Yom Shnee
Monday
7 Nisan 5784
April 15 2024
UPDATE 7:00 PM
A strange confluence of circumstances which may mean something or may mean nothing:
*Very unusual air traffic all around for the last few hours.
*PM Netanyahu has spent the afternoon trying to arrange a security meeting with the leaders of the opposition parties in the Knesset including Yair Lapid, Avigdor Liberman, and Gideon Sa’ar.
*Defense Minister Gallant has reportedly informed U.S. Defense Secretary Austin that Israel has no choice but to respond to the Iranian attack: “Israel cannot accept a new reality in which ballistic missiles are fired at us with no response.”
*Various American media outlets including the Wall Street Journal are publishing information that an Israeli response could come as soon as tonight.
The Graphic of the Evening
In case you missed it, this is the graphic distributed by the IDF Spokesman’s Office yesterday showing where the attacks on Israel came from:
There are several important things to note.
First, every ballistic missile, cruise missile, and suicide drone passed over Jordan.
Second, every launch from Yemen passed over Saudi Arabia.
Third, every launch from Iran passed over Iraq.
Fourth, no launches originated from Syria.
Our OneIsrael Campaign For Our Soldiers
IDF soldiers on the ground need basic armaments and supplies. Even during the Iranian attacks soldiers were forced to lie in open trenches to protect themselves from incoming missiles and drones as they have been doing for months on the Gaza and northern borders.
Soldiers in a protective trench near Gaza (photo A. Rosenfeld).
Here at OneIsrael we are engaged in another campaign for our soldiers. This campaign will extend through Passover and to Shavuot.
Please consider donating to our campaign by clicking on the donate button in the right hand column on this page. All donations go directly to our soldiers.
UPDATE 9:00 AM
The Absolutely Correct Quote of the Day
“Israel’s response must not be that of a scarecrow, in the style of the ridiculous bombings of dunes that we saw for years in Gaza. The concepts of kumbaya and proportionality are concepts that passed from the world on October 7th.”
Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s Minister of National Security
The leftist world loves to vilify Ben Gvir, but the fact is that he is usually spot on. Unfortunately, Israel remains wedded to concepts which have been demonstrably disproven in the last six months.
The Absurd Quote of the Day
“Iran is a global problem, it is a regional challenge and it is also a danger to Israel, and yesterday, the world clearly stood together with Israel in the face of the danger. Israel against Iran, the world against Iran – this is the result. This is a strategic achievement, which we must leverage for Israel’s security . . . In the face of the threat of Iran – we will build a regional coalition and exact the price from Iran, in the way and at the time that suits us.”
Benny Gantz, addressing the nation last night on Israel television.
Let’s begin with Gantz’s egregious exaggeration that the “the world clearly stood together with Israel in the face of the danger.”
Important countries led by the U.S., U.K. and France did stand with us, but a sizeable portion of the world led by Russia, China, and Turkey most assuredly did not. It is delusional to think that the world now stands behind us. Yesterday, the G7 leaders agreed to use all their influence to stop Israel from retaliating against Iran.
Next we have Gantz’s grand delusion that Israel can now “leverage” what happened into a “regional coalition” that will act against Iran. Already today we have seen Jordanian backtracking, and if anyone really thinks the Gulf States will join Israel in an attack on Iran, I have some choice beachfront property in the middle of the Negev Desert to sell them.
Unfortunately, it appears that the Biden-Gantz-Gallant delusion is what carried the day in the War Cabinet as what emerged last night was the tired old cliche as stated later in his speech by Gantz: “We will exact the price from Iran in the way and at the time that suits us.”
The Iranian Attack
The Bedouin child wounded in the attack, a 7-year-old girl, remains in critical condition in Soroka Hospital with shrapnel wounds to her head.
It now appears that Iran launched at least 50 tons (100,000 pounds) of explosives at us carried by 110 ballistic missiles and 185 “suicide” drones. Most of the weapons were launched from Iran with a few being sent from Iranian proxies in Iraq and Yemen.
The ballistic missiles were Iran’s Khormashar 4 (aka “Khyber”) surface-to-surface missile (range 2000 km, length 13 meters) which can carry a 1500 kg warhead.
The original statement that we intercepted 99% of the 331 incoming missiles and drones was a slight exaggeration:
185 out of 185 suicide drones were shot down
36 out of 36 cruise missiles were shot down
103 out of 110 ballistic missiles were shot down. A few of the seven that made it through our defenses did manage to hit our Nevatim AFB and another unnamed base. Fortunately the explosions did not stop operations at the bases.
To obscure the futility of their attack, Iranian propaganda went into high gear showing such photos as:
This was supposedly a fire caused by a missile strike in Israel.
Actually, it is a photo taken in Chile amidst the fires there.
For the most part, the Arab world has not been buying the propaganda. This is representative of the cartoons appearing in social media:
Were the Iranians firing missiles or cucumbers?
On the Ground in the North
The reserve soldier hit by an explosive drone fired by Hezbollah three days ago at Hanita remains in critical condition.
The organization that monitors Hezbollah attacks on Israel has released the following statistics. Since the beginning of the war, Hamas has:
*Fired 3100 “regular” missiles at northern Israel and 240 “heavy rockets”
*Fired 700 anti-tank missiles, and sent 33 “suicide” drones
*Engaged in 55 sniper attacks, and carried out 7 breaches of the border
In response Israel has:
*Carried out 1100 air strikes and 3000 artillery attacks
*Killed 280 Hezbollah terrorists and 70 Palestinian terrorists
*Destroyed hundreds of Hezbollah posts and weapons storage facilities
On the Ground in Gaza
The IDF announced yesterday that 2 more “reserve” brigades are now joining the Nahal Brigade–perhaps in preparation for an operation in Rafah. Much of the activity yesterday consisted of stopping movement of Palestinians from central Gaza back into northern Gaza.
On the Ground in Judea and Samaria
Binyamin’s mother Miriam (left) and grandmother Dvora at the funeral yesterday,
14-year-old Binyamin Ahimeir was buried yesterday in Jerusalem amidst weeping family and friends.
The details of his murder were provided by Eliyahu Liebman the former head of Kiryat Arba:
“I received a possible sighting from an IDF drone. I ran to the body, I saw large stones, one stone next to him with a lot of blood, and also a knife with blood. The way he was murdered and mutilated was cruel and inhuman.”
His mother eulogized him:
“You G-d chose an innocent boy to be a public sacrifice for all of us, an innocent child who has gone to heaven to atone for all of us. You were all heart, Binny. You always thought of others, you always considered others.”
And his grandmother:
“Our sweet, smiling, funny and kind-hearted grandson. Binny, we do not believe that our experiences and conversations with you will remain only in our memories. They say that you were a teenager, a boy, but you were a giant. You were the heart of the family. The entire Jewish People has lost you.”
Here in Israel it often seems that we move from one funeral to another.
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.