Israel Update: June 16 (Day 255)

by | | Israel Updates, Uncategorized

Jay Zeidman-

[MUST READ: HEROIC STORY]: The Jewish Chronicle documents the The inside story of Israel’s dramatic Gaza hostage rescue, a daring operation taken by a few Israelis to save their brothers who were captured by terrorists. The entire operation is recounted by Elon Perry here.
  • On 12 May, Israel received intelligence about the location of four hostages in the Nuseirat refugee camp area in the Gaza Strip. From that day on, every branch of Israeli intelligence was focused on the area 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to locate the exact location. A team of undercover ‘Mista’arvim’ (units that assimilate into local populations to gather intelligence) were sent there, mainly in the local market of Nuseirat.
  • In order to finally verify the information and to prepare the ground for the operation, another team of undercover soldiers (including several women dressed in hijabs and long black dresses) was sent into the Nuseirat refugee camp. Pretending to be two Gazan families looking for a large house in Nuseirat, they arrived in two cheap-looking old cars loaded with domestic items characteristic of those families displaced in the Strip, such as mattresses and clothing identical to those of the locals.
[WATCH] “Noa, it’s all good. We’re here to take you home. You are Safe.”
  • The IDF released footage from the incredibly emotional moments when Noa Argamani was rescued from Gaza by the Israeli forces
 
[WATCH] “Almost every Saturday they (Hamas) showed us the protests that happened in Israel… when Almog (the other hostage) saw his picture, he started to breathe more freely. It was one of the things that gave me hope.”
 
Situational Update
  • According to Egyptian news, Hezbollah’s number two leader, Hashim Safi al-Din was eliminated in an airstrike in Lebanon. See the full video posted by Aviva Klompas on X here.
  • Hezbollah has now launched more than 5,000 rockets, anti-tank missiles, and explosive drones into Israel since the Iran-backed terror army started attacking Israeli communities more than eight months ago. IDF Spokesperson RAdm. Daniel Hagari explains the impact of Hezbollah’s escalation on our northern front: “Hezbollah’s increasing aggression is bringing us to the brink of what could be a wider escalation – one that could have devastating consequences for Lebanon and the entire region… Israel has a duty to defend the people of Israel. We will fulfill that duty.” More than 70,000 Israeli civilians are internally displaced and unable to return to their homes in the north according to AIPAC.
  • According to the IDF, on X, yesterday, five projectiles were launched toward Israel from a humanitarian aid area in central Gaza. Two of them crossed into Israeli territory and three fell within Gaza.
Numbers
Casualties (sadly, we saw the largest loss of IDF soldiers in six months)
  • 1,589 Israelis dead, including 662 IDF soldiers (311 IDF soldiers during the ground operation in Gaza) – an increase of 11 since our previous update
    • Sergeant Yair Roitman (19) succumbed to injuries he received from an explosion in a building last week
    • Eight troops killed in Rafah explosion, in deadliest incident for IDF in 6 months: Cpt. Wassem Mahmoud, 23, Sgt. Eliyahu Moshe Zimbalist, 21, Sgt. Itay Amar, 19, Staff Sgt. Stanislav Kostarev, 21, Staff Sgt. Orr Blumovitz, 20, Staff Sgt. Oz Yeshaya Gruber, 20,  Sgt. Yakir Ya’akov Levi, and Sgt. Shalom Menachem, 21. The troops all served in the Combat Engineering Corps’ 601st Battalion. Mahmoud was a deputy company commander.
    • Cpt. (res.) Eitan Koplovich, 28 and Warrant Officer (res.) Elon Weiss, 49 were killed by an explosive device detonated against their tank in northern Gaa.
  • Additional Information (according to the IDF):
    • 1,940 IDF soldiers have been injured during ground combat in Gaza, including at least 377 who have been severely injured
  • Note: we have always included the number of casualties in Gaza, as reported by the Gaza Health Ministry. We feel it is important to include this information with the caveat that this reporting ministry is not a trusted source of data by many. Most recently, The United Nations has begun citing a much lower death toll for women and children in Gaza, acknowledging that it has incomplete information about many of the people killed during Israel’s military offensive in the territory.
    • According to unverified figures from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, 36,731 people have been killed in Gaza, and 83,530 have been injured during the war.
    • We also encourage you to read this well documented piece from Tablet published in March: How the Gaza Ministry of Health Fakes Casualty Numbers
    • The Associated Press, an outlet with a demonstrated anti-Israel bias, conducted an analysis of alleged Gaza death tolls released by the Hamas-controlled “Gaza Health Ministry.” The analysis found that “9,940 of the dead – 29% of its April 30 total – were not listed in the data” and that “an additional 1,699 records in the ministry’s April data were incomplete and 22 were duplicates.”
Hostages
  • On October 7th, a total of 261 Israelis were taken hostage.
  • During the ceasefire deal in November, 112 hostages were released.
  • A total of 7 hostages have been rescued and the remains of 19 others have been recovered. Tragically, 3 have been mistakenly killed by the IDF, and 1 was killed during an IDF attempt to rescue him.
  • This leaves an estimated 120 hostages still theoretically in Gaza, with somewhere between (assumed) 35-43 deceased. Thus, at most, 85 living hostages could still be in Gaza.
 
Humanitarian Aid
For more detail, please visit COGAT’s website: Israel Humanitarian efforts – Swords of Iron (govextra.gov.il)
  • There are 11 operational and floating field hospitals
    • So far, 3,273 sick and injured individuals and 754 escorts, left Gaza for medical treatment abroad.
Listen
[PODCAST] The Ezra Klein Show: The View From the Israeli Right
  • There is no viable left wing in Israel right now. There is a coalition that Netanyahu leads stretching from right to far right and a coalition that Gantz leads stretching from center to right. In the early months of the war, Gantz appeared ascendant as support for Netanyahu cratered. But now Netanyahu’s poll numbers are ticking back up.
  • So one thing I did in Israel was deepen my reporting on Israel’s right. And there, Amit Segal’s name kept coming up. He’s one of Israel’s most influential political analysts and the author of “The Story of Israeli Politics” is coming out in English.
  • Segal and I talked about the political differences between Gantz and Netanyahu, the theory of security that’s emerging on the Israeli right, what happened to the Israeli left, the threat from Iran and Hezbollah and how Netanyahu is trying to use President Biden’s criticism to his political advantage.
  • Link: The Ezra Klein Show: The View From the Israeli Right on Apple Podcasts
 
What We Are Reading
Israel Killed 31 of My Family Members in Gaza. The Pro-Palestine Movement Isn’t Helping. “Over the last two decades, Western activists have only made things worse for my people” says Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib with The Free Press.
  • Despite my deep frustration and resentment with the Israeli government’s action and the ongoing war in Gaza, I don’t. If anything, I’m more critical of some pro-Palestinian activists, many of whom are making things worse, putting the people they claim to defend in increasing danger. In fact, I’d argue that some aren’t all that interested in the well-being of Palestinians.
  • In 2008, during a San Francisco rally in support of Gaza, I was approached by a news reporter who asked for an interview. She wanted my thoughts on rockets being fired at Israeli targets. I made it very clear that I didn’t support Hamas, and that I believed the random violence against Israeli citizens was abhorrent and wrong. After the interview, I was taken aside by one of the rally’s organizers, who chastised me.
  • “Never talk about the rockets,” she told me. “You always pivot. If they ask you about Hamas, bring it back to the Israeli occupation.”
  • “But my family is there,” I insisted. “I don’t think either side should be killing civilians with rockets.”
  • “It doesn’t matter,” she said. “Stay on message.”
  • Link: Israel Killed 31 of My Family Members in Gaza. The Pro-Palestine Movement Isn’t Helping
 
John Spencer, Chair of Urban Warfare Studies posts on X:
  • Israel’s actions in Gaza will be studied by many militaries. The lessons learned by Israel in Gaza – from dealing with the information warfare in the age of social media, facing an enemy in an urban defense they prepared for 15 years, facing an enemy using lawfare, human shields, trying to get their own population killed, and prevent humanitarian efforts to aid their entire population to the immense challenge of underground warfare. These lessons will make the U.S. military better and more ready to face future challenges. It will save American lives.
  • By March 1974 the U.S. military had opened no fewer than  37 separate studies on Israel’s action during Yom Kippur War, including one seven volume data report on weapon systems still classified today. American servicemen walked the battlefields with Israeli military commanders who hard fought on them quickly after the war ended. The lessons caused major changes, especially in the U.S. Army.
  • Gaza will be equally impactful.
  • Link: John Spencer X post  
 
Abdullah Aljamal, who held Israeli hostages, worked as journalist for an organization registered as a U.S. nonprofit. Here’s what we know about Iran’s Ties to the ‘Palestine Chronicle’, by Adam Kredo with The Washington Free Beacon.
  • Israeli authorities confirmed over the weekend that three of their hostages were held in the home of Abdallah Aljamal, an Al Jazeera contributor who most frequently wrote for a little-known U.S.-based website called the Palestine Chronicle. Aljamal’s writings were featured extensively on the site, which is registered as a nonprofit in Washington State. Aljamal even filed dispatches during the time he is alleged to have housed the Israeli captives.
  • Baroud defended Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror strike on Israel and has written for Kayhan International, an outlet funded by Iran’s supreme leader. At least six of the outlet’s published writers have also appeared on Iranian state-controlled propaganda sites that the U.S. government seized in 2020 for being part of an influence operation run by Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC). Government documents also show that the Palestine Liberation Organization, which has engaged in terrorism, conducted an interview with the Palestine Chronicle in 2006.
  • The Palestine Chronicle, based and registered as a nonprofit group in Olympia, Washington, received its tax-exempt status in 2012, IRS records show. The group is only required to file a shortened tax form because it claims to receive less than $50,000 dollars in contributions per year. Records filed with the State of Washington show, however, that the website’s parent company, the People Media Project, took in $91,107 in 2022, $59,230 in 2021, and $92,036 in 2020. The outlet claims to be entirely funded by its readers.
  • Palestine Chronicle editor in chief Baroud is affiliated with foreign think tanks, including the Istanbul-based Center for Islam and Global Affairs, which is run by Sami Al-Arian, a vocal Israel critic who pleaded guilty in 2006 to providing material support to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a designated terror group.
  • In 2022, Baroud published an article with the Iran state-controlled Kayhan International outlet. The article, “Zionists Prophesying Their Imminent Doom,” claimed that Israeli leaders “exaggerate and manipulate facts to instill fear and rile up their political camps.”
  • Link: Iran’s Ties to the ‘Palestine Chronicle’
Ghosted By Hamas, by Seth Mandel in Commentary Magazine discusses Hamas’ refusing Anthony Blinken and Israel’s ceasefire appeal. “Nine days after Sullivan’s reassurance, the ball remains in Hamas’s court. In fact, the ball is looking rather a bit too comfortable in Hamas’s court.”
  • The U.S. is the one party to these cease-fire negotiations that can change the calculus overnight. That’s one of the benefits of being a superpower. But Biden isn’t even threatening to do so; why would Hamas make any sudden moves?
  • Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar didn’t invent this time-freezing trick. He inherited it. When Yasser Arafat rejected the full offer of statehood presented by Bill Clinton and Ehud Barak, Arafat did not make a counteroffer. He simply walked away. And what did it cost him? Nothing. Less than a decade later, Ehud Olmert was back in front of Arafat’s successor, Mahmoud Abbas, with another offer. Abbas simply ghosted him.
  • Of course, a half-century before Arafat’s rejection of statehood, the Arabs with whom the Jews were to divide the land did the same. Rather than negotiate over lines on a map, the decision was made to attempt to kill all the Jews and take all the land. Here we are, all these years later, and no Palestinian response has differed substantively from that basic formula.
  • Link: Ghosted by Hamas
Israel Is Losing America, a Foreign Affairs piece accurately describing the post Oct. 7 relationship between the two democracies, and the Biden-Netanyahu relationship, covered by senior fellow Shalom Lipner.
  • In a surprise announcement on May 31, U.S. President Joe Biden outlined a road map for “an enduring cease-fire [in the Gaza Strip] and the release of all hostages.” The plan, he declared, had been authored by Israel, and he urged Hamas to acquiesce to its terms. Biden’s speech gave the president the upper hand in his growing rift with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and it caught the prime minister off guard. Biden’s action has put Netanyahu in a difficult bind. If he accepts the deal, then members of his right-wing coalition will likely follow through on their vow to topple him. But if he rejects it, then he will increase tensions with the United States.
  • Netanyahu hopes to leverage these sources of sympathy within the United States to maximize the military, diplomatic, and economic assistance he can obtain from the Biden administration and minimize its resistance to continuing the war. Although the U.S. public—and particularly Democratic voters—have become more negative toward Israel, a recent poll by the Center for American Political Studies shows that U.S. citizens continue to favor Israel and take its side against Hamas by a four-to-one margin. The prime minister is counting on this plurality to encourage Biden, a self-described Zionist, to continue withstanding pressure to halt Israel’s war in Gaza prematurely.
  • In implementing this strategy, Netanyahu has a reasonable chance of success in the short term, preventing further White House constraints that could affect the ongoing offensive in Gaza. That outcome could be put in jeopardy, however, if the administration determines that Netanyahu is obstructing progress toward a settlement. But the far greater long-term risk is that open confrontation with a sitting president will further erode what remains of the bipartisan consensus in Washington on Israel, ultimately destroying its working relationship with the United States.
  • Netanyahu is playing a high-stakes balancing act, gambling that he can flout the Biden administration in his conduct of the war without causing irreparable harm to Israel’s relations with the United States. But this game could fail catastrophically. In May, Biden paused a single shipment of bombs, a measure that the Pentagon attributed to specific qualms about “the impact that they could have in a dense urban setting.” This pause could be only the beginning. Subjected to pushback within his Democratic caucus and amid palpable frustrations over the manner in which Netanyahu has pursued his objectives, Biden could exact supplementary penalties with truly debilitating consequences for Israel. These could include holds on the delivery of additional weapons systems or a decision to not veto UN Security Council resolutions that are harmful to Israel.
  • Old habits die hard. The prime minister is scheduled to address a joint session of Congress on July 24, which could spell disaster for Israel. Many Democrats have said that they will boycott the event, making Netanyahu’s appearance seem to be a partisan affair. Should the prime minister use his speech to attack the Biden administration in the same fashion that he lashed out at Obama in 2015, the consequences could be severe. This is precisely the wrong time for Netanyahu to be thinking about his political supporters—many of whom feel that he should stand up to the United States—instead of Israel’s national security.
  • Link: Israel is losing America
 
The Cost of Kindness to the Cruel in Gaza, and how Israel is learning that the wicked must be stopped before they kill the good and pure, by Ruth R. Wisse in Wall Street Journal.
  • After Oct. 7, the former prison dentist whose diagnosis saved Mr. Sinwar’s life, and whose nephew Hamas had murdered, told German media that, having gotten to know Mr. Sinwar as a patient, he had opposed his release. “I know how cruel he is.” Israelis knew that many of the convicted terrorists they free in hostage exchanges leave with an understanding of their captors’ vulnerabilities and re-engage in terrorism. Many of the Israelis slaughtered on Oct. 7 had welcomed Gazans into their communities and homes.
  • Reluctance to impose the death penalty, belief in saving life at any cost, and a political culture of accommodation have made Jews the most liberal and most easily targeted people in the Middle East. The more Israel has tried to encourage Palestinian self-governance, including by withdrawing from Gaza in 2005, the more Palestinian leaders have fomented violence, culminating in Hamas’s cruelties.
  • Terrorists rigged the civilian population of Gaza as a massive booby trap that Israelis would have to explode in trying to rescue their hostages and neutralize the perpetrators. Mr. Sinwar boasted that Palestinians are “necessary sacrifices” to keep the West blaming Israel for his barbarity, and many oblige him. Protesters outside the White House last week cheered the mass slaughter of Jews, chanting, among other things: “Hezbollah, Hezbollah, kill another Zionist now.”
  • Link: The Cost of Kindness to the Cruel in Gaza
According to a new poll from the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, 1,570 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, two-thirds of the Palestinian public, support the October 7 massacre.
  • More than 90% believe that Hamas did not commit any atrocities against Israeli civilians.
  • The poll also highlights growing demand for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to resign, declining support for the Palestinian Authority, and rising support for Hamas.
  • More than 60% support the dissolution of the Palestinian Authority, and more than one fifth support abandoning the two-state solution.
  • Link: Poll 92 English press release 12 June 2024 (003).pdf (pcpsr.org)
Antisemitism
The looming choice for Diaspora Jews, by Mellanie Phillips in Jewish News Syndicate (JNS)
  • Unlike in Nazi Germany, the antisemitism rampant in the west today isn’t state-sponsored. It is the product instead of an alliance between the hard-left, woolly liberals and the Muslim world. The threat is therefore not limited to a regime based in one specific country. It is instead something more insidious — a war from both inside and outside the west against both the Jews and western civilisation.
  • The second big difference is that a pushback against the wellspring of all this is now underway in Europe. In last week’s elections to the European Parliament, a variety of “populist,” anti-immigration or “hard-right” parties made record gains.
  • This alarming situation didn’t suddenly burst out of nowhere on October 7. The writing has been on this particular wall for decades. But most diaspora Jews refused to see it.
  • In America, the majority of Jews have actually signed up for the liberal ideas that are driving anti-Israel hysteria and Jew-hatred. In Britain, most Jews have been too frightened, too craven or too muddled to talk publicly about the threat from Muslim antisemitism and mass immigration.
  • But Israel is where everyone knows what they’re fighting for. It’s where there is zero ambiguity about their enemy or its genocidal intention. It’s where the overwhelming majority understand that they are living through another seismic moment in the sacred history of their people. It’s why they know they have no alternative but to win.
  • Link: The looming choice for Diaspora Jews | Jewish News Syndicate (jns.org)
A new AJC Survey Shows American Jews are Deeply and Increasingly Connected to Israel. The majority of American Jews are not running from, but rather embracing their Jewish identity and support for Israel, the 2024 Survey of American Jewish Opinion finds. Here are some shocking key stats:
  • 85% of American Jewish adults believe it is important for the U.S. to support Israel, and 57% of American Jews report feeling more connected to Israel or their Jewish identity after October 7 than before.
  • Overall, 64% of American Jews report that since the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel on October 7 and the subsequent discourse about the war has affected their relationships in some way. More than one in ten (12%) American Jewish adults said they ended a friendship or relationship with a person since October 7 because they expressed antisemitic views. 27% of U.S. Jews said they have hidden their Jewish identity or have chosen not to disclose it when meeting someone new since the war began.
  • Since Hamas’ October 7 massacre, 7% say they have considered moving to another country due to antisemitism in the U.S. When looking solely at American Jews who reported having a strong education about Israel, that number is 14%.
  • The bottom line is that six in ten U.S. Jewish adults (60%) said they have felt unsafe in at least one of the following situations since October 7: sharing views on Israel with friends; spending time in a synagogue, Jewish community center, or other Jewish institution or building; wearing Jewish symbols out in public; and sharing views on Israel on social media.
  • Link: AJC Survey
NYC protesters wave terror group flags, call for intifada outside Nova massacre exhibit, Times of Israel Staff report. Demonstrators light flares, carry signs glorifying October 7 Hamas attack and chant slogans justifying killing Israeli civilians as part of ‘Day of Rage for Gaza’ in Manhattan.
  • Organized by the pro-Palestinian group Within Our Lifetime, the demonstration was dubbed “A Day of Rage for Gaza” and began with a rally at Union Square before participants headed to Wall Street where the exhibit has been set up since April.
  • “Long live the intifada,” protesters could be heard chanting in video from the demonstration. “Resistance is justified where people are occupied.”
  • The protests drew wide condemnation, including from music producer Scooter Braun, who helped organize the Nova exhibit.
  • “I don’t understand why protesting a memorial for innocent music lovers who were raped and butchered and kidnapped helps,” he wrote on Instagram.
  • Congressman Ritchie Torres wrote on Twitter that the protesters were “bigots.”
  • Link: NYC protesters wave terror group flags, call for intifada outside Nova massacre exhibit
    • The Foundation to Combat Antisemitism (FCAS) publishes weekly information from over 300 million online data sources including public social media, traditional media, websites, blogs, forums, and more. The bigger the phrase on the above image, the more total mentions it had in the time period.
    • For more detail, please visit FCAS’s website here.
    Bari Weiss interviews Sheryl Sandberg: ‘I Was Wrong About Antisemitism’: The former Facebook executive talks about the silence of the feminists in the wake of October 7.
    • But I think there’s something else going on. Polarization is about people having a narrative and that narrative is overly simple, overly black and white, and they can only see the world through that narrative. If you believe that October 7 was resistance—and I want to be super clear, I don’t—all of a sudden when you hear there was rape, that does not fit into your model of resistance at all. You can say, “Wait a second, maybe I’m wrong or maybe it’s not this simple.” Or you can say, “This doesn’t fit into my narrative; therefore, it didn’t happen.” And that should scare all of us.
    • The same people who insisted that we believe women in other circumstances are now saying, “Did this happen?” And that’s deeply troubling
    • It’s changed me immeasurably. None of that is acceptable. I do think there’s a hierarchy. I think denial is the worst. I think silence is the next worst. I think weaselly words are the next worst. None of it’s okay. Particularly UN Women. I think what they’ve done has been completely unforgivable.
    • Link: Sheryl Sandberg: ‘I Was Wrong About Antisemitism’ | The Free Press (thefp.com)
    Watch
    An 80-minute, in-depth interview by PragerU with FDD Senior Fellow Lt. Col. (Ret.) Jonathan Conricus.  Leveraging his experience as a combat commander, military diplomat, and former IDF international spokesperson, Jonathan’s wide-ranging interview served as an opportunity to respond and provide factual analysis on some of the heaviest accusations often leveled against Israel since October 7
    FDD Senior Vice President Jonathan Schanzer recently joined Forbes for a 20-minute interview to discuss the resignation of Benny Gantz, the status of the ceasefire deal, the hostage rescue, and the latest escalation on Israel’s northern border.