Israel’s Progess in Gaza

 For full article go to http://tinyurl.com/2uy84s33

The war is far from over, but Hamas’s southern stronghold of Khan Younis is falling. Civilians have streamed out and Hamas’s remaining forces in the city’s west are encircled. They face an Israeli advance on all sides, and Israel is now fighting above and below ground in force.

Consider that the 2016-17 battle of Mosul against ISIS took nine months. “Mosul,” writes John Spencer, chief of urban warfare studies at West Point’s Modern War Institute, “was one battle, in one city against 3 to 5k militants with limited defenses. Israel is fighting multiple battles in 7 cities against 30k militants with military grade underground cities built under civilian areas.”

Israel needs time to achieve victory, and Hamas is counting on Western powers to deny it that time. The “CNN strategy” of using human shields to gain media sympathy has worked every time so far for Hamas.

Israel believes it has killed, incapacitated or arrested some 20,000 of Hamas’s 30,000 men and dismantled 18 of Hamas’s 24 Gaza combat battalions. The losses have prevented Hamas from mounting military maneuvers and quieted its rocket fire, down more than 95% from the war’s early days.

The Biden Administration is using that domestic pressure as diplomatic leverage to promote a hostage deal and long pause in the war that it hopes will become a cease-fire. Never mind that leaving Hamas in control of territory is the definition of Israeli defeat. No matter the length of the pause, Israel would likely have to resume fighting afterward.

That may be why Hamas has resisted the U.S. pause and hostage-deal proposal and instead demands a cease-fire guarantee that Israel can’t give. Recall that Hamas consented to the first hostage deal after Israel took Gaza City faster than anticipated. An Israeli advance now could push the terrorists to Rafah, Hamas’s last major refuge, at the edge of Gaza.

Once Hamas’s last brigades are defeated, it will take time to sweep Gaza for terrorist cells and infrastructure. Israel is clearing urban terrain and tunnels at a “historic pace,” Mr. Spencer writes, but the tunnels are vast and soldiers are finding munitions in home after home.

Israel’s task for 2024 is to finish the job, but will U.S. political support hold? The Biden Administration, despite its second-guessing, continues to provide munitions and diplomatic cover that it would have a hard time withdrawing. The latest Harvard CAPS-Harris poll finds that large majorities of Americans support Israel and its war aims.

Europe’s elected leaders are also holding the line, and no Arab state has quit the Abraham Accords. Only Iran, which has escalated its regional war against the U.S., applies pressure. Even the United Nations International Court of Justice balked at ordering a cease-fire.

Winning the war doesn’t guarantee winning the peace afterward, but it is essential for a secure Israel and a chance for Palestinians to have a normal life in Gaza.

Tunnels? - More than the London Underground

 

Home, Sweet Home?

 The first thing you might notice about the Leonardo Plaza Hotel in downtown Jerusalem are the school buses parked in the loading circle outside. Security is tighter than it was before the war, and as usual, the massive lobby is spotless, smelling pleasantly of spa products.

 The next thing you might notice is a small memorial table with candles, photos of the kidnapped and the fallen, Israeli flags and information about Kfar Maimon and Tushiya, communities whose residents have taken up residence at the Leonardo.

 

The hotel is booked to capacity. However, eighty percent of the guests are refugees from the two moshavim, which were hard-hit by Hamas’s savage Oct. 7 attack. The other 20% are the usual array of hotel tourists and guests.

 

Sigal, one of the community organizers lodged at the Leonardo, along with her husband and two children, longs to return home but realizes that right now that’s impossible. Many of the communities’ homes were damaged or destroyed during the attack, and so far, only farmers and security teams have returned.

 

“While it’s nice to stay in a hotel, living in one room is hard for the children,” said Sigal, a holistic therapist by profession. “From the beginning, we all had to deal with shock, and we had to create an emotionally supportive environment for the children. Social workers from Jerusalem’s municipality were brought to us. I tell people to look at the positive—what a privilege to be housed here in Jerusalem!”

 

On the day of the attack, Sigal didn’t know what was happening. There were no sirens. They heard shooting and were warned to go into lockdown. She thought perhaps a terrorist had broken into the village. 

 

Little did she know that approximately 60 terrorists had infiltrated and were deployed in the cemetery of Kfar Maimon. The story might have ended differently if the terrorists hadn’t tried to shoot down an Israeli Air Force helicopter, which was headed elsewhere but instead descended and engaged the terrorists, eventually stopping the attack.

 

At the hotel, a guest rolls a carry-on, an M-16 assault rifle slung over his shoulder. At the bottom of the spiral staircase, the dining room fills up with children on their way to school, sporting colorful backpacks.   

 

Ortal Noah Moalam, CEO of the Leonardo Plaza Jerusalem, gets her first hug of the day from a 9-year-old girl bedecked in a sparkling pink rucksack. She said it is one of many greetings she gets each day from grateful children from the south, who always stop by to say hello.

 

“We receive significant support from the Jerusalem Municipality and the Jerusalem Development Authority,” explained Moalam. “They assigned a representative who arrives at the hotel every morning and assists families with everything they need, from support in all matters, education, planning and implementing recreational activities, psychological services, therapy and more.”

 

She added that in addition to supporting the promotion of the hotels, the Jerusalem Development Authority will help transition Jerusalem hotels back to serving the 5 million tourists expected in 2024 as the tourism industry recovers.

 

Donations poured in, and Moalam stockpiled and distributed them methodically, creating a free “store” for evacuees. “The people from the south were not used to winter in Jerusalem,” recounted Moalam. “They came in short sleeves and had no warm clothing.” Toys came in for the children. She gave them out slowly so as not to deplete the supply before Chanukah.

 

Three months later, the families have established routines and have celebrated life events—working the community into a cohesive family. Men go to war or to work. Women take care of the children.  Some are paid to teach or maintain the nursery schools. Others volunteer in the hotel. One 80-year-old resident said, “I’m old and I can’t do much, but I can read stories to the children.”

 

Rivik Boim is the emergency spokesperson for Kfar Maimon. She was on the team that informed people to lock down on Oct. 7. The mother of seven recently celebrated her son’s wedding at the Leonardo after the venue they had booked was shut down because of the war.  

 

“We had the chuppah here in the lobby, and dinner and dancing downstairs,” she recalls joyfully as she gently rocks her one-month-old granddaughter in the carriage. “She was born to my daughter who is also living at the hotel,” she said. The December wedding was scaled back from 450 to 200 people, as most of the couple’s friends were in the army.

 

 While no one knows exactly how long the evacuees from the north and south will remain in hotels, it is hoped that most will be back in their villages sometime within the first quarter of 2024.”

 

USAID to Stop Funding UNWRA

Former Deputy Administrator of USAID, sheds light on

the urgent necessity to defund UNRWA

(United Nations Relief and Works Agency)

in response to their involvement with Hamas

Hamas Tunnel Under Cemetery

An underground tunnel located under the Bani Suheila cemetery in the heart of Khan Yunis,  the IDF reported on Monday. While inspecting the tunnel, the fighters found explosives and sliding doors and eliminated terrorists who were inside.

Inside the tunnel, the Israeli forces unearthed the office of the eastern Battalion commander from the Khan Yunis Brigade, from where he directed the October 7 attacks, according to the IDF. 

In addition, troops found operation rooms, a battalion combat war room, and bedrooms of senior officials of the Hamas terrorist organization.

At the end of the examination, the tunnel was destroyed by engineering forces.

Does Guterres Really Know What he is Talking About?

 UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres claimed at the weekend that 

the death toll in Gaza is "unprecedented during my time as secretary general."

This statement is false. Guterres has been secretary-general of the UN since 2017 and during that time:

- Tens of thousands, most Christians, killed by Islamists in northern Nigeria

- Tens of thousands killed in Sudan's internal conflicts

- 39,000-49,000 killed in Armenia-Azerbaijan crisis

- 45,000 or more killed in Myanmar's ongoing civil war

- 40,000-50,000 killed in Mexico's ongoing drug war

- Over 80,000 killed in Syria's ongoing civil war

- Over 100,000 killed in the Russia-Ukraine war

- Over 100,000 died in Yemen as a result of ongoing civil war

- 180,000-600,000 died in internal conflict in Ethiopia

Bottom line: Calling the 30,000 deaths in Gaza "unprecedented" is a lie meant to delegitimize Israel's efforts to defend itself.

It is Clear the Palestinians Don't Want a 2 State Solution - They Say So!

 “October 7 Has Shown that Liberating Palestine from the 

River to the Sea Is Realistic and Has Already Begun”,

 so says Khaled Mashal