Yom Shnee
Tuesday
30 Av 5784
September 3 2024
UPDATE 9:00 AM ISRAEL TIME
Their photos burn holes in us that that will not go away.
Top left to right: Hersh Goldberg-Polin (23), Ori Danino 25), Carmel Gat (40).
Botton left to right: Eden Yerushalmi (24), Alexander Lobanov (33), Almog Sarusi (27).
What eats at our core is that after spending 330 days in the most horrendous conditions, all six were alive 4 days ago. They were gruesomely shot to death by HamISIS barbarians as our soldiers closed in on their bunker. The soldiers were so close to possibly saving them that IDF sonar devices picked up the gunfire that murdered them.
It takes our collective breath away.
Tens of thousands poured into the streets of Tel Aviv on Sunday night and a general strike was called for yesterday.
Both events, however, turned yet again into an anti-Netanyahu fest.
Israeli network television personality Likosh Menachem summed it up like this (we here at OneIsrael disagree with her statements against the government):
“I have to say something, I am also upset, in pain and cannot tolerate (to put it mildly) what is happening in the government. But all the people who go to demonstrate ‘to return the abductees’ with signs against Bibi, and then tell themselves that they want to help the families of the abductees and return the abductees – in my eyes, you are hypocrites . . . If you come to help the families of the abducted and want the streets to shake, leave politics. If you use the demonstrations to scream ‘Bibi resign’, you have turned it into a political demonstration . . .
A blind person can see that the demonstrations in Tel Aviv for the last three years have been nothing but political. The demonstrators who like to cloak themselves in such mantras as “No Judicial Reform” and “Save Democracy” and “We Support the Bereaved Families” fill their protests with “Bibi Dictator”, and “Bibi Escobar” and hold placards comparing Netanyahu to Hitler.
You can draw your own conclusions.
Where The Ceasefire/Hostage Deal Stands Now
All reports suggest President Biden is about to put a “take it or leave it” plan on the table. Should the plan be rejected, the U.S. will exit the “negotiations” for good.
Biden issued this disgusting statement yesterday:
“We are very close to a final deal, but I don’t think Netanyahu is doing enough to get a deal.”
Say what?
Who was it that agreed to Biden’s plan of May 31?
Who was it that agreed to Biden’s plan of August 16?
Of course, it was Israel and Netanyahu who agreed and made concessions in doing so.
And who was it that rejected both plans just as they have rejected every other one proposed by the Americans?
Of course, it was HamISIS.
And yet who is it that Biden is putting pressure on again?
Of course, it is PM Netanyahu and Israel.
PM Netanyahu’s News Conference Last Night
In a defiant news conference last night, an angry PM Netanyahu explained that he is dumbfounded that the U.S. and most other countries want Israel to surrrender to Hamas demands.
Using a slide, he demonstrated yet again how keeping control of the Philadelphi Corridor is absolutely essential to thwart the flow of weapons into Gaza:
The flow of weapons into Gaza via the tunnels under the Philadelphi Crossing.
At the same time, PM Netanyahu asked for forgiveness from the country for not being able to bring more back alive:
“In the last day I spoke with some of their families, and while talking I looked at the pictures of these pure souls and my heart breaks into pieces. You see the light radiating from them, and all this light was cut off by the cruel hand of monsters . . . And I ask for your forgiveness for not being able to bring them alive.”
The War in Gaza
The IDF is systematically going through Zeitoun wiping out numerous Hamas command headquarters there–mostly in schools:
Eleven terrorists inside the Tzapa School were killed yesterday.
The War in the North
In just a few hours yesterday afternoon between 4:00 pm and 7:00 pm, Hezbollah fired more than 40 missiles at northern Israel:
A Hezbollah attack on a northern community yesterday afternoon.
What has changed over the course of the last three months is that Hezbollah is now targeting civilians in “non-evacuated areas”–see the chart below from Alma:
The graph speaks for itself. For example, there were only 4 Hezbollah missile and drone attacks on non-evacuated civilian areas in October of last year; this past month there were 45. Remember that this does not take into account attacks on “evacuated areas” such as Metulla and Kiryat Shmona.
On the Ground in Judea and Samaria
*There was another car bomb attempt yesterday–this time at the Jewish community of Atara in Samaria.
Fortunately, our forces spotted the car and detonated it before it made it into the community.
This is the 3rd car Palestinian car bomb attack in the last 5 days.
*The Palestinian terrorist who murdered the three policemen at the Tarkamiyya Crossing three days ago was killed yesterday.
He was finally cornered near Hevron and taken out with a missile.
As we reported in our last blog, he attempted to turn himself in to the PLO police only to have them, surprisingly, reject his attempt.
By the way, he was a member of PLO Chairman and arch-terrorist Abu Mazen’s presidential guard.
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.