RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.wsj.com/articles/israel-hamas-hostage-deal-gaza-51e141eb?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

The hostage deal that Israel and Hamas reached Tuesday will spare the lives of some 50 Israelis, and that is a great relief to the innocents and their families. The cost is a short-term cease-fire that Hamas will exploit, and three-quarters of the 236 hostages will remain in terrorist hands.

Israeli leaders believe the trade is worth it, and it’s not our place to second-guess their judgment. In exchange for returning Israeli children and women, 12 or 13 a day, Hamas is set to receive a four-day pause in Israeli military operations and the release of about 150 of its under-18 and female operatives from Israeli prisons.

During the cease-fire, Israel will allow more fuel and aid into Gaza. The pause might also extend longer if Hamas gives up more hostages, 10 for each additional day.

The deal again shows the moral gulf between the two sides. Hamas kidnapped Israeli children as young as nine months to use as hostages and spring its jihadists who have been arrested or convicted in a fair trial for their crimes. Israel takes military risks to save its citizens. Hamas risks Palestinian civilians to save itself.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/hamas-close-to-reaching-deal-with-israel-to-release-hostages-terror-group-chief-says/

The Israeli government approved the transfer of roughly 50 civilian hostages currently held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday night.

While precise aspects of the deal have yet to be officially publicized, it is expected that at least a dozen Israeli hostages will be released over four days. In exchange, Israel has agreed to release Palestinian women and minors currently held in prison, and figures range from more than 400 to as low as 150. The Jewish state further agreed to accept a four-day cease-fire and to allow considerably more humanitarian aid, including fuel, into the besieged Palestinian enclave.

The vote came after tense internal negotiations within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration. “Do you trust [Yahya] Sinwar more than us?” Israeli minister Benny Gantz reportedly pointedly asked finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, an opponent of the hostage swap, referring to the Hamas mastermind allegedly behind the October 7 attacks.

“We are not united,” national-security minister Itamar Ben Gvir pushed back on one Likud cabinet member pleading for consensus. “This is a decision with generational damage that will come back to hurt us badly.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Hamas leaders acknowledged they were “close to reaching a truce agreement” with Israel, the Palestinian terrorist group’s chief Ismail Haniyeh said in a statement provided to Reuters. The agreement is in its “final stages,” and a deal is “closer than it has ever been,” a source familiar with the negotiations told the wire service.

As part of the deal, Hamas would release at least 50 women and children who were kidnapped during the terrorist attack on Israel on October 7. In exchange, Israel would pause its fighting in the Gaza Strip for four or five days and release three Palestinian prisoners for every Israeli civilian released, according to multiple news outlets.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20155/palestinians-support-hamas

A public opinion poll published on November 14 showed that 75% of Palestinians support Hamas’s murder spree, including rape and beheadings, as opposed to only 13% who disapprove.

Surprisingly, the poll found that support for Hamas and its “military operation” is even higher in the West Bank, where Abbas’s Palestinian Authority is based, than in the Gaza Strip.

If such a large number of Palestinians in the West Bank support the murder of Israelis and Hamas, it is safe to assume that a new “Palestinian state” would be controlled by Hamas or another genocidal, antisemitic terror group.

Another, but less-surprising, result of the poll is that 80% of the Palestinians reject both the “one-state” and “two-state” solutions, and instead demand all the territory, between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea – in short, the entire State of Israel within any borders.

That a majority of Palestinians want to replace Israel with an Iran-backed terror state also shows that the Biden administration and most European governments are engaging in extreme self-deception when they talk about the need to promote the concept of a “two-state solution.”

How can any rational person talk about a “two-state solution” when a majority of Palestinians believe there is nothing wrong with burning, beheading and raping Jews, or baking a Jewish baby to death in an oven?

The results of the poll confirm what most Arabs and Muslims already know: that the only solution most Palestinians are willing to accept is one that leads to the murder of all Jews and the destruction of Israel. It remains to be seen whether the latest Palestinian slaughter of Jews serves to awaken the Biden administration and the Europeans to this inconvenient, uncomfortable fact.

One of the reasons why Palestinian leaders refuse to condemn Hamas’s October 7 massacre of Israelis is because they know that many Palestinians support the atrocities committed by the Iran-backed Palestinian terrorist group.

Unlike the Biden administration and many Europeans, these leaders, including Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, are fully aware of the widespread support among their people for any group whose goal is to murder Israelis and destroy Israel. The Palestinian leaders, in addition, are also aware that a majority of the Palestinians are opposed to the deluded Western fantasy of a “two-state solution.”

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/11/20/imagine-a-world-without-israel/

Hamas didn’t invade Israel on Oct. 7 for its amusement. The barbaric sneak attack is a part of the pogrom intended to wipe out the Jewish state. It was a crime against humanity, and not just because of its savagery. We would all be worse off if Israel ceased to exist. The same cannot be said for Islamic terrorists.

Israel’s contributions to the modern world are momentous. When not dodging bullets, rockets, and homicide bombers, Israelis have since 1948 developed:

Copaxone and Rebif, drugs that treat multiple sclerosis, and Exelon, which treats mild to moderate dementia in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s patients.
The PillCam, “a minimally invasive ingestible camera in a capsule that allows visualization of the small bowel.”
The water desalination process.
The Sniffphone, “that can actually ‘sniff out’ diseases.”
And SpineAssist, “​​the first-ever spine robot” that has the “ability to provide real-time intraoperative navigation.”

The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, responsible for some of the inventions listed above, has also produced diabetes and flu vaccines, is using T-cells to treat damaged spines, and is a pioneer in industrial — and medical — uses nano materials. 

Other impactful Israeli products include drip irrigation, a revolutionary microprocessor called the 8088, the ​​NIR heart stent, voice-over-internet protocol, the ​​USB flash drive, the Waze navigation app, ReWalk, “a commercial bionic walking assistance system,” and “the first commercially viable firewall software.” 

Our own security has benefited from Israel’s labor and work ethic.

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

This week’s positive Israel newsletter highlights that despite the on-going war, Israel’s citizens, its organizations, and its many global friends are steadfast in their desire to recover from tragedy, eradicate evil, and work to make a better world. Michael Ordman

POSITIVE NEWS DURING A WAR
 
62% of Israelis have donated. Nearly two-thirds of the Israeli public donated to various initiatives relating to the war effort during the 3rd week of the Israel-Hamas conflict and gave more money than ever. The joint study by Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion Universities reveals the average donation is NIS 458 a week in cash or in kind.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/nearly-two-thirds-of-israelis-giving-weekly-donations-to-war-effort-says-study/
 
Evacuated kids keep learning. Some 80 children who have been evacuated from their homes near the Gaza border are keeping up with their studies. They follow the Sprint EdTech platform from Israel’s MindCET innovation center at its Yeruham HQ in south-east Israel (see here previously).  https://www.mindcet.org/en/
https://nocamels.com/2023/11/for-evacuated-israeli-kids-innovative-studies-keep-minds-sharp/
 
Free respite for rave survivors. Israeli Yoni Kahana, an ex-member of Chabad, is now owner of the Secret Forest retreat center in Paphos, Cyprus. He has assembled a team of trauma experts to provide free 5-day therapeutic retreats for groups of Supernova music party survivors. He is crowdfunding for more groups.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/at-an-exclusive-cyprus-retreat-center-supernova-rave-survivors-get-help-to-move-on/   https://charidy.com/recovering   https://secretfo.rest/en/
 
Caring for employees. The Israel R&D Center of AT&T has a 6-point plan for looking after its staff during the war. 1. Staying in contact; 2. Discreet mental support; 3. Employee relief fund and charity donation facility; 4. Kids programs; 5. Support for employees in IDF; 6. Volunteering initiatives.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/sys0x11r7p
 
Office becomes hotel for evacuees. US-based Varonis converted its Herzliya office’s open space into a huge camp for 250 evacuees from the southern cities of Netivot, Ofakim, and Ashkelon and the northern city Kiryat Shmona. After one week, it moved them to a hotel that its employees paid for by redeeming their vacation days.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/y0lql80z0   https://www.varonis.com/
 
Support for all. Western Galilee Now’s Support Package initiative enables people to send gift boxes to evacuees, soldiers or any loved one in Israel. The boxes are filled with premium products sold by small Galilee and Negev-based businesses who are suffering loss of income due to the war. Backed by JNF-USA.
https://www.israel21c.org/gift-boxes-support-israeli-people-and-businesses-in-wartime/
https://united.westgalil.org.il/product/support-package-for-your-loved-ones/
 
The spirit of volunteerism. nearly 4,000 of the 5,700 young Jewish adults (aged 18-30) from abroad on the Masa Israel Journey program ended up staying in Israel during the war and many who left are returning. This article features one participant who came to teach English and is now a volunteer chef for the IDF.
https://www.jns.org/the-indomitable-spirit-of-volunteerism-in-wartime/
 
Volunteers on the farm. Many foreign farm workers left Israel at the start of the war. Charities Hashomer HaHadash, Achim Lemeshek, and Zav 8 have been recruiting Israeli volunteers to replace them.  30 volunteers are currently working at the Ben Saadon farm and packing plant in Be’er Ganim, near Ashkelon.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/agriculture-ministry-seeking-to-lure-out-of-work-israelis-to-take-up-jobs-on-farms/   https://www.jns.org/volunteers-give-first-aid-to-israeli-agriculture/
 
Israel can count on its math department. The mathematics faculty at Israel’s Technion is helping Israel’s war effort. Many are in the IDF reserves and on the home front. Others are harvesting vegetables, preparing shelters, delivering food & clothing to the IDF, and assisting evacuees from border towns.
https://www.technion.ac.il/en/2023/11/the-math-department-helps-in-a-big-way-on-the-war-and-home-fronts/
 

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2023/11/foreign-minister-wongs-slip-is-showing/

I see that Ayaan Hirsi Ali has turned to Christianity from atheism and before that Islam. From the misconceived to the muddleheaded to the way, the truth and the life. Of the three, let me pick up on the truth. Truth and God are indivisible. And as part of giving mankind the best civilisation the world has seen or will ever see, Christianity gave and gives us an appreciation of the centrality of truth. The truth is always under attack by those with an agenda (leftists, Islamists, assorted barbarians) who wish to tear down our civilisation.

Where am I going with this morality tale about truth? To Gaza, actually, and to Penny Wong. “And we call on Israel to cease attacking hospitals,” she reportedly said. The archetypal lie by insinuation. Apropos, have you stopped beating your wife? Either through ignorance or commission, truth has taken a hike. She either has not studied the rules of war and, therefore, as Foreign Minister, is recklessly derelict, or she has read them and was being duplicitous in implying that Israel was in breach of them.

Any number of reports last week described fighting around Gaza’s largest hospital al-Shifa. Ms Wong should pay attention. Exactly who were Israeli forces fighting near to the hospital? Hardly unarmed doctors, nurses and patients. You don’t need to be a genius to work out that Hamas terrorists were stationed in, around and underneath the hospital in contravention of the rules of war.

Israel in conforming with the rules of war must be “proportionate.” While this civilising rule or principle is fraught with subjectivity in the heat of conflict, as I argue here, there is no circumstance which allows it to be deliberately flouted. (See, for example, Military Ethics by Stephen Coleman.) Unfortunately, most commentators, and I see that Teal MP Zoe Daniels has joined the misinformed throng, seem to have no idea what proportionality means. To be clear, it does not mean tit-for-tat. It does not proscribe Israel’s defence forces from attacking Hamas terrorists inside and near to a hospital, provided the military objective is adjudged important enough and provided that harm to doctors, nurses and patients is kept to an absolute minimum in achieving the military objective.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20154/neutrality-immoral-israel-hamas

While many the world over had the integrity to condemn “the hideous crime, naming its perpetrators and acknowledging Israel’s basic right to defend itself against the atrocity,” the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches were unable to muster up such moral clarity.

While the IDF goes out of its way to minimize civilian casualties, Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups do their utmost to maximize them — not only by indiscriminately murdering Israelis, but also by hiding among their own civilian population and using them as human shields, resulting in disproportionately high numbers of Palestinian casualties, caused — deliberately — by Hamas.

If there is an “occupation” problem in Gaza, the occupier is Hamas, not Israel.

In this war, Christians — and all of us — have a moral responsibility to support a civilized nation’s fight against barbarism. Israel must eradicate a terrorist group, Hamas, just as we confronted ISIS. Then all of us need to contain the real mastermind behind such groups, the genocidal regime of Iran. Unfortunately, there is no other viable solution if we wish to preserve the West.

October 7, 2023: Another day that will live in infamy: Israel’s Pearl Harbor. Israel’s 9/11. The quiet Shabbat morning of Simchat Torah, concluding the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, suddenly turned into a bloodbath. Under the cover of heavy rocket fire, thousands of Hamas terrorists attacked Israel’s southern communities and left behind them a path of carnage and devastation, ambushing army bases and motorists, murdering some 364 people at a music festival, slaughtering families in their beds, raping women, executing children and Holocaust survivors, burning civilians alive, and kidnapping 244 people in Israel to Gaza. With at least 1,200 people murdered, it was the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. The barbarity of the Hamas attack was so unprecedented that even the world was brutally — if briefly — jolted out of its usual apathy and left reeling in horror.

The outrage, however, was short-lived. As soon as Israel began its military response to Hamas’s act of war, pro-Palestinian demonstrations erupted across the world, many of them quickly turning into anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hate fests. Some even denied that the October 7 slaughter had taken place, despite the many eyewitness stories of survivors.