As we came to Sunday evening, the mood in my house, and all across Israel, changed greatly. At sundown began Yom Ha’Zikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day. On this day, every business, restaurant, and workplace shut its doors so we could take time to remember the 25,040 soldiers who have fallen and victims of terror who have died since 1948. This is the first year we’ve had the murdered innocents of October 7 to include in our mourning. The violence and evil actions perpetrated by Hamas on that day were brought right back in front of our faces.
While it was a day of mourning, it also steeled us for what is ahead. I appreciated the words on Tuesday of former chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, when he said, “If you take the math and do 1,200 [victims of October 7] and apply it to the United States, that’d be 50,000-100,000 people dead in a morning. Can you imagine what we would do?” You’re exactly right, general, and we’re carrying out precisely those actions that you would imagine.
We’ve mourned those whom we’ve lost, but even mourning must come to an end. As the psalms tell us “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5). Or, because in Israel our days change in the evening, joy comes at sunset. When sundown came on Monday, Yom Ha’Zikaron became Yom Ha’atzmaut. Memorial Day became Independence Day! Sorrow turned into joy!
This Independence Day celebrated the 76th anniversary of the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy in the final chapter of his book: “Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children” (Isaiah 66:8).
Not only do we celebrate the birth of the State of Israel, but we rejoice in the fact that following one attack after another we are still here! From the river to the sea, Israel shall always be!
Gaza
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) completed this past week an operation in the Zeitoun neighborhood of northern Gaza. Word had come that Hamas was regrouping in the area. Forces from the IDF came from the Netzarim corridor and eliminated the threat before it could become a major problem.
Sadly, four nineteen-year-old IDF sergeants were killed in the operation. Then, today, the IDF spokesman announced the deaths of five soldiers of the Paratrooper Brigade’s 202nd Battalion in the northern Gaza strip. In addition, three more soldiers of the 202nd Battalion were seriously wounded.
Rafah has seen significant action in the past week. The IDF is setting up a new secured parameter along the Philadelphi corridor at Egypt’s border, while in Rafah Israeli tanks have entered the neighborhoods of Al-Geneina, Al-Salam, and Al-Brazil. Hundreds of thousands of civilians have already fled the area for safety, having been warned by the IDF ahead of time.
The civilian evacuation that the U.S. said would take months has only taken a couple of days. Once Rafah is at least somewhat stabilized above ground, it will be time to uncover the massive underground tunnel system. Egypt is very concerned about this eventuality because it will show them in a very bad light.
For years, these tunnels have been used to transport huge amounts of weapons from Egypt to Hamas. The American CIA is also unhappy about the tunnels being uncovered. They’ve known about them for many years but have kept them quiet. They much prefer a weak and controllable Israel that depends on U.S. armaments for security.
Either the United Nations has mastered the power of resurrection or they failed basic math. On May 6, the august body published a report asserting that the dead in Gaza included 9,500 women and 14,500 children. Two days later, on May 8, they amended the report to read 4,959 women and 7,797 children. There were no press releases surrounding the change. No apologies.
Now, I certainly do not want to make light of those numbers because they are a tragedy. However, the responsibility for their deaths must be laid at the feet of Hamas who used them as human shields and at those of the United Nations who have been encouraging antisemitism through their words and actions for decades.
Want to know the kind of people you find working for the UN? A growing number of posts in a chatroom run by a former United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) employee indicate that UNRWA staff are stealing humanitarian aid and selling it for profit. Remember, UNRWA employees have been reported to have participated in the October 7 massacre and harbored Israeli hostages.
In the midst of their condemnation of all that Israel does, the UN managed to find time to vote to enhance the rights and privileges of Palestine. Included in the vote was also an encouragement to the UN Security Council to reconsider Palestine’s request to become the 194th member of the international body.
Only nine countries voted against the resolution – Argentina, Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, and the United States – while another 25 wimpily abstained.
The North
Late Tuesday night, an Israeli aircraft took out a car in the city of Tyre, Lebanon. At least two people were killed, including Hussain Ibrahim Mekky, a senior Hezbollah field commander on the southern front of Lebanon. Mekky was involved in the planning of many terrorist attacks.
Hezbollah retaliated with a heavy barrage of rockets fired at Mt. Meron from southern Lebanon. A recent claim by terrorist group indicated that they have now included in their rocket arsenal new 1200-pound missiles that they call “Jihad Mughniyeh”. The name comes from the son of senior Hezbollah official Imad Mughniyeh. The younger Mughniyeh was killed in an operation in 2015, while the elder was assassinated in Damascus back in 2008.
US Relations
A standoff still exists over certain arms shipments to Israel. U.S. House Republicans have pushed a bill that would force the Biden administration to send the frozen shipment of bombs to Israel. The president has already indicated that he would veto the bill, should it pass to him. Instead, the administration is putting forth a new $1 billion package of military aid, which includes tactical vehicles, ammunition for tanks, and shells. While the aid is appreciated, it is not what is most needed for the operation in Rafah. And that is the sticking point. The Biden administration is trying to interfere in the IDF’s ability to conduct an operation in Rafah.
What the Republicans are saying with their bill is that Israel knows best how to carry out the war with Hamas, and that the U.S. should support their allies in their actions.
Biden has a strong ally against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the plan for the IDF to complete the war. Sadly, that ally comes from within Israel. Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has aligned with the U.S. president to bring Netanyahu and his government down. And Gallant isn’t the only one. It’s all the generals and ex-generals who were educated in America. They have become liberal leftists, and they are seeking to do to Israel what the hard left has been doing to the U.S.
Once they have taken Netanyahu down, it will pave the way for Hamas’s survival and the creation of an international force to rule Gaza. This would be disastrous. Netanyahu’s administration has no desire to rule over the Palestinians. But Israel is at a place where it is not about what we want, but about what we need. If any other option than Israeli military control of the Gaza Strip is implemented, it is a reward to Hamas and a guarantee that October 7 will one day happen again.
It will also lead to the grand prize of the terrorist agenda – a Palestinian state. And what would then be the lesson to the terrorists around the world? What a long struggle can’t achieve, a massacre can. Butcher, rape, and behead to your heart’s content, and you’ll be richly rewarded.
Jordan
Jordanian officials announced that they had thwarted an Iran-backed plan to smuggle weapons into the country to carry out acts of sabotage. Iranian proxy militias based in Syria funneled the weapons to a Muslim Brotherhood cell in Jordan. When the scheme was discovered, the cache of weapons was seized, and arrests were made.
Turkey
Could the president of Turkey be facing another coup attempt? If you ask Erdogan, he’d likely tell you that it is very possible. There are reports that he has gathered the heads of his intelligence departments to discuss information about a possible imminent coup, the first since a failed 2016 plot. With the economy floundering the way it is, it would not be surprising to see people rising up. However, it could also be a false flag that President Erdogan uses as an excuse to crackdown on any opposition.
In a possibly related story, the president ordered the arrest of four senior police chiefs in Ankara on Tuesday for connections to an organized crime boss. There are those, however, who say that these chiefs were involved in the planning of a coup.
Slovakia
A gunman fired five shots Wednesday at Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico, hitting him multiple times. The alleged assailant, 71-year-old Juraj Cintula, is reported to be a former security guard with links to a pro-Russian paramilitary group. As of the time of this writing, the prime minister was in surgery in extremely critical condition.
