Yom Shnee
Monday
23 Tammuz 5784
July 29, 2024
UPDATE 10:00 AM ISRAEL TIME
All of Israel is waiting for Godot.
As you may or may not know, Waiting for Godot, is a play written by Samuel Becket in which two characters, Didi and Gogo, are sitting beside a tree on a country road having a conversation while waiting for another person, Godot, to arrive.
He never does.
The title of the play has entered the vernacular with the meaning of “waiting for something that never happens.”
When PM Netanyahu returned to Israel yesterday we all thought that Israel would immediately begin to settle accounts with Hezbollah for the massacre at Majdal Shams and for the thousands of missiles and drones Hezbollah has launched into Israel.
As of this hour, no reckoning has taken place.
All that happened was a rancorous 3 hour meeting in which it was decided that Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant would determine the response to Hezbollah. It should be noted that the vote giving them authority was not unanimous with both Finance Minister Smotrich and National Security Minister Ben Gvir abstaining.
At the same time, Hezbollah began launching missiles into northern Israel again (Shtula at 4 pm yesterday), and has continued this morning (Idmit, Ya’ara at 5:13 am).
Not only has nothing happened except the usual attack on Hezbollah assets in southern Lebanon, we have these developments:
*There are indications that Israel has promised the Biden admininstration that we will not attack Beirut.
*The IDF–after outlining the path of the missile that hit Majdal Shams yesterday–has unbelievably released an “defense estimate” this morning seemingly absolving Hezbollah of total responsibility. An IDF spokesman says now that we believe that it was all a mistake–Hezbollah did not intentionally hit Majdal Shams; instead they were aiming at a military base in the Golan. None of this explains why people in Majdal Shams did not receive an advance warning of the missile (the siren apparently sounded at the moment of impact)–and why the IDF did not intercept the missile.
Of course, this “estimate” follows so many other ludicrous ones in the past, ones that absolved HamISIS from firing missiles at southern Israel (the IDF claimed it was Islamic Jihad), ones that absolved the PLO from attacks in Judea and Samaria (the IDF claimed it was Hamas), etc., etc.
*Especially absurd has been the hue and cry from western countries–led by France and the U.S.– for Israel to show restraint and not attack Lebanon. Does anyone think for a second that France and U.S. would show restraint if children in their countries were massacred in a missile attack?
We continue waiting for Godot.
Further Update on the Majdal Shams Massacre
In the foggy aftermath of the missile attack, the number of dead children was variously reported as 14, 12, and 11.
Yesterday 11 funerals were held, but one 10-year-old child was reported missing. This morning that child’s “remains” were identified. Jiwara Ibrahim was apparently standing at the precise place where the Iranian-made Flak 1 missile exploded.
On the Ground in Gaza
HamISIS confirmed yesterday that the same missile strike that killed HamISIS military leader Mohammed Deir also killed his deputy Marwan Issa an infamous terrorist in his own right.
The IDF Spokesman this morning:
“There is large-scale activity in the Sheikh Nasser neighborhood in the southern Khan Younis. IDF tanks are intensively bombarding the area, alongside artillery fire directed by Division 98, after the reduction of the “humanitarian” space in Al-Mawasi. In addition, artillery fire targeted terrorists in the al-Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City.”
On the Ground in Judea and Samaria
Palestinian terrorists opened fire on IDF soldiers at the Havat Gileat guard post. No Israelis were wounded; the terrorists escaped into Shechem.
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.