News Digest — 8/8/24
Netanyahu Warns Of Proactive Attack As Tehran Speaks Of Israel’s Annihilation
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Iran and Hezbollah of proactive attacks, while Tehran spoke of the Jewish state’s annihilation as the region braced for the possibility of a second direct confrontation between the two arch foes.
“We are prepared both defensively and offensively,” P M Benjamin Netanyahu stated during a visit Wednesday (7th) to the IDF induction base at Tel Hashomer.
“I know that the citizens of Israel are concerned, and I ask one thing of you: Be patient and level-headed,” he said. “We are striking our enemies and are determined to defend ourselves.”
The prime minister spoke with inductees at the base amid a tense week as Israel braced for potential reprisal attacks by Iran and its proxy groups, including Hezbollah, which has already been battling the IDF along the country’s northern border with Lebanon for close to 11 months.
Meanwhile, Chief Commander of the Iranian Army Abdolrahim Mousavi did not sound consolatory when he spoke of Israel’s pending destruction on Wednesday (7th).
“The Zionist regime will soon receive a strong and definite response, and there is no doubt about it,” Mousavi reportedly said, according to IRNA and Tasnim. “It is clear that they themselves have realized the speed of their own destruction, and by doing so, they want to save themselves from the quagmire, but they definitely cannot save themselves from annihilation.”
The new Iranian President, Masoud Pezeshkian, however, asked Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to refrain from attacking Israel, according to Iran International.
Israel has been engaged in a multi-front war with Iranian proxies for almost a year, including Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen.
Tensions increased last week in the aftermath of the twin assassinations of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr and Hamas military leader Ismail Haniyeh. Israel has accepted responsibility for Shukr’s killing but not Haniyeh.
President Herzog’s Message To World Jewry As Israel Is Threatened By Iran
President Isaac Herzog on Wednesday (7th), sent a message to Jewish communities around the world, as Israel continues to face the ongoing threat of imminent attack from the Iranian regime and its terrorist proxies across the region.
In his message, President Herzog spoke of the importance of the resilience of the Israeli people, of the great capabilities of the defense and security services, and of the centrality of the steadfast alliance with Israel’s allies – especially the United States of America. The President said that the Israeli people and Jewish communities shared in the tensions and anxieties surrounding the threats of today, and noted that the concern and care between Israel and Jews around the world was mutual and deep.
Herzog began: “Dear Jewish sisters and brothers from around the world, these are difficult moments for the State of Israel and the Jewish people. These very days, we mark 10 months since the brutal massacre of October 7. It coincides with another heartbreaking moment in time, the fifth anniversary of Ariel Bibas, the little red-headed boy from Kibbutz Nir Oz who was abducted from his home by Hamas terrorists on that dark day, along with his mother Shiri, his father Yarden, and his baby brother, Kfir.”
He continued, “At the same time our enemies, poisoned by hatred, blinded by radicalism and anti-Semitism, have vowed to attack us again. We all feel the tension, the anxiety, and the vulnerability of these moments. These feelings are natural. But my friends, rest assured. I want to state clearly, we have the capacity to confront our enemies and to defeat them. The State of Israel is blessed with many resources, most importantly incredible human resources. We have an excellent and highly motivated military, air force, intelligence services, and others. We have advanced air-defense systems. We have strong and enduring alliances that are committed to protecting not only Israel but the rules-based world order we are fighting for, and we are so grateful to them – especially to our closest ally and friend, the United States of America, which is leading the coalition actively defending the values of life and liberty.”
“But beyond all that, we carry another most precious resource, the remarkable resilience of our people. A resilience which is rooted in the deep sense of connection and shared destiny that we have shared all across the ages. It is what has enabled us to get back up and rebuild after even the worst tragedies, and it is what we lean into right now,” Herzog said.
“I want to say to our sisters and brothers everywhere that the depth of our connection and our caring is mutual. We in Israel also see the anxieties, concerns and vulnerability of Jewish communities around the world. And just as you carry us in your hearts, we carry you in our hearts too. Dear friends, Am Yisrael Chai,” Herzog concluded.
Gallant In Northern Israel: ‘Nasrallah May Drag Lebanon To Pay A Very Heavy Toll’
Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant visited the 646th Brigade on Wednesday (7th) during an exercise that simulated combat in northern terrain and discussed the address delivered a day earlier by Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah.
“Your ability here at this time is concentrated on defense, but we are preparing both things for offense as well. We need to prepare, we need to plan, and we need to be ready,” Gallant told the troops.
“At the moment, we are hitting the enemy in our way. That’s correct regarding the operations to eliminate Mohammed Deif and Rafaa Salameh in Khan Yunis, and the strike on the Houthis in Yemen, and the elimination of Mohsen in the Dahiyeh quarter in Beirut, and it’s not over, and it won’t just be through airstrikes, we need to prepare.”
“Your level of preparation is what will ensure the ability to make decisions based on the knowledge that we have something real behind it, not just on paper, and you are training along the way, everyone trains, defense and offense. It is very important.”
He added: “As things seem, Nasrallah may drag Lebanon to pay a very heavy toll, very heavy. They don’t imagine what could happen. I think that if they could look at a picture of Gaza today, they would understand, but logic isn’t always what talks.
“You can’t kill civilians in the State of Israel, certainly not 12 children, and not pay a price, it doesn’t work, we don’t accept that patent, and if there is a need, we will expand our operations and do what’s needed. This process may descend into war, it’s not theoretical, it’s real.”
Shin Bet And IDF Destroy Bomb Factory In Nablus, Arrest 14 Terrorists
Shin Bet and the IDF destroyed a bomb-making facility in Nablus and Arrested 14 wanted terrorists on Wednesday (7th), Israel’s military reports.
They also retaliated after terrorists threw explosives at troops.
In Dheisha and Dawha, the IDF arrested an additional 3 people and confiscated materials for making weapons.
In Kalandiya, Israel’s security forces arrested 2 suspected terrorists and interrogated dozens of others.
Since October 7th, 4,400 terror suspects have been arrested in Judea and Samaria, 1,850 affiliated with Hamas.
A recent report released by Rescuers Without Borders documented more than 2,200 acts of Palestinian terror in Judea and Samaria during the first half of 2024.
The figure represents an average of 545 attacks each month.
Between January and the end of June, 14 people were killed and 155 injured in terror attacks, the emergency response organization said in its biannual report.
During the first six months of this year, Rescuers Without Borders’ first responders recorded an overall 3,272 acts of terror.
Iran is continuing its efforts to flood Judea and Samaria with weapons, IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari warned on Sunday (4th).
“For years Iran has been arming terror organizations in the Middle East, including [creating] smuggling infrastructure for bombs,” he added.
These efforts include the smuggling into Israel of anti-personnel mines for use in terror attacks, said Hagari, noting that the IDF had disrupted many such plots.
“We are determined to act against Iranian terror in all places,” he stated.
Harel Chorev, head of the Doron Halpern Middle East Network Analysis Desk at the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University, said that since Hamas’ October 7 invasion of southern Israel, the IDF has “taken the gloves off” in Judea and Samaria.
The Israel Air Force has started operating in the area for the first time since the Second Intifada in 2000.
Until October 7, it was up to ground forces to deal with terrorists in Judea and Samaria, “a much longer and more cumbersome process,” Chorev said.
US, UK To Skip Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Memorial Ceremony After City Mayor Invites Iran, Not Israel
Rahm Emanuel, the US ambassador to Japan, will not participate in Japan’s annual Nagasaki Peace Memorial Ceremony on Friday (9th) as Israel was not invited to the event, the Japan Times reported on Wednesday morning (7th).
Nagasaki’s 79th atomic bomb anniversary event will not include Israeli Ambassador Gilad Cohen due to security concerns, according to a separate Times report that cited Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki.
Suzuki explained this decision was to ensure the ceremony remained peaceful and focused on remembering the victims. However, some critics believe excluding Israel is a political move that sends the wrong message about standing up against terrorism and supporting global unity, the report added.
The decision to exclude Israeli Ambassador Gilad Cohen from Nagasaki’s bomb commemoration ceremony while inviting representatives from countries with serious human rights violations raises concerns, the Times added.
Furthermore, the argument that the Japanese police are not capable of ensuring security for the event “is impossible to believe,” making the exclusion of Israel seem unjustified, the report further noted.
The list of invited nations included Syria, Yemen, Venezuela, China, Myanmar, and Afghanistan, all of which have notable records of human rights abuses. Most controversially, the Times added, the Iranian ambassador was invited despite Iran’s designation as a primary sponsor of terrorism by the US and its allies.
Iran’s support for groups like Hamas and Hezbollah contrasts sharply with the event’s goal of promoting peace, further highlighting the “irony of this decision,” the article continued.
Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons, ordnance the ceremony aims to remember and condemn, the Times reported.
In a different report in the Japan Times, Mayor Suzuki’s decision not to invite Israel to the event, even though a Palestinian envoy was invited, was the reason for the US Ambassador Rahm Emanuel’s decision to skip the Nagasaki Peace Memorial Ceremony on Friday (9th) and go to a different event in Tokyo.
The US Embassy said Emanuel chose not to attend because he did not want to support the event’s political issues.
British Ambassador Julia Longbottom will also not attend, saying the decision could wrongly compare Israel to Russia. The Israeli ambassador attended a similar ceremony in Hiroshima earlier this week.
Op-ed: The New Aliyah Emissaries – Leonie Ben-Shimon
We are witnessing hordes of new Aliyah Shlichim (emissaries, influencers) throughout the world, all intent upon gathering Jews everywhere and sending them off to Israel. They are not Israeli, nor are they Jews. They are doing a job that they themselves do not understand.
As anti-Semitism rears its ugly head everywhere from European France to the end of the earth in Australia, and even in the Golden Medina of the USA, Jews are finding life very uncomfortable. Members of parliament, leaders of local government, congresswomen and the man in the street all open their mouths and often their fists saying what has been unsaid since the end of the Second World War. Anti-Semitism had gone into the closet after the Holocaust but the door has been opened.
And all of this is backed by much of the media.
Sometimes the words are “The Jews,” occasionally there are phrases such as “The Rothschilds are running the economies of the world – don’t you know?” and blatant calls for attacking Jews, but usually it is anti-Zionism, the new catchword. The Israelis are “committing genocide.” Those accusers have forgotten about the millions of civilians killed by bombs in the Second World War, in Vietnam and more.
The protests about what is happening in Gaza are not about the million starving people in Sudan. They are not standing up in the streets and monopolizing media attention about the war on Ukraine and certainly not about the Uyghurs in China. Their concerns are only about Israel’s defensive war against Gaza and about the Jews (Zionists) of the world, backed by the United nations.
Maybe that is a good thing, a cloud with a silver lining. It is written in the Torah about ingathering of the exiles which is actually happening now as the French Jews are making Aliyah, many others all over the world are now considering moving, as Jews of almost all other countries in the world have been forced to do for thousands of years.
This is actually working in our interests. Maybe those who are die-hard anti-Semites are doing us all a favor as they act as Aliyah Shlichim (emissaries) forcing more and more Jews worldwide to move to the Land of Israel.
The writer is a freelance journalist with an MBA
from Monash University, Victoria, Australia.
