RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21245/israeli-arab-leaders

“For the longest time, I struggled with my identity. A Palestinian kid born inside Israel. Like…wtf. Many of my friends refuse to this day to say the word ‘Israel’ and call themselves ‘Palestinian’ only. But since I was 12, that did not make sense to me. So, I decided to mix the two and become a ‘Palestinian-Israeli.’ I thought this term reflected who I was. Palestinian first. Israeli second. But after recent events, I started to think. And think. And think. And then my thoughts turned to anger. I realized that if Israel were to be ‘invaded’ like that again, we would not be safe. To a terrorist invading Israel, all citizens are targets…. And I do not want to live under a Palestinian government. Which means I only have one home, even if I’m not Jewish: Israel.” — Nuseir Yassin (“Nas Daily”), Israeli Arab blogger, the day after October 8, 2023.

These [Arab Israeli] leaders will do anything to grab the attention of the media – even if that means inciting against Israel. They know that when they deal with the real problems facing their Arab constituents – such as unemployment and poverty – no one will write about them in the media. Yet, when these leaders make fiery statements against Israel, they often win headlines and front-page stories. As far as they are concerned, “I don’t care what you write about me as long as you spell my name right.”

By engaging in anti-Israel incitement, these Israeli Arab leaders are causing huge damage to their own constituents. These leaders make the Israeli Arabs look as if they are a “Fifth Column” — an enemy within. These leaders are stoking fear and mistrust between Jews and Arabs inside Israel, while ignoring that most Israeli Arabs say they feel comfortable living in the Jewish state.

If Israeli Arabs want to secure a prosperous future for themselves and their children, they need to get rid of extremist Arab leaders who speak and act against the interests of the Arab community inside Israel. If these Arab leaders are unhappy living in Israel, they are welcome to move to the West Bank, Gaza Strip or any Arab country — where they will quickly miss Israel’s democracy and freedom of speech.

The Iran-backed Palestinian Hamas terrorist group has long been seeking to spark a civil war between Israel’s Arab and Jewish citizens. Over the past few years, Hamas has called on the two million Arab citizens of Israel to revolt against their own country and join the Jihad against Israel.

Hamas’s attempts were partially successful in May 2021, when some Arabs attacked their Jewish neighbors. The assaults occurred at the same time as an Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip. That operation was launched in response to rockets fired by Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups at Israel. Fortunately, the violence that erupted in 2021 ended quickly.

https://jihadwatch.org/2024/12/netanyahu-and-the-road-to-victory?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=netanyahu-and-the-road-to-victory

Elliot Kaufman published in the Wall Street Journal on December 20 an interview he had just conducted with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It’s a riveting read. At three key moments since October 7, 2023, Netanyahu was given advice by the Biden administration on the conduct of the war against Hamas, and then on the war against Hezbollah. In all three cases, Netanyahu ignored that advice and went ahead with what turned out to be moves essential to the IDF’s success. More on Netanyahu’s road to victory can be found here: “Benjamin Netanyahu: The Inside Story of Israel’s Victory,” by Elliot Kaufman, Wall Street Journal, December 20, 2024:

…”The Americans said to me, ‘If you go into Rafah, you’re on your own, and we’re not going to send you the critical arms,’ which is tough to hear,” Mr. Netanyahu says. Internally, others argued that Israel was too reliant on U.S. munitions to risk fighting on. “That’s a legitimate case,” Mr. Netanyahu says. “But if we don’t go into Rafah, we can’t exist as a sovereign state. We’d become a vassal state and we won’t survive. The question of arms will fix itself, but the question of our independence will not. That’s the end of Israel.”

In Rafah, Israel cut off Hamas’s supply route [for weapons] and later killed Sinwar, its chief. The Biden administration imposed a de facto arms embargo on Israel, delaying weapons shipments.

Just as Netanyahu rejected the American advice not to conduct a ground invasion of Gaza but instead to stick to airstrikes, he rejected the American pressure not to enter Rafah, which was accompanied by a threat to withhold some weaponry. He was told that the people in Rafah would not evacuate, for there was “no place” for them to go, and that such an operation would cost 20,000 lives. The Americans were wrong on both counts. Within a few weeks, almost one million civilians had evacuated, as directed, from Rafah, and went to the town of Al-Mawasi on the coast, near Khan Younis, an area where the IDF would not attack. And instead of 20,000 casualties in Rafah — the number that the Americans feared would result from the operation — there were only a few thousand, both combatants and civilians.

“The U.S. withheld critical weapons,” Mr. Netanyahu admits, but he appreciates the pressure Mr. Biden was under. “It’s not easy to be president, let’s face it, with these very radical fringes in his party. It wasn’t easy to do what Mr. Biden did,” including helping Israel in its defense against Iranian missile attacks, he says….

For Israel, it’s a return to form. “Power isn’t merely guns, missiles, tanks and aircraft,” Mr. Netanyahu says. “It’s the will to fight and seize the initiative.”

Iran’s nuclear program now looks vulnerable. “I’m not going to talk about that,” Mr. Netanyahu says. When I say I’ve never heard him so reticent on his favorite subject, he responds cryptically: “I’ve always said the jury’s out, still out on all of us, and I don’t exclude myself.” It is perhaps on this that he expects to be judged.