UPDATE: This day started like yesterday with alarms and terrorist missiles. At 10:45 two terrorist rockets struck the Ashkelon Chof region (south of Ashkelon). However, the Palestinians have announced in the early afternoon that there is now a 48 hour truce in effect.
TODAY’S BLOG
Two Qassam rockets launched by the terrorists in Gaza toward the citizens of southern Israel
To review the last 48 hours in Israel:
1. Back on Thursday, an Israeli aircraft hit a car in Gaza City carrying the Palestinian terrorists who had planned and carried out attacks in Israel as far back as 2007. According to Israeli security forces, the group was about to launch an attack on the Eilat area again. In the strike two terrorists were killed, including a senior commander of the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade.
2. Since then the terrorists in Gaza have launched over 25 Grad and Qassam rockets at the citizens of southern Israel who have spent most of the last 48 hours in bomb shelters.
3. In response, Israel has done virtually nothing except fire one missile early Friday at a Hamas “sports” facility that was actually a weapons armory. According to Islamist Hamas, the resulting explosion killed one Palestinian boy and wounded 25 more “civilians.” There is absolutely no independent corroboration of this claim. Nevertheless, the IDF profusely apologized for the “civilian” injuries–that no one knows actually exist.
Which leads us to yesterday afternoon–and the latest meeting of the top military leaders of the IDF. This is the same pusillanimous group who decided not to attack Hamas back in the summer because it determined that “Hamas was not responsible for launching over 100 missiles against Israel.” This is the same pusillanimous group who decided in November that “the Katyushas fired from Lebanon were not fired by Hezbollah” (later of course it was revealed that the supposed launchers “The Army of Lebanon” is actually a group under the direct control of Hezbollah”).
Here is the report from yesterday’s meeting:
“IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz summoned a number of top IDF commanders Friday to discuss the spike in rocket fire from the Gaza Strip towards Israel.Gantz organized the meeting to discuss an IDF response to the ongoing attacks. Lt.-Col. Yair Naveh, OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen. Tal Russo, senior Israeli Air Force and Israel Navy officers were among the attending officers attending the meeting. According to Army Radio, defense officials believe that Hamas and Islamic Jihad are not behind the attacks from Gaza. Instead, smaller terrorist groups are likely firing rockets at southern communities in Israel.”
The idea that every terrorist group in Lebanon is not under the direct control of Hezbollah is preposterous. The idea that every terrorist group in Gaza is not under the direct control of Hamas is equally preposterous.
The simple fact is that the IDF is afraid of Hezbollah and Hamas–so fearful that it will use every excuse in the book not to act.
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So the pathetic sequence repeats itself over and over like a recurring nightmare: the IAF hits a terrorist cell, Hamas fires volleys of rockets against the citizens of southern Israel, and the IDF does nothing.
What do you think what would have happened if the terrorist Hamas missiles had struck Tel Aviv, or Netanya, or Herzliya, or Jerusalem?
The men, women, and children of southern Israel are nothing more to the IDF and to the Netanyahu government than cannon fodder–cravenly used by the IDF and the Netanyahu government to bear the brunt of every tiny attack against the terrorists in Gaza.
THIS DAY IN ISRAELI HISTORY
On November 10, 1966, Israeli Samuel Yosef Agnon was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for his profoundly characteristic narrative art with motifs from the life of the Jewish people.” Agnon’s acceptance speech at the Stockholm City Hall was a poetic masterpiece–that you should read in its entirety if you have the time (click here for link).
A few excerpts (translated from Hebrew) from the beginning and end of Agnon’s speech:
Our sages of blessed memory have said that we must not enjoy any pleasure in this world without reciting a blessing. If we eat any food, or drink any beverage, we must recite a blessing over them before and after. If we breathe the scent of goodly grass, the fragrance of spices, the aroma of good fruits, we pronounce a blessing over the pleasure. The same applies to the pleasures of sight: when we see the sun in the Great Cycle of the Zodiac in the month of Nissan, or the trees first bursting into blossom in the spring, or any fine, sturdy, and beautiful trees, we pronounce a blessing. And the same applies to the pleasures of the ear. Through you, dear sirs, one of the blessings concerned with hearing has come my way. It happened when the Swedish Chargé d’Affaires came and brought me the news that the Swedish Academyhad bestowed the Nobel Prize upon me . . .
As a result of the historic catastrophe in which Titus of Rome destroyed Jerusalem and Israel was exiled from its land, I was born in one of the cities of the Exile. But always I regarded myself as one who was born in Jerusalem. In a dream, in a vision of the night, I saw myself standing with my brother-Levites in the Holy Temple, singing with them the songs of David, King of Israel, melodies such as no ear has heard since the day our city was destroyed and its people went into exile. I suspect that the angels in charge of the Shrine of Music, fearful lest I sing in wakefulness what I had sung in dream, made me forget by day what I had sung at night; for if my brethren, the sons of my people, were to hear, they would be unable to bear their grief over the happiness they have lost. To console me for having prevented me from singing with my mouth, they enable me to compose songs in writing.
I belong to the Tribe of Levi; my forebears and I are of the minstrels that were in the Temple, and there is a tradition in my father’s family that we are of the lineage of the Prophet Samuel, whose name I bear.
I was five years old when I wrote my first song. It was out of longing for my father that I wrote it. It happened that my father, of blessed memory, went away on business. I was overcome with longing for him and I made a song. After that I made many songs, but nothing has remained of them all. My father’s house, where I left a roomful of writings, was burned down in the First World War and all I had left there was burned with it. The young artisans, tailors, and shoemakers, who used to sing my songs at their work, were killed in the First World War and of those who were not killed in the war, some were buried alive with their sisters in the pits they dug for themselves by order of the enemy, and most were burned in the crematories of Auschwitz with their sisters, who had adorned our town with their beauty and sung my songs with their sweet voices . . .
Before concluding, I would say a brief prayer: He who giveth wisdom unto the wise and salvation unto kings, may He increase your wisdom beyond measure and exalt your sovereign. In his days and in ours may Judah be redeemed and Israel dwell in safety. May a redeemer come to Zion, may the earth be filled with knowledge and eternal joy for all who dwell therein, and may they enjoy much peace. May all this be God’s will. Amen.
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.