Chol Hamoed News from Israel :
It seems it was a good move for Israel to have struck back at Iran before Pesach, as at least on the Seder night we were not sitting on shpikes waiting for the attack !
Seder night passed without too much incident and many people have now safely returned home from visiting family and friends , while others continue their vacation, which this year did not include the usually popular Sinai Penisula in Egypt.
The IDF are operating in a strip in the centre of Gaza, from where they can target terrorist infrastructure in both the north and the south. The passage of humanitarian aid is being allowed to flow freely through the centre. There is now so much food in Gaza that the airdrop parcels are being thrown away and other food stuff despite having been donated is being sold to further fund Hamas.
There are mixed reports on Israel’s timetable to enter Rafah, some say they are ready and lined up, others report that they must initially relocate over a million civilians which could take weeks. Additional units are being prepared and moved into Gaza, and we are hearing of consultations with Egypt and the US.
It is unbelievable that Hamas still has the capability to launch rockets into Israel, but they do, and even successfully hit buildings in Sderot on Wednesday ! The IAF are targeting between 30-50 terror targets a day in Gaza. Over 20 kilometres of newly discovered tunnels have been destroyed in the last few days. Hamas clearly want their civilians to suffer more as they are trying to destroy the aid floating pier that the US is constructing .
The fire from the north is increasingly heavy and continues to escalate . The Israeli Defence Minister claims that half of Hezbollah commanders on the border have been eliminated . It is reported that Hezbollah are using heavier war heads, and Israel is also increasing her targeted attacks pushing deeper into Lebanon . (Up to 75 miles from the border ).
The video of the Hamas leader Sinwar above ground has been debunked as false. The painful “proof of life” video released by Hamas , showing the 23 year old Israeli American hostage, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, is thought to be genuine.
The rumours are that there are only approximately 40 hostages alive just highlights how desperate the plight of the hostages remains. Every day that passes their chances of survival are reduced, and to add further difficulties Hamas have hardened their position. Qatar are said to feel abused during the negotiations and are threatening to withdraw.
Egypt is the gatekeeper of Gaza and may be able to pull Hamas back to the negotiating table, but their demands are totally unacceptable and will not bring about a long term peace in the area. Over 100,000 Israelis do not have sufficient security to return home.
The Houthi have fired on US ships and missiles are being intercepted, virtually daily in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Yemen. The shipping business is down over 60% due to the threats.
Outside of Israel the scenes at the American universities are more than worrying. It seems many of those demonstrating are demonstrating against Israel like sheep, without any real reason except anti semitism for the sake of anti semitism. They are supporting Hamas and Islamic Jihad, who openly admit to rape, kidnap, beheading and burning people in their homes, and vow to repeat these actions. How can any decent human beings support these attacks is baffling, but perhaps we need to accept like the Germans followed Nazism despite their inhumane atrocities , anti semitism triumphs all and all atrocities are acceptable as long as they are committed against Jews.
Personally, I am not yet happy to accept the picture that is being painted, as we are yet to hear from the silent majority, whose silence will lose patience eventually, as they get fed up with the violent Islamic mob and their idiot lefty supporters, pretending to represent the majority, while disrupting and threatening their lives.
Neither the government of the USA or the UK or even the UK opposition support this anti Israel, anti semitic movement that is sweeping the streets in both countries. They need to make their voices louder and instruct their police to come down much harder on the protestors who have crossed the line from free speech to death threats and incitement, instead of threatening to arrest those who are “openly Jewish” in case their presence causes a breach of the peace !
How many of these demonstrators actually understand that the chant “from the River to the Sea’, is in fact a call for the total destruction of the democratic state of Israel together with all her inhabitants ? They cry about an imagined genocide in Gaza, while simultaneously calling for one in Israel.
The calls for a two state solution of a yet to be defined country at this time is a staggeringly stupid vision while Israel is fighting those who were in charge of what was the first step to Palestinian self determination . This is a holy war for Islam and has absolutely nothing to do with land.
Each and every offer of a state has been rejected and the 30 year old Oslo agreement has led to nothing but violence and blood shed, putting into power corrupt leaders who operate a “pay to slay policy”, which receiving millions in international aid that is used for terror.
The reality that the Palestinian dream always included the destruction of Israel and the acceptance that that is not going to happen, unless the whole western world decides they want to accept Islamic doctrine and hand themselves on a platter to the darker Islamic world’s call to conquer the world would be a step in the right direction.
One may laugh at such an extreme prediction, but Israel is the dam that is holding back a total take over of the Middle East by Iran and Europe would be next.
The Western dream that Israel can just survive side by side with a Palestinian State must be walked back and a new realistic approach must be adopted, where the neighbouring Arab countries take responsibility for the many years of using the displaced Palestinians as pawns to kick Israel for her existence, while they themselves grew their economies but encouraged and supported this Jihadist tiger that they can now no longer ride.
A bit of honesty and truth backed by reality is the only way forward. The threat of Iran has brought the Gulf States to their rightful minds and now that Iran has taken off her gloves and stepped out of the shadows it is time for the world to take a reality pill and realise that supporting Israel and helping to defeat Islamic extremism is the only way to save themselves.
The people of Israel are in no mood to hear stupid liberal solutions that temporarily soothes the western woke conscious. Israel tried it the other way for decades only to be constantly attacked and then for a cease fire to be broken on October 7th.
Our sons and daughters are not only kidnapped and tortured, but are unnecessarily dying daily due to all the money that was sent to Hamas to support all the nonsense visions that now lay dead in the stagnant waters of European solutions for the Middle East.
You cannot deal with the Middle East by trying to apply accepted western values, it just doesn’t work and the Europeans and the Americans need to wake up and have the stomach to see the monster for it really is.
This time let’s pray that Israel has the support from the outside world to find the hostages and to finish this medieval death cult on our border once and for all.
Regards
Carolyne Davis