The buffer zone.

 

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, Israel notified the United States about its intentions to establish a one-kilometre buffer zone along the Gaza-Israel border soon after Israel declared war on Hamas.

The report cited an unnamed Israeli official who said that a "temporary security buffer zone would likely be part of the demilitarisation process of the Gaza enclave.

“Such a buffer zone could ensure security in the Gaza periphery communities targeted in the Hamas massacres on October 7.”

The WSJ report also noted that construction of such a buffer zone is liable to exacerbate tensions between Israel and the U.S. and its other Western allies who have warned against ‘shrinking Gaza.’

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, "We’ve been very clear about opposition to any permanent change to Gaza’s territorial configuration." Blinken was reiterating Washington's stance against occupation of the Strip by the IDF or permanent displacement of its residents.

It is unclear whether the U.S. discouraged Israel when the buffer zone idea was first brought up. But Washington appears to acknowledge Israel's quest for security guarantees after the war with Hamas ends.

"They’re not just going to pick up and leave a complete security vacuum in Gaza, so there’s going to have to be a transition period of some sort," the U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said earlier in January.

On Monday the IDF suffered the worst single loss in the Gaza ground operation.  The Wall Street Journal describing the incident said twenty-four Israeli soldiers were killed, 21 of them reservists, when Hamas terrorists attacked the force with rocket-propelled grenades. The Israeli forces were operating inside Gaza around 600 metres west of Kibbutz Kissufim in southern Israel.

"In discussing the deaths of the soldiers, IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi used the term 'buffer zone.' He said they had been killed while operating 'in the buffer zone between Israeli communities and Gaza' as part of efforts to 'create security conditions' for Israelis to return to their homes near the border with Gaza."

Halevi met with commanders at the scene of the incident, and was briefed on the initial investigation of the blast.

“We, as always, will investigate the matter in depth and learn the lessons while the fighting continues. The initial probe is being conducted with the aim of preventing a recurrence of the incident”  

On the ground, fighting raged in Khan Yunis, Gaza's main southern city, which the IDF has "encircled".

I have often wondered how Hamas leaders in the Gaza strip manage to communicate with one another undetected by Israel’s sophisticated eavesdropping technology. Hamas is said to have employed a landline phone network since 2009. However, war damage to the landline has forced Hamas to revert to even lower-tech methods.

Hamas leaders, hunkered down in subterranean bunkers in the Gaza Strip, are reportedly communicating with each other using handwritten notes carried around the war-torn territory by runners.

The memos are even enabling communication with senior officials abroad, the Saudi-owned Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat reported recently.

 

Jamie Dettmer opinion editor at POLITICO Europe said,” Today, Israelis don’t believe a Jewish state can live alongside a Palestinian one.

As it stands, they have lost all faith in a two-state solution — not that they had much to begin with, even before Hamas’ October 7 attacks on southern Israel. Rather, they want bigger and better fortifications and greater vigilance in the wake of the intelligence and security lapses that failed to prevent what was clearly a long-planned pogrom.

“Israelis are in a belligerent mood,” pollster Dahlia Scheindlin told POLITICO. She was speaking after a poll by the Israel Democracy Institute found that 75 percent of Jewish Israelis think the country should ignore mounting pressure from the United States to wind down the war in Gaza. And another poll by Gallup recently showed that 65 percent oppose the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

This hardening of Israeli opinion regarding a two-state solution is in lockstep with clear signs that the October 7 attacks will tilt the country further right, dominated in its vanguard by the ideas of West Bank settlers who want Israel to have the footprint of all the biblical lands of the Jews. This is in keeping with a historical pattern, Scheindlin said — whenever Israel is dealt a major violent shock, right-wing parties and politicians benefit.

However, if elections are held soon, this won’t necessarily benefit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself or his Likud Party. Most Israelis blame Netanyahu for the bloody security debacle, and seething with anger, they just want him gone — whether sooner or later. But according to Scheindlin, the basic direction of political orientation is unlikely to budge with or without him.

This suggests that the overarching question about Palestinians’ future and their national aspirations will continue to be sidelined — let alone serious talk of the two-state solution.

From 7 October onward, Israelis have clung to the one hope that unified this normally fractious and now broken society: freeing the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. The faces of those stolen people haunt us on every street. Hope soared when nearly half of the hostages were released in a temporary ceasefire deal last November, and Israelis took to the streets demanding more.

But Israel’s government is hardly rushing to cut another such deal. The first one forced it to make painful concessions. Israel released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, which encourages further hostage-taking; such deals can include dangerous prisoners, and the whole situation left some Israeli families elated as their loved ones returned, while others remain in agony wondering if their loved ones will be released before it is too late.”

According to The Wall Street Journal, US sources estimate that Israel has killed 20% to 30% of Hamas forces in Gaza. Those figures, somewhat less than the Israeli assessment, are nothing to scoff at or declare a failure.

In three months, Israel has taken out about a third of Hamas. From the beginning, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this war would not be six days or even three weeks. A year was mentioned as part of the painstaking process of dismantling tunnels in Gaza and going door-to-door in search of terrorists and the hostages.

The IDF seems to be on track with that yearlong framework. Between external pressure over the high civilian casualties in Gaza and internal pressures over the inability to free more hostages following the November ceasefire deal, it remains to be seen if Israel will be given the time to complete the task.

A premature end to the war will leave a battered Hamas still intact and able to recover and regain its stranglehold on Gaza and the Palestinians it has held hostage since 2006. And that’s something Israel can’t live with. Just ask Khaled Mashaal. The Hamas leader reiterated in an interview last week that post-October 7, “our Palestinian project is our right in Palestine from the river to the sea.”

The families of the hostages and their supporters are perfectly justified and correct in their ongoing protests and calls for a ceasefire and a deal to bring their loved ones home. Anyone with a family member who has been cruelly held captive for more than three months should be demanding action and accountability from their government.

A government must also look at the bigger picture, however, and in this case, it is the threat posed by Hamas that is the overriding factor in fuelling this war.

The problem is a significant breach of trust regarding Netanyahu’s motives among a large population segment. We don’t know what they are, whether they are for country’s good, or for the survival of the government he leads, or to stave off the inevitable storm of blame that will likely sweep him away after the war.

If the current government was dissolved and new elections were held, there’s a good chance that the next prime minister would be someone other than Netanyahu.

But despite the change at the helm or within the coalition’s makeup, the next prime minister would almost certainly adopt the same policy as Netanyahu: no withdrawal from Gaza and a continuation of fighting until Hamas is no longer in charge.

The IDF must be given time to carry out that mission in Gaza. But time is running out regarding the hostages.

Before I conclude I want to add a disclaimer regarding some of the opinions I have mentioned. I quote them because they are relevant.

Have a good weekend.

 

Beni,

 

25^th of January, 2024.

The ICJ and other matters

 

Old soldiers never die, they live on forever as guests on our TV news panels. Former directors of Aman (military intelligence), Mossad (overseas intelligence) and Shabak (internal security) and their deputies too, are frequent guest speakers on all our TV channels.

Lately, they have been asked to comment on how the Israeli War Cabinet remains divided on whether to push for a deal that would secure the release of 132 Israelis held hostage in Gaza.  Minister without portfolio in the Israeli war cabinet, Gadi Eisenkot has called for significant efforts to bring the hostages home. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant argue that maintaining the military campaign is crucial to securing their release. Eisenkot served as the IDF’s 21^st Chief of Staff. His son and a nephew were killed in the current Gaza war.

The Qatari offer to broker a temporary truce, providing a roadmap for ending the war, including Hamas’s leaders going into exile and Israel withdrawing its troops from Gaza, has added another dimension to the negotiations. Qatar, of course, is the exception in the Arab League as the host to Hamas leadership and supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant maintains that, "The enemy we face understands only force - without military pressure no one will talk to us, only from a position of strength will we be able to bring the hostages home."

Israeli Reserve Army General Noam Biton and other retired defence and security personnel are calling for an immediate hostage exchange deal with Hamas. Expressing doubts about the effectiveness of Gallant’s “only by force” stance. Biton emphasises the need for urgent action to prevent additional deaths among Israeli hostages.

Occasionally, New York Times columnist Thomas L. Freidman adds a word of advice to the Palestinians. He tells them to explain clearly what they want. They should provide a detailed map of the final two-state settlement they are “seeking. Just calling for “an end to occupation” won’t cut it.

Palestinians need to accompany every boycott, hunger strike or rock they throw at Israel with a map delineating how, for peace, they would accept getting back 95 percent of the West Bank and all Arab neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem and would swap the other 5 percent for land inside pre-1967 Israel. Such an arrangement would allow some 75 percent of the Jewish settlers to remain in the West Bank, while still giving Palestinians 100 percent of the land back.  “ Maybe the percentages have changed a little since Freidman first penned his opinion in 2012, but his advice to them is still relevant.

Just the same, it’s clear that no Palestinian leader would be prepared to sign an agreement that states the refugees won’t be coming home.

 A report in The Telegraph told how Israel is defending itself on another front.

Aharon Barak, 87, who was smuggled out of a ghetto in a potato sack in 1944 and went on to lead Israel’s supreme court, is heading a delegation that will begin court proceedings this week in the Hague.

The UN’s International Court of Justice (ICJ), is being asked to rule on whether to open a full case on South Africa’s claim that Israel intends to commit genocide in Gaza.  

Israeli lawyers are concerned that highly-charged comments from Israeli ministers about Gaza over the last few months may have constituted at least an incitement to genocide, a key plank of the case.

Lauded as one of Israel’s great jurists and one of its finest legal minds, Aharon Barak served on Israel’s supreme court for 28 years, including 11 years as its president.

Under his leadership the court became extremely activist. This provoked backlash in Israeli politics. A reaction that led to a kind of recalibration of the court where it is still filling its traditional role of defending fundamental rights and ensuring the integrity of the political process.

As an eight-year-old boy in 1944, he was smuggled out of the Kovno ghetto in present day Lithuania by a farmer before eventually settling in Jerusalem with his family.

The robust engagement with the International Court of Justice is unusual for Israel, which normally considers the United Nations and international tribunals as unfair and biased. The decision to participate rather than boycott reflects Israeli concerns that the judges could order Israel to halt its war against Hamas and tarnish its image internationally.

“Israel cannot run away from an accusation that is so serious,” said Alon Liel, a former director general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry and a former Israeli ambassador to South Africa.

Israel hopes their expertise will trounce the South African claim that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza amounts to genocide and prevent an interim court order to force Israel to stop the fighting. Israel says halting the war when Hamas’ capabilities are intact in many places and with hostages still being held captive would amount to a Hamas victory.

Israel vehemently disputes the genocide claims, saying it is fighting a war of self-defence and its actions comply with international law. Furthermore, Israel claims that it does its best to prevent harm to civilians, blaming Hamas for embedding its forces in densely populated residential areas.

The case will likely drag on for years. But South Africa’s filing includes a request for the court to urgently issue legally binding interim orders for Israel to “immediately suspend its military operations in and against Gaza.”

If it doesn’t abide by the court’s orders, Israel could face U.N. sanctions. Although the U.S., Israel’s closest ally, could veto such a move, doing so would anger many Democrats who have already soured on President Joe Biden over his strong support for Israel in the war. That could be damaging for Biden as he seeks re-election

British lawyer Malcolm Shaw, who will defend Israel, is the author of what’s seen as the definitive textbook on international law. He has represented numerous states, including Ukraine and the United Arab Emirates, in international litigation, including at the International Court of Justice.

Robbie Sabel, a former legal adviser at the Israeli Foreign Ministry who counts Shaw as a friend, said it remained to be seen whether judges from nations with poor ties to Israel will rule objectively. But he said Israel had positioned itself to meet the charges head on.

“They chose the top people,” he said. “It means Israel is taking the charges brought against it very seriously.”

However, remarks made by some Israeli politicians and rank and file Israelis, are both counter-productive and inflammatory.

Associated Press columnist Tia Goldenberg quoted a few examples – “Fighting ‘human animals. ’Making Gaza a ‘slaughterhouse.’ Erasing the Gaza Strip from the face of the earth.” Such inflammatory rhetoric is a key component of South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide at the U.N. world court, a charge Israel denies. South Africa says the language — in comments by Israeli leaders, soldiers and entertainers about Palestinians in Gaza is proof of Israel’s intent to commit genocide. 

Israeli leaders have downplayed the comments, and some in Israel say they’re a result of the trauma from Hamas’ attack.

The majority of countries backing South Africa’s case are from the Arab world and Africa.

No Western country has declared support for South Africa’s allegations against Israel. The U.S., a close Israel ally, has rejected them as unfounded, the U.K. has called them unjustified, and Germany said it “explicitly rejects” them.

China and Russia have said little about one of the most momentous cases to come before an international court. The European Union also hasn’t commented.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on a visit to Israel a day before the court proceedings began that South Africa’s allegations are “meritless” and that the case “distracts the world” from efforts to find a lasting solution to the conflict. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said genocide is “not a word that ought to be thrown around lightly, and we certainly don’t believe that it applies here.”

“We don’t agree with what the South Africans are doing,” U.K. Foreign Minister David Cameron said of the case.

Blinken said a genocide case against Israel was “particularly galling” given that Hamas and other groups “continue to openly call for the annihilation of Israel and the mass murder of Jews.”

I think his summing up was aptly put and accurate.

 

Have a good weekend.

 

Beni,

 

18^th  of January, 2024.

 

The money trail.

 

A few weeks ago, an article in the Economist headed by the title - “The sinews of war” posited that Israel’s declared goal of destroying Hamas for good requires its financial base to be dismantled, too. Very little of this sits in Gaza at all. Instead, it is overseas in friendly countries. Furnished with money-launderers, mining companies and much else, Hamas’s financial empire is reckoned to bring in more than $1bn a year. Having been painstakingly crafted to avoid Western sanctions, it may be out of reach for Israel and its allies.

The Times of Israel quoted various foreign news outlets supporting similar assessments.

Notwithstanding that, Globes Israel business news reported that the Israel Money Laundering and Terror Financing Prohibition Authority claims it is beginning to “thwart Hamas on the financial battlefield.”

Two weeks into the Gaza war, the Israel Money Laundering and Terror Financing Prohibition Authority (IMPA) received secret intelligence information from two European countries that warned: "A large, well-known organisation is raising funds for Hamas through posts on social networks, and fintech company platforms outside Israel, under the guise of donations to Gaza residents." The information included the name of the organisation, its fundraising methods, and the identity of the entities behind it. Their concern was that, within days, the millions of dollars raised would go directly to the military arm of Hamas. In a swift joint international action, at IMPA’s request, one of the European countries blocked the organisation’s money pipeline by immediately freezing its financial activities.

"We are talking about a matter of minutes here. From the moment the authorities in Europe received the information, and we requested the money be blocked, with no court orders or delay, they blocked the transfer of millions of dollars to one of the most active organisations, and from it to Hamas. This is a real-time deterrence," reveals IMPA director general Adv. Ilit Ostrovitch-Levi. "And then there was a domino effect. Following this blocking, more countries began to look around, and blocked funds intended for terror. All this information, which is now shared at an international level, leads to the closing of more and more Hamas funding pipelines, in real time. With worldwide cooperation, Israel’s security and enforcement authorities are thwarting the transfer of millions of dollars earmarked for terrorism, every day."

Headed by Ostrovitch-Levi since May 2022, IMPA is an intelligence body that conducts the most complex of international economic investigations, and fights terror financing routinely. On October 7, Ostrovitch-Levi received a painful reminder of the vital importance of her work. "Already on that Saturday night, with Israeli under heavy rocket fire, we talked about preparing ourselves for the campaign we’re now entering, the fight against terror financing channels. Dozens of our staff have been called up to reserve duty, mostly managers working regularly in the fight against terror financing."

Since then, most of IMPA’s work has focused on identifying and blocking the terror money pipelines. "We work very reactively - we see a fundraising campaign, try to deter it, and stop it from happening again. There are no breaks to relax a bit, because they are constantly active. It’s a daily struggle. Our analysts have been sitting on the social networks from day two of the war, manually monitoring visible sources of information on these networks to locate fundraising campaigns for terrorist organisations operating in Gaza."

Three days after the war began, IMPA also issued a call to all global regulated entities for increased vigilance towards terrorism financing campaigns in response to the ongoing war and state of emergency, and to report all activities that raise suspicion of terror support and terror financing, in an effective and immediate manner.

"Overnight, we started receiving hundreds of reports about unusual activity by customers of financial institutions in the State of Israel," she says. Before October 7, IMPA received about 100 reports a day dealing with terror financing. That number jumped to about 1,000. "There is a 900% increase in reports on terror financing, and we don't waste time, everything happens very, very quickly. As we receive the information, we simultaneously pass it on to the operational professionals who locate the money pipelines, and block them. Some information will not necessarily lead to terror financing, but we don’t have time to waste. Bank CEOs call and draw our attention to the information they convey to us that warrants special attention."

The network to block terror financing funds includes many entities, including private citizens. "The world's financial intelligence authorities are now at the heart of this struggle, and we’re working together to thwart the financing channels that we’ve located. In addition, we’ve been approached by many experts from the private sector; people with intelligence experience because they’ve worked in these organisations, or have high-tech experience. Israeli entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley have contacted us; they write code, search for information, and give us lots of information. We aggregate and examine everything."

IMPA is charged with rooting out the sources of funding for terrorism, working together with Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing (NBCTF) in the Ministry of Defence, which is the coordinating body of all activities to thwart terror financing, the Shin Bet, Military Intelligence Directorate (AMAN), and all other relevant intelligence and security agencies. "The most significant way to finance terrorism is to finance countries, not fundraising campaigns. These have intensified greatly over the last month, but the core of the budget - for Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad is Iran, in particular the Quds Force (the special forces of the IRGC, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps). Hamas has all kinds of additional sources of self-financing, including businesses, associations, investments, and all kinds of arrangements they’ve tried to set up over the years. They need state funding, and without Iran they can’t exist."

“In the past, Qatar transferred suitcases of cash to Gaza through Israel. Everyone knows this. This money allegedly went to pay salaries and civilian needs (education, health, infrastructure), and therefore Israel transferred it, so it’s incorrect to say that it all went to fund terrorism."

How have these billions reached civilians and Hamas over the years? There are quite a few methods, including cryptocurrencies and trade. But the main and easiest method for money transfer to Gaza is hawala.

Ostrovitch-Levi explains, "Most of the money does not reach Gaza physically through the border crossings, but via hawala, a financial channel that is based on trust and connections, and enables the transfer and exchange of funds between countries, without the cash physically passing through them. It’s a channel for transferring the funds raised in other countries. In Gaza there are all sorts of wealthy individuals who can transfer large amounts in cash to Hamas upon receiving a request from entities abroad."………

"Money changers in places all over the world, let's say Turkey, receive money, and inform the hawaladars (money changers) in Gaza who transfer the money on their behalf. When a customer comes to a hawaladar in Turkey and asks to transfer money to Gaza, he does not physically transfer money, but settles accounts internally with money changers in Gaza and the West Bank. The funds are not actually transferred physically. Occasionally, or when the amount of the debt reaches a predetermined ceiling, a transfer is made between the money changers to reset the outstanding debt."

"Transfers are made between two ‘exchangers,’ and don’t include the identity of the beneficiaries, or the persons who gave the money. They don’t know what the transactions were, they only know there are debts to offset. We are in a constant battle against this phenomenon. In recent years, Israeli authorities have designated several currency service providers in Gaza as conduits facilitating the transfer of tens of millions of dollars a year to terrorist organisations in Gaza."

Another way to transfer money is trade. Transferring goods, or inflating their value. For example, only days ago, containers of goods worth hundreds of thousands of shekels were seized at Ashdod Port, which were destined for Hamas merchants in Nablus and other cities, with the proceeds intended to go on to finance Hamas operations. Another example is the 23 tons of chocolate bars that were seized in August 2021 in a joint operation by the NBCTF, AMAN, and the Tax Authority at the Nitzana Border Crossing between Israel and Egypt. It was suspected that the snack bars, destined for Gaza, were purchased with terror financing funds, with the proceeds from their sales earmarked for Hamas.

Another affair that was uncovered, combined trade and hawala. Hamas funds originating in Iran, which were transferred in cash to money changers in Turkey for transfer to Gaza. At the same time Hamed al-Khachari, a Gazan money changer who worked for Hamas, located Gazan merchants who imported goods from Turkish companies and owned payment on the goods. They paid cash to Khachari, who transferred the money to Hamas in Gaza. Meanwhile, the money changers in Turkey received funds from Hamas abroad that were used to pay the Turkish companies.

Although it has been almost impossible to transfer money and goods to Gaza since October 7, with hawala shuttered, and no trade, Hamas continues to raise funds. "The situation in Gaza is known, and nothing can be brought in, but fundraising activity continues in the West Bank. It’s also possible to make bank transfers to the West Bank, and the fundraising activity hasn't stopped, because while the fighting is going on, they’re continuing to fill their reserves for ‘the day after’ [the war]. We realise they’re raising funds for their continued operations. Hamas is taking advantage of the current sympathy for the Gazans’ situation, and is using online platforms, both of organisations whose business is crowdfunding, and also through the creation of fictitious projects to raise funds: throw-pillows, jewellery and whatnot, and more."

All this happens openly, for all to see, in Europe, and other places around the world. "Hamas and Islamic Jihad carry out recruitment operations under the guise of humanitarian aid campaigns, and use Telegram, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to disseminate their announcements. The façade is always supporting humanitarian goals, but in practice it's about channels for funding individuals and entities connected directly to Hamas or Islamic Jihad."

However, IMPA’s goal, Ostrovitch-Levi explains, is not only to stop the individual raising of funds for terror financing, but the entire interrelated chain, from the fund-raiser to the transferrer, and on through to the recipient. "We have the ability to build the intelligence scenario, synchronise all the sources of information received, and delineate the money trail from abroad to Hamas. We’re interested not only in who is running the campaign, the association or entity, but where the money is coming from, and where it’s going to. We need to stop all of the factors in this network." Ilit Ostrovitch-Levi concluded. 

I began by quoting the authors of the article in the Economist who claimed that ‘taking down’ Hamas’s financial empire may be out of reach for Israel and its allies. I continued by citing a report in Globes Israel business news that Israel is beginning to “thwart Hamas on the financial battlefield.”

Let’s hope that we will win this battle of wits.

 

Take care.

 

Beni,

11^th of January, 2024.

 

 

 

Clifford's Tower.

 

In 1966, shortly after our marriage, Roni and I went on a trip to Europe. Travelling on a shoestring budget we managed to see almost all the places we had planned to visit. We got around mainly by hitchhiking from place to place, and sometimes travelling by affordable public transport. Where possible we stayed with family and friends, but mostly at ubiquitous youth-hostels.

I recall visiting York on our way to Scotland. In particular I remember stopping by Clifford’s Tower.

In 1190, one of the worst pogroms in mediaeval England was perpetrated at Clifford’s Tower.

The Normans brought the first Jewish communities to England, where some served a special economic role as moneylenders, an essential but otherwise banned activity. English Jews were subject to considerable religious prejudice and primarily worked from towns and cities where there were royal castles that could provide them with protection whenever they were threatened. Royal protection was invariably granted by the ruling monarch who had a vested interest in protecting his Jewish subjects. A standing royal decree established that Jewish property and debts owed to Jews ultimately belonged to the crown, reverting to the king when a Jew died.

When Richard I left England to join the Crusades, his journey evoked anti-Jewish sentiment in York and other towns which led to savage attacks against Jews.

The York Pogrom was, like the other instances of anti-Jewish violence before it, caused by the religious fervour of the Crusades. However, local noblemen saw the pogrom as an opportunity to erase their debts to Jewish moneylenders. The pogrom began when a mob burned the house of Benedict of York, a Jewish moneylender who died during the London pogrom. The rioting mob killed his widow and children. Fearing for their lives, York’s remaining Jews sought refuge in Clifford’s Tower, which at that time was a wooden keep. The villainous mob, local militiamen and noblemen besieged the keep. The siege lasted for several weeks. At that stage, life became untenable for the Jews trapped inside the wooden tower. Their rabbi proposed that they should commit suicide to avoid being killed by the mob waiting for them outside. Most of the congregants accepted the rabbi’s proposal and killed their wives and children before taking their own lives, Simultaneously the keep was set on fire to prevent their bodies being mutilated by the mob outside. Several Jews perished in the flames but the majority took their own lives rather than surrender to their persecutors. However, a few did surrender, promising to convert to Christianity, but they were murdered as soon as they left the burning keep. In all, about 150 Jews died in in the massacre. 

Research conducted recently reveals that around 20 years later ‘there was once more a thriving Jewish community in the town.'

In 1290, Jews were expelled from England entirely. They were not permitted to return to England until 1656.

Until the 1970s, the pogrom of 1190 was often underplayed by official histories of Clifford’s Tower. Local tour guides omitted to mention it at all. When Roni and I were in York we couldn’t find any information whatsoever about the pogrom. Finally, in 1978 the first memorial plaque to the victims was laid at the base of Clifford's Tower.

At that time, Jews living in Christian and Muslim lands were despised discriminated against and often exiled. Cowering, insecure, knowing that tragedy could befall them at any time.                                                              A situation described by Lord Byron centuries later in his poem “Oh, weep for those.” The fourth stanza aptly sums up their unenviable destiny.

“Tribes of the wandering foot and weary breast! How shall ye flee away and be at rest! The wild-dove hath her nest–the fox his cave– Mankind their Country–Israel but the grave.”

Two hundred years after Byron’s death the wandering Jew is a nation to be reckoned with. The IDF is an innovative and feared/respected military force.  

In 1978 the legendry Bob Dylan wrote a song called ‘The Neighbourhood Bully.’

Novelist Ruchama King Feuerman  reviewing the song said, “No, it’s nowhere near his best song. Wikipedia omitted to mention it in a list of Dylan’s songs. Nevertheless, I’m including it because I like our new image.

 Well, the neighbourhood bully, he’s just one man.                                         His enemies say he’s on their land

They got him outnumbered about a million to one.
He got no place to escape to, no place to run.
He’s the neighbourhood bully.

The neighbourhood bully he just lives to survive.
He’s criticised and condemned for being alive.
He’s not supposed to fight back, he’s supposed to have thick skin.
He’s supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in.
He’s the neighbourhood bully.

The neighbourhood bully been driven out of every land.
He’s wandered the earth an exiled man.
Seen his family scattered, his people hounded and torn.
He’s always on trial for just being born.
He’s the neighbourhood bully.

Well, he knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticised.
Old women condemned him, said he should apologise
Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad
The bombs were meant for him. He was supposed to feel bad,
He’s the neighbourhood bully.

 

Joseph Rachman, a freelance journalist who covers events happening in Southeast Asia wrote – “Gaza is a burning topic for Southeast Asia’s domestic politics. A distant war has powerful resonance in a region often divided by faith.

In Indonesia, a presidential candidate and the foreign minister addressed   hundreds of thousands of protestors.

In Malaysia, the prime minister, draped in a Palestinian keffiyeh, led his own rally describing   the situation as “insanity” and “the height of barbarism.”

In Singapore, the government has simply banned   displaying either side’s flag.

Flags aside, over the years, Israel has continued to advise Singapore on an array of military topics, ranging from night operations to aviation psychology.

The defence and intelligence establishments of both countries conduct routine exchanges of information, and a small number of IDF officers serve in staff appointments within the Singapore Ministry of Defence (MINDEF).

In 2012, Singapore expressed interest in purchasing several Iron Dome defence system units. The purchase contract was concluded four years later.

However, Singapore is an exception in a region dominated by large Muslim populations. Of the 4 million + citizens and residents living in Singapore only 15.6 percent are recorded as Muslims.

When attacked, Israel hits back. After the massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic games all the perpetrators were hunted down and ‘eliminated.’ It’s an endless reckoning with our enemies.  

Deutsche Welle (DW) reporting about Saleh Arouri, a Hamas deputy leader who was assassinated in Beirut earlier this week, said- “Arouri was there "right from the beginning,"…” He became a radical in the 1980s, while studying in Hebron in the West Bank. He went on to co-found Hamas' military wing, the Qassam Brigades in 1988 and formed a strong bond with Yahya Sinwar, who leads Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Arouri was arrested by Israel multiple times and then released in 2010, then moved to Syria. After leaving Syria in 2012, he went to Turkey, then to Qatar in 2015, and then to Lebanon in 2017.

Saleh Arouri served as the "quasi-Hamas ambassador to Hezbollah and one of the key Hamas liaison officials in Lebanon entrusted with the Iran portfolio".

Deutsche Welle commented, “Although Arouri's death weakens Hamas to a certain extent, it doesn’t significantly affect the ongoing war in Gaza."

The German news outlet opined that Israel most likely killed Arouri.    According to CNN Israel hasn’t confirmed or denied involvement in the assassination, but Hamas and Hezbollah, blamed Israel and have vowed to avenge Arouri's death.

Just before we began ringing in the New Year The Economist published a summing up of the war in Gaza. – “As 2023 draws to a close, Israel’s forces in the Gaza Strip are deployed across the territory to their farthest extent.         An IDF armoured division is operating in the quarter of Gaza city where Israeli intelligence believes the last intact battalion of Hamas’s armed force is holding out. Farther south, seven brigade combat teams have converged on Khan Younis, Gaza’s second city, where Hamas’s leadership and most of nearly 130 Israeli hostages are assumed to be. Other brigades are attacking Hamas strongholds in towns across central and southern Gaza. Israeli commanders acknowledge ‘off the record,’ that these may be the last wide-scale offensives of the war.

In recent weeks the IDF has been taking journalists (including our correspondent) into tunnels dug by Hamas beneath Gaza. The main purpose of these organised trips is to reinforce the message that the Islamist movement that has ruled Gaza for over 16 years has built its military infrastructure under Gaza’s civilian population, including hospitals and schools. The IDF has sought to show that Hamas has wasted precious resources on a subterranean kingdom while the civilian population languishes in poverty.

Not to be outdone, Hamas claimed responsibility for the rocket barrage fired at Israel that occurred just after midnight, as people were ringing in the New Year.

 A piece in the Jerusalem Post describing the incident said, “Hamas rocket fire had lessened last week, making this particular salvo symbolic and significant. The group has already lost northern Gaza, as well as parts of central Gaza and the Khan Yunis command centre.

Despite this, Hamas showed it can still assemble a barrage of rockets. Pro-Iran Al-Mayadeen media claimed that Hamas fired dozens of M-90 rockets, targeting Tel Aviv and central Israel. The attack was launched as the war approaches its 90th day, or third month, and was designed to show Hamas is not yet defeated, and that it will continue this war, regardless of Israel’s offensive.”

At first my daughter Irit (who lives in Jaffa) and her neighbours mistakenly thought that the rockets (intercepted by ‘Iron Dome’ batteries) were part of a municipal fireworks display. Anyway, from the relative safety of the stairwell near her apartment they enjoyed the show.

Take care.

 Beni,

4^th of January, 2024.