🎗️Lonny's War Update- October 262, 2023 - June 23, 2024 🎗️

  

🎗️Day 262 that 120 of our hostages in Hamas captivity
**There is nothing more important than getting them home! NOTHING!**

“I’ve never met them,

But I miss them. 

I’ve never met them,

but I think of them every second. 

I’ve never met them,

but they are my family. 

BRING THEM HOME NOW!!!”

There is no victory until all of the hostages are home!

‎אין נצחון עד שכל החטופים בבית

Red Alerts - Missile, Rocket, Drone (UAV - unmanned aerial vehicles), and Terror Attacks and Death Announcements

*9:30pm last night - north - anti tank missiles injures two and hits a house in Metulla area

*12:20pm - north - an anti tank shell hit in the area of Kibbutz Margaliot and set off a fire. No injuries reported

*6:50am- north - rockets/ missiles Golan, Western Galilee

*11:25 am - north - Rockets/missiles Koacav Abu Alhija, Kornit, Schenia, Manof, Yuvalim, Atzmon, Rakefet, Tardion

*12:05pm- north - hostile aircraft - Avivim, Baram, Yiron

*12:10pm- north - hostile aircraft - Ayelet Hashahar, Gadot, Huleta, Yasod Hamaaleh, Mishmar Hayarden, Amuka

*2:15pm- North - rockets/missiles Ramot Naftali

*5:25pm - south - rockets Shlomit

*5:30pm -south - Rockets Kerem Shalom

*6:00pm - south - rockets Ashkelon

*6:00pm - south - rockets Kibbutzim Mefalsim, Zikim, Carmia, Netiv Haasara

*6:15pm- North - hostile aircraft - Kela

*6:55pm - north - rockets/missiles Meron Field School, Horfeish, Peke'in, Zvion, Zuriel

*7:25pm - South - rockets Kerem Shalom

Hostage Updates 

• The army announced that the death of Sergeant Major Muhammad Alatrash, killed and abducted on October 7: The IDF announces the death of Sgt. Maj. Muhammad Alatrash, who was killed and abducted by Hamas on October 7. Alatrash, 39, from the southern Bedouin community of Sa’wa, served as a tracker in the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade. According to the IDF, Alatrash was killed on October 7 and his body was then taken hostage to Gaza. His death was recently declared based on findings and new intelligence information. For 2 months after October 7, there was no information as to Muhammad's whereabouts and situation. It was then believed that he was wounded and taken alive to Gaza.

  
  May his memory forever be a blessing

• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said that Israel was prepared to pause fighting in Gaza for a partial deal in exchange for the return of a number of hostages held by Hamas, but insisted the war will not end until the terror group is destroyed.

Netanyahu also said the intense fighting phase in the Gaza Strip was winding down as Israel increasingly readies for a potential outright conflict with Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has been intensifying its cross-border attacks on Israel.

Netanyahu was speaking on the right-wing Channel 14 in his first interview with a Hebrew-language outlet since Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught. Asked whether he was prepared to reach an agreement with Hamas after the high-intensity phase of the conflict is over that would constitute a commitment to end the war, Netanyahu said: “No. I’m not prepared to end the war and leave Hamas standing. I am prepared to do a partial deal, that’s no secret, that would return some of the people to us.”

“But we are obligated to continue the fighting after a pause in order to complete our goal of destroying Hamas,” he told the TV channel’s “The Patriots” program. “I’m not prepared to give up on that.”

Netanyahu’s comments appeared to contradict the terms of Israel’s latest ceasefire and hostage deal proposal, some of whose details were presented by US President Joe Biden last month, which reportedly provides for a temporary ceasefire in the first phase of the deal, to be extended into “a sustainable calm (cessation of military operations and hostilities permanently)” in the second phase. However, Netanyahu has repeatedly denied that the Israeli proposal provides for ending the war before Israel achieves its two declared goals of destroying Hamas and bringing home all the hostages.

Sources involved in the latest round of hostage talks slammed the premier’s remarks, telling the Haaretz daily, “Netanyahu clarified today that he is not interested in the release of all the hostages — the demand he himself is making of Hamas — and is not prepared to provide the goods that Hamas is demanding.”

“In such a situation, [Hamas chief in Gaza Yahya] Sinwar has no motivation to advance a deal,” one of the sources was quoted as saying. An Israeli official cited by the Walla news site issued similar criticism, saying, “Netanyahu’s comments this evening caused tremendous damage to the chances for reaching a deal.” Netanyahu’s comments were also denounced by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which accused him of withdrawing his support for the Israeli proposal being pushed by the US, which the current negotiations are based on.

“We strongly condemn the prime minister’s statement in which he walked back from the Israeli proposal. This means he is abandoning 120 hostages and breaching the moral duty of the State of Israel to its citizens,” the group said in a statement.

Netanyahu’s office released a statement later Sunday laying the blame solely on Hamas.  “Hamas is the one opposing the deal, not Israel,” the Prime Minister’s Office said. “Netanyahu made it clear that we will not leave Gaza until we bring back all 120 of our hostages, both living and dead.” link - Let me start by saying that, of course, Hamas is the bad actor in everything that has happened but Netnayahu is lying and his statements seal the fate of all of the hostages. He says unequivocally that he is prepared to let the hostages die. He knows that Hamas will not make a deal like they made in November with letting some hostages go and then for the hostilities to continue. I have been writing all of this time that Hamas' bottom line does not change. They lay it out at the beginning and there is no room for negotiation. The only negotiations that they are or were prepared for was in the interim stages. In November, the second stage was never reached because of breeches of the agreement. That is precisely why Hamas is demanding a cessation of all hostilities and for the IDF to leave the area in stages with a complete withdrawal for the continuation of hostages releases. Netanyahu is fully aware of this. His negotiating team, led by the head of the Mossad has made it very clear. The only way we will get our hostages home is to end the war. We can start it up at a later time after there are breeches by Hamas which are guaranteed to happen. Netanyahu's lie about not agreeing to a complete cessation of the war is abysmal and his statement that he is prepared for a partial deal that would see the release of the 'humanitarian' hostages (elderly, women, children, injured and sick, but not including soldiers) is a non starter. Let's just say that Hamas would agree to this. It means that he is condemning all of the soldiers to an endless captivity and probably being left to die or be killed. But this is totally theoretical as Hamas will never agree to this deal. It brings them no benefit. It is basically saying, here are some of your hostages, now come and kill us. They are in a stronger position not agreeing to it. They are putting the deal back in Israel's lap and saying to the world that they are willing to agree to the Biden plan but Israel is not. They know what is happening in the streets of Israel with the demonstrations for the hostages and the demonstrations against the government are growing larger every week and the longer Netanyahu doesn't make an agreement, they love the chaos that he is creating, although Netanyahu will push it back on the demonstrators that they/we are making it harder to negotiate. It should be understood that without the demonstrations for the hostages return, the government and Netanyahu would never have even made the return of the hostages a major goal of the war. It took time and lots of noise by the families and supporters for him and the defense minister to put it on the list of war goals. That is still a hard pill to swallow. It is the government's total abandonment of the south before October 7 and continuing till now that brought us to this point. It is surreal that Netanyahu and his entire government still refuse to take any responsibility for what happened and not make the return of the hostages the most important goal, not just of the war but of the entire government. Netanyahu has avoiding giving any interviews to the Israeli press as he doesn't want to answer any of their hard questions. That is why he close channel 14. It is equivalent to Trump on Fox news. He is going into totally friendly territory and knows that they won't challenge him or ask any questions that he not only doesn't want to answer but also doesn't want them to ask. I have little doubt that his people saw and approved all questions that were to be asked.

• Hostage families release Hamas video showing 3 sons’ abduction into Gaza under fire.   In new footage, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eliya Cohen and Or Levy are seen crammed and bloodied on flatbed of pickup truck, being driven toward Strip  video

  In the early morning hours of October 7, hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Or Levy and Eliya Cohen were shoved, bloodied and terrified, onto the flatbed of a pickup truck, Hamas terrorists towering over them yelling “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest) with AK-47s pointed high as the truck barreled down a one-lane road into Gaza.

  The images of that ride — from a portion of a Hamas video uncovered by the Israel Defense Forces — were shared publicly for the first time on Monday evening by the families of the three hostages pictured in the video.

  The families, together with the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, said that they were releasing the video as evidence of the government’s abandonment of the hostages.

  Many hostage families, along with the Forum, have been calling for a hostage deal in order to bring the living captives home and  bury those who were either killed while in captivity or were taken dead into Gaza.

  “The harsh video is a serious indictment of the neglect that has been going on for 262 days,” said the Hostages Forum in a statement. “Hersh, Eliya and Or were kidnapped alive and so they have to return, today. Every day that passes endangers the abductees and may torpedo the ability to bring them home.”

  The footage is the third section of a Hamas video that shows the chronology of events for the three on the morning of October 7.

  One section that was published several months ago showed the terrorists throwing grenades at the field shelter where some 29 people from the Supernova desert rave were attempting to shield themselves.  Goldberg-Polin, Cohen and Levy were all in the same shelter.

  The second portion showed Goldberg-Polin being led by terrorists onto the flatbed of the Hamas pickup truck, clutching his tourniquet-bound arm that had just been blown off below the elbow.  

  This two-minute third portion, released Monday evening, was edited and blurred in accordance with the requests of the families.

  The Hostages Forum also released a stitched-together version of the entire video, featuring the sequence of events at the field shelter.

  In the early morning of October 7, Goldberg-Polin and his friend Aner Shapira ran to the field shelter near the Supernova event, in an attempt to escape the rocket barrage from Gaza that preceded the terrorists’ gun and grenade attack. The terrorists went on to kill 364 people at the festival and kidnap 40, while committing numerous acts of brutality and sexual assault. The field shelter, which is designed to fit 10 people, was crowded with some 30 Supernova attendees when the Hamas terrorists arrived and threw grenades in.

  Shapira caught and seven grenades and threw them back at the terrorists, but was killed by the eighth grenade. Goldberg-Polin was taken captive, his right arm blown off from the elbow down.

  Eliya Cohen, 26, and his girlfriend, Ziv Abud, along with Abud’s niece and her nephew’s girlfriend, were hiding in the same field shelter as Goldberg-Polin and Shapira. Abud’s niece and nephew’s girlfriend were killed, and Abud and Cohen were hidden under the dead bodies. The two held hands and whispered, until Abud felt Cohen being pulled away from her, and saw him placed on the pickup truck and driven away. The family eventually found a photo of Cohen in captivity in Gaza.

  Or Levy and his wife, Eynav, reached the same field shelter, attempting to escape the attack after arriving at the Supernova festival only at 6:20 a.m., just minutes before the Hamas onslaught began. Eynav Levy was killed in the terrorist attack at the shelter, while Or Levy was taken to Gaza as a hostage. Their toddler son, Almog, will mark his third birthday on Tuesday without either of his parents.

  The first time the public received signs of life from Goldberg-Polin was on April 24, when Hamas published a video of him, his right lower arm clearly missing.

  Neither Cohen nor Levy have appeared in any Hamas videos of the hostages published over the last eight months. 

     

Gaza 

• OPINION: Palestinians Don’t Want Hamas To Rule Postwar Gaza

After 17 years of ruthless Hamas control of the Gaza Strip and eight months since the start of the ongoing war, Palestinians in Gaza are ready for a change

Eight months since Israel’s war with Gaza broke out, things are heating up again. Israel’s carefully calculated war of attrition with Hezbollah seems poised to turn into all-out war.

Israel hasn’t shown any intention of ending the war in Gaza, and Hezbollah is losing patience. Hezbollah intends to move in to reduce Israel’s military pressure on the Gaza Strip in general and Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in particular. Just consider what Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah had to say last Wednesday. In what amounted to a warning shot to the government of Israel, Nasrallah pleaded, in his way, for Israel to avoid an open confrontation that would be highly destructive to Israel as well as Lebanon.

Nasrallah was clear in his threats. He didn’t mean he would attack Israel the following morning. On the contrary, he wanted to ensure that the Israeli decision-makers understood his intention clearly and beyond any doubt. If the war continues in Gaza, Hezbollah will no longer stay silent.

Only two days before his speech, Nasrallah dispatched one or more drones over Haifa to scan every sensitive installation in the city. He then aired the video as a way of letting Israel know that Hezbollah has accurate coordinates for innumerable targets.

Let’s face it: Israel can’t fight on more than one front at a time. What happened in the June 1967 war is history. It will never repeat itself. Back then, Israel fought on three fronts, each one far from the home front. Israel also designed the attack, its timing, and its targets. These days, other parties have a role in shaping the course of Israeli wars, including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and certainly Iran, which is pulling the strings from afar.

What can we take from all the above? On the one hand, there is Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’ strongman in Gaza, who seems to be the only one calling the shots down there. He feels he has nothing to lose, joining Benjamin Netanyahu on a joint walk down a suicidal path. Of course, that path may not endanger the leaders personally as much as it endangers their peoples as a whole.

Until recently, it was clear that neither Sinwar nor Netanyahu wanted a speedy end to the war. However, after President Biden outlined what he said was an Israeli draft plan for a cease-fire and prisoner exchange in Gaza, Hamas showed signs of caving in to pressure from the three mediators—the US, Egypt, and Qatar. It said the draft was acceptable, although it added a few remarks and questions.

Israel, on the other hand, has failed to endorse the cease-fire. Netanyahu zigzagged around the question to avoid addressing the plan, hoping Hamas would reject it and subsequently exempt him from endorsing what he coauthored with the Americans. What followed was scandalous. The mediators and plenty of other countries around the world pressured Hamas while ignoring Israel, as if they took Israel’s endorsement of the cease-fire for granted. Well, they erred.

People in Gaza want this war to end ASAP. They know they have lots of responsibilities ahead, the least of which are to check on family members who may have survived the fighting, visit the wounded, and search for a place to settle.

Hamas is not in its comfort zone in Gaza at all. People I speak to in Gaza say they can hardly find those who openly support Hamas or Sinwar. Most Palestinians in Gaza are intimidated by the heavy presence of undercover Hamas operatives, primarily members of the police force. They are unable to voice any criticism. The moment any Arab or foreign television channel interviews Palestinians, they immediately praise the resistance in Gaza. They are afraid their criticism would be interpreted as giving into Israeli military pressure, or, much worse than that, be considered collaboration with Israel.

Hiding animosity toward Hamas in public while voicing criticism behind closed doors has become a way of life for most of the people in Gaza, many of whom suddenly found themselves displaced, homeless, and bereaved since the outbreak of the war. Although they primarily blame Israel for what happened, they also blame Hamas for not preparing them for what would come after the October 7 raid. They now see Hamas as unfit to continue its control of the Gaza Strip because it failed to provide them with appropriate shelter, drinking water, and food through the last eight months.

This is precisely what makes Palestinians interested in an alternative to Hamas’ authority in postwar Gaza. Despite the grudges many Palestinians in Gaza hold against the Palestinian Authority (PA), they still see a return of the PA to Gaza and reunification of Gaza and the West Bank as the best option.

Contacts in Gaza who belong to several Palestinian factions, not necessarily including Fatah, the leading party in the West Bank, tell me that 17 years of ruthless Hamas control of the Gaza Strip is too much to tolerate. They agree that there can be no governing role for Hamas in any postwar scenario in Gaza. They speak highly of what the PA did in the Gaza Strip between its founding in 1994 and when Hamas took control in the June 2007 military coup. Back then, life was normal, businesses flourished, and people had individual and collective liberties. Since Hamas took over, nearly all of that disappeared, and the little that was left was wiped out since the war began.

The situation in Gaza is awkward because the people who voted Hamas into the Legislative Council in the 2006 elections are the same ones who are now highly disappointed in the movement and its activities in the Gaza Strip, including its 2007 military coup. Some thought Hamas’ “reforms and change” ticket in the 2006 election campaign was genuine and honest, but it turned out to be little more than a ticket to enter the Legislative Council without taking on any of the actual responsibilities of governance. read the complete article  It is important to understand the mindset of the typical Gazan and Palestinian which can help us all plan a road to a better future. The author: Elias Zananiri is a veteran journalist from East Jerusalem who has held several senior positions in the PLO as a political adviser and media consultant over the past two decades. 

• At this morning’s cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brushed aside a demand by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for Israeli military governance in Gaza, and indicated that Israel is working on fresh ideas for non-Israeli civil governance of the Strip, Israel’s Channel 12 reports.  The TV report asserts, furthermore, that Israel has taken a decision in principle to install an alternative to Hamas in the governance of northern Gaza.

  It cites an exchange between ministers at this morning’s cabinet meeting at which Smotrich demanded that the IDF take responsibility for distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza. In response, Netanyahu reportedly said that Israel has been trying to work with local Gazan clans to distribute aid, that this effort has failed, and that Israel is now making “other efforts” to resolve the issue.

  According to the TV report, the head of the IDF’s strategic branch, Eliezer Toledano, told the ministers that over 1,000 trucks filled with humanitarian aid are stuck inside Gaza, not being distributed, because UN aid agencies are afraid to try to do so, fearing they will be attacked by various armed gangs.

  Far-right Religious Zionism party leader Smotrich retorted that Israel needs to “stop being afraid of military governance” by the IDF in Gaza, and that “the entire humanitarian issue, including distribution of aid, should be transferred to the responsibility of the IDF.”

  “If I was the prime minister, I would have compelled you to do this long ago,” Smotrich reportedly added. “We won’t achieve the war goals if we continue to send in food and fuel [that ends up in] the hands of Hamas.

  Smotrich has for months been advocating long-term Israeli military and civil governance of Gaza, a policy publicly opposed by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, while Netanyahu has advocated a post-war civil administration run by Gazans.

  Responding to Smotrich, Netanyahu reportedly told the meeting: “We’ve made efforts with local clans [to take a role in distributing aid]. We know they’ve been brutally eliminated by Hamas. This is not the forum in which to expand on this, but we are making other efforts to advance this.”

Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah

• **Pro-Iranian militias in Iraq plan to assist Hezbollah in combat**

  
  

  An Iraqi source familiar with the matter told Kan News that Shiite militias in Iraq are currently preparing on the ground to send fighters to southern Lebanon to join Hezbollah in case of a full-scale conflict. Pro-Iranian militias in Iraq are preparing to assist Hezbollah in fighting in southern Lebanon in the event of a full-scale confrontation - as reported today (Sunday) on the evening news on Kan 11.

  
  

  An Iraqi source familiar with the matter told Kan News that Shiite militias in Iraq are currently preparing on the ground to send fighters to southern Lebanon to join Hezbollah. According to the Iraqi source, these militias, which are currently remotely launching drones and missiles towards Israel, view Hezbollah as their main deterrent force, and therefore want to physically join them in fighting in southern Lebanon. This would occur if the organization comes under a real threat.

  
  

  The issue of the militias' readiness to join the fighting was also raised in a recent meeting in Baghdad between the heads of Shiite militias in Iraq and the acting Iranian Foreign Minister. So far, the only Shiite militia that has physically arrived from outside to southern Lebanon to assist Hezbollah is the "Imam Hussein" militia, which operates in Syria.

  
  

  At least outwardly, Hezbollah and Nasrallah are currently projecting that they are managing and have enough fighters, more than a hundred thousand according to their claims, to deal with any extensive Israeli action. However, this could change, and there are already many fighters in the ranks of Shiite militias outside Lebanon who are already planned to join.  link

  
  
  

• A Hezbollah anti-tank guided missile attack launched from Lebanon late Sunday wounded two members of the security team of the northern community of Metulla, one of them seriously, the military said Monday. According to the Israel Defense Forces, two anti-tank missiles were fired in the attack. Hezbollah took responsibility, claiming to have targeted a military vehicle in the town.

  One of the local security officers, in his 40s, was seriously wounded, while the other, in his 30s, was listed in good condition, Rambam Hospital in Haifa said. 

  Amid the war, members of civilian emergency response teams in northern border communities have been drafted into the military as reservists. While tens of thousands of people have evacuated northern communities to escape danger, some have opted to stay put.

  The missile fire came at the tail end of a day of Hezbollah drone attacks on northern Israel. In one of the attacks, an IDF soldier was seriously wounded.

  Meanwhile, fighter jets struck several Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon overnight, the IDF said Monday morning. The military said the sites included a building used by Hezbollah in Aitaroun, along with other infrastructure in Kafr Kila and Khiam.  link The two members of the emergency response team who were injured were escorting a family whose house was hit by a rocket and mostly destroyed. They came to gather any personal and sentimental items that remained in the house. Hizbollah spotted the vehicles and shelled them, hitting the family car and injuring the 2 reservists. Hizbollah has an open view of all of the northern border settlements and are targeting all movements by the army and by civilians.

West Bank

•     IDF forces raided the villages of Na'ama and Silwad in two operations last night

  In a brigade operation in the village of Silwad in Binyamin in the West Bank, the fighters arrested three wanted individuals, interrogated many suspects, and confiscated materials for making explosive devices. In a brigade operation in the village of Na'ama in Ephraim in the West  Bank, the fighters arrested five wanted individuals and interrogated many suspects.

  After an investigation, it appears that the explosion that occurred yesterday in the Tulkarem area in the Menashe Brigade was caused by the detonation of an explosive device on the Palestinian side of the seam zone. The device was placed and remotely activated by terrorists hundreds of meters from the wall, aiming to draw forces to the explosion area. There were no casualties and no damage was caused.

  During the forces' activity in Nablus in Samaria in the West Bank, the fighters arrested a wanted person. In Hebron in the Judea Brigade, the fighters arrested a suspect accused of incitement to terrorism and confiscated weapons. In Husan and Beit Fajjar in the Etzion Brigade and in Ba'ala in Menashe, four additional wanted individuals were arrested.

  Since the beginning of the war, about 4,150 wanted individuals have been arrested throughout the Judea and Samaria Division and the Jordan Valley and Valleys Brigade, about 1,750 of whom are affiliated with the Hamas terrorist organization.

Politics 

•  Israel can fight a war on multiple fronts, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says in his first interview with Israeli media since October 7.

  Speaking about the possibility of a full-blown war against Hezbollah on the Channel 14 program “The Patriots,” Netanyahu says that he hopes there won’t be a need to do so, “but we will meet this challenge too. We can fight on several fronts, we are prepared for this.”

  Israel will enforce any deal with Hezbollah to ensure that its forces are not on the border, he says: “It won’t be an agreement on paper.” “It will include the physical distancing of Hezbollah from the border, and we will need to enforce it… We are committed to returning the residents of the north to their homes,” he says.

  Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi told him there is hope for a diplomatic solution after their trip to Washington last week, says Netanyahu.

  Turning to the question of who will rule Gaza after Hamas, Netanyahu claims that the IDF approached him 5 months ago with the idea of using local clans to rule the Strip. “Now they brought me another plan, which we are trying,” he says, “I won’t go into details so that it will work.” Netanyahu calls settling Gaza “not realistic” and says that it would not serve war goals.

  He says that after the current phase of the war in Gaza, more IDF troops would be transferred to the north.

  Netanyahu also blasts National Unity leaders and former coalition partners Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot for leaving the government in the middle of a war and begin attacking the war leadership they were recently part of. “There need to be limits to the opposition as well,” he says. He adds, “no one will rush to topple the government in the middle of a war.” He argues that the fall of the government would bring about a left-wing coalition that would create a Palestinian state.

  Asked about Israel’s ability to withstand strikes on its electricity infrastructure, Netanyahu says that “there will be no catastrophe.” “We are working to protect it, unique protections that I cannot go into,” he says.  link From the beginning of the war, Netanyahu played on the national fear and said that elections during a war would be a win for Hamas and deal a devastating blow to Israel. He continues to play on the fear of many people in order to stay in power. The majority of Israelis believed that there needed to be new elections but they should be held after the war ends. Well, Netanyahu doesn't want the war to end. He doesn't want the fear to diminish nor does he want a State Commission of Inquiry. After nearly 9 months of the war, the majority of the population no longer feels the same way and are more than prepared for new elections. We are seeing it every week with the increasing numbers at the demonstrations and in all of the polls. The nation wants a change and wants it sooner than later.

• Israel’s Public Diplomacy Directorate, which is run out of the Prime Minister’s Office, is falling apart, with nobody in charge and most of its staff having left in recent months, some of them because they’ve not been paid, Channel 12 news reports.

  Moshik Aviv, the head of the directorate whose resignation was reported in early May, has not been replaced, the TV report says, alleging that Sara Netanyahu is “solely responsible” for the failure to bring in a successor.

  An ex-senior staffer in the directorate, speaking anonymously, says that “super talented people were recruited” to the directorate immediately after October 7, but that most have departed, partly because of disputes over work conditions and, for some, months of delays in pay. “Some people have not been paid to this day.”

  The report says that Avi Hyman, an English-language spokesman, left this week, apparently because of a dispute over employment conditions, and that Tal Heinrich, a spokeswoman who has given hundreds of interviews, especially to US media, has not appeared in the past two weeks, also apparently because of issues regarding her work conditions. “Over 20 people have left along the way,” the ex-staffer tells Channel 12. “A group of the most talented people in the country in the field are no longer there… Today there’s nobody apart from two or three PMO people and a couple of volunteers who believe they’ll be paid in the end.”

  The report adds that a private company that built a studio for the directorate is out of pocket to the tune of about $1 million and that a supplier of key data is also awaiting payments.

  The ex-staffer likens the situation to the army coming under fire on the ground in Gaza and the state deciding that the air force won’t provide cover: “Not only are we not going on the offensive [in public diplomacy],” he says. “We’re not even defending.”

  “The international media airs only one side [of the war narrative], the Palestinian side, that hates Israel,” says the ex-staffer. “That’s all that’s heard, and that’s the basis on which the world has to make up its mind” about what is going on. The TV report reiterates claims that Sara Netanyahu pushed for the ouster of highly regarded former spokesman Eylon Levy more than two months ago, and says she has been similarly interventionist in preventing the recruitment of a successor to Moshik Aviv at the head of the directorate.

  The prime minister’s wife regards the public diplomacy directorate “not as a vital tool for Israeli foreign policy but as an internal body for her public relations benefit,” the TV report quotes a senior source in the directorate saying, “and has not found someone sufficiently loyal to that approach.” In response to the report, the directorate says it is functioning as usual, and that most payment and other issues have been resolved and the others will be soon.

  The Prime Minister’s Office says that the prime minister is currently interviewing candidates for a new head of the directorate, and denies that Sara Netanyahu has any involvement in the issue.   link The only functioning 'public diplomacy' body is by the people in Netanyahu's office, but their actions are only seen when Netanyahu is under attack. Then, they are are finest well-oiled machine in the history of Public Diplomacy in Israel. They do nothing for the benefit of the public diplomacy of the country and Netanyahu and his wife, particularly his wife have literally castrated any semblance of a Public Diplomacy Service for the entire State of Israel. We have seen the results of that from day 1 of the war. We would think that the government, that the PM's office would see this as a priority in defending Israel in the world, as a critical aspect of stating Israel's case every step of the way since October 7, but with this government and with this prime minister, all normal thinking must be abandoned for their interests are not the same as the rest of us.

The Region and the World

•    

Personal Stories

  Look at this amazing man.

Ben Benjamin Shimoni, 31, from Ashkelon, managed to escape from Nova's party in Reim. He got into his car, picked up four people he didn't know on the way, and escaped from hell. He arrived at Beer Sheva, dropped off the passengers and called his brother. A normal person would go home, hug his family, have a drink and be thankful for the miracle of his salvation. But there is nothing normal here, and Ben Benjamin Shimoni was no ordinary man.

Despite his brother's requests, he decided to return to the party and save the remaining friends. He entered the fire area, saved 8 more people and brought them to safety. Now he should be telling himself that's it son you've done enough you saved 12 lives go home didn't he?

But no. Because Ben Benjamin Shimoni was no ordinary man.

If an ordinary man runs away from hell, he does not return to it, the ordinary man is driven by his own need to survive, not by the need to save others. A normal person is afraid. Ben Benjamin Shimoni was not afraid and he was not an ordinary person.

He's the man who went back to Hell for a *second time* because maybe this time he'll find his friends. This is a man whose love for humanity and kindness in him has overcome the main fear of an ordinary man - the fear of death. He is the man who looked death in the eye and won, twice. The third time, after gathering 3 more people, he collided with terrorists and was killed. For the third time, death has won. Because in this world where nothing is normal, death defeats even abnormal people.

Ben Benjamin Shimoni was not an ordinary man. He was an angel living among us. He was a hero, handsome and loved. In loving memory.

May his memory forever be a blessing

Acronyms and Glossary

COGAT - Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories

ICC - International Criminal Court in the Hague

IJC - International Court of Justice in the Hague

MDA - Magen David Adom - Israel Ambulance Corp

PA - Palestinian Authority - President Mahmud Abbas, aka Abu Mazen

PMO- Prime Minister's Office

UAV - Unmanned Aerial vehicle, Drone. Could be used for surveillance and reconnaissance, or be weaponized with missiles or contain explosives for 'suicide' explosion mission

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