Wednesday
Yom Reva’ee
5 Adar 5785
March 5 2025
UPDATE 9:00 AM ISRAEL TIME
The Photo of the Day: A Rogues’ Gallery
U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres shaking hands with Syrian President and terrorist Ahmed al-Sharaa (aka Abu Mohammad al-Juliani) at the “Arab Emergency Meeting for Palestine” in Cairo yesterday.
Guterres who spends most of his time castigating Israel and supporting Hamas said on Tuesday he supported an Arab-led initiative to mobilize support for reconstruction of Gaza—an initiative that would leave Hamas in place and in control of Gaza. The abominable Guterres declared that the ceasefire in Gaza must continue and that Israel must halt “settler” violence in “the West Bank” (see on the ground in Judea and Samaria below)
Of course, the “emergency” meeting called by Egyptian President al-Sisi was meant to shore up Egypt’s credentials in the Arab world and to counter President Trump’s plan, and this morning Trump was quick to dismiss the Arab plan as “impractical.” Among other things, the Egyptian plan calls for $53 billion to reconstruct Gaza–-but, unsurprisingly, no one stepped forward at meeting to volunteer the funds.
The View from Ashdod
The big news in Israel last night and this morning are two reports: the absurd report that the Israel Security Agency (aka Shin Bet) and its head Ronen Bar issued at 7:30 pm yesterday concerning the events of October 7, and the report that the IDF issued about what happened on October 7 at Nahal Oz.
*The Shin Bet report is an attempt to whitewash Shin Bet responsibility and lists 5 causes of the Hamas attack pinning blame on PM Netanyahu and others:
1. A government policy of “silence” that allowed Hamas to acquire massive amounts of weapons (blame PM Netanyahu) .
2. The government policy of allowing Qatar to pay Hamas millions of dollars each month not to shoot missiles at Israel (blame PM Netanyahu).
3. The disappearance of Israel’s military deterrence (blame the Netanyahu government and IDF).
4. The IDF’s strategy of dealing with Hamas based on intel and defense rather than offensive attacks (blame the IDF).
5. Most importantly, the “cumulative weight” of violations on the Temple Mount (blame Itamar Ben Gvir), the treatment of Palestinian prisoners (blame the IPS–Israeli Prison System), and the demonstrations against the government over judicial reform (blame PM Netanyahu and Yariv Levin).
The only fault that Shin Bet finds with itself in the report is a failure to have enough agents on the ground who might have been able to warn about October 7 before it happened (this despite the fact that Shin Bet agents apparently did warn about the attack before it happened but their warning was not acted upon by the Shin Bet head Bar or the IDF.)
*The IDF report about its performance Nahal Oz is nothing short of unbelievable.
The findings of the report:
1. The 162 forces (only 81 “combat” soldierS) at the Nahal Oz base never trained for defending against a direct attack–despite the fact that the base was around 250 meters from the border fence (your humble servant has been there).
2. Not only was there no training for an attack, there was no protocol for dealing with an attack. In fact, one soldier that morning actually radioed in the midst of the Hamas attack to ask if he had permission to use live ammunition against the attackers.
3. Despite there being 162 personnel at the base belonging to Battalion 13 of the Golani Brigade, two tank teams from Brigade 7, and other support personnel, the total security at the base consisted of 1 gate guard, 1 “administrative” soldier guarding the armory, 1 observation balloon operator, and 1 soldier monitoring communications in an armored vehicle.
The result of this egregious IDF decade-long indifference to the imminent threat as evidenced by utter lack of training was:
53 soldiers were killed in combat
10 soldiers were kidnapped to Gaza including 7 female spotters
Just unbelievable.
On the Ground in Judea and Samaria
Remember what UN Secretary General Guterres blathered yesterday about “settler violence” in “the West Bank”? Here is a sample of what happened yesterday:
*A Palestinian terrorist opened fire at IDF soldiers at the Homesh checkpoint. No soldiers were wounded; the terrorist was killed.
*Palestinian terrorists opened fire at Israelis near a farm at Nili. There were no physical casualties; the terrorists escaped.
*A Palestinian terrorist opened fire at IDF soldiers near Burka. No soldiers were wounded; the terrorist was shot and killed.
From the IDF Spokesman:
“Overnight, IDF, Israel Border Police, and ISA forces expanded the counterterrorism operation in northern Samaria to additional areas in Jenin. The forces operated according to intelligence to apprehend the head of the Hamas terrorist network in the area. During the operation and following an exchange of fire, the soldiers eliminated Isser Saadi, the leader of the Hamas terrorist network in the area, along with another terrorist, and apprehended three wanted operatives. During a scan conducted by the forces inside the structure where the terrorist was hiding, they found weapons, including an M-16 rifle, a handgun, and other military equipment. Additionally, the forces eliminated another armed terrorist who posed an immediate threat.”
On the Ground in the North
From the IDF Spokesman:
“Earlier today (Tuesday), the IAF struck and eliminated the terrorist Khadir Sa’id Hashem in the area of Qana in Lebanon. Khadir Sa’id Hashem served as the Commander of the Naval Unit in Hezbollah’s Radwan Forces and took part in terrorist activity against the State of Israel and its citizens.
Since joining Hezbollah approximately two decades ago, Khadir Sa’id Hashem has held a number of roles inside the terrorist organization. As Commander of the Naval Unit in the Radwan Forces, he played an extensive part in Hezbollah’s maritime smuggling operations. He was also responsible for planning and executing terrorist attacks against the State of Israel and its citizens, in the maritime zone, including during the ceasefire.”
On the Ground in Gaza
As we wrote two days ago, the new IDF Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Eyal Zamir takes over today. It is expected that he will completely change the concept of fighting (eliminating the in and out raids) and use massive air and ground fire to pressure Hamas.
Ukraine has announced that it is willing to accept 500,000 Gazans. The Gazans would presumably engage in construction work to rebuild the country after the Ukraine-Russia war ends.
Does Ukraine know what is getting into?
And so it goes in Israel this morning . . . so far . . .
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.