RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/06/israel-embodies-the-tension-at-the-heart-of-the-west/

Alongside high-tech marvels, a love of ancient traditions

El Al Airlines, the flagship carrier of the State of Israel, is the only commercial airline in the world that equips its fleet with anti-missile-defense systems. At times, that might have seemed excessive. But in 2024, no one is questioning that necessity as El Al 787s take off and land at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport, just an hour away by car from the Gaza Strip.

Security considerations have forced El Al to become arguably the world’s most modern and technologically advanced airline. It may also be the world’s most traditional. Passengers flying on El Al have access to a host of Western movies and TV shows, but many choose instead to spend their time 30,000 feet in the air watching or listening to one of El Al’s many Torah-study videos and podcasts. As I listened to one while above the Atlantic last week, I couldn’t help but notice the contrast: the ancient words of the Torah alongside the modern flourishes of the 787 aircraft. In many ways, it’s that tension, between the truly ancient and the decidedly modern, that defines the Jewish state.

After I exited the plane in Tel Aviv, I passed through the arrivals hallway in Ben Gurion Airport, which I had walked through many times as a child. This time, the hallway looked different. From beginning to end, it was lined with posters of Israeli hostages still held by Hamas — the Jewish state ensures that no visitor who arrives at Ben Gurion leaves the airport unaware of the ordeal the country now faces.

My face transformed from frown to smile as my gaze shifted from the hostage posters to my two cousins, both members of the IDF, who had come to pick me up. This was a tearful reunion, for my family had narrowly escaped the tragedy faced by so many other Jewish families in Israel since October 7. On that day, when my younger cousin was home for the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, his unit was manning a base in southern Israel near the Gaza Strip. When Hamas invaded, they murdered one of his best friends. In the weeks and months that followed, my older cousin was one of the heroes tasked with fighting Hamas in Gaza. He told me of the horror he felt as he accidentally stepped on a land mine, likely one of the many booby traps the Hamas savages had placed for soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces. When he stepped off the mine, however, something miraculous happened: It didn’t explode. As I walked with my cousins past the airport’s large statue of David Ben-Gurion, I thanked God for the chance to see them again, and I remembered the words of Israel’s first prime minister: “In Israel, in order to be a realist, you must believe in miracles.”

 www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

This week’s compilation of Israel’s outsize contributions to humanity starts off, most appropriately, with celebrating the rescue of four hostages and stories of their life during imprisonment.

We are fast coming into July fourth and the 48th anniversary of the Entebbe Operation launched in response to the hijacking of an international civilian passenger flight by Palestinian terrorists who diverted the flight to Uganda, where they landed at Entebbe Airport with 248 passenger hostages. 148 non-Israeli hostages were released. The 94 remaining passengers, most of whom were Israelis, and the 12-member Air France crew continued to be held as hostages.

The daring raid by the IDF coinciding with the American tri-centennial, rescued the passengers and the crew with three exceptions. Jonathan Netanyahu, brother of Israel’s Prime Minister was killed commanding the historic rescue.

On November 28, 2002 in Mombasa, Kenya, a two-pronged attack  was launched against an Israeli-owned hotel and a plane belonging to Arkia Airlines. An all-terrain vehicle crashed through a barrier outside the Paradise Hotel killing 13 and injuring 80. Arkia airlines and Israeli tourists flew home to Israel escorted by Israeli F-15 fighter jets deployed by the IDF.

Bravo to the IDF and its determination to rescue hostages and to Michael Ordman for presenting truth in the face of libels and bias.  rsk

POSITIVE NEWS IN A WAR
 
“The diamonds are in our hands”. In one of the most daring operations since Oct 7, Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Shlomi Ziv, and Andrei Kozlov, who were kidnapped from the Nova party, were rescued in “Operation Arnon.” This is how the action unfolded, minute by minute. Some other very good links below.
https://www.israelunwired.com/revealed-the-diamonds-are-in-our-hands-minute-by-minute-in-operation-arnon/
https://israfan.com/p/israeli-forces-rescue-hostages-gaza  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXxl0cptnJ4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQO76ZTce08  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCXQjkHW4o8
 
Israelis never miss an opportunity.  What do you think Almog Meir Jan did during his 8 months as a hostage of Hamas?  He learned two languages of course.  Arabic from watching Al Jazeera, and Russian from speaking with his fellow captive Andrey Kozlov.  He also had been able to keep a journal while in captivity.
https://worldisraelnews.com/rescued-hostage-learned-arabic-and-russian-in-captivity/
 
Israelí hero – Arnon Zmora. (TY Rabbi Taff) Just a few of the tributes to Arnon Zmora who led the elite Yamam counter-terrorism unit that rescued 4 Israeli hostages in Gaza. 
https://www.timesofisrael.com/hero-of-israel-thousands-pay-last-respects-to-officer-killed-in-hostage-rescue-op/  https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-ultimate-sacrifice-remembering-arnon-zmora-%D7%96%D7%9C/
https://www.thejc.com/news/israel/tributes-pour-in-for-sweet-and-charming-father-of-two-idf-officer-36-killed-in-hostage-rescue-f0zuxdwc  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MRSUNBksgA
 
Still recycling. Jack (Tato) Bigio is co-founder and CEO of Israel’s UBQ (see here previously). He describes the purpose of his garbage recycling company, and about the loss of key employees on Oct 7. It hasn’t affected his desire to protect the environment or his determination to avoid being taken-over.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-ubq-turns-household-waste-into-organic-plastic-1001481267
 
Wedding at last. (TY Sam Kramer) A year and a half ago Nadav took two bullets in the stomach, was seriously injured but managed to neutralize the terrorist who shot him and his father while they were spending Shabbat in Jerusalem. Thankfully, he recovered, rejoined his unit, and on Jun 13 he got married! Mazel Tov!
https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-first-since-jerusalem-terror-shooting-seriously-hurt-idf-officer-puts-uniform-on/  https://x.com/MOSSADil/status/1801282364124852309
 
 
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Triggering your brain to heal your body. A detailed article about Israel’s Remepy (see here previously). It has completed three clinical trials involving 200 patients, using its digital molecules to treat cancer, MCI (Mild Cognitive Impairment) and Parkinson’s. It aims to bring its first product to market within three years.
https://www.israel21c.org/new-app-can-trigger-your-brain-into-enhanced-healing/
 
Championing mental health. In Nov 2023, Olessia Kantor founded Israel’s Lev Esh (Fire Heart) project to address the mental health crisis that has intensified since Oct 7. Lev Esh serves as a vital lifeline, connecting trauma sufferers with a network of practitioners, including psychologists, psychiatrists, and holistic therapists.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-804942   https://www.sashacenter.com/lev-esh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0v4FaNj5BY  (In Hebrew only)
 
 
ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL
 
She loves Tech. Two female-led startups will be representing Israel at the “She Loves Tech” competition semi-finals in Amsterdam. They are Feminai (wearable medical cancer screening) and JOB360 (see here previously).
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/skmrudqbc   https://www.feminai.com/
 
Arab swims for Israel at Olympics. (TY Hazel) With his 100-backstroke victory at the Israeli Olympic Trials on Thursday, Adam Maraana became the first Arab citizen of Israel to qualify for the Olympics since 1976, and the first ever in the sport of swimming. His 53.60 seconds was almost a second faster than his previous best.
https://swimswam.com/adam-maraana-set-to-become-first-arab-swimmer-to-represent-israel-at-the-olympics/
 
Joint meeting of IDF, USA & Arab military. (TY Hazel) The heads of the IDF, US Central Command, met in Manama Bahrain with senior generals from Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt. Although not publicized, it signified regional security cooperation.
https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel-at-war/artc-idf-chief-meets-senior-arab-officers-in-bahrain-to-discuss-security-cooperation
 
Protecting friendly ports. Israel Aerospace Industries has installed its ELI 3320 Port Guard coastal and offshore critical infrastructure protection system at an Asian port. Port Guard’s sensors track all events on land, air and underwater, feeding information into the command-and-control system, where it is analyzed.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-iai-deploys-port-protection-system-in-asian-country-1001481378
 
Saudi textbooks remove anti-Israel material. The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-SE) has reported that Saudi Arabia has removed practically all antisemitism and anti-Israel material from its schoolbooks. It no longer teaches that Israel is racist or denies Jewish history.
https://www.jns.org/saudi-arabia-removes-antisemitism-from-schoolbooks/
 
Huge rally for Israel in Toronto. Some 50,000 Israel supporters joined the annual Walk with Israel annual march in Toronto, Canada. It was described as the largest gathering of Jews in Canada’s history.
https://nationalpost.com/news/world/israel-middle-east/more-than-50000-march-walk-with-israel-toronto-rally
https://worldisraelnews.com/watch-50000-canadian-jews-march-in-solidarity-with-israel/
 
Manhattan Institute award for Douglas. One of Israel’s best advocates, UK’s Douglas Murray, won the 2024 Alexander Hamilton Award in May. He chose to speak on the subject “Choose Life, Not the Death Cult”.  So true – please watch the whole 23 minutes!  The 2nd video is of his more recent (10 min) speech in France.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rud4Jq51Lx8  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFi3O4Dg5rI
https://manhattan.institute/article/2024-alexander-hamilton-awards-ayaan-hirsi-ali-and-douglas-murray
https://manhattan.institute/event/2024-alexander-hamilton-award-dinner

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20709/israel-work-permits-palestinians

Prior to the October 7 massacre, more than 170,000 Palestinians were working in Israel, constituting an important source of income for the Palestinian economy…. The Palestinians from the Gaza Strip who were permitted to work in Israel received many of the same rights as Israeli workers, including health insurance and pension plans.

“I will be able to earn about $120 dollars a day [in Israel], while I cannot even earn $250 dollars a month in Gaza. Due to the difficult political and economic conditions, the people of the Gaza Strip suffer greatly from poverty and are unable to build a future for their children like their parents.” — Mohammed Kamal, a 38-year-old father of four from the Gaza Strip, newarab.com, March 24, 2022.

It appears that the murderers and rapists from the Gaza Strip saw Israel’s goodwill gestures as an indication of Israel’s weakness. In addition, they apparently saw the controversy in Israel surrounding the Israeli government’s judicial reform plan as a sign that Israel had become extremely weak, especially when anti-government protesters threatened to boycott military reserve service.

The October 7 atrocities serve as a reminder that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not about improving the living conditions of the Palestinians or strengthening their economy. Instead, the conflict is about the desire of the majority of Palestinians to slaughter Jews and destroy Israel.

Pre-and post-October 7 public opinion polls have consistently demonstrated that the majority of Palestinians back Hamas and believe that the atrocities committed on that day were “correct.”

Now, Palestinians can blame Hamas not only for dragging them into a disastrous war with Israel, but also for having left tens of thousands of families jobless in the wake of their loss of permits to work in Israel.

Instead of brainwashing and indoctrinating their people against Israel and Jews, Palestinian leaders need to be required to focus on creating job opportunities and boosting the Palestinian economy, which the flow of international handouts have relieved them from doing.

The Palestinians would also greatly benefit if they would realize that there are actually dire repercussions when they “bite the hand that feeds them.”

After the October 7 atrocities, it would be absurd to assume that Israel will once more welcome tens of thousands of laborers from the Gaza Strip. Many of those workers to whom Israel opened its doors were apparently working in Israel by day, and by night returning to Gaza and providing Hamas with highly detailed maps and drawings of every house in Israel’s border communities, and reports about everyone in them, including the pet dogs.

A massacre was not the outcome many had expected after the Israelis’ willingness to help to improve the lives of their Palestinian neighbors.

“Black-and-white depictions of Gaza before the war are not only inaccurate but fail to capture the color-rich realities that existed, in which the potential for coexistence and peace was present in daily occurrences; human-to-human connections between Palestinian workers and Israelis were a window of what the future could look like.” — Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, former resident of the Gaza Strip, x.com, June 16, 2024.

https://truthofthemiddleeast.com/herta-muller/?fbclid=I

The writer and Nobel Prize winner read this text at the October 7 Forum of “Jewish Culture in Sweden” in Stockholm on May 25.
She is one of the greatest contemporary German writers. Now, Nobel Prize winner Herta Muller has written a shocking wake-up call to the West – The madness that has gripped parts of Western society since Hamas attacked Israel
They turned into monsters

In most narratives about the war in Gaza, the war does not begin where it began. The war did not start in Gaza. The war began on October 7, exactly 50 years after Egypt and Syria invaded Israel. Palestinian Hamas terrorists committed an unimaginable massacre in Israel. They filmed themselves as heroes and celebrated their bloodbath. Their victory celebrations continued back home in Gaza, where the terrorists dragged severely abused hostages and presented them as spoils of war to the jubilant Palestinian population. This macabre jubilation extended all the way to Berlin. In the Neukölln district there was dancing on the streets and the Palestinian organization Samidoun distributed sweets. The internet was buzzing with happy comments.

More than 1,200 people died in the massacre. After torture, mutilation and rape, 239 people were abducted. This massacre by Hamas is a total derailment from civilization. There is an archaic horror in this bloodlust that I no longer thought possible in this day and age. This massacre has the pattern of annihilation through pogroms, a pattern that the Jews have known for centuries. That is why the whole country has been traumatized, because the founding of the state of Israel was intended to protect against such pogroms. And until October 7, it was believed to be protected. Although Hamas has been sitting on the state of Israel’s neck since 1987. The Hamas founding charter clearly stated that the destruction of the Jews was the goal, and that “death for God is our noblest wish”.

Even though there have been changes to this charter since then, it is clear that nothing has changed: the destruction of the Jews and the destruction of Israel remain the goal and desire of Hamas. This is exactly the same as in Iran. In the Islamic Republic of Iran, the destruction of the Jews has also been state doctrine since its foundation, that is, since 1979.

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-806327

Hamas and other terrorist organizations proclaim “Free Palestine” as code words for destroying Israel and committing genocide.

Unfortunately, the failure to understand what Hamas is has led many people to support it as an Islamic organization that embraces monotheism and a “national (Palestinian) liberation movement” – with disastrous consequences. It claims to be both but is neither.

The problem is that although Islam claims to have a moral code with values and ethics, it does not apply to non-Muslims (“infidels”). This became apparent on October 7. That’s why Muslims ignore and deny the massacre and support Hamas’s attack in the name of Islam. Infidels don’t matter and can be killed with impunity. Support for such savagery, moreover, is taught in mosques and Islamic schools and institutions around the world. Islamic leaders declare, “Death to Israel; Death to America.”

Is that consistent with Islamic claims to be monotheistic and connected to the tradition of Abraham?

Is that what Muslims believe that Allah/God wants?

Hamas and other terrorist organizations proclaim “Free Palestine” as code words for destroying Israel and committing genocide. To gain legitimacy and acceptance, they present themselves as representatives of Islam. For this reason, the majority of Islamic authorities, Muslims, and numerous non-Muslims support Hamas.

But Hamas is an Islamic totalitarian organization that opposes any form of individuality, creativity, or human rights. Life has no meaning outside of its rules. Although it uses Islamic religious terms, such as Jihad, to justify its atrocities, it is contrary to any genuine religious belief.

https://www.jns.org/secular-coercion-and-double-standards/

Thousands of worshipers gathered at Charles Clore Park on Sunday morning to celebrate Eid al-Adha, the Muslim Feast of Sacrifice. The practice at this location, where Tel Aviv meets Jaffa, is nothing new. The grassy open space along the coast of the Mediterranean, perfect for picnics and other outings, is a choice venue for nightly family break-fast barbecues during the Islamic month of Ramadan.

Nor is it out of the ordinary for Muslim-Arab citizens of Israel to engage in gender separation during prayers, which they did at the event in question—with physical barriers dividing between the men at the front and the women at back.

Two things made this annual religious ceremony at the location in question noteworthy. One is that this year, it included signs calling for a ceasefire, with the slogan: “The innocent people of Gaza are in Jaffa’s heart.” But even that wasn’t novel, judging by the behavior of Israel’s Arab citizens, including residents of Jaffa, during Operation Guardian of the Walls against Hamas in Gaza in 2021.

Far more significant was the apathy to the happening on the part of all the secular leftists who spent years blocking any attempt by Orthodox Jews to separate men and women in public areas. The adage that “it takes one to know one” is particularly apt here, as the chattering classes constantly accuse the right of opposing “freedom,” while being guilty of just that.

After the Knesset elections on Nov. 1, 2022, while Benjamin Netanyahu was in talks to form what would become the current governing coalition, the Religious Zionist and United Torah Judaism parties were demanding that legislation be enacted to enable gender segregation at publicly sponsored events without its being deemed discriminatory. Their aim was to prevent a repeat of a court-ordered cancellation in 2019 of a sold-out concert by renowned singer Motty Steinmetz at the Afula Municipal Park.

The ruling—one of many that backed anti-Orthodox appeals over the years—was spurred by a “Women’s Lobby” petition challenging the separate seating that had been arranged in advance for the mainly haredi audience.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20703/palestinians-heroes

Support for Hamas also coincides with the Biden administration’s and some European nations’ ongoing promotion of creating a Palestinian state right next to Israel. This move would not only open the door for more atrocities against Israelis, but would also put Israel in grave danger because the Palestinian state, even under the supposedly watchful eye of a chaperone, would essentially be ruled by the same murderers and rapists who took part in the October 7 carnage.

These European nations — Ireland, Norway, and Spain — have sent a message to the Palestinians that the only way they can get international recognition for their state is by murdering Jews.

In a similar vein, the Biden administration has communicated to the Palestinians that the October 7 atrocities have heightened their likelihood of creating a terror state ruled by the Iranian regime and its Palestinian proxies, which would be used as a launchpad to murder more Jews and destroy Israel. This is evident in the administration’s continued support for a “two-state solution.”

Most Palestinians know what the Biden administration does not want to know: that the PA leadership cannot be trusted to implement any reforms or combat financial and administrative corruption.

In addition, 54% of Palestinians polled support an “armed struggle” against Israel, an 8-point rise from the previous poll three months ago.

The results of the poll also confirm what a Palestinian state would look like: it will be a terror state funded and armed by Qatar and Iran.

This tenacity is exactly why there is no substitute to destroying Hamas.

[Hamas official Ghazi] Hamad also said that Egypt and Qatar have exerted no pressure on Hamas whatsoever to accept Biden’s proposed ceasefire, and that media reports about threats to expel Hamas leaders from Qatar are false.

Or is it possible that this is why they want Hamas to win? To see the Jews finally get their comeuppance for having had the gall not to accept their role as crushed victims after World War II, but instead to work hard and transform a land of malaria-infested swamps, sand dunes and deserts into a successful modern state?

“Israel should swiftly and decisively eliminate Muslim Brotherhood terrorist forces in Gaza.” — Amjad Taha, political strategist and analyst from the United Arab Emirates, X, June 12, 2024.

https://amgreatness.com/2024/06/14/the-world-does-not-want-israel-to-win-the-war-against-hamas/

The daring Israel Defense Forces (IDF) rescue mission on June 8 that freed four Israelis taken hostage by Hamas during its October 7, 2023 terrorist attack against Israel was a pivotal event that should have shifted global opinion about the war in Israel’s favor by illustrating the shocking malevolence of Hamas and how little it values human life.

Unfortunately, this did not happen.

The IDF freed four hostages who Hamas was holding in apartment buildings, using the residents as human shields to prevent them from being freed. In addition, so-called “innocent” Palestinian civilians were incarcerating hostages in their apartments, with Hamas reportedly paying them to do so.

Abdallah Aljamal, a Gaza-based journalist, held three Israeli hostages captive in his home. Aljamal, who was killed in the IDF raid, wrote many stories slamming Israel for human rights violations in the war and killing Palestinians. He also was a spokesman for Hamas.

Desperate to prevent the hostages from being brought back to Israel by the IDF team, Hamas fighters attacked the team as it left the apartment buildings with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. The IDF team defended itself and Israel was forced to conduct airstrikes to defend the hostage extraction.

Arnon Zmora, an officer of the IDF’s elite Yamam counter-terrorism unit, was shot and critically injured by Hamas terrorists guarding three of the four hostages.

This was a great victory for Israel and demonstrated that it will not abandon its people taken hostage by Hamas terrorists. Hamas holding hostages in crowded civilian areas and its ferocious firefight against the IDF rescuers demonstrated how little Hamas values human life and confirmed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s belief that more Palestinian civilian deaths work to his advantage.

But most of the world saw the IDF raid differently. Israel was criticized for the large number of Palestinian civilian casualties in the raid, even though many were caused by Hamas fighters firing on IDF forces in a civilian area. The mainstream media and Western politicians cited, without question, exaggerated Palestinian casualty figures from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry. U.S. and European media described the raid as a “deadly hostage rescue.” Some Western media outlets tried to downplay the fact that Hamas was engaged in hostage-taking by claiming the hostages had been “released” rather than “freed.”

A CNN commentator asked an Israeli official whether Israel had informed Palestinian civilians of the raid in advance to limit civilian casualties. The official replied that Israel did not. Israel was also criticized for the raid because it might set back a U.S.-led effort to reach a ceasefire.

The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said the IDF raid might have been a war crime. Middle East media outlets were even worse, describing the raid as an Israeli “atrocity.”