
For Jews, the threat this indoctrination poses is immediate, as a survey published last week by Harvard-Harris demonstrated.
Harvard-Harris asked their respondents’ views on the Israel-Hamas war, and more broadly, about Jews and Jew-hatred. The answers showed that unlike their parents and grandparents, young Americans have embraced a comprehensive, internally consistent and genocidal hatred for Israel and Jews.
Two-thirds of Americans aged 18 to 24 believe that Jews are oppressors and should be treated as such. Around 70% in that same age bracket believe that antisemitism is rising in the United States generally and on university campuses specifically. They believe that calls for genocide of Jews are hate speech and a form of harassment.
At the same time, 53% of them think this harassment and hate speech should go unpunished.
Similarly, 66% of 18- to 24-year-olds agree that Hamas’s attack on Oct. 7 was genocidal. All the same, 60% believe it was justified.
Logically flowing from these sentiments, 51% of young Americans believe that the proper end of the Palestinian-Israel conflict is the destruction of the Jewish state and its replacement with a Hamas-controlled Palestinian entity. That is, the majority of young Americans support the annihilation of the Jewish people.
Unlike the generals’ “small, smart army” doctrine, it took several weeks for the public to see the devastating consequences of their “America-dependence doctrine.”
America in a holding pattern
In the immediate aftermath of Oct. 7, their faith in American support seemed to be borne out. President Joe Biden and his top advisers pledged their total support for Israel. Biden deployed U.S. aircraft carrier groups to the Eastern Mediterranean and promised $14.3 billion in supplemental military aid to Israel to ensure that Israel has what it needs to successfully win the war.
But in recent weeks, particularly since Israel resumed its operation in Gaza at the end of November after the 10-day hostages-for-terrorists ceasefire, that assessment has changed dramatically. The public has realized that friendliness and declarations of solidarity aside, the United States does not share—and in some areas opposes—Israel’s war aims. To win the war, Israel must eradicate Hamas in Gaza and remove the threat Hezbollah poses to northern Israel. It must also take action to prevent the Houthis from maintaining their effective maritime blockade of the Port of Eilat.
On all of these fronts, Biden and his top aides have made clear that their goals are not the same as Israel’s. They do not seek the eradication of Hamas and the return of the hostages. They seek the end of the war and the return of the hostages. And at the end of the war, they want to rebuild Gaza. They want to use the war’s end as a means to compel Israel into a “peace process.” The goal of that process is to establish a Palestinian state in Gaza, and Judea and Samaria, led by terrorists from the Palestinian Authority which, like Hamas, seeks the annihilation of the Jewish state.
In Lebanon, the administration seeks to prevent war, even though doing so will leave Hezbollah with its capacity to invade the Galilee and destroy strategic targets all over Israel with its massive missile arsenal.
As for Yemen, the United States has demanded that Israel take no offensive action against either the Houthis or the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ overlords directing Houthi operations from their spy ship in the Red Sea.
Instead, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has formed a multinational task force from which Israel has been excluded. While its purpose is subject still to speculation, to many U.S. and Israeli observers, it appears that America intends to use its coalition to beef up its efforts to intercept Houthi missiles and drones launched against merchant vessels in the Red Sea. That is, as with Hezbollah, the U.S. goal vis-à-vis the Houthis seems to be to end Houthi assaults on merchant ships without diminishing their capacity to carry them out.
As for military supplies, the $14.3 billion is still languishing in Congress. It won’t be considered until Congress reconvenes on Jan. 9 after the Christmas and New Year recess.
It will take years to correct the damage the generals wrought by reducing the size of the IDF and inducing its total dependence on the United States.
‘The IDF is changing its view’
But this week, the Defense Ministry let it be known that it is moving to correct the situation. On Tuesday, Ynet reported that the Defense Ministry is initiating what it refers to as “Independence Project.”
According to the report, the Defense Ministry is launching a crash program with Israel’s military industries and major industrialists to make Israel independent in everything related to ordnance. In the initial phase, Israel will begin producing bombs for its aircraft. Jerusalem also intends to expand its production of tank and artillery shells, as well as assault rifles and bullets. Separately, there is increased discussion regarding the establishment of a missile force as an independent arm of the IDF. The force would reduce reliance on the air force and develop more versatile, more easily defended missile launch platforms and massively expand Israel’s missile and drone arsenals.
After meeting with Defense Ministry Director General Maj. Gen. Eyal Zamir, Ron Tomer, the head of Israel’s Industrialists Union, told Ynet, “The war demonstrates our need for a powerful and advanced industrial base to ensure Israel’s national strength and independent capabilities. The IDF is changing its view of how it arms its forces, enlarging domestic production lines in order to be less dependent on ordnance from abroad. The ideal of a small high-tech military did not prove itself.”
Brick and others argue that had Hezbollah joined Hamas in invading and bombing Israel on Oct. 7, Israel may well have been destroyed that day. A combination of Hezbollah’s 10,000-man Radwan Brigades perched at the border and capable of invading the Galilee, and a barrage of up to 4,000 missiles with various payloads targeting Israel’s air bases, and other strategic sites and civilian population centers every day for weeks, would have caused irreparable damage equal in force to a nuclear bomb.
Iran’s decision not to involve Hezbollah on Oct. 7 has given Israel the opportunity to reorganize its forces and prepare for the multi-front war that awaits us. We don’t have a moment to lose.
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Israel can mobilize & equip 350,000 soldiers, its economy, and homefront
Ron M.-tweet-27February2024-Israel can mobilize
Unprecedented: The most important thing learned from the GAZA War is that Israel can mobilize & equip 350,000 soldiers, its economy, and homefront, along with tanks & aircraft to fight for 5 months of daily combat & missile war.
Trust me Iran & Hezbollah noticed. 🇮🇱
Ron M-tweet-27February2024-Israel can mobilize
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By Simone Ledeen
04January2024 https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2024/01/04/israel_signals_self-reliance_for_weapons_1002676.html
Israel’s declaration that it intends to expand its domestic munitions production heralds a new chapter in U.S.-Israel relations, where strategic recalibration meets the challenges of an evolving international arms landscape. Israel’s announcement signifies a dual aim: to diminish U.S. leverage in its military operations and to confront the relentless shortages prevalent in the global market. In the volatile landscape of global munitions sales, the Black Sabbath massacre orchestrated by Hamas has seemingly propelled Israel into a serious reassessment of how much leverage over its military decision-making it is willing to give the United States.
On December 29th with Israel engaged in heavy fighting during clearing operations in Gaza, and a looming regional conflict on the horizon, the Biden White House approved the second emergency transfer of the month for Israel, this one totaling nearly $150 million in military equipment, including critically important 155mm artillery ammunition. In response to Israel’s previous emergency request, the US expedited the delivery of over 13,000 tank shells.
Historically, the United States has been a key supplier of military aid to Israel, offering critical support in times of conflict. However, the increasing acknowledgment within Israel’s leadership that this dependence also translates to a degree of subservience in military decision-making seems to have prompted a reevaluation. By cultivating a more self-reliant approach to armaments, Israel aims to reduce its vulnerability to external influences, particularly, the leverage that U.S. armaments confer on its military decisions.
While the alliance is rooted in shared values and common interests, the leverage the U.S. holds through the provision of military aid has, at times, led to complex diplomatic negotiations, acknowledging the occasional divergence in goals between Israel and the U.S. The U.S. imperative is not just to address regional conflicts but to grapple with a global market in flux. The global weapons market is always driven by geopolitical shifts, and now more than ever, an insatiable demand for artillery ammunition as two hot shooting wars are taking place.
In recent months, the U.S. had to some extent stepped up production within our defense industrial base to meet immediate demands and replenish stockpiles, but more is needed and quickly. The urgency for increased production becomes not just a response to immediate needs, but a strategic imperative to stay ahead in an ever-evolving defense landscape where the future is increasingly violent and difficult to predict.
In addition to old-fashioned artillery, unmanned aerial vehicles, particularly First Person View (FPV) drones, have emerged as transformative assets. The ability to deploy munitions from drones reshapes the dynamics of conflict, presenting both opportunities and ethical challenges.
FPV drones, equipped with real-time video transmission systems, have become linchpins in modern warfare. In both Israel’s war with Hamas and Ukraine’s war with Russia, these drones provide tactical advantages by offering military forces a valuable tool for reconnaissance, target identification, and even the delivery of munitions. Yet, the integration of FPV technology also raises ethical concerns. Battlefield videos from Ukraine show these drones sometimes being used for activities that violate international norms.
In this landscape, the FPV drone discussion stands as a microcosm of the broader challenges and opportunities that define our American path forward. Israel is signaling an intent to chart its own course in the coming months and years, as it must defeat Hamas both militarily and politically, despite pressure for a ceasefire from some quarters.
The recent emergency transfers of military equipment from the Biden White House to Israel have highlighted the constraints that come with heavy reliance on external support. The expedited deliveries, while addressing immediate needs, have underscored the vulnerability inherent in relying on a foreign ally for crucial military supplies during times of conflict and the many reasons why this current global environment requires a new approach.
Simone Ledeen is an accomplished national security professional with expertise spanning defense policy, intelligence, counterterrorism, counter threat finance, and emerging technologies. As Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Middle East Policy, Ms. Ledeen was responsible for U.S. defense policy for Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. She strengthened key U.S. defense relationships through close collaboration with foreign counterparts and oversaw the development and implementation of critical policies and initiatives including in counterterrorism, information operations, cybersecurity, and emerging technologies. Ms. Ledeen advises several venture capital and early-stage defense technology firms. Previously, Ms. Ledeen held various leadership roles across the U.S. Government, executing complex operations overseas and spearheading initiatives to counter extremist threats. She received her MBA from Bocconi University and her B.A. from Brandeis University.
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“The lesson from the war in Ukraine and against Hamas is identical: Israel must significantly increase its arsenal,” said a former Israeli defense official.
Yaakov Lappin https://www.jns.org/israel-begins-shift-to-domestic-ammunition-production/
Yaakov Lappin is an Israel-based military affairs correspondent and analyst. He is the in-house analyst at the Miryam Institute; a research associate at the Alma Research and Education Center; and a research associate at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University. He is a frequent guest commentator on international television news networks, including Sky News and i24 News. Lappin is the author of Virtual Caliphate: Exposing the Islamist State on the Internet. Follow him at: www.patreon.com/yaakovlappin.
(February 8, 2024 / JNS) In the wake of the ongoing war against Hamas and its exposure of Israel’s near total dependence on the United States to replenish its stocks of ammunition, Israel has begun shifting toward greater domestic ammunition production.
The Israeli Defense Ministry has begun reaching out to local defense companies to boost production lines and place orders that will ensure they churn out ammunition for years to come, as a top priority.
The ministry saw domestic production as a priority even before the war, but the issue has now risen to the top of the national agenda.
“The lesson from the war in Ukraine and against Hamas is identical: Israel must significantly increase the arsenal with which it enters the campaign,” a former defense official told JNS.
This includes a variety of arms, ranging from Iron Dome interceptors to sophisticated guided air-to-ground munitions and artillery shells. Tank shells could also be a candidate for domestic production.
Yet not everything can be moved to Israel. Military aircraft will continue to be made in the United States.
The cost of producing aircraft for a single military without exporting them to additional clients would make their production a financial non-starter for Israeli defense industries. Nor would the U.S. agree for Israel to begin competing with it in the global fighter aircraft market, as the 1980s Lavi jet project, which shut down for these reasons, demonstrated.
On Jan. 25, ministry director general Maj. Gen. (res.) Eyal Zamir concluded a working visit to Washington, D.C., where he met with senior U.S. Department of Defense and State Department leadership, as well as with Lockheed Martin and Boeing executives.
Those two companies produce the Israeli Air Force’s growing fleet—F-35s, CH53 transport helicopters, Apache helicopters and F-15s. Israel is reportedly attempting to fast-track some of those deliveries, particularly the Apaches.
“The visit underscored the close cooperation between Israel and the United States since the beginning of the ongoing Swords of Iron war,” the ministry said in a statement at the time. “Maj. Gen. (res.) Zamir engaged in discussions with his American counterparts about armament procurement, aligning with preparations for evolving combat scenarios. The discussions also focused on plans for force build-up in the upcoming multi-year strategy, including the acquisition of advanced platforms and capabilities to maintain the IDF’s qualitative military edge and readiness for diverse scenarios. This approach integrates lessons learned from the war into strategies for obtaining military equipment,” it stated.
Nevertheless, it has become painfully clear that Israel’s dependence on American ammunition supplies, which saw more than 200 cargo planes touch down Israel following Hamas’s Oct. 7 invasion, has become a danger to national security and independence.
This dependence means that any Israeli Cabinet must consider the principle of “legitimacy” in its warfare planning—a principle that could become paralyzing if leverage over Israel becomes too great.
Should that principle trickle down into operational decision-making, the result can only harm Israel’s war efforts.
IDF combat officers should be thinkingly purely about how to accomplish missions, while of course adhering to the IDF’s own internal ethical code and upholding its own internal commitment to adhering to the laws of armed conflict. But if concerns over “legitimacy” in the eyes of a foreign government, no matter how close an ally, creep in, due to ammunition reliance, that is a serious problem.
Furthermore, Israel’s current lack of independent mass ammunition production has meant that the IDF needs to weigh its uses of resources carefully in Gaza, when looking at multi-arena threats in the north and at Iran, both of which could become involved in full-scale wars at any time.
Such precaution means that the IDF has been running an “armament economy” regarding certain munitions.
Both the air force and the ground forces must take the prospects of additional fronts catching fire into account.
All of this means that mass domestic ammunition production is a must-have for Israel going forward, and there are encouraging signs that this is in fact what is developing.
This will also create very real economic burdens in the future; American ammunition was bought with U.S. aid money.
For Israel to create and fund new production lines among its defense industries, it will also need to ensure that society can manage this burden by having as many economically productive citizens in the work force as possible.
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While many businesses are shut down due to the war with Hamas, the Israeli arms manufacturing industry has never been in such high demand. 190,000 new applications for weapons licenses were also added to the growing needs of the army and the new readiness teams, with tens of thousands of rifles and pistols already delivered to civilians. The price: loss of contracts abroad
Yuval Azulay
13November2023 https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/o41wmf8hy
A look around at the huge production hall of the pistol and rifle manufacturer IWI in Ramat Hasharon shows the unprecedented panic and pressure that are rising from all directions, on all fronts. All the production machines have been working here non-stop and around the clock for more than a month, even on weekends, providing hundreds of assault rifles every day to the IDF units fighting on the front and to the readiness teams that are arming themselves as well as personal pistols to the civilian market, which woke up frightened by the terror of the October 7 massacre in the south and jumped by hundreds of percent in the last month.
It’s not easy these days in the industry, and in the firearms factories that are urgently needed for both the front lines and on the home front, which is doubly difficult and complex. Many workers were recruited into the reserves by emergency call-ups, and at the same time, the demand from the field is soaring. About 40% of the employees of the arms manufacturer Ematan from Karmiel, owned by Reuven Zada, and about 20% of the employees of IWI, owned by the veteran arms manufacturer Samy Katsav, were drafted into the reserves last month. Both companies are trying to take in dozens of replacement workers to staff the production and assembly floors in order to be relevant to the Israeli arms race.
IWI factory in Ramat Hasharon (Photo: IWI)
Already in the first week of fighting, Katsav recruited all his family members, including children and grandchildren, and put them on the assembly production lines. “Anyone who comes to help these days is welcome and blessed,” he says. “This situation reminds me of the World War II movies of American citizens enlisting in the war effort to defend the home and working in weapons factories.”
Chaya (75) has been working in the assembly workshop for a month with her friend Livna (72), and both roll up their sleeves and assemble guns with skilled fingers in an eight-hour shift. “Look, I already have the hands of a worker,” she says. She is now assembling components for the Jericho pistols, a bit of variety after spending all of last week working on pickguards for Masada pistols.
This is the first time she has joined the effort on the production line, and this indicates the magnitude of the hour. “There has not yet been a situation where I had to come here to contribute to the general effort. During the coronavirus period, there was an extreme shortage of manpower and I wanted to come but they were afraid I would get infected so I stayed at home. My daughter and I are happy here. We feel that we are contributing something.”
The opening shot of the Ministry of Defense
Had this war not broken out, IWI workers would have been busy these days moving their factory from the Elbit Systems complex in Ramat Hasharon to the industrial area in Kiryat Gat. The construction of their new complex, which measures approximately 23,000 square meters, was completed not long ago, and the complex adjustments to its workforce resulting from the dramatic change were also completed. Many dozens of workers from Netanya and northern communities have finished their work at the company in recent months and in their place about 200 workers from Kiryat Gat and the south have been recruited. This period when the demand for weapons soars daily is not the right time to move, and the workers from the Kiryat Gat area are transported daily to Ramat Hasharon.
The engineers of the development department also locked away plans for future products in the vault and left the laboratories to strengthen the production floor. “These are unusually busy weeks, guns are produced here endlessly,” says Lior, head of the gun team at IWI. “We all understand that this is the order of the day. We all have a strong sense of mission, and what is most important to us is that our brothers in the south have reliable and good weapons to protect them.”
But it is much more than “Brothers in the South”. Many more sisters and brothers throughout the country are arming themselves with everything possible: pistols, long guns, short guns, and sights that improve accuracy. “All this demand expresses a very serious vacuum that was created in the field due to previous decisions by the government,” says Ron Pollak, the VP of marketing for EMTAN, who lives in a kibbutz seven kilometers from the border with Lebanon. “In recent years we have gone down to nothing, to zero. Now there is panic and everyone wants to stock up and fill warehouses.”<
Since the beginning of the war, more than 190,000 applications for weapons licenses have been submitted to the Ministry of National Security, and in the first ten months of 2023, more than 210,000 applications have been submitted, and the year is not over yet. So far, about 31,000 licenses have been issued. For comparison, in 2022, 42,000 applications were submitted and approximately 13,000 licenses were granted. In 2021, about 20,000 applications were submitted and about 10,000 licenses were issued. This process of arming is dangerous for many reasons, but the manufacturers and dealers of weapons pull out their ready answers such as “it’s not the gun that kills but the person who pulls the trigger”, and “the licenses are issued selectively and in a professional and responsible process”.
EMTAN’s best-selling gun is the Ramon, named after the Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon. About two years ago EMTAN signed a contract with the Spanish Federal Police for the supply of about 10,000 such pistols. It is sold in the same markets where IWI aims its best-selling pistol, the Masada, which was also developed in recent years and weighs significantly less than that of the old and well-known pistol, the Jericho. In both cases, the price of one gun ranges between NIS 3,000 and NIS 4,000 ($776-$1,000). Both companies clarified that they did not take advantage of the situation to raise prices.
The guns made in Israel are only a small part of the Israeli gun market, which is mostly made up of imported brands such as Glock, Sig Sauer, CZ, Beretta, Smith, and more. “98% of the guns in Israel are imported,” says the chairman of the firearms division of the Association of Chambers of Commerce, Amos Golan. In the past, Golan was in command of the Counter-Terrorism School and the Duvdevan unit, and today he is the owner of Silver Shadow, which manufactures M4s and related weapon accessories. The focus on purchasing imported guns is mainly due to their international branding, personal taste, and convenience of the user, even though the price level is usually close to that of the local guns.
“There is a large aftermarket for all this equipment, and it can be a tremendous engine of growth. The reality on the ground justifies this. In all the terrorist incidents in recent years, we have seen that in places where there was intervention by armed civilians, the terrorists were neutralized. Even in the Hamas attack in the south, in places where the terrorists responded with fire there was less killing,” says Golan.
A few weeks ago the head of the Samaria Council Yossi Dagan came to Katsav’s factory and left an order for 200 Arad-type assault rifles. The Arad is based on the M4, went on the market last year, was quickly adopted by the Navy, and became the main service rifle of the special unit fighters. Now that the defense system has opened the budget dam, the demand for the Arad is also increasing from units in the Ministry of Defense and members of standby units, for whom the new standard is of a standard infantry fighter in the IDF.
At the beginning of the month, the Ministry of Defense’s procurement administration ordered thousands of long-barreled M4 tools manufactured by their two companies from Mazada and Matsav, for more than NIS 100 million ($25 million). The Ministry of Defense’s invitation is only an opening shot. The IDF intends to equip itself in the coming months with tens of thousands more M4 rifles, and the procurement administration of the Ministry of Defense intends to publish another tender. In the upcoming tender, a third Israeli manufacturer, Golan’s Silver Shadow, which manufactures in Or Yehuda and is supposed to move the production to a new factory it has established in Modiin, will come into the picture in the coming months. He owns another factory in the USA. “It is important that the state purchases its assault rifles from Israeli companies,” says Golan. He expects the Ministry of Defense to divide the procurement pie equally between the three manufacturers and prefer them over foreign manufacturers.
Katsav looks at the procurement fever, knows that this is only the beginning, and remembers the days that followed the Yom Kippur War. Katsav, 77 years old, is a veteran of Israel’s defense industries. He founded the SK group of arms companies which, apart from IWI, includes Meprolight which develops and manufactures electro-optical sights for rifles and pistols, and Camero which deals with radar technology which detects and identifies happenings behind walls. In addition, he owns Israel Shipyards together with Shlomi Fogel and Asi Shmelzer.
The shock of the massacre in the south does not leave him. “They did things to us here that were not seen even in the Yom Kippur War,” he says, “These are exactly the same stories I heard from my mother-in-law, may she rest in peace, a survivor of Auschwitz from the time of the Holocaust. How is it possible? How does the world not want to see we are right and understand us?”
“Abroad, they take advantage of the situation to steal contracts”
The war in Gaza has captured the entire Israeli arms industry, IWI, and its members within it, with the production floors busy with work against the background of the global armament fever created by the war between Russia and Ukraine. On the first day of the war, they quickly aligned with the Ministry of Defense’s expectations, diverted all production to the needs of the IDF, and stopped exports, for all that this implies. “We immediately stopped the export work and diverted all activity to Israel without waiting to be told to do it,” Pollak says. “The very next day we sent out the first truck and in the first week of the war we supplied about 12,000 rifles to readiness teams and the army and thousands more guns to stores.”
Katsav also understood very quickly the magnitude of the catastrophe: “First and foremost is the priority of the IDF, the police, and our security forces, there is no doubt at all. The needs of the Israeli security forces are at the forefront of our minds, and only then exports.”
The VP of Marketing and Sales of SK Ronen Hamudot says that most customers abroad show empathy for the situation in Israel, but there are also those who are less patient and insist on receiving the goods on the specified date. “We do all we can to postpone delivery dates abroad. Most customers understand, but there are those who insist on receiving at the time we agreed on in advance. We understand that whoever buys something needs it and this situation requires us to make tremendous efforts because the country is also under a kind of siege. It is very difficult to fly in raw materials, the prices have soared and we are constantly looking for creative solutions.” Katsav and Hamudot also recognize attempts by competitors in a world where contracts have been taken from us. “They understand that we are all here being recruited for war and are trying to steal contracts from us, turning to our customers with tempting offers,” says Katsav.
Normally, about 90% of its produce is intended for export. However, against the background of the huge surge of manifestations of antisemitism that is sweeping the world, IWI canceled its participation in three defense exhibitions – in Thailand, France, and Colombia – in order to reduce prominence, also on the recommendation of security officials. “There aren’t many flights anyway and most of our attention is directed to the IDF anyway,” says Pollak.
The arms companies do not mourn the opportunities they are losing these days abroad. There they know that in the thick of the battles it will be very easy to sell to the world weapons that were used by the IDF’s special units in the war in Gaza. “Sales to the IDF and the Israeli security forces are a sign of quality for any product in the arms sector,” Hamudot says. “Sometimes the first question a potential customer asks us is whether the IDF and the police have been equipped with weapons. If the answer is positive, the chances are that we will move forward towards a deal.”
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Israel must also lower its dependency on the US for arms. On the bright side, the Abraham Accords are still intact
Efraim Inbar 23December2023 https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/israels-going-to-need-a-bigger-army-and-other-lessons-from-this-war/
The war on Hamas is not over, but certain lessons already seem very clear.
The US has displayed great support for vanquishing Hamas, and this has enhanced Israel’s position as a valued American ally. Yet, the American motives are suspect. The Biden administration’s support is predicated by an obsession with the Two-State paradigm, which requires eliminating Hamas from Gaza and restoring the moribund and corrupt Palestinian Authority (PA) there. Moreover, the American embrace aims to restrain Israel from attacking Iranian proxies, a move that could lead to a regional escalation – something Washington is eager to avert. This has been the major motive for sending aircraft carriers to the region.
The US has no appetite to take on the main culprit for the Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthi aggression against Israel, Iran. Washington, which had pressured Saudi Arabia to stop fighting the Houthis, even warned Israel not to take independent action to defend the freedom of navigation for its ships in the Bab-al Mandeb Straits. It is not clear how determined the international flotilla that the US has initiated will be against the Houthi threat. So far Washington has preferred a defensive posture.
The war has proved also that the two-state paradigm is still the international Pavlovian response to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, even though the war shows clearly that the Palestinians cannot become a good neighbor – not even in the next generation. The PA refused to condemn the Hamas atrocities and even called upon Hamas to join the PA as a junior partner in ruling over the Palestinians. Palestinian hatred towards Israel has reached incredibly high levels. A September 2023 poll showed that the Hamas candidate for prime minister has a 60 percent support rating in the Palestinian territories. A June 2023 poll indicates that two-thirds say Israel will not celebrate the centenary of its establishment, and the majority believes that the Palestinian people will be able in the future to recover Palestine and return its refugees to their homes. Polls taken after October 7 show immense support (around 80%) for the barbaric Hamas attack. Unfortunately, this ideology has many adherents in the Muslim world. Moreover, Hamas has established kindergartens, schools, social services, and mosques, ensuring that it is firmly entrenched in Palestinian society. Its messages are popular and fall on responsive Palestinian ears. The antisemitic wave engulfing many Western states reinforces the current high level of Palestinian hostility toward Israel. Much of the world refuses to see the unpleasant facts that defy a widely-held paradigm.
The war also facilitates the continuation of the global ostrich syndrome concerning Iran’s nuclear advances. Despite the worrisome November report by the IAEA about further growth in Iran’s breakout capabilities as a result of the continued growth of enriched uranium stockpiles, the US appears to have paid scant attention. Moreover, Iran, in a continuation of its strategy to reduce transparency over its sensitive nuclear programs, withdrew the designation of European inspectors with experience in enrichment technology, thus further handicapping attempts to inspect its nuclear programs. This elicited no Western response. Israel is busy with its war on Hamas without a clear effective strategy to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
On the bright side, the Abraham Accords seem to have overcome a difficult test. The UAE and Bahrain maintained their diplomatic relations and even Saudi Arabia signaled its intention to continue with the normalization process. Similarly, Egypt and Jordan cooperate with Israel in providing humanitarian aid to the Palestinians in Gaza. All these Arab states relish the fact that Israel is doing the dirty job of administering a serious blow to the Palestinian offshoot of the Muslim Brothers.
Israel needs a quick decisive victory over Hamas, primarily to restore lost deterrence. It cannot survive in the Middle East if it is not feared. Fear is the best political currency in this region. In addition, it must meet several immediate challenges.
Jerusalem cannot change the asymmetric nature of its relations with Washington which will always act upon its perceived interests. Yet, it is imperative to lower the dependency upon the US for ammunition and weaponry. It is largely a question of allocating enough money to have a larger storage capability and more investment in R&D. Israel’s military industries probably need compensation for a quick transition to an emergency mode to supply the IDF. The goal is not to free Israel of the need to rely on the US but to increase Israel’s freedom of action for longer periods in emergencies when the two states do not see eye to eye. [Israel needs to copy what Russia did with her Military-Industrial Complex to beat any Sanctions or Arms Package Vetoes]
Indeed, Israel must allocate much larger amounts of money for its defense budget. It needs a larger standing army that can better protect Israel’s borders and a stronger military able to fight at least on two fronts simultaneously. Shortening the period of compulsory military period is no longer an option and increasing the pool of available conscripts is necessary.
Hezbollah’s joining the fray could have been an opportunity to defeat another Iranian proxy, but Israel did not capitalize on this because of a shortage of adequate available military might. In the future, an opportunity for a preemptive strike should not be missed. Deterrence requires maintenance, and the use of force is one of its lubricants.
A nuclear Iran is an existential threat that the international community, and primarily the US, refuses to deal with. Israel is on its own, and it is naive to believe that anything but a preventive Israeli military strike, will eliminate this challenge. Israel has to refocus and prepare to end the nuclear threat.
Dealing with the Palestinian challenge requires patience because there is no ending to the conflict any time soon. There is little chance of the dysfunctional Palestinian national movement evolving into a “revitalized” Palestinian Authority (PA) of the nature the Americans dream about. Any Palestinian entity will continue to constitute only a marginal security risk as long as Israel is determined to mow the grass as often as needed.
About the Author
Efraim Inbar is president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS) and head of the program on Strategy, Diplomacy, and National Security at the Shalem Academic Center.
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The fight against Nazism is what historically unites Russia and the Middle Eastern country, the foreign minister believes
28December2023 https://www.rt.com/russia/589831-lavrov-israeli-gaza-hypocrisy/
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov © Ramil Sitdikov; RIA Novosti
The declared goals of Israel in its ongoing operation against Hamas militants in Gaza seem nearly identical to Moscow’s in its campaign against the Ukrainian government, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said in an interview with RIA Novosti on Thursday.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has been carrying out a relentless bombing campaign in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza over the past two months following a surprise Hamas attack on Israeli territories on October 7. The attack by the Palestinian militants left some 1,200 people dead and saw the kidnapping of over 200 hostages. Israel’s response, meanwhile, has reportedly cost the lives of over 21,000 people, according to Gaza health officials.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that the end goal of the IDF is the complete destruction of the Hamas movement in all its forms, as well as the elimination of all extremism in Gaza.
Lavrov, however, noted that these goals seem similar to “demilitarization” and “denazification,” which Moscow has been pursuing in Ukraine since it launched its offensive in February 2022.
The diplomat noted the hypocrisy demonstrated by Israel’s former government under Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who condemned Russia’s military operation and accused Moscow of attacking the civilian population and annexing parts of Ukraine. “This was unfair,” said Lavrov.
At the same time, the minister pointed out that the current Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu – who took office for a sixth term in December 2022 – has avoided making any statements against Russia, despite international criticism and finding himself in “a difficult situation.”
Lavrov further recalled that Netanyahu had held two phone conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and that the Israelis had helped Moscow evacuate Russian citizens from Gaza.
“Therefore, we need to be very careful about our common history with Israel and, above all, the history of the fight against Nazism. This is the main thing that unites us historically,” Lavrov said.
Russia has repeatedly called on both Israel and Hamas to stop hostilities in Gaza, with Putin stating that the only way to resolve the Middle East crisis was through a “two-state” formula approved by the UN Security Council.
Netanyahu, meanwhile, has refused to send military aid to Ukraine and has instead offered himself as a potential mediator for peace talks between Moscow and Kiev.
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Peloni: As Alex Grinsberg noted earlier this year, Russia and Iran are each driven by their respective national interests which are not mutually aligned.
Iran International Newsroom, December 24, 2023 https://www.israpundit.org/khamenei-silent-as-russia-again-undermines-irans-territorial-integrity/ Original Source: https://www.iranintl.com/en/202312248912
Russia’s support for the United Arab Emirates in its dispute with Iran over the ownership of three Persian Gulf islands has turned into a controversy in Tehran.
The Iranian leadership, typically reticent about Russia’s double standards, has, for the second time this year, heightened its response to Moscow’s stance. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s most senior foreign policy adviser, former Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati, implicitly criticized Russia’s behavior by stating, “Iran will not allow any foreign entity to intervene in its internal affairs.”
In a similar situation earlier this year, Velayati, following Russia’s joint statement with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in September, emphasized the importance of Iran’s friendly and strategic ties with Russia. He pointed out that both sides’ bilateral and regional interests should be considered. Notably, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei remained silent, as is often the case, regarding Russia’s actions that undermine Iran’s territorial integrity.
Recently, the Iranian Foreign Ministry criticized “part of the statement of the 6th Arab-Russian Cooperation Forum held in Morocco, dismissing the claims on three Iranian islands as baseless and unacceptable.” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani asserted that “The Islands of Abu Musa, Greater Tunb, and Lesser Tunb are eternal parts of Iran and inseparable from the Islamic Republic.” He underscored that Iran’s sovereignty over these islands is non-negotiable, emphasizing the country’s commitment to protecting its territorial integrity.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Tehran on July 19, 2022
In response to the Foreign Ministry’s statement, Iranian international lawyer Reza Nasri highlighted that Russia’s support for the UAE’s sovereignty claims over the Persian Gulf islands contrasts with Iran’s support for Russia in the Ukraine conflict. Nasri emphasized the need for Russia to be a strategic ally to Iran and called for respect for Iran’s territorial integrity.
Britain, which maintained control of Abu Musa, and the Greater and Lesser Tunb it had occupied in the 19th century, withdrew its forces from the Persian Gulf in 1971 and the United Arab Emirates was formed. However, Iran’s Imperial government at the time decided to reclaim what it believed were historical Iranian islands.
Mohammad Reza Shah sent the Iranian navy to secure all three in November of the same year, two days before UAE was established. Iranian forces remain on the islands, with only Abu Musa having much of a civilian population of several thousand.
X (Twitter) users criticized the untimeliness of Russia’s behavior, especially as Iran is working to finalize a strategic security pact with Russia. Some social media users labeled Iranian officials as “traitors” over Tehran’s response.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Amirabdollahian called on Moscow to respect Iran’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, after Russia supported the UAE’s sovereignty claims over three Persian Gulf islands. He said during a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov: “The Islamic Republic of Iran completely rejects any claim in this regard by any party. Respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of countries is one of the fundamental principles in relations between countries, and Tehran makes no compromises with any party when it comes to respect for its territorial integrity and sovereignty issues.” Lavrov responded that “The sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic of Iran has always been respected by Russia and Moscow’s official policy in this regard should never be doubted.”
Earlier in this year, the media pointed out that some Iranian hardliners supported Russia’s humiliating stances on the three Iranian islands in the Persian Gulf. At the time Raisi-administration-owned daily Iran charged that Iranian media outlets that criticized Russia’s positions get their orders from the United States.
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Antisemitism, Jew-hatred – whatever term you use – is soaring to alarming levels not seen since the Holocaust. How did it get to be so bad, so quickly when we have equality, civil rights, and religious freedom?!
Rachel Avrahami | Posted on 22December2023 | https://breslev.com/4079674/
The Shocking Truth by Rachel Avrahami
Shocking. Unbelievable. Unconscionable.
The now infamous and completely morally corrupt testimony of the three University presidents of MIT, UPenn and Harvard was shocking beyond words. The Presidents didn’t even try to lie or cover up their gross and intentional negligence towards Jewish students. Even more appalling than the smug and brazen refusal to answer simple yes or no questions by Representative Stefanik in the now famous clip, was the utter silence they gave to Rep. John James, an African-American congressman, when he asked the question: “Just remind us, what each of you are doing on your college campuses [to combat antisemitism]?” (I highly recommend that you take a minute to watch it for yourself HERE).
We all know that if these questions were directed at the Universities’ responses regarding the rights of any other minority group, the answers would have been decisive and definitive.
We see across the board – whether it’s University silence about the threats to Jews on campus that lead one student of UPenn to testify before Congress that “I do not feel safe,” or the silence of the UN and other leading feminist organizations in the face of the atrocities and crimes against humanity against Jewish women committed by Hamas on Simchat Torah, or the silence and deafening inaction of the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) to help the hostages in any way – the world has once again chosen to stand against Jews, against morality, and against God Himself.
Even worse, bodies like the UN and the ICC which were created supposedly to ensure that there would “Never Again” be a Holocaust allowed on this planet – are exactly the bodies that are not only silent in the face of the Holocaust and blatant act of genocide that occurred on Simchat Torah, openly refusing to condemn Hamas, openly refusing to help Jews, but have even become Israel’s worst enemies, gaslighting Israel to say that Israel is doing to Gazans what Hamas actually did to us! The world bodies are even bringing incredible pressure to bear to try to stop Israel from retaliating and eliminating the threat Hamas poses to doing what it already promised to try to do: to commit the genocide of October 7 again and again and again, God should save us!
When the pot boils, the froth comes to the surface. Against this backdrop, global antisemitism is soaring. Neo-Nazis are marching in broad daylight at the University of Wisconsin, and pro-Palestinian, pro-Hamas antisemites are marching around the world. Antisemitic attacks and vandalism are reaching a tipping point. Jewish college students are told not to wear Jewish symbols, and a student at NYU testified before Congress that she was attacked by another student while wearing an American-Israeli flag pin – and nothing whatsoever was done to her attacker who continues to roam freely around campus! [Editor’s Note: According to data compiled by the Mosaic organization for the Knesset Subcommittee for Foreign Policy and Public Diplomacy, campus antisemitism has risen by 700% since 7-Oct.] So much for “speech can become harassment if it leads to conduct” – it’s a bunch of bull anyway, but even to that they turn a blind eye! And hot off the press – hundreds of bomb threats to synagogues across America this past Shabbat.
Scary and depressing does not even begin to describe the deep sea of terror and dread shaking every Jew on the planet to the core. It’s like we’ve been taken back in time into a black and white Holocaust horror film that we never dreamed we would be in.
I know as a born JAP (Jewish American Princess) I’ve found myself thinking many times that all this is just too much for me. We were taught that this level of Jew-hatred was over, put into a glass box in a Holocaust memorial. Isn’t the new post-modern world past all this hatred?
It seems that the answer is very clear – all the rules and protection and equality apply to everyone except Jews.
Jews are still hated, still gaslighted, still held to double-standards, still labeled with whatever the society deems as bad – even if it means total hypocrisy. Even if it means that Jews defending themselves will be labeled as the very “Nazis” who murdered 6 million of us. That Jews in our own lawful land will be called “occupiers.”
And it’s showing no signs of letting up anytime soon. In fact, Rabbi Arush has already given multiple warnings (see Rabbi Arush’s video Q&A on Aliyah) that the danger to Jews is liable to get a lot worse, Hashem should save us.
(PS – Check out Rabbi Arush here saying that while Jews outside the Land do not feel safe, the most secure place is in the Land of Israel and especially in Jerusalem, which enjoys Hashem’s special protection. And contrary to what most think, Rabbi Arush says that after Mashiach comes, it will be a lot HARDER to get to Israel.
So come NOW! We don’t know when it will be too late… I shake while reminding you that the Jews in Europe also thought they had more time.)
I don’t know about you, but having our belief and trust in equality being spit in our faces in this matter has me shocked – and scared.
Emuna – or Hell
The point is not to bring everything out of the shadows in order to wring our hands. The point is to see where the world is going and realize that Rabbi Arush’s motto of “emuna or Hell” has never been so clear as right now.
What’s the emuna? Rabbi Arush recently said that it’s forbidden to refer to the massacre of Simchat Torah as “Black Sabbath.” He said, “It was White Sabbath! The light of repentance came into the world! We see how many Jews are returning to Hashem because of what happened! Every day – more Jews! The light and happiness in the Upper Worlds are unimaginable. The whole world has waited for these days since creation!”
Meanwhile, every week Rabbi Arush reminds us to never stop seeing Hashem in the miracles of the thousands of missiles of every type launched at Israel, and “statistically, zero killed.” How much Hashem is protecting us every minute – and to be filled with gratitude, thanking Hashem all the time.
I don’t know about you, but it’s incredibly difficult to hold on to that reality out here in “the real world.” A world filled with yet another soldier who fell in battle. A world filled with a true war on social media, and yet another story from a captive who was taken hostage on Oct. 7.
This is exactly the point.
As I mentioned in my article Not Just Another War, this is fundamentally a spiritual war for each and every Jewish soul. Will we hold onto our emuna, as Rabbi Arush teaches us to – or not???
Will we spend all day crying over the news and the feed, worried about what the next moment will bring? Or will we spend all day thanking Hashem for protecting us?
Will we see the heavy darkness of antisemitism everywhere? Or the beautiful light of Jews unifying to help each other and finding their Jewish identity as never before?
No one is immune from this war. Each and every one of us is struggling with it – and victory is not guaranteed, no matter who you are!
Take it from me – I’m first in line to testify that I struggle with this fight multiple times each and every day, even with all my closeness to the teachings of emuna. I lose battles, and sometimes I feel that I can’t win. But the energy I receive when I’m in “emuna” mode keeps me going, even if I unfortunately spend plenty of time reeling in Hell…
What gives me strength is Rabbi Nachman’s teaching: “Who is the one called victorious? The one who doesn’t put down his weapon.”
The weapon of the Jew is prayer.
So as long as you keep praying and begging Hashem for emuna, and doing your very best to follow Rabbi Arush’s advice, reading The Garden of Emuna and strengthening your emuna – Rabbi Nachman promises you will win!
Update: If you still aren’t convinced of just how clear and present the danger is to Jews in America, journalist Ami Horowitz spoke to 35 random students on a left-leaning campus. 80% of them supported killing Jews around the world, specifically hitting soft targets like schools and synagogues. 50% were willing to put money towards the cause. Not one pushed back. Watch for yourself.
Please read the continuation of this article – Why is There Antisemitism?
***
Rachel Avrahami grew up in Los Angeles, CA, USA in a far-off valley where she was one of only a handful of Jews in a public high school of thousands. She found Hashem in the urban jungle of the university. Rachel was privileged to read one of the first copies of The Garden of Emuna in English, and the rest, as they say, is history. She made Aliyah and immediately began working at Breslev Israel.
Rachel is now the Editor of Breslev Israel’s English website. She welcomes questions, comments, articles, and personal stories to her email: rachel.avrahami@breslev.co.il.
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On Simchat Torah, Hashem reminded us that those who celebrate and follow His Torah are protected. What can we do for those who were killed on that day while celebrating a licentious event? A LOT!
David Ben Horin | Posted on 24December2023 | https://breslev.com/4080632/
Simchat Torah for Our Martyrs by David Ben Horin
All the pundits on podcasts are trying to tell us why the Simchat Torah massacre happened and what they think will happen next. They’re all wrong.
Somebody asked me whether to call the massacre the “Oct 7 Massacre” or the “Simchat Torah Massacre”.
It’s Simchat Torah.
It’s the day Hashem reminded His children, the Jewish people, and the rest of the world that those who dance around His Torah celebrate His blessing and protection. Those who spend their days dancing around a huge idol lose His protection against the savages and monsters of this world.
The IDF can’t protect us. On Simchat Torah, they didn’t. The Mossad, Shin Bet, or American aid didn’t turn away the barbarians at the gate.
The gates that turned away these animals were at the only two kibbutzim in the Gaza Belt that were dancing around the Torah.
This reaffirms the Torah truths in the portion Ki Tavo. It’s a reaffirmation of the Jewish way of life: The life Hashem commands us.
From the day Adam was cast out of Paradise to today, Hashem blesses His people with strength. Hashem blesses His people with peace. (Psalms 29:11)
Hashem makes a distinction between those who follow His Torah and those who don’t. These are the lessons of the Simchat Torah Distinction.
What Happens Next
It’s a hard truth to swallow.
We are at war. Our brothers are still in captivity. The wounds of this horrible catastrophe are still open.
However, we in Israel are strong. In our Land, Hashem blesses us with the mental toughness to accept the truth, and the truth is that we must make repentance. We must return to God.
We must place a carpet ban on idolatry, sodomy, non-kosher foods, and breaking Shabbat or Jewish Holidays that Hashem commands His people.
In his Mishnah Torah, the Rambam tells us that when we are physically sick, what normally tastes good tastes repulsive, and what normally tastes repulsive tastes good. When you get a sore throat, somehow Ginger Ale becomes a delicacy.
The Rambam takes it to the next step by teaching that the same is true for our soul. When we are spiritually sick, things like sex, drugs, clubbing, flashy cars, and all-night gambling binges seem appealing.
Investing the night in Torah study, prayer, and visiting the sick doesn’t seem as enticing – even when we know where the first set of activities will ultimately place us versus the second set of Divine mitzvot.
The secular professors and military analysts, along with many generals and ministers, are talking about conquering Gaza, only to give it back to the PLO or to the local Gazan population on “the day after.” Didn’t Hamas mutate out of the local population? Doesn’t the PLO still pay its citizens a monthly salary to kill Jews?
It’s the Rabbis who are saying we must conquer Gaza and rebuild its Jewish communities so that we can always keep an eye on the Gazans.
For the past 5,000 years of human history, that’s what conquering nations did. They annexed the land and started planting their people on it. The only difference is that God never commanded America to conquer Mexico and start putting its people in their northern provinces of Nevada and California.
We are commanded to live in Gaza because it is part of the Land of Israel.
Following the Rambam’s teachings, the spiritually healthy are the ones who are morally and intellectually healthy. They are the ones who know right from wrong – in everything.
Make Martyrs Out of Them
What will become of those who were murdered on Oct 7? What of those who were violated? What of those 1,200 people who were murdered, raped, and tortured after two days of dancing around an idol and licentiousness?
We send them to the highest levels of heaven.
Every Rosh Hashanah, we are all judged — both the living and the dead.
Hashem judges the living on their actions. But what about the dead? They have no actions to speak of in this world. What will they be judged on?
The dead are judged on the actions they cause after their death.
Suppose a man teaches his children to guard Shabbat every week. If his children continue to keep Shabbat after he passes, then Hashem will judge this man for the mitzvot his children do because he showed them how.
There are countless times where a parent came to a son or daughter in a dream and asked them to perform a mitzvah in this world so the parent could rise higher in the Next World.
Like on earth, heaven has good places and better places. You can live in a simple 2-bedroom apartment in Lod. You save up, get a higher-paying job, and pretty soon, you can move into a nice penthouse in Beit Shemesh. Hashem can pull you from a place in heaven that feels equivalent to the 2-bedroom flat in Lod and elevate you to the heavenly equivalent of the penthouse in Beit Shemesh – or better.
This is what we can do for the fallen.
Every prayer we recite, every charity we give, every kindness we perform, every line of Torah we learn because of what happened last Simchat Torah transforms our brethren into catalysts of mitzvot. Immediately, they are Zicuy Rabin – they bring us closer to Hashem.
They go from victims to martyrs. They go from being buried beneath the earth to vaulted high above the heavens.
They can get judged for performing the greatest mitzvah in the Torah.
If you recite the Shema tonight because of the horrors of October 7 and the lessons learned, it is in their honor. They were the reason you did something for Hashem that you never did before.
God gives you the chance to raise their spirits – literally!
With every step of repentance we make, as individuals, as communities, and as a nation, we elevate Klal Yisrael. Hashem willing, we merit God’s protection against all our enemies. This is also promised in parsha Ki Tavo.
If we learned on October 7 that the curses of parsha Ki Tavo are as real today as they always were, then we know for a fact that the blessings of Ki Tavo – that we will be powerful and prosperous and that Hashem will bless us in victory for everything we do – are also as real today as they always were.
This is the Simcha of the Torah our Father gives us.
***
David Ben Horin lives in Afula with his family, millions of sunflowers, and Matilda, our local camel. David‘s Israeli startup, 300 Marketing Solutions, is a lean marketing agency for startups and small businesses that creates and promotes SEO-optimized ROI-driven to the right audience on LinkedIn to make your business the star of the show.
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You support Terrorists, you get..
Ari Sade-tweet-8November2023-You support Terrorists, you get
You murdered, raped, burnt, beheaded, and kidnapped our people. Men, women, children and babies, and you celebrated it! And streamed it live! Proudly!
This is a fraction of your punishment. Return the hostages and surrender. We might let you live.
#HamasisISIS
#BringThemHome
Ari Sade-tweet-8November2023, You support Terrorists-you get
Dr. Eli David-tweet-31December2023-You celebrated the massacre on 7October and now expect us to have sympathy for you
You celebrated the massacre on October 7, and now expect us to have sympathy for you?
_
Dr. Eli David-tweet-31December2023-You celebrated the massacre on 7October and now expect us to have sympathy for you?
Why Islam canot coexist with not just the Israelis but all non-Muslims
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American farmhands and cowboys on their way to Israel
Lenny Ben-David-tweet-6November2023-American farmhands and cowboys on their way to Israel
American farmhands and cowboys on their way to Israel to help farmers in Israel after the #Hamas attack. Many lost their lives and/or farm workers.
That’s love! Thank you.❤️
Lenny Ben-David-tweet-6November2023-American farmhands and cowboys on their way to Israel
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Lawmakers want answers from the Pentagon on how U.S.-made weapons may have ended up in the hands of Hamas terrorists who slaughtered Israeli civilians.
A young boy holds a U.S.-made M4A1 rifle during a rally of Hamas supporters, at the Jabalia refugee camp, Gaza Strip, on Dec. 12, 2014. (Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images)
By Tom Ozimek
(emphasis zerohedge https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/unconscionable-republicans-press-pentagon-over-american-made-weapons-hamass-hands)
23October2023 Updated: 24October2023 https://www.theepochtimes.com/article/republicans-press-pentagon-over-american-made-weapons-in-hamass-hands-5515455
Citing reports that advanced U.S.-made firearms have ended up in the possession of the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza, several House Oversight Committee Republicans are demanding answers from the Pentagon about what’s being done to make sure American-made weapons don’t end up in the wrong hands.
“The Committee has seen reports that U.S.-manufactured weapons are being redistributed and resold in secondary markets to terrorist organizations, including Hamas,” wrote House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) in an Oct. 23 letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Mr. Comer and Ms. Greene cited a series of media reports indicating that American-made weapons were being diverted and ending up in the hands of terrorists.
One source of these U.S.-made weapons is reportedly the roughly $7 billion stockpile left behind in the botched Afghanistan withdrawal. Another is related to the arms that the United States is providing to Ukraine amid its war with Russia but that are being diverted to the Middle East by various actors, including gun-smuggling criminal groups.
“The potential possession of U.S. weapons by terrorists is alarming in light of the terrorist group’s recent horrific attack on Israel,” the pair of lawmakers wrote, referring to the Oct. 7 assault by Hamas operatives that killed about 1,500 Israelis, mostly civilians—many of them in barbaric fashion.
In their letter, they demanded a staff briefing from the Pentagon by the end of October on what procedures the Department of Defense (DOD) has in place “for preventing, addressing, and mitigating weapon diversion abroad.”
A Ukrainian serviceman checks his U.S-made M4A1 carbine after cleaning it at a base in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, on Feb. 23, 2023. (Yasuyoshi Chima/AFP/Getty Images)
‘Arsenal of Anarchy’
Israel Captures Hamas Navel Commander; 9 Americans Killed by Hamas Attacks: US
In their letter, Mr. Comer and Ms. Greene cited a number of media reports indicating that American-made weapons were ending up in the hands of those who may wish to use them to harm the United States and its allies.
One of these is a June 15 report by Newsweek that cites a high-ranking Israel Defense Forces (IDF) commander as saying that the Israeli military was concerned that U.S.-made weapons provided to Ukraine were being diverted and ending up in the hands of Israel’s enemies in the Middle East.
“We are very worried that some of these capabilities are going to fall to Hezbollah and Hamas’ hands,” the IDF commander told the publication.
Since the Russia–Ukraine conflict erupted in February 2022, the United States has sent more than $46 billion in military assistance to Kyiv, sparking worries that some of that massive flow of arms was being diverted and ending up in other regions.
While a report in March from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime found that “there is currently no substantial outflow of weapons from the Ukrainian conflict zone,” it warned of the prospect of serious proliferation.
The report’s authors warned in a statement that when the war ends, “Ukraine’s battlefields could and will become the new arsenal of anarchy, arming everyone from insurgents in Africa to gangsters in the streets of Europe.”
While it’s impossible to tell without further investigation where the weapons are coming from, it’s been alleged that some U.S.-made weapons are finding their way to Gaza and into the hands of Hamas.
In their letter, the GOP lawmakers said that “recently released photos show Hamas terrorists allegedly holding what appear to be H4A1 Carbines,” a type of weapon that they point out was specially designed for U.S. Special Operations Forces.
“This would not be the first time our military service members and allies have been targeted by terrorist organizations misappropriating American-made weapons,” the lawmakers wrote, citing the massive $7 billion arsenal that ended up in the hands of the Taliban.
Taliban Seize $7 Billion Worth of US Weapons and Equipment
After U.S. forces withdrew from Afghanistan in the summer of 2021, they left behind billions of dollars of American-made weapons and equipment.
A Pentagon watchdog reported in August 2022 that “U.S.-funded equipment valued at $7.12 billion was in the inventory of the former Afghan government when it collapsed, much of which has since been seized by the Taliban.”
The report, which was confirmed by the DOD, indicated that the equipment that had fallen into Taliban hands included military aircraft, ground vehicles, weapons, and other military equipment.
The items that ended up in Taliban hands included large equipment like Black Hawk helicopters and Humvees, as well as small but sophisticated arms like M16 assault rifles and M4 carbines.
“We have already seen Taliban fighters armed with U.S.-made weapons they seized from the Afghan forces. This poses a significant threat to the United States and our allies,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Reuters in an email last year.
Lt. Col. Emron Musavi, an Indian army spokesperson, told CNBC in an email last year that weapons left behind by U.S. forces during the withdrawal from Afghanistan were making their way into other conflict zones, including in India-controlled Kashmir, which some terror groups are trying to annex for Pakistan.
“It can be safely assumed that they have access to the weapons left behind,” he told the outlet, amid reports that operatives from Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba, two Pakistan-based groups designated by the United States as terrorist organizations, had been spotted with U.S.-made arms like M4s and M16s.
Military vehicles transferred by the U.S. to the Afghan National Army in February 2021. Afghanistan Ministry of Defense/via REUTERS
Taliban stand guard at an entrance gate outside the Interior Ministry in Kabul, on Aug. 17, 2021. (Javed Tanveer/AFP via Getty Images)
Demands for Oversight
The letter from Mr. Comer and Ms. Greene is not the first time Republicans have pressed the Pentagon on U.S.-made weapons falling into the wrong hands.
Shortly after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, several Republican senators demanded the DOD provide full accounting over the weapons and equipment that were captured by the Taliban.
“As we watched the images coming out of Afghanistan as the Taliban retook the country, we were horrified to see U.S. equipment—including UH-60 Black Hawks—in the hands of the Taliban,” Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and two dozen other senators wrote to Mr. Austin.
“It is unconscionable that high-tech military equipment paid for by U.S. taxpayers has fallen into the hands of the Taliban and their terrorist allies,” the Republicans added.
“Securing U.S. assets should have been among the top priorities for the U.S. Department of Defense prior to announcing the withdrawal from Afghanistan.”
Tom Ozimek
Author (Reporter)
Tom Ozimek is a senior reporter for The Epoch Times. He has a broad background in journalism, deposit insurance, marketing and communications, and adult education.
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The pivot reflects Indian domestic politics and new interests in the Middle East
Banyan 2November2023 https://www.economist.com/asia/2023/11/02/narendra-modi-has-shifted-india-from-the-palestinians-to-israel
FOREIGN NEWS usually gets short shrift in India. Yet for the past month the country’s television channels have been dominated by wall-to-wall coverage of events in Israel and Gaza, mostly from Israel’s perspective. News anchors in bulletproof vests stand in the desert delivering breathless reports on the aftermath of Hamas’s atrocities in Israel on October 7th. Talk-show hosts restage the Palestinian terrorist group’s attack from Gaza with toy soldiers and miniature bulldozers. Weeks into the war, coverage remains intense.
The media’s fascination with Israel’s plight and retribution coincides with a marked shift in the Indian government’s stance on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. It has moved from backing the Palestinians to more or less unqualified support for Israel. The pivot is based on a realist reappraisal of Indian interests in the Middle East. It has also met with strong public backing from Narendra Modi’s domestic supporters, which is gratifying for Mr Modi’s government ahead of state elections this month and a general election next year.
In the past, like many countries in the global south, India tempered any expression of support for Israel with expressions of concern for the Palestinians’ plight. No more. Mr Modi took to X (formerly Twitter) within hours of Hamas’s assault to express his horror at the “terrorist attacks” and declare that “we stand in solidarity with Israel”. It took five days for India’s Ministry of External Affairs to reiterate, in response to questions from reporters, that India continued to support a two-state solution to the conflict. On October 27th, in a departure from its usual voting record, India abstained as the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza; it objected that the text did not condemn Hamas’s assault.
The shift reflects India’s growing defence and commercial ties to Israel. Co-operation between the two countries has been deepening ever since Israel provided India with military help during the Kargil war against Pakistan in 1999. That was long before America took a serious interest in military co-operation with India. Over the past decade India has bought missiles, drones and border-security equipment (and probably surveillance software, though it has not admitted this) from Israel, making it the Israeli defence industry’s biggest foreign customer.
A bromance between Mr Modi and Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, has deepened the relationship. So has the two countries’ shared preoccupation with fighting terrorism, especially the Islamist variant. Explaining the abstention in the UN vote, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India’s foreign minister, said in a speech on October 29th that India took a strong position on terrorism “because we are big victims of terrorism”.
India has also been increasing its ties with Gulf Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. And it can ill afford to alienate them; it depends on them for much of its oil and goodwill towards an estimated 9m expatriate Indian workers. Yet the fact that both countries have recently moved closer to Israel has allowed Mr Modi to effect his shift with alacrity. Even in the current crisis, the Saudis and Emiratis appear reluctant to allow the events in Gaza to cause a rupture in their long-term rapprochement with Israel.
Domestically, the Modi government’s pivot is essentially all upside. The Congress-led opposition has condemned it; leaders of India’s 200m Muslims have heavily criticised Israel’s military response. Yet the Indian middle-class that mostly backs Mr Modi is especially concerned about Islamist terrorism. Its members look on Hamas’s attack and recall the tragedy Mumbai suffered in 2008, when Pakistani Islamists killed 175 people and wounded more than 300 during a four-day rampage. It included an attack on a Jewish community centre in the city, where the terrorists murdered the rabbi and his pregnant wife.
There is a small risk the government will overplay its hand. As the civilian death toll in Gaza rises, India’s Arab partners might turn against the Israelis and their backers more aggressively. Mr Modi has latterly hedged against that possibility. He has reached out to Palestinian leaders, offering Indian condolences and humanitarian aid. Meanwhile, his Hindu-nationalist henchmen are unrestrained in using the conflict to stoke the Islamophobia that has propelled their party’s rise. Even if Mr Modi’s pivot becomes difficult abroad, it will probably help him win elections.
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For Egypt, Gaza is a forward outpost that keeps IDF forces occupied in the south, disturbs Israel, and prevents it from strengthening. Op-ed.
Tzachi Levi
20October2023 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/378874
The diplomatic tug-of-war between Israel and Egypt over the opening of the Rafah Crossing has the potential to decide the future of the Gaza Strip and the war altogether.
The question is as follows: Which side will succeed in forcing the other to take responsibility for the residents of the Gaza Strip? Israel has demanded the opening of the Rafah Crossing in one direction, and according to several media outlets, has offered Egypt, along with the United States and the United Arab Emirates, a series of economic benefits in exchange for opening the crossing.
The Egyptians, for their part, refuse to open the crossing even to Gazans who are citizens of foreign countries, and instead calls for sending supposedly “civilian” aid into the Strip to prevent a humanitarian crisis and the wave of refugees that Egypt fears.
Not for nothing, this issue was ostensibly at the center of the Egyptian President’s meetings with international leaders, came up in the Netanyahu-Biden meeting, and received special attention from the King of Jordan.
What is unfolding before us us is a diplomatic “chicken fight,” the outcome of which may decide the entire war and shape the Middle East for years to come.
Many in Israel, from all ends of the political spectrum, understand that even if we eliminate all the tens of thousands of terrorists in the Strip exactly as the Israeli government has stated, Iran is not going anywhere, and, absent a meaningful permanent Israeli or international force on the ground, in a few short years a new Hamas or some other radical regime will be established in the Strip, thus setting up the next inevitable confrontation. Under such conditions, it will be impossible to rehabilitate the towns around Gaza that were ravaged by Hamas’s war crimes.
In light of this reality, the resettlement of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip in Egypt and elsewhere in the Muslim world, should become an overt political goal of Israel. This is the most humane solution to the situation, both for Israel and for the Gazans, many of whom want to emigrate from the Strip anyway and were imprisoned in it by Hamas.
It is worth noting, in addition, that there is nothing that discourages Arab aggression more than the loss of land. Therefore, in addition to the military goal of ending Hamas’ rule with minimum loss of civilian lives, the extension of Israeli sovereignty to all or some of the Gaza Strip would act as a powerful deterrent against Israel’s other enemies which are thinking about attempting to commit another heinous act such as the one we witnessed on the morning of October 7th.
Egypt sees the situation differently.
For the Egyptians, the loss of the Strip would be a strategic problem. For Egypt, Gaza is a forward outpost that keeps the IDF forces occupied in the south, disturbs Israel, and prevents it from strengthening.
Anyone who follows the strengthening of the Egyptian army from visible sources, and sees the huge bridging array it is building above and below the Suez Canal, and the military procurement in the tens of billions of dollars in all army arrays: sea, land, air and even satellites, understands that Egypt sees Israel as its main military adversary, in spite of the peace agreement.
Most of Egypt’s military exercises are directed against Israel, and that is why we can see reports, in the open media, about a long series of Egyptian violations of the peace agreement, which limits the deployment of Egyptian forces in Sinai, under the pretext of a war against ISIS.
For many years, Egypt has allowed the strengthening of terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip, during both the Mubarak and Morsi eras. During the el-Sisi era, Egypt increased its supervision and control over what entered the Strip while building a massive barrier on the Egyptian side of the border. All this is just an indication that what did enter, apparently entered with an Egyptian “blind eye”.
Israel needs to think strategically about how to encourage Gazans to make their way into Egypt.
Israel must take advantage of the severe economic crisis in Egypt in favor of organizing international aid to the country in exchange for the absorption of all or some of the Gazans. Just recently, the Moody’s rating agency lowered the Egypt’s credit rating from B3 to Caa1. Indeed, Egypt is on the verge of insolvency, which may endanger the stability of the regime in the near term.
In the first stage, Israel needs to increase the humanitarian pressure on the Gaza Strip so that eventually hundreds of thousands of hungry and thirsty Gazans will break through the Rafah Crossing.
In the second stage, when Egypt will face the finished fact of an influx of refugees in its territory, it is recommended that Israel and the US organize the international community, UNRWA, and the International Monetary Fund, to flow economic aid to Egypt, to enable the absorption of some of the Gazans in Egypt.
It is important to understand: The Gazans whom Hamas imprisoned in the Strip, very much want to emigrate from it. Turkey, which is ready to take them in, is a very popular destination, as is Europe, which is obliged to take in those to whom UNRWA has granted a refugee certificate. The percentage of the Gazan population that will eventually be taken in by Egypt is lower than the country’s annual birth rate, which is over 2 million babies a year.
And in relation to housing solutions – in Egypt there is a stock of vacant apartments for immediate occupancy of at least 2 million apartments, a result of the regime’s planned economy.
Success in the diplomatic struggle with Egypt over the opening of the Rafah Crossing will shorten the war and therefore reduce the risk of opening more fronts.
Emptying the population of its Arab inhabitants while applying Israeli sovereignty means an overwhelming victory that will restore deterrence in all sectors, strengthen the Abraham Accords, and bring peace with Saudi Arabia.
In the Middle East, one does business only with the powerful, and Israel must recognize the opportunity to project power, while changing the Middle East for generations.
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23October2023 http://myrtlerising.weebly.com/blog/another-true-account-of-shabbat-saving-a-life-plus-a-message-from-the-next-world
Someone wrote me the true story of a young man, a friend of the correspondent’s son, who was encouraged by other friends to attended the “rave” party near the Gaza Strip on Shabbat/Simchat Torah.
As the correspondent explained:
My son says the parties are full of eastern “spirituality” and he’s been warning his friends who go to them about the avodah zora aspects of them.
He says they “worship the speakers” or something.
They don’t mean it to be avodah zora, but it’s not good.
Yet the son’s friend recently took Shabbat upon himself and managed to resist his friends’ repeated urgings to go with them to the party.
As is now self-understood, that refusal to attend the party for the sake of Shabbat saved that young man’s life.
So many people saved their own lives by either not attending the party at all or leaving before Shabbat!
Yet the brother of another friend did attend the fateful party.
Afterwards, no one knew where he was.
One night shortly after, the father of the missing boy had a dream. As the correspondent describes it:
…his father dreamed that his son was holding a golden sefer and he said, “Don’t worry, Abba. I’m learning Torah with Hash-m.”
The next day, the family was informed the boy was found, but hadn’t survived the attack.
Who Knows the Cheshbonot of Shamayim?
While we’ve been hearing a lot about people saved from slaughter by last-minute teshuvah or even just progress in their mitzvah-observance, we remain unable to know the final moments of those who didn’t survive.
Yet from the accounts of the people who knew them well, we can glean indications regarding their last moments, that some managed to do some kind of teshuvah or some kind of kavanah to die al kiddush Hashem (for the sanctification of God’s Name).
And we know from great tzaddikim and talmidei chachamim like Rav Yehudah Petayah, that even a split-second thought of teshuvah the moment before death still holds tremendous power for atonement in the Next World.
(For more on that topic, please see here: minchat-yehudah-part-i-teshuvah-and-what-happens-after-you-die.html.)
In conclusion, let’s take comfort in the words of the Me’am Lo’ez on Parshat Beresheit (page 184):
If a person has been killed by the gentiles, his image is engraved on [the angel’s] vestments, and [the angel] brings it to the highest heaven.
There, this person is recorded in the Great Book.
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Emuna gives us powerful tools to cope with anxiety, fear, pain, and confusion. How can we use those tools to strengthen ourselves in the war situation?
Rachel Avrahami | Posted on 13October2023 https://breslev.com/4061929/
Overcoming the TERROR – Rachel Avrahami
Hashem is God, ein od milvado, there is no nature and no Hamas. What happened is somehow for the best and will go down in the annals of history along with the Holocaust as something we cannot understand why. Now, we look forward, never forgetting that the Guardian of Israel does not slumber and does not sleep!
That being said, we’re all nervous wrecks. We’re all shocked, appalled, suffering, and overwhelmed. We’re all glued to our phones and computers to check the news. Round-the-clock updates. It’s almost impossible to put it down.
However, the solution is specifically the opposite – stop looking at the news and start praying! Here is why:
Sitting around looking at “what is going on” is just a trap of the Evil Inclination. It might even dress up like a tzaddik, saying “Oh, you need to know what exactly to pray for, and to pray with more feeling.” This is all a lie, for a few reasons:
- The media is part of the Other Side, it’s not from the side of holiness. It sells lies and slander all the time. Even if it’s “true,” it’s not the whole truth, which is emuna and Hashem. Whatever you read is only taking you away from the simple emuna and truth of the Almighty God and the true emuna that Hashem loves you, everything is good, and it’s only getting better and better.I refer once again to Rabbi Arush’s article (Who Doesn’t Like to Pay?) about how the biggest judgements come specifically from our difficulty in truly believing this, and that being unable to believe that it’s only getting better can create the reality that it won’t, Hashem should save us!
- Watching the media makes it hard to hold on to your emuna, because the media makes us afraid, anxious, depressed, sad, and worse. All those negative emotions are the opposite of emuna! Rebbe Nachman teaches that what you are afraid of is allowed to rule you. That’s incredibly dangerous at any time, and especially right now. We want to be 100% only under Hashem’s personal Divine Providence. For that, we need to fear only Him and look only to Him and believe only in His power and guidance. If we’re looking only to His Providence, we are not biting our nails over what already happened and what might happen in the next moment.Only when we disconnect from the news, can we connect to the emuna truth we need to hear and repeat to ourselves constantly: Every bullet and every missile has its address; everything comes only from Hashem Who loves us. Even when, G-d forbid, He takes people in the sanctification of His Name, even that is good and from love in a way we simply cannot understand in this world. Every one of us is here for a purpose and a rectification. If it’s our rectification to die, then there is no escaping it. If not, there is even less reason to be afraid! Whatever it is, only Hashem is in charge – not Hamas, not chance, not the wind, and not anything else, including the Iron Dome!
- The media desensitizes you. You become numb. In addition to the fear and sadness which shuts down the heart and thus the ability to speak, you stop being sensitive to the suffering in the same way.Hence, now you have less emuna, more fear, and more numbness. Most of the time, that creates a blocked heart that cannot pour forth words of personal prayer or emotion into Psalms and the like. You become totally neutralized – which of course is the goal of the Evil Inclination that told you to “check the news” in the first place!
Why is this Evil Inclination to see what is happening so difficult to overcome? Because it’s part of the sin of Adam. In checking the news, we are grasping onto straws in a subconscious effort to take back some semblance of control when we feel so scared and so helpless.
The key is to take that fear and helplessness and turn it into prayer to Hashem! Because we truly are helpless – but only to Him!
And Hashem has the biggest Hands and the biggest Shoulders that can protect us and carry us and provide for us, without or without natural means.
It’s very hard to let go of the desire to be in control, to be “like G-d” and know everything that is going on, as if it’s going to help us manage or control the future. But the more we can “let go and let G-d” so to speak, the more we will be more relaxed and filled with emuna – which Rabbi Arush calls “the ability to cope.” Who doesn’t need that right now?
Then there is simply the incredible amount of wasted time spent checking on the situation! Set a timer for five minutes and see how little you manage to do. I found it to be more like 15 – 20 minutes, multiple times a day!
Let’s compare that to praying for the Jewish people – every word is equivalent to the number of Jews, which thank G-d still stands at approximately 15 million according to Rabbi Arush. So, in five minutes you just did BILLIONS of mitzvot! Forget about one hour! Even one sentence is so precious!!!
Finally, there is the psychological reality that when someone does something to help himself, there is less trauma and feelings of paralysis and helplessness. Checking the news only adds to these feelings and makes everything WORSE, not better. But sitting down and praying makes you feel so much better, because here you actually did something to help yourself and the situation! There is just so much that needs to be done right now and so many prayers that need to be said – get to work! Who has time and energy to waste?
Hence, the Evil Inclination ensnares us and makes us think that by checking the news we’ll feel better and more in control. In reality, he is just selling us spam that makes us sick. He makes us unable to do what really will make us feel better and will give us power to make things better – words of emuna and prayer.
I readily admit that it’s really hard to stop checking in, but you’ll feel so much better as you conquer the drive, and really the addiction, to the news, to the news-feed, and everything like it. You’ll feel better because you’re not ingesting poison, and because G-d willing now you’ll be freer to pray and follow the rest of Rabbi Arush’s advice which really will help you take back your personal power!
Make sure to also read Rabbi Arush’s newest update on the situation, Redemption is the News here.
The Jewish people is counting on you now to do your part – don’t let the Evil Inclination neutralize you!
PS. After I wrote this article, a hidden tzaddik spoke about the great need to learn Torah and pray Psalms instead of listening to the news, “which is all nonsense; all the news is against religion, against Torah, against the Land of Israel.”
With Hashem’s help, I will be continuing this series with more advice on how to cope in the aftermath and the war, whether you’re in Israel or abroad.
***
Rachel Avrahami grew up in Los Angeles, CA, USA in a far-off valley where she was one of only a handful of Jews in a public high school of thousands. She found Hashem in the urban jungle of the university. Rachel was privileged to read one of the first copies of The Garden of Emuna in English, and the rest, as they say, is history. She made Aliyah and immediately began working at Breslev Israel.
Rachel is now the Editor of Breslev Israel’s English website. She welcomes questions, comments, articles, and personal stories to her email: rachel.avrahami@breslev.co.il.
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October 15, 2023 https://www.thinkforyourselfpublishing.com/only-fear-hashem/
I couldn’t get into my blog for three days…
Maybe it got hacked, maybe it didn’t.
Who knows.
In the meantime, I’m here to tell you that the only thing to fear right now is Hashem.
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Like so many of us, I have been on a crazy roller-coaster ride of ‘OK’ and ‘not-so-OK’ the last week, but I feel like all the tehillim, all the prayers, the teshuva, the mesirut nefesh, the chessed, the people getting behind the Rav and following instructions – it’s all starting to send some light into what is still a very heavy and dark situation.
Our enemies are still pulling the wool over so many people’s eyes with all their propaganda about ‘Iran, Iran, Iran’.
And now also ‘Russia, Russia, Russia’.
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Bottom line:
It’s the US that is behind what is going on now.
Without the shadow of a doubt.
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But that’s not what I’m here to tell you, or harp on.
The truth is coming out all over the place – and there is nothing they can do to stop it.
But in the meantime, we need to keep the prayers and all the other stuff going.
====
Tachlis:
The Rav a few days ago said this:
Everyone should take it upon themselves to say the Book of Psalms, because now they want to enter Gaza.
They are afraid and therefore they are pushing it off.
They are scared thousands of soldiers could die.
When you go in [to Gaza], you can’t tell who’s a terrorist and who’s a soldier.
They could start shooting each other, and a thousand soldiers could die from the gunfire of our own forces.
The war has been 4 days (during the lesson) and they have not yet entered Gaza, they are scared to death to enter Gaza – who knows who will live and who will die.
====
The Rav’s lessons are full of hints and secrets.
When he tells you: a thousand soldiers could die from being shot at by our own forces, he is hinting to some very terrible things about what is really going on here, God forbid.
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In the meantime, please also do whatever you can to get the Rav’s prayers around to as many soldiers, people and bases as you can.
One of the Rav’s gabbays put out a message last week that even a tenuous link to the Rav – even just having one of his unnamed prayers in your home – is enough to be considered to be ‘connected’ into the circle of the Tzaddik.
This is the prayer the Rav wrote especially to protect our soldiers now:
Prayer for the soldiers
Click to Enlarge
Print off a few copies, and give them out to as many people, as many soldiers, as you can.
They don’t need to know it’s from the Rav.
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In the meantime, I am personally praying we stay the heck out of Gaza, and that this all ‘dies down’ again so we can get to the way more important job of figuring out who the real traitors in our midst are.
And which State, or ‘States’, planned and financed the terrible pogrom on so many thousands of Jews last Shabbat, with the help of those traitors in our midst.
God has His own way of dealing with our enemies, and sending hundreds of thousands of our precious Jews into narrow, booby-trapped alleyways, following orders from people who at the very least are covering up for the mass murderers of thousand of Jews doesn’t sound like the best plan, at this stage.
====
Remember this:
The Rav said that if a war does happen, God forbid, it will end with an earthquake.
He also said many, many times over the last few years that in the month of Cheshvan, the sea will be full of ships from the nations of the world coming to attack Israel.
And the sea will split miraculously, and all those enemy ships will sink to the bottom of the ocean.
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When Gush Katif was destroyed as per the instructions of our same ‘friends’ in sheeps’ clothing 18 years ago, there was a lot of rumours discussing an imminent tsunami hitting Gaza, and explaining that this was the reason the Jews had been moved out.
Take a look at THIS (it’s a xtian blog, but it preserved some links on the ‘geula’ blogs from around that time.)
This is a snippet:
“A recent Jewish prophetic blog was posted on August 5, 2005 on both the Years of Awe and the “Moshiach and Geula, End of Days Prophecies, Geula, Moshiach, Gog and Magog,”orthodox and mystical Jewish blogsite that made the following claim. The claimant for this post referenced the Hebrew site, Moriyah.org, stated:
Years of Awe and Moshiach and Geula – HaRav Baruch Shapira, ztvk”l, said ten years ago: “I am a big prophet and head of the 36 hidden tzaddikim, and my prophecy is that in the future they will drive out complete settlements from the Gaza Strip, and immediately afterwards there will be a very strong earthquake in the area of Gaza and a huge wave will come and wash away the whole area into the sea, along with all the Palestinians.“
====
Those tsunami rumours resurfaced again in 2014.
But the bit that was ‘missing’ from all those discussions is that you need massive earthquakes, in order to have massive tsunamis.
In 2023, right now, the earthquakes are picking up all over the world.
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A couple of months ago, the Rav talked repeatedly about big quakes hitting Israel, but said that the quakes won’t harm Jews, and will just cause the mosques and churches to fall.
Earthquake = tsunami = sea splitting and enemy warships being totally sunk to the bottom of the ocean = Gaza flooded.
(There is some weird kink in the topography of the sea bed in the Mediterranean, that appears to suggest that if a massive tsunami does hit, Gaza will take the brunt. But clearly, still a very serious circumstance, and still a lot of prayers required for everyone.)
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So, let God do His thing.
And do yours, by praying, making teshuva and carrying on with the kindnesses and the charity.
Over the next 30 days of Cheshvan:
> Every day, women should aim for one whole book of tehillim a day – but do whatever you can manage, without letting yourself off the hook.
> And men should aim for three books a day, plus 10 pages of Gemara – but again, do whatever you can manage and push yourself to just keep doing a bit more.
> Turn off the lying news – it just pulls people into despair and fear.
And then the miracles will come.
====
Honestly?
The miracles are already coming.
A week ago this time – I truly thought we’d be in the middle of a war on three fronts, thousands of rockets every day and God forbid, thousands of precious Jews bogged down in Gaza being killed by yet more ‘friendly fire’ (ahem….)
None of that is happening.
Yet.
And BH, it won’t happen at all.
But keep going with the tehillim and prayers!
Because only the ‘voice of Yaakov’ can finally destroy the ‘Iron Swords’ of Esav, once and for all.
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By Ariel Grossman, NoCamels – 16November2023 https://nocamels.com/2023/11/from-parenting-to-practicalities-baby-forum-evolves-for-wartime/
Israelis struggling during the country’s ongoing war with Hamas have found support from an unexpected quarter – an online platform for new parents that now also offers access to a range of free services from temporary housing and professional counseling to babysitting and home-cooked meals.
The Jama website was created to help guide new parents through the first period after childbirth by connecting them to one another and offering them free and paid professional seminars.
But now, recognizing a broader demand during wartime, it has created a universal marketplace for Israelis wanting to offer their skills and services for free to those in need.
The original site was born in 2019, just a few months after co-founder and COO Maya Dayan Shalev found herself struggling with postpartum depression following the birth of her first child.
“When I became a new mom, I felt like I was diving into this world without any preparation, without anyone to guide me and without anyone to hold my hand,” she tells NoCamels.
“We used to raise kids in tribes, in communities, and somewhere along the way, things changed and we now do it all alone,” she says. “But it doesn’t have to be that way.”
When Hamas terrorists stormed into Israel from Gaza on October 7, killing 1,200 people and abducting 240 others, Israelis around the country rushed to help the victims and their families – and the soldiers quickly called up to wage war on the terror group.
But according to Maya, there was not a unified channel to coordinate the outpouring of goodwill.
“We saw that so many people wanted to help one another,” says Maya. “There was no one place that could organize everything in a smart way.”
Maya and her brother Kfir Dayan, Jama’s CEO and co-founder, quickly realized that they in fact already had their own platform that had been created solely to bring people together.
As Jama was created as a map showing users the location of other parents nearby with children of a similar age, it was easy to adapt to its new purpose.
“We took our map that usually connects between parents and parenting events, and turned it into a place to offer any kind of help you want, or to come and [accept] that help,” says Kfir.
The Jama team – which consists of both Israeli and Ukrainian developers – needed just 48 hours to add a new section and make it accessible to all Israelis in need.
The site’s artificial intelligence platform, which analyzes data provided during registration and subsequent navigation to provide the most relevant content, is now also used to suggest services required by the new wave of users.
“That’s what I love most about the Israeli nation,” says Kfir. “When you’re in trouble, people that don’t even know you will come and help you.”
The first feature of the new section, which is called Jama Help, was a way for people to advertise homes and rooms available to people who had to evacuate from southern Israel due to the security situation with Gaza.
From there, Jama Help expanded to include donations for army equipment and professional and psychological services. And then Israelis with no professional training in mental health also joined the platform, offering to do whatever they could for anyone in need.
“People wanted to offer any kind of help. There was someone who wanted to cook for others, teachers who wanted to teach students for free,” says Maya.
“It was amazing to see how much help there was in just a few days. It really warmed our hearts.”
Today, Jama Help is open to anyone who wants or is in need of assistance of any kind.
Registration for Jama Help requires providing some basic data such as location, a phone number and date of birth. For now, the site is only in Hebrew, but the siblings plan to make it available in English too.
Thousands have now signed up to both offer assistance and find a helping hand, says Maya.
Users who want to offer a service simply click on the plus sign at the side of the map, which takes them to a form where they select the kind of service they have, such as a vacant apartment or room or professional help, the dates and location of the assistance, and how many people can be accommodated.
And while there are other initiatives that attempt to coalesce both services on offer and requests for help on a single platform, Kfir says that Jama Help’s AI shows users the most relevant offers for them based on their activity on the website.
“I think that all of us as startups – and as people – have the ability to affect for good,” says Maya.
“That was the inspiration behind Jama Help: the belief that everyone has the ability to help, and the knowledge that we had the technology to make it possible.”
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November 5, 2023 by Lazer Brody
Functional Trauma Stress Disorder: Civilians Under Siege
FTSD-Functional Trauma Stress Disorder-Civilians Under Siege
Everyone is aware of PTSD – post-trauma stress disorder. This is the emotional and psychosomatic aftermath of war and severe life-threatening situations. Yet, few people – unless they live in the Ukraine, Israel or any other place with constant or prolonged wartime conditions, are aware of FTSD – functional trauma stress disorder.
The Severity of FTSD
Several aspects FTSD render it a greater challenge that PTSD. for example:
- While PTSD is post-trauma, FTSD is ongoing trauma.
- While PTSD is easy to recognize and identify, FTSD is not.
- Therapists are very familiar with PTSD, but less so with FTSD.
- While those with PTSD are usually willing to seek and accept help, those with FTSD might not even be aware that they need help.
- PTSD sufferers are rarely in denial. FTSD sufferers are liable to consider their suffering as a weakness and therefore use denial as a defense mechanism.
The FTSD Lab
The Current Simchat Torah War (aka “Iron Shields”) began with the Hamas massacre of 1400 innocent Israelis on October 7, 2023. That day was both Shabbat and Simchat Torah. The entire nation of Israel went from extreme joy to extreme fury and indignation. Hamas kidnapped another 241 people (at the time of this writing – the count goes up almost daily). Yet, the south of Israel continues to bear the brunt of the war. For years, southern Israeli cities, towns and villages have suffered intermittent rocket fire. Every child under the age of 16 has been born into the reality of bomb shelters. As a health coach, spiritual guide and former IDF combat soldier, many people have sought my help. The following is the result of my personal experience and observation.
The Symptoms of FTSD
People with acute FTSD suffer one or more of the following symptoms:
- Disorientation – in the middle of a task, they forget what they were doing. They go from one room to another, and forget what they wanted to accomplish. Perhaps they open the refridgerator and forget what they wanted.
- Fuzzy thinking and lack of focus – they read a sentence 3 times and either lose their place or forget what they read.
- Difficulty in concentrating – they experience sluggishness and require much more time to accomplish routine tasks.
- Fear of the future – they fear that the next missile attack will hit them or their home. They also have a doomsday outlook where small problems mushroom in their minds to life-threatening dangers.
- Short-temperedness – they are easily aggravated and react sharply or with anger.
- Futility – this is especially pronounced among civilians and all those who are not able to actively share in the war effort.
- Sleep Disorders – wake up multiple times during the night.
- Digestive disorders – from extremes of loss of appetite to heavily emotional eating and dinking.
- Headaches, muscle tension and tightening, diaphram pain, difficulty in breathing and similar psychosomatic disorders that cause actual physical suffering.
- Sadness and depression.
Coping with FTSD
Conventional therapy doesn’t have effective answers to FTSD. The reason is that emotional strength comes from the soul. FTSD is the result of the current trauma being stronger than the soul in its current state. If the soul is stronger than the body, then it can cope with the current trauma and overcome it. But, the more the body overcomes the soul, the more it suffers from FTSD.
Coping with and overcoming FTSD necessitates strengthening the soul. We accomplish that by learning emuna. The body might worry about danger, but when the soul is strong in emuna, it elicits Hashem’s help in overcoming the danger. That is how King David can so calmly declare, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You [Hashem] are with me (Psalm 23:4).
In light of the above, prayer, recitation of Psalms and especially personal prayer are wonderful relievers of PTSD. Reading emuna books and most effective in neutralizing FTSD. I strongly recommend 3 Words of Emuna for immediate relief and 13 Principles of Emuna for longterm treatment.
Don’t Be in Denial
Be honest with yourself. Don’t be in denial. If you experience one or more of the abovementioned 10 symptoms, admit it to yourself. Living in the south of Israel, at one time or another, I’ve felt each one. Yet, I’ve coped and continue coping with the very same advice I give you, And remember: you don’t learn emuna from eating chocolate ice-cream. Challenging times are a wonderful opportunity to gain genuine spiritual and emotional growth. May Hashem help us to be successful and may we hear good news from one another, amen!
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The Judean Staff News 10January2024 https://thejudean.com/index.php/news/2332-israel-looking-to-replace-all-palestinian-labor-with-foreign-workforce
In the aftermath of the heinous October 7 attacks, Israel’s Economy Minister Nir Barkat from the Likud party articulated a decisive albeit controversial strategy: phasing out Palestinian labor in favor of foreign workers, effectively shutting the doors to Palestinians which would have dire consequences for their economy, but bring many Israelis peace of mind. This shift is not just a reactionary measure to a single tragic event, but a profound reevaluation of national security and economic strategy.
On October 7, Israel experienced one of its darkest days, revealing vulnerabilities in its labor force composition. Speaking at a conferfence in Jerusalem, Minister Barkat pinpointed the employment of Palestinian workers as a security risk, alleging some were involved in intelligence gathering for Hamas. This accusation is part of a broader narrative that the Palestinian Authority (PA) is complicit, through its “pay-for-slay” program, in incentivizing violence against Israelis.
To mitigate this risk, Barkat proposes a radical overhaul of Israel’s labor market. The plan involves transitioning from Palestinian to foreign labor, emphasizing the need for rapid action. The minister’s plan is underpinned by the belief that foreign workers present a significantly lower security threat and can effectively fill Israel’s labor needs.
Currently, Israel hosts approximately 130,000 foreign workers but needs an additional 170,000 to meet demand. Barkat’s recent discussions with India’s economy minister highlight the global nature of this labor shift, with countries like India eager to participate. This move is not just about filling low-skilled jobs; it’s about strategically aligning Israel’s workforce with its economic ambitions, pushing Israeli workers towards high-tech and skilled sectors.
Barkat dismisses concerns of collective punishment towards Palestinians, arguing that Israel is not responsible for job creation in the Palestinian territories. He stresses that the PA must foster its own economic growth and employment opportunities.
In the broader context of Israel’s economy, Barkat remains optimistic. Despite temporary setbacks due to regional conflicts, he sees a pattern of resilience and growth in Israel’s economy, particularly in the high-tech sector. The government’s billion-shekel investment in building industry clusters, following Professor Michael E. Porter’s economic model, is a testament to this optimism. This initiative aims to foster public-private partnerships, boosting Israel’s competitive edge globally.
In conclusion, Barkat’s strategy represents a significant pivot in Israel’s labor and economic policies, driven by security concerns and economic aspirations. While the move may have profound implications for Israeli-Palestinian relations, it is seen by the minister as a necessary step in ensuring Israel’s long-term security and economic prosperity.
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Indians Set to Replace Palestinian Workers From Gaza/West Bank in Israeli Jobs After October 7 Massacre
DomPachino101-tweet-1April2024-Indians Set to Replace Palestinian Workers From Gaza-West Bank in Israeli Jobs
Indians Set to Replace Palestinian Workers From Gaza/West Bank in Israeli Jobs After October 7 Massacre
“Thousands of laborers are expected to work in the embattled construction sector, which relied almost exclusively on Palestinian workers before war.”
https://legalinsurrection.com/2024/04/indians-set-to-replace-palestinian-workers-from-gaza-west-bank-in-israeli-jobs-after-october-7-massacre/
DomPachino101-tweet-1April2024-Indians Set to Replace Palestinian Workers From Gaza-West Bank in Israeli Jobs
By RAJESH KUMAR SINGH and BISWAJEET BANERJEE
Updated 3:04 PM GMT+3, January 25, 2024 https://apnews.com/article/india-israel-hamas-war-recruitment-jobs-646b684c10a4384213b399fe6c221151
LUCKNOW, India (AP) — Thousands of Indians flocked to a recruitment center on Thursday for jobs that would take them to Israel despite the three-month Israeli-Hamas war that is devastating Gaza and threatening to ignite the wider Middle East.
Many among the crowd of men, mostly skilled construction workers and laborers, said they would take their chances in a country embroiled in war as they are struggling to find jobs in India, where unemployment remains high despite a swelling economy.
Anoop Singh, a college graduate and construction worker, was told he would make about $1,600 a month if he was selected to go to Israel — significantly more than the $360 to $420 he could get as a monthly wage for the same work in India.
“That’s why I have applied to go to Israel,” he said as he waited at the center in Lucknow, the capital of India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, for his job interview.
The men said they had heard media reports that Israel is facing a labor shortage after barring tens of thousands of Palestinian workers following Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war.
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Israeli agriculture and the Gaza War
This season’s yield of strawberries will also be lower than usual.
https://www.jns.org/imports-to-offset-israeli-shortage-of-onions-tomatoes/
(January 18, 2024 / JNS) Israel’s Ministry of Agriculture will increase imports of onions and tomatoes to offset a projected shortage through the end of March.
No shortages of peppers, carrots, potatoes or sweet potatoes are expected.
A gap in the supply of cabbage has been narrowed, and it is expected to return to normal in about two weeks.
The ministry added that this season’s yield of strawberries will be lower than usual, but the scope depends on the availability of professional workers for picking.
Israeli agriculture is facing staggering losses in production and manpower. Before Oct. 7, Israel had 29,900 foreigners, mostly Thais, working in farms, orchards, greenhouses and packing plants. Nearly all have returned to Thailand.
Farmers also employed 10,000-20,000 Palestinians, depending on the season, but they are currently denied entry into Green Line Israel.
Israeli workers who might have filled the gaps have been called up for military reserve duty.
And because of security concerns, farmers near the Gaza and Lebanese borders cannot access many of their fields and orchards.
A survey of 389 farmers conducted by the MIGAL Galilee Research Institute in November found that 89% of Israeli farmers had experienced some form of damage, and 96% expected more during the next three months. While farmers in the Gaza and northern regions have had the greatest disruption, all areas have been severely affected, and the impact is expected to continue for months to come.
Nearly three-quarters of the farmers, 72%, said they have experienced disruptions to their workforce, even in areas not near Gaza or Lebanon such as central Israel and the Jordan Valley.
Access was another problem cited by farmers, with 23% saying they couldn’t reach their fields to plant, pick crops or perform routine fertilizing or irrigation work, or damage control. Those farmers were primarily near the Gaza and Lebanese borders.
When asked to estimate their expected losses, farmers on average predicted a 35% drop in both production and revenue. But farmers in the area near the Gaza border—regarded as Israel’s breadbasket—projected on average a 70% loss of produce and 69% loss of income.
Reader’s Comments:
Zelda Torna
Many of us in Israel would rather eat more sweet potatoes and fewer tomatoes —- rather than put our lives at risk 24/7 with Palestinian workers in Israel’s Farms & Agricultural areas. Given the situation in the world today, surely there are more than enough foreign workers who will do an excellent job, and will NOT be a threat. On the contrary, it will improve relations with their home country….. because Israel treats its workers very well. Remember, it was Hamas who killed the Thai workers…..
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AI reviews scans at Sheba Medical Center and sends alerts to doctors’ phones, while at Hadassah, wounded soldiers recover quickly after surgeons remove bullets with robots
By Renee Ghert-Zand
17January2014 https://www.timesofisrael.com/how-cutting-edge-israeli-med-tech-is-boosting-survival-rates-of-war-wounded/
Dr. Gal Yaniv sits next to his computer at Sheba Medical Center that shows how Aidoc platform used AI to identify potentially lethal tiny aneurysm in brain of Nova festival victim and immediately notified relevant medical staff to take action, December 28, 2023. (Renee Ghert-Zand/Times of Israel)
A 23-year-old woman was shot multiple times by Hamas terrorists from Gaza as they savagely attacked the outdoor Supernova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im on October 7. One of the bullets penetrated the woman’s left eye and lodged in the right side of her brain.
By the end of that horrific day, the terrorists had butchered 1,200 people in southern Israel, mainly civilians. An additional 240 were taken hostage to Gaza. Thousands of others, like the woman from the festival, were injured and rushed to Israeli hospitals.
Fortunately, the young woman survived.
She and other wounded civilians and soldiers have not only doctors and other medical staff to thank for saving their lives, but also new Israeli-developed medical technologies.
The death rate among wounded soldiers in the current war is 6.7 percent, which is less than half the rate during the Second Lebanon War and 2.5% less than that during Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014.
This can be attributed to faster evacuations from the battlefield to hospitals (an average of one hour and 6 minutes faster) and better protective equipment. However, medical advances based on new technologies developed since earlier conflicts also play a critical role in boosting the survival rate.
llustrative: Lahak-United Hatzalah medivac teams fly air rescue missions across Israel’s south on October 7, 2023. (Courtesy United Hatzalah)
Artificial intelligence streamlines patient treatment
Upon arrival at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, the woman from the music festival underwent a variety of scans, and a bleed was detected in one of the arteries in her brain.
“I got a notification when any patient with a brain bleed came in that day,” said Dr. Gal Yaniv, head of endovascular surgery at Sheba.
That notification came not as a call from his colleagues at the hospital, but via an automatic alert to his computer and an app on his phone thanks to an artificial intelligence platform called Aidoc.
Every scan done at Sheba is pushed through a dedicated server programmed with Aidoc’s pathology-detecting technology. A radiologist will also read the scan, but Aidoc acts faster and is critically important when every lifesaving moment counts.
“Time is life. Aidoc sends the push notification to the relevant doctor wherever they are for treating the problem. When they get it, they can see the patient’s scans and begin streamlining their treatment plan and the necessary intervention immediately,” Yaniv said.
“In a mass casualty event like October 7 and the war, Aidoc is especially useful in assisting us to triage and prioritize care for patients,” Yaniv said.
“In a mass casualty event like October 7 and the war, Aidoc is especially useful in assisting us to triage and prioritize care for patients,” Yaniv said.
Yaniv is co-founder and chief medical officer at Aidoc, which provides 17 AI solutions for radiology (X-rays, computed tomography, and ultrasound). The company was established at Sheba in 2016 and has been used at the hospital since 2018. Now some 1,200 hospitals worldwide are using the platform.
Thanks to this advanced AI technology, Sheba’s neurovascular team was able to act quickly in the Supernova victim’s case. An angiogram detected a tiny aneurysm in a small distal vessel in her brain that had to be closed immediately to prevent a dangerous re-rupture, which would have likely led to death.
“Fortunately, everything was caught in time and treated properly and the young woman is now recovering from this and her other wounds in our rehabilitation center,” Yaniv said.
Using surgical robots to remove bullets and shrapnel
Prof. Leon Kaplan performs robot-guided minimally invasive spine surgery to remove a bullet from an injured IDF soldier at Hadassah Medical Center, December 2023. (Courtesy of Hadassah)
At Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, Dr. Josh Schroeder, head of the spinal deformities surgery department, has used robots in his work for the last decade.
“Robotic spine surgery to treat scoliosis and other deformities is our bread and butter. The robot guides us in the placement of pedicle screws, for example,” Schroeder said.
While surgical robotic technology has been around a while, Schroeder, along with Prof. Leon Kaplan, and Prof. Meir Liebergall, used it in a novel way in late December to treat a soldier who had a bullet stuck in his sacrum, the large triangular bone at the base of the spine.
Leaving the bullet in the body was not an option, as it would affect the nerves going down the leg and could also lead to lead poisoning.
“The soldier was initially brought to another hospital, and they said they could only operate by opening up the body. We said we could do robotically-assisted minimally invasive surgery. It would take no more than one and a half hours instead of half a day. And the recovery would be much easier and quicker,” Schroeder said.
The Hadassah surgeons used the Mazor robotic guidance system sold by the Israeli company Medtronic. Hadassah has one such robot at each of its Jerusalem campuses. The surgery to remove the bullet from the soldier was done at the Ein Kerem hospital.
Bullet removed from injured IDF soldier by Hadassah Medical Center spine surgeons using robot-guided minimally invasive surgery, December 2023. (Courtesy of Hadassah)
The team uploaded computed tomography scans from before the surgery and two “fluoro shots” (X-rays) taken in surgery. The robot merged all this input and calculated the exact location for the surgeons to go in and extract the bullet.
“We’ve also used the robot to do minimally invasive surgery to fix fractures in soldier’s spines, remove shrapnel, and treat various injuries of October 7 victims,” Schroeder said.
“We can do this because the robot gives us the perfect trajectory for going in to fix the problem,” he said.
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Erev Tisha B´Av 2014 ערב תשעה באב תשע״ד
Terror In Yerushalayim: One Killed, Six Hurt When Terrorist Goes On Rampage In Industrial Digger Reb Avrohom Wallis z”l
04August2014 http://matzav.com/terror-in-yerushalayim-one-killed-six-hurt-when-terrorist-goes-on-rampage-in-industrial-digger
A pedestrian was killed and six other people were wounded Monday afternoon when a terrorist went on the rampage in an industrial digger in central Yerushalayim.
One Israeli was murdered and five were wounded this afternoon when Muhammad Naif Ja’abis, of the Jabel Mukaber neighborhood in Jerusalem, drove a tractor and rammed it into a bus, turning it over and hitting a pedestrian. He was stopped after a police officer shot him dead. Another police officer was wounded while attempting to stop the terrorist. The bus was fairly empty and so there were fewer casualties.
The attack occurred on Shmuel HaNavi Street/[Moshe Sachs St.ed.], just outside the Olive Tree Hotel. [near Chut shel Chessed Yeshiva ed.]
“A police officer at the scene stopped his car, got out, neutralized the terrorist and thus prevented a further attack,” the Jerusalem Police Spokesperson’s Office stated shortly after the attack.
Jerusalem has known other such attacks by Arab terrorists. In the summer of 2008, tractors were used to carry out two separate terror attacks in Jerusalem in the space of three weeks. In 2009, a tractor plowed into a police car on Menachem Begin Boulevard in Jerusalem. The driver was apparently also trying to hit a nearby bus, but missed. Two police officers were in the car when it was hit and both sustained mild injuries. Other police officers nearby shot the terrorist. In October 2013, a Palestinian was shot dead after he rammed a tractor through the main gate of an army base located north of Jerusalem.
Photos: At the Levaya of Reb Avrohom Wallis Hy”D, Killed in Yerushalayim Tractor Attack http://matzav.com/photos-at-the-levaya-of-reb-avrohom-wallis-hyd-killed-in-yerushalayim-tractor-attack#more-106051
UPDATE: Reb Avrohom Wallis z”l, a 29-year-old chossid of Toldos Aaron, was killed in the accident.
He worked as a mashgiach for Asrah Kadishah at the construction site where the attack took place and also worked for the family Wallis tzitzis company.
He is survived by his parents, Rav and Mrs. Shimon Wallis, and his wife and six children. .
Yehi zichro boruch.
Tazpit News Agency
{Matzav.com Israel}
Chesed saves from hazards/death
From an e-mail to Jerusalem Cat
The day before Tisha B’Av there was a terror attack in Yerushalayim by a digger/tractor driver. Before he turned over a bus injuring some people inside and causing total loss damage to the bus he beat to death a Chasid, young father of 6 children, with the digging scoop of the tractor.
We received a firsthand report of a man who by normal schedule would have been on that bus. However that very same day he had different plans. He lives out of city and had offered to bring medicines to some neighbours from a pharmacy in the city to save them the trouble. To get to the pharmacy he had to go in the opposite direction on an internal line.
This act of chesed (charity) saved him.
Rav Avrohom Wallis HY”D (29), Father Of 6, Killed In Yerushalayim Terror Attack
From the Yeshiva World News 04August2014 http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/boruch-dayan-emmes/252947/rav-avrohom-vales-hyd-29-father-of-6-killed-in-yerushalayim-terror-attack.html
The pedestrian who was run over and killed R”L by the tractor terrorist a few short
Rav Avrohom Wallis HY”D, 29, a member of the Toldos Aaron Kehilla. He was a mashgiach for Asra Kadisha – See more at: http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/boruch-dayan-emmes/252947/rav-avrohom-vales-hyd-29-father-of-6-killed-in-yerushalayim-terror-attack.html#sthash.QKinQKt0.dpuf
hours ago has been identified as an avreich, Rav Avrohom Wallis HY”D, 29, a member of the Toldos Aaron Kehilla. He was a mashgiach for Asra Kadisha at the construction site.
The niftar was born and raised in Yerushalayim. His father, Rav Shimon Wallis, is a shochet and mashgiach for the Badatz Eida Chareidis. The niftar worked in the Wallis tzitzis factory run by an uncle.
The niftar is survived by his rebitzen and six children. The levaya will leave the Toldos Aaron Beis Medrash tonight, Tisha B’Av, at 22:00.
Boruch Dayan Ha’Emmes…
The Muqata
News/Media Website 06August2014 https://www.facebook.com/Muqata?fref=nf
9:42am From reader Zev Shandalov….making a shiva visit in Mea Shearim to the family of R’ Avraham Walles. …murdered in the Jerusalem terror tractor attack.
“Just returned from an surreal Shiva visit and want to share it with you. I decided to leave my comfort zone and venture deep into Meah Shearim where the family of Avraham Walles (hy”d) was sitting shiva. He is the man murdered in the terror attack the other day when an Arab overturned a bus, in Yerushalayim. If I had been wearing a neon green shirt I could not have stuck out any more. I, in my kippa seruga, non-white shirt surrounded by black and white. The family is Toldos Aharon chassidim (black and white striped frocks). I arrived and stood off to the side. Within seconds, one of the family (a brother) motioned me to take one of the empty chairs. I sat and listened as people attempted to comfort the bereaving family. As someone was speaking to him, the father kept glancing at me and, I assume, asking himself “who is this?” He then looked at me and his gaze asked to to speak. I told him I came from Maale Adumim and as soon as I heard the terrible news I felt I wanted to come and share in their pain. I said that it makes no difference about what one wears on the outside because INSIDE we are ALL part of the same Jewish family. He began to cry and say that indeed, we are all one family and Hashem’s children. When one of this brothers heard I was from Maale Adumim he asked me how about the condition of the security guard who was stabbed soon after the incident with his brother! When I said the HaMakom Yenachem to them, the father rose slightly, looked me in the eye and said “Thank you for coming. We all appreciate it so much.”
Am Yisrael Chai! May Hashem comfort the Walles family and all bereaved families among other mourners of Zion and Yerushalayim.”
Mr. Happy´s Comments:
This attack was at 13:40! We need all day learning or 1/2 Day Learning and 1/2 Day הפצה Haphatzah (Distribution of CD, Books, material) during Bein Hazmanim
Hundreds at Mir Yerushalayim Saved from Tractor Attack Due to Change in Bus Schedule
Hundreds at Mir Yerushalayim Saved from Tractor Attack Due to Change in Bus Schedule http://matzav.com/photos-hundreds-at-mir-yerushalayim-saved-from-tractor-attack-due-to-change-in-bussing-schedule#more-106057
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Shmuel HaNavi bus bombing
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shmuel_HaNavi_bus_bombing
The Shmuel HaNavi bus bombing was the suicide bombing of a crowded public bus (Egged bus 2) in the Shmuel HaNavi quarter in Jerusalem, Israel, on August 19, 2003. Twenty-four people were killed and over 130 wounded. Many of the victims were children, some of them infants.[1] The Islamist militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.
The attack
Shmuel HaNavi bus bombing From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Shmuel HaNavi bus bombing was the suicide bombing of a crowded public bus (Egged bus 2) in the Shmuel HaNavi quarter in Jerusalem, Israel, on August 19, 2003. Twenty-four people were killed and over 130 wounded. Many of the victims were children, some of them infants. The Islamist militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.
On August 19, 2003 (22 Av 5763), a Hamas suicide bomber sent out by the organization’s Hebron cell disguised himself as a Haredi Jew and detonated himself on a No. 2 Egged bus traveling through Jerusalem’s Shmuel HaNavi neighborhood. He blew himself up after entering the back door.[2] The double-length bus was crowded with Orthodox Jewish children returning from a visit to the Western Wall. The huge explosion killed 7 children and 16 adults, among them an eight-months-pregnant woman, and injured more than 130 people. The bomb was spiked with ball-bearings designed to increase injuries on the crowded bus. Hamas said the bomber was a 29-year-old mosque preacher from the city of Hebron.
Because so many of the dead were young children,[3] the media dubbed it the “children’s bus”. According to an Associated Press report,
Suicide bombing of No. 2 Egged bus in Jerusalem
August 19, 2003
https://www.gov.il/en/pages/suicide-bombing-of-no-2-egged-bus-in-jerusalem-19-august-2003
Twenty-three people were killed and over 130 wounded when a Palestinian suicide bomber detonated a five-kilogram device packed with ball-bearings on a crowded No. 2 Egged bus in Jerusalem’s Shmuel Hanavi neighborhood. Many of the passengers were returning from prayers at the Western Wall when they were killed. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.
For the ultra-Orthodox, the attack took place not only during the vacation, but also on the eve of the month of Elul, the month of selihot – the special penitential prayers recited during the week before Rosh Hashanah.
As a result of the attack, the Cabinet decided on September 1, 2003, among others, to wage an all-out war against Hamas and other terrorist elements, and to freeze the diplomatic process with the Palestinian Authority.
The victims:
– Avraham Bar-Or, 12, of Jerusalem
– Binyamin Bergman, 15, of Jerusalem
– Yaakov Binder, 50, of Jerusalem
– Feiga Dushinski, 50, of Jerusalem
– Miriam Eisenstein, 20, of Bnei Brak
– Lilach Kardi, 22, of Jerusalem
– Menachem Leibel, 24, of Jerusalem
– Elisheva Meshulami, 16, of Bnei Brak
– Tehilla Nathanson, 3, of Zichron Ya’acov
– Chava Nechama Rechnitzer, 19, of Bnei Brak
– Mordechai Reinitz, 49, and Issachar Reinitz, 9, of Netanya
– Maria Antonia Reslas, 39, of the Philippines
– Liba Schwartz, 54, of Jerusalem
– Hanoch Segal, 65, of Bnei Brak
– Goldie Taubenfeld, 43, and Shmuel Taubenfeld, 3 months, of New Square, New York
– Rabbi Eliezer Weisfish, 42, of Jerusalem
– Shmuel Wilner, 50, of Jerusalem
– Shmuel Zargari, 11 months, of Jerusalem.
– Fruma Rahel Weitz, 73, of Jerusalem died of her wounds on August 23.
– Mordechai Laufer, 27, of Netanya died of his wounds on September 5.
– Tova Lev, 37, of Bnei-Brak died of her wounds on September 12.
MFA-Suicide bombing of No 2 Egged bus in Jerusalem – 19-Aug-2003-The victims
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Suicide bombing at the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem
https://www.gov.il/en/pages/suicide-bombing-at-the-sbarro-pizzeria-in-jerusalem
MFA-Suicide bombing at the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem-9August2001
Suicide bombing at the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem
August 9, 2001
16 people were killed, including 7 children, and about 130 were injured in a suicide bombing at the Sbarro pizzeria at the corner of King George Street and Jaffa Road in downtown Jerusalem. Concealing the explosives in a guitar case which he had carried with him into Jerusalem, the terrorist entered the restaurant just before 2 PM and detonated the bomb. The 5 kg.-10 kg. bomb, which was packed with nails, screws, and bolts to ensure maximum damage, completely gutted the restaurant, which was full of lunchtime diners.
The terrorist was killed in the blast. His controller was on the list of wanted terrorists submitted by Israel to the Palestinians Authority this week. Hamas and the Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.
The names of the victims:
The Israeli response:
Foreign Minister Peres (August 9): “If the Palestinian Authority had acted with the necessary determination and carried out preventive detentions of Hamas terrorists and their operators, the murders today in Jerusalem would have been prevented.”
In response to these terrorist attacks, Jerusalem police closed down the PLO’s east Jerusalem Orient House headquarters and nine other Palestinian buildings, while the IDF has taken control of Palestinian military and political headquarters at Abu Dis just outside Jerusalem early Friday morning. The IDF also attacked the Palestinian Authority’s West Bank police headquarters in Ramallah.
Reactions of world leaders:
US President George Bush:
“I deplore and strongly condemn the terrorist bombing in downtown Jerusalem today. My heartfelt sympathies and those of the American people are with the victims of this terrible tragedy and their families.”
White House press release – August 9, 2001
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan
“UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned today’s terror attack by a suicide bomber in Jerusalem. He deplored all acts of terror and is deeply disturbed by the terrible loss of life.”
UN Secretary-General press release – August 9, 2001
European Union
Belgian EU Presidency:
“The Presidency of the European Union unreservedly condemns the bombing of a Jerusalem shopping centre today, 9 August. It abhors this cowardly act which mainly claimed the lives of innocent civilians.”
EU press release, August 9, 2001
Major terrorist attacks in Jerusalem since July 26:
In the past two weeks, there has been a Palestinian effort to concentrate terror attacks in Jerusalem, as follows:
Never forget: Sbarro Pizzeria Massacre, Jerusalem, Aug. 9, 2001
15 people, including two Americans, murdered by Killer-Turned-TV Star Ahlam Tamimi
Posted by Miriam Elman Tuesday, August 9, 2016 at 02:30pm<
On this day 15 years ago, a Hamas terror gang based in the West Bank executed a bombing attack on a busy restaurant in the center of Jerusalem. In the horrific act of savagery 15 people were killed, including 7 children.
Two U.S. citizens were among those murdered. Four additional Americans were wounded — one severely.
In total, some 130 were injured with varying degrees of severity by the “human bomb” and his team of accomplices.
The mastermind was Ahlam Tamimi, relative of Bassem Tamimi, and a hero to this day in her home village of Nabi Saleh where international activists still protest the security barrier constructed in response to the Sbarro and dozens of other suicide bombings.
Ahlam Tamimi-MEMRI-revised-2012 mastermind Sbarro suicide bombing
In this post, I revisit the 2001 Sbarro suicide bombing.
Suicide-bombing-Sbarro
I’ll describe the attack, its victims, and the team of terrorists involved in order to underscore the disgraceful fact that for over two decades the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has not prosecuted a single Palestinian terrorist who has killed Americans in Israel or the disputed territories, even though U.S. law requires it to do so.
Included at the end of the post is a statement exclusive for Legal Insurrection by Frimet and Arnold Roth—the parents of Malka (Malki) Roth, a 15-year-old American girl who was murdered in the Sbarro atrocity.
>Malka (Malki) Roth | August 8, 2001 |one day prior to her murder
August 9, 2001: The Sbarro Bombing
At 2:00pm on a hot summer day, a Palestinian terrorist entered the Sbarro Pizzeria and detonated a bomb.
Situated at the corner of King George Street and Jaffa Road in Jerusalem, probably one of the busiest pedestrian crossings in Israel, the bomb blast completely gutted the restaurant.
I ate at this Sbarro a number of times when I lived in and visited Israel. It was a popular kosher eatery, conveniently located, and a good place to bring the kids.
On August 9, 2001 the restaurant was filled with lunch-time diners—many of them children and their mothers. The street was also crowded with pedestrian traffic.
At the time, like most public spaces in Israel the pizzeria wasn’t guarded, something which enabled the human bomber to enter the place unimpeded.
According to media reports, documentation by the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and accounts piece together by those who lost loved ones in the horrific attack, the terrorist and his 10 kilogram bomb was transported by taxi to the site by a woman named Ahlam ‘Aref Ahmad al-Tamimi, also known as Ahlam Tamimi, and another Palestinian, Izz al-Din Shuheil al-Masri.
Ahlam Tamimi in 2012
They reportedly concealed the explosives inside a guitar case. The case was also packed with nails, screws, and bolts to ensure maximum damage.
Sbarro minutes after the bombing | Credit: Times of Israel
Sbarro aftermath | Credit: UK Media Watch
Sbarro Attack | Victim | Credit: YouTube
Sbarro victims assisted | Credit: Israel National News
The terrorist al-Masri was killed in the blast. Tamimi escaped but was arrested a few weeks later. Hamas and Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombing.
In the immediate aftermath of the attack, Jerusalem municipality police closed down the PLO’s east Jerusalem headquarters (known as the Orient House) and the IDF took control of Palestinian military and political buildings at Abu Dis, just outside of Jerusalem. The IDF also attacked the PA’s West Bank police headquarters in Ramallah.
Although perpetrated by a Hamas terror cell, Israeli officials at the time held the Palestinian Authority and the late PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat complicit in the carnage. Then Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, the architect of the Oslo peace accords, reportedly said on the day of the attack:
Six weeks after the bombing an exhibit at Al Najah University in the West Bank, which included a mock-up of the Sbarro pizzeria complete with bloody plastic body parts and partially-chewed pizza crusts, glorified the attack and the bombers:
al-Najah-U-celebrates Tamimi | Credit: ADL
The Terrorists
The Sbarro attack was coordinated and planned by Hamas’ branch in the West Bank.
Shuheil al-Masri, the human bomb of the Sbarro restaurant massacre, was a 22-year-old resident of the West Bank village of Aqaba, north of Tulkarm. He was single and came from a relatively well-off family.
Poster of al-Masri | Credit: This Ongoing War
The explosive charge was manufactured by Abdallah Jamal Barghouti, a Kuwaiti national who moved to the West Bank in the late 1990s and became Hamas’ chief engineer.
For his involvement in the Sbarro bombing and in a number of other horrific terrorist attacks during the second intifada, he was sentenced to 67 life sentences. As I noted in a prior post, he’s one of the highest paid Palestinian mass-murderers now serving time in an Israeli prison.
Marwan Barghouti was also implicated in the terror plot. The former leader of Fatah’s armed militia (the Tanzim) and a still-prominent Palestinian political figure, he’s now also serving five consecutive life sentences for orchestrating the murder of a Greek Orthodox monk outside of Jerusalem in June 2001 and carrying out hundreds of deadly attacks against Israeli civilians during the second intifada.
He reportedly paid Abdallah Barghouti $500 to build the bomb. He also reportedly armed and sheltered Billal Barghouti—another Hamas terrorist who was also captured and admitted his participation in the Sbarro attack—when he was on the run from Israeli authorities.
While incarcerated, Marwan Barghouti has become something of a folk hero. He was recently recommended for the Nobel Peace Prize by Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa. Several local councils in France are also seeking to name him an honorary citizen.
Marwan Barghouti | Credit: Breaking Israel News
Based on the information that I could find while researching this post, at least two of the human bomber’s accomplices are no longer locked up in jail.
Mohammad Daghlas, a university student who delivered the bomb that was used in the Sbarro massacre, served time in Israel, but was released to freedom in October 2011 as part of the Shalit prisoner exchange.
That’s what also happened to Ahlam Tamimi, the human bomber’s guide.
Ahlam Tamimi: Massacre Mastermind
Then a 20-year-old Jordanian national living in Ramallah, Tamimi was studying at Bir Zeit University and was working as a part-time journalist when she was recruited by Hamas’ Izzadine el-Qassam terror organization.
Tamimi was reportedly involved in gathering intelligence for the attack and in selecting the venue. She was also instrumental in assisting al-Masri in getting there. She reportedly carried a camera to look like a tourist and spoke in English with the suicide bomber so that he would look less conspicuous.
For her role in the Sbarro massacre, she was sentenced to 16 life terms (320 years).
In 2011, just a few months prior to her release from prison, official PA TV honored her and her family (at the same time, Daghlas was also honored):
The PA’s official daily also published an article on the day before Tamimi’s release glorifying her as a “spirited fighter”.
PA Honors Tamimi and Daghlas | Credit: PMW
Tamimi was deported to Jordan.
There, she’s become a celebrity and a media starlet in the Arab world—a “Palestinian Oprah” who hosts her own weekly talk show on the Hamas satellite TV channel, Al Quds. The show is broadcast to her adoring fans across the Middle East and the world.
Last year, on the 14th anniversary of the Sbarro bombing, websites and Facebook pages across the Arab world and in the West Bank paid tribute to Tamimi.
In between extolling the virtues of “martyrdom attacks”, this depraved woman routinely celebrates her own monstrous achievement. Her Twitter account is full of the glory of the killing. Here is a recent tweet where she pays poetic homage to the Sbarro attack’s human bomber:
Tamimi poetic homage | Credit: This Ongoing War
Living in total freedom in Amman, Tamimi married another convicted terrorist a few years ago—a cousin who was also released in the Shalit prisoner deal. Despite the protests of the Roths and other victims of Palestinian terrorism, he was reportedly allowed by Israeli authorities to leave the West Bank on account of it “being easier” to have hardcore terrorists living in places other than Israel or the West Bank.
The joyous nuptials were covered live on TV.
Tamimi has said on repeated occasions that she carefully selected the Sbarro restaurant in order to maximize civilian casualties—especially children and religious Jews.
In multiple publicly-aired TV interviews, she has never expressed remorse of any kind. In fact, she is proud of the deaths that she helped to cause. During an interview in 2012, she recounted how happy she was to hear of the rising Sbarro attack body count. She had been under the impression that fewer Jews had been killed.
Back in 2006, while still in an Israeli jail cell, she reportedly said: “I’m not sorry for what I did”.
It’s a sentiment she’s repeated ever since.
Ahlam Tamimi and the Tamimi Clan
Ahlam Tamimi is a member of the extended Tamimi family. Based in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, they’ve become heroes in the West—particularly among journalists who frequently feature them as prominent civil society leaders of “non-violent resistance” against Israeli occupation.
The reality, as we’ve noted in prior posts, is that the Tamimis are a bunch of terrorism-promoting and blood-libeling Palestinian activists who have the nasty habit of spending much of their time exploiting their and other village children for anti-Israel publicity stunts.
In an important essay published yesterday in Tablet the German-Israeli researcher and historian Petra Marquardt-Bigman critiques journalist Ben Ehrenreich’s sympathetic treatment of the Tamimis in his new highly-acclaimed book. Marquardt-Bigman marshals considerable evidence from publicly available social media sources (primarily in Arabic) to show how the Tamimi clan openly trade in antisemitic tropes and support terrorism against Israeli civilians (see also her earlier LI post here).
Ehrenreich and other Western mainstream media outlets paint a glowing picture of the Tamimis—especially the matriarch Nariman, who is extoled as a paragon of virtue, an admirable activist, and devoted mother and wife.
In fact, as Marquardt-Bigman meticulously documents, this woman routinely praises and promotes the online material of Ahlam Tamimi, which incites to violence and glorifies terror attacks.
Credit: The Tower
Nariman’s promoted posts on social media—including those of the notorious Sbarro murderess—put the lie to Ehrenreich’s glowing depiction of a family committed to nonviolence and justice.
Here’s a new video produced by Marquardt-Bigman and the blogger Elder of Zion which offers a glimpse into the intense Jew-hatred and support for terrorism that drives Ben Ehrenreich’s favorite people:
The Victims
Here are the names and selected photos of the victims in the August 9, 2001 terrorist bombing at the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem which were released by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
The majority of those killed were children.
Many young children were also among the injured. Eight-year-old Haya Schijvesschuurder, who was hospitalized for her wounds, lost five members of her family, including both of her parents.
Of the 130 others maimed, many have life-long injuries.
Among those killed in the bomb blast were two American citizens: Judith L. Greenbaum (31) of New Jersey (who was pregnant at the time) and Malka (nicknamed Malki) Roth (15) who lived with her family in Jerusalem.
Four other Americans—David Danzig, Matthew Gordon, and Joanne (Chana) and Sarah Nachenberg—were also injured.
Chana Nachenberg—a mother whose only child Sarah was then two-years-old—is still in a vegetative state today, never having regained consciousness. You can read her daughter Sarah’s moving words about her Mom here.
Sarah Nachenberg with her father |2014
Malki’s parents, Frimet and Arnold Roth, went on to establish an organization for special needs children—the Malki Foundation (Keren Malki)—dedicated to the memory of their daughter.
Over the last fifteen years, they have also spoken and written frequently in print media and online about their personal experience with radical Islamist terrorism and about losing their daughter Malki.
Their website and blog, This Ongoing War, is also an important resource for those who study jihadist terrorism and counter-terrorism efforts.
In November Malki would have been 30-years-old—she would have undoubtedly been married with kids, bringing her parents much naches (pride and joy). Today, in her August 9, 2016 blog post, Frimet Roth writes about her “never-ending nightmare”, the “raw grief” and the “fresh outrages”.
Mr. and Mrs. Roth are inviting well-wishers to their daughter’s gravesite for her yahrzeit at the end of the month. Here’s the recent entry on their blog:
An Exclusive Statement for LI from Frimet and Arnold Roth
Since 1993, when the U.S. established diplomatic relations with the PLO and the Palestinian Authority (PA), nearly 70 U.S. citizens have lost their lives and dozens more have been wounded (some severely) in attacks perpetrated by jihadist-inspired terrorists in Israel and the disputed territories.
Some of the perpetrators have been killed by Israeli security forces in the process of committing their heinous acts. Others are incarcerated in Israeli jails, where they’re earning hefty salaries and other bonuses in a deplorable PA “pay to slay” system that we documented in a previous post.
But many of the terrorists behind these attacks “continue to roam free across the Middle East”. None of them have ever been prosecuted by the United States.
The parents of Malki Roth aren’t hopeful that the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) will start a U.S. criminal prosecution of their daughter’s killer, despite a congressional mandate ordering the Justice Department to take action against such individuals and the forceful pressure that’s recently been brought to bear by lawmakers.
Arnold Roth had been among those testifying last February at a congressional subcommittee hearing where he said that his goal was to “reassert the humanity of the victims” by calling for increased action from the DoJ.
During the hearing he said that while DoJ officials always exhibited “unfailing courtesy”, the tangible results have been in short supply, noting that he learned more about his daughter’s killers from YouTube and Twitter than from the department’s updates.
Here’s a statement that the Roths emailed to me for inclusion in this post:
Possibility of Prosecuting Ahlam Tamimi in U.S.
According to Adam Turner, an expert on national security law and former counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, the DoJ could certainly prosecute Tamimi for her criminal murders of two Americans and the wounding of other U.S. citizens in the 2001 Sbarro terror attack (see his articles here and here).
Basically, Turner claims that Tamimi’s post-imprisonment media appearances have made an “airtight case against her even tighter”.
Tamimi has admitted to her crime—repeatedly confessing—in taped interviews which she cannot claim were coerced or somehow forced by Israel. As Turner rightly notes,
According to Turner (see also this article by Stephen M. Flatow, an attorney whose daughter was murdered in a Palestinian terror attack in April 1995), Tamimi’s prosecution wouldn’t have any problems with the chain of custody of evidence or the admissibility of confessions, that could possibly be issues with regard to prosecuting some other Palestinian terrorists in U.S. courts.
The tapes aren’t banned hearsay under U.S. law and they would be admissible to be used by the court to convict her.
As Turner claims, “There is no credible legal reason…that would bar [the DoJ] from prosecuting Ahlam Tamimi for her 2001 terrorist crime against six Americans citizens”.
Credit: Breitbart
The U.S. government has “plenty of leverage” to convince Jordan to hand over Tamimi, and can secure the necessary evidence to indict. It’s just doesn’t seem all that interested in doing so.
I contacted The Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET), a non-partisan Washington, D.C.-based think tank which has spearheaded efforts to achieve justice for the American victims of Palestinian terrorism, about the U.S. Department of Justice’s apparent foot-dragging on prosecuting Palestinian terrorists.
I knew from media reports that back in February the congressional subcommittee had instructed the DoJ to put together a task force to examine the challenges that the department faces in prosecuting foreign terrorists. If the DoJ was being responsive, the task force should’ve been up and running right about now.
Sarah N. Stern, EMET’s Founder and President, confirmed my suspicions: it doesn’t look like the DoJ will meet the deadline. Stern emailed me the following statement to include in this post:
Conclusion
Terrorists from around the world are routinely extradited to the U.S. to stand trial for attacks on Americans abroad. But Palestinians seem to be one class of killers that’re immune from extradition.
The DoJ and the OVT are obviously failing to do their job when it comes to prosecuting those terrorists. The grieving families of Americans killed in Israel deserve better from these U.S. prosecutors.
Quite simply: their pain is being compounded by the lack of justice coming from their own government.
But there’s another good reason not to let the Palestinian killers of Americans, like Ahlam Tamimi, escape justice to enjoy fame and good fortune.
The obvious reluctance to prosecute Tamimi and other Islamist terrorists like her undermines U.S. policy and national security because it “sends the wrong message” to would-be terrorists around the globe. As EMET’s Sarah N. Stern rightly notes, it contributes to the terrorists’ sense of “impunity and invincibility”.
It also allows the Palestinian governing authorities, and even allies like Jordan, to act dismissively toward the United States and the lives of American citizens. As EMET’s staff legal counsel Adam Turner puts it:
Bottom line: Ahlam Tamimi is more than just another Palestinian terrorist. She is a “symbol” of U.S. weakness and a prominent example of how unserious we are about fighting the war on terror. If she continues to escape justice, there will undoubtedly be a lot more dead Americans.
—————
Miriam F. Elman is an associate professor of political science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs, Syracuse University. She is the editor of five books and the author of over 60 journal articles, book chapters, and government reports on topics related to international and national security, religion and politics in the Middle East, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She also frequently speaks and writes on the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) anti-Israel movement. Follow her on Twitter @MiriamElman
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At What Moment Should European Jews Leave?
Paula R. Stern 05August2014 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/15464#.U-DJm7uk2b9
Comment: Just because you live in the US does not exempt you from reading this and taking action!!
At what moment prior to the Holocaust should the Jews of Europe have chosen to leave? Was it in 1933, as Hitler was on the rise? Was it in 1938, when the Germans went on a killing spree, burning Jewish stores, homes and synagogues and beating Jews in the streets? Was it in 1939, when World War II began?
What was the moment in time when it became too late, that their fates were sealed…and where would they have gone? The United States turned them back to death; so did the British and many others.
We now know that these anti-Semites are the ultimate cowards and we do not fear them.
The buildup was, as it is today, subtle. Too subtle for us to understand, then, the full extent of destruction and death that can result from such hatred. We honestly didn’t know, didn’t believe. Sure, we’d been hated for centuries, but we lived by the absurd concept that it was good once, it would be good again. All we had to do was wait for it.
What World War II taught us was that this is a lie. Sometimes evil can win; sometimes evil can override the humanity and decency of the majority. Germany taught us that lesson and we must never forget it.
It is now 2014 and it is happening again. No, not concentration camps and gas chambers…yet…but those were not happening in 1933 either.
In the last few days, I received a series of messages from a Jew in Amsterdam. He wants me to give a message to Israelis who are visiting Europe. His message is chilling. Here’s what he wrote:
“It’s like before 1945, Germany has warned do not be recognizable as a Jew it’s too dangerous. It is in many EU countries like this. Israelis should know. Do not talk Hebrew and no Jewish dress like tzitzit [a fringed garment]. Europeans on the streets, warning Israelis who might go to Europe on vacation about Germany it was by the Jewish community leader of Germany. But it is also here [in the Netherlands], and every country of Europe. Better not to show that you are a Jew openly.
“No Kippah, or Tzitzit, and don’t speak Hebrew openly. I myself have been attacked six times but only with words, no beatings. In the Netherlands, it is mostly Moroccan boys and even girls, yesterday they attack party member of PVV (Wilders). I do see many Israeli tourist and they wear Kippah’s, but it is just to dangers to do so. You can wear one but hide it. Really, it feels like before 1945, but many people support Israel here. Only police and politicians do nothing. I work at a small Jewish memorial, and we were visited by the police and warned to be extra careful because of the danger of an attack”.
I read this several times and agonized over how to answer, over what to think. Finally, I asked if I could share this message here. And as I thought about it, I realized there are two messages here, not one.
First – there is a warning in Europe, being told quietly to Jews, but also to Israelis. This Jew in Europe is worried about Israelis coming to Europe. Afraid that they will feel they are free, as they are in Israel, to be what they were born to be. Proud. Strong. Jews. Out in the open, nothing to hide. We speak the language of our forefathers with pride; we wear the signs of being a Jew on our heads, on our bodies, in our hearts.
That is how we raise our children here in Israel. So different from how Jews are raising their young in America and especially different from how Jewish children are being raised in Europe.
My children do not know the fear of the ghetto; Israeli children do not know that to walk, to breathe, simply to exist is enough to cause hatred and anger outside the safe world where they were raised. Without thought, they speak an ancient language with modern words. They dress, without thought that the mere sight of a kippah (a yarmulka, a skull cap) could get them attacked. What do you mean we should hide what and who we are? It is as natural for my children to speak Hebrew as it is for them to breathe.
It is too dangerous to wear a kippah, to openly be seen as Jewish in Europe today. I didn’t write these words. They were sent to me by a Jew from the Netherlands – not even France and Germany, where we know that the level of hatred has risen tremendously.
And I beg him to leave. Why would you continue to live there? I hear many reasons – I accept none of them. I can’t.
The police and the politicians do nothing, he writes. Nothing. As before and during World War II, nothing. He writes to tell me to warn Israelis – this is where his mind is, his love and concern evident. If you come here, be careful, he begs.
I can imagine if I read this to my sons, what they would think. They would look at me like I was crazy. WE should be careful? What do they think we are? Let them try; we will beat them, kill them if they try to beat us, kill us. What, do you think it is 1940?
I have three sons – each stepped forward when called to the army; each came home with a 97 profile – that means the State of Israel examined them and found them to be in excellent health; strong, tall, proud.
Okay, the army didn’t find them proud…or maybe it did. Do you want to serve, each was asked. Are you willing to serve in a combat unit? Will you fight, with your body and soul for the State of Israel, for the Jewish State?
Yes…Yes…and Yes.
Each one has raised with the belief that he stands in front of Israel, in front of Jews and behind him stands a nation that will never bow to anti-Semites. We now know that these anti-Semites are the ultimate cowards and we do not fear them.
If they can live in a world where they can dress as they want, so can we. If they can speak the language of their fathers, so can we.
When my sons were called to the army, there were other questions that they were never asked and yet they were answered. Yes and No, as needed.
Will you protect Jews, not just here in Israel but around the world? Yes.
Will you be the ghetto Jews? No.
Will you, as a representative of the State of Israel, protect Jews here in our land, and everywhere in every land? Yes.
Will you allow others to demand you be other than what you are? No.
Will you sit in silence while Jews elsewhere suffer? No.
What will you do if that old hatred rises up again? Fight it.
What will you do for the Jews of France and Germany, Holland and the Netherlands and even, if it comes to it, for the Jews of the United States of America? And each son, every son of Israel answered. We will bring them home.
Bring them home. Come home. That is my response to this man, the second message I get from reading the above. He sits in the Netherlands and cares so much about my sons, as my sons care about him. He has reasons he can’t leave – too many Jews in Europe have reasons.
But the reasons have to be put aside or brought with you. Elderly parents – bring them; a thriving business, leave it, sell it. Don’t put things and money above your lives. Don’t wait until the doors close; until you can’t get out. Don’t wait until the violence comes to your city, never mind your door.
Get out of Europe now.
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From The Yeshiva World News
Valley Village: Suspicious Package Forces Evacuation At Shuls; LAPD Bomb Squad On Scene
31July2014 http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/252320/los-angeles-suspicious-package-forces-evacuation-at-shuls-lapd-bomb-squad-on-scene-1228-pm-et.html
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/252320/los-angeles-suspicious-package-forces-evacuation-at-shuls-lapd-bomb-squad-on-scene-1228-pm-et.html
A person came in to Congregation Bais Tefila in Valley Village, CA this morning, dropped off a backpack and left the building which is located at Chandler and Whitsett. Anti-Semitic material was found with the backpack. The LAPD was called and they evacuated the shul and neighboring buildings including Valley Torah High School.
The bomb squad is currently en route.
Shacharis minyanim continued outside.
Nefesh B’Nefesh: Live the Dream US & CAN 1-866-4-ALIYAH | UK 020-8150-6690 or 0800-085-2105 | Israel 02-659-5800 https://www.nbn.org.il/ info@nbn.org.il
It’s time to come home! Nefesh B’Nefesh: Live the Dream 1-866-4-ALIYAH
Tisha B’Av 2014: The Children Are Ready III