RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20395/israel-enemies-judicial-reform

[T]he reports about military reservists threatening not to report for duty created the impression among Iran’s mullahs and their terror proxies that the Israeli security establishment had been seriously undermined and was on the verge of collapse.

“Their [Israel’s] own officials continuously warn that their collapse is nearing. Their president says this, their former prime minister says this, their [military] chief says this and their defense minister says this. They all say it.” — Iranian Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei, April 5, 2023.

Iran and its terror proxies were reportedly happy to see… threats by reserve soldiers and pilots to refrain from participating in military service.

As Netanyahu’s political rivals were busy protesting against him, Israel’s enemies were making preparations to invade Israel. Convinced that Israel had been weakened to the point of being unable to defend itself, Hamas chose October 7 as the date to launch the assault. In the Middle East, weakness invites violence, and when your enemy smells blood, you can bet it will go for your throat.

The controversy over the judicial reform proposed by the government of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last year was what likely encouraged Iran’s terror proxies Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis to attack Israel. The mullahs in Tehran and the three Iran-backed Palestinian, Lebanese and Yemeni terror groups viewed the dispute over the reform as proof of Israel’s perceived weakness, disunity and a sign of its imminent demise.

Israel’s enemies have always shown great interest in political, security, economic and social events in Israel. They closely follow these events and devote huge efforts to analyzing them as part of the “know thy enemy” doctrine.

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/israel-winning-gaza

Anyone who has ever been in combat knows that the enemy is almost always invisible, because to remain alive one must remain behind good cover: The one and only time I saw live enemies walking toward me, I was so astonished that I hesitated before opening fire (ill-trained, they were walking into a blinding sun).

It is the same in urban combat, but much worse because the invisible enemy can be a sniper behind a window—and any one of the countless apartment houses in Gaza has dozens of windows—or he can wait with an RPG at ground level to pop out and launch his rocket, whose short range makes it of little use in open country but is amply sufficient across the width of a street. Mortars, which launch their bombs parabolically in an inverted U, are exceptionally valuable in urban combat because they can attack forces moving up one street from three streets away, beyond the reach of immediate counterfire.

Finally, there are mega-mines: not the standard land mines with five to 10 kilos of explosives placed on the ground or just under, but wired demolition charges with 10 times as much explosive covered over with asphalt, to be exploded when a tank, troop carrier, or truckload of soldiers is above them.

That is why, from the start of Israel’s counteroffensive into Gaza, almost all the media military experts, including colonels and generals festooned with campaign ribbons (though few if any had ever seen actual combat) immediately warned that Israel’s invasion of Gaza could not possibly defeat Hamas, but would certainly result in a horrifying number of Israeli casualties, before resulting in a bloody and strategically pointless stalemate.

Israel has effected massive cost savings while reducing its reliance on U.S. resupply—and taking the steam out of propaganda claims about bombing and artillery massacres.

And that was before it was realized that there were hundreds of miles of tunnels beneath Gaza, from which fighters could emerge from invisibility to attack advancing soldiers from the rear, or to set up instant ambushes in apparently cleared terrain, and through which encircled fighters under attack could safely escape. In the special case of Gaza, moreover, the crowded urban battlefield offers endless opportunities for the easiest of tactics, because contrary to accusations that only expensively educated U.S. college students could possibly believe, Israeli soldiers do not deliberately kill innocent civilians going about their business. Therefore Hamas fighters can be perfect civilians walking alongside women and children right up until the moment they duck into the right doorway to take up prepared weapons and come out shooting

https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/insight/

Staffan Tillander, a retired Swedish diplomat, wrote an assessment of terrorist-stronghold territories published by the Jerusalem Strategic Tribune.

XX is only estimated to have perhaps 4 to 5000 fighters, but it thrives on rifts and conflicts in society … threatening (the people) into obedience and forcing them to supply the group with support and people. It extorts “taxes” from businesses and individuals and kidnaps children and forces them to become fighters. As long as XX controls land in YY, peace and development will remain an uphill battle, with constant setbacks …

If XX teaches us anything, it is the danger posed by an entrenched terrorist group. It is urgent to stop jihadist terrorist groups, wherever they appear, to block their advance and to roll back their control. In YY, they have been able to infiltrate and permeate society and its institutions, use banks and companies to launder money, control trade and harbors, and to prevent peace and state-building efforts.

No, it is not Hamas in Gaza.

Tillander was writing about Al Shabab in Somalia.

But the principle is the principle. It is impossible to create a safe, prosperous civil society when the levers of power are in the hands of terrorists. This is the conclusion Israel has reached—not only regarding Hamas in Gaza but with the Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria.

Yet, American diplomacy is still wedded to the “two-state solution,” suggesting—no, insisting—that there cannot be peace in the Middle East until the Palestinians have an independent state, but without consideration of what happens if you give more power to terror organizations. And the P.A. is no less a terror organization than Hamas.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/rescued-hostages-a-blow-to-bidens-effort-to-thwart-israel/

By carrying out a daring military operation in Rafah that rescued two hostages, Israel sent two important messages to President Biden. One, operations in Rafah are necessary to destroy Hamas. And two, hostages can be secured by military action, and not merely through negotiations that demand Israel abandon its war aims.

As Biden has been cratering in polls and increasingly convinced that he needs to reassure the anti-Israel base of his party, he has taken to lashing out at our ally both privately (by calling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu an obstinate “a**hole”) and publicly by claiming that Israel’s response to the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust has been “over the top.”

What Biden hopes is that he can convince Israel to swallow a tremendously one-sided hostage deal that would involve Israel releasing many times more Hamas prisoners and agreeing to a cease-fire of several months, with the aim of making it permanent. Israel has made significant progress in dismantling Hamas’s grip on Gaza, but the frenzied negotiations are happening as Israel is preparing to take Rafah, the last major stronghold of the terrorist group.

The Biden administration claimed at the beginning of the war that it supported Israel’s goal of destroying Hamas, but now Biden and his team are trying to kneecap Israel before the job is done. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said that an Israeli operation in Rafah would be a “disaster” and “not something we would support.” Biden just yesterday told Netanyahu, according to a White House–supplied readout, that “a military operation in Rafah should not proceed without a credible and executable plan for ensuring the safety of and support for the more than one million people sheltering there.

https://melaniephillips.substack.com/p/monstrous-complicity?utm_campaign=email-post&r=8t06w&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

In a sane universe, the discovery of a Hamas data centre and server farm in a tunnel 700 metres long and 18 metres deep directly underneath the headquarters of the UN Works and Relief Agency in Gaza would be of huge significance.

Ariel Kahana reported in Israel Hayom:

I saw with my own eyes the cables connecting UNRWA’s communication room on the first floor of the building to Hamas’ server room exactly underneath it.

Did Thomas White, UNRWA Gaza director since the summer of 2021, not notice the trucks removing soil for years from the compound he managed? Did he not wonder who the people walking around his headquarters were when he didn’t employ them? Was he not puzzled by the computers, air conditioners, servers, batteries, cement mixers, cables, tiles, steel doors, and even the motorcycles that arrived in his backyard without him ordering them? Did he not notice the fibers that very strangely dangled from his communication room to an unknown destination underground? Did he never once have a doubt that made him think to report to his superiors at the UN?…

The UNRWA headquarters above ground and Hamas’ “brain” below ground are a physical reality connected by thick cables, and not just as a metaphor…After we again sank into the mud, crawled through the tunnel, walked hunched over for hundreds of meters, and came out into Gaza’s trembling skies, the IDF APCs brought us to UNRWA’s headquarters. There, among offices, schools, kindergartens, and SpongeBob drawings, the commander of 401st Brigade, Col. Benny Aharon, shows us the agency’s own server room.

“We’re in UNRWA’s server room. Coincidentally — I say this cynically — it’s located right above the server room you found underground,” he says. “Notice that all the cables are ripped and disconnected, they left almost nothing, only what they managed to cut off. We’re lucky a few cables remained that they didn’t manage to cut off some of the cables that going down below. They took out all the DVRs and computers from here. Only someone who has something to hide does something like this. What kind of international humanitarian organisation that only has good intentions behaves this way?”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20383/voices-from-gaza

One can understand why Al-Jazeera and Arab media journalists are so anti-Israel that they do not want to provide a platform to any Palestinian to criticize Hamas. Yet, one cannot understand why the foreign media is turning a blind eye to the critical voices coming out from the Gaza Strip and Palestinians and Arabs living outside the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave.

Why? These journalists are busy searching for stories that reflect badly only on Israel.

“Anyone who questioned Hamas’s motives or objectives has been painted as a cowardly collaborator. To demand better living conditions or more political liberties was akin to treason…. Others are reluctant to speak out against Hamas for fear of seeming disloyal or pro-Israel. If people outside of Gaza find it difficult to question the forced conformity, imagine how much more challenging it is for many inside the coastal enclave.” — Ahmed Fouad Al-Khatib, X (Twitter), January 6, 2024.

“You’re either going to govern and develop the place, or you’re going to be a resistance group, but you can’t do both at the same time…. Hamas could have made different choices that would have opened new political pathways for Palestinian unity and the development of Gaza. Instead, they chose to hold their people hostage and divert materials and resources into a futile armed resistance project that has set Palestinians back by decades.” — Ahmed Fouad Al-Khatib, X, February 4, 2024.

“Those who don’t have to live with the consequences of Hamas’s “resistance” are understandably the group’s most fervent supporters and excusers (weirdly especially in London). Leave it to lousy beneficiaries of Western privilege to defend a terror group that oppresses its own people and uses them as cannon fodder in its suicidal adventures… Never forget that over 30,000 Gazans would still be alive today if Hamas kept its fighters at home on October 7. The pro-Palestine movement deserves better ‘allies’ and ‘supporters’ than overt & covert Hamas enthusiasts.” — Ahmed Fouad Al-Khatib, X, February 2, 2024.

“Anti-Hamas = Zionist. Call for coexistence = Zionist. Condemn Hamas = Zionist. Both sides’ lives matter = Zionist. Sympathize with Israeli hostages = Zionist. How many definitions are there for Zionist? …. I forgot the most important one: Peace supporter = Zionist.” — Hamza, X, February 5, 2024.

[Palestinian writer Majdi Abd Al-Wahhab] called on the international community and the Arab world to act to eliminate all the Palestinian organizations and stop their military and civilian activity, “so that the Palestinians will be rid of them and their harm and can start blazing a new, straight path for themselves, far from destruction, killing and devastation.”

“The destruction caused by Hamas to Gaza will not end even if Israel’s war on Gaza does stop. The destruction will continue, as is evident from the ‘glorious’ history of our [Palestinian] organizations.” — Majdi Abd Al-Wahhab, Elaph, January 9, 2024.

http://www.thecommentator.com/article/5114/a_thank_you_letter_from_hamas_to_the_media

You in the mainstream media have been amazing in your support for Hamas, and we’re so grateful to you. This really helps us in spreading anti-Semitism, and starting new rounds of terror at will. Blessings be upon you, love from Hamas

Dear Members of the Mainstream Media,

You’ve been awesome! Everyone knows that we start unwinnable wars with Israel because the real victory happens when you predictably side with us each time. And you’ve been so supportive of our strategy that we really want to acknowledge your helpfulness. In particular, we thank you for:

–Focusing so much more on our suffering than anyone else’s. Nigerians must die in far greater numbers before you take notice, so we’re glad that you value our lives so much more.

-Minimizing your coverage, if any, of our attacks that led up to Israel’s military response and generally providing so little context that outsiders think that Israelis kill Palestinians just for fun. We’re especially grateful to the French media for this.

Their distortions of the conflict are so one-sided that they incite Muslims across France to attack Jews and synagogues, and that is welcomed by our anti-Semitic worldview (although, unfortunately, such attacks remind everyone why Jews need a state).

-Emphasizing our civilian death toll without explaining that (1) our casualty reports are hasty and inflated, and (2) we maximize that total by using Palestinians to shield our weapons and by urging them to stay in the very areas that the IDF — in its annoying effort to minimize our civilian deaths — warns Gazans to evacuate.

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

B.D.S.? Indeed! Israel is “Beneficent. Diverse. Special.” Can you name another small country besieged by geography and enemies, libels and bias. and barbaric attacks, that contributes technology, science and medicine that brings humanitarian relief from epidemics, famine and natural disasters to the entire globe? Every week Michael Ordman proves the foregoing. rsk

POSITIVE NEWS DURING A WAR
 
Cowboys to the rescue. (TY UWI & ILTV News) Ruthie’s horse farm in Binyamin, home to many troubled teens, faced closure when its male workers were called up. Then the Christian cowboys of Montana came to walk the horses, clean and maintain the farm. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0HRRrTdkow
 
If it could only talk. IDF troops in Gaza have rescued many abandoned pet dogs and cats, at least one parrot and three horses. One dog was a purebred Malinois, a.k.a. Belgian sheepdog. It responded to commands in Hebrew, which probably meant it (like many of the rescued animals) was looted on Oct 7.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-troops-rescue-of-animals-in-gaza-fuels-pro-palestinian-looting-charges/
 
Fauda star released from hospital. (TY Yanky) Actor and singer Idan Amedi, star of Israel’s Fauda TV series, was released from hospital after 8 weeks. Although badly burned in Gaza, he now hopes to be in Fauda season 5. He said, “The Israeli people are the strongest in the world. When we are united, we are invincible.”
https://www.timesofisrael.com/no-one-recognized-me-says-fauda-actor-idan-amedi-of-injury-from-gaza-blast/
 
20% of IDF reserves are hi-tech workers. Although hi-tech workers constitute only 10% of Israel’s employees, they make up 20% of the IDF’s reserve forces.  Interesting, but not sure what to make of that!
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/hku9ilrq6
 
No place like home. (TY Yanky) After 10 weeks in limbo in an Eilat hotel, over 400 Kibbutz Re’im members have moved into two towers in Tel Aviv. A Tel Aviv Municipality banner welcomed relocated Kibbutz Re’im residents with this message: “There is no place like home, but in the meantime, feel at home.”
https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-oct-7-entire-kibbutz-temporarily-resettles-in-two-newly-built-tel-aviv-towers/
 
His prayers were answered. IDF Sgt. Major Malchiel ben Yosef saved his comrades from a Hamas terrorist who emerged from a Gaza tunnel behind them with an RPG launcher. Malchiel turned towards Jerusalem to pray the afternoon service and spotted the terrorist. He then alerted his comrades who dealt with the threat.
https://www.jns.org/prayer-of-idf-soldier-saves-fellow-fighters/
 
 
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Adapting animal antibodies for humans. (TY UWI & JNS) Researchers at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have developed an algorithm to help identify which antibodies, that work on animals, can be adapted for human use. Their CUMAb, algorithm generates 20,000 variants of a mouse antibody and predicts which are most stable.
https://tps.co.il/articles/breaking-barriers-israeli-algorithm-offers-swift-and-cost-effective-antibody-humanization/ 
 
Why some children stop breathing. Researchers at Ben Gurion University and Tel Aviv University have discovered the impact of a genetic defect that causes Congenital central hypoventilation syndrome (CCHS) in children. They hope that their findings will lead to a cure to a dangerous form of sleep apnea.
https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-785213  https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.1038/s44318-023-00018-9
 
Ultrasound surgery just got more focused. (TY OurCrowd) Israel’s Insightec has announced Exablate Prime – the next generation of MR-guided focused ultrasound with many new features for incisionless neurosurgery. It comes as the US military and the Dutch government have approved Insightec for essential tremor therapy.
https://www.prnewswire.com/il/news-releases/insightec-announces-exablate-prime-the-next-generation-of-mr-guided-focused-ultrasound-855754708.html
 
Netanya hospital opens pediatric playroom. Netanya’s Laniado Hospital has opened a brand-new playroom, courtesy of Toys for Simcha, based in Brooklyn. Happy Kids Heal Faster,” said Rabbi J.J. Hecht II, president of Toys for Simcha. Hundreds of the 8,000 evacuees living in Netanya have been treated at Laniado.
https://www.jns.org/netanya-hospital-opens-pediatric-playroom-in-wake-of-oct-7/
 
Overcoming trauma. As a boy, Yechial witnessed a bus explode, which motivated him to become a volunteer United Hatzalah EMT. He has helped at many tragedies: Miron, Ukraine, Hurricane Ian, Turkey, Morocco, and Oct 7. One of the last lives he saved was a dog. He now trains therapy dogs, to help others overcome trauma.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qve42g2F0v4
https://www.instagram.com/unitedhatzalahofisrael/reel/C2K78jxtVLt/
 
The medical specialists who answered the call. Israel’s Health Ministry and Nefesh B’Nefesh arranged for hundreds of physicians to fly to Israel to help those in need following Oct. 7. Many world-renowned specialists left their lucrative jobs, families, and children behind to come to Israel and boost the medical system.
https://www.israelhayom.com/2023/12/21/meet-the-specialists-who-left-everything-behind-to-volunteer-in-israel/
 
Restoring sight to wounded IDF soldiers. Eye specialist Dr Sid Shechet of Baltimore’s Elman Retina Group is volunteering for two weeks at the Soroka Medical Center in Beer Sheva.  He has been operating non-stop for more than twelve hours daily, helping to restore vision to severely wounded soldiers and anyone else in need.
https://baltimorejewishlife.com/news/news-detail.php?SECTION_ID=1&ARTICLE_ID=169946
https://www.elmanretina.com/about-us/meet-the-doctor/
 
Partnering for mental health therapy. Israel’s Sheba Medical Center has partnered with Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) to expand the mental health support provided to trauma-suffering war victims. FIDF Funds will help train new Shaba therapists to work in IDF veterans’ rehabilitation centers across the country.
https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/technology-science/1706964944-israel-sheba-announces-partnership-with-fidf-for-mental-health-of-war-victims
 
 
ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL
 
Jewish Disabilities Month. JNF-USA is planning a series of events to mark Jewish Disabilities Awareness, Acceptance, and Inclusion Month (JDAAIM) and to celebrate their longstanding efforts to improve Israel for residents and visitors with disabilities. Feb donations to support this cause will be matched up to $1.25 million.
https://www.jnf.org/menu-3/press-releases/press-release-stories/february-3–2024
 
A campus for ultra-orthodox students. A consortium led by Ben-Gurion University and several academic colleges is to create a separate ultra-Orthodox campus in the South. A growing number of haredim want to pursue a higher education, but not compromise their beliefs and religious observance.
https://americansforbgu.org/bgu-open-orthodox-campus/  https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-760508
 
Empowering Ethiopian Israelis at Rambam. Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa and Boston-Haifa Connection have launched a 5-month course to educate 20 of its Ethiopian Israeli employees in Hebrew literacy and computer skills. The employees predominantly work in the Housekeeping and Custodian Department.
https://israfan.com/2024/02/08/bridging-cultures-a-leap-forward-for-ethiopian-israelis-at-rambam/
 
Prize-winning, women-led startups. The competition for female-led Israeli startups at an event organized by Yazamiyot (see below) was won by anydish (AI nutrition – see here previously). In 2nd place was Aisap (AI ultrasound heart monitoring – see here previously) and in 3rd was Kinoko (funghi – see here previously).
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/kmvn5pprn
 
It’s all in the Family. In a world that seems to devalue the family unit, Family Day (Yom HaMishpacha) in Israel on Feb 9 is a day to honor the family unit and its centrality to our lives. Israel has 2.25 million families with about half having two parents and at least one child under the age of 17.
https://www.jns.org/2-25-million-families-in-israel-average-of-3-69-members-each/
 
See Israel through the eyes of the IDF. If you, your children, or grandchildren live in the USA, are aged 21-39 and want to gain a deep understanding of IDF soldiers’ mission in the current war, register for the Friends of the IDF’s National Young Leadership Mission to Israel from May 24 to May 30, 2024.
https://www.fidf.org/national-young-leadership-mission-to-israel/
 
Visitors. (TY Nevet) Friendly visitors to Israel in Jan included Chechia President Petr Pavel, former US Vice President Mike Pence, 9 UN envoys, 22 EU lawmakers, 40 US JCC leaders, 50 Hadassah leaders, Palantir directors, US student leaders, Christian Zionists, Indian influencers, Iran’s opposition leader, and many more.
https://www.broaderview.org/visitors/
 
50,000 volunteers mobilized. Last week’s article about Lev Echad (One Heart – see here) supporting wounded IDF soldiers didn’t give the US charity enough credit. Since Oct 7, some 50,000 volunteers have run Israeli mental health hotlines; supported displaced Israeli families and reservists; distributed food, and much more.
https://www.israel21c.org/50000-volunteers-give-from-their-hearts-through-one-heart/

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20386/red-cross-hates-jews

Even now, after an agreement was brokered between Israel and Hamas by Qatar to deliver medication to the hostages in Gaza, via France to Qatar and then through Egypt, the ICRC refuses to touch the medicines and has said that it wants nothing to do with them.

“We know that the medications effectively entered into Gaza. The modalities of their transfer to the hostages were dealt with under Qatar’s mediation. We now expect to receive verifiable proof that the medications have reached their beneficiaries.” — Unnamed French official, Times of Israel, February 6, 2024.

On social media, the ICRC has made no secret of its anti-Israel bias and its complete lack of care for the Israeli hostages held by Hamas. “77% [of the tweets] were focused on criticizing Israel, expressly or by implication. Only 7% of the tweets criticized Hamas… No statement was made speaking directly about the massacre of October 7th… it is evident that the ICRC has dedicated large amounts of resources to interviewing doctors and victims in Gaza…. Comparatively little to no attention was paid to Israeli victims.” — UN Watch, December 11, 2023.

As if to confirm the ICRC’s coverup for Hamas, the newly appointed head of the ICRC is Pierre Krähenbühl, who was the head of UNRWA, the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees from 2014 until 2019, when he was forced to resign after a damning internal ethics probe. UNRWA is effectively embedded with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

This is not the first time the ICRC ignored the plight of Jewish victims. During the Holocaust, the ICRC did nothing to help any of the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis and instead wrote a “favorable report of the good treatment of Jews in German camps.”

https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/can-israel-win-the-war-against-terroris

The problem is that many Israeli leaders not only believe that Israel cannot win its war against terrorism, but that Israel should not win – that Palestinians deserve a state, regardless of who will be in charge – because this would relieve Israel of moral and legal dilemmas, e.g. “the occupation.”

Most (if not all) countries go to war to win; Israel, however, is different. First, neither Israel nor the PLO conceives of the conflict as a war, since they have mutual ongoing political, security, and economic interests; terrorism, therefore, is seen as part of an ongoing relationship. Until Oct 7, Israeli leaders assumed that this was also true for Hamas.

This leads to the second reason: Israel was not fighting to destroy terrorism, but to prevent attacks, neutralize or arrest terrorists, and then, temporarily, return to a “status quo.” That’s why warnings about what Hamas was doing were ignored by Israel’s political, military, and security leaders; they duped themselves.

Hope-doped, drugged by self-assurance, and seeking to appease the Obama/Biden administrations, the EU, the UN, and the international community, they accepted “the two-state solution” (2SS). They failed to understand that the conflict is not over territory, but is – as Hamas proclaims – a religious war to eliminate Israel. That explains why Palestinian leaders consistently reject offers of statehood in return for recognizing Israel’s right to exist, and why they continue to launch terrorist attacks against Jews. They are engaged in a “holy war” against Jews and Zionists as “invaders” and “occupiers of Palestine” – all of it. That is a call for genocide.