War
Soldiers fighting in Gaza Strip
The war in Gaza enters the seventh month. So far, in the half a year of fighting. since Israel went into Gaza on Oct 27, Israel has lost 256 soldiers. Since October 7th, over 600 soldiers and security personal have been killed. Over 1250 were murdered by Hamas terrorists, and over 250 taken prisoner. 134 hostages, dead or alive, are still captive in Gaza.
US President Biden told Israel’s Prime Minister on Thursday that he expects an immediate ceasefire. According to Channel 12TV news, Biden said Netanyahu was as much an obstacle to a ceasefire deal as Hamas. Biden also said that Netanyahu had not given his negotiating team enough leeway to reach an agreement.
Israeli negotiators were pulled back from the hostage and ceasefire talks after Hamas’ Politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh said that the talks were at a dead end. He would not budge from his demands that Israel immediately call a ceasefire and leave Gaza.
However, on Friday, Ynet news reported that Mossad head David Barnea would head back to Cairo to meet with CIA director Birns to try to restart the talks.
This comes in the aftermath of a tragic mistake made by Israel in targeting two aid trucks from the World Central Kitchen resulting in the death of seven foreign aid workers. Investigations were launched and the IDF admitted to making a tragic mistake.
Israel TV showed a clip shot in Poland in the town of one of the volunteers. A poster with the fallen volunteer’s photo and name was plastered to a wall. Underneath, in Polish, were the words that he was killed by a “Jewish missile.”
Following the tragic mistake of the attack on the aid convoy, the world’s media fell on Israel like a collapsing fifty story building. Reportedly, the Israel air force was told there was a terrorist in the two-car convoy. This information turned out to apparently be false. The IDF says they also tried unsuccessfully to contact the security personnel responsible for the convoy but received no reply.
Jose Andres, the founder of World Care Kitchens, that has raised over $500 million for the NGO, said on Israel TV, that the convoy had entered an IDF controlled area and had undergone a thorough search. “If there had been something there, the IDF would have found it.”
José Andrés told an Israeli newspaper, he has Jewish and Israeli friends, and brought his WCK to the Gaza border to provide food for Israelis after the Oct 7th invasion.“Israel is better than the way this war is being waged.”
Following the attacks a senior Israel official, who preferred to remain anonymous, said that Israel must rethink the IDF’s policy of ‘shoot first and ask questions later.’ He pointed out that the mistaken killing of three Israeli hostages, Alon Shamriz, 26, Yotam Haim, 28, and Samar Talalka, 24, who had escaped their captors in Gaza and were killed by IDF soldiers, even though they were waving white flags and calling out for help in Hebrew, underlines the need for a review of tactics.
In response to the tragic death of the three Israeli hostages, the IDF said that during the war terrorists had posed as Israeli soldiers or captives only to lead the IDF into a trap that resulted in the death of soldiers.
On Friday, two senior officers, a colonel and a major were to be dismissed and two Brigades Generals reprimanded for their involvement in a deadly drone strike against a group of aid workers with the World Central Kitchen organization in the central Gaza Strip on Monday, the military said Friday.
According to the Times of Israel, a military probe found that the strike was ordered against the convoy of WCK vehicles after officers suspected they carried a Hamas gunman, despite a low level of confidence, and against army regulations. The officers did not identify the vehicles as belonging to WCK when the strike was ordered, according to the investigation.
The army probe found that armed terrorists had been near the aid warehouse as Jeeps were loaded. The army mistakenly assumed one of the armed men entered a WCK Jeep and gave permission for a drone to strike the convoy.
After the strike on the first Jeep, passengers were seen running to a second Jeep that was then also attacked. As well as the third Jeep in the convoy.
British reporter Bendan O’Neil, chief political writer for Spiked, in an article in the Spectator, commented on various times the Europeans and even Americans had committed mistakes that resulted in civilian casualties.
He cited British Foreign Secretary David Cameron who, as prime minister, oversaw a British incursion in Libya that killed numerous Libyans with “misaimed bombs.” According to O’Neil, “things got so bad that the West’s allies took to painting the roofs of their vehicles bright pink in an effort to avoid Nato’s missiles.”
O’Neil wrote that “13 people were slaughtered by ‘friendly fire’ including rebels “but also ambulance workers.”
O’Neil writes that “US president Joe Biden was “outraged” by the killings of the WCK volunteers.” Then points out that when Biden was vice-president, 37 Afghanis, mostly women and children, were mistakenly killed at a wedding party in an US airstrike. And “at another wedding party in 2004, this time in Iraq, 11 women and 14 children were killed by American fire.”
O’Neil says that the seven aid workers would be alive today had Hamas “not taken the decision to visit… barbarism on the Jewish state.” He also says that “…it strikes me that something larger is at work here. It seems that some in the West are seeking to launder their reputations through attacking Israel…powerful men who have been involved in wars far more horrific and far less justified that Israel’s war on Hamas.”
“This isn’t ‘anti-imperialism,” writes O’Neil. “It’s the attempted rehabilitation of Western prestige on the back of bashing Israel.”
Brig. Gen. Mohammed Reza Zahedi
According to Reshet Bet radio, on Wednesday, Israeli F-35 jet fighters fired six missiles and leveled a five-story building in an Iranian compound in Damascus. The attack killed seven Iranian Guard officers, including two generals. One was Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the chief of the Al Quds forces in Syria, in charge of foreign espionage and paramilitary arm, who was also in charge of rocket and drone attacks on Israel from Syria and Lebanon.
Zahedi was the most senior Iranian to be killed since the US assassinated Qasem Soleimani, an Iranian major general, was killed by an American drone strike near Baghdad International Airport, in 2020 in a drone attack.
The Iranians have said they would take their revenge. As such, according to Nir Dvori, military correspondent for Channel 12TV, Israel on Thursday announced it had cancelled the leave for soldiers and called back reservists in the anti-aircraft and anti-missile squadrons who had only recently been relieved of duty.
Gen (ret.) Israel Ziv told Israel TV’s Channel 12TV that “Iran has been attacking Israe using proxies. This could bring us into a new situation. We cannot (confront) them without US help.”
Gen (ret.) Tomer Hayman told Channel 12TV that Iran doesn’t want this incident to cause a regional war. They’re not as concerned about Israel, said Hayman, as they are about dragging the US into the conflict. And, according to Gen (ret.) Giora Eiland, speaking on Israel TV, Israel is the forward unit of the US army.”
The IDF spokesman, Read Adm. Daniel Hagari, told the public in a news conference on Thursday that there was no war imminent. But Israel was taking precautions. He also said that Israel had been using sophisticated electronics to jam GPS signals in the north and center of Israel. This jamming would disrupt the signal of any missile attack aimed at Israel. One source said the jamming redirected the missiles to Bagdad.
Ynetnews reported on Friday that Israel had closed 28 consulates around the world due to a potential Hamas revenge attack.
Ron Ben-Yishai, respected Ynet news military correspondent wrote that , “Iran Wants to hurt and humiliate, but not a regional war: …Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah) Khamenei wants revenge… but the action will likely be limited.
The outline and date are not yet clear, among other things, fear of a raid against a settlement in the Golan led to a weekend exit curfew in the IDF. Other concerns include an attack against soldiers on vacation or the use of "locals" in the West Bank - and the conclusion: to be alert, not to fear a major attack.”
Gaza
Weapons cache at Shifa Hospital
Israel has been fighting in the al-Shifa hospital for the last two weeks. According to Ynetnews, during the fighting Israel reportedly arrested approximately 500 Hamas terrorists and eliminated about two hundred. And 6,200 patients and staff were evacuated.
Channel 12 TV sites information gathered at al-Shifa that supported Israel’s claim the hospital was a terrorist compound. Troops found weapons hidden in the emergency room and the maternity ward.The IDF also arrested terrorists hiding in closets in the hospital.
Amos Yadlin, former head of military intelligence, said on Channel 12TV news, that there were still 4 battalions of Hamas fighters ensconced in the Rafiah area and it was incumbent on Israel to destroy them.” Other pundits say that if Hamas is not defanged entirely, it is only a matter of time until another attack will come.
Meanwhile, according the Ynetnews, the US has told Israel that the plan to evacuate Gazans from Rafah is not feasible. In a virtual meeting between Jake Sullivan, Anthony Blinken, Tzachi Hanegbi and Ron Dermer, it was made clear to the Israelis that they and the US were on ‘completely different pages.’ The Times of Israel reported that Dermer lost his temper and began shouting at Blinken and Sullivan.
Reportedly, the US says the plan was incomplete. There was no comprehensive outline of how to move nearly a 1.5 million Gazans, nor who was going to provide the tents for them, or the water, and food and take care of the sewage.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, Hamas launched 7 rocket attacks from Gaza in just over 24 hours. Warning sirens were sounded in the port city of Ashkelon for the first time since February 27. Ynetnews reported that rockets had also fallen in the souther town of Sderot.
North
Rockets continued to fall on the north of Israel. Sirens sounded in the seaside town of Naharyia for the first time since November. A rocket scored a direct hit on a home in the border town of Metula, making the residence uninhabitable.
Most of the town has been evacuated, but the home that was destroyed on Thursday belonged to a resident who had stayed behind as part of the civilian patrol protecting the village. So far, according to Channel 12TV, over 140 homes in the small village of Metula have been hit and scores destroyed.
Israel struck back at the Hezbollah terrorists, attacking launching sites and warehouses.
According to Israel radio, on Friday Hezbollah launched a missile attack on the upper Galilee. One soldier was lightly wounded by an anti-tank missile.
Hostages
Hostage families and supporters protesting in Tel Aviv
Protests for the release of the 134 hostages still held in Gaza gathered momentum. Protesters were joined by anti-Government protesters. The police were confronted. Water canons were brought out to disperse the protesters.
Protests also took place in Jerusalem opposite Prime Minister Netanyahu’s residence. At one point a protester broke through the barricades but was subdued. The Shin Bet security service protecting the Prime Minister said no real threat was posed.
Ayala Metzger arrested outside of PM Netanyahu’s Jerusalem home
One of the protesters was Ayala Metzger, whose father-in-law is held hostage was arrested and carried away by police.
According to Ynetnews, The head of the Shin Bet after the demonstration: "an alarming trend that could lead to dangerous places.”
Israel’s Shin Bet chief Ronan Bar, arrived at the Prime Minister's residence after thousands surrounded Netanyahu's house. Bar later published an unusual reference to the protest: "a deviation from the rules that could lead to injury to secure persons." Far right Minister Amichai Eliyahu of the Otzmah Yehudi party, called for Bar’s removal due to the "failure of security.” Minister without portfolio Hili Trooper of the National Unity party said, "The violent protest could tear Israel apart.”
On Friday, Gen (ret.) Yacov Amidror said that Israel had to continue the fight into Rafah. He said that was the only way to free the hostages.
Other opinions published in the Israeli media, however, strongly suggest that Israel will not enter Rafah. And that the war has not accomplished it’s goals. Yosi Verter writing in Haaretz said that PM Netanyahu’s statement at the start of the war that Hamas would be destroyed and the hostages freed has not and will not come to fruition.
West Bank
Israeli security forces continued their raids on West Bank villages seeking wanted terrorists. The Shin Bet, Israel’s FBI, reported on Thursday that they’d arrested a cell of 10 Hamas terrorists in the West Bank and uncovered evidence they were planning terrorist attacks at the Teddy Sports Stadium in Jerusalem and also a planned attack on National Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir of the ultra-right Otzmah Yehudit party.
On Friday, citing U.S. officials, the Financial Times reported that the Biden administration is drawing up plans to require labeling of products originating from West Bank settlements
According to the Times of Israel, the US plan came in response to ultra-nationalist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotritch’s announcement on March 22, during last week’s visit by US Sec. of State Anthony Blinken, that Israel plans to nationalize 2,000 acres of Jordan Valley land.
Two days later the US abstained from vetoing a Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages.
In 2019 the EU approved regulations requiring products from Jewish settlements in the West Bank as originating in “occupied territory” not marked as made in Israel.
Also, Ynetnews reported that the Biden administration was slowing down the shipment of military goods to Israel in response to Israel’s ignoring US requests to make some sort of ceasefire agreement. And also for not being forthcoming with allowing aid into Gaza.
Aid
According to the Times of Israel, following Prime Minister’s talk with US President Biden, Israel will temporarily open up the Ashdod Port for humanitarian deliveries and will open Erez Crossing in the northern Gaza Strip for the first time since it was significantly damaged during the Hamas-led October 7 terror onslaught that sparked the ongoing war.
Israel will also increase the amount of aid from Jordan moving through the Kerem Shalom crossing.
Terrorism
Hamas weapons cache in Germany
According to Ynetnews, Bulgarian police uncovered a Hamas weapons cache. Israeli intelligence reportedly tipped off the German police about the possibility of terrorist in Germany. Four terrorists were arrested and provided information about a hiding place in southern Bulgaria concealing stocks of weapons and ammunition.
The arrests proved that Hamas instructed its terrorists to start stockpiling weapons for terror attacks planned within Germany.
According to Der Spiegel, one of those arrested, Abdulhamid al-A. had lived in Germany for years even after his application for refugee status was rejected. Reportedly al-A was in constant contact with Khalil Harraz, a deputy commander in the Al-Qassam Brigades in Lebanon, part of Hamas’s military wing. Harraz was responsible for the organization's overseas operations. Khalil Harraz was recently eliminated by an IDF strike in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, in Israel, terrorist attacks took place in the bus station in Beer Sheva, where a Bedouin from the village of Rahat in the Negev, attacked three people with a knife before being neutralized. Another knife attack took place in the Israeli town of Gan Yavne. So far, one person has died of his wound in the stabbings.
Politics
National Unity Party leader Benny Gantz has said that Israel should hold elections by September. Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid said that six-months was too long to wait. Gen (ret.) Yair Golan of the Labor party told Ynetnews that Netanyahu does not represent most of the country.
Commentators say that Gantz is “leaking votes” after Gideon Saar took his New Hope party and left the Gantz coalition. Gantz also sees that the protests in the streets are growing more and more vociferous and feels he must take advantage of that momentum. Gantz joined the Netanyahu coalition to become part of the War Cabinet, along with his fellow general Gadi Eisenkott, in order to provide some military experience to the cabinet. Critics have said that Gantz should have left the coalition long ago since neither he nor Eisenkott carry any weight in the cabinet that is ruled by PM Netanyahu.
According to a Maariv poll that appeared on Friday, Gantz’s party would receive 32 seats in the next election, up from 12 in the last one but down from the last poll. Netanyahu’s Likud would only garner 17 seats. A Gantz coalition of parties would bring 66 seats and take over the government where 61 seats means a majority in the 120 seat Knesset. Netanyahu’s coalition, that had 64 seats in the last election would only get 44 in new elections.
Qatari leader Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani recently criticized PM Netanyahu saying that the region shouldn’t be left to a man who puts first his own political interests. This came after the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, passed a law allowing the police to shut down any news service that was deemed to be a threat to national security. High on the list was the Qatar backed Al-Jazeera news site.
Some pundits wonder about Al-Thani, saying that he was pressured by the US to force Hamas’ Politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh to release hostages or be expelled from his mansion in Qatar. Al-Thani apparently didn’t get the memo, said one observer.
According to the Times of Israel, on Thursday Haniyeh said that Hamas was not budging on their initial demands. As a consequence, Israel’s negotiating team was pulled back from Cairo.
Meanwhile, Haniyeh’s sister, who is married and lives in the Arab Negev town of Rahat, was arrested for suspected consorting with terrorists. Reportedly she denied involvement and said it was in fact her grandsons. Some pundits speculate that the arrest was a strategy by Israel to hold the sister hostage as a chip in hostage negotiations.
According to Ynetnews, on Tuesday, the Be'er Sheva Magistrate's Court extended Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh's sister Sabah Abdel Salam Haniyeh, by four days.
She was arrested on suspicion of encouraging and incitement to terrorism. Judge Noam Tzuriel ruled that there was a sufficient body of proof suggesting that Sabah Abdel Salam Haniyeh committed the offenses attributed to her, adding that "the actions attributed to the suspect indicate her danger to national security."
In a typical conundrum encountered in Israel, said one pundit, another of Haniyeh’s sisters recently underwent surgery in Israel’s Soroka hospital.
Draft
Prime Minister Netanyahu was in the hospital this week undergoing a hernia surgery. While in the recovery room, Ynetnews reported he was already on the phone talking to ultra-Orthodox ministers trying to solve the problem of drafting ultra-Orthodox youth.
The Knesset is on a six week spring break. Thus the contentious Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) draft law has been put in abeyance until July. On Friday, Ynetnews reported that “It is difficult to exaggerate the drama that is the running hourglass over the Yeshiva budgets.”
According to Ynetnews, “The problem begins and ends with the wording that will appear on the legislative document: how do you create words that will reassure the general non-religious public and yet meet the
expectations of the ultra-Orthodox public?”
According to the report, one phone call from the Council of Torah Sages to the ultra-Orthodox ministers would mean the collapse of Netanyahu’s government and a call for new elections.
According to Ynetnews, “The possibility of the Knesset being dissolved by the Council of Torah Elders is not just a theoretical scenario. If implemented, it will also be final.”
Also, according to Ynetnews, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is blocking the purchase of the F-35 and F-15 aircraft from the US. A purchase which has been in the works between Israel and the U.S. and is now in the advanced stages of discussion.
Officials from the Pentagon expressed their concerns about the delay with their counterparts in the Israel Defense Ministry saying that the delay will effect the delivery schedule of the airplanes.
Smotritch is the leader of the ultra-Nationalist Jewish Home party that represents the settlement movement and the modern orthodox community in Israel.
Israel is still waiting for the approval of the Apache helicopters deal by the U.S. Military analysts say that as part of the lessons learned from October 7 the Apache helicopters are important and an immediate necessity for Israel to be prepared for similar events.
Smotritch and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are reportedly at odds over who gets to approve the 35 billion shekel (@$10 billion) budget to purchase the F-35s and Apache helicopters.
Anti-Semitism
McDonald’s logo in Israel’s Dead Sea resort area
Perhaps this is more business than anti-Semitism. But, NPR reported on Thursday that McDonald’s Israel is selling its 225 restaurants back to McDonalds. Omri Padan is CEO of the holding company that has owned the McDonald’s franchise in Israel for 30 years. Padan is a former Israeli army special forces soldier and has been active in left-wing politics.
According to the report, there have been widespread boycotts of McDonald’s after McDonald’s Israel donated meals to the Israeli military. NPR reported that other American brands, such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Starbucks have also faced boycotts, especially in Jordan where the majority of the population is Palestinian.
In New York, according to the Jewish Week, Antisemitic crimes in New York City spiked in March, reversing a month-by-month decline in the number of anti-Jewish incidents recorded by the NYPD.
There were 43 antisemitic incidents in the five boroughs reported to police last month, more than double the 17 reported in February. Anti-Jewish crimes spiked after Hamas’s devastating October 7 onslaught, with 69 incidents in October and 62 in November.
The rate declined after that, with 31 incidents in both December and January and 17 last month. March’s tally was the highest so far this year.
According to Ynetnews on Saturday, the Irish government decided to divest itself from 5 Israeli companies with holdings in the West Bank.
The move reportedly encompasses shareholdings valued at a total of 2.95 million euros in six entities: Bank Hapoalim BM, Bank Leumi-le Israel BM, Israel Discount Bank, Mizrahi Tefahot Bank Ltd, First International Bank and Rami Levi Chain Stores. Irish Finance Minister Michael McGrath called the move the “correct decision."
Editorial
Recently, Rabbi Michael J. Broyde, wrote an article. Broyde is a professor of law at Emory University School of Law, the director of the SJD Program, and Berman Projects Director at the Center for the Study of Law. He is also a core faculty member at the Tam Institute of Jewish Studies.
Broyde posited a cataclysmic shift in attitudes towards Israel. According to the Rabbi, the center of Jewish life has long been focused on Israel.
But today, with the rise in anti-Israeli feeling and the pro-Palestinian protests, more and more Jewish people are feeling so threatened they are backing away from focusing on Israel. The future support for Israel is at risk.
And, the tragic events of the World Central Kitchen has only heightened the anti-Israel media frenzy. News reports of starvation are repeated without anyone checking for their accuracy. And the pro-Palestinian lobby and media machine continues to effectively painted Israel in the worst possible light.
Recent photo of central market in Gaza
Pundits admit that surely there is starvation in Gaza. But there is also food and goods. The markets are busy. And the pundits point out that there was starvation in Gaza before the war began. There was extreme poverty and despair.
Hamas had the opportunity to alleviate these conditions but decided, rather, to syphon off the billions of aid money poured into Gaza and build tunnels and weapons plants and buy missiles and bombs and guns and ammunition. All with the goal of destroying Israel.
Not to mention, says one observer, the aid trucks that were essentially hijacked by Hamas gunmen, and the goods stolen.
Should Israel withdraw from Gaza, and the aid money comes pouring in once again to rebuild what has been destroyed as a result of the war Hamas initiated, will that money go to help the starving and the poor?
Will that money go to rebuild the homes destroyed in the fighting and give those renovated structures over to needy Gazans?
Or will the leaders and top echelon of Hamas take the money, as they have always done in the past, pad their own bank accounts, and rebuild their luxurious homes and apartments, replace the tunnel city under Gaza, and start preparing for the next war.
These are the dark clouds hanging over Israel. That and the threat of Iran one day acquiring nuclear weapons. A circumstance that seems closer to reality than ever.
What does the future hold for Israel? Is there a leadership that can guide this ship of state to a safe port? Or will Israel be held captive, still, to the type of personality who believes the future of Israel can only be assured by a certain group of people? Or a certain person? A person who must first guarantee that his needs are met before the country’s.
Israel can expect to see a revival of the street protests, not only for the hostages, but for the removal of the government. For new leadership that can find a way to keep Israel afloat. Pundits say the situation will get worse before it gets better. The anti-Israel protests will grow, fueled by well-funded self-interested groups. BDS will continue to raise money. AOC will continue to campaign to cut off Israeli aid. But who will stand up and speak for Israel?
Meanwhile, as Ron Ben Yishai said, Israel has no choice but to stay alert.