PARADES AND OTHER MATTERS

The eye-catching headline in bold print “Deadly Thursday” in a Times of Israel article on Tuesday, wasn’t alluding to a flareup on one of our borders, but to another potentially violent event.

Ahead of the Jerusalem Pride Parade, many threatening messages have been posted in an internal chat group wishing for the deaths of the pro-LGBTQ marchers.” …., The incitement was posted in a Telegram group called ‘Jews don’t stay silent,’ belonging to extremist organisation Lehava, which is led by veteran far-right activist Bentzi Gopstein, a close political ally of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir who heads the Otzma Yehudit party.

Ben Gvir, was once at the forefront of the extremist protests against the parade. Now he is minister of national security, ’ostensibly’ responsible for the march’s security arrangements this year. He has rejected calls from the parade’s organisers to stop him from handling the event.

Some 2,000 police officers, some of them undercover, are expected to be deployed along the march’s route and around it.

Prior to the 2018 march, Gopstein called LGBT activists "terrorists" and urged supporters to counter demonstrate with banners saying "Jerusalem is not Sodom".

Lehava has received approval from the police to hold a counter-protest at Bloomfield Garden, close to where the Pride Parade will be held at the same time. Posters advocating the counter-protest are referring to the Pride Parade as the “Abomination Parade.”

In their call to bar Ben Gvir from dealing with the Parade, the heads of the Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance said they were concerned that the far-right minister may “improperly” interfere in the march, citing his participation in counter rallies in past years.   “Ben Gvir was part of the [homophobic] ‘Beast Parades,’ petitioned the courts several times to cancel the parade, decisively spoke out against it, and represented the family member of the murderer Yishai Schlissel.”

Schlissel, an ultra-Orthodox extremist, murdered teenage marcher Shira Banki at the parade in 2015. Ben Gvir represented Schlissel’s brother, Michael, after the latter was arrested on suspicion of planning to also carry out an attack.

Up until 2019, Ben Gvir attended counter-protests led by religious extremists against the Jerusalem Pride Parade.

Unlike the festive Tel Aviv Pride Parade which will be held next week, the Jerusalem Pride Parade is subject to heavy security and restrictions, in particular following Banki’s murder. Schlissel carried out the 2015 stabbing attack just a few weeks after he was released from prison, where he had served 10 years for stabbing and injuring marchers at the 2005 parade. Now, he is incarcerated for ‘the rest of his natural life.’

The parades are a colourful interval, a diversion from the feuding with our neighbours. Here is one newsworthy topic mentioned recently: - Earlier last week The Times of Israel reported that the White House wants Israel to halt its judicial overhaul and restart peace talks with the Palestinian Authority in order for the US to move forward with brokering normalisation between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Other newsoutlets confirmed recently that Israel and Saudi Arabia are in the midst of negotiations over direct flights between the two countries that could possibly lead to a wider normalisation deal — which has long been sought by Israel but largely rejected by the Saudis.

The flights are especially important for Israeli and Palestinian Muslims for the annual Hajj which this year extends from June 19 to July 18.

An unsourced news report stated that the US and the Saudis have enumerated their demands for such an agreement moving forward. The report claimed that Washington and Riyadh are both seeking to pressure Israel into restarting diplomatic talks with the Palestinians that will lead to a two-state solution.

I can’t see Prime Minister Netanyahu and his dream-team yielding to US- Saudi pressure.

Hezbollah put on a show of force recently, extending a rare media invitation to one of its training sites in southern Lebanon, where its forces staged a simulated military exercise.

Masked fighters jumped through flaming hoops, fired from the backs of motorcycles, and blew up Israeli flags posted in the hills above a wall simulating the one at the border between Lebanon and Israel.

The exercise came ahead of “Liberation Day,” the annual celebration of the withdrawal of Israeli forces from south Lebanon on May 25, 2000, and in the wake of a recent escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza.

The recent heightened tensions also come months after Lebanon and Israel signed a landmark U.S.-brokered maritime border agreement, which many analysts predicted would lower the risk of a future military confrontation between the two countries.

The Israeli military declined to comment on the Hezbollah exercise.

Senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine said in a speech on Sunday that the exercise was meant to “confirm our complete readiness to confront any aggression” by Israel.

 On the other side of the border, Israeli forces have also occasionally invited journalists to watch exercises simulating a war with Hezbollah. Officials from both sides frequently allude to their readiness for conflict in public statements.

Israel regularly strikes targets related to Hezbollah and its backer, Iran, in neighbouring Syria.

Elias Farhat, a retired Lebanese army general who is currently a researcher in military affairs, said Hezbollah’s “symbolic show of strength” appeared to be in response to the recent escalation in Gaza. He said it could also be a response to a demonstration in Jerusalem by thousands of Jewish nationalists, some of whom chanted “Death to Arabs” and other racist slogans, in celebration of “Jerusalem Day.”

 Mohanad Hage Ali, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Centre who researches Hezbollah, said that in the past when there was an escalation in the Israel-Palestine conflict, the Lebanese armed group would sometimes fire off rockets or allow a Palestinian faction in Lebanon to do so. However, he believes Hezbollah’s military exercise was a lower-risk way to project its belligerent capabilities.

Given that Friday marked the return of Syria — an ally of Hezbollah and Iran — to the Arab League, Hage Ali said, Hezbollah may not have wanted a clash on the border with Israel to distract from the Arab reconciliation.

The head of all US forces in the Middle East, Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, arrived in Israel on Tuesday for a three-day visit as part of a wider tour of the region.

Kurilla arrived just a day after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) kicked off two weeks of war games to simulate a multi-front conflict. 

The CENTCOM chief was set to observe the exercise, dubbed ‘Firm Hand,’ and was photographed alongside IDF chief of staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi on Tuesday.

According to newsmedia reports Kurilla’s visit began with a stop at one of Israel’s more clandestine intelligence outfits, Unit 504, which runs the army's human intelligence facility. The US commander was briefed on the unit’s recent operations, anticipated future direction and planned operational capabilities. 

Later, Halevi hosted an operational panel discussion in which Israeli army commanders discussed with Kurilla and his staff cooperation with the US military and increasing combined operational capabilities.

Kurilla also participated in a situation assessment meeting as part of exercise ‘Firm Hand’ at the IDF’s operational headquarters in Tel Aviv. 

The exercise is designed to test the IDF’s readiness for combat in multiple arenas simultaneously. The two generals also discussed “innovative combat methods and adapted military capabilities,”

The exercise takes place less than a month after the confrontation between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group in Gaza.

In Syria militias backed by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have been attacked in frequent Israeli air strikes targeting guided weapons systems.

 Among other events, the exercise will simulate a series of rapidly escalating incidents and terror attacks from the West Bank and Gaza and in Jerusalem, culminating with simulations of fighting in the south of Lebanon. The soldiers

participating in the drill will be faced with simulations of rockets fired simultaneously from different directions along with cyberattacks on Israel’s communication, internet and radio infrastructures.

Interviewed on the 103FM radio station on Tuesday, Brig. Gen. (res) Amir Avivi explained that "for the first time, after many years, the IDF is dealing with a multi-arena situation in the entire Middle East that extends to Iran." He added that the situation presents "huge challenges for the Home Front Command in terms of destruction, and also a much more complex naval arena."

Kurilla’s visit came as Israeli officials have been hinting that they suspect Iran has made progress toward potentially weaponising enriched uranium.

I’ll conclude with some family news. Later today my daughter Daphna leaves on the first leg of a long flight home to New Zealand.

The ‘multi-front’ family visit has come to an end. As you recall, our daughter Michal and her life partner Tanya came here from Canada joining Daphna and her husband Mark who arrived from New Zealand. The hosting, touring, organising etc. were capably handled by our son and daughters here in Israel with help from friends of the family.

Daphna (centre) with some of the family at Ein Harod during the  Shavuot festival.

We will stay in touch, mostly via WhatsApp till the next visit.

 

Take care.

 

Beni                                                   1^st of June, 2023.