Tunnel Vision.

 In a video prepared mainly for foreign news media outlets, IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari gave a tour of the claustrophobic underground passageway in Rafah's Tel Sultan neighbourhood. The tunnel where the murdered Israeli hostages were kept. The place was littered with bottles of urine, women's clothes, and large blood stains on the ground, where the hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Almog Sarusi, Carmel Gat and Alex Lobanov were held and executed at the end of last month. The army first presented the video to the families and they agreed to show it to the public as well. In the video, one sees IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari going down into the narrow, low tunnel, unable to stand upright. describing the conditions under which the hostages were held there.  

Another IDF spokesman said it did not have any specific or real-time intelligence on the six hostages being held there in the weeks before they were murdered, but had indications that the hostages could be in the general area they were searching, and therefore had operated carefully above ground and even more so below the surface in the tunnels. Apparently, after spotting Israeli forces approaching the area, the Hamas terrorists guarding the six hostages decided to execute them.

Hagari also aired a Hebrew version of the same video aimed at reaching Israeli viewers. “They were held here in this tunnel in horrific conditions, where there is no air to breathe, where you cannot stand upright. They survived, but they were murdered by Hamas terrorists. There are still hostages, 101, some of them are alive in the same conditions in tunnels like this in Gaza.” He said.

I’ve noticed that on previous occasions when interviewed, Hagari was meticulously careful not to add personal comments. Nevertheless, he intimated that time was running out for the rest of the hostages still alive. Commentators, Israeli affairs analysts and run-of-the-mill observers like myself noticed that Daniel Hagari was making a clear, critical point. “Close the deal now!” Prime Minister Netanyahu’s obstinate insistence on commanding the Philadelphi Corridor is tantamount to prolonging the war in Gaza and adversely affecting IDF operations in the West Bank and the northern front against Hezbollah in Lebanon. One analyst called it “Tunnel Vision.”

Netanyahu has had a bad week!

“The Bibi Files”, a new documentary by filmmakers Alexis Bloom and Alex Gibney, which features never-before-seen footage of Israeli police interrogating Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, his family and his inner circle on corruption allegations. The documentary was screened as a work-in-progress at the 2024 Toronto Film Festival on Monday, hours after a Jerusalem court rejected a petition by Netanyahu to block the screening.

The documentary, which shows leaked interrogation footage of the Israeli prime minister, made its debut at the festival.

Israeli courts rejected Netanyahu’s request before the film – in which he is seen furiously denying allegations of bribery and corruption – was unveiled to a tense and vocal audience, many of whom were carrying signs reading “Bring Them Home” and “Deal Now”, referring to the hostages held in Gaza.

The film, directed by Alexis Bloom and produced by Alex Gibney, builds a rigorous and damning case, posing an argument close observers may already be familiar with: Netanyahu is prolonging the devastating war in Gaza to avoid possible prison time stemming from corruption charges. A humanitarian crisis flouting international law is all about his self-preservation.

According to the documentary – which Bloom began working on before October 7, when a source provided Gibney with the leaked videos – Netanyahu’s lawyer filed a motion to delay the trial currently scheduled for December. The lawyer cites the ongoing war as the reason.

“I’ve never seen the depth of moral corruption as I’ve seen in this man,” Gibney, the director of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, told the audience following the screening. A member of what appeared to be a largely pro-Israel audience policed Gibney’s language, interrupting the producer to clarify that Netanyahu had not yet been found guilty. The attempts at seizing control of the narrative, both on screen and off, didn’t end there.

The interrogation videos shown in the film were recorded by police between 2016 and 2018 before they formally brought charges of corruption against Netanyahu. The footage includes the prime minister addressing allegations that he and his wife accepted expensive champagne, Cuban cigars and jewellery from the Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan. Netanyahu is heard minimizing the champagne and cigars as simply gifts from a friend, while denying knowledge of the jewellery.

Several witnesses who worked for Milchan and Netanyahu are also shown speaking to police. They paint a picture of regular gifts expected by Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, in exchange for favours. One such favour includes a marginal tax break extension that benefited Milchan. Netanyahu argues his unusual interference regarding the tax break was for the good of the state, not Milchan. Meanwhile, the LA Confidential producer corroborated much of the witness testimony, though, in one excerpt, he gently asks police not to use the word “bribery” because it would make him look bad.

Netanyahu is also seen vehemently denying allegations that he signed off on regulations favouring the Israeli media mogul Shaul Elovitch. The prime minister repeatedly and dramatically calls one of his top aides, Nir Hefetz, a liar for saying so. Other witnesses argue Elovitch paid back the alleged generosity by allowing Netanyahu to directly influence coverage of his family on the popular website Walla.

The incriminating evidence in the interrogation videos has already been leaked and reported on by Israeli media. But the videos will never be shown to the public (at least legally) in Israel. According to Gibney, Israeli law grants privacy to subjects who have been photographed in official proceedings, which would make publication of the footage illegal. “It’s a law peculiar to Israel [that] doesn’t affect the rest of the world,” Gibney said.

He explained that they brought The Bibi Files to Toronto, as a work-in-progress, because it urgently needed to be seen while the death toll in Gaza continues to rise. But also because they are seeking distribution partners at the festival’s market, hoping to get the film released as quickly as possible for the world to see.

Though the documentary doesn’t reveal new information, Gibney explains that for an audience familiar with Netanyahu’s carefully stage-managed speeches, watching his agitation under interrogation, where his performance begins to crack, is illuminating. At various points when police officers confront him with incriminating testimony from his peers, Netanyahu raises fists and repeatedly slams his hand against his desk as if the banging will silence the accusations.

“Even in the interrogation videos, you see performances,” says Gibney. “But you see performances that are not as finely tuned; that are performed for an audience of three people; that he doesn’t think is going to get out of the room.”

The Bibi Files contextualizes the interrogation videos with a portrait of Netanyahu, whose career is built on stoking fear and promising security, and whose personal life is largely in service of his wife Sara’s turbulent moods and expensive lifestyle. Sara Netanyahu’s erratic testimonies and outbursts during testimony are also included in the footage.

Insiders like the Israeli journalist Raviv Drucker, former Shin Bet head Ami Ayalon, a childhood friend and more, are on hand as talking heads. They connect the dots and reveal the long-running pattern of Netanyahu serving his own interests while clinging to power – from deliberate ploys to sabotage an alliance between the West Bank and Gaza by enabling Hamas, to his alliance with the violent far right and attempted overhaul of the supreme court to save himself from prosecution.

Mittal Balmes Cohen of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem stated, "We won't see a substantial change in public opinion in Israel, but in the international arena it has great significance."

I’ll conclude with a personal titbit. On the 11th of September our inner family circle quietly celebrated my 90th birthday. Later this month we plan to have a much larger celebration.

 

Take care.

Beni,   12th of September, 2024.

 

The Philadelphi Corridor.

“Through the street outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s house passed a slow procession of empty coffins - carried by protesters in a sea of Israeli flags. Since six Israeli hostages were found dead in a Gaza tunnel last weekend, the weight of the war there has hung heavier on Israel’s leader.” Said a reporter for the BBC. The hostages were executed by their Hamas guards shortly before IDF troops discovered their bodies. “I think the fact that they were alive and murdered right before they could have been saved – that broke it,” said one of the protestors in Tel Aviv. “That’s a breaking point for a lot of people –they realise that sitting at home is not going to do anything.” Tens of thousands of people took to the streets again on Monday, after mass demonstrations flooded the streets a day earlier. Many want to see this moment as a turning point, but Prime Minister Netanyahu has been here before. He’s lived through months of these street protests – and years of similar ones. Protected by a parliamentary majority, his strategy has largely been to ignore their demands. Maybe something has changed. For the second time in 48 hours, Netanyahu held a press conference to argue his uncompromising position on the Philadelphi corridor in Gaza, the major sticking point to a ceasefire. On Monday he addressed Israeli media, on Wednesday night it was international journalists. That he has held these two events in as many days, after months of no press conferences, can only be explained by the pressure he is under, domestically and from foreign leaders. Both press conferences were defiant and uncompromising - there was little hope for the families of hostages desperate for a deal and a reunion with their loved ones. Netanyahu's argument is that Hamas will try to rearm and potentially smuggle hostages out of Gaza if his forces leave the southern corridor. He believes, maybe rightly, that if they left then international pressure would prevent them returning. On the one hand Netanyahu insists Israel doesn't want to remain in Gaza forever, but on the other hand he says there is no alternative force that could or would keep security on the border. Netanyahu stands almost alone right now, under extreme pressure from his own people and The White House and surrounded by a shrinking cohort of trusted advisers. He is convinced he is acting for the future of Israel but he hasn't convinced even some of his closest allies. Netanyahu is fighting to stay in Gaza, fighting to stay in power and fighting to secure his legacy, badly damaged after the security failures of October 7 and the backlash for failing to get the hostages out. Many other leaders would have resigned long before now, and this might be the fight of Netanyahu's political life, but you wouldn't bet against him winning it. In another interview he said, “It’s unlikely that a realistic security plan exists that would prevent the smuggling of weapons under that critical buffer zone between Egypt and Gaza. Bring me anyone who will actually show us, not on paper, not in words, but on the ground, day after day, week after week, month after month, that they can actually prevent the recurrence of weapons smuggling. If such a plan exists, we’re open to considering it. But I don’t see that happening… and until that happens, we’re there, with the IDF protecting the Philadelphi Corridor. “When we want to come back [to Philadelphi] we’ll pay an exorbitant price in many fields,” including the loss of soldiers’ lives in retaking the Corridor, Netanyahu told reporters in Jerusalem, “We’re in now, [if] we leave, we won’t [be able to] come back. You know it. Everybody here knows it. Everybody in here knows what pressure will be put on us so that we don’t come back, what price we’ll have to pay if we do want to come back, it’s just not going to happen,” Netanyahu stated. Many well qualified military analysts, more familiar with the Philadelphi Corridor than Netanyahu is, claim that it can, if need be, retaken quickly without loss of life. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets again on Monday, after mass demonstrations flooded Tel Aviv last night. Many want to see this moment as a turning point, but Prime Minister Netanyahu has been here before. He’s lived through months of these street protests – and years of similar ones. Protected by a parliamentary majority, his strategy has largely been to ignore their demands. In a live press conference on Monday night, Netanyahu defied anyone to demand more concessions from Israel in its negotiations over a hostage and ceasefire deal, brokered by the US. "These murderers executed six of our hostages; they shot them in the back of the head,” he said. “And now, after this, we’re asked to show seriousness? We’re asked to make concessions?” The message that would send to Hamas, he said, would be: “kill more hostages [and] you’ll get more concessions.” A key demand of Hamas is that Israel withdraws all its forces from the Philadelphi Corridor. Israel’s security chiefs, including the defence minister, Yoav Gallant, have been widely reported in local media as supporting alternatives to keeping troops on the ground. Yoav Gallant has publicly pressed the cabinet to back a proposed compromise. The most dangerous moment of Israel’s previous mass protests, sparked by Netanyahu’s judicial reform plans, was when he tried to sack Gallant – and was then forced to reinstate him. If he tried that again, says political analyst Tamar Hermann of Israel’s Democracy Institute, that could be the real turning point for protests here. The threat to him from demonstrators now, she says, is “zero”. Most are left-leaning critics whose opposition to the prime minister runs far deeper than the hostage crisis in Gaza. “Netanyahu knows better than I do,” she said, “the best thing is to let it play as a safety valve – let people say, ‘we hate you, you are a murderer’.” Prime Minister Netanyahu, protected by his parliamentary majority, seems to believe he can ride out the demands for a deal being made from the street, at least for now. But the demands from his own defence minister, from the US president, could prove harder to ignore. I certainly hope so. Have a good weekend. Beni, 5th of September, 2024. A

The Bedouin.

Two weeks before IDF troops rescued Farhan al-Qadi from the Gaza tunnels in which he had been kept for the majority of his ten-and-a-half-month captivity, the Hamas terrorists tasked with guarding him fled leaving him to fend for himself. According to news media reports, al-Qadi’s captors abandoned him in an underground room with nothing but some bread to eat. It appears that they heard the IDF’s Combat Engineering Corps pneumatic drills working nearby. Before leaving, the Hamas terrorists rigged the surrounding tunnels with explosives, to ensure that he would not make it out alive, should he try to escape. When IDF troops entered the tunnels days later, al-Qadi was asked to identify himself. “Don’t shoot! I’m Farhan,” he answered. When “I heard Hebrew outside the door, I couldn’t believe it, couldn’t believe it,” he told President Isaac Herzog in a phone call soon after his rescue on Tuesday. According to the Kan public broadcaster, he was able to inform the IDF which parts of the surrounding tunnel system were booby-trapped. Al-Qadi was abducted on October 7 from Kibbutz Magen, near the Gaza border, where he worked as a security guard at a packaging plant. The 52-year-old Bedouin father of 11 recounted that he was kept in complete darkness in the tunnels for most of his 326 days in captivity. At the start of his captivity, al-Qadi said he was held in an apartment above ground with several other hostages, but he was soon moved below ground. “After about two months, the terrorists moved me to a tunnel,” he was quoted by Israel TV Channel 12 as having said. “I was alone there, with only the terrorists around me. I didn’t know the difference between night and day.” “The terrorists were masked, and gave me food, mostly slices of bread — there was very little food,” he said. Qaid Farhad Alkadi, 52, is one of Israel’s roughly 300,000 Bedouin Arabs, a poor and traditionally nomadic minority that has a complicated relationship with the government and the courts. While they are Israeli citizens and some serve in the army, about a third of them, including Alkadi, live in villages the government considers illegal and wants to demolish. Since November, about 70% of Khirbet Karkur residents have been told the government plans to raze their homes because they were built without permits in a “protected forest” not zoned for housing. Alkadi’s family hasn’t received a notice, but the looming mass displacement of this close-knit community has cast a pall on what has otherwise been a joyous 24 hours. Unrecognized villages are not connected to state water, sewage, or electricity infrastructure, and the roads to many, including Khirbet Karkur, are dusty and potholed. Khirbet Karkur is nestled in the shadow of a large garbage dump, and the smell of rotting garbage drifts over the squat corrugated metal homes. Piles of construction debris and trash ring the small cluster of dwellings. Israel’s Supreme Court has previously deemed many of the unrecognized Bedouin villages illegal, and the government has said they are trying to bring order to a lawless area and give a better quality of life to the impoverished minority. For decades, Israel has been trying to convince scattered, off-the-grid Bedouin villagers that it is in their interest to move into government-designated Bedouin townships, where the government can provide them with water, electricity and schools. Muhammad Abu Tailakh, the head of Khirbet Karkur’s local council is also a public health lecturer at Ben Gurion University in nearby Be’er Sheva. Most of the Negev Bedouin tribes migrated to the Negev from the Arabian Desert, Transjordan, Egypt, and the Sinai from the 18th century onwards. Traditional Bedouin lifestyle began to change after the French invasion of Egypt in 1798. The rise of the puritanical Wahhabi sect forced them to reduce their raiding of caravans. Instead, the Bedouin acquired a monopoly on guiding pilgrim caravans to Mecca, as well as selling them provisions. The opening of the Suez Canal reduced the dependence on desert caravans and attracted the Bedouin to newly formed settlements that sprung up along the Canal. Bedouin settling in permanent communities began under Ottoman rule following the need to establish law and order in the Negev; the Ottoman Empire viewed the Bedouins as a threat to the state's control. In 1858, a new Ottoman Land Law was issued that offered the legal grounds for the displacement of the Bedouin. Few Bedouin opted to register their lands, due to lack of enforcement by the Ottomans, illiteracy, refusal to pay taxes and lack of written documentation of ownership. The Negev Bedouin are Arabs who originally had a nomadic lifestyle rearing livestock in the deserts of southern Israel. The community is traditional and conservative, with a well-defined value system that directs and monitors behaviour and interpersonal relations. The Negev Bedouin tribes have been divided into three classes, according to their origin: descendants of ancient Arabian nomads, descendants of some Sinai Bedouin tribes, and Palestinian peasants (Fellaheen) who came from cultivated areas. Contrary to the image of the Bedouin as fierce stateless nomads roving the entire region, by the turn of the 20th century, much of the Bedouin population in Palestine was settled, semi-nomadic, and engaged in agriculture according to an intricate system of land ownership, grazing rights, and water access. Today, many Bedouin call themselves 'Negev Arabs' rather than 'Bedouin', explaining that 'Bedouin' identity is intimately tied in with a pastoral nomadic way of life – a way of life they say is over. Although the Bedouin in Israel continue to be perceived as nomads, today almost all of them are settled in permanent communities. Fast forward to 1963 when IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan was in favour of transferring the Bedouin to the centre of the country in order to eliminate land claims and create a cadre of urban labourers: "We should transform the Bedouin into an urban proletariat—in industry, services, construction, and agriculture. 88% of the Israeli population are not farmers, let the Bedouin be like them. Indeed, this will be a radical move which means that the Bedouin would not live on his land with his herds, but would become an urban person who comes home in the afternoon and puts his slippers on. His children will get used to a father who wears pants, without a dagger, and who does not pick out their nits in public. They will go to school, their hair combed and parted. This will be a revolution, but it can be achieved in two generations. Without coercion but with governmental direction ... this phenomenon of the Bedouins will disappear." Ben-Gurion supported this idea, but the Bedouin strongly opposed it. Later, the proposal was withdrawn. Today they are only partially integrated with problems yet to be solved. Take care. Beni, 29th of August, 2024.

Cemeteries.

 

An editorial in yesterday’s edition of the Jerusalem Post stated unequivocally that Hamas's intransigence is preventing the war in Gaza from ending.

“It’s not Israel that is holding up a deal that would bring some of the hostages back home; it’s Hamas.”

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken made a determined effort to draw Hamas fully into the latest round of negotiations, “It’s now incumbent on Hamas to do the same [as Israel]. And then the parties, with the help of the mediators the United States, Egypt and Qatar, have to come together and complete the process of reaching clear understandings about how they’ll implement commitments that they’ve made under this agreement,” Blinken said.

Details of the bridging agreement that have been leaked in various media reports indicated that Israel has gone as far as it can in its insistence on maintaining a presence in the two critical Gaza security corridors of Philadelphi and Netzarim.

US President Joe Biden accused Hamas of “backing away” from the plan during his speech Monday night at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

The Jerusalem Post editorial summed up saying. “We thank them for standing with Israel and for confirming over the last 24 hours that it’s not Israel that is holding up a deal that would bring some of the hostages back home; it’s Hamas.”

 A margin note “The Jerusalem Post professes to be in the Israeli political centre, yet it is widely considered to be on the political right.”

CNN reported from Doha, Qatar that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that despite reported comments from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel has agreed to withdrawals of IDF forces from Gaza that are laid out in the recent mediators’ proposal to get closer to a ceasefire agreement with Hamas.

“The agreement is very clear on the schedule and the locations of IDF withdrawals from Gaza, and Israel has agreed to that,” said Blinken in remarks to reporters before departing Qatar.

Blinken was responding to Israeli media reports that Netanyahu told a group of families of terror victims and hostages that he conveyed to Blinken that Israel will not leave the Philadelphi corridor along the Egypt-Gaza border and the Netzarim corridor, which bisects Gaza, “regardless of the pressure to do so.” They are “strategic military and political assets,” Netanyahu added, according to the reports.

Margin note: Netanyahu is not averse to “talking out of both sides of his mouth.”

Blinken said that Netanyahu told him directly in their meeting that Israel agreed to “the bridging proposal and thus the detailed plan” for withdrawal.

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Defence minister Yoav Galant and other Likud Knesset members tend to agree with Blinken and remain at odds with the prime minister.

It’s appropriate at this juncture to conclude by adding something else unearthed in Gaza.

Earlier this week, the BBC and other British news outlets reported that Israeli forces operating in Gaza discovered a seven-page document dated October 5, 2022.

The document outlined Hamas’s intention to pressure the UK government into reversing its stance on Jerusalem following then-Prime Minister Liz Truss's announcement to relocate the British embassy from Tel Aviv.

The planned coercive measures threatened in the document include exhuming the remains of British soldiers buried in Gaza.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) has maintained a cemetery in Gaza for over a century, containing the remains of more than 3,000 Commonwealth troops from the World Wars. Many of these soldiers died in 1917, fighting the Ottomans during a conflict that led to British rule in Palestine.

Other demands included paying "lease fees" for the cemetery land dating back to 1917. The document warns that if the UK does not comply, the bodies would be removed and held "hostage."

Though predating the current war, the threat outlined in the document is definitely real.

There’s another CWGC cemetery a crow’s fly away in Be’er- Sheva.

1,241 Commonwealth soldiers (973 British, 173 Australian, 31 New Zealanders and 1 Indian) are buried there. They fought and died in the battles over Gaza and Be'er-Sheva during World War I. During the battle a force numbering 40,000 infantrymen attacked Be’er Sheva capturing Turkish trenches west of the town. In the meanwhile, approximately 800 mounted forces (after a long flanking movement) fought east of the town and after a whole day of fighting the Australian Light Horse charged the Turkish defences just before sunset and liberated Be'er-Sheva.

When I visited the cemetery many years ago, I looked for and found the grave of Seymour van den Bergh, an English Jew who fell in battle five days before the liberation of Be'er-Sheva.

While paging down through the account of the two cemeteries I recalled something I had written about a remarkable discovery in an industrial site near Acco (Acre). Work clearing the site was impeded by a small burial plot containing four graves. The plot was very old and the graves appeared to be Muslim graves. However, archaeologists from the Israeli antiquities department sent to investigate the site suspected that the graves weren’t authentic. On examination one grave contained a skeleton with a missing leg and arm. The discovery provided the answer to the mystery of the last resting place of Louis-Marie-Joseph-Maximilian Caffarelli du Falga a French officer who fought in Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign. Caffarelli lost his leg in an earlier battle but I’m told Napoleon refused to pension off his best military cartographer. At one of the assaults on Acco a musket ball shattered Caffarelli’s right arm and the army surgeon had to amputate it. The wound was infected and gangrene set in. A few days later he died. Knowing that the Arabs were inclined to desecrate French military graves, Cafferelli and three other French soldiers were interred with Muslim style headstones.

The Israeli government traced descendants of the hapless Cafferelli and they were brought to a ceremony commemorating the death of their long dead ancestor. “Vive la difference.”

 

Have a good weekend.

 

Beni, 22nd of August, 2024.

 

 

The dogs bark, but the caravan moves on.

 

“The dogs bark, but the caravan moves on.”

The saying, found in many Eurasian languages, probably originated in Turkish

(it ürür, kervan yürür), where it rhymes.
It aptly fits a modern-day saying: “News items have a very short shelf life.”

That being said, the IDF strike on Gaza City's Al-Taba’een School compound, has been unduly criticised /condemned. Nevertheless, it still is a newsworthy item.

The IDF said that its intelligence indicated that there were no women and children at the Gaza City school it targeted on Saturday, which it claimed was being used as a Hamas command centre. Predictably, Hamas claimed that nearly 100 people were killed in the strike.

At this juncture I want to insert a margin note; Past experience has taught us that Hamas, the Gaza health ministry. UNRWA and other authorities in the Gaza enclave, are subservient to Hamas. The numbers they quote - fatalities and injured, are highly exaggerated

Back to the main text: -

IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari in an English-language video statement says -“Increasingly in recent months Hamas has focused on exploiting school buildings, often where civilians are sheltering inside, to use them as military facilities, command and control centres, for storing weapons, and to conduct terrorist attacks,”

Another spokesman added that the IDF has carried out a precision strike on a building in Gaza City's Al-Taba’een School compound, targeting terrorist threats identified by its military intelligence unit (8200). The strike, aimed at a specific building used by Hamas, was conducted with efforts to minimise civilian casualties, as no women or children were present, according to IDF sources. The action underscores ongoing operations against Hamas and accusations that the group exploits civilian infrastructure for its activities.

The White House said it was "deeply concerned" about an Israeli airstrike on a Gaza City school compound on Saturday. The US statement came after condemnation of the attack from several Arab states, Turkey, Britain and the European Union's foreign policy chief.

"Yet again, far too many civilians have been killed," Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris told reporters separately on Saturday while also reiterating calls for a Gaza ceasefire.

"We are deeply concerned about reports of civilian casualties in Gaza following a strike by the Israel Defence Forces on a compound that included a school." the White House said in a statement, adding Washington was in touch with Israel to seek more information.

"We know Hamas has been using schools as locations to gather and operate out of, but we have also said repeatedly and consistently that Israel must take measures to minimize civilian harm," the White House added.

The U.S. comments followed condemnation of the attack from Egypt, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he was horrified by the images from the school, while British foreign minister David Lammy said he was "appalled" by the strike.

Hamas terrorists use Gaza schools as refuges, and refugees as human shields

Thousands of Palestinians have found refuge in Gaza's schools, despite poor conditions and severe overcrowding; however, the increasing use of UN facilities by Hamas operatives for terror activities has led to a corresponding rise in IDF airstrikes.

Israeli officials have said they will take steps to limit civilian casualties, but it fell to a Pentagon official, Dana Stroul, to provide more details during a hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the Israeli-Gaza war.

"They (the IDF) have dropped 1.5 million leaflets in Gaza asking civilians to evacuate," Stroul said. "They have sent over hundreds of thousands of text messages and made phone calls to cell phones.  In our conversations with the Israel Defence Forces they have made clear they assess collateral damage estimates before they attack.”

While the IDF announced on Saturday that 19 terrorists were eliminated in the attack Gaza City's Al-Taba’een School compound, the Shin Bet (General Security Services) and Military Intelligence have confirmed that the number of terrorists eliminated in the attack is 38.

Security forces are continuing their assessments, and the number may increase.

Ahead of the attack, the Shin Bet provided precise intelligence on a specific building within the school complex, which had effectively become a terrorist headquarters hiding dozens of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists.

Once it was confirmed no children or women were inside the building, the decision was made to target it.

Throughout the war, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have turned school buildings, clinics, hospitals, mosques, and international aid organisation facilities into terrorist headquarters after the IDF destroyed their infrastructures.

Israel has achieved all it can in its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, several US officials told the New York Times in an article published Thursday, saying that the Israel Defence Forces would never be able to completely eradicate the terror group.

The report, citing current and former US and Israeli officials, said that only a deal, not military pressure, could secure the release of the remaining 115 living and dead captives in Gaza.

Still, the report said, Israel’s Gaza offensive has achieved far more against Hamas than US officials had predicted in October.

“Israel has been able to disrupt Hamas, kill a number of their leaders and largely reduce the threat to Israel that existed before October 7,” Gen. Joseph L. Votel, the former head of US CENTCOM, told the Times, adding that Hamas has been “diminished.”

The report came as CIA director William Burns was set to arrive in Qatar Thursday for renewed hostages-for-ceasefire talks. Amos Hochstein, the White House’s special Middle East adviser, said in Beirut Wednesday that a deal “would prevent an outbreak of a wider war.” Both officials were expected to relay the message that Israel cannot do anything more against Hamas militarily, the Times said.

"Hamas is a terrorist organisation — for them, just surviving is victory,” said Dana Stroul. “They will continue to reconstitute and pop up after the IDF says they have cleared an area without follow-on plans for security and governance in Gaza.”

I tend to agree with her.

 

Beni,

15th of August, 2024.

 

 

Still Concerned.

 

Barely a week a week ago the USNI (US Navy Institute) News

reported on recent US aircraft carriers and their accompanying strike groups movements in the near east. The replacement of one carrier strike group by another is often regarded as routine procedure. However, the current movement of US forces differs considerably from normal routine procedure.

“West Coast carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) is setting sail to the Middle East from the Pacific to relieve the carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) and its strike group. Meanwhile, the Navy is sending additional ships to the region following threats from Iran, Pentagon officials announced on Friday evening.
To maintain a carrier strike group presence in the Middle East, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has ordered the Lincoln Carrier Strike Group to replace the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group, currently on deployment in the Central Command area of responsibility,” reads the Pentagon statement.

The Secretary of Defense, “has ordered additional ballistic missile defense-capable cruisers and destroyers to the U.S. European Command and U.S. Central Command regions. The Department is also taking steps to increase our readiness to deploy additional land-based ballistic missile defense units.”

The U.S. moves to bolster military presence in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East follows reports that Iranian military officials and proxy forces in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen will meet to discuss options to retaliate against Israel following the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.”

“A senior Iranian official told newswire Reuters that Iran and the resistance members will conduct a thorough assessment after the meeting in Tehran to find the best and most effective way to retaliate against [Israel],”

“The Secretary of Defense has reiterated that the United States will protect our personnel and interests in the region, including our ironclad commitment to the defense of Israel,” the statement from the Pentagon clarified.”

Secretary of Defense Austin’s statement alone is an exercise in “projecting power.”

Now while Secretary of Defense Austin’s remarks are reassuring, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s clash with President Joe Biden as reported by Israel TV Channel 12 earlier this week, is worrying, to say the least.

Netanyahu told Biden, "We are making progress with the negotiations and will send a delegation to Cairo for that purpose."

Biden's blunt reply was: "Stop bullshitting me."

In addition to the tense exchange between Netanyahu and US officials, new information has surfaced about Netanyahu's discussions with Israeli security leaders. IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi told Netanyahu, "There are conditions for the deal. I believe it is right to enter negotiations and achieve the best possible outcome.

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant joined the discussion, stating, "For all moral and strategic reasons, I think we should see the deal as an opportunity. There will be no deal under the conditions you set, and you know it. There is no security reason to delay the deal. Since we are speaking honestly, I will tell you that your considerations are not in the best interest of the matter."

Referring to the Israeli delegation sent to a meeting in Cairo, sources familiar with the hostage deal negotiations told Israel TV Channel 12, "This is a protocol trip, a waste of time. Netanyahu's current positions will not lead to real progress."

Following these reports, the Prime Minister's bureau reiterated its statement that Netanyahu expects the US not to interfere in Israeli politics.

"The leaks and false briefings from anonymous sources in the media are creating a misleading impression for the public," it said. "While Prime Minister Netanyahu has agreed to the outline, Hamas is attempting to introduce numerous changes that effectively nullify it.

In an interview with TIME Prime Minister Netanyahu was asked about his accountability for October 7, given that the heads of Israel's defense establishment have apologized for their role, Netanyahu evaded the question saying- “Now is not the time to deal with this question. Apologize? Of course, I am deeply sorry that something like this happened." Adding that "there'll be enough time to deal with it. But, I think that dealing with it now is a mistake. We're in the midst of a war, a seven-front war. I think we have to concentrate on one thing: winning," he said.

Despite the disagreement between the prime minister and the Israeli defence and security echelon regarding Hamas, Israel could pre-emptively strike Iran if intelligence shows that an attack is imminent.

Hebrew language news media reported that Prime Minister Netanyahu convened Israel’s security chiefs for a meeting on Sunday evening.

The meeting, attended by Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi, Mossad head David Barnea and Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, was held amid preparations for anticipated attacks on Israel by Iran and Hezbollah.

Israel is not certain what to expect from Iran and its proxies. A wide range of options as to how it can best respond to, or prevent, an anticipated assault were reviewed.

During the meeting with Netanyahu, the option of a pre-emptive strike against Iran was discussed, Ynet reported that although security officials stressed that such a move would only be authorised if Israel received definite intelligence confirming that Iran was about to launch an attack.

Israel would require its own intelligence on the issue to match up with US intelligence on the matter, the report said, and even if it did match, it may still choose to avoid going down the route of a pre-emptive strike. It’s likely that Israel would opt to persuade the US to muster a multi-nation defence group similar to the array that foiled the Iran-led attack on April13.

It stands to reason that Iran is hesitant to act impulsively

The explosive device that killed Ismail Haniyeh was placed two months ago in the house, which is run and protected by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to The New York Times, which cited seven Middle Eastern officials, including two Iranians, and an American.

A source who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed the report to The Telegraph.

The bomb was detonated remotely when it was confirmed that the Hamas leader was inside the guesthouse. Haniyeh had apparently stayed at the guest house several times in the past.

Two IRGC officials said the explosion shook the building, and shattered some windows. The severe security breach was described as “catastrophic” and a “tremendous embarrassment” for the IRGC, according to the three Iranian officials.

"Iran is reconsidering its steps, even as the circumstances surrounding the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week are gradually emerging. The ‘perpetrators’, according to Washington Post analyst David Ignatius, used an explosive device planted in Haniyeh's room at a guest house operated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards – not by means of a missile fired from a long distance. Somehow, according to the unwritten rules of the game in the Middle East, this is probably seen as less of a provocation in the eyes of the regime." According to Amos Harel Haaretz.
Hezbollah may attack Israel on its own, regardless of Iran. Whether or not Hassan Nasrallah heeds the warning, Israel promises a disproportionate response if Hezbollah fires on civilians.

Nasrallah’s ‘spider web simile likening Israel’s strength to no more than the blown-in-the-wind strands of a spider’s web, is no more than bravado echoing from the depths of his underground bunker.

 

Take care,

Beni,

8^th of August, 2024.

 

Concerned, but confident.

 In an opinion piece he wrote for the Council on Foreign Relations, Steven A. Cook asked, “Are Israel and Iran Headed for All Out War?”

He reasoned that the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and the targeted assassination of Fuad Shukr a military advisor to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, are liable to bring Israel and Iran, (through its proxies) closer to war.

“Do the attacks in Beirut and Tehran signal a wider Israeli war with Iran and its proxies?

This is now more likely. The Israelis have been under attack from Iranian proxies since October 7. In recent weeks, the IDF has clearly gone on the offensive with a raid on the port of Hodeida in Yemen that is controlled by the Houthis, the strike on Tuesday that killed Hezbollah military official (aka terrorist) Fuad Shukr in Beirut, and the overnight assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

The Israelis—who have not yet taken responsibility for the Haniyeh assassination—are demonstrating both technical prowess and that they are serious about “changing the rules of the game” with the axis of resistance. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has vowed to avenge Haniyeh’s assassination, carried out after the inauguration of the new Iranian president in Tehran. There is little doubt that Hezbollah will also want to avenge the killing of Fuad Shukr. The Houthis will likely take part in any retaliation that Iran plans. Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, as well as militias in both Iraq and Syria under the auspices of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), make up Iran’s axis of resistance. The IRGC leadership has, since at least mid-2023, encouraged coordination among those groups. The conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza has at times provided opportunity for this collaboration.”

“Does the Haniyeh killing effectively end current efforts to reach a cease-fire in Gaza?

Yes. The Qatari prime minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, posted on X shortly after the attack on Haniyeh that it was impossible to negotiate a cease-fire if one party is assassinating the negotiators of the other party. There is a self-serving quality to his statement, however. The Qataris proved incapable of convincing Hamas to agree to a cease-fire through many months of negotiation. In addition, it seems clear that the Israelis were quite serious when they declared the entire Hamas leadership is a ‘dead man walking.’ The killing of Hamas military chief Mohmmed Deif and now the confirmed killing of Haniyeh underscore that the Israelis mean what they say. Regardless of whatever negotiations were taking place—most recently in Rome—the Israelis were intent on exacting revenge and breaking Hamas.

The triggering event for this week’s escalation appears to be a missile attack on civilians in the Golan Heights that Israeli officials attribute to Hezbollah. What happened there?

Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah have been engaged in a low-level conflict that has grown bolder and more deadly (mostly on the Lebanese side) in recent months. Hezbollah had been targeting Israeli military bases in the Golan Heights, when an apparently errant rocket struck the soccer field in Majdal Shams, a major Druze town killing 12 youths and injuring many others.

With the strike on Fuad Shukr, the Israelis wanted to send a strong message to the Hezbollah leadership that they are both vulnerable and that the IDF, despite months of combat, has the ability to inflict significant damage on Hezbollah’s Beirut stronghold. There is political pressure within Israel to take a more muscular approach too, both in response to the incident in Majdal Shams and more generally to resolve the grave threat Hezbollah poses to Israeli communities near the Israel-Lebanon border.”

“How can current tensions be de-escalated?” Cook pondered.

“No doubt, U.S. diplomats and others active in the effort to negotiate an end to the Israel-Hamas war will do their best to try to avert an intensification of the regional conflict underway, but they will likely fail. The Iranians are vowing to avenge Haniyeh’s death and the Israelis are daring them and their proxies to strike. This is an unpredictable moment. It seems quite unlikely the actors will pull back from a devastating fight. This is the war for which they have all been preparing.”

I hasten to add that Steven A. Cook is a highly respected near-east affairs commentator. Fellow experts don’t necessarily agree with him.

Most of the bellicose rhetoric is emanating from Iran and its proxies. Israel invariably adopts its time-tested policy of ‘ambiguity’ regarding attacks attributed to the IDF, its security and military intelligence forces.

Just the same, there is no room for complacency! We are more cautious than usual, but not deterred from continuing our daily routine.

The current tension along our northern border brought to mind an almost forgotten cross-border incident.

In 1959 when I first arrived at the Hachshara farm near Shepparton, Victoria, Australia, I heard the story from a woman who in her teens was personally involved in the incident.

Margin note- In case you don’t know, Hachshara is a Hebrew word that literally means "preparation". The term is used for training programmes and agricultural centres in Europe and elsewhere. At these centres Zionist youth and young adults would learn vocational skills necessary for their Aliya to Israel and subsequent life in kibbutzim. Today they have largely been superseded by year programmes in Israel.

Shoshana and Dov Agmon were shlichim (emissaries) to Hashomer Hatzair in Australia. Shoshana recounted how in the early 1940’s she participated in a Hashomer Hatzair hike near the Lebanese border. At that time the border wasn’t clearly marked and without knowing it the group wandered into Lebanon. Before long they were spotted by a Lebanese border police patrol and arrested.

At this juncture I want to add a margin note: While the British Mandate for Palestine left hardly any cultural imprint when it ended in1948, the French Mandate for Lebanon has left a considerable cultural impact. As of 2004, some 20% of the population used French on a daily basis.

Back to Shoshana and her fellow hikers in Lebanon. Their predicament was somewhat alleviated when the French speaking Lebanese border gendarmes insisted on carrying the girls’ backpacks. Following a brief internment the British Liaison authority managed to secure the hikers release and they returned home without further event.

About eight years ago I met Shoshana again when I visited my sister-in-law at Sde Nitzan in the Gaza periphery area. She was surprised that I remembered the incident in Lebanon.  When I inquired after her recently, I heard that she died four years ago. Blessed be her memory.

 

Beni,

1st of August, 2024.