The Gaza War Day 534; The Wars Elsewhere

Sunday

Yom Rishon

23 Adar 5785

March 23 2025

BREAKING NEWS: 7:23 AM ISRAEL TIME

The Houthis have fired another missile at central Israel. Again it was intercepted in low-level space by an Arrow missile. Again, 183 Israeli communities stretching from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem were sent running to their bomb shelters because of incoming shrapnel alarms.

UPDATE 9:00 AM ISRAEL TIME

The Quote of the Day

“The Supreme Court and the Attorney General’s Office go hand in hand. They consider themselves the wise ones and the good ones. They believe that “the barbarians on the right” must not be allowed to rule the country.

Like the judicial system, the bureaucracy, for the most part, also belongs to the Israeli left. It receives ongoing backing from the Supreme Court. All of this judicial and bureaucratic interference makes it very difficult for the government elected by the people to implement its policy.

Dr. Ido Netanyahu, the Prime Minister’s brother, speaking about the security, political and legal situation of Israel at an event at the Beersheva Cultural Center yesterday.

On The Ground in the North

Following the missile launches against Metulla yesterday morning, the rest of the day was spent with the IAF and IDF attacking Hezbollah in dozens of locations.

Defense Minister Katz put it succinctly:

“We will not allow the reality of firing from Lebanon on the Galilee communities. We promised security to the Galilee communities – and that is exactly what will happen. The law of Metula is the same as the law of Beirut. The Lebanese government bears responsibility for any firing from its territory.”

Among the locations struck were Tyre (where a senior Hezbollah terrorist was killed), Nabi Shiti, Gondaria, Hermel, Bekaa Valley, Sarin, Al-Marj, Wadi Sania, Al-Qusayr, Mahmoudiyah, Al-Kalila, Al-Ishiyya, Khaybar Bridge on the Lebanon-Syria border, Al-Lubia, Al Saksiya, and the Jazzine section of southern Lebanon.

The IDF Spokesman speaking late yesterday afternoon:

“A short while ago, The IDF struck Hezbollah command centers, infrastructure sites, terrorists, rocket launchers, and a weapons storage facility throughout Lebanon. These strikes were conducted alongside the strikes that were carried out earlier today.”

On the Ground in Gaza

Following the missiles fired at Ashkelon, the IAF continued hitting Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

*Hamas senior bureau member Salah Al-Bardawil was killed in an airstrike west of Khan Younis.

*The Hamas terror base inside the Imad Aqel Mosque, east of Gaza City, was destroyed:

Another Ballistic Missile from Yemen

Amid multiple U.S. strikes on missile launchers in the Hodaideh and Zadah provinces, the Houthis managed to launch another missile at Israel in the afternoon.

Fortunately, the missile was intercepted over the Red Sea and fell in an open space in Saudi Arabia. No alarms were sounded in Israel.

On the Ground in Judea and Samaria

Another incredible, under-the-radar step was taken yesterday by the political-security cabinet concerning a proposal made by Finance Minister and Deputy Defense Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

The Cabinet approved the proposal of the Minister of Defense, Bezalel Smotrich, to split 13 existing neighborhoods from older communities adjacent to them and to work towards recognizing them as 13 new independent communities.

This move coupled with the approval of tens of thousands of housing units is another significant step toward exerting Israeli sovereignty over Area C of Judea and Samaria.

The Witkoff-Carlson Interview

The Israel media is awash with the reportage of an interview that Trump envoy Steven Witkoff gave to “journalist” Tucker Carson two days ago.

The interview was remarkable for four egregious reasons:

1. We at OneIsrael cannot help but wonder why Witkoff would agree to be interviewed at length by the egregious Carlson who often goes out of his ways to denigrate Israel and the IDF.

2. The contents of the interview are being egregiously misreported by the Israeli media based on this lengthy answer that Witkoff gave to a Carlson question about where the Israeli government stands (emphasis mine):

“Well, I think that’s complicated. I think they’re well motivated. I think there are things that they’re trying to get done. You know, as an example, we would not be as effective in what we’re doing there if Bibi did not get Nasrallah out of the picture in Lebanon, if he did not decapitate, because he’s effectively decapitated Hezbollah. If he did not do what he did with Hamas, he’s decapitated Hamas. Hamas is nowhere close to the terrorist organization that they were beforehand.

Both of those events inform on his relationship with Iran. And Iran using, continuing to use proxies and so forth. They’re less prone to do those sorts of things today. Right. And so that sort of Iranian crescent or that Islamist crescent that everybody thought was going to be effective, it’s been largely eliminated. So he’s done an exceptional job with that.

But of course, the rap he gets is that he’s more concerned about the fight than he is about the hostages. I think in some respects, I understand how people make that assessment, but I don’t necessarily agree with it. I think that he does want to get hostages home if he can, but he believes that pressuring Hamas is the only way to do it. I think in some respects he’s right. . . I think Bibi feels that he’s doing the right thing. I think he goes up against public opinion because mostly because public opinion there wants those hostages home.”

Out of this entire answer–most of which was a glowing compliment to Netanyahu–the leftist Israeli media has honed in on the last sentence to rant that Netanyahu is out of step with the Israeli public and needs to resign.

Unbelievable.

3. The third and perhaps most egregious part of Witkoff’s interview was his endless praising of Qatar—the country that we all know was responsible for funding Hamas terrorist tunnel contruction, Hamas’ weapons acquisitions, and establishment of Hamas command headquarters in Gaza not to mention using its media arm, Al-Jazeera, to continuously paint Israel as vicious Zionist oppressor massacring “poor innocent Gazans.”

And this does not even include Qatar’s role in funding the creation of Middle East Studies Departments in universities in the United States and elsewhere, all of which form the “scholarly backbone” of the anti-Israel movement on campuses.

In a word, Qatar is “evil.”

But listen to Witkoff:

” . . . in the case of the Qataris, they’re criticized for not being well motivated. It’s preposterous. They are well motivated. They’re good, decent people. What they want is a mediation that’s effective, that gets to a peace goal. And why? Because they’re a small nation and they want to be acknowledged as a peacemaker . . . “

And in response to a Carlson question about Qatar being an agent of Iran:

“It’s preposterous. Look, they’re a Muslim nation. In the past, they’ve had some views that are a little bit more radical . . . There’s no doubt that they’re an ally of the United States. There’s no doubt about that . . . I had a conversation with General Kurilla, Eric Kurilla, who runs CENTCOM—amazing man—and I said to him, what do you think of the Qataris? He says they’re special people. So the people in the know understand that they’re good, decent people.”

Even Qatar’s leader:

“And Sheikh Mohammed, the Prime Minister of Qatar, is a good man. He’s really—He’s a special guy. He really is. And he cares and I spent a lot of time with him and broken bread with him. And he’s just a good, decent human being who wants what’s best for his people.”

Can you believe all of this rubbish? It is simply astonishing to come to the realization that Witkoff has no idea what he is talking about (or perhaps he does and is engaging in whitewashing Qatar?).

4. Finally, and perhaps just as egregious as his Qatari statements, we have Witkoff’s perception of Hamas:

“What does Hamas want? I think they want to stay there till the end of time. And they want to rule Gaza. And that’s unacceptable. So we have to know that. We had to know what they wanted. What they want is unacceptable. What’s acceptable to us is they need to demilitarize.”

So far so good, but then Witkoff says that Hamas can stay in Gaza “a little bit” if it disarms and adds:

I’ve never really been in the same room as them, which is a little bit weird, wouldn’t you say? Like a negotiation where you don’t have the other party. You don’t even know if the guy behind the wall is the wizard of Oz or not . . .

You know, what we heard in the beginning of this conflict is Hamas is ideological. They’re prepared to die for a whole variety of reasons. I personally, and I talked to the president about this.

With that said, I said to him, I don’t think that they are as ideologically locked in. They’re not ideologically intractable. I don’t. I never believe that. By the way, I believe they strap on the suicide vests onto young kids who don’t know what they’re doing, right. And they tell them a story. And once you understand that, once you understand that they wanted to live, then you were able to talk to them in a more effective way.

Not ideologically locked in? Not ideologically intractable? And what in the world does Witkoff’s story about suicide vests on young kids mean?

So what is the bottom line about this interview? What we see is a strong statement supporting Netanyahu coupled with comments about Qatar and Hamas which indicate Witkoff’s gross misunderstanding of both.