At last I think we could say Israel can now see the wood past the trees and the enemy is sitting naked, stripped of most of its lethal powers. We cannot get too excited yet as Netanyahu said, “ we remain in the eye of the storm”, but there is a light at the end of this very dark tunnel.
The leaders of both Hamas and Hezbollah are eliminated and each new leader is quickly disposed of before he can hardly take office . In fact, there is no one left in Gaza to deal with, and any negotiations are via Hamas members sitting comfortably in their host country Qatar.
The days are still deadly in Israel and this week civilians ,including a mother and son from an Arab village were killed together with an Israeli from a nearby kibbutz, working in an olive grove . We are losing hero soldiers virtually daily, so we cannot as yet claim victory.
Around 40 civilians have been killed in Israel in the last 30 days. A Hezbollah rocket also wounded 8 UNIFIL soldiers, but as it was their mission to make sure Hezbollah were not armed in Southern Lebanon, they are part of the problem. It does seem any organisation that starts with UN is part of the problem.
Now that UNWRA has rightly been banned , it is more vital to find a new way forward where the people who were kept as perpetual refugees can claim some agency and hopefully start to rebuild a new reality for themselves. It will require a lot of assistance, but in no way should Gaza just slip back into the past hopeless vicious cycle of dependence on terrorist organisations.
There are 3 months until this ban takes effect, so now, as the occupying force, Israel, has a duty to develop a new infrastructure, and try to bring in moderate Arab leaders with a different vision for the area.
The whole education system in Gaza will need a complete overhaul. The radical UNRWRA books that taught the children only hatred for their neighbours must be destroyed, and an education system promoting co-existence must be established. Imagine a future where children from Gaza come to Israel to mix with Israeli children, take tours, learn a different history, feel proud of themselves and learn to value life and not death. It may be a dream today, but in the words of Herzl “If you will it , it is no dream”.
The whole region cannot continue in this perpetual cycle of wars and violence and new leaders who want to promote peace must be found . We need books not bombs and not radical murderous books.
In Israel alone, nearly 1,800 have lost their lives and well over 400 soldiers have sacrificed their young lives. The death toll in Gaza, even with the 1.4 ratio of civilians to combatants is a tragedy.
While we may smart at the numbers killed, it has become evident in the past month that if Israel had listened to the voices of both the US and the Europeans the death toll would have massively increased.
Both weapons and tunnels have been uncovered in Lebanon and a plan to invade the north of Israel was imminent. Unbeknown to Israel, the terrifying truth is that they were actually facing invasion, with attacks planned from both the north and the south . Luckily, they were not properly co-ordinated on October 7th, and we have now crippled the enemy in both arenas.
Hezbollah continue to fire up to 150 rockets a day at the north . Metula and Ma’aolot are coming under heavy fire and any remaining residents are spending increasingly longer periods in shelters.
Nearly 90,000 still remain displaced from the north. Great challenges remain and each village that the IDF has entered in the south of Lebanon has been full of ammunition . A Hezbollah fuel depot was destroyed causing a huge explosion.
The whole of Southern Lebanon really is dynamite and Israel is not safe until the weapons are captured, destroyed and removed from the hands of the terrorists.
Syria is now an interesting actor in the arena, The Saudis and Egyptians tentatively are trying to bring Syria back into the Sunni Arab fold. Although Syria is a rogue state, if it could be delivered out of Iran’s axis of evil into a closer alliance with the civilised world then Iran would not have any land route on which to transport weapons and fighters. It would depend on Russia’s reaction, their main concern is maintaining their bases on the Mediterranean so can Iran rely on Putin not to double-cross them following Israel’s recent humiliations of the Ayatollah?
The Russians historically change sides to their advantage and it may be they will play a larger part in any peace process . The US left a vacuum when Obama allowed all red lines in the Middle East to be trampled. Putin identified his chance to jump into the void, and now has a lot of influence in Syria. Assad now rules courtesy of Putin !
There was a scare that terrorists had infiltrated the Arava in the South and Israel has announced a new unit to focus on security and strengthening the border along the route 90 to prevent weapons smuggling from Jordan, whilst maintaining the peaceful status quo with Jordan.
Gaza is not completely clear of Hamas and the IDF are continuing to clear out areas of fighters in the north , the Netzarim Corridor and Rafah. Hundreds of trucks of aid continue to pour into the strip but while it feeds the population it also supports the remaining Hamas.
The latest estimate is that only 50 hostages remain alive and the families are demanding a one-step deal where all the hostages dead and alive are released.
Iran continues to threaten to retaliate against Israel and the US has now said they will not restrain Israel and have deployed B-52 bombers to the region.
Shavuot Tov
Kind Regards
Carolyne Davis