Monday
Yom Shnee
24 Cheshvan 5785
November 25 2024
UPDATE 6:00 AM ISRAEL TIME
The View from Ashdod
It has been an interesting Sunday night here with large concussive explosions from Gaza and very noisy drones flying low overhead. There was a time when the sound of drones was comforting because we knew “they were watching out for us.”
Now who knows whether they are friendly or enemy drones?
We have the same reaction now when we see paragliders flying above the coast. They used to be dismissable as just Israelis having fun. Now after the events of last October 7, we wonder if Israelis or terrorists are flying them.
The War in the North
Hezbollah fired more than 300 missiles and drones at central and northern Israel yesterday. 300 missiles and 550 incoming missile alarms. 8 Israelis were wounded, two critically. There was tremendous property damage. A few photos:
And:
And another:
Interestingly, what we saw yesterday is the same thing that we saw at the end of the 2006 Hezbollah war, and the endless wars and mini-wars with Hamas. The Arabs feel compelled to show that despite having been extremely hard hit by the IDF, they are alive and kicking.
In fact, all signs point to an impending agreement to end the war with Hezbollah.
Of course, the agreement will apparently be signed between the U.S. and Israel–and not between Israel and Lebanon–just as the idiotic maritime agreement was signed several years ago.
Why? Because Lebanon does not recognize Israel. When Israel signs agreements with the U.S. instead of our actual enemy, the results are invariably disastrous. That aforementioned maritime agreement was supposed to subdue Hezbollah. In the last year, Hezbollah has fired 21,983 missiles and exploding drones into Israel.
Is there any reason to believe that the result of this impending “agreement” will be any different?
In any case, in response to Hezbollah’s attacks yesterday, we had this statement from the IDF Spokesman:
“A short while ago, the IAF completed intelligence-based strikes on 12 Hezbollah command centers in the Dahiyeh neighborhood in Beirut. Among the command centers that were struck are those belonging to Hezbollah’s Intelligence unit, Hezbollah’s coast-to-sea missile unit, and Unit 4400, which is responsible for weapons smuggling from Iran through Syria into Lebanon.”
By the way, every IDF Spokesman’s announcement about attacks in Lebanon and Gaza is accompanied by this statement: “Prior to the strikes, numerous steps were taken to mitigate harm to civilians, including by collecting prior intelligence, leveraging aerial surveillance, and issuing advance warnings to the civilian population in the area.”
This is the absurdity, We go out of our way to warn and protect civilians; Hezbollah and Hamas go out of their way to randomly kill and wound as many Israeli civilians as they can.
The Body of Zvi Kogan Was Found
The body of 28-year-old Chabad Rabbi and former IDF Givati soldier Zvi Kogan who was murdered in Abu Dhabi has been found and identified.
According to the UAE, three suspects have been arrested for the murder. No other details have been released.
Rabbi Kogan’s funeral will be held in Israel tomorrow.
May his memory be for a blessing.
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.