In "The Rapid Return of Israel's Disastrous Policy," I document how - despite repeated calls for victory - the Government of Israel has in many ways returned to its failed pre-Oct. 7 ways. This weblog entry continues that documentation.
Dec. 1, 2023 addenda: (1) The Alma Research & Education Center published a report arguing that "Hezbollah's Radwan unit is capable of carrying out an invasion of the Galilee at any given moment."
Comments: (1) When added to Hamas' invasion on Oct. 7 and the Regavim report cited above, this means that three of Israel's borders were or are in imminent danger of invasion. (2) Ironically, the borders with police states - Egypt, Jordan, Syria - are relatively safe.
(2) A New York Times investigation adds information to the paragraph beginning "When Hamas drilled in plain sight." Its opening:
Israeli officials obtained Hamas's battle plan for the Oct. 7 terrorist attack more than a year before it happened, documents, emails and interviews show. But Israeli military and intelligence officials dismissed the plan as aspirational, considering it too difficult for Hamas to carry out.
(3) According to unnamed Israeli officials cited in the Wall Street Journal, under "orders from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's top spy agencies are working on plans to hunt down Hamas leaders living in Lebanon, Turkey and Qatar."
(4) It bears noting that at the same news conference where Netanyahu threatened Hamas leadeers "wherever they are," Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated that Hamas leaders are living on "borrowed time. They are marked for death. The struggle is worldwide, both the terrorists in Gaza and those who fly in expensive planes."
Dec. 4, 2023 update: Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar vowed to assassinate Hamas' leaders: "In Gaza, in the West Bank, in Lebanon, in Turkey, in Qatar, everyone. It will take a few years, but we will be there in order to do it. The cabinet set a goal for us, to take out Hamas. And we are determined to do it, this is our Munich."
An unnamed Turkish intelligence official responded: "Necessary warnings were made to the interlocutors based on the news of Israeli officials' statements, and it was expressed to Israel that [such an act] would have serious consequences." The Anadolu news agency also quoted unnamed sources warning Israel against "engaging in illegal activities" in Turkey.
Dec. 15, 2023 update: Yoel Guzansky of the Institute for National Security Studies, suggests that the public statements by Netanyahu and Gallant threatening Hamas leaders were primarily for psychological effect, with no immediate plans to target them. "One of the reasons that I think Netanyahu and Gallant said it out loud, publicly, is that they want [the Hamas leadership] to feel chased, ... to feel fear. It's psychological warfare."
Jan. 13, 2024 update: Rubbing my eyes on reading this in the Times of Israel:
Netanyahu reportedly reached out to UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed asking if Abu Dhabi would be willing to finance unemployment benefits for the Palestinian workers in the West Bank. The Emirati leader flatly rejected the request.
Jan. 14, 2024 update: Israeli soldiers captured a wounded Hamas operative, an Israeli medical facility treated him, and then the IDF allowed him to return to the Hamas side where, presumably, he will again take up fighting.
Jan. 15, 2024 updates: (1) In a one-two punch, Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called for strengthening the Palestinian Authority and Shin Bet called on Israel to fund it.
(2) A car-ramming attack by two West Bankers in Ra'anana killed one and injured 17. In response, Minister without Portfolio Gideon Sa'ar said that "Letting workers from the territory of an enemy population into Israel during a war is a terrible mistake that will cost blood." Good to hear someone say that.
Jan. 17, 2024 update: MK Dan Illouz (Likud)
strongly opposes the opinion stated by a member of his party, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who supports permitting the entrance of Palestinian Authority Arab workers into pre-1967 Israel. "It's a terrible mistake," Illouz stressed. "Behind it is the same concept that existed before October 7, that you can buy peace with money. In one sentence the Minister said this week, he mentioned three things that are scandalous and should be precisely our 'red lines': bring in workers, transfer money to the Palestinians, and strengthen the Palestinian Authority."
Comment: The word "concept" in this quote translates the Hebrew word conceptzia. For an explanation of that, see the article to which this is a commentary.
Jan. 19, 2024 update: Former IDF chief of staff and current member of the War Cabinet Gadi Eisenkot: "For me, the mission to save civilians comes before killing the enemy. The enemy can be killed afterward."
Jan. 20, 2024 update: A Panels poll of Jewish Israelis concerning terms of release of hostages held by Hamas finds:
70 percent: do not pull out of Gaza
73 percent: do not accept Hamas' demands
79 percent: do not allow Hamas to remain in power
81 percent: military pressure is the way to gain their release
Jan. 22, 2024 update: CNN reports that "Israel has proposed that Hamas senior leaders could leave Gaza as part of a broader ceasefire agreement."
Jan. 29, 2024 update: Kan.org reports that Israel's security establishment announced right after Oct. 7
a new one-kilometer security zone in the Gaza Strip at the border with Israel to prevent Palestinians from approaching the fence, for fear that they were disguised terrorists - as happened before the Hamas attack on Oct. 7. However, as published this evening in the evening news at Kan 11, the IDF's open-fire instructions have changed in the last month, so that the new parameter is no longer enforced.
Jan. 31, 2024 update: Half of Israelis "are opposed to a hostage deal that would see an extended pause in fighting in Gaza and the release of thousands of Palestinian terrorists."
Feb. 23, 2024 update: Israel National News reports:
Israeli security services have been employing Arab contractors to install security systems and perimeter defenses in Israeli towns. The contractors hold Israeli citizenship and the systems to be installed are operated by Israeli security forces or private security contractors. One IDF soldier, who spoke on condition of anonymity since he had not been authorized to comment on the matter, claimed that part of the systems being installed could potentially be used to remotely disable the perimeter lighting, camera systems, and gates of a town.
Feb. 29, 2024 update: (1) Azmi Nafa is serving a 20-year sentence for a murderous Nov. 24, 2015, attack at the Tapuach Junction, in which he wounded four IDF soldiers. Nafa was shot in the head. He is now scheduled to undergo cosmetic surgery for the wound.
(2) The Government of Israel just sent $114 million to the Palestinian Authority, with more on the way.
(3) After three Palestinians murdered two Israelis in a shooting attack at a gas station near Eli on the West Bank, Public Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir commented that "The cabinet [needs to] forget about the conceptzia!" Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich added that he will demand that the cabinet "get rid of the conceptzia in the West Bank as well [as in Gaza]."
Mar. 1, 2024 update: A day after the IDF and Shin Bet announced that Israel's prisons are running out of space, therefore administrative detainees with a month or less left in detention were being released, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir expressed his outrage. He argued that space is not the issue but a "gesture" for Ramadan" beginning on March 10. Mar. 2, 2024 update: Ben Gvir adds, "Someone in Shin Bet believes we live in Switzerland." Mar. 3, 2024 update: Ben Gvir further adds, "If there is a shortage of space, release Jewish administrative prisoners, release tax offenders. Why are Arab administrative prisoners being released?"
Mar. 4, 2024 update: Israel's Beit Berl College discontinued the widely popular slogan since Oct. 7 "Together we will be victorious" in favor of "We will grow out of it together" because the first "was not an inclusive slogan" for Arab members of the college.
Mar. 12, 2024 update: Unbelievable: "Israeli security services are considering enlisting the aid of the Palestinian Authority in building the system that will be responsible for running the Gaza Strip and dispensing humanitarian aid. One of the names being considered is Majid Faraj, the head of PA intelligence and a close confidant of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas."
Mar. 17, 2024 update: Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on the IDF General Staff and IDF appointments after Oct. 7:
This General Staff, which completely failed on October 7, has brought upon us one of the greatest disasters in Israel's history, and it did not fail only on October 7; this is a long-lasting failure of a misconception that collapsed. This General Staff will not model the IDF into the next generation. It will not appoint the new commanders after the change. There is no more trust in them for this. Currently, we are totally supporting them to win the war; but nothing more than that.
Mar. 19, 2024 update: Netanyahu's office has stated that, "Regarding the Palestinian workers, following a request from security officials for a limited pilot, Prime Minister Netanyahu said that this will be presented for an initial discussion." I.e., West Bankers will be allowed to work in Israel to make up for the labor shortage since Oct. 7.
Mar. 19, 2024 update: "Tens of thousands of Palestinian laborers have been entering Israel to work" since Oct. 7 due to pressure from business interests, reports Israel's Channel 13.
The ban on using Palestinian labor imposed by the Defense Ministry and the army was meant to encompass almost the entire economy, but an exemption process was granted for hospitals, burial organizations, some essential businesses and other humanitarian necessities.
According to Channel 13, some 2,396 businesses and institutions have obtained exemptions, many of which cannot be described as having any humanitarian necessity.
Major Israeli companies such as food giant Osem, the Aminach mattress and furniture business, and the Berman bakery company have all managed to obtain permits to bring in workers.
Hotels, food producers, bakeries, a car mechanic, a window factory, an events production company and a trash processing company were all among those who've managed to obtain permits to bring in Palestinian laborers.
Mar. 27, 2024 update: Globes business daily reports that "Thousands of Palestinian workers are illegally crossing the Judea and Samaria security barrier every day to seek employment within Israel's pre-1967 lines, in defiance of a blanket entry ban imposed in the wake of Hamas's Oct. 7 massacre."
Mar. 30, 2024 update: Arutz Sheva reports that "female cadets from the officers' training school have been ordered to guard the Nukhba terrorists who took part in the October 7th massacre. The Nukhba force was considered the most elite of Hamas's troops."
Apr. 4, 2024 update: Israel Hayom reports that Israel's War Cabinet has approved
enlisting the help of Gaza residents affiliated with the dominant Palestinian Authority faction Fatah to secure the entry of humanitarian aid into the strip and prevent potential diversion to Hamas.
The move involves both Gazan security personnel linked to Fatah as well as the Palestinian Red Crescent aid group. Israel coordinated this effort with senior Palestinian Authority official Majed Faraj, the head of the PA's General Intelligence Service.
Just this past Sunday, these Fatah-affiliated elements secured the entry of trucks carrying humanitarian aid into Gaza City. According to Israeli security sources, the personnel were armed only with batons and no firearms. However, reports from Gaza indicate some of them were killed by Hamas members during the operation.