Yom Shleeshee
Tuesday
3 Tammuz 5784
July 9 2024
The Absolutely Correct Quote of the Day
“Hamas is collapsing and begging for a ceasefire. This is the time to squeeze the neck until we crush and break the enemy. To stop now, just before the end, and let him recover to fight us again is a senseless folly that will take the achievements of the war bought with much blood down the drain. We must continue until victory!”
Finance Minister (and Deputy Defense Minister) Bezalel Smotrich in an absolutely correct analysis of the situation.
As you can imagine, Smotrich’s statement aroused a howl of protest on the “Left” which wants to see the war end and the Netanyahu Coalition fall at any cost.
Another Absolutely Correct Quote Yesterday
“There are Hamas members in Judea and Samaria as well, but there is no Hamas government. Germany also has neo-Nazis but no Nazi rule. Israel will eliminate the rule of Hamas and will not allow it to take control of the Gaza Strip again and threaten Israel from it.”
PM Netanyahu responding to the declaration of IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari that five years from now, we will still be facing a Hamas government in Gaza.
The once-beloved Hagari is engendering increasing distaste as he drifts ever more into the realm of politics–a drift that resembles that of so many other IDF officers in the General Command who are trying to set themselves up with jobs in the “humanitarian sector” after they retire from the IDF.
And Yet Another Absolutely Correct Quotation
“We are capturing terrorists, and from “above” we are being ordered to release them without their being imprisoned.”
A group of reservists in a letter of complaint to IDF Chief of Staff Halevi yesterday
What a scandal. Because the Israel High Court of Justice is now busy protecting the “rights” of terrorists incarcerated in Israel and in the process declaring how much “space” each terrorist must have in his cell, many terrorists are now being released without ever being imprisoned. They simply return to Gaza and try to attack our soldiers again.
On the Hostage Front
A hostage deal suddenly seems farther away. Yesterday, the White House issued a statement saying that “differences remain between Israel and Hamas over the cease-fire agreement.”
It’s beginning to look like “differences” is a gross understatement.
For one thing, the newest news leaking out of the “negotiations” is that HamISIS wants to release 32 hostages in the first phase: 18 live hostages and 14 bodies.
For another, HamISIS is demanding that the IDF pull out of the Philadelphi and Netzer corridors–which Israel is unwilling to do.
What’s more: Israel is demanding that every Gazan resident returning to northern Gaza be vetted–which HamISIS is rejecting.
Nevertheless, Bidenite negotiators are returning to Cairo today to try to move the “negotiations” forward. Biden is desperate for a “foreign policy victory” before the November election.
By the way, in stark contrast to President Herzog’s comments two days ago about all Israelis supporting a ceasefire/hostage deal, the highly respected Direct Falls Survey released this data yesterday:
53% of Israelis oppose a deal; 36% support one; and 11% have no opinion.
UPDATE 9:00 AM ISRAEL TIME
On the Ground in Gaza
The areas encompassed by the red lines show where the IDF has not entered in southern Gaza.
Those areas are: central Deir al-Balah and Nuseirat, the entire coastal area which is classified as a humanitarian “safe area”, and the area north of Rafah which is an agricultural area.
The following map was distributed in Arabic to residents of Gaza yesterday warning residents of the affected blocks to move immediately.
New evacuation map (source: IDF).
You see a map like this warning residents to move out of harm’s way, and you wonder how the egregiously false narrative of the IDF committing genocide ever started. No other army in the world goes to the lengths to protect citizens that the IDF does.
By the way, what the map shows is the IDF is ordering residents of West-Central Gaza City including al-Daraj, Sabra, Rimal, and Tel al-Hawa to move immediately because the IDF will soon begin heavy ground and air attacks there in the next few days.
Again, can you believe that we are telling the enemy where we will attack next–even at the cost of putting our brave soldiers at additional risk?
*The IDF published yesterday that in addition to the regular tunnels it has discovered between Gaza and Egypt, three massive three-level tunnels have also been uncovered under the Philadelphi route.
*In another “humanitarian” absurdity, the IDF is allowing a notorious anti-Israel organization, Thalaf Al Khair, to be in charge of rebuilding the Indonesian Hospital–the strategic headquarters of the Jabaliya HamISIS battalion. When our forces raided the hospital last November, they found vehicles of Nohba terrorists, stolen Israeli vehicles full of blood, terrorist military equipment, and tunnels.
On the Ground in the North
*The IAF eliminated another Hezbollah leader of its missile unit yesterday in a targeted attack on his car in the Al-Kaila area.
*Between 5:00 pm and 8:00 pm yesteray, Hezbollah fired 4 barrages of some 30 missiles at such locations as Gadot, Beit Hillel, Kiryat Shmona, Shtula, Fassuta, and Tel Hai. No Israelis were physically wounded.
And so it goes in Israel this morning . . .
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.