Yom Shleeshee
Tuesday
16 Av 5784
August 20 2024
May Their Memories Be For A Blessing
Lt. Shahar Ben Nun, 21 years old from Petah Tikva
Lt. Ben Nun, a team commander in a paratrooper patrol, was tragically killed when a bomb dropped by an IAF jet malfunctioned and hit 300 meters away from its target–collapsing a wall on Lt. Ben Nun.
Chief Warrant Officer Mahmoud Amaria, 45 years old from Ibtin.
Chief Warrant Officer Amaria, a Bedouin scout in Utzbat Bar’am was killed yesterday when a Hezbollah drone exploded near Ya’ara in the western Galilee.
On the Ceasefire/Hostage “Deal”
There was much media hoopla in Jerusalem yesterday as U.S. Secretary of State Blinken announced that PM Netanyahu has agreed to the latest Biden bridging proposal. That bridging proposal specifies that 150 Palestinians serving life sentences in Israeli prisons for murder would be exchanged for 5 female soldiers. The 150 will be determined by “seniority” in prison–and Israel will have a veto on 65 proposed by Hamas.
In the press briefing, the delusional Blinken was asked about the fact that Hamas has rejected every previous proposal; he responded: “We have heard their statements, also statements from the past, but they do not necessarily represent their position.”
Say what?
Their statements absolutely represent their position.
Guess what? Shortly after the Blinken media hoopla, Hamas yet again immediately rejected the latest proposal (they had already rejected it twice since Doha), stating that “there is no need for a round of negotiations regarding a ceasefire, but rather the implementation of a ceasefire.”
Obviously there is no deal.
And just as obviously, the U.S. plan is to present the agreement/deal as de facto complete and hope that Hamas will somehow be coerced by its fellow Arabs into agreeing.
Remember the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
In fact, Hezbollah quickly jumped on the Hamas statement and issued one of its own: “Our response to the assassination of Fuad Shukar was linked to negotiations between Israel and Hamas. We did not want to be accused of disrupting the negotiations. As soon as Hamas announced today that it opposes the new proposal, we were freed from any restrictions.”
On the Ground in Gaza
For the first time since the Gaza operation began, the IDF has cut off the central Gaza from Khan Younis.
In effect, a third corridor, the Kissufim Corridor, has been created. This corridor joins the Netzarim Corridor which separates northern Gaza from the rest of Gaza, and the Philadelphi Corridor which separates Gaza from Egypt.
Here in Ashdod, we heard massive bombing last night which has continued until this morning. One of the heavy bombs hit the Al-Shatti neighborhood and eliminated a number of terrorists including:
Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran. Last night 7 of his former bodyguards were also killed.
On the Ground in the North
During the early evening last night, the IAF struck a huge Hezbollah missile storage facility deep in the Bekaa Valley:
Note the missiles firing out of the building like fireworks.
And . . . another view:
Again, a massive number of secondary missile explosions.
Earlier in the day , an IAF drone targeted a car on the Tyre-Naqoura highway in the Deir Qanoun Ras al-Ain area; two more Hezbollah terrorists were killed:
No survivors in this car.
One of those in the car was Hossein Ali Hossein, a key Hezbollah terrorist in the rocket and missile unit in the Yarin area.
On the Ground in Judea and Samaria
Insanity 1: The IDF ordered 117 reservists who have been in Gaza to return their weapons before returning home yesterday to their frontline communities in Judea, Samaria, and in the north. When this order became public yesterday, it was canceled.
Insanity 2: Two fledgling Jewish communities, Sde Yonatan and Or Meir, in the Binyamin area were suddenly destroyed at 4 am this morning by Arab workers employed by Israel’s odious Civil Administration.
Both communities are strategically located and neither was given any advance warning.
Both communities will surely be rebuilt by their brave residents.
But the bottom line is that here we are in the middle of a war with three fronts (at least) and what is the government doing?
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.