Yom Reva’ee
Wednesday
23 Nisan 5784
May 1 2024
OneIsrael’s Campaign For Our Soldiers
IDF soldiers on the ground need basic protective gear, armaments, and supplies.
Even during the recent 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.
OneIsrael is now engaged in a campaign to help protect our soldiers. This campaign will extend 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.
Thank you to those of you who have already contributed to the protection of our brave men and women in uniform!
Four Quotes of the Day
1. “If Hamas continues to demand the end of the war, there will be no deal for the release of hostages.”
PM Netanyahu to U.S. Secretary of State Blinken in Jerusalem today.
This comment comes amidst reports from the Egyptians that HamISIS is demanding an end to the war before any hostage release can take place.
2. “The road to victory passes through Rafah.”
This is the chant of hundreds of bereaved families (families of soldiers and citizens whose loved ones have fallen since October 7th). Those families are setting up the “Heroic Encampment in Jerusalem” tomorrow to protest any attempt by the government to not eliminate the 4 HamISIS battalions in Rafah.
3. “The proposed deal is terrible . . . The government went to war with a clear decision on the goals of the war, which included the dismantling and destruction of the Hamas regime, creating conditions to return the kidnapped, and removing any threat from the Gaza towards Israel . . . A government that throws everything in the trash in order to return 22 or 33 people has no right to exist. The deal will abandon the great majority of the abductees and consign them to their fate; it will also abandon the residents of the Gaza communities and the residents of the north.”
Settlement Minister Orit Struck speaking on IDF radio this morning.
4. “Bogi Ya’alon, Ehud Barak and the rest of their cohorts have gone completely crazy–their hatred of the orthodox has driven them mad. During this war, when 19 graduates of the “Bnei David” seminary have been killed while fighting for Israel in Gaza, it is outrageous for Ya’alon and Barak to call for closing the seminary because it is “against the state of Israel.” Hundreds of more seminary graduates continue to fight every day to protect Israeli freedom–including the “right” of Bogie and Barak to sit in television studios and spread their hatred and venom.”
Itamar Ben Gvir commenting on the abominable statements of Ya’alon and Barak yesterday.
By the way, the members of the kibbutz where Ya’alon lives voted this week to kick him and his family out.
UPDATE 5:00 PM
On the Ground in Gaza
*A tragic revelation yesterday: the two soldiers who were killed two days ago and whose photos were posted here yesterday died from “friendly fire.” Apparently an errant tank shell hit the building they were in. More than 30 IDF soldiers have fallen from friendly fire since the October 27th ground operation in Gaza began.
*One of those soldiers, Maj. Kalkidan Mahari, a lone soldier from Ashdod, was buried yesterday at a funeral attended by thousands.
His niece eulogized him:
“Kalkidan, my uncle, mother’s little brother, fell in the battle in Gaza. They are right when they say that it is always the best. The high quality, the Zionists, the optimists, the lovers of people and the country. Taken. The most elite of us. The one who immigrated to Israel alone at the age of 18, left his beloved mother in Ethiopia and set out to fulfill a dream.
He always knew how to keep in touch with his distant mother Almaz. To visit, send money, call and demand that she be safe. The cry that came out of her when she was informed at her home in Addis Ababa of the death of Kalkidan- we heard all the way to Jerusalem, and our hearts trembled. Kalkidan. You left us behind, And we are without you. A family of broken hearts, in Ethiopia and in Israel. We love you and are proud of you and refuse to be the same family without you.”
*From the IDF Spokesman this morning:
“Fighter jets of the Air Force attacked and destroyed a number of terrorist targets of the terrorist organizations Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Among the targets were weapons warehouses, military buildings, launch sites and mortar firing positions from which shots were fired at the forces. In addition, fighter jets together with the fire complex of Division 99 killed a number of terrorists who attacked our forces.”
*Disgustingly, the leftist media is publishing the IDF’s battle plans for Rafah this morning. We will not publish them here.
On the Ground in Judea and Samaria
If you can believe this . . . With wars raging on all fronts–Gaza, the Lebanese border, and in Judea and Samaria–bulldozers and Arab workers for the egregious Civil Administration under the control of Defense Minister Gallant showed up at Givat Or Meir this morning and destroyed the fledgling Jewish c0mmunity there.
They not only razed buildings but also destroyed the access road that had been built to Or Meir hill in Binyamin on the Tripi ridge that lies between the communities of of Ofra and Givat Assaf.
Unbelievable.
*32 Palestinians were captured by Border Police fighters this morning as they attempted to infiltrate along the route of the separation wall parallel to road 358 near the Moshavim Shafik and Eliav.
And so it goes until our next update . . .
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.