Yom Reva’ee
Wednesday
13 Sivan 5784
June 19 2024
UPDATE 7:30 AM Israel Time
The Quote of the Day
“I wish I was laughing about it, unfortunately it is the truth – I am saddened to see that an IDF soldier and his friend are brought to trial handcuffed and arrested on suspicion of beating a terrorist who recently raped women and babies.”
Defense Attorney Binyamin Malka, an expert in criminal and military law, who is representing IDF soldiers who have outrageously been arrested by the Military Prosecutor’s Office for mistreating terrorists involved in the October 7 massacre.
According to Malka, the IDF captures busloads of terrorists every day in Gaza and transfers them to Sde Yemen prison in Israel. One week ago, two soldiers (including one from Ofakim whose community was attacked on October 7) who were on one of the buses were attacked by a terrorist who managed to remove his zip-tie handcuffs. In the ensuing struggle, the soldiers were finally able to eliminate the threat.
Once again, the IDF has been quick to throw the soldiers under the bus; the IDF spokesman blathered this yesterday: “On the order of the military attorney’s office, the investigating military police opened an investigation against the suspects, on suspicion of aggravating the abuse of the detainees who were under their responsibility, during their transportation to the detention facility in Sde Yemen.”
Aggravating the abuse of the “detainees”?
Our soldiers are being killed by terrorists in Gaza and the idiotic Military Prosecutor’s Office is investigating our soldiers for abuse of terrorists.
Just unbelievable.
On the Ground in Gaza
*Intense fighting continues in the heart of Rafah.
*Five terrorists were killed in an attack on targets in the Al-Mawasi area, northwest of the city of Rafah.
*At 6:10 am this morning, Palestinian terrorists in Gaza launched a drone attack on Holit, Sufa, and Nir Yitzhak.
On the Ground in the North
*Hezbollah launched 5 barrages of missiles against northern communities yesterday.
*Hezbollah took responsibility for the shooting at Kibbutz Sasa.
*An IAF attack in the area of Al-Bar’aliya targeted senior Hezbollah member Yunus Ezz a-Din.
The Drone Fiasco Over Haifa
Two days ago, Hezbollah published videos that one of its drones took over the city of Haifa. This morning we had the incredible statement from the IDF that it was decided not to destroy the drone because “the aircraft did not pose a threat to the residents of the State of Israel” and because “an unsuccessful interception or fragments of the interception could harm civilians.”
Can you believe this?
The IDF decided not to shoot down an enemy drone because it did not pose a threat–after Hezbollah has launched hundreds of exploding drones into northern Israel?
And since when has the IDF ever been concerned about falling shrapnel from drone and missile interceptions? Our neighborhood here in Ashdod had nonstop shrapnel rain from the 330+ intercepts over our house from October 7–April 1.
Leftist Chaos in Jerusalem Last Night
Hundreds of rioters broke through police checkpoints, set fires in the streets, and attacked police officers in yet another anti-Netanyahu demonstration.
The police wading into the rioters last night.
One of many fires set:
Whatever semblance of unity we had in the months following October 7 has begun to totally dissipate.
Friedman’s Incendiary Article
The ever-abominable Thomas Friedman, the New York Times “journalist” who is regularly invited to the White House to advise President Biden, published a piece yesterday that is beyond the pale.
In it, Friedman writes among other things:
“Not only does Israel as we knew it no longer exist, Israel today is in existential danger. In the shadow of the danger of war on three fronts, Israel is led by Benjamin Netanyahu, who sold his soul to the extreme right in order to escape his criminal charges.”
What utter nonsense.
After an amazingly democratic election, Netanyahu formed a conservative coalition with the orthodox parties, National Zionism, and Otzma Yehudit–all of which “progressive liberals” like Friedman want to label “the extreme right.” To escape criminal charges? What planet is Friedman living on? Even now, in the midst of the war, the Netanyahu trials in Cases 1000, 2000, and 4000 continue.
Friedman continued:
“The government coalition is now in the process of granting an exemption from conscription to every ultra-orthodox young man, while secular young men and women are exhausted from eight months of fighting. Israel’s military power has been greatly eroded, to the point that I cannot imagine a scenario in which it would be able to manage a campaign in Lebanon.”
Once again, utter nonsense. There is no attempt to grant an exemption from the draft “to every ultra-orthodox young man”. Instead, there is an effort to gradually integrate an ever-increasing number of ultra-orthodox into the army. Not only nonsense but complete fabrication: “secular young men and women exhausted from eight months of fighting”–yes, there are many secular soldiers but what about the huge numbers of orthodox who are fighting and dying in Gaza?
And more:
“The time has come to tell Israel that it must accept the basic condition of Hamas, which is the end of the war and withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in exchange for the return of all the Israeli abductees . . . This is what Israel should have done on the eighth of October: to stop and recalculate its course. Instead, it did exactly what Hamas and Iran wanted it to do, like the United States after the September 11 attacks. Israel plunged into an endless war without an exit plan.”
Say what? Israel should have never attacked Hamas? More than 1200 Israelis butchered on October 7 and Israel should have done nothing but negotiate for the return of the hostages?
And finally:
“Ask me, will you let Sinwar come out of the tunnels and return to power? And my answer is yes – for now.”
That says it all. Liberal progressives like Friedman and Biden are actually fighting to keep Sinwar and HamISIS in power.
Just plain nauseating.
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.