🎗️Lonny's War Update- October 295, 2023 - July 27, 2024 🎗️

  

🎗️Day 295 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!!!”

We’re waiting for you, all of you.

A deal is the only way to bring
all the hostages home- the murdered for burial and the living for rehabilitation.

#BringThemHomeNow #TurnTheHorrorIntoHope

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

*3:05pm yesterday - north - rockets Netua, Shtula

*5:00pm yesterday -south - rockets Zikim, Karmia, Ashkelon, Erez
*5:00pm yesterday - north - rockets Misgav Am
*5:25pm yesterday - north - rockets Misgav Am
*6:25pm yesterday - south - rockets Holit, Sde Avraham

*7:50am- north - rockets Kiryat Shemona
*8:25am -= north - rockets Arab al Aramsha
*12:55pm - north - rockets Metulla
*1:45pm - north - rockets Yiftach

Hostage Updates 

Today is the 34th birthday of Or Levy

Or Levy lived the ‘new Israeli dream’ until Oct. 7, brother says

Michael Levy, whose younger brother, Or Levy, remains a hostage in Gaza, shared a simple message with Bay Area Jews and local diplomats last week.
“Please do anything you can to help me bring back my little brother and the remaining hostages,” he said.
During a dozen or so local meetings hosted by the American Jewish Committee, Michael Levy told the story of his brother’s abduction and the murder of Or’s wife, Eynav Elkayam Levy, on Oct. 7.
Or, 33, and Eynav, 32, were working in tech and raising their 2-year-old son Almog in Givatayim, outside Tel Aviv, before the fateful day. In other words, “They were living the new Israeli dream,” said Levy, speaking at a private event attended by diplomats from Australia, Austria, Israel, Japan, Peru, South Korea and Ukraine at the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund’s building in San Francisco on March 13.
The couple left their son with family, drove south early that Saturday morning and had just reached the Nova music festival when Hamas began firing missiles from Gaza. The couple took refuge with more than two dozen others in a roadside bomb shelter roughly the size of a single parking spot.
At first, they were in good spirits, according to a brief video that Levy showed during his talk.
“They thought it was only a missile attack, which I’m sad to say is just normal for us,” said Levy, 40. “Even my 9-year-old daughter has already experienced six missile attacks in her life.”
But the situation quickly deteriorated as terrorists reached the shelter and began throwing grenades into the tiny space.
An off-duty and unarmed soldier, Staff Sgt. Aner Elyakim Shapiro, managed to throw seven grenades out of the shelter, but the eighth exploded, killing him and 17 others. Seven people survived. 
“My brother saw his soulmate murdered in front of his eyes,” said Levy.
Hamas filmed the attack and the abduction of four survivors from that shelter, including Or Levy and Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a Berkeley native who lost part of his arm in the grenade attack.
Michael Levy last heard months back that his brother remains alive in Gaza. He doesn’t have a reason to believe that Or has been killed, he said, but also doesn’t feel overly optimistic when he hears about more potential hostage releases. Levy said Hamas purposely sends mixed messages to inflict psychological terror on Israelis and “play” with their minds.

• The Hamas terror group preemptively rejected the terms of an Israeli proposal for a hostage-ceasefire deal on Thursday night, according to Reuters, in what a senior Israeli official called “bizarre” messages, given that “nobody has read [the proposal] yet.”

  A senior Israeli official said Hamas had not yet seen the latest proposal, which was expected to go out “in the coming hours.”

  “We haven’t sent it yet, nobody has read it yet. Even the negotiators haven’t got it yet. They will read it before transferring it to Hamas for their reaction,” said the official, presumably referring to the Arab intermediaries facilitating the talks.
  

  Hamas reportedly objected to an expected demand that Israel be allowed to screen Palestinians returning to the north of the Gaza Strip after fleeing south earlier in the war.

  Israel has agreed to allow civilians to return home, but seeks a means to prevent Hamas fighters from returning with them. Earlier this month, Netanyahu listed as a “nonnegotiable” that “the return of thousands of armed terrorists to the northern Gaza Strip will not be possible.” 
  

  Egyptian sources that spoke to Reuters also cited the issue of Israeli military control over the Philadelphi Corridor, the roughly 14-kilometer (9-mile) stretch separating Gaza from Egypt, as a sticking point in negotiations.

  A senior Israeli official told The Times of Israel this week that Cairo was privately moving toward allowing Israeli troops to remain there, explaining, “They too don’t want Hamas to resume smuggling on the border.”
  

  But seeking to capitalize off a boosted position on the battlefield earlier this month, Netanyahu shifted course and declared that the IDF remaining in Philadelphi was nonnegotiable, alongside his demand that armed combatants not be able to return to northern Gaza.

  The demand to remain in Philadelphi appeared to contradict the framework approved in May, which envisioned Israel withdrawing from the entirety of the Gaza Strip during the second of the deal’s three six-week phases.

  A member of Israel’s negotiating team, along with an Arab mediator, had expressed concern to The Times of Israel earlier this month that the new demands from Netanyahu risked jeopardizing the talks. full article

Survivors

Four people have told authorities that they were sexually assaulted by terrorists on October 7, Channel 12 reported Thursday, adding to a growing body of evidence of the systematic sexual assault committed by Hamas.

Unlike most of the previous evidence of sexual assault on October 7, which was largely based on eyewitness testimony, the Channel 12 report is notable because it is based on the firsthand accounts of victims.

Firsthand testimony of such crimes has been rare, as most of the victims were killed, a fact that some October 7 deniers have used to sow doubts about the allegations.

According to the report, the four individuals approached the Welfare Ministry with their accounts of what happened to them during the Hamas onslaught, which also saw some 1,200 people killed and 251 kidnapped.

The report followed a separate Channel 12 story on Wednesday that provided first-hand testimony from a man who said he was raped by terrorists at the Supernova Festival, where hundreds of people were killed.

Israeli police have been collecting survivor testimony, physical evidence, and confessions of sexual assault by terrorists on October 7 since the immediate aftermath of the attack.

The site of the Re’im music festival massacre, in southern Israel, June 9, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Gaza 

•  More than 100 terror operatives have been killed by troops with the 98th Division during a new operation in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, the IDF says.

  The offensive in Khan Younis was launched on Monday, after the IDF said it identified Hamas terrorists regrouping there, three months after the IDF withdrew from the city in southern Gaza. The offensive was also aimed at enabling Wednesday’s operation to recover the bodies of five slain hostages.

  The IDF says that Israeli Air Force drones directed by the 98th Division also struck seven mortar-launching cells in Khan Younis in the past day.

  Further south, in Rafah, the IDF says troops with the 162nd Division killed numerous terror operatives as well as located tunnels and weaponry, including long-range rocket launchers.

  Also in Rafah, the military says an IAF drone strike killed two gunmen spotted by troops of the 414th Combat Intelligence Collection Unit. A short while later, another terror operative was spotted trying to take a gun from one of the dead gunmen. The IDF says a second strike killed the additional operative along with another gunman. Meanwhile, IAF fighter jets, combat helicopters, and drones struck some 45 targets across Gaza over the past day, the military says.

  The targets included cells of gunmen, tunnel shafts, buildings used by terror groups, and other infrastructure, including rocket launchers previously used to attack the southern city of Beersheba.  video of the attack

• The documents reveal: Sinwar talked about the "big project" - months before October 7th

  In a discussion at the top of Hamas, the leader of the terrorist organization referred to the statements of ministers Ben Gvir and Smotrich regarding the Temple Mount.

  About ten months after October 7, the IDF continues targeted raids in Gaza in order to return the abductees and collect materials and documents about the terrorist organization Hamas.  Yesterday (Friday) evening we revealed in "Ulpan Shishi" that among the many materials seized in the strategic locations of Hamas, documents were found that include summaries of the meetings of the most limited forums of Hamas.

  The IDF recently submitted the operational achievements in the war in Gaza to the political level and the conditions for the deal for the return of the hostages. As we saw this week, the army is making great efforts to return the living and dead hostages. The recent raids and operations in the corridor that cuts off the Gaza Strip and in Rafah are for this purpose, and they will constantly be dedicated to this goal, and also to bring valuable intelligence.

  At the beginning of 2023, there was a meeting of the top Hamas in Gaza led by Yahya Sinwar, and now documents discovered inside the strip reveal what it was about. According to the documents, the meeting took place shortly after a series of statements by Ben Gvir and Smotrich both about the West Bank and about the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

  The documents show that for Sinwar, the conduct of Ben Gvir and Smotrich was one of the reasons for the timing of the surprise attack. This is the first time that the public hears the phrase "the big project", but not so in the Intelligence Division. The subject of the "big project" came up several times in Military Intelligence, but they failed to understand the meaning there. We did not pay enough attention to understand what Sinwar meant, and now, unfortunately, we know exactly what he meant.

  "Permits Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount"

  Meanwhile,  Minister Ben Gvir spoke on Wednesday at the "Return of Israel to the Temple Mount" conference in the Knesset and referred to his two visits to the Temple Mount since the war broke out - and his intention  to change the status quo on the Temple Mount.  "I was on the Temple Mount last week," he said. "I prayed on the Temple Mount and we pray on the Temple Mount. I am the political echelon and the political echelon allows Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount."

  We need to delay the small conflicts so that we can reach the 'big project'. The infrastructure of this government (alluding to Ben Gvir and Smotrich) will help us reach the big project and we can open in the war of liberation," it said.

  He who controls the Temple Mount controls the entire Land of Israel," Minister Ben Gvir continued in his speech. "With God's help we will rule the Temple Mount. We are doing good things, we are already governors, but we need to strengthen even more and I believe that even better days will come than there are today."

  He added: "Last time I prayed for the return of the hostages. We pray this prayer all the time when we go up to the mount. I say no to a deal which abandons our goals. They can be returned with pride and determination, we can cut off gas to Hamas and they will get down on their knees. We can do many things and that's what which should be". link 

  
  

• Path to peace? Here's how October 7 created fertile ground for peace agreements

  The director of the New Israel Fund in Israel, said that October 7 and the nine months since have caused changes in Israeli society that create possibility for diplomatic agreements with Palestinians
  Many in Israel are under the impression that the events of October 7 and the ensuing war have caused Israelis to “sober up,” leaving notions of peace or diplomatic agreements with Palestinians behind. 

  In contradiction to this common thesis, Mickey Gitzin, the director of the New Israel Fund in Israel, said that October 7 and the nine months since have caused changes in Israeli society and Israeli perceptions that create the conditions for diplomatic agreements with Palestinians and real progress on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

  “The most meaningful thing that happened is that people are looking for answers,” Gitzin explained, saying that this is something that employees at the NIF are seeing in their research.
  While some common wisdom says that October 7 challenged the idea that there is a partner for peace, Gitzin highlights the fact that for many it also challenged the idea that it is possible to continue to maintain the Israeli-Palestinian status quo.

  “What ended for many was the idea that it is possible to manage the conflict.” Israelis had managed to disconnect from the realities of the conflict, Gitzin said. “If I am not in the territories [in the West Bank], I don’t know what is being done in my name, I don’t know what it means, practically speaking, I don’t feel threatened by it, so I can live with it.”
  But on October 7, Israelis “understood how much this threatened us. How much it can destroy our lives, how much it can be violent and dangerous,” Gitzin explained.

  The Israel-Hamas war has also led people to the understanding that the only way to weaken extremist elements, both Israeli and Palestinian, is through diplomatic agreements, he said, adding that it has thrown the limitations of what can be achieved through military strength alone into sharp relief.

  “Hamas cannot be destroyed by force. I’m not the one saying this – the army is saying it,” he said.

  The IDF has been in Gaza for nine months, using immense force, and if military force were enough, it would have beaten Hamas many times over, said Gitzin. “We still have not beaten Hamas, because terror organizations can’t be beaten only with force.

  “The army is apparently doing great military work but not getting results,” because results will not come from force alone,” he said.

  Results of the war

  The war has also highlighted the importance and the stability of Israel’s diplomatic agreements, Gitzin explained, offering as example the international response to Iran’s April attack on Israel.

  “Israel’s security perspective since the founding of the state is based on Israel as a country with partners.”

  October 7 showed how deeply the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Israel’s policy of management affect Israel’s international relations, Gitzin explained.

  The belief in the importance of these agreements is not purely ideological, according to Gitzin. “I think it is also the least naive thing to say. What would be the most disconnected from reality is to think that Israel can defend itself by itself without strategic partners, without regional thinking.”

  Another result of the war, according to Gitzin, is that since October 7, the vision of Israel’s extreme Right has been fully revealed, showcasing a vision that he says is not in line with the general Israeli public’s.

  “The extreme Right is not hiding that their goal is to move Jews to live in Gaza. As we speak [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich is leading de facto annexation in the West Bank.

  “There is not a majority [in favor of] settling Gaza,” among Israelis, despite them being unsure about the possibility of diplomatic solutions with Palestinians, Gitzin said. “There is not a majority for annexing the West Bank. There is not a majority for an eternal war.

  “The division between Smotrich and [National Security Minister Itamar] Ben-Gvir and the rest of the public has become so clear that people will look for solutions that are not the Smotriches and the Ben-Gvirs.”

  This issue is magnified by the fact that those who are in favor of the Jewish settlement of Gaza and the West Bank are also often those willing to sacrifice the hostages held by Hamas, said Gitzin, saying that this will push Israelis further away from this ideology.

  “The hostage issue is a huge social force.”

  These effects of the Israel-Hamas war; the desire for answers, the failure of managing the conflict, the importance of regional cooperation, the failure to destroy Hamas through force alone, and the “revelation” of Israel’s extreme Right, taken together, create the space for diplomatic agreements, said Gitzin.

  This is not an ideological choice of pacifism, he explained.

  “I am not speaking in the language of a pacifist; I understand the need for the use of force,” he said.

  But force alone, without a plan for a “day after,” without diplomatic goals, cannot work, and things in Israel will be as they have been.

  “Israel need to be strong, Israel needs an army, Israel needs to defend itself – those things are clear,” he said, adding that taking this approach to the extreme of only using strength will lead Israel to “another reality that just won’t work.”

  Diplomatic agreements are not without risk, Gitzin acknowledged. “There are huge risks in going to agreements,” he said, adding that in part this is because of extremist factions in the Palestinian and Israeli populations that are not interested in these agreements.

  These risks are necessary because “we understand that without a diplomatic agreement and without incorporating the Palestinians in an agreement, we will live from October 7 to October 7.”

  Gitzin describes support for diplomatic agreements as an array of different ideas.

  Some will support agreements because they believe in the morality of such agreements.

  Some will take a purely practical approach. This isn’t a bad thing, according to him; it is “the political variety that we need to work with.”

  For these agreements to materialize, the most meaningful thing is leadership, explained Gitzin.

  Israel needs “a leadership that aspires to peace, that isn’t afraid to talk about an agreement and a different way of life. I think we are missing that today.”

  THE WAR has pushed Israel to a true crossroads. “Israel is at a point where it needs to decide what it is,” said Gitzin.

  “Is it the nation-state of the Jewish people that is also a democracy that promises equality and so on, or is it an autocratic, nationalist state led by the populist Right or the messianic Right?“This ‘both at the same time’ we were trying to live isn’t going to work forever. We are getting to too many conflict points, and at their end we will need to choose.”

  This is deeply connected to Israel’s relationship with the rest of the world, and Israel is at a point of choice between international isolation and the need to make significant changes.

  “Israel is abnormal in the international political landscape because it has a long-term occupation that leaves people under its control without civil and human rights and with no horizon for change,” said Gitzin, explaining that this not only puts international pressure on Israel but isn’t right for Israelis.

  “If we really see ourselves as a democratic, liberal society, we can’t be a country that runs two parallel legal systems. We can’t.”

  NOT ONLY does this crossroads carry significant meaning for Israel’s international standing, it will affect Israel’s relationship with Diaspora Jewry, according to Gitzin.

  Through his work with the NIF, Gitzin works with Jewish leaders around the world, and in his work he has seen Jews outside of Israel stuck between the “absolute insanity” of what Gitzin said can be called “the radical Left,” which saw October 7 as a decolonization effort, and the Jewish establishment, which has maintained the “Israel can do no wrong” view.

  While the Jewish population has been forced to leave these radical left spaces, “the majority of the US Jewish population [also] does not feel it fits [in the Jewish establishment]. It sees the horrors in Gaza, it sees the dead children, it sees the pain.”

  “Israel must find a way to communicate with the majority [of Diaspora Jewry] that is saying ‘yes, October 7 is the biggest disaster that happened to the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Israel must defend itself. No, wars should not be fought without limits. Yes, there are innocents in Gaza. Yes, we need to find ways to diplomatic agreements.’”

  “The Ben-Gvir, Smotrich way has strong supporters among Jews abroad, but the vast majority isn’t there,” said Gitzin.This is significant if Israel takes a right-wing path, following those two politicians. “What would it say about the Jewish nation-state, that the majority of the Jewish people doesn’t agree with its path?”

  Finding the middle ground between the idea that Israel can do no wrong and the idea that October 7 was a struggle for decolonization is vital, said Gitzin.

  “If the Palestinian-Israeli space turns into Ben-Gvir or into Hamas, we have lost our connection not only with the Jewish Diaspora, but also with the international community,” said Gitzin. 

  On October 7, the NIF began working to house evacuees in Israel and protect communities by supplying shelters. 

  At the same time, the organization recognized the need to provide humanitarian assistance to Gazans. 

  “That is the complexity we bring as an organization,” said Gitzin. The “reality demands a complex worldview.” •link 

Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah/Syria

• An anti-tank guided missile launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon struck a factory in the border community of Avivim, local authorities say.

  The Merom Hagalil Regional Council says the factory was damaged in the attack.

  Hezbollah takes responsibility for the missile fire, saying it struck a building where IDF troops were gathered. Sirens sounded in the border town a short while ago.

West Bank and Jerusalem

•      Israel will move forward with initial plans to sanction senior Palestinian Authority officials after it appeared to have held off doing so last month, an Israeli official tells reporters in a briefing from Washington.

  The stripping of VIP permits from PA officials, which would limit their movement in the West Bank and prevent them from entering Israel, was one of the moves that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced would be taken against Ramallah over its support for dragging Israel before international tribunals and for countries recognizing a Palestinian state.

  Smotrich sought to impose the punitive measures, along with steps to massively expand Israel’s footprint in the West Bank, as part of a quid pro quo that saw the finance minister agree to partially release hundreds of millions of dollars in Palestinian tax revenues that he has been withholding from the PA.

  While the settlement expansion moves were ultimately advanced, the sanctions against the PA were not.

  However, the official briefing reporters says the sanctions will still be implemented. “It takes time,” they say.  link  This government doesn't miss any opportunity to make our situation worse. As I have written in the past, Israel security agencies work closely with Palestinian security agencies, as they have done since Oslo, even though the working relationship is a far cry from what it was then. They still work closely and together have foiled 100's of terrorists attacks on Israel and on Israelis in the West Bank. Every punitive action against them hurts us in the end. Abu Mazen has threatened many times to end the security cooperation but hasn't done it till now but each new damaging action taken by this extreme government and the fundamentalists who lead Netanyahu by the nose, brings us closer and closer to ending the security cooperation and closer to the total breakdown of the PA and all the consequences that this would bring, including a potential explosion in the West Bank and a 3rd Intifada. The Israeli security agencies, including the IDF are against these actions by Smotrich and Ben Gvir as they know the powder keg that can explode as a result. But both Smotrich and Ben Gvir are both pyromaniacs looking to be the fuse for that explosion and Netanyahu enables them both.

• A West Bank settler who entered a Palestinian village and shot and severely wounded a Palestinian man from point-blank range has yet to be charged, despite the incident being caught on video and the testimony of multiple eyewitnesses.

  The State Attorney’s Office told The Times of Israel on Wednesday that the case had previously been closed due to “lack of evidence” as well as a “lack of cooperation” by the victim, who had been unable to file a complaint due to the severity of his injuries.

  The State Attorney’s Office said, however, that the case has now been reopened  after the victim filed a complaint on Tuesday at the Kiryat Arba police station. The police had already investigated the incident in proceedings that lasted some six months following the incident on October 13.
  

  The details were relayed to The Times of Israel following a request for information as to the status of the case, which was passed to the State Attorney’s Office by the police for a decision in late March.

  And new information about the incident has emerged due to a request by the victim, Zakaria al-Adra, for a restraining order against the shooter, who can now be named as Nir Yitzhak, a resident of the illegal West Bank outpost of Maon Farms, which lies just above al-Adra’s village of At Tuwani.

  It was unclear until now why Yitzhak, who is a member of the civilian security squad for Maon Farm, entered At Tuwani.

  
  Zakaria al-Adra, who was shot and severely wounded by an Israeli settler in October 2023, shows his injuries in his home in the West Bank village of A-Tuwani, March 31, 2024. (Jeremy Sharon/Times of Israel)

  Judge Moria Charka of the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court, who heard al-Adra’s request for the restraining order on Wednesday, noted pointedly in her decision granting the order that Yitzhak admitted he had deliberately entered At Tuwani and actively engaged in the encounter with al-Adra, implying it had not been al-Adra who initiated the incident.

  The video of the incident, taken by the Israeli human rights group B’tselem, shows Yitzhak, armed with an assault rifle, walking down from an area of scrubland into At-Tuwani and approaching a stationary al-Adra.
  

  Yitzhak slams the barrel of his rifle into al-Adra’s upper body causing him to stumble backwards; Al-Adra briefly raises his right hand in response, with what appears to be a rock in it, but then lowers his hand; in the next split second Yitzhak fires a shot from point blank range into al-Adra’s abdomen.

  The judge noted Yitzhak’s claim that al-Adra “sought to throw rocks,” and that against the backdrop of the outbreak of war following the October 7 Hamas massacre just days before the incident it was possible that Yitzhak was acting out of self-defense.

  But she also pointed in her decision to the fact that Yitzhak had not fired a warning shot, and that he had continued to carry his assault rifle and do patrols for the Maon Farm security squad despite having had his gun license revoked following the incident.

  The judge therefore accepted al-Adra’s request for a restraining order against Yitzhak banning him from entering At Tuwani for 180 days, and banned him from bearing a firearm, whether his IDF-issued assault rifle or a personal sidearm, for as long as there is a criminal case open against him.

  Chakra said she was issuing this ban “in particular” because Yitzhak had been the one who initiated the encounter with al-Adra.
  

  On Tuesday, al-Adra was summoned to the Kiryat Arba police station to file a complaint against Yitzhak, even though his father and another relative filed a complaint in his name in October and provided their eyewitness testimony.

  Al-Adra had been hospitalized for 82 days after the shooting, 60 of those in intensive care, and subsequently suffers physical weakness and pain resulting from his injuries.

  Eitan Peleg, an attorney representing al-Adra, noted that he had requested the police come to al-Adra’s residence in At Tuwani to take his complaint and testimony there but they had failed to do so.

  The police also never arrived at the scene to take evidence, a relative of al-Adra told The Times of Israel in April.

  When al-Adra came to the police station on Tuesday to file the complaint he was questioned under caution for “rock throwing” in the October 13 incident and is now himself being investigated. A spokesperson for the Judea region of the southern West Bank told The Times of Israel that al-Adra had been “one of those who rioted and threw stones and then the [Israeli] resident fired.”

  When it was pointed out that al-Adra had not been seen throwing a stone during the incident, the spokesperson said he had “intended to throw a stone.”

  “The case has been closed for quite a while due to a lack of evidence, a part of which stemmed from the fact that the victim who was shot did not cooperate with the police and did not go [to the police station] to give testimony,” the State Attorney’s Office said in a statement to The Times of Israel. “Recently, he requested through an attorney to give a statement. Because of that, the case has been opened and it is now in the status of investigation.

  “After the police finishes its investigation it will be sent back to us for new evaluation and a decision.”

  Al-Adra suffered life-changing injuries as a result of the shooting, had a colostomy bag fitted because of injuries to his intestines, and told The Times of Israel in April that he needs help standing up because of the pain and that it hurts to speak loudly or laugh as a result of the injuries to his abdomen and ribs. link

Politics and the War (general news)

•  In conversations Thursday with both US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Vice President Kamala Harris, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu forcefully raised his objection to the sanction campaign being waged by the US against other Israeli extremists accused of destabilizing the West Bank, says the Israeli official briefing reporters.

  The US began imposing the sanctions in February amid what it points to as the overwhelming impunity enjoyed by settlers who regularly target Palestinians in the West Bank.

  Netanyahu asserted that there are far more attacks against Israeli civilians in the West Bank than Palestinian ones and that the rate of Palestinian terrorists to civilians killed in the territory has been 50 to 1, the Israeli official briefing reporters says.

  A US official tells The Times of Israel that Sullivan told Netanyahu in response that the administration’s sanctions against Israeli extremists will continue.

• A normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia is still possible before the November presidential election, an Israeli official tells reporters in a briefing, adding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the matter with US President Joe Biden during their Thursday meeting.

  “If the prices are acceptable to us. It could develop there even before the elections. Israel and Saudi Arabia share a common interest,” the Israeli official says, ostensibly referring to efforts to curb Iran’s influence in the region.

  Senior Congressional sources told The Times of Israel earlier this month that there is no chance for a deal before the election because there isn’t enough time left for Congress to authorize the security package that Riyadh is seeking with Washington as part of the broader initiative being advanced by the Biden administration.

  The Congressional sources didn’t completely rule out a deal between the election and the inauguration of the next president, but they stressed that it was still very unlikely. link "An Israeli official" means Netanyahu speaking through an underling for plausible deniability. and is purely Netanyahu being cocky after his speech to congress and meetings with Biden, Harris and Trump. But the underlying fact that he continues to publicly ignore is one that is not going away. Saudi Arabia has made it crystal clear that, without concrete moves on the part of Israel towards a 2 State Solution to end the Israel/Palestine conflict, normalization between the 2 countries is not going to happen. It is true that Saudi Arabia desperately wants the defense agreement with the US and that normalization with Israel was a required parameter to make that happen, the Saudis are not going to turn their backs on the Palestinians as they were ready to do before the war. What has happened in Gaza has made that non-negotiable whether Netanyahu likes it or not.

• US Vice President Kamala Harris insisted Thursday that she would not be “silent” on suffering in Gaza while also touting her pro-Israel bona fides, in comments made shortly after meeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Her remarks drew furious Israeli complaints that they could complicate efforts to reach a deal with the Hamas terror group to free hostages and end the war in Gaza.

  Speaking to reporters after what she called a “frank and constructive” meeting with Netanyahu at the White House, Harris said it was time to end the “devastating” war sparked by the Hamas terror group’s brutal October 7 attack on Israel, in comments that some saw as a sign of a possible shift in Washington’s stance as the presumptive Democratic nominee for president takes center stage.

  “What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating. The images of dead children and desperate hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time,” Harris told reporters. “We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering and I will not be silent.” full article There could be a tiny speck of possibility that Harris' statement could give Sinwar a certain feeling of strength but it is highly doubtful. After the freeze of the 2000 pound bombs and the very bad blood between Netanyahu and Biden, together with the reduced military strength in Gaza, Sinwar was sure that American support for Israel was waning strongly and it was a matter of time before the support would be totally gone. He also anticipated tiredness on the part of the Israeli public for the war and the reduction of soldiers, he believed was a sign of that. Neither of those things happened and he miscalculated. American support under Biden continued as strong as ever and the military was changing methods and focus and ended up hitting Hamas strongholds that were being rebuilt in areas the IDF had previously left, surprising Hamass and Sinwar. Harris' statement does not have nearly any of the 'hints' that Hamas might want to see to feel that Israel was losing American support against Hamas. Harris' statement was not for Hamas. it was for the people of Gaza who are truly suffering and have been suffering even before the war under the harsh regime of Hamas. It is highly doubtful that her remarks will have any bearing on the negotiations. The only person who's remarks have had continuous negative results in the negotiations have been Netanyahu's and he is the only one needed to bring about a deal.

• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering firing Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and replacing him with New Hope chair Gideon Sa’ar, Channel 12 reports, without citing sources, echoing previous reports on the potential move to bring him back into the coalition.

  According to the report, Netanyahu is holding consultations on the matter during the Knesset’s three-month summer recess.

  Sa’ar announced his party’s departure from the coalition in March after his demand to be admitted to the high-level war cabinet was denied. He has since harshly criticized the government’s management of the war in Gaza and has said he would be willing to make “concessions” to create a right-wing bloc opposing Netanyahu. The network says Sa’ar is considering the offer favorably, while also reporting that sources close to the MK deny he has received any such proposal.  link This report actually makes me nervous. Gidon Saar knows Netanyahu very well and knows exactly that Netanyahu makes deals knowing he will not honor them but he also knows that in the next elections, if his party doesn't team up with others, he won't get elected to the next Knesset, let alone fulfil his dream of being prime minister. In his desperation to get his party in and to fulfil that dream, he may do as others have done before him and make a deal with Netanyahu hoping beyond hope that Netanyahu will honor that deal, which is highly unlikely. The deal would be something like this. Saar will become Defense Minister (he has no background in this area whatsoever) and possibly deputy Prime Minister (possible but unlikely since he is not in the same party as Netanyahu, unless the agreement is also for Saar to return to the Likud from whence he came). They could make a rotation agreement whereby Saar becomes Prime Minister for the last 6-9 months of the government's 4 year term (if it does last that long) and Saar promises to vote with the government for the duration. Netanyahu would either agree to step down and name Saar as his replacement or they would agree to be number 1 and 2 on the Likud List for the next elections. This is a deal that could tempt Saar even though he knows that every single agreement that Netanyahu has ever made to keep himself as Prime Minister, such as this has gone down in flames. This is an agreement that Netanyahu would definitely make and never keep. And the danger of this agreement is that Netanyahu would remain as Prime Minister and may also get Saar's agreement that there won't be a State Commission of Inquiry about October 7, the war and all that led up to it, but instead push for and vote for a Knesset Committee of Inquiry would would be led by the coalition partners who are responsible for October 7 and the war and for which there would be no legal or political ramifications. These are the biggest dangers of an agreement like this. And let's not forget that Netanyahu would be putting another minister in a position that he is not qualified to hold especially in dangerous times like this with a potential war in the north and growing unrest in the West Bank and no resolution to Gaza.

• In light of the government’s failure to establish an official state commission of inquiry into the events of October 7, the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Thursday announced that it is establishing a special panel to oversee the military’s internal investigations into its failures in the lead-up to the Hamas terror group’s October 7 massacre.

  The “Special Subcommittee to Examine the Investigations of the Events of October 7 and the Iron Swords War” will be headed by Likud MK Yuli Edelstein and will be comprised of lawmakers from both the coalition and opposition.

  Members include Ram Ben Barak (Yesh Atid); Meir Cohen (Yesh Atid); Merav Michaeli (The Democrats); Ze’ev Elkin (New Hope); Tzvi Sukkot (Religious Zionism); Gadi Eisenkot (National Unity); Yinon Azulai (Shas); Sharon Nir (Yisrael Beytenu); Moshe Roth (United Torah Judaism); Limor Son Har-Melech (Otzma Yehudit); and Boaz Bismuth (Likud). 
  

  “For many months, I have been calling for the establishment of a state commission of inquiry, which is the only one authorized by law to access the highest [level of] classified materials,” announced Edelstein, who also chairs the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

  “It is the nature of a vacuum to be filled, and in the absence of a state committee, the army began to investigate on its own. The subcommittee was established in order to supervise the IDF’s investigations and make sure that they are done in as professional, comprehensive and objective a manner as the law allows,” he said — adding that “the IDF’s and other investigations are not and will not be a substitute for a state commission of inquiry, whose establishment would have been better if done much earlier.”

  “In the absence of a state commission of inquiry, the forum will be a tool for the supervision and oversight” of all IDF investigations and will summon all “relevant” parties, “military, governmental and civilian” to testify in the Knesset, the committee said in a statement. 
  

  The Israel Defense Forces has been progressing with its internal investigations into the military’s failures in the lead-up to the Hamas terror group’s October 7 massacre, recently releasing its probe into the battle at Kibbutz Be’eri.

  The probes are aimed at drawing operational conclusions for the military and will not look into the policies of the political leadership, avoiding a fight with government leaders opposed to such a course of action.
  

  The war in Gaza erupted after Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.

  Despite growing demands to do so, including from his own defense minister, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far resisted forming a state commission of inquiry into the policy failings leading up to October 7 or the government’s handling of the war. 
  

  He has said investigations must wait until after the fighting ends and has repeatedly avoided committing to forming a state commission, which is the inquiry body that enjoys the broadest powers under Israeli law. With the war now in its 10th month, pressure has been growing to begin investigating events.

  Seventy-two percent of Israelis think Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs to resign over the failures of October 7, according to a Channel 12 poll published earlier this month.

  The establishment of his special subcommittee appears to be yet another assertion of independence from Netanyahu by Edelstein. The veteran Likud lawmaker has recently refused to push government-backed measures extending reservists’ terms of service and regulating ultra-Orthodox enlistment through his committee without achieving what he calls a “broad consensus.”

  While current investigations are “critical for drawing lessons and applying them,” even during wartime, they “cannot replace the work of the state commission of inquiry, which must be established,” stated MK Elkin, who led a similar probe in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee during Operation Protective Edge in 2014. “I congratulate the Chairman of the Foreign and Defense Committee, MK Yuli Edelstein, for the initiative and intend to take a very active role in it,” he said.

  The establishment of Edelstein’s subcommittee was also welcomed by UTJ’s Roth, who called it “helpful,” and The Democrats’ Michaeli, who tweeted that Israelis’ tendency to assert that things “will be fine” is “part of what led us to the terrible disaster on October 7.”

  “I will do everything and thoroughly investigate each and every oversight and will be on guard to do everything so that the oversights do not recur. We will learn, investigate and insist on improving for the security of all,” she posted.

  Edelstein’s announcement comes a week to the day after several groups representing survivors of the Hamas massacres and the families of those killed announced the formation of a “civil commission of inquiry” aimed at “reaching the truth and preventing the next disaster.”  link In the absence of the State Commission of Inquiry, this subcommittee has a small place to perform some of the work that needs to be done but others will want to see this as being the only committee to investigate the war, especially Netanyahu. And I don't trust Edelstein as he becomes Netanyahu's lapdog when it is politically beneficial for Edelstein. The bottom line is that this subcommittee is superfluous because the real investigation must be done by a State Commission that has no ties, connections or obligations to any political echelon.

The Region and the World

•    The leaders of Australia, New Zealand and Canada issue a joint statement calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza.

  The three reiterate their support for the Israel-approved proposed hostage release and ceasefire deal presented by US President Joe Biden at the end of May, and urge “all involved actors to exercise restraint and deescalate” after months of war between Israel and the Hamas terror group.

  “Civilians must be protected, and a sustained increase in the flow of assistance throughout Gaza is needed to address the humanitarian situation,” the statement reads.

  The leaders add that they “remain unequivocal in our condemnation of Hamas.”

Personal Stories

  

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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