'EVIL IS NOT STUPID' Guest Posting - From My Christian Friend in Jerusalem -

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FOR THE LATEST NEWS, GO TO THE TIMES OF ISRAEL

www.timesofisrael.com/ or  the Jerusalem Post www.jpost.com/

For the latest in Hebrew, you can follow events here.

glz.co.il and haaretz.co.il/ and www.n12.co.il/

I am occasionally posting on X (Twitter) twitter.com/JAGERFILE and invite you to follow me.

Thank you for standing with Israel now more than ever.

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Gazans set IDF tank aflame.

October 9, 2023

 

Shalom Friends,

 

We are a country in mourning for the 800 Israelis murdered since Saturday morning. It was the Sabbath (Shabbat), the last day of the biblical holiday of Succot (Feast of Tabernacles), and most people were praying in the synagogues, unaware. This is a tragic repeat of October 6, 1973, when Israel was attacked by an Arab coalition led by Egypt and Syria, on Yom Kippur, the holiest Jewish day of the year. 

 

Since the infiltration of 1,000 Hamas terrorists into Israel from Gaza on Saturday, most of our deaths have occurred around southwestern Israel as far [north] as Tel-Aviv. Families were murdered, and more than 100 were taken captive into Gaza – from young children to senior adults. Although there are daily warning sirens, we do not know if any Gazan rockets actually fell into Jerusalem or if they were taken out by the Israeli Iron Dome defense system. 

 

The Israeli disengagement from Gaza 18 years ago, followed two years later by the rule of Hamas, initially had over one million Arabs in this tiny strip of coastland. In the ensuing years, the population doubled to more than two million and spawned too many to count attacks on our country, resulting in the volatile situation seen today.

 

Our Israeli leader, self-involved in legal battles, and the seeming complacency of the military for more than a year, have brought us to a vulnerable position. This provides a ripe opportunity for our enemies. The brilliant aspect of the way our borders were breached by Hamas will become more evident in retrospect. As the world valuably learned from 911 - evil is not stupid.

 

Israeli Army reservists have also been called up to the northern border. With Iranian intervention in Syria for the last 10 years, and its funding of terrorist groups Hamas in Gaza, and Hezbollah in Lebanon/Syria (both sworn to the destruction of Israel), our existence is continually threatened. Iran’s financial support reaches from the UN to individual countries. 

 

Most of us are staying near home until the Land is cleared of Hamas infiltrators; many have already been eliminated. Most commercial businesses are closed except for places to buy food. There is no sunshine; the skies are clouded. Except for the occasional, ominous warning sirens of incoming rockets, everything is uncharacteristically quiet in my neighborhood. 

 

We are hearing the sound of aircraft overhead, sometimes at regular 20-minute intervals, a graphic portrayal of the reality now occurring in Gaza, possibly leading to its destruction. Arabs there were warned on Sunday of impending air attacks, but its effectiveness is unknown. So too, the innocents in Gaza are to be mourned, most of them trapped by leaders who have not even supplied them with basic water and electricity in 16 years of rule.

 

It is heartbreaking, the loss of life on both sides. Please continue to pray for Israel – we need help from the only One who is more than able to adequately provide it. Holding on to Psalm 91, especially vs 4 “He shall cover thee with His pinions and under His wings shalt thou find refuge.”

 

Blessings,

Nita

 

Reference for keeping up on the war, live from Israel, in English: “The Times of Israel” easily accessed online.

Israel at War - Recriminations - Netanyahu Must Go

Early Sunday morning, Army Radio began reading the names of the 500 dead from yesterday’s Pearl Harbor-like attack by Hamas Gaza on Israel. Over two thousand were wounded. The number of Israelis – men, women, and children – taken captive by the enemy is unknown.

The final number of dead from yesterday will go higher as the fog of war lifts and bodies are recovered.

Some 24 hours after the initial attack, the security situation in two kibbutz settlements on our side of the Gaza border is unclear.

Hamas managed to occupy parts of Israel within the Green Line for the better part of a day. That is something no other enemy has achieved since 1948.

Day two of the 2023 war has dawned.

I hear this is not the time for recriminations. I beg to differ. At the very least, let's put the cards on the table.

Binyamin Netanyahu is responsible for our predicament. When the situation stabilizes, he should resign. 

The heads of the IDF and security services repeatedly warned him that his putsch to transform Israel into an illiberal majoritarian democracy and the vehement mass opposition it was engendering was undermining our deterrence. Yet he plowed on. 

He formed the most extreme insular government in Israel’s history. Not since Oslo has the national consensus and esprit de corps been so undermined.

Seeing their leaders in the cabinet emboldened Hardal messianics to dance their way up, around, and into the Temple Mount. The Palestinian Arab leadership exploited this reckless behavior to argue that the Jews were “storming” their holy shrines. In recent weeks, they tied up the army with midnight visits to “Joseph’s Tomb” in Nablus. These pilgrimages require an incursion into an enemy city, invariably leading to clashes and casualties.  

The most right-wing government in Israel’s history lost control of the security situation inside the country. Violence in the Arab sector spiked. Spitting and other attacks by Hardalim and other ultra-Orthodox louts on Christians became routine. The government was obsessively focused on changing the regime. Nothing else mattered.

It shoveled millions of shekels to the Haredim and to runaway settlement building. 

Netanyahu was scheming to find legislative ways to institutionalize Haredi draft dodging.

He lied about stopping Iran from getting nuclear weapons. For all intents and purposes, the mullahs can now put an atomic bomb together within two weeks.

He bet on building up Hamas to the detriment of the PLO. He gave the green light for Qatar to deliver suitcases stuffed with millions of dollars into the hands of the Islamists.

And, of course, he released from prison all the prominent Hamas chieftains who went on to rebuild the terror infrastructure in Gaza and the West Bank. 

He was derelict in repeatedly appointing unqualified defense ministers who failed to ask the right questions about our Maginot Line along the Gaza Strip.

He is accountable for the intelligence failure of Israel being caught with its pants down precisely 50 years after the Yom Kippur War. He has to answer for the military being so stretched that it could not push the invaders out for a full day. He is liable for not addressing the nation on a timely basis.  

As soon as it is propitious, Binyamin Netanyahu and his incompetent government must go. 

Until then, he should bring in Yair Lapid and Benny Ganz and create an emergency war cabinet. 

When this is over, we can get down to more substantive recriminations and a State Commission of Inquiry.

Fifty Years since the Yom Kippur War

Defense Minister Moshe Dayan with Prime Minister Golda Meir 

Dear Readers,

It's 50 Years since the Yom Kippur War. I wrote a short piece for Israel My Glory, a US-based Christian Zionist magazine that explores why Israel was caught by surprise.

Here is the link. 

Alternatively, cut and paste 

https://israelmyglory.org/article/israels-pearl-harbor/

into your browser.