Shalom from Israel! Another week has gone by under wartime, and, as seems to regularly be the case, there have been some highlights and there have been some sorrows. Through it all, the people of Israel remain as dedicated as ever to defeat the enemies who are surrounding us. Unfortunately, it appears that the resolve of our allies is waning. As you’ll see below, it may not be long until we are on our own while new enemies step up against us. Rather than bombs and bullets, their weapons will be politics and pressure, sanctions and seizures, judgments and isolation. I mentioned last week the case brought by South Africa to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague accusing Israel of genocide. It is such an asinine condemnation, but I would not be surprised to see it affirmed. The ICC is an organ of the United Nations (UN), and there is nothing that the UN enjoys more than a good, old denunciation of Israel.
But Jews are used to going it alone. It is something we have had to do off and on for millennia. The only difference now is that it may be the first time that we will have been isolated as a state. If that is what happens, then so be it. We’ve been at the pointy end of the world’s swords before, yet here we are, united and stronger as a people than we have ever been. The credit for that fact does not have a human source, but One which is divine in nature.
Israel will never be completely alone in this world. God has made a covenant with His chosen people that still stands today. “But, Amir, Israel is a secular nation that still rejects the Messiah.” True. But when God made His covenant with Israel, He did so without caveats. This is a truth that He emphasized through the prophet Jeremiah, where we read:
Jeremiah 33:25-26 KJV – “Thus saith the Lord; If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; 26 Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them.”
So, actually, I may be wrong. There appears to be a caveat here. When there is no day or night anymore and all the God-ordained natural systems of the universe cease, that is when the covenant will end. The fact that the sun rose this morning, however, is enough to tell you that God’s covenant still stands, and Israel is still His chosen people. That is where my hope and my peace rests. No matter what we are facing as a nation, we will survive it because God is truly on our side.
Gaza
Fighting is still very intense in Khan Yunis. This is the middle region of the five areas that make up Gaza and is where the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) believe that the Hamas leaders who are still in-country are located. A huge find was made in the Bureij area of western Gaza near Egypt’s northeastern border. Hidden under civilian and humanitarian centers, the IDF discovered the largest Hamas underground weapons manufacturing and storage site to date. In this location, long-range missiles capable of reaching northern Israel were assembled and held until Hamas was ready to deploy them. Not all news from Gaza was positive, though. On Monday, three separate incidents took the lives of nine Israeli soldiers, six of them in one explosion. Eight more members of the IDF were wounded in the actions. Israel mourns the loss of these brave men who were fighting for the survival of their country.
One more incident from Gaza must be addressed. On Sunday, during an operation targeting drone operators, two journalists with Al Jazeera were killed. Immediately, there was outrage and sorrow throughout the world. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was “heartbroken” at the loss. However, now we have learned that these two “journalists” were part of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and they were operating drones against IDF forces. This is so typical of what Hamas has done. They have destroyed the concept of there being any altruistic professions left in Gaza. Instead, what we find are terrorist doctors, terrorist teachers, and terrorist journalists. Schools, mosques, and hospitals are all used to shelter Hamas and their weapons, along with the shafts to their underground tunnels. Even the ambulances that are supposed to carry the wounded are used to transport weapons and ammunition. They have taken that which is good in most every corner of the world and they have thoroughly corrupted it. It is appalling and it is tragic.
Lebanon
Monday was a bad day for Hezbollah in Lebanon. Wissam al-Tawil, head of the elite Radwan forces and key leader in directing Hezbollah’s actions in the south, was killed when the car he was in was destroyed by an IDF explosive device. The death of al-Tawil marks the highest-level member of the terrorist organization killed to date and is a serious blow to their operations. This targeted killing took place two days after Hezbollah fired 62 rockets into northern Israel in retaliation for the assassination of Hamas bigwig Saleh al-Arouri. Both Israel and Hezbollah are moving soldiers and weapons systems toward the border as everyone expects and prepares for a full war to soon commence. I go into more detail about the al-Tawil killing and state of the war in my short Breaking News update from Monday.
Syria
After the targeted killing last week of Hamas V.I.P. Saleh al-Arouri in Lebanon, as mentioned above, the IDF continued its thinning out of the terrorist group’s leadership on Monday. Hassan Akasha, the man responsible for the launching of rockets from Syria into Israel in recent weeks, was permanently taken out of commission through an undisclosed methodology in the south Syrian town of Beit Jinn. Is it possible that Hamas leadership is finally beginning to understand that not one of them is safe no matter where they are in the world?
West Bank
Daily raids continue by the IDF into the West Bank to track down and arrest Hamas and PIJ terrorists who are hiding throughout the region. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a West Bank visit yesterday to Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. Apparently taking a two-state solution as a fait accompli, Blinken encouraged the 88-year-old Abbas to reform the PA so that it would be prepared to govern Gaza after the war is concluded.
The United States
Secretary of State Blinken’s visit to the West Bank mentioned in the previous story came a day after he met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Foreign Minister Israel Katz. His agenda? “Come on, guys, can’t you wrap this thing up?” In a press conference after the meeting, Blinken criticized South Africa’s accusations of genocide against Israel, alluded to a future two-state solution, and asserted that Israel’s government has some hard choices ahead regarding the prosecution of the war and how it will allow the Palestinians to operate in a post-war Gaza. The SecState comes representing his boss who is anxious to get the hostilities wrapped up before November’s elections. Polling shows him running behind potential return candidate Donald Trump, and he is desperate to mollify the far left of his party as well as solidify the vote of the Muslims of Dearborn in the battle to take the state of Michigan. According to President Joe Biden’s words in a South Carolina church on Monday, he has “been quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza.” Unless he’s referring to members of the opposition government, then I would expect his success in getting Israel to pull out of Gaza is far less than what he is asserting. I must admit that I am very concerned about the global ramifications of having such a weak administration in Washington, D.C. I believe that it is possible that by the time Biden finally leaves office, Iran might have achieved its nuclear ambitions, China might attempt to take Taiwan, and Russia will greatly intensify its war against Ukraine.
The Red Sea
The largest action by the Yemeni Houthis to date occurred on Tuesday causing the U.S. and British warships to shoot down 18 drones, two anti-ship cruise missiles, and one anti-ship ballistic missile. The Iran-supported proxy terrorist group has been targeting shipping and military vessels since the war in Gaza began. “This is an unsustainable situation,” declared British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps. “This cannot continue and cannot be allowed to continue.” It’s unclear why the Brits and the Americans have allowed this pesky group of terrorists to cause such havoc and cost shipping companies so much money.
Korea
Friday saw North Korean leader Kim Jong-un once again having fun making things go “boom”. Unfortunately, this time he did it with more than 200 artillery rounds fired in a span of two hours into the maritime buffer zone separating the waters of the two Koreas. This obvious provocation spurred South Korea to carry out its own live fire exercise in response. Tensions continue to mount between the two countries, and incidents like this do not help the situation.
