Golan Heights

2024-05-06

Museums have taken a bit of a battering over the years, especially since 2020 and the advent of pandemic constraints and the merry Green Passport edict. But, to paraphrase an oft-used motivating saying, when the going gets tough, the tough start to improvise and meander their way over and around the enforced stumbling blocks. Some of the strides taken by our repositories of artworks and other important artifacts will be more accessible than usual – and free of charge – on May 9, when this year’s Museum Day event takes place. Raz Samira believes the numbers speak for themselves. “We have over 100 museums taking part this year,” says Samira, who combines her duties as deputy director and chief curator of the Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv, with her more stately post as chairwoman of International Council of Museums (ICOM) Israel. If there was more than a hint of pride in that declaration, it appears well-earned. “That’s up from 60 last year,” she adds. THE YAACOV Agam Museum of Art. (credit: Victor Osipov) That is significant growth, particularly at a time when we are still licking our wounds in the wake of October 7. And the suffering seems to be far from over. Samira notes that the rise is even more impressive considering the number of institutions that are unable to participate in Museum Day this time round due to security concerns. “That is without the museums on the Golan Heights, in Safed, and the whole of the southern region.” Notwithstanding the military activity and the concomitant national downer, Samira says she is looking forward to May 9 and the enlightening cultural pick-me-up she hopes people across the country will enjoy, especially in the present circumstances. “There is no tourism. There is no educational activity during the year,” she states. “Museum Day is a day of celebration.” It is, she feels, a lone beacon of light in an otherwise gloomy scenario. “The number of visitors to museums is down 98%,” she continues. The educational activity provided by museums has been cut back dramatically, both in the outlying regions and even in cities.” With that in mind, Samira and her colleagues at the likes of the Israel Museum, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History in Tel Aviv, the Bloomfield Science Museum in Jerusalem, Yad Vashem, the Tower of David Jerusalem Museum, and the Design Museum Holon – all of which are new additions to the Museum Day roll call – have set out to redress at least some of that instructive shortfall later this week. That urgent need has been taken fully on board by Samira and her counterparts, with this year’s nationwide event taking place under the Museums for Education and Research banner. “It is about the role of the museum in education and research,” Samira explains, adding that the chosen focus was not fueled by domestic woes alone. “It is in response to what is happening the world over. The emphasis is on the future generations and multiculturalism, and about advancing the role of the museum, cultural exchange and development, and uniting museums around the world.” That all sounds definitively wholesome and encouraging and, Samira notes, is part and parcel of the institutional purview. “Education is something that almost all museums provide. Education is an added value offered by museums,” she advises. There is official underpinning for the role. “The Museum Law demands that museums employ people in educational posts, and the museums are required to run educational activities. That is part of the [official] definition of a museum. The new definition of the museum highlights the fields of community and education.” That is quite a job description, and requires heavy investment in planning and scheduling by Samira and her fellow professionals. “We have a heavy workload all year round, not just on Museum Day,” the ICOM chairwoman stresses. “The only cultural body in the country that is obliged, by law, to provide educational services is the museum. Theaters, cinemas, and other cultural institutions don’t have to do that.” That means the museums have their work cut out for them, and all this while state support and funding are on the decline. “All museums have education departments designed to enable the museum to tell its story and communicate it. That can be done through the , preserving a building like the Tower of David, Israeli art, international art, or contemporary art.” WITH THE governmental powers that be fully cognizant of that idea surely, then, museums are provided with the requisite wherewithal to ensure they are fully equipped to provide those compulsory services. Having just returned from a meeting with , Samira perhaps had some good news to dispense. Sadly, that does not seem to be the case. “The budget for museums is a third less than the budget for other areas of culture,” she states. She feels the field suffers from a poor public image. “They are less in the front line of cultural consumerism. They are not like concerts. Over the years the funding has diminished. “That’s the way it is,” she adds with a sigh and a palpable air of resignation. That is all the more regrettable in the light of the efforts museums up and down the country have made to help bolster the national mood. “We saw that, during the coronavirus time and after October 7, how much the matter of museums providing cultural resilience was in the spotlight,” Samira asserts. “Museums, to this day, offer free admission to evacuees and military personnel. Evacuees can also take part in activities, inside the museums, for free. Museums also went on the road and took their activities to centers where evacuees were accommodated. We have done so much.” Perhaps Museum Day will help to remind wider sections of the public, as well as the officials with their hands on the state purse strings, of the benefits to be gained from visiting and supporting museums. “This is a day for showing the importance of the role of the museums, not just in education but also as social and cultural agents. Museums have a leading civilian role in the aftermath of . This is a celebration.” And all gratis on May 9. “Besides admission, all the tours and instruction, exhibitions and workshops are free. This is a wonderful opportunity,” says Samira. “People go to concerts; they should also visit museums.” For more information: www.icom.org.il ...قراءة المزيد

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2024-05-03

Here’s how you plan a reporting trip to Israel’s northern war zone.  You check the app of Israel’s Homefront Command to browse the locations of recent . You’re looking for someplace that’s seen some action, but not too much — because you don’t have a helmet or flak jacket and you’ve made some vague promises to your wife.  You find yourself puzzling over what shirt to wear: Should you go with olive green, which offers maximal camouflage from among your limited wardrobe, or does green increase the chances that a Hezbollah sniper will mistake you for a soldier and identify you as a target? In any case, you’re wearing blue jeans, so you don’t exactly blend in. You decide to split the difference and go with a brown T-shirt.  I live about two hours south of the conflict zone, so when I head toward the border with Lebanon, I’ve got a bit of a drive ahead of me, and I’m not sure where to go. Along the border, Israel faces daily fire from Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese group designated by numerous countries as a terror organization. More than from their homes in northern Israel since October. The visible military presence increases the farther north I get. Armored personnel carriers, army jeeps and military fuel trucks crowd the road, and the only travelers at rest stops seem to be soldiers. At one gas station, a handful of volunteers work a barbecue, offering soldiers free lunches, snacks and drinks.  Amidst tension with Syria, IDF Reserve infantrymen take part in a military maneuver of their battalion in Golan Heights, on April 1, 2024. (credit: MICHAEL GILADI/FLASH90) Closer to , the largest Israeli city to be evacuated, the traffic thins out but there are still a few cars on the road. I’m not quite sure where the danger begins. I’m in the panhandle area of Israel known as the Finger of the Galilee, an outcropping of territory surrounded by Lebanon to the west and north and the Golan (formerly Syria’s, now Israel’s) to the east. I eye the sky above the mountain ridge to my left, scanning for projectiles. The ridge itself is inside Israel, but Lebanon is just beyond. In the conflict zone, it’s safer to drive fast then slow because it’s harder for terrorists to target a fast-moving vehicle with a shoulder-borne weapon. It’s one of the many differences from normal life in this upside-down world, and it’s why all the traffic signals in Kiryat Shmona run continuously on flashing yellow lights. Stopping for a red light is just too dangerous. As I approach the southern entrance to Kiryat Shmona, just a mile and a half from Lebanon and well into the evacuation zone, the quiet, verdant hills belie the war that has taken the lives of about two dozen people in northern Israel since the outbreak of hostilities last October. More than 350 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, most of them Hezbollah members, according to the group. The area still bears the hallmarks of one of Israel’s most popular vacation destinations. Roadside signs advertise river kayaking, torchlight tours of the Nimrod fortress near the Syrian border, a cable car ride up the Manara Cliff. There’s no asterisk indicating they’re all closed, or explaining that dozens of homes in Kibbutz Manara, an Israeli community of 280 right along the Lebanese border, have been destroyed by Hezbollah fire.  I hadn’t intended to drive all the way into Kiryat Shmona. But I encounter no army checkpoint before I reach the city, and in the car beside me I spot an elderly woman behind the wheel, looking unfazed. Well, damn. If she can do it, so can I.  I manage to do a few interviews during my brief visit to Kiryat Shmona, but I’m interrupted by two sirens warning of incoming rocket fire. Locals rush me to shelter in the kitchen of the only shawarma restaurant still open in the city.  Before leaving town I pull up the map on my phone to find the best route out. It shows my location as the Beirut airport. I try again. This time I’m in Cairo. I later learn that the Israeli authorities regularly scramble GPS signals in the conflict zone so as not to provide rocket-armed enemies with information about the whereabouts of Israeli civilians. I had arrived on a day that GPS signals in the entire country were scrambled following an attack on the Iranian embassy in Damascus, for which Israel was anticipating reprisals by Iran or its proxies in Lebanon.  As I race eastward across the finger of the Galilee on a road lined with eucalyptus trees, I realize the trees serve a function I never before considered: They not only provide welcome shade but also block a direct line of sight for Hezbollah. I later learn that was by design. It takes just a few minutes to cross the Galilee here, and soon I again head northward. But a few miles later I encounter my first army checkpoint: Points north are dangerous for civilians.  I turn into Kfar Szold, the northernmost community in the Galilee not under mandatory evacuation orders. The soldiers at the kibbutz gate wave me through, and I park in front of a guesthouse where my two older kids and I stayed a couple of years earlier on a ski trip to Mount Hermon, about 45 minutes away. The rooms are all shuttered and the dining room is empty. The flowers that line the kibbutz pathways dazzle in a springtime bloom of yellow and purple. I can hear the faint buzz of a tractor.  From the kibbutz I continue farther east, climbing to the plateau of the Golan Heights —  territory Israel captured in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed. This is one of the most beautiful places in Israel, and it’s looking its best: The hills are still mostly green after the winter rainy season, even though it’s already over 85 degrees. In a few weeks they’ll turn dry and desiccated, yellowed out until next winter’s rains.  Although it’s still claimed by Syria, the Golan hasn’t seen real combat since the 1973 Yom Kippur war, when the area was the site of fierce tank battles between Syrian and Israeli forces. But the growing regional conflict that began on Oct. 7 has renewed concerns in the Golan that have been dormant for years. I notice newly erected berms with bunkers on the side of some roads — positions for the army to hold should there be an invasion of the territory. After Hamas’s surprise attack and the subsequent opening of the northern front by Hezbollah, that otherwise far-fetched scenario no longer can be ignored. Over the last six months of war, Hezbollah rocket attacks have reached many areas in the Golan, there have been a few drone infiltrations of the Golan from militants in Syria, and in mid-April Iran targeted sites in the Golan with its barrage of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones. With the sun sinking, I look for a place to do a short stand-up video to post on social media. I find an old, rusting tank left over from one of the wars and set up my shot. But late-afternoon swarms of gnats foil my plans, and all I’m left with is an expletive-laden video selfie where I stumble through the high grass swatting in vain at my miniscule antagonists.  It’s time to find a place to sleep. I know the Golan well enough to have favorite hotels here, but in community after community I find them all closed. My phone shows Airbnbs available nearby, but there’s no indication of whether they’re equipped with bomb shelters.  Sitting on the side of the road outside one of the Golan’s kibbutzim, I work my phone to reserve a room at a hotel near the Sea of Galilee — far from where I want to be the next day but safely beyond the conflict zone. It’s almost dark now, but there’s enough light to make out a dozen or more tanks parked in the trees across the road.  When I finally arrive at my hotel I’m surprised to find the parking lot full — until I reach the lobby and discover that almost all the guests are evacuees from one of the border communities up north. As I approach the reception desk the clerk looks up at me and says, “I know who you are! You’re the one who booked us on Expedia. Now I have to see if we have a clean room.”  He leaves me to wait in the lobby for a very long time. In the meantime, I go up to the dining room, where there are only 20 minutes left before the buffet dinner closes. I end up spending a long evening chatting with a group of seniors from an evacuated kibbutz who have been living at the hotel for more than five months. They seem to be in good spirits. When they see me the next morning at breakfast they greet me warmly by name.  It’s nearly noon before I find my way to the hotel exit, to head back to the Golan Heights for a day of reporting in Druze and Israeli villages near the nexus of the Israeli, Syrian and Lebanese borders. Along the way, I bump into some more elderly ladies on their way out of an exercise class and then some kindergarteners at their makeshift school. They’ve taken over the buggy of an Arab hotel employee setting up for the season’s opening of the outdoor swimming pool, and their teacher is trying to coax them out. The pool man is laughing.  At the time of my visit Passover was fast approaching and the hotel was expecting to be sold out, but a big chunk of guests were to be the evacuees who’ve been living there for months.  When I ask one of them if she thinks she’ll still be in the hotel for the fall Jewish holidays, a sad smile spreads across her face. She shrugs.  “We don’t know anything,” she says. “I try to do the best that I can within this situation.” ...قراءة المزيد

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2024-04-28

During four days in late April 1994, exactly 30 years ago, an awed world watched the first democratic elections in South Africa. The transformation occurred after the white regime realized that it could no longer maintain . One can debate what contributed more: strategic changes in the world following the collapse of the Soviet Union, which decreased South Africa’s importance to the West, or growing international sanctions. It is also possible to debate how reached its current crises regarding inequality, unemployment, crime, and so on.  But I will focus on lessons that contemporary Israel can learn from that change in South Africa. While we are “a step from total victory” in Gaza, to quote the prime minister, it is necessary to look at the territories Israel has controlled since the 1967 Six Day War. Just before Passover, we were informed that the government has begun the process of legalizing 68 “young settlements,” which were established without the approval of the government and are considered by Israeli law to be illegal. , who also serves as a minister in the Defense Ministry where he has broad authority over civilian issues in the territories, instructed several ministries to provide those settlements with the same services as regular settlements. This caused joy in some circles, consternation in others, and was met with a yawn elsewhere. So what difference does it make? Bezalel Smotrich (credit: Chaim Goldberg/Flash90) At the outset, it should be noted that Israel has not annexed the territories (Jerusalem and the Golan Heights are a different matter). No government in any combination of Right, Left, and Center did so. This includes the current coalition, whose guidelines begin with: “The Jewish people have an exclusive and inalienable right to all parts of the Land of Israel. The government will promote and develop the settlement of all parts of the Land of Israel – in the Galilee, the Negev, the Golan, and Judea and Samaria.” This is because annexation can have but two outcomes. One would entail providing equal rights to all residents of the annexed territories, and an Arab majority would soon terminate the Jewish state. The other is to grant rights on an ethnic basis, resulting in official discrimination, like apartheid.  Indeed, for almost 57 years, Israel insists that its hold on the territories is “belligerent occupation.” In international law, this means temporary military rule, which lays certain responsibilities on the occupier vis-à-vis the local population while guaranteeing the security of the occupier. In the past, all decisions regarding the territories, including establishing settlements, were taken by security personnel, and were officially based on security considerations. Thus, if the Fourth Geneva Convention decrees that the occupier cannot move its own population into occupied territories, Israel could claim that decisions on settlements were made due to security considerations, and thus comply with international law. The formation of the current coalition changed that. A civilian (Smotrich) was given extensive responsibility regarding the territories, and decisions may now be made based on openly civilian considerations. This raises a question: if Israel is no longer a belligerent occupier, are the territories annexed? If so, the choice between apartheid and the end of the Jewish majority is fast approaching.  WE ARE currently witnessing two developments that are reminiscent of South Africa. But whereas strategic changes were to South Africa’s detriment at the time, they now favor Israel. And in both cases, international sanctions were in evidence, due to the treatment of the local population. Recently, the United States and some Europeans expanded sanctions against individuals and organizations in the territories, and the US is considering sanctioning an Israeli army unit. At the same time, the reaction of countries in the world and in the region to the on Israel is evidence of a new strategic alliance.  Israel’s participation in this fresh alliance will serve its interests and those of other players in this international coalition, including Sunni Muslim countries. However, Israel’s conduct in the territories may be a stumbling block to their goodwill and cooperation, and could even lead to painful steps against us. Two coalitions stand before Israel, which can probably not exist side by side. One is the fresh international coalition against Iran and its cronies. The other rules Israel and believes that it is possible to continue ignoring the world indefinitely.  Thirty years after South Africa learned that even a large country with many resources cannot do as it pleases, it remains to be seen which coalition Israel will choose to preserve.  The writer is a former ambassador to South Africa, as well as Israel’s first ambassador to the Baltic states after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, and a past congressional liaison officer at the embassy in Washington. She is a graduate of Israel’s National Defense College. ...قراءة المزيد

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2024-04-23

It only took a day after the start of the for the first rocket to be launched from south Lebanon into the Galilee. Since then, there have been attacks almost daily, and on some days dozens of rockets are fired. Nine civilians and 11 soldiers have been killed in Israel. More than 200 Hezbollah fighters and about 40 civilians have died in Lebanon.  The Israeli government evacuated 43 communities within five kilometers of the Lebanese border, from the Mediterranean Sea in the west to the Golan Heights in the east, creating an effective security zone inside Israel along the entire length of the northern border. The evacuees that Israel forgotMore than 60,000 Israelis from the North have been displaced and are living in hotels or with relatives, friends, or in rental accommodation, away from the danger zone as the state of low-level warfare continues.The evacuees have already been away from their homes for six months, and the government has extended the evacuation period into the summer. Israeli government officials have held talks with the heads of the local municipalities in the North about the possibility that the school year will not open on September 1 because of the ongoing tension and the potential for a major flare-up.  The mostly evacuated town of Kiryat Shmona is pictured, amid the ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, on March 20. (credit: Miro Maman/Reuters)The residents of the North feel abandoned. Only a few ministers have actually visited the area, and no designated administration similar to the Tekuma Authority, which was formed to handle the western Negev, has been formed for the North.“Every morning, I wake up early and walk around Metula. Then I cry,” said David Azoulai, the mayor of the small community which straddles the Lebanese border. “Then I call the evacuees whose homes have been damaged, and then I feed the dogs that were left behind.”Azoulai, along with a small security detachment, is the only civilian left in Metula. The rest of the 2,500 residents were evacuated to hotels in Tiberias soon after the start of the Gaza war to escape Hezbollah rocket fire.The border fence is only 150 meters from the first Metula home, and two Shia villages on hills across the border look down on the village, granting Hezbollah terrorists an unobstructed line of fire.Every couple of days, a projectile slams into one of the deserted homes. The Russian-made Kornet anti-tank guided missiles have been particularly lethal: 130 of the 600 plus homes, in what was a thriving community based on agriculture and tourism, have already been damaged. Some have been totally destroyed.Metula was founded by pioneer farmers from Russia in 1896 as the northernmost Jewish colony before Israel was established in 1948. On only one occasion in the past – in 1920 when Arab gunmen attacked British and French troops in the area – did the residents flee.“We have to change the equation. I want the government to act and . We don’t want all-out war, but I can’t see any other way,” said Azoulai. “I don’t trust Hezbollah, and I don’t trust Lebanon. Maybe an agreement between the US and Iran will remove the Hezbollah threat. All we want is to live in peace and security.”Despite the daily cross-border exchanges of fire, the Hamas expectation that Hezbollah would launch an all-out war, opening a second front, has failed to materialize.US envoy Amos Hochstein has drawn up a peace plan. But he recently suspended his shuttle diplomacy aimed at restoring quiet on the northern border, convinced that Hezbollah will continue its attacks until there is a ceasefire in Gaza.According to Lebanese media reports, Hochstein’s plan consists of three stages: a ceasefire in parallel with a Gaza ceasefire; Hezbollah gunmen withdrawing from the Israeli border and the deployment of some 15,000 Lebanese troops along the border; and indirect negotiations between Lebanon and Israel over marking the land border and adding an international observer force.Israel says it will remove the Hezbollah threat, preferably via diplomatic channels. But if not, with a war. At the end of March, a senior Israeli official said that a ground operation would be launched in the North after an operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. “Attaining the strategic objective of restoring the residents of the North to their homes will necessitate a ground war. We’ll do that after Rafah, not simultaneously,” the official said.Sarit Zehavi, president of the Alma research center focusing on Israel’s security challenges in the North, believes that in the absence of a full-scale war, the Israel Defense Forces are currently following a middle, interim path.“The objective of this third way is to obtain as many Israeli military gains as possible as long as fighting with Hezbollah continues, but to do so without descending into war, and to maintain this situation until a ceasefire is reached.”The tit-for-tat attacks have been maintained to date to avoid a broad-scale conflagration that neither side currently wants, but the danger exists that a single mistake or miscalculation could lead to a full-scale war.Some Israeli strikes are deep into Lebanese territory, more than 100 kilometers north of Metula, from north of Beirut to the Bekaa Valley around the Hezbollah stronghold of Baalbek. Targets have included Hezbollah’s drone warehouses and some of its air defense batteries.  was a copy-paste of the blueprint drawn up, and widely publicized, by Hezbollah a decade ago: a massive rocket barrage as a cover for large-scale cross-border infiltrations by well-trained, elite units with the aim of infiltrating Israeli border communities to kill and kidnap as many civilians and soldiers as possible.The possibility of such an attack by Hezbollah’s Radwan strike force still exists, although is unlikely at this juncture due to the damage Israel has inflicted on Hezbollah (some 300 Hezbollah fighters have been killed, according to Israeli estimates) since October and the large deployment of Israeli forces along the border. The Israeli strikes in the border zone on the northern side of the border have forced Hezbollah to pull back most of its Radwan fighters.However, the atrocities of October 7 have instilled fear in Israeli residents of the North, and few are likely to return to their homes until Hezbollah is pushed far from the border on a permanent basis. UN Resolution 1701, passed following the 2006 Second Lebanon War, called for the removal of all militia forces to north of the Litani River, 20-30 kilometers north of the border, but Hezbollah still deployed throughout southern Lebanon with impunity.Kiryat Shmona, with a pre-war population of 24,000, lies 10 kilometers south of Metula. Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, the town sustained incessant rocket fire from the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in south Lebanon, then dubbed Fatahland. But the residents stayed put, and the town became a symbol of Israeli steadfastness under fire.Not long ago, a top IDF general told the mayor that he would evacuate Beirut before evacuating Kiryat Shmona. The town was not in the original government evacuation plan, but after October 7 residents started to flee and the government acceded to the demands to relocate Kiryat Shmona residents as well, turning it into the largest community in the North to be evacuated.The evacuation itself was chaotic, as the residents clambered onto buses without the government organizing alternative accommodation in time. Today, Kiryat Shmona resembles a ghost town. Only 3,000 residents remain – mostly emergency service workers and those who find it too difficult to relocate, such as the elderly and infirm.Traffic is so light that the municipality has stopped operating the traffic lights. Only one supermarket is operating, and that closes at noon and often lacks fresh produce. Residents report that wolves and other wild animals roam the streets at night.On March 27, a barrage of more than 30 rockets was directed at Kiryat Shmona, killing one person who was trapped in the burning rubble of a factory in the town’s industrial zone. Other buildings and vehicles were damaged. That attack came after an Israeli targeted killing of a senior member of a Palestinian Sunni militia and six other members of the group in the village of Hebbariyeh in southern Lebanon.More than 25 buildings, six kindergartens, and two schools in Kiryat Shmona have been hit by Hezbollah rockets. Two people have been killed and more than a dozen wounded, including two who suffered serious injuries.“Before October 7, we were prepared for Hezbollah rocket fire, but October 7 changed everything,” said Ariel Frish, Kiryat Shmona’s deputy security officer. “No one will come back until it’s safe. We will not live with the threat of Hezbollah knocking on our door, killing and raping us. If we don’t eliminate the threat, a war will be just a matter of time.”Many of the evacuees have already decided not to return to Kiryat Shmona. Others are sitting on the fence. But the longer the uncertainty continues, the greater the chances are that residents of Kiryat Shmona, and the other evacuees from northern Israel, will relocate elsewhere on a permanent basis. Pressure is mounting on the government to act. ■ More than 60,000 Israelis from the North have been displaced and are living in hotels or with relatives, friends, or in rental accommodation, away from the danger zone as the state of low-level warfare continues. The evacuees have already been away from their homes for six months, and the government has extended the evacuation period into the summer. Israeli government officials have held talks with the heads of the local municipalities in the North about the possibility that the school year will not open on September 1 because of the ongoing tension and the potential for a major flare-up.  The mostly evacuated town of Kiryat Shmona is pictured, amid the ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, on March 20. (credit: Miro Maman/Reuters) The residents of the North feel abandoned. Only a few ministers have actually visited the area, and no designated administration similar to the Tekuma Authority, which was formed to handle the western Negev, has been formed for the North. “Every morning, I wake up early and walk around Metula. Then I cry,” said David Azoulai, the mayor of the small community which straddles the Lebanese border. “Then I call the evacuees whose homes have been damaged, and then I feed the dogs that were left behind.” Azoulai, along with a small security detachment, is the only civilian left in Metula. The rest of the 2,500 residents were evacuated to hotels in Tiberias soon after the start of the Gaza war to escape Hezbollah rocket fire. The border fence is only 150 meters from the first Metula home, and two Shia villages on hills across the border look down on the village, granting Hezbollah terrorists an unobstructed line of fire. Every couple of days, a projectile slams into one of the deserted homes. The Russian-made Kornet anti-tank guided missiles have been particularly lethal: 130 of the 600 plus homes, in what was a thriving community based on agriculture and tourism, have already been damaged. Some have been totally destroyed. Metula was founded by pioneer farmers from Russia in 1896 as the northernmost Jewish colony before Israel was established in 1948. On only one occasion in the past – in 1920 when Arab gunmen attacked British and French troops in the area – did the residents flee. “We have to change the equation. I want the government to act and . We don’t want all-out war, but I can’t see any other way,” said Azoulai. “I don’t trust Hezbollah, and I don’t trust Lebanon. Maybe an agreement between the US and Iran will remove the Hezbollah threat. All we want is to live in peace and security.” Despite the daily cross-border exchanges of fire, the Hamas expectation that Hezbollah would launch an all-out war, opening a second front, has failed to materialize. US envoy Amos Hochstein has drawn up a peace plan. But he recently suspended his shuttle diplomacy aimed at restoring quiet on the northern border, convinced that Hezbollah will continue its attacks until there is a ceasefire in Gaza. According to Lebanese media reports, Hochstein’s plan consists of three stages: a ceasefire in parallel with a Gaza ceasefire; Hezbollah gunmen withdrawing from the Israeli border and the deployment of some 15,000 Lebanese troops along the border; and indirect negotiations between Lebanon and Israel over marking the land border and adding an international observer force. Israel says it will remove the Hezbollah threat, preferably via diplomatic channels. But if not, with a war. At the end of March, a senior Israeli official said that a ground operation would be launched in the North after an operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. “Attaining the strategic objective of restoring the residents of the North to their homes will necessitate a ground war. We’ll do that after Rafah, not simultaneously,” the official said. Sarit Zehavi, president of the Alma research center focusing on Israel’s security challenges in the North, believes that in the absence of a full-scale war, the Israel Defense Forces are currently following a middle, interim path. “The objective of this third way is to obtain as many Israeli military gains as possible as long as fighting with Hezbollah continues, but to do so without descending into war, and to maintain this situation until a ceasefire is reached.” The tit-for-tat attacks have been maintained to date to avoid a broad-scale conflagration that neither side currently wants, but the danger exists that a single mistake or miscalculation could lead to a full-scale war. Some Israeli strikes are deep into Lebanese territory, more than 100 kilometers north of Metula, from north of Beirut to the Bekaa Valley around the Hezbollah stronghold of Baalbek. Targets have included Hezbollah’s drone warehouses and some of its air defense batteries.  was a copy-paste of the blueprint drawn up, and widely publicized, by Hezbollah a decade ago: a massive rocket barrage as a cover for large-scale cross-border infiltrations by well-trained, elite units with the aim of infiltrating Israeli border communities to kill and kidnap as many civilians and soldiers as possible. The possibility of such an attack by Hezbollah’s Radwan strike force still exists, although is unlikely at this juncture due to the damage Israel has inflicted on Hezbollah (some 300 Hezbollah fighters have been killed, according to Israeli estimates) since October and the large deployment of Israeli forces along the border. The Israeli strikes in the border zone on the northern side of the border have forced Hezbollah to pull back most of its Radwan fighters. However, the atrocities of October 7 have instilled fear in Israeli residents of the North, and few are likely to return to their homes until Hezbollah is pushed far from the border on a permanent basis. UN Resolution 1701, passed following the 2006 Second Lebanon War, called for the removal of all militia forces to north of the Litani River, 20-30 kilometers north of the border, but Hezbollah still deployed throughout southern Lebanon with impunity. Kiryat Shmona, with a pre-war population of 24,000, lies 10 kilometers south of Metula. Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, the town sustained incessant rocket fire from the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in south Lebanon, then dubbed Fatahland. But the residents stayed put, and the town became a symbol of Israeli steadfastness under fire. Not long ago, a top IDF general told the mayor that he would evacuate Beirut before evacuating Kiryat Shmona. The town was not in the original government evacuation plan, but after October 7 residents started to flee and the government acceded to the demands to relocate Kiryat Shmona residents as well, turning it into the largest community in the North to be evacuated. The evacuation itself was chaotic, as the residents clambered onto buses without the government organizing alternative accommodation in time.  Today, Kiryat Shmona resembles a ghost town. Only 3,000 residents remain – mostly emergency service workers and those who find it too difficult to relocate, such as the elderly and infirm. Traffic is so light that the municipality has stopped operating the traffic lights. Only one supermarket is operating, and that closes at noon and often lacks fresh produce. Residents report that wolves and other wild animals roam the streets at night. On March 27, a barrage of more than 30 rockets was directed at Kiryat Shmona, killing one person who was trapped in the burning rubble of a factory in the town’s industrial zone. Other buildings and vehicles were damaged. That attack came after an Israeli targeted killing of a senior member of a Palestinian Sunni militia and six other members of the group in the village of Hebbariyeh in southern Lebanon. More than 25 buildings, six kindergartens, and two schools in Kiryat Shmona have been hit by Hezbollah rockets. Two people have been killed and more than a dozen wounded, including two who suffered serious injuries. “Before October 7, we were prepared for Hezbollah rocket fire, but October 7 changed everything,” said Ariel Frish, Kiryat Shmona’s deputy security officer. “No one will come back until it’s safe. We will not live with the threat of Hezbollah knocking on our door, killing and raping us. If we don’t eliminate the threat, a war will be just a matter of time.” Many of the evacuees have already decided not to return to Kiryat Shmona. Others are sitting on the fence. But the longer the uncertainty continues, the greater the chances are that residents of Kiryat Shmona, and the other evacuees from northern Israel, will relocate elsewhere on a permanent basis. Pressure is mounting on the government to act. ■ ...قراءة المزيد

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2024-04-19

A short survey of events from some of the fronts in the multi-arena, multi-level conflict now underway in the Middle East: Earlier this week, Israeli fighter jets carried out missions against two sites in southern Lebanon – Mis al-Jabal and Tyre Harfa. IDF artillery forces hit targets in the Har Dov/Shebaa Farms area.  The strikes followed an incident in the border area in which four IDF soldiers carrying out activities on the Lebanese side of the border were wounded by an IED.  These are the latest incidents in the undeclared conflict taking place between Lebanese Hezbollah and Israel since October 8, 2023. This conflict, which began, of course, in the wake of , is of major dimensions and involves near-daily clashes.  Two hundred and seventy-four Hezbollah fighters have been killed since October. Around 80,000 Israelis and over 100,000 Lebanese have left their homes in the border area. A combined total of 4,400 attacks have taken place, initiated by one or another of the sides since October, according to a recent study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.   , the historically significant direct Iranian role has rightly commanded attention. But it should be noted that three proxy militias also participated in the Iranian assault. Objects are seen in the sky above Jerusalem after Iran launched drones and missiles towards Israel, in Jerusalem April 14, 2024. (credit: RONEN ZVULUN/REUTERS) Lebanese Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets at IDF positions in the Golan Heights; the Yemeni Ansar Allah (Houthis) organization launched UAVs targeting Eilat (which were downed); and an Iraqi Shia militia has noted its involvement, which probably also involved launching UAVs.  Alongside the overt conflict, the long-standing clandestine war continues. Lebanese officials are claiming Israeli involvement in the killing in recent days of Mohammed Ibrahim Surour, a Lebanese banker involved with Hezbollah, whose body was discovered on April 9 in a villa in Beit Meri, a resort town overlooking Beirut. Surour had been sanctioned by the US Treasury Department in 2019 for his involvement in transferring funds from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) to Hamas in the West Bank and Gaza.   According to a report in the pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar newspaper, he was lured to the villa on April 4. He had earlier been contacted by a woman calling herself Zainab Hammoud, who said she was waiting for a money transfer from Iraq. As for the $6,500 in cash placed alongside the body, al-Akhbar interpreted it as a signal from whoever killed Surour that the killing was not carried out as part of his financial dealings.  The details of Surour’s assassination offer an indication of the interconnectedness of Iran and its proxies and clients. Here is a Lebanese financier, reportedly cooperating with Hezbollah, but not a member of the organization, engaged in the transfer of funds from the IRGC to Tehran’s allies in Gaza and the West Bank. And apparently paying the price for this activity.Reporting recently in Deir al Zur, in eastern Syria, I was fascinated to learn that the ongoing Iranian effort to stir up the Sunni Arab tribes east of the Euphrates against the US and its Syrian Kurdish allies is managed on the ground by veteran members of Lebanese Hezbollah. These efforts involve the recruitment of mid-level figures among the tribes of this Arab-majority province, and the provision of weaponry to facilitate actions against the local US ally, the Syrian Democratic Forces.  One hundred and fifty people were killed in August-September 2023, after the SDF arrested Rashid Abu Khawla, a member of the Baqqara tribe who had been recruited by the Iranians. Abu Khawla’s supporters declared the foundation of the Sons of Jazeera movement and fought running battles with the SDF in the oil belt around al-Omar – all directed from the area held by the Iranians and the Assad regime, west of the Euphrates.  Deir al Zur matters because it is located along the contiguous area of territory between the Iraq-Syria border and the borders with Israel and Lebanon, which Iran seeks to control. The tribal insurgency is intended to turn up the heat sufficiently to force the Americans to pull out.  This would facilitate the return of the Assad “government” to the area, and in practice enable freedom of operation for Iran and its various proxies.  SO HERE we have four separate and discrete arenas of conflict underway simultaneously over the last week. They are, of course, only part of the total picture.  They range from a strategic state-to-state act of war (the Iranian attacks on Israel of April 13), via a local, limited, conventional clash between an Iranian proxy and Israel (the current fight between the IDF and Hezbollah in the area north and south of the Israel-Lebanon border), to an apparent act of clandestine warfare (the killing of Mohammed Surour) which revealed a financial trail stretching from Iran via Lebanese Hezbollah across to Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank and across to a seeming backwater, which on close examination turns out to be an area of strategic importance (Deir al-Zur), where an Iranian proxy is operating a yet more junior proxy in an ongoing challenge to the Americans and their allies.   What does this all add up to? Obviously, these separate arenas are not separate at all. Rather, they are all part of a single effort. That is the ongoing Iranian push for hegemony in the region, which includes a long war intended to end with the destruction of Israel. The labyrinthine web of which these four examples constitute elements is the instrument to be used to advance this ambition. The Iranian nuclear program is the insurance policy intended to prevent concerted action against it.  Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, former commander of CENTCOM, noted in an assessment this week of the significance of the April 13 Iranian attacks that they constituted an example whereby a country sought to “escalate to de-escalate.”  What McKenzie meant was that the attacks did not and were not intended to constitute an unambiguous and deliberate shift by Iran from the proxy warfare field to that of open confrontation. This was not a Pearl Harbor-style declaration of war. Rather, Iran’s intention was to “cow the opponent into changing its behavior by convincing it that it is at heightened risk.”  That is, Iran sought to respond to the killing of IRGC general Mohammed Reza Zahedi in such a way as to induce Israel away from any further open targeting of Iranian figures, and any further effort to turn the contest with Iran into a direct fight. The absence of a major Lebanese Hezbollah assault paired with the Iranian missile and drone attacks supports this view.  The reason for this is quite plain. Tehran likes the strategy of web-spinning and slow bleeding of enemies which it currently pursues. This approach has delivered dividends for Tehran over the last two decades – from effective domination of Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen – and up to and including the current Gaza war. So it wants to get back to operating this strategy as soon as it can.  It’s possible that the befuddled West may yet act to permit this.  The exhortations from various leaders following the April 13 attacks that Israel now seek to “de-escalate” would suggest that many in the West want to give the Iranians precisely what they seek.  This further suggests that the West has, still, not yet grasped the nature of the game, even as the Iranians continue to vigorously pursue it on all fronts. The hour grows late.   ...قراءة المزيد

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2024-04-16

UJA Federation of New York in Israel unveiled a new investment of NIS 40 million aimed at bolstering front-line settlements in the north of Israel. This investment marks the latest contribution in a series of support provided since the onset of the war, which now totals approximately NIS 315 million out of the NIS 700 million raised by the organization. Itzik Shmuli, CEO of the UJA Federation of in Israel, emphasized the organization's ongoing commitment during these turbulent times. "We are not stopping here. We will continue to support Israel's emergency needs in this difficult time," Shmuli stated. Further clarifying the Federation's motives and plans, Shmuli added, "As Israel fights for its home, we do not pause for a moment and continue to deliver tremendous aid to support emergency needs across the country. We are proud to lead the largest philanthropic effort since October 7, when our national home faced attacks. Alongside our unwavering support for the southern settlements and their residents, we have decided to expand our assistance to the northern front-line settlements by adding approximately NIS 40 million to the similar amount we have already invested there." The newly announced funds will extend direct support to all 39 communities that have been evacuated from the . The support includes aid to front-line councils such as Ma'ale Yosef, Mateh Asher, Upper Galilee, Mevo'ot HaHermon, and Merom HaGalil. In addition to supporting cities like Kiryat Shmona, Shlomi, Metula, Nahariya, Psuta, Rejar, and Horfish, the funds also benefit four Druze authorities in the Golan Heights region. Dr. Zvi Sheleg, Itzik Shmuli, and Professor Masoud Beharom. (credit: UJA-Federation of New York) This ongoing support follows an initial investment of NIS 22 million provided in the first month of the conflict, which covered grants to all northern border authorities and cities, including Nahariya, Kiryat Shmona, Metula, and Ma'alot. The support framework extends to healthcare facilities like Poriya Medical Center, Ziv, and . It includes thousands of dollars transferred to support civil society organizations in refugee cities nationwide, focusing on Tiberias. ...قراءة المزيد

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2024-04-15

Israel’s wars changed fundamentally in January 1991. Why January 1991? Israel was not at war with any of its Arab neighbors at that time. No, it wasn’t, but the US – under President George H.W. Bush – was. As a result of the US invasion of Iraq, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein decided to launch Scud missiles toward Israel, primarily at Tel Aviv and Haifa. From that moment on, Israel’s confrontations with enemies beyond its borders changed forever. It was no longer Israeli tanks against Egyptian tanks in the Sinai or Syrian tanks on the Golan Heights; rather, it was their rockets and missiles against Israel’s population centers, their missiles against Israel’s kindergartens. So what was Israel to do? It did not do back then what it did for the first time in its history after October 7 and emptied large swaths of its territory. Instead, it embarked on an ambitious project to develop a three-tiered missile defense system so that if the enemy would launch missiles or rockets, Israel would be able to swat most of them out of the sky. Israel’s missile defense system actually started a few years earlier. In 1988, following the purchase by Arab countries of surface-to-surface missiles and the use by Saddam during the Iran-Iraq war of a Scud with a range of 600 km. that could hit Tel Aviv, Israel joined Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, popularly known as “Star Wars.” A contract was signed with Israel Aircraft Industries to develop an experimental missile that could hit an incoming rocket. Real movement on that project, however, did not begin until 1991, when the need became critically apparent as a result of Saddam’s Scud attacks on Israel.The Israel Missile Defense Organization conducts live-fire intercept tests of the David's Sling weapon system (credit: DEFENSE MINISTRY) The three-tiered missile defense system that Israel developed since then is made up of the Arrow, designed to intercept ballistic missiles from Iran that fly above the earth’s atmosphere; David’s Sling, intended to intercept medium- to long-range rockets, cruise missiles, and drones in the hands of Hezbollah in Lebanon; and the Iron Dome, to take out the short-range rockets that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fire from Gaza. April 14, the night of Iran’s , is a landmark in that it demonstrated that this anti-missile defense umbrella actually works, and this – like those Scuds in 1991 – could have a lasting impact on how wars will be waged here going forward. The Arab world, in the beginning, believed it could defeat Israel through the use of conventional armies, trademarks of the 1948, 1967, and 1973 wars. When it became clear that Israel could not be defeated through traditional warfare, the country’s enemies shifted to a different tactic: terrorism, with the belief that terrorism would wear down the will and resilience of the nation. When that, too, failed, the focus turned to rockets, in the belief that raining down hundreds and perhaps thousands of rockets on the country would lead to its demise. As a result, developing a system to prevent exactly that from happening became a top priority, one that relied on cutting-edge technology. The faith of Israelis in its military’s cutting-edge technology took a battering on October 7, however, when all that vaunted technology – all the hi-tech bells and whistles that were supposed to make the Gaza border impenetrable – failed and 3,000 well-armed and well-trained terrorists intent on breaking through the border wall. Not only did the technology fail in preventing a massive terrorist infiltration, but the intelligence community, which relies heavily on technology to gather intelligence, failed to warn of an impending attack. All of a sudden, placing enormous amounts of faith in the ability of state-of-the-art technology to keep the country safe seemed like a terrible mistake. On October 7, technology and Israel. On April 14, it saved it. Well, at least the technology did. The initial intelligence upon which the IDF reportedly acted on April 1 to kill the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps commander Mohammad Reza Zahedi in Damascus was flawed. Israel reportedly – and not without reason, given past experience – did not expect the type of Iranian reaction that followed, and definitely not an attack from Iranian soil. That assessment, as is now painfully evident, was way off base. Nevertheless, Israel – thanks to the cooperation of the US and regional allies – did have exact intelligence Saturday night of an impending attack. On October 7, the military received signs of an imminent attack but that information. On April 14, it had the information and to act on it. Unlike what happened on October 7 when all the hi-tech wizardry failed to block Hamas, this time, all that wizardry did the trick – and the ability to shoot down a missile above the earth’s stratosphere with another is nothing less than wizardry. The impressive show this missile defense system put on was important not only for Israel’s enemies to see, but also for Israelis to see themselves. It is clear why Hezbollah and Iran needed to witness the effectiveness of missile defense systems. This helps to restore Israel’s deterrence, which suffered a blow on October 7. Despite enduring a terrible setback then, Israel with its intelligence and technology proving penetrable and far less robust than expected, the capability on Sunday morning – with assistance from allies – to intercept 99% of the projectiles fired from Iran must be sobering for its enemies. They view their rocket arsenal as the most effective way to attack the Jewish state. As important, however is the impact of this technological success on Israelis themselves. It was striking to see how quickly Israeli citizens returned to themselves within hours of watching missiles and rockets and drones in real-time headed in their direction. Once the all-clear signal was sounded, life went back to normal as the country saw that the system worked and that hundreds of rockets, missiles, and suicide drones fired at the same time could be batted away. Yes, it’s expensive, and no, the country can’t do it all on its own. But this showed that the umbrella works, and having a working umbrella is hugely reassuring when – as is currently the case – the regional forecast is for storms ahead. ...قراءة المزيد

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2024-04-09

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued Tuesday morning a of an airstrike on military infrastructure, and a military position, belonging to the Syrian army According to the statement, fighter jets targeted the Syrian army positions and infrastructure in Mahajjah, within the Daraa Governorate of southern Syria. In addition, the IDF reported of two incidents of artillery fire toward Syria.  Monday night, IDF artillery attacked a position of the Syrian army in the south of the country. The second incident was in response to a "launch" detected from Syria towards the Golan Heights area. "One launch was detected from Syrian territory towards the Yonatan area in the Golan Heights, there were no casualties. The IDF attacked with artillery fire the sources of the fire," the Israeli military said in its statement. The statement concluded that overnight there were two launches detected from territory towards the Misgav area in northern Israel, which fell in open areas and there were no casualties. ...قراءة المزيد

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2024-04-08

Those who fought and survived the hoped that the bitter lessons of that war had been learned and that Israel would never experience a similar catastrophe.  Tragically, one day after the 50th anniversary of that war, history repeated itself with the devastating Hamas attack of October 7. The similarities between these events are chillingly striking. The Yom Kippur War began with an attack by Egypt and Syria on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. There were many signs that war was imminent. Both countries visibly massed hundreds of thousands of soldiers on their borders with Israel.  Substantive warnings came from Israeli intelligence services, as well as from Jordan’s King Hussain and the spy Ashraf Marwan, the son-in-law of the late Egyptian President, .  Notably, a week before Yom Kippur, Russian military advisors in Syria and Egypt sent their families back home.  Israel’s front lines were poorly defended; there were only five hundred reserve soldiers stationed on the Suez Canal facing Egypt and only three thousand on the Golan Heights facing Syria.   An IDF armored unit in its encampment on the east bank of the Suez Canal during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. (credit: YIGAL TOMARKIN/GPO) After the victories of the 1967 Six-Day War, when the Arabs had been quickly and soundly defeated, both the Israeli military and the general population were still collectively steeped in hubris.  They ignored the costly War of Attrition of the early 1970’s. They seemed to ignore the rearming of Arab armies, which had acquired new anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, thereby erasing both the air and armored corps superiority of Israel.  By 1973, the military defense of Sinai was based on a line of fortifications called the “Bar Lev Line” and a plan to ignite gasoline over the Suez Canal should the Egyptian army try to cross it.  The Israeli army had also installed a sophisticated system intended to provide early warning of an incipient attack. None of these worked as the Egyptian military attacked on Yom Kippur.  The Bar Lev Line was overrun within hours; both the plan to set fire to the canal and the early warning system were complete failures. The Israeli government was held captive by the premise created by the Chief of Military Intelligence that the Arabs, lacking sufficient military aircraft, were incapable of mounting an attack against Israel. Similarly, on October 7, 2023, Hamas lured Israel into believing that they were not planning to attack. Rather, as the entity holding power in the government, they projected the illusion that their resources were focused on the economic rehabilitation of the Gaza Strip.  The plan to invade Israel was kept secret by Hamas leadership and was not even revealed to their own invading forces until the morning of the attack.   The attack on took place on the Jewish holidays of Shabbat and Simchas Torah, which occurred on the same day when relatively few soldiers were stationed on the border with Gaza.  The reduced number of soldiers reflected the belief of the commanders of the Israeli Defense Force that Hamas was incapable of mounting an effective attack and that any potential invasion would be prevented by both a fortified security wall and a system of automated weapons.  The Israeli Defense Forces had erected observation towers and relied on surveillance balloons to monitor activities in Gaza.  Meanwhile, they diverted troops from the border to deal with the growing unrest in the West Bank.  As has been extensively documented, Hamas bulldozed and bypassed the supposedly impenetrable Israeli wall by flying over it and attacking the Mediterranean Sea.  They destroyed the observation towers and the military communication systems, thus overwhelming poorly defended Israeli settlements and military installations with thousands of attackers. The renowned Israeli Defense Forces were powerless to stop the catastrophic onslaught.  In hindsight, there were multiple warnings that Hamas had been planning an attack on Israel for months, if not longer. First, its attack plan, known as “Jericho Walls,” was known to Israeli intelligence. Second, both the Egyptian and the US intelligence agencies had warned Israel about the risk of an imminent assault from Gaza.   Third, Hamas fighters had been viewed as practicing the takeover of Israeli military and civilian locations using models of Israeli communities.  Finally, analysts and spotters trained to analyze border irregularities warned that Hamas had begun preparations for an attack.   Just as in 1973, neither the military high command nor the political establishment took these warnings seriously, belittling the capabilities of Hamas and dismissing the warnings from other intelligence sources, as well as their own border spotters. And, as in the Yom Kippur War, those on the frontlines were sacrificed, and those who rushed in to assist them were outnumbered and outgunned. While only Israeli soldiers took the brunt of the attacks during the Yom Kippur War, on October 7, the full range of the Israeli population was victimized, including children and the elderly. The October 7 massacre shook Israel to its core; its long-term effects are yet to be realized. It is critical that, for Israel to survive and fulfill its promise as a democratic and safe haven for all its citizens, it must engage in a thorough and painful investigation to unearth the roots of this massive failure in strategic intelligence and national arrogance to learn, understand, and incorporate the bitter lessons of October 7.  History must not be allowed to repeat itself again.   Itzhak Brook (MD) is a professor of Pediatrics at Georgetown University, Washington, DC, and the Author of “In the Sands Of Sinai—A Physician’s Account of The Yom Kippur War.” ...قراءة المزيد

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2024-04-04

The United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called for immediate "concrete steps to protect aid workers and Palestinian civilians in Gaza after repeated coordination failures with foreign aid groups," said the readout of his phone conversation with Israel's Minister Yoav Gallant. The Pentagon chief also urged for a "swift and transparent investigation" of the strike on the WCK convoy in Gaza that killed seven aid workers. "This tragedy makes it more difficult to flood the zone with humanitarian assistance, as Israeli officials have stated they seek to do." “Secretary Austin stated that this tragedy reinforced the expressed concern over a potential Israeli military operation in Rafah, specifically focusing on the need to ensure the evacuation of Palestinian civilians and the flow of humanitarian aid,” added the readout. The U.S. Defense Secretary is said to have reiterated the "U.S. support for Israel’s defense against a range of regional threats" as well as his call for "a rapid increase of aid coming through all crossings in the coming days, particularly to communities in northern Gaza that are at risk of famine.” Rocket alert sirens sounded around 1:00 a.m. (local time) in the Golan Heights. Two rockets are said to have fallen in the open area. To catch up on the full events of the war from Wednesday, Read more in-depth updates on the The U.S. military reports joint airdrop of humanitarian aid in northern Gaza with Jordanian Air Forces "The combined joint operation included Jordanian provided food and three U.S. Air Force C-130 aircraft. The U.S. C-130s dropped over 38,000 meal equivalents, providing life-saving humanitarian assistance in Northern Gaza," read the U.S. Central Command post on X (formerly Twitter). This post can't be displayed because social networks cookies have been deactivated. You can activate them by clicking manage preferences. ...قراءة المزيد

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2024-04-03

Russia's Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday it had deployed additional forces in the Syrian-controlled areas of the Golan Heights, where Israel had allegedly struck at an increasing rate over the last few months. The forces, from Russia's military police, were tasked with de-escalating tensions in the Syrian provinces of Quneitra and Daraa, as well as monitoring the longstanding ceasefire issued as part of the Syrian Civil War. According to Russia, military posts belonging to the Syrian military are located below the Russian observation posts, set up to monitor "possible provocations." Russia's decision to make their presence in the Golan Heights comes after Moscow a strike, blamed on Israel, targeting the . Moscow called on the Jewish state to cease such "completely unacceptable" actions and has requested a meeting with the UN Security Council regarding the strike. Israeli soldiers use a tank during a military drill in the Golan Heights, February 20, 2024 (credit: REUTERS/AMIR COHEN) Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said such attacks violated all the foundations of international law. Russia had also continuously used Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights as a sticking point in arguing for its invasion of Ukraine  Last year, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the United States of being "hypocritical" in its recognition of the Golan Heights as part of sovereign Israel. Lavrov, who , hinted that the US does not take its own vow to "respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all UN member states" seriously. Just before Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, its deputy ambassador to Geneva told the UN Security Council that " Israel’s sovereignty over Golan Heights that are part of Syria." ...قراءة المزيد

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2024-04-03

Iran is engaged in the first part of its response to an airstrike this week in Damascus, which Iran has blamed on Israel. It is not only slamming Israel, it is also blaming . This shows how Iran is seeking to link the incident that killed several key Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members to a wider regional struggle in which Iran is engaged in trying to reduce US influence in the region. Iranian has highlighted the attack on the consulate compound in Damascus and also sought to spotlight what Iran claims is the “American administration’s responsibility.” Iran buried members of the IRGC that were killed in Damascus on Monday. This included commander for operations in Syria and Lebanon Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, his deputy, and five of their accompanying officers, according to Iran’s pro-government Fars News. Meanwhile, Iranian president Ibrahim Raisi phoned Syrian regime leader Bashar al-Assad and “lashed out at the West for continuing to provide financial and military support to Israel amid the Gaza war, and stressed the Zionist regime does not adhere to any of the humanitarian and international principles,” according to a second report at Fars. "There is no doubt that Zionists and their supporters are responsible,” the Iranian said. “The Syrian president stressed that the Zionist regime seeks to escape from the quagmire it is caught in by the Palestinian resistance in the besieged enclave and emphasized the need to support the axis of resistance,” the report noted. IRAN’S PRESIDENT Ebrahim Raisi gestures to the audience as he completes his address to the UN General Assembly, last week. (credit: Mike Segar/Reuters) Meanwhile, Iran is seeking to have Israel condemned by the United Nations. In a statement to the UN, the Iranian envoy said “Yesterday, we urgently notified the Security Council members of yet another flagrant violation of international law committed by the Israeli regime within Syria territory. As reflected in our letter, on 1st April 2024, our diplomatic premises in Damascus came under terrorist attacks carried out by the Israeli regime. Seven missile airstrikes from the occupied Golan Heights, specifically and intentionally targeted the diplomatic premises of Iran, including the consular section building and the ambassador's residence.” The Iranian envoy said that “the final and accurate death toll remains uncertain as the entire diplomatic premise has been destroyed, with individuals trapped under the rubble.” Iran wants the United Nations Security Council to do more in the wake of the airstrike. Iran has also sought to get Russia’s support and also to mobilize condemnations in the Gulf. Gulf countries have often reconciled or normalized with the Syrian regime in the last two years. This means that they have a vested interest in condemning an attack on a diplomatic post in Damascus. The fact is the building next to the Iranian consulate was not a purely diplomatic site, as the IRGC used it. However, from the standpoint of the Gulf states, it is worthwhile to appear to put out statements condemning the strike. Iran and Saudi Arabia also reconciled last year, meaning Riyadh has an interest in appearing to condemn the attack. Iran is trying to mobilize this diplomatic support first before lashing out with its promised “retaliation.” In the past, Iran has attacked Erbil in Iraq when it wanted to “retaliate.” In 2020, it fired ballistic missiles targeting a base in Iraq in retaliation for the US killing of IRGC Quds Force head Qasem Soleimani. Iran has already mobilized its militias and proxies in various countries since October 7 to attack Israel and attack US forces in Iraq and Syria. In addition, the Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah targeted US forces in Jordan in January. As such, the Iranian claim of “retaliating” is a bit of a stretch because it is Iran that has been attacking throughout the region. However, Iran wants the sympathy of other countries, and it wants an official record of this attack in Damascus so it can claim a right to respond. Iran also wants to leverage this with Russia, China, and other states.  ...قراءة المزيد

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2024-04-01

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have confirmed that a drone launched from Iraq targeted a naval base in the Gulf of Eilat.  The attack was attributed to the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a coalition of pro-Iranian militias operating in Iraq and Syria. According to IDF reports, the incident unfolded late last night when a suspicious aerial target was detected heading towards the Gulf of Eilat. The drone penetrated Israeli airspace from Jordan, triggering sirens in the area, the first such alarm in three weeks. The UAV ultimately struck the IDF base in Eilat, causing minor damage to a building. Fortunately, no casualties were reported. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq has claimed responsibility for the attack, labeling the target as "vital" in Israeli territory. This aggressive action underscores the volatile dynamics between Iran and Israel, with Iraq emerging as a potential battleground for proxy conflicts. The IDF has launched an investigation into the incident, which comes on the heels of another drone interception near the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. The attempted airspace breach raises concerns about the security challenges Israel faces on multiple fronts. ...قراءة المزيد

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2024-03-29

In an exclusive interview with Israel Hayom, Donald Trump discussed in Gaza, what he would do as president of the United States, and his opinions on current President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress. While at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, Omer Lachmanovich, editor-in-chief of Israel Hayom, and Ariel Kahana, the publication’s chief diplomatic correspondent, described the setting as lavish, with an aura of a . Israel Hayom reported that just before the interview began, Trump spent the first minute examining how the conversation would look on screen. After several seconds of watching the monitor set behind their backs, which displayed the interview, Trump said, “Looks good,” and the interview began.  The first question the reporters asked the former president was if he agreed with Israel’s goal of completely destroying Hamas. He responded, "Only a fool or a crazy person would not have responded the way you did," Adding that if he had been , the war would not have broken out on October 7.  "They would have never, ever done that [if I were president], for two reasons: number one, they were broke. Number two, when I was the president, they would have never done that because they knew there would be very big consequences. Trump said in the interview that he blames President Joe Biden for the October 7 attack on Israel because “they [Hamas] have no respect for him. He can't put two sentences together. He can't talk. He's a very dumb person. He's a dumb person. His foreign policy throughout 50 years has been horrible. If you look at people that were in other administrations with him, they saw him as a weak, ineffective president, they [Hamas] would have never done that attack if I were there.”  Now that Israel and Hamas are at war, Trump expressly stated, “You have to finish up your war. To finish it up. You gotta get it done. And, I am sure you will do that. And we gotta get to peace, we can't have this going on.” Israeli soldiers operate near Shifa Hospital, in Gaza, March 29, 2024 (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT) Lachmanovich and Kahana asked, if Trump gets reelected, and the war might still be ongoing, how he will act. Trump touted his accomplishments as president in response. “There has been no president better to Israel than me because of the Golan Heights [recognition by the US], the Abraham Accords.” Trump boasted, “I've been loyal to Israel, I've been the best president in history by a factor of 10 to Israel, because of all the things I do. The embassy in Jerusalem, being the capital, is the best location for the embassy and for getting it built. The biggest thing I did was the Iran nuclear deal. I ended it. The problem is that Biden didn't do anything with it." He continued with a discussion on Iran, adding that he does not think the nation should be able to have nuclear weapons. He said that when he was president, he was so tough on Iran to the point where they “literally had no money.” He said that Iran was only 35 days away from a bomb when a decision was made.  Trump clearly stated Iran “will never have a nuclear weapon…They can have a nuclear weapon in 35 days. I have seven months to go and nine months to take office. A lot of bad things can happen in that period. That's a lot. That's like an eternity. Seven months in this world, and especially in the Middle East, where it's so and so combative and so combustible, that's a long period of time, and so many bad things can happen. And also, so many good things can happen. If we had a real president, if we had a president that knew what he was doing, who could put two sentences together, that could get solved very quickly." The interviewers asked Trump who would be his vice president, to which he responded, “Who would you like?” After the interviewers expressed that they would like his vice president to support Israel, he replied, “You'll have an Israel supporter, that I promise you.” He then stated that Kamala Harris is the opposite of a supporter of Israel and that Biden also does not. He said they both support “the enemy.” Trump also said that Senator Chuck Schumer is not a supporter of Israel, and highlighted the American Jews who do not support him. He mentioned the New York Times, calling it a “Jewish family.” He said, “I think they hate Israel. I watch what they write in the New York Times, it's hysterical. Now the conservative Jews love Trump, I would get the highest marks I would get, I would beat anybody [with them]. They love Trump, I think they are great, and they love Israel." Trump also called out the Jewish voters who did not support him, saying that he only received about a quarter of the Jewish votes. He said that in the second election, the percentage was more concerning because of everything he had done for Israel. “How a Jewish person in the United States can vote Democrat or can vote Biden is hard to believe; it's almost as though they've never read a story. They've never picked up a newspaper or looked at a newsdesk… He has abandoned Israel.” As the interview concluded, the former president discussed the mistakes he believes Israel is making, particularly in its public relations strategy. "I think Israel made a very big mistake. I wanted to call [Israel] and say don't do it. These photos and shots. I mean, moving shots of bombs being dropped into buildings in Gaza. And I said, Oh, that's a terrible portrait. It's a very bad picture for the world. The world sees this…every night, I would watch buildings pour down on people. It would say it was given by the Defense Ministry, and said whoever's providing that that's a bad image." After the interviewers pressed him, saying that terrorists were hiding in those buildings, Trump responded, “Go and do what you have to do. But you don’t do that. And I think that's one of the reasons that there has been a lot of kickback. If people didn't see that every single night, I'd watch every single one of those... And I think Israel wanted to show that it's tough, but sometimes you shouldn't be doing that…Israel has to be very careful because you're losing a lot of the world, you're losing a lot of support, you have to finish up, you have to get the job done. And you have to get on to peace, to get on to a normal life for Israel and for everybody else." ...قراءة المزيد

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2024-03-28

As Russian warships from the Pacific Fleet enter the Red Sea amid heightened tensions, and with Russian forces establishing new observation posts along the Israel-Syria border, questions arise about Russia's intentions in the Middle East. The Russian Ministry of Defenseand a frigate have crossed the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and reached the Red Sea amid ongoing Houthi attacks, though the purpose of their mission remains unclear.  This move follows the Kremlin's denial of receiving security assurances from the Houthis to prevent attacks on their ships, raising concerns about Russia's strategic goals. Simultaneously, Russian forces continue to expand their presence in the Syrian Golan Heights, with plans to inaugurate an 11th observation post soon. The recent surge in Russian involvement in the region, particularly concerning Israel, since October 7, prompts two main interpretations. Firstly, Russia appears to be asserting itself in the Red Sea, aligning its actions with its rhetoric. By deploying ships to the Red Sea amidst escalating tensions, Russia is signaling its willingness to engage in the volatile maritime arena, potentially altering the dynamics of the region significantly. Moreover, Russia's increased presence along the Israel-Syria border could serve to bolster its position in the event of a broader conflict, positioning itself as a key player in regional affairs. The second interpretation suggests that Moscow is sending a clear message to Jerusalem. Recent tensions between the two nations, particularly regarding Russia's support for Hamas and Israel's statements in support of Ukraine, may have prompted Russia to increase its military presence along Israel's borders as a form of diplomatic pressure. These developments underscore the need for the Israeli government to reassess its strategic relationship with Russia.  While relations have experienced strain since October 7, they have not reached a breaking point, leaving room for potential diplomatic maneuvers in the near future. ...قراءة المزيد

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2024-03-27

Following a of 30 rockets from Hezbollah in Lebanon, one individual was killed, and two were reported as lightly wounded in Kiryat Shmona, Maariv reported. Additionally, damage was caused to property in the area.  The barrage was fired in response to , Hezbollah stated.  Magen David Adom paramedics reported that they rescued the body of a 25-year-old worker, who was found without signs of life following a from one of the rockets in a heavy barrage from Lebanon on Tuesday, which Hezbollah took credit for. He was pronounced dead at the scene. MDA announced that the worker was not a resident of Kiryat Shmona. The spokeswoman for Kiryat Shmona commented, "It is with great sorrow that we announce that the young man critically injured from the missile strike this morning on Kiryat Shmona has succumbed to his wounds. He was a 25-year-old resident of one of the settlements in the Golan Heights. Instructions for the residents of Kiryat Shmona who remain in the city are to stay in protected areas until further notice." Israel Police released a statement on the incident, "The police are currently dealing with rocket debris near Kiryat Shmona." The police announced that damage was caused to property, and they had no information about casualties. "Officers and bomb disposal experts from the Northern District Police are currently isolating the debris sites and scanning for additional remnants to eliminate any further risk to the public." They also called on residents "to avoid approaching the sites, not to touch or handle any rocket debris that may contain explosive material, and to report immediately to the Israel Police's 100 emergency hotline," the police announced. National Unity MK Gideon Sa'ar responded in a statement to the heavy barrage on Kiryat Shmona, "This morning's heavy barrage on Kiryat Shmona is another reminder of the costs of war. In the middle of it all is the suffering of the evacuees and the collapse of businesses. Israel finds itself entangled in Gaza, Lebanon, the issue of returning hostages and navigating the complexities of the international stage. More of the same sluggish, predictable rhetoric, coupled with bombastic declarations, will not steer Israel away from the perilous course that does not lead to victory. What is urgently needed is a fresh strategic approach to warfare." ...قراءة المزيد

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2024-03-26

Hamas’s savage attack on October 7 shattered many long-held Israeli assumptions. One was that our enemies were deterred by our power. Another was that hunkering behind a multi-billion-dollar wall would provide adequate protection. A third was that Israel could rely on a small, hi-tech army and did not need to enlist the Haredim (ultra-Orthodox). All those assumptions proved false. Our enemies did not deem us as powerful as we thought. It took mere minutes for an army of terrorists to crash through Israel’s border wall with Gaza. The army needs more soldiers – and swiftly. How do we know the army needs more soldiers? Tens of thousands of reservists who were released over the past few weeks after serving more than 100 days – many of them engaged in grueling – have recently been told they will be called up for yet another stint of reserve duty by the end of the year, ranging from a couple of weeks to more than a month. The state would not be doing this – ripping husbands from their wives and fathers from their children so soon after they had just served, many of them in active combat – were it not absolutely necessary. IDF reserve Infantry and Merkava Tank soldiers train in a military exercise in the Golan Heights on October 23, 2023. (credit: MICHAEL GILADI/FLASH90) But it is essential, and because it is necessary, post-October 7, Israel no longer has the luxury to exempt an entire segment of its Jewish community – 13% of the population – from army service. What was once morally wrong is now simply unsustainable in terms of Israel’s long-term survival. Why should some able-bodied young men and women be asked to risk their lives for the collective while other equally able-bodied members of that collective are not asked to do the same? October 7 and its aftermath showed Israel needs boots on the ground – lots of them. It requires them along the border with Gaza, in Judea and Samaria, on the northern border, and – increasingly because of an uptick in infiltration attempts from Jordan – along the long border with the Hashemite Kingdom. The IDF needs people. Set against that stark reality, a draft bill slated to be brought for on Tuesday that would essentially prolong wholesale haredi exemptions from the army is utterly tone-deaf. Instead of initiating a process that would gradually increase the number of haredi soldiers, this bill – void of any recruitment targets or penalties for draft dodgers or their yeshivot – retains the status quo. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and National Unity Party head said they would not support this legislation. We applaud their stand and wish other members of the Likud and the coalition would take a similar principled position, even if it means bringing down the government. The High Court of Justice will convene this week on the matter. A government resolution passed last June, which will expire on April 1, instructed the IDF not to conscript yeshiva students for nine months to allow the government time to draft a bill to finally resolve this issue. The bill scheduled to come to the cabinet on Tuesday is largely seen as a way to show the court that the government is working on the issue so that it can stall for even more time. According to testimony given by IDF officers last month in the Knesset, some 66,000 haredim ages 21-26 were exempted from conscription this year because they were yeshiva students. Each year, 12,000 to 13,000 haredim get yeshiva draft exemptions. No one expects to see 66,000 haredim – or even 12,000 – show up tomorrow to serve. But there is a need to end the blanket exemptions and begin a process whereby the haredi community internalizes that it is now expected to share in this country’s overwhelming security burden. Twenty-five years after the court first began hearings on this matter, seven years after it struck down as discriminatory legislation granting wholesale exemptions to haredim, and the government was told to pass legislation that would change the situation, the game is over. At a time when Israel is in the midst of its second-longest war and desperately needs manpower, measures need to be taken immediately to widen the circle of those who must serve. For this country’s future, the stalling and maneuvering must end. ...قراءة المزيد

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2024-03-23

Hermon mountain is shrouded in clouds. It’s mid-March and the highest mountain in Israel, which sits atop the northeastern Golan like a colossus, is still cold and windy. The wind was biting when we arrived, but it had the advantage of blowing away some of the clouds, so for an hour we could see far into Israel and down into the Hula Valley, where it meets up with Lebanon. This is the landscape of the frontier. Today the frontier is even more important because of the tensions with Hezbollah and, to a wider extent, the threats Iran poses via Syria. To get to the Hermon, I drove up from Jerusalem. As I ascended the Golan Heights, via the bridge over the Jordan named after the “daughters of Jacob,” there were sirens in the Hula Valley warning of rocket fire. Israel has been evacuating the northern border since October, but the rocket fire continues to pound communities that have to sit under the northern threat. I traversed the Golan, coming to the Druze villages and towns that sit at the bottom of the Hermon. Majdal Shams is usually full of tourists this time of year. They would usually be transitioning from ski season to spring. Today, the tourists are gone because of the . From Majdal Shams, the road to the mountain snakes up along the sides of the Hermon. You cross through a gate warning that this is a military zone. Eventually you also cross through the deserted kiosks that would usually be where people pay NIS 40 to go skiing, or in the summer to see the mountain. MAJ. ADIEL, commander of the company of soldiers guarding the Hermon. (credit: SETH J. FRANTZMAN) An battery is visible in the distance. The ski center is also deserted, the giant parking lot empty except for a few cars and a line of white tracked vehicles used to navigate snow – when there is snow. An army truck with a group of reservists is present. The men are sucking down a few cigarettes and talking, their Tavor rifles slung over their shoulders. These men are reservists who were called up on Oct. 7 to guard the northern border. They have done their tour of duty, having been deployed in the hot spots in October and November. Then they got some home rest, and now they have been sent to this land of ice and snow. The men of this unit, which we can’t specify for security reasons, are veterans of the Golani infantry. Many served a decade ago. Now they are part of the 188th Armored Brigade’s sector. The brigade is part of the IDF’s 36th armored division, which saw action after Oct. 7 when it was sent down to the Gaza Strip. The 188th helped to drive across the Strip, cutting off Gaza City from southern Gaza, and taking the port of Gaza together with the elite Shayetet naval commandos. The 188th also fought in other areas such as Zaytun, and the central camps such as Bureij. Then it was redeployed to the North in January, along with other parts of the 36th. Only the 7th Armored Brigade, which is also part of the 36th, was left in Gaza, to fight in Khan Yunis. The armored brigade got a bit of rest and was sent to guard the mountains in the North, sending companies of tanks to Mount Dov. Its sector includes the Hermon, but you don’t send tanks up to mountains like this. WARFARE IN these mountains and snow has a long and glorious history. Israel controlled the Hermon after the 1967 war and had a fort on the top of the peak. In 1973, the Syrians conquered the fort in a tough battle. Israel then retook the mountain. Today, Israeli troops patrol at 2,200 meters in the biting cold, while the Syrians control the higher parts of the mountain, which reaches a maximum elevation of 2,800 meters. Israel has a special alpine unit for fighting up here. It is unique terrain and requires special capabilities. However, this winter has been relatively warm, and most of the snow is now melted. The troops caution against too much optimism about the weather. It can change in an instant, and a storm is expected to arrive mid-week. Maj. Adiel is the commanding officer here. He’s tall and has a trim athletic build. At 40 years old, he’s older than most of the men here. He was drafted in 2003 during the Second Intifada and went to the elite Egoz unit. That unit specialized in warfare in the terrain of northern Israel and Lebanon. It used to be part of Golani; now it’s part of the commando brigade and spearheading operations in Khan Yunis under the 98th Division. The major served in the Second Lebanon War and knows as an enemy for many years. He fought in battles such as Bint Jbeil and other places in 2006. He left the army in 2007 and went to reserves. He has done the commander’s course and now runs this company. He shows us around the Hermon. A short drive takes us up to the top of the ski slopes, which are barren now, like a wasteland on Mars. We can see the Golan spread out below us, the wind turbines that have recently been built, and we can see deep into Israel and Lebanon. This is the area below us in Israel that Hezbollah has targeted with thousands of rockets since Oct. 7. Israeli commanders and politicians have vowed to eventually deal with Hezbollah’s threats, but so far the North remains under threat, and communities are evacuated. MAJOR ADIEL was awakened on Oct. 7 like most of Israel, to the sound of the rocket fire from Gaza and the sirens. Staying with his brothers near Ashkelon, he had a plan to go jogging that morning after 6 a.m.  Instead of running for fun, however, he found himself running to go back to the army, along with his brothers. By 11 in the morning, he was packed and heading north, where he received his Tavor rifle and gear and got ready for the chance that Hezbollah would enter the war and invade, much as Hamas had done. They waited over the next few nights, tense, waiting for the Hezbollah assault. Instead, they faced sporadic fire and some infiltration attempts. After months on the front in the North, the men got some time off for about a month and were called back recently. “Now we are guarding this, which is the most challenging in terms of weather and geography,” he says. He shows us around the base, which is built into the mountain like a fort. It’s all concrete and a warren of passageways. There is a dining hall and areas for cheese and meat. The rooms are simple, but the area is warm compared to the harsh wind outside. There is a bookcase with The Firm by John Grisham and Master and the Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. The men are cognizant of the history of 1973 and the battles fought here in the past. Because the weather changes quickly, it’s essential to know the enemy and also defend against any type of threat, from infiltrations to drone and rocket threats. The snow may melt quickly, providing the enemy different ways to approach, for instance. “In the end, to hold on to the Hermon is essential; to control this area. It’s the first time in 16 years that I did reserve duty up here,” he said. “Now with the snow melting, we can see this area and the view, and you can see to Tiberias, the whole Jordan and Golan, and the whole country. You understand why it’s called the ‘eyes of the country’: it’s not just seeing into the enemy states but also our country,” he says. Whoever controls the Hermon, controls threats to Israel from here. AFTER A quick walk through the dining hall and down some pathways, we come to a room and sit. First-Sgt. Leor describes his experience with the unit. He is from Teaneck, New Jersey. An observant Jewish warrior, he drafted in 2014 to Golani and completed his service like the other men, and he is now back as a reservist. When the Hamas attack occurred on Oct. 7, Leor was in Jerusalem with his wife and children. His wife was nine months pregnant. “There was panic in the country,” he recalls. Rockets were fired at Jerusalem after eight in the morning. He checked his phone after Shabbat and found out about the extent of the attack. “People who grew up here have a sense of there being a Yom Kippur War” type of situation, he recalls. The next day, his wife gave birth to a son. Leor is now here on the Hermon, and he describes the intensity of the situation, along with the complex weather conditions. “We know we are in the middle of a war. It may not be the Gaza front, [but] there is tension and we feel serious responsibility on our shoulders. We make sure the northern border is safe,” he says. Like the others, he feels a connection to the Yom Kippur War and the history here. He says that the training the men have been through prepares them for all eventualities. “We received some unique training from those who specialize in that, the Alpinist troops, who prepared us to deal with the conditions and the climate, the cold and wind, and altitude. We feel the altitude in our breathing, for instance,” he says. Indeed, at 2,000 meters, there is less air up here. It’s not Everest, but the body must adjust. “We are from all over the country and different religious and political beliefs,” he says of the unit. “You get to meet different people from across the spectrum; you get to experience that outside of the bubble at home. The country might feel divided, but here you can grow together and learn from each other. Each person has their own personal Oct. 7 story. Some were on trips abroad; each has different circumstances that led to their experience where they ended up.” Now the men have grown together as a group. Some had served together before, but around two-thirds have gotten to know each other only since the war began. We walk back through the warren of concrete passageways and through the dining hall until eventually we reach an exit to the freezing cold. The wind is worse than before, howling like the sound of a jet engine. Tucked into an alcove, a few men smoke and there is old exercise equipment. Nearby are two grills and a HESCO box. In the distance, a man in green camo comes lumbering along, back from some faraway post or pillbox. He’s First Sergeant Noam, and he sports a “Hamas Hunting Club” patch on his tactical vest, which fits snuggly over his ceramic body armor. Like the others, he was called up on Oct. 7, released back home in December and then brought back to guard this Mordor-like mountain wilderness. When he first came up north for reserve duty, he joined the other 300,000 Israelis going to their units. Many were sent to the North. The men sat watch on the border in places near Yuval and Kiryat Shmona, and near Kfar Giladi. It was a difficult period because of the intense pressure to guard the border, gear had to be hastily gathered. Men needed more of everything in those days. Tactical vests, plates, even food. They faced off against the Hezbollah and Hamas attempts to infiltrate from the north. There were drone attacks. Dozens of mortars fell on their position. A drone even struck nearby. “It was crazy that no one got hurt,” he said. In contrast to the chaos of the first month on the line, this fort in the Hermon has more comforts. There are normal places to sleep inside the bunkers; no more thin mattresses or crashing in random places in the cold or on the floors of civilian buildings along the border. Logistics are now humming, and the base proves it. There are mountains of fruits and avocados and other items to eat. The men here are prepared. But they are also a cog in a larger system of the big army. Some are hungry for a possible war with Hezbollah, to finally strike back at the terrorist group that has taken pot shots at Israel with thousands of attacks in five months; the terrorist group that has killed and wounded people in the North and forced thousands of Israelis from their homes.  ...قراءة المزيد

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2024-03-23

Two suspects who crossed from Jordan with weapons and are suspected of planning to carry out a major attack were arrested last night near thel in the , according to Israeli media. The pair were identified last night in the settlement of Petzael in the Jordan Valley, with one of them holding a with a magazine. The security system still doesn't know to which group the pair belongs. An investigation has been opened into the case. The security coordinator in Petzael, along with two emergency squad members, arrested the two suspects in the Jordan Valley, which is on the settlement's territory.A Kalashnikov rifle, found between the Alpha line and Israel's border with the Syrian Golan Heights (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT) New details published this morning indicate that the two crossed from Jordan, and a Quran was found with them. The security system does not yet know who they belonged to, but according to the most recent assessment, a major attack was thwarted. As mentioned, the two were identified close to 10:00 p.m. last night in the settlement; one of them was holding a Kalashnikov weapon with a magazine in Petzael. The settlement security team arrested the pair in coordination with the military security coordinator, who is also a member of the team. They did not resist and were then transferred to the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) for investigation. ...قراءة المزيد

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2024-03-22

Assad Awad, the military commentator from the Saudi channel Al-Hadath, appeared on the channel on Thursday. He addressed the situation in Israel’s north and analyzed the IDF's tactics in the region. Awad addressed Israel’s conflict between Hezbollah and Iran. Speaking on the conflict, Awad suggested, "Israel was surprised by the extent of the tunnels in Gaza and the military methods [of Hamas,] and it has adopted a new strategy for regional deterrence," he said at the outset. In the initial stage, according to Awad, "Israel severely hit to the region and destroyed many weapon shipments that were on their way from Iran. "In the next stage, warehouses in eastern Syria were attacked and destroyed. [The warehouses] contain[ed] weapons that could have been deployed to the border with Israel within hours. In fact, it undermined lines to Hezbollah and Iranian militias in the region.The exterior of a house damaged by a rocket fired by Hezbollah in Lebanon, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, near Israel’s border with Lebanon in northern Israel. March 19, 2024. (credit: CARLOS GARCIA RAWLINS/REUTERS) "All these actions may serve as a prelude to more significant activities, which may include the tunnels or at least disrupting the fortifications along the border with Lebanon, stretching over 79 kilometers, as well as in the Golan Heights area, which is expected to be much more challenging.” Awad went on to clarify that "Geographically, the Golan Heights area – facing Shebaa Farms, is a tough terrain considered a Hezbollah stronghold. Israeli airstrikes will not be advantageous there, and Israel will need to show creativity in finding new operational tactics." In his remarks, he referred to the Mountains Brigade, which will begin its operations in the coming weeks - at the height of the war, and will operate in the sectors of Mount Hermon and Mount Dov.  “Forces in the Mountains Brigade participated in the 2006 war and come with a deep familiarity with Hezbollah's tunnels,'" he said. "In recent weeks, Hezbollah has begun building tunnels from Syria to Lebanon, aiming to transfer weapons from the arsenals, but at this stage, there is no benefit in tunnels. I estimate 70%-80% of the arsenals have been destroyed,” Awad theorized. “This is expected to delay any plan Hezbollah seeks to implement, and this may be Israel's opportunity.” Jerusalem Post staff contributed to this report. ...قراءة المزيد

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