Use It Or Lose It
War Day 350
UPDATE
The IDF eliminated the top eschelon of the Radwan wing of the Hezbollah army. The group was meeting in a building in Beirut when two missiles fired by an F-35 fighter jet blew up the building. Reportedly, the meeting was to have been to plan an Oct 7th type attack on Israel’s north.
Among those killed was Ibrahaim Aqil, who was the new chief-of-staff for Hezbollah, and who has long been on the wanted list both for the USA and Israel. Aquil was the mastermind behind the 1983 bombing of the US Marine’s barracks on Oct 23,1983.
Also, pundits say that Hezbollah leader Nasrallah has now lost most of his top military leadership.
Israel’s IDF spokesman Gen. (res) Daniel Hagari told the Israeli public last night to be prepared for a retaliation by Hezbollah, and perhaps by Iran. Schools were closed from Haifa north.
On Sunday, Hezbollah launched over 150 rockets and drones. One fell in Kyriat Bialik destroying a home. The residents said had they not been in their ‘secure room’ they’d have been killed.
House attacked by rockets in Kyriat Bialik
Rockets and drones continued throughout the day.
Meanwhile, Israel has said that it has destroyed hundreds of rocket launcher sites across Lebanon. Without launchers, Hezbollah’s hundred thousand rocket stockpile is veritably useless. However, Israel has not destroyed nearly all the launchers. Most are mobile units and kept safely underground in a series of Hezbollah tunnels.
Pundit speculate Nasrallah’s next move. Some say he will be undeterred and continue the attacks. Others that he will be pushed into a corner and agree to abandon a linkage to Hamas in Gaza and reach some sort of negotiated cease fire.
There are calls for an Israeli ground invasion. However, many pundits believe that what will happen is a continued ‘war of attrition.’ They note that Nasrallah is careful not to fire into central Israel but keep firing only in the north. Experts say Nasrallah is not interested in a total war with Israel. Others say that as a fanatic he may simply follow Iran’s orders and commit his forces to an all out war.
War
IDF troops in Gaza
Rumors as to the how and why of the beeper and walkie-talkie explosions swirl around like dervishes in a sand storm. What seems to be the common consensus is that Israel’s Mossad and Israel’s Military Intelligence set up at least two straw companies that sold the devices to Lebanon and inserted explosive charges in them along the way.
So far, estimates are that at least 12 people died and 2750 injured when thousands of pagers exploded across Lebanon and Syria. Reportedly, the pagers emitted a beep notifying the user of an incoming message. The user then lifted to pager to eye level to read the message when the pager exploded.
And a day later. 20 people were killed and 450 injured when walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah also exploded across Lebanon.
According to experts, the pagers and walkie-talkies were part of a long-developing strategy. The IDF was apparently planning to use in a war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, perhaps as a first strike to disable Hezbollah’s communications abilities.
However, the IDF began to fear that the exploding pagers had been discovered and decided that the ploy had to be used before Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, gave orders to throw all of the pagers in the trash. So, it was a choice, ‘use them or lose them.’
Also, Nasrallah reportedly had recently told all of his officers and soldiers to dump their cell phones, since Israel could listen in and even track them, and switch to pagers and walkie-talkies. The IDF saw this as an opportunity to activate the pager/walkie-talkie ploy.
Israel, who has not taken credit for these bombing, is assumed to have set up a straw company. BAC based in Budapest, Hungary to act as a middle man in the sale of the pagers using Taiwan-based Golden Apollo’s logo. Golden Apollo has a good reputation in the portable communications field..
BAC represented what was apparently another straw company, Sofia, Bulgaria based Norte Global Ltd, who purportedly manufactured and sold the pagers.
Hsu Ching-Kuang, the CEO of Golden Apollo said he knew nothing about these pagers other than putting his label on them. "We only provide the brand name for approval, we have no involvement in the design or production of the product.”
Reportedly, the Taiwanese security services are investigating the issue. Taiwan's economy minister said the Golden Apollo, a pager maker, claimed they must have undergone "adjustments" after they were shipped. According to the official, "We will continue to assist the manufacturer in investigations. We have no record of direct export to Lebanon.”
Golden Apollo said that they thought the AR-924 pagers were manufactured and sold by a Budapest-based BAC consulting, which operates under a licensing agreement to use Golden Apollo’s brand in certain regions. "The design and manufacturing of the products are entirely handled by BAC," the Taiwanese firm emphasized.
BAC company headquarters in Budapest, Hungary
Ron Ben Yishai, the veteran military correspondent writing in Ynetnews,said, “Tracing the BAC company reveals that its location is in Hungary, but no reference could be obtained from the company's personnel and its official website is also full of general details and generic images, without accurate information or examples of its detailed projects in the ‘consulting’ field.
“The official address of the company is also a building of a private house in Budapest, but it does not look like the offices of a commercial company.”
Media reports that the Mossad had set up the BAC company two years earlier and worked at building credibility and eventually enticed Golden Apollo to represent the devices.
Ynetnews reported, “Yesterday, a Hungarian government spokesman said that the pagers were not manufactured in the country. "The authorities have confirmed that the company in question is a company (BAC) that mediates trade, and does not have any production sites in Hungary," said the spokesman, Zoltan Kovacs. "It has one manager, and the devices in question were not seen at all in Hungary."
The BAC website boasted of a large client base but provided little evidence the claim was true.
BAC’s listed CEO, Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono, told NBC news that the firm, which took its website down Wednesday, had nothing to do with manufacturing the pagers.
“I don’t make the pagers. I am just the intermediate. I think you got it wrong,” she told the US network Wednesday.
Example of pager similar to Golden Apollo
On Thursday, a second Mossad straw company was apparently discovered. Ynetnews reported that “Taiwan, Hungary - and now Bulgaria: the new mysterious company in the case of the beeper explosions “
“Sources familiar with the matter told Telex that the same BAC manager - Bersoni-Archidiacono - did business with a Bulgarian company. "Although on paper BAC signed the contract with 'Golden Apollo', in fact it was Norte Global Ltd. that was behind the deal," it says.
The report claims that it was the Bulgarian company, Norte Global Ltd, that imported the pagers from Taiwan, and the Bulgarian company was also the one that organized the transfer of the equipment, and its sale to Hezbollah.
According to Ynetnews, the Bulgarian company has “No email, no phone: in a report in Hungary it is claimed that the person who transferred the pagers from Taiwan to Hezbollah was the Norte Global Ltd. company, whose seat is in Sofia. There is almost no relevant detail on the official website, the manager is apparently Norwegian. In Bulgaria, investigators
Exploded pager
“Whoever detonated the devices had the radio band at a central location and was able to detonate thousands of the pagers simultaneously.
According to the New York Times, Israel did not tamper with the devices en route to deliver, but manufactured them in a highly-sophisticated and well-organized ruse.
The New York Times also reported that the company supplied other firms with pagers as well, though only the ones transferred to Hezbollah were fitted with batteries that contained explosive materiel known as PETN.
The devices first began to reach Lebanon in 2022, according to the newspaper, with production ramping up as Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah denounced the use of cellphones due to concerns they could be tracked by Israel.
An expert at Ben Gurion University said that the devices had a 20 gram explosive charge inserted in them near the battery. A switch was also installed that allowed remote detonation.
According to Avi Issacharoff, one of the founders of the popular Fauna TV show, writing in Ynet, wrote, “The meaning of hitting thousands of Hezbollah operatives at the same time is a declaration of war.
“If indeed Israel is behind the series of beeper explosions in Lebanon, it is doubtful whether Hezbollah will be able to contain it. We are probably expecting an escalation, and perhaps even an extensive war that will cause many casualties all over the country. And what does Prime Minister Netanyahu do? in the dismissal of his defense minister
(Netanyahu had been ready to fire Defense Minister Gallant and replace him with Gideon Saar. See ‘Politics’ below)
“Yesterday's extraordinary attack in Lebanon looks like something out of a science fiction movie. An almost simultaneous explosion of thousands of pagers that caused about 4,000 injuries among Hezbollah operatives. It's a scenario that sounds almost delusional. This action, which Hezbollah attributes to Israel, combines sophistication, precision and lethality that create a great deal of embarrassment on the other side, to say the least”.
Gen (ret) Tamir Hymen, speaking on a panel at Channel 12TV, said Tuesday night that it was unusual to have these pagers explode without them being part of an overall plan of attack. He said Israel had to expect a response from Hezbollah.
So far, Heyman said, Israel has been fighting a ‘war of attrition’ with Hezbollah. Both sides, he said, have respected their self-imposed boundaries, Hezbollah raining missiles and drones on Israel’s north, and Israel responding with artillery, missile and drone attacks on South Lebanon.
According to observers, the pager attacks upped the ante in the war of attrition. They took place in downtown Beirut in the Da'ahia neighborhood, a Hezbollah stronghold. And around the country.
On Wednesday, in a further surprise for Hezbollah, apparently part of another Mossad operation, more Hezbollah communications devices exploded around Lebanon. At least a twenty people were killed and over 450 injured when Hezbollah walkie-talkies blew up on Hezbollah operatives.
These walkie-talkies, model IC-V82 144 MHz VHF FM transceivers, carried the Japanese Icom logo. However, according to the Icom website,” The IC-V82 is a handheld radio that was produced and exported, including to the Middle East, from 2004 to October 2014. It was discontinued about 10 years ago, and since then, it has not been shipped from our company.
“The production of the batteries needed to operate the main unit has also been discontinued, and a hologram seal to distinguish counterfeit products was not attached, so it is not possible to confirm whether the product shipped from our company.” But, Icom added, “all of our radios are manufactured at the same factory, and we do not manufacture them overseas.”
Walkie-Talkie used by Hezbollah
According to Time magazine, “In a statement Thursday. Icom said it had earlier warned customers that almost all IC-V82s on the market are counterfeit.”
Ohad Hemo, an Arab Affairs correspondent on Channel 12TV, said that Hezbollah now had no way to communicate. Hezbollah operatives had already been told to dump their smartphones since Israeli security could monitor the calls. Then the pagers exploded. Now the walkie talkies. He said it would take time, perhaps weeks, for Hezbollah to organize a response to these attacks that are blamed on Israel.
He also pointed out that Lebanon’s hospitals were overflowing and some patients sent to Iran for treatment.
One observer said that these attacks may significantly weaken Hezbollah and entice the terrorist group to give up it’s promise to stay in the fight as long as Hamas fought in Gaza, and come to some agreement with Israel.
But, Ehud Yaari, veteran Arab Affairs correspondent for Channel 12TV said this was the time for Israel to strike Hezbollah since they are in such disarray.
One pundit raises the question if the explosions of the beepers and walkie-talkies was a one time event caused by a possible discovery of their existence, or was it a sign of a first step in Israel’s war with Hezbollah in Lebanon?
Eytan Ben-David, speaking on Channel 12TV, said that it appears that Iran is not interested in getting involved in the war at this time.
Also, according to the Times of Israel, on Sept 17th, Margaret Weinstein testified before an independent civilian commission investigating events leading up to the Oct 7th Hamas invasion and massacre.
Weinstein, a former soldier in the Border Defense Corps who served at the Kibbutz Nahal Oz military base until shortly before October 7, told an independent Civilian Commission of Inquiry in Tel Aviv.
said, “There were many malfunctions, including some that took a very long time to fix. For example, cameras that fell, cameras that already worked less well, so we saw much less well,” Margaret Weinstein,
15 spotters and 38 other soldiers were killed and seven kidnapped on Oct 7th.
Weinstein also cited malfunctioning surveillance balloons, which were meant to provide views of areas that would otherwise be “dead zones.” Asked how important these balloons were for their work, she replied: “Obviously, it’s critical.”
Weinstein — who was subsequently posted to the Urim IDF base, which was also overrun on October 7 — said that when she complained, “The answer I received was that there wasn’t enough of a budget.”
She also testified that she’d reported Hamas training exercises along the border with terrorists riding around in pickup trucks, even setting explosive devices along the border, doing exactly what they eventually did on Oct 7th.
None of the female soldiers acting as spotters received weapons training nor were supplied with weapons.
Gaza
IDF in Gaza
Four Israeli soldiers were killed earlier in the week when they entered a booby-trapped building. Among them was Agam Naim, 20, the first female soldier to die in the war.
According to reports, almost every building and tunnel in the central Gaza Tel Sultan neighborhood has been rigged with explosives.
This brings to death toll of soldiers killed in Gaza to 348 since the IDF ground incursion on Oct 27th.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army has begun readying the elite 98th brigade to transition from Gaza to the northern border. According to veteran military correspondent Ron Ben Yishai writing in Ynetnews, “The morning after the beeper explosions in Lebanon, the IDF was on high alert.
“The 98th Division, which is considered one of the elite in the IDF and includes, among other things, the commando brigade and the paratrooper brigade, was primed to leave the fighting in the Gaza Strip and go up to the northern border. The background to the move is the possibility of the expansion of the war against Hezbollah.
“The 98th Division, like the regular 36th Division, has specific tasks within the ground maneuver. In fact, it is about "transferring the center of gravity" to the North, something that Defense Minister Yoav Galant mentioned in the past. The possible transfer of the elite division comes after the cabinet included the return of the residents of the north to their homes among the goals of the war.“
According to Ben Yishai, and others, moving the 98th Division from the southern to the northern front is considered significant. “The move leaves the 162 and 252 divisions in the strip. Since yesterday, the Chief of Staff has been conducting a continuous assessment of the situation surrounding what is happening in the north, and so far no special instructions have been given to the residents.”
Meanwhile, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi has said that he sees no immediate end to the war in Gaza. “This will go on for a long time,” he told reporters.
North
Rockets over Israel’s north
Firemen in Israel’s north putting out fires caused by rockets
Israel’s north has been hit on almost a daily basis by scores, sometimes over a hundred, missiles and drones. About 60,000 residents of the north have been driven from their homes by the attacks.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib expressed his fear of a potential war with Israel. He spoke on Wednesday in a CNN interview on Thursday after Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies exploded in Lebanon.
Speaking with CNN's Christine Amanpour, Habib emphasized, “There is no doubt it is a scary moment, and we are afraid of a coming war because we don't want a war.” He further explained that while “there were skirmishes on the border, which sometimes escalated, now we are talking about the beginning of a war.
"That's why we're going to the UN Security Council to stop this. We are against war in Lebanon. The government of Lebanon does not want war and does not even want the skirmishes in the south of Lebanon," Habib continued.
Israeli pundits scoff at Habib’s statement. They say that the “skirmishes” have displaced 60,000 Israelis from their homes, witness sometimes hundreds of rockets a day falling on the north, and caused many injuries and deaths.
On Thursday, according to the Times of Israel, at least eight people in Israel were wounded in an anti-tank guided missile attack on the Lebanon border. Hezbollah claimed responsibility.
Israel TV showed footage of a group of soldiers on maneuvers in the north. They were apparently seen by Hezbollah spotters who called in an anti-tank missile strike. Others were injured in a subsequent drone strike.
Israeli media later reported that two Israeli soldiers died in the attack. Reserve soldier Maj. Yael Fwarsy, 43, and Sgt. Tomer Keren, 20.
Wednesday night, Israeli fighter jets struck buildings used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon’s Chihine, Taybeh, Blida, Mays al-Jabal Aitaroun, and Kafr Kila, the IDF said, as well as a Hezbollah weapons depot in Khiam. Dark mushroom clouds caused by exploding missiles and ammunition filled the sky above the airstrikes.
Between Wednesday night and Thursday, the Jerusalem Post reported that Israel pulled off the second largest official attack on Hezbollah this year.
According to the Jerusalem Post, DF fighter jets struck 1000 rockets that were ready for immediate launch into Israeli territory. Reuters reported that this was the heaviest IDF air strike since October.
According to media reports, the IDF attacked between fifty to seventy targets, hitting hundreds of fully primed rocket launchers, across Lebanon within 20 minutes.
Earlier in the week Gallant announced a “new phase” in the war. This war began in the south on October 7 when the Palestinian terror group Hamas led a devastating cross-border attack that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians and took 251 hostage.
Channel 12TVs military correspondent Nir Dvori has said that the IDF is now itching to invade Lebanon.
However, U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East, Amos Hochstein is still trying for a diplomatic solution. According to Hochstein, a war with Hezbollah won’t solve the problem. And won’t bring the residents back to the north.
But Gen (ret.) Tamir Hyman, former head of Military Intelligence Research, told Channel 12TV that without a deal in Gaza, Israel has no choice but to invade Lebanon.
Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, in solidarity with Hamas.
And, Israeli jets caused sonic booms over Beirut on Thursday as Hezbollah leader Nasrallah went on TV to address the beeper/walkie-talkie attacks. In the address he said that Hezbollah would not allow Israeli residents to return to the north.
“Let me tell the Israeli government, the Israeli army and the Israeli people: You will not manage. I tell Prime Minister Netanyahu: You can do what you want, you will not manage. The only solution is to halt the aggression against the people of Gaza. No military escalation, no killings, no total war will return your settlers to the border area. You know it,” he said.
However, observers say that the residents of the north now hold out new hope that they may be able to return home. That the rockets and drones may stop. The thousands of beepers and walkie talkies that exploded across Lebanon and Syria struck at Hezbollah. Community leaders in the north see this as, they hope, in Israel’s first move against Hezbollah. A move that will allow 60,000 of them to return home and live in peace.
Experts warn that the fight won’t be easy. Hezbollah has a well-trained army and hundreds of thousands of missiles. And a sophisticated tunnel network. If and when Israel goes to war in Lebanon, they warn, more Israeli soldiers will be wounded and killed. Some question if just going along with a ‘war of attrition’ isn’t a better option. Others say that a sovereign nation can’t allow itself to have 60,000 residents displaced from their homes. Or worse, to cede the north to Hezbollah.
West Bank
IDF in Tulkarem
According to the Times of Israel, at least four Palestinian gunmen were killed on Thursday by Israeli troops during a raid in the West Bank city of Qabatiya, near Jenin, according to military sources.
Troops of the Duvdevan commando unit surrounded a building in the area where a wanted Palestinian was holed up. A gunfight ensured and the Palestinians were killed.
Israel has been waging a campaign in the West Bank to root out as best they can the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist cells.
Recently, the IDF discovered a tunnel under construction in the West Bank town of Tulkarem, only 9 kilometers from the seaside Israeli town of Netanya. And Israeli settlers are worried about a Hamas Gaza type surprise attack.
On the other hand, on Monday, according to the Times of Israel, Israeli settlers attacked and beat several Palestinians and Israeli activists in the Palestinian hamlet of Mu’arrajat East, in the southern Jordan valley region, injuring several of them during the incident. Reportedly, five Palestinians were injured along with four peace activists.
The settler’s raid, that began with three settlers who were soon backed up by a truck-load of another ten, was in response to an alleged assault against a settler shepherd earlier on Monday. The police arrested two Palestinian villagers for that attack. No settler was arrested for the apparent reprisal. One activist said ”No arrests were made, even though video footage of the settler rampage was shown to the police.”
Mu’arrajat East has been the target of repeated attacks by settlers in recent months, according to the Times of Israel. Reportedly, villagers’ dogs and goats were poisoned recently.
According to Daniel DeMalach, an Israeli peace activist who was at the scene, “They have been trying to uproot these people from Mu’arrajat for nearly a year, now, and it’s gotten really bad in the last week…There is an organized, systematic effort to intimidate the community get them to leave.” Reportedly, since Oct 7, over 1000 Palestinians from small West Bank communities have fled their homes due to settler violence.
According to Police High Commissioner (Ret.)Shlomo Aharonishki, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has been accused of turning the Israel police force into his own private militia, bypassing qualified candidates for promotion in favor of those who agree with his politics. The problem is, according to Aharonishki, is that Ben Gvir was appointed by Prime Minister Netanyahu.
One example is Coresh Barnoor who was the main investigator in the charges against Prime Minister Netanyahu, that lead to his indictment on three felonies. Barnoor was passed over for promotion and resigned from the police force. One of many in a series of high-profile resignations in the law enforcement body.
Critics say Ben Gvir has ordered the police to be harsh and even violent with anti government protesters while going easy or even ignoring West Bank settler violence against Palestinian villages.
The West Bank is referred to by settlers as Judea and Samaria. Reportedly, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotritch has been working quietly to annex the West Bank, funneling monies into the settlements, legal and illegal, while denying funds to West Bank Palestinian towns and villages.
Also, Smotritch, as deputy minister of defense in addition to his duties and powers a Finance Minister, has appointed Hillel Roth, one of his aides to be his representative at the ministry of defense, sitting in a 15th floor office of the ministry of defense building in Tel Aviv.
Roth is, according to a report by Ynet’s Nachum Barnea, now essentially the governor of the West Bank, giving orders to soldiers when to intervene in settler violence. In a recent spat between Israelis and Palestinians, only the Palestinians were charged, the Israelis were released without charges.
For example, Noa Goldenberg, a 27-year-old Israeli woman was arrested on the beach in Tel Aviv for throwing sand at National Police Minister Ben Gvir. She was taken to the Neve Tirtza Women’s Prison in Ramle where she spent the night in jail.
According to the Times of Israel, Goldenberg was at Tel Aviv’s Geula beach with friends when Ben Gvir, who is in charge of the police, passed through.. Ben Gvir’s appearance at the beach drew angry reactions from some of the beachgoers, who could be heard yelling “murderer” at him in footage posted to social media. Goldenberg was arrested at roughly 2:30 p.m. on Friday.
Also, three women were arrested who placed flyers showing pictures of captured hostages in a synagogue where former minister and Knesset speaker, Yuli Edelstein, now chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, prayed on Shabbat.
The minister said that the board of the synagogue complained to the police but the board denies that. Edelstein was known once as a Prisoner of Zion, and has been criticized for hypocrisy. One critic said Edelstein was a “Refusenik” in the Former Soviet Union for their harsh police tactics, but doesn’t hesitate to use the same tactics in Israel when he is threatened.
Social media footage showed some wet sand hurled in Ben Gvir’s direction. Ben Gvir has been accused of using the police as his private militia. Critics say he had Goldenberg arrested but not settlers who rampaged in the West Bank’s Jitt village, where one Palestinian died. Nor at the prison in Beit Lid, near Netanyahu, where ultra-nationalists broke in trying to get at Hamas terrorists were being held there. No arrests were made..
According to the Times of Israel, “anti-government activists, together with Labor MK Naama Lazimi and Yesh Atid MK Vladimir Beliak, gathered outside Neve Tirza late Friday to demand Goldenberg’s release.
“Beliak said on social media Saturday morning that ‘large swaths of the police have fallen into the hands of the criminal Ben Gvir.’
“Ben Gvir, who assumed his position in late 2022, has been accused of politicizing the police. He has reportedly ordered the police to refrain from arresting rightwing extremists who attacked trucks bringing humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
“Police have also largely failed to make arrests over recent instances of settler violence in the West Bank, and in the case of right-wing mobs that stormed two army bases on July 29 after 10 reservists were detained on suspicion of having sodomized a Palestinian prisoner.”
However, three young Israelis, one 18 and two 17, were arrested for violence against Palestinians. They blockaded an entrance to the Palestinian village of Burin, smashing car windows with metal baseball bats and throwing stones, then drove away, forcing another Palestinian car to stop, and again bashing the car, and driver, with a baseball bat.
In August, two settlers from an illegal outpost were indicted on terrorism charges for violent attacks against Arab Israelis. And a 19-year-old from the ‘radical’ settlement of Yizhar was arrested for the attack on the Palestinian village of Jitt.
Palestinians have complained about the upswing in attacks. A recent report in the New York Times quotes one Palestinian writer, who lives in a tiny West Bank village, of saying that the settler violence has become so extreme that many Palestinians in neighboring villages have packed up and moved to other countries.
Jordan has complained that Israel’s West Bank policies are threatening the Jordan-Israeli peace agreement since Palestinians are leaving the West Bank for Jordan.
Also, the King of Jordan, Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein, has complained that National Security Minister Ben Gvir is putting the Jordan/Israel peace agreement at risk by his actions on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, controlled by the Moslem Wakf. Ben Gvir recently went up to the Temple Mount with an entourage to pray, something that was against the Jordanian agreement to keep the status quo on the Temple Mount.
According to reports, both Ben Gvir and Smotritch are dedicated to the destruction of the Palestinian Authority. Smotritch, as Minister of Finance, had held back payments of taxes Israel collected for the Palestinian Authority. The PA has been put in a position of not having enough money to pay their workers. Smotritch has said often he considers the PA a terrorist organization. And that the tax money would only go to support terrorists.
Ben Gvir and Smotritch also firmly oppose any PA involvement in Gaza after the war. Observers say that Smotritch is slowly using his powers to annex the West Bank.
According to well-respected veteran journalist Nachum Barnea, writing in Ynetnews, “The headlines in the media are misleading: they mention the West Bank only in the context of Arab and Jewish terrorism or IDF-initiated actions. The real, historical change takes place in air-conditioned offices, under the radar, and becomes an irreversible reality in the field.
“According to the law, the army is the sovereign. In real life, Israel's sovereignty in Yosh (Yehuda and Shomron) was handed over to a closed, extreme political sect, which rebelled against one man and advanced according to one messianic plan. The prime minister either supports or does not interfere.
“What the sect lacks, meanwhile, the regime revolution within the Green Line achieves, with weak resistance of the army, five minutes from Kfar Saba.
“There is a vision here. There is also wickedness for its own sake, just like in Rothman and Levin's (Judicial Reform)revolution.
“Smotrich took over the West Bank in a pincer movement: one arm is his powers as Minister of Finance, the other arm is the powers he received as Minister of Defense. The goal he outlined in his plan from 2017 has not changed: to collapse the Palestinian Authority, prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state and present the seven million Arabs who live between the Jordan and the sea with a choice - die in battle, emigrate abroad or forever be second-class citizens.
“As the Minister of Finance he freezes, delays or prevents the transfer of the tax money that Israel collects for the PA. These are not our funds - we only collect, for a respectable fee. They allow the Palestinian Authority to pay salaries to its approximately 140,000 employees, including members of the security forces who fight terrorism. Because of its financial hardship, the authority pays them only 50% of their salary.”
Israel has also closed to borders to Palestinian workers who are mainly employed in the construction industry. Observers say that by this action Israel forces West Bank Palestinians to seek other sources of income. Many turn to the terrorist organizations that give them both a salary and a gun with orders to fight Israel.
Also, according to Barnea, “On the 15th floor of the office, above the Defense Minister's office, Smotritch established his own empire. Its executive is Hillel Roth, formerly a resident of Yitzhar and now a resident of Rabbah, a personal, political appointment of Smotritch. His title is misleading - Deputy Head of the Civil Administration for Civil Affairs. From every practical point of view he is the governor of the West Bank.”
Barnea quotes Prof. Dan Turner, who says, “"There are no gatekeepers; there is no professional rank; there is no IDF. Everything is managed through civil and political entities. The naturalization of the services was one of the means for Smotritch and his men to free themselves from the control of the army and strive for actual annexation….
Barnea quotes Smotritch, “My life's mission is to build the Land of Israel and thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger the State of Israel. It's not political. It is national and existential. This is the reason why I took upon myself, in addition to the position of Minister of Finance, also the responsibility for the civil issues in Judea and Samaria.”
Hostages
Hostage Protest Tel Aviv
Mass rallies are still taking place around Israel. Last Saturday night over 100,000 people showed up to demand negotiations to release the 101 hostages, alive or dead, are still being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Only an estimated 40 are still alive, according to security sources.
On Wednesday, Channel 12TVs political reporter Yaron Avraham presented a scathing report on how Prime Minister Netanyahu had repeatedly torpedoed the hostage negotiations
In the report, Avraham showed a timeline how at various stages, as the negotiations were making progress, Netanyahu inserted new terms, or simply instructed negotiators not to go to talks.
Avraham made it clear these moves were made following public threats by ultra-Nationalists Finance Minister Bezalel Smotritch and Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir, who said that they would bolt the coalition, causing the government to fall, should Netanyahu agree to a cease-fire with Hamas.
Avraham made it clear that Netanyahu’s reasons for torpedoing the negotiations were political and not in the interests of the hostages.Or the country.(A cease fire with Hamas would also mean a cease-fire with Hezbollah in Lebanon)
Some analysts say that Netanyahu is convinced that without his leadership Israel would fall apart and whatever he had to do to stay in power was necessary for the good of the country.
Observers say that Smotritch and Ben Gvir oppose the release of any Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli hostages, and believe a cease-fire is a mistake. Both want Israel to reoccupy a section of the Gaza strip that was evacuated in a contentious deal arranged by then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2005.
Smotritch represents the hard-line settler community living in the West
But Smotritch isn’t the only ideologue in this tragedy. David Remnick writing in The New Yorker calls Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar “The Butcher of Khan Younis.” And this is the man Israel has to negotiate with.
According to Remnick, Sinwar began his road to murder at an early age. By 17, when he’d become enamored with Islam, Sinwar was tasked with the torture and murder of those suspected of betraying Hamas.
“Until 1948, Sinwar’s parents and grandparents lived in Al-Majdal, a town north of Gaza now known as Ashkelon. During the war against the newborn state of Israel—a period of suffering and displacement known in Arabic as the Nakba, or “catastrophe”—the family fled south and into the Gaza Strip. Born in 1962, Sinwar grew up in a large family in the Khan Younis refugee camp,” Remnick writes.
According to Remnick, Sinwar was an acolyte of the Islamic fundamentalist firebrand Sheik Ahmed Yassin, a wheel-chair bound cleric, a result of a childhood injury, who had built up a fervent following. While the PLO was in exile in Tunis in the 80’s, Yassin attracted young disenchanted Gazans. Sinwar, then a student of Arabic at the Islamic University of Gaza, became an Yassin lieutenant.
Yassin eventually founded Hamas, with a mandate to eradicate Israel. Yassin set up a group called Majd to establish internal discipline and “moral rectitude. Sinwar was selected to lead it.
Reportedly, Sinwar carried out his duties “with icy efficiency and without a trace of regret.” Remnick quotes a former Shin Ben interrogator who had once questioned Sinwar. “He saw murder victims as people who needed to die. …He brutally murdered a barber. Why? Because there was a rumor the man had obscene material in his barber shop he sometimes showed his clients quietly, behind a curtain.”
According to sources quoted in Remnick’s article, Sinwar’s mission was to torture collaborators and intimidate anyone thinking about working with the Israelis. ““He used to do it in the cruelest manner,” said Zaki Chehab, a Palestinian journalist in his book ‘Inside Hamas.’. “He would drip boiling oil on people’s heads to get them to confess to collaboration. People were terrified of him.”
Remnick also quotes Michael Koubi, a former officer in the Israeli security services who interrogated Sinwar in prison. Remnick said Koubi, “told me that he (Sinwar) was the coldest man he had ever encountered. “He described to me very precisely how he killed people,” Koubi said. “He took out a machete and cut off their heads. He put one suspected collaborator in a grave and buried him alive.”
Sinwar has also reportedly said he has no qualms about sacrificing the lives of a hundred thousand Palestinians if it will bring about the destruction of Israel. Hostages to him are irrelevant as anything but negotiating chips, said one pundit. And he wouldn’t and didn’t hesitate to kill them if the IDF gets too close.
As for October 7th, according to the New Yorker article, “Samer Sinijlawi, a Fatah politician in East Jerusalem, told Remnick, “Sinwar did everything possible to prepare, and he talked about it openly, but nobody believed it.” He added, “Israel went to sleep on October 6th and thought there is a cat sleeping in Gaza. They woke up the next morning only to discover a dinosaur there.”
This is the man that Israel has to negotiate with.
Meanwhile, in discussions with the US, Israel has put out a new proposal for the release of hostages. According to Kan Channel 1TV, Israel has put a proposal on the table that would end fighting in the Gaza Strip and give the head of Hamas safe passage out of the enclave in exchange for the immediate release of all hostages held in Gaza, the demilitarization of the Strip and the establishment of an alternative governing power there.”
Hamas politburo member Ghazi Hamad swiftly rejected the offer, telling Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that “the proposal for Sinwar’s exit is ridiculous and indicates the negotiating bankruptcy of the occupation.”
“It confirms the occupation’s denial of what happened throughout eight months of negotiations. Negotiations are stuck due to the intransigence of the Israeli position,” Hamad said.
Yair Lapid, the opposition leader, said that he has never agreed with Netanyahu’s hostage negotiation plan for ‘stages’ of release of prisoners. “It was a bad idea to start with,” said Lapid.
Terrorism
Bomb found in Tel Aviv park
A roadside bomb, containing a US made Claymore mine, was discovered in a Tel Aviv park on Wednesday, similar to a bomb discovered a year ago. According to Ynetnews, last year’s bomb was meant to assassinate former Chief-of-Staff and one time Minister of Defense Gen (ret.) Moshe ‘Boogie’ Ayalon.
In last year’s attempt eight Palestinians were arrested. No suspects have been identified in the recent attempt.
However, in other developments, the Shin Bet announced on Thursday that they’d uncovered an Iranian plot to assassinate Prime Minister Netanyahu, Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, and Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Iran’s efforts were particularly intense following the assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, which most of the world has attributed to Mossad. However, Israel has made sure not to take any credit for it.
Moti Maman in center between guards
Moti Maman,72, an Israeli businessman from Ashkelon, was arrested for attempting to organize the assassination of the Israeli leaders. Reportedly, Iran recruited Maman who had lived in Turkey and had businesses there. Maman also dealt with Iranian businesses. According to the criminal charges, Maman was smuggled twice from Turkey to Iran to meet with Iranian security officials.
According to the Jerusalem Post, “Maman was also requested to take videos of certain Israeli sites for surveillance and intelligence gathering purposes as well as to deliver threats to Israeli citizens who Iran had contacted to carry out missions that were not complying with Iranian directives.”
Maman told the police he had asked for one-million dollars, to take pictures of Israeli locations, find Americans and Russians willing to take out Iranian opposition in Europe.
The Jerusalem Post report said it was”unclear why the Shin Bet published the disclosure on Thursday, two days after it published the attempt by Hezbollah to assassinate former defense minister Moshe Yaalon.
In addition, it was unclear if there was any coordination between Iran and Hezbollah regarding the various plots or a delineation of who would target who.
Also, according to Ynetnews, on Monday September 15, the IDF and Shin Bet said that they thwarted an imminent terror attack when they arrested 13 men traveling in a car on a major highway.
According to the military and security service, one of the men in the group was affiliated with a terror cell in Hebron. His interrogation led to the arrest of others who were planning the attack. At least two people were arrested, and a search of their homes revealed weapons that they planned to use in their terror strike.
Also, last week a policeman was stabbed at the Damascus gate and taken to Shaare Tezdek hospital for moderate wounds. The terrorist who attacked him was shot and killed at the site.
In a separate incident earlier, security forces forced a Palestinian suspect, driving on the Tel Aviv to Jerusalem highway to stop. In an attempt to escape, he rammed cars including one police car before coming to a stop.
Red Sea
Houthi Iranian-built Shahab missile
On Wednesday, Sept 15, sirens blared across central Israel as a drone launched from Iraq was downed over Israel. The Houthi Iranian-made Shahab long-range missile, made the 2000 km, 15-minute, journey from Yemen before it self-imploded over Israel.
Remnants were also fired at by the Israeli Arrow 3 anti-missile system. Shrapnel fell in a small area near Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport. Minor damage was caused to an outdoor railway escalator near the town of Modiin. Several brush fires were started by the burning shrapnel. There were no direct injuries. The question asked is how the missile made it as far as Israel without being destroyed? Usually Israeli or American radar pick up an inbound missile.
According to former IDF Air Force chief Eytan Ben Eliyahu, speaking on Channel 12TV, “We have seen this before. In the Gulf War, we saw scuds break apart in the air before they landed…the rocket was probably hit partially and started shuddering and shaking and just came apart.
Israel is expected to respond to the attack. The last time the Houthi’s succeeded in sending a drone that hit Tel Aviv. Israel responded by nearly destroying the Hadeda port in Yemen. According to Gen (Ret.) Ronen Cohen, deputy director of IDF research,Israel needs to make a statement that Iran will understand, not a tactical response.
Politics
United Torah Judaism’s Goldknopf, center with long beard
Protesters were ready to return to the streets this week when Prime Minister Netanyahu sprung the news that he was in advanced negotiations with New Hope party leader Gideon Saar to become the Minister of Defense replacing Yoav Gallant.
The media roiled at the news, criticizing Netanyahu for favoring politics over security by appointing a “neophyte” as defense minister during an on-going war.
Reportedly, Netanyahu was pressured by United Torah Judaism’s Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Minister of Housing and Construction Yitzhak Goldknopf to replace Gallant. Goldknopf blamed Gallant for standing in the way of the Haredi Draft Law, that would see draft age ultra-Orthodox men, and yeshiva students who were not attending classes, drafted into the IDF.
Goldknopf was assured that Saar would be more flexible. Goldknopf was also criticized for narrow political interests in a time of war when more soldiers were needed to relieve those battered and tired after nearly a year of battle.
Another reason Netanyahu was willing to bring Saar into the government was to offset the influence of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. Some pundits speculated that with Saar in the government Benny Gantz and Eizenkot would rejoin the coalition and perhaps attract others like Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid and Israel Beitenu’s Avigdor Leiberman. This broader coalition would allow Netanyahu to fire Ben Gvir and even ultra nationalist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotritch.
According to Channel 12TV the negotiations with Saar broke down when Sarah Netanyahu, wife of the PM, interfered saying she didn’t trust Saar to side with Netanyahu on contentious issues, like the Judicial Reform, which Saar has said he opposed.
The negotiations stalled and replacing Gallant was on hold when the beepers and walkie-talkies began exploding. Netanyahu held meetings, that included sitting beside Gallant, giving the impression that the idea of replacing Gallant as Minister of Defense during a war had been dropped, at least temporarily.
The US had also reportedly informed Netanyahu that they disapproved of replacing Gallant at this crucial moment.
Channel 12TV released a new poll that showed a coalition led by former Prime Minister Neftali Bennet would garner close to 70 seats and handily defeat Netanyahu’s coalition that would barely get 45 seats if elections were held today.
Meanwhile, a new initiative was begun by a group called HaRivion HaRevee, the fourth quarter, calling for a National Unity Government.
The fourth quarter started two years ago regularly holds parlor meeting and seminars trying to bridge the gap between various sectors of Israeli society in order to assure today’s Israeli children they have a future in Israel.
The group was started with the philosophy based on something one of Israel’s founders, David Ben Gurion, reportedly said upon the founding of the state. “The test of Zionism will be when Israel turns 75. By then, the children born will no longer meet Holocaust survivors, nor will they know the founding generation. Our belief in the righteousness of our cause will require a renewed definition, not based on what was, but rather on what will be.”
The movement’s founders state in their website, “Israel has now entered its fourth quarter since its founding - years 75-100. This is a dangerous time in the life of nations - twice before in history, the Jewish state crumbled before it reached its 100th year.”
Working to prevent this fourth quarter meltdown, a meeting was held last week in Tel Aviv that attracted over 500 people. The lead speaker, Dr. Yoav Heller, co-founder and chairman of the movement, said that a National Unity Government would be able to help force Netanyahu to make the necessary concessions to end the war and get the hostages released.
However, one participant said that the National Unity Government was a non-starter since as long as Netanyahu was leading the government neither Lapid nor Leiberman nor Yair Golan, now head of the Labor/Meretz party, would be able to outmaneuver him.
If nothing else, said one pundit, Netanyahu has proven himself to be a genius at politics even if he is a lousy prime minister.
According to Israel Radio’s Reshet Bet, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara informed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday that she opposes his position not to establish a state commission of inquiry into the failings leading up to Hamas’s devastating October 7 attack until after the current war ends.
She also said her office will not defend Netanyahu against High Court petitions demanding a state commission’;s formation. Baharav-Miara has called for a non-partisan official inquiry into the Oct 7th war. One that is not run by the present government.
Antisemitism
Anti-Israel protest
The international criminal court in the Haig has threatened to issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant.
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has warned Netanyahu that a state commission of inquiry, not one run by Netanyahu’s government, into the events leading up to the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, and how the campaign has been handled, is the best way to prevent arrest warrants being issued against senior Israeli civilian and military officials, according to a Saturday report.
“The complete separation from the political echelon and the independence of the investigation committee is of crucial importance,” she stressed.
So far, Netanyahu has rejected an independent state inquiry.
Meanwhile, according to Euronews,
The UN General Assembly has overwhelmingly supported a Palestinian-drafted resolution on Wednesday demanding that Israel end its “unlawful presence” in Gaza and the occupied West Bank within a year.
The vote in the 193-member world body was 124-14, with 43 abstentions. Among those in opposition was the United States, Israel’s closest ally.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, called the vote a turning point "in our struggle for freedom and justice.”
“It sends a clear message that Israel’s occupation must end as soon as possible and that the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination must be realized" he added.
The resolution called for the immediate withdrawal of all Israeli forces and the evacuation of settlers from Palestinian territories.
Israel’s UN Ambassador, Danny Danon, denounced the vote as “a shameful decision that backs the Palestinian Authority’s diplomatic terrorism.”
The resolution is not legally binding.
Meanwhile, the college campus’ pro-Palestinian protests are still in the news. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and Palestine Legal filed a federal lawsuit against the University of Maryland on Tuesday, following the administration’s blanket ban on all student-led events slated for October 7.
UMD President Darryl Pines announced the ban after the university chapter of the anti-Israel group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) had booked the campus’s main lawn for an event on October 7, the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s attack on Israel and the start of the ongoing war.
Upon hearing about the booking at the start of the school year, mainstream Jewish groups came out strongly against the event, fearing it would glorify violence against Israelis. SJP remained vague about the nature of its reservation in the first few days of backlash.
For most Jewish students, the prospect of an anti-Israel event taking up the center of campus on the anniversary of Hamas’s massacre , in which invading terrorists killed over 1,200 people and kidnapped 251, was unconscionable.
At the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana campus, the university ruled that it is against university policy to ostracize Jewish students from school clubs for identifying as a Zionist.
And, New York University recently announced that harassing someone for Zionist views ‘might’ violate university policy.
And, according to the Jerusalem Post, Argentina has posted a 44% increase in reported antisemitic incidents in 2023.
In Canada, the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs has urged the government to adopt new policies to ensure safety of Canadian Jewry. 85% of the Canadian Jewish population thinks that the police should be doing more.
Recently, the Canadian Royal Mounted Police, arrested a father and son linked to a planned ISIS terrorist attack on the Jewish community.
Editorial
According to the Times of Israel, on Thursday Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir boycotted a meeting of a subcommittee combating crime in Arab society. The meeting was called by PM Netanyahu.
According to Ynet, Ben Gvir’s office said he refused to attend the meeting because a police official, Yoram Sofer, had been uninvited. Sofer had recently been demoted as the man in charge of the fight against Arab crime.
Crime in the Arab community has skyrocketed in recent years, with more Arabs killed in homicides in 2023 than in any previous year, according to the Abraham Initiatives, a coexistence organization that tracks crime statistics.
Add to this the consistent pressure by ultra-Nationalists to drive the Palestinian farmers from their land in the West Bank, a move that incenses the international community, including the U.S. government, and the presence of Ben Gvir and Smotritch becomes an existential threat.
Reportedly, since Oct 7, over 1000 Palestinians from small West Bank communities have fled their homes due to settler violence. But, this is nothing compared to the nearly 120,000 displaced by Hamas’ invasion of Israel on Oct 7, but it does show an on-going trend.
It must be remembered that National Security Minister Ben Gvir, who is in charge of the police, was before his appointment as minister was the defense attorney for most of the settler youths charged with violence.
He also reportedly ran an indoctrination camp for settler youth, including sessions how to resist police and Shin Bet interrogation. So, say the pundits, that he does nothing to stop the settler violence is no surprise. But is still outrageous. That Hillel Roth, Finance Minister and ultra-nationalist Bezalel Smotritch’s lieutenant, is in charge of managing many aspects of the West Bank for the Ministry of Defense, only makes matters worse.
Some observers say that today many Israelis are on tranquilizers. The pressure of everyday news, the reports of battles, and deaths, the constant bombardment of the north, those displaced from the south, the rising cost of the war in physical and economic terms is taking its toll.
The political situation complicates matters. Netanyahu’s supporters are still pushing for Judicial Reforms even though the last time they did so they weakened Israel enough to invite an invasion by Hamas.
The cabinet, said one observer, is made up of incompetents, one worse than the other. This is not a government Israel needs in a crises. This is a government that needs to keep their cushy jobs, their big salaries, their cars and their patronage appointments. And for Netanyahu, a way to stay out of court and probably jail.
If the situation wasn’t so serious, it would be funny, said one observer.
Another effect of the war is the significant reduction of flights to and from Israel. If one of Hamas’ major achievements has been keeping the 101 hostages captive, and one of Hezbollah’s major achievements has been to keep 60,000 Israelis from their homes,.
According to Jay Solomon writing in the Jerusalem Post, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, defines his campaign against Israel as being both psychological and economic warfare.
Solomon says that the U.S. airline industry is helping Khamenei achieve his goals. United, Delta, American and others have all cancelled flights to Israel. Resumption dates are given but frequently changed or extended. This week the Lufthansa group, Swiss air, etc., also cancelled flights, again.
“The cancellation of these flights is feeding into the economic and diplomatic isolation that Iran’s leaders are seeking.” Solomon cites BDS
as Iran’s perhaps unwitting proxy in this battle.
“A travel ban has the potential to be the most potent weapon in BDS’s war against the Jewish state,” U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-New York) told the Free Press.
Israel’s El Al airlines, and Arkia airlines are some of the few carriers flying in and out of Tel Aviv to Europe and the West. This creates no small amount of problems for Israelis who have to travel on business or want to travel for other reasons.
So, even as Israel pulls of an amazing military coup by hitting thousands of Hezbollah fighters within two days using communications devices rigged with explosives, Israel still faces the possibility of an all-out war in the region.
Reserve soldiers are at home, now, waiting their Tzav 8, the emergency call up notice to report to their units. There is no panic in the streets. No rushing to the supermarkets to empty the shelves in the event of a war. Life goes on as normal. At least, normal for Israel.
“Israel is fighting a war on seven fronts,” is a common refrain. In 1948 when the nascent state had to face the massed Arab armies of Syria, Joran, Egypt, and others, who would have thought they’d emerge victorious.
So, all is not lost. The “Third Temple” is still standing, despite the governments consistent missteps. As the Jewish High Holidays approach, one can only hope that if there is a greater power who led the Jewish people to the Promised Land, and that power is still watching over Israel.
If not, oops…!