Tuesday
Yom Shleeshee
18 Cheshvan 5785
November 19, 2024
UPDATE 7:00 AM ISRAEL TIME
May Their Memories Be For A Blessing
Capt. Yogev Pazy, 22 from Givat Bar, a platoon commander in the Nachshon Battalion, Kfar Brigade was killed yesterday in northern Gaza.
Sgt. Noam Eitan, 21 from Hadera, a fighter in the Nachshon Battalion, Kfar Brigade was killed yesterday in northern Gaza. He was known as a poet and writer.
Sgt. Uri Nisanovitz, a Golani Battalion fighter who was killed on Saturday in southern Lebanon:
Since October 7th of last year:
The View from Here in Ashdod
As the old saying goes, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”
You may recall that your humble servant left Israel some three and a half weeks ago. As our taxi was being checked through the barrier, a Hezbollah missile hit less than a kilometer away. Once in the terminal, another incoming missile siren sent us all running to a fortified location.
Last night, we returned to Israel. Our flight from London to Tel Aviv on El Al was going smoothly until we passed Cyprus. Then we could see and feel the plane going into a “circular” maneuver. This continued for almost an hour.
Finally, the dreamliner continued on to Israel, but not in the usual route–as you can see from the screen shot I took from the plane’s “Flight Path” video screen. We actually circled all the way out to just north of the Dead Sea (and even apparently into Jordan before circling back to the airport).
Of course, the pilot did not inform us what was going on, and it was not until we landed that we discovered that there had been Hezbollah missile attacks on the area around Tel Aviv.
Hardest hit were Ramat Gan and Shfaram where a woman was killed. She was identified as this morning as a 41-year-old teacher, Safaa Qaat Awad, the mother of 4 children:
We arrived in Ashdod around midnight and were jolted awake at 3:31 am (I looked at my watch) by a huge concussive explosion just off the coast. As of this hour there has been no reportage about what that was; however, it sounded like many other missile hits we have heard in the water over the years.
Yes, life has returned to normal . . . or abnormal.
The War in the North
The IAF eliminated two more terrorists in Lebanon yesterday: Mohammed Takush, the head of Al-Jama’a Al-Islamiya, and Muhammad Afif, Hezbollah’s spokesman and head of communications.
The IAF also hit dozens of other targets all over Lebanon.
Hezbollah fired dozens of missile barrages at northern and central Israel.
Other Snippets
The Central Bureau of Statistics released data yesterday that shows that unemployment in October stood at a rate of 2.5%, compared to 2.7% in September.
There was also a decrease of about 10% in the number of job applicants in October – to the lowest rate since the outbreak of the wars.
*The abominable reform Jewish U.S. organization “J Street” is now urging senators to support Senator Bernie Sanders’ resoluton to block all U.S. military aid to Israel.
And so it goes early on this rainy morning in Israel.
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.