On Sunday, November 12, Prime Minister Netanyahu was interviewed on the Sunday morning talk shows. Hassan Nasrallah chose that same day to give his second public speech since the war started. The contrast couldn’t be more striking. And both side’s actions back up their words.
The key things to be gleaned from the sometimes aggressive questioning of Netanyahu were:
With regard to the patients in Gaza’s hospitals: “You do everything in power to get civilians out but you don’t give immunity to terrorists.” Netanyahu’s concerns are backed up by America’s confirmation that Hamas keeps command and control centers under at least one hospital and that this is a common practice. And also video released by the IDF depicting Hamas terrorists firing just outside a hospital (see below), a much longer video released by the IDF proving the existence of tunnels, armaments, and a likely room used to imprison some of the hostages (including a baby bottle, rope, and even a schedule for the guards), and information from the IDF concerning firefights with terrorists seeking shelter in or on hospital grounds.
That Israel has called for the evacuation of the hospitals and has called for the creation of field hospitals (from the UAE) and appreciates the floating ship hospital (from France) coming to the region to take on the patients. In addition, Netanyahu said that Israel is exploring ways to bring incubators so that babies still at the hospital could be removed.
That Hamas is preventing people from leaving hospitals.
The world should demand that the Red Cross get access to the hostages and lay blame on Hamas for their clear violations of international law.
Israel will fight until Hamas is no longer capable of taking military action and able to govern Gaza.
Israel will only accept a pause in its offensive for the time needed to get the hostages out but will not agree to an endless series of pauses that allows Hamas to replenish and refit.
Regarding future governance, Israel is first focused on destroying Hamas. Second, Israel will insist on maintaining an overriding military envelope that will prevent Hamas and the like from reemerging. Third, Netanyahu wants to see a civilian authority that will “demilitarize and deradicalize.” On this he was very clear that what is needed is a Palestinian authority that will fight terrorists and radicalizing education and that will not preach hate but instead, cooperation. No more “pay for slay” that the present PA does. Nor was he optimistic about the present PA that to this day has not condemned Hamas’ actions. As such, Netanyahu said, it is too early to say what the actual governance structure will be in Gaza but he said, there is a “need to give hope to these people [and] free them from radicalization.”
About the same time Netanyahu spoke, Nasrallah did too. On behalf of Hezbollah, which he heads, Nasrallah pledged, "This front will remain active." And it has. The last two days have seen a sharp increase in Hezbollah’s terror activity and the deaths of an Israeli citizen, an IDF soldier and many others wounded. And with regards to Hezbollah’s near term goal, Nasrallah said it is to end the war in Gaza and enable Hamas to triumph. And finally, with regard to the future, he made clear “All scenarios are open on our Lebanese Front. We can adopt any at any point of time.” Meaning a sharp escalation of fighting. And then in an insult directed at us, he said that no Jew in the diaspora will sacrifice their home for Israel.
And then came revelations the next day of Hamas’ intent. From an in-depth article in the Washington Post, we learned that Hamas had planned the October 7 operation for more than a year and that it hoped to do much more by surging through Israel all the way to the West Bank where its terrorists could link up with supporters there. Some operatives had supplies sufficient for allowing them to operate for several days and maps giving them routes to take. Some also carried weapons with “thermobaric projectiles that generate powerful pressure waves and intense fires with temperatures exceeding 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit.” And, not surprising but still startling, Hamas knew that Israel would react sharply, but didn’t care. Because the deaths of Gazan civilians was part of their plan.
Yet much of the world has forgotten October 7, and some ignore it or even deny it (see the article below about a Middle School teacher in Maryland). No wonder so many of us feel alone.
Yossi Klein Halevi’s recent opinion piece - Our truth expresses those sentiments well. Below is an excerpt:
“Perhaps the most enduring wound for Jews from the Holocaust is the memory of aloneness. For 12 long years, the international community scarcely intervened as Nazi persecution gradually turned to extermination. Even as we established a sovereign state and created thriving communities in a free diaspora, there remained a lingering anxiety that the post-Holocaust era of Jewish acceptance was an aberration and that someday we would once again be alone.
The ancient fear of the Jews is immutable otherness. “They are a people that shall dwell alone and not be considered among the nations,” declared the pagan prophet Balaam in the Bible. The miracle of the post-Holocaust Jewish recovery was that, just as history seemed to confirm Balaam’s prediction, we managed to become a “normal” people, securing our place in the world.
But now we are at one of those defining moments in Jewish history when we find ourselves at a moral disconnect with much of the international community. As we struggle to absorb the enormity of the October 7 massacre and to confront a global wave of antisemitism, the trauma of aloneness has returned.”
And then, most importantly:
“Israelis across the political spectrum agree that the regime of Oct. 7 must be destroyed. Like Ben-Gurion, we are willing to pay the bitter price of being alone.”
In a few minutes I leave for the Rally on the Mall. There, I will be joined with tens of thousands of others—maybe more. I will not feel alone today. Nor will I feel alone tonight or tomorrow. For there are millions of us of like minds. And there can and will be more, especially if we continue the fight to explain, to influence, and to stand up—together.
Daily update: Israel at war Day 38 Nov. 13, 2023, 20:00 PM Israel time—Written by the Alma Research and Education Center staff.
So much for no Hamas terrorists at the al-Quds hospital. Watch this video.
‘DEI Teacher’ in Jewish Area Says Jews Kill Palestinians to Sell their Organs—Written by Luke Rosiak for the Daily Wire—November 13, 2023—In this truly horrific accounting of a world history teacher strikes too close to home. A friend of mine’s daughter attends that school!
Israel’s Struggle with Hezbollah—A War Without End is now available in eBook and hardback format on Amazon and IngramSpark. This compelling narrative explores Hezbollah’s origins and cancerous growth, traces Israel’s response, and reveals Israel’s present readiness to meet Hezbollah’s challenge.
Cliff Sobin
Important Link—Alma Research and Education Center: Understanding the Security Challenges on Israel’s Northern Border