Author: AFSI Staff

As the threat of an Iranian attack on Israel hangs over the Middle East, Israelis remain determined to go about their ordinary lives.

Potential missile and drone attacks from Iran and its proxies have prompted Israelis to stock up on food, water, batteries and more. The run on stores was reminiscent of the days leading up to Iran’s barrage of hundreds of missiles and drones in April.

“I know that if Khamenei says he’s going to do something, he usually follows through,” Yael Sasson, a 56-year-old homemaker from Ashkelon told The Press Service of Israel. “The question is just what form the attack will take, and in my opinion, the news channels have overreacted a bit to this whole situation.”

Nick Gottlieb, a 26-year-old US immigrant who works at a tech VC firm in Tel Aviv told TPS-IL that life continues in Tel Aviv. “If there’s a war, someone forgot to tell Tel Aviv. It’s business as normal — the beaches, shuk, and bars are still full.” Gottlieb is fully confident in Israel’s defensive abilities. “To put it into just two words, Bring it.”

In the southern town of Gan Yavne, Noa Halifa, a youth movement educator said the ongoing state of alert is more grinding than specific threats from Iran. “By and large we’re stuck in a state of anxiety since October 7th, and everything that’s happened since then just perpetuates that and pours gas on the fire. The fear isn’t because of the Iranian threat exactly, it’s something perpetual,” the 24-year-old told TPS-IL.

Halifa said she sensed the anxiety from the children she has worked with during the summer. “We usually do the camp in the woods, but this year, for the first time, we did it at a youth center, so that the kids would have access to bomb shelters,” Halifa explained. “The kids were stressed, they had panic attacks, and they were less independent overall.”

But she added, “Life still goes on, but we’re all needing to adapt ourselves to the current, difficult situation.”

Source:
‘Bring It’: Israelis Shrug Off Iranian Threats, by Noah Michaeli/TPS, August 5, 2024

For the second time in months, Israelis are sitting, waiting, and twiddling their thumbs, as Iran and its proxies have promised to exact revenge on the Jewish state in response to the deaths of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and the killing of senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr.

Where and when this grand act of revenge will occur is proving challenging to estimate. Western intelligence sources told Sky News Arabia that they had evidence that Iran plans to attack Israel on Tisha B’Av next week. Other reports quote US and Israeli security officials as saying that the attack may come as early as today, leaving Israelis in limbo.

This is a genuinely worrying time for Israelis. Under normal circumstances, people could expect to look to their leader to provide strength, guidance, and cohesion, but that is proving to be a damp squib. So, if we cannot look to the present for inspiration, what about the past?

Sunday marked Jabotinsky Day, a national holiday celebrated annually to commemorate the life and vision of the Zionist leader. But what, if anything, can be learned from the former chief of Revisionist Zionism during these trying times?

Source:
Drawing on the legacy of Ze’ev Jabotinsky is critical in fighting Iran – editorial, by JPost Editorial, August 5, 2024

A 66-year-old Israeli woman and a 70-year-old man were killed, and two others injured when a Palestinian terrorist went on a stabbing spree in Holon on Sunday morning. The victims were attacked in three different areas before the terrorist, who had entered Israel illegally, was shot and killed by a police officer.

“This is a serious and complex attack, the victims were in three different scenes about 500 meters away from each other,” said Magen David Adom paramedic Rami Mushter and senior medic Eran Carmel.

“For many months the State of Israel has been facing murderous terrorism from home and abroad – there is no country in the world that will accept the agenda that an elderly couple who have done no harm to anyone are attacked with terrible cruelty by bloodthirsty terrorists. The security system will reckon with everyone, and its long arms will reach everywhere in the world and overwhelm our enemy,” said Labor Minister Yoav Ben-Tzur.

Source:
Palestinian Kills 2, Injures 2 in Holon Stabbing Spree, by Pesach Benson/TPS, August 4, 2024

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran, where he was attending the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, the terror group confirmed on Wednesday morning.

Haniyeh is the highest-ranking Hamas figure killed since October 7.

According to Iran’s state-run IRNA, Haniyeh and an Iranian security guard were killed inside the Tehran residence where he was staying.

Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah reacted today for the first time to the elimination of his top military commander Fuad Shukr who was assassinated just a day before Haniyeh. He accused Israel of crossing a red line and threatened, “The enemy should wait for revenge for all the blood that was spilled. The escalation depends now on Israel’s conduct and response.”

All of this has created spiraling tensions and fears of a full outbreak of war. As a result, many major airlines have cancelled their flights to and from Israel.

Since the war began, Israel has eliminated many key people in the vast terrorist network that seeks to delegitimize and wipe it off the map. Haniyeh’s elimination should not be taken lightly as he was one of the heads of the snake and their #2 man and leader of the Hamas political bureau. Haniyeh’s shocking loss to Hamas – and Iran – represents a serious victory to the enemies of terrorism. It’s also another removal of a driver of terrorist activity that harms the security and safety of Israel. However, it remains to be seen what this portends for an all-out war.

Sources:
Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh Killed in Tehran, by Pesach Benson/TPS, July 31, 2024

Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah reacted on Thursday for the first time to the elimination of his top military commander Fuad Shukr, by Israel National News, August 1, 2024

As more foreign airlines nix flights, Israeli official says airspace ‘absolutely safe’, by Times of Israel Staff, August 1, 2024

The Knesset will summon US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew to provide answers for why the US government recently sanctioned Israeli citizens living in Judea and Samaria, and Israeli organizations, Kan Reshet Bet reported Tuesday morning.

In addition, the Japanese and European Union ambassadors will also be summoned, since European countries and Japan have imposed similar sanctions on Israeli citizens and organizations.

This is the first time the Knesset and the Israeli authorities are initiating a public process on the matter.

The Knesset cannot force the foreign ambassadors to come to the hearing.

Source:
In first: US Ambassador summoned following sanctions against Israelis, by Israel National news, July 30, 2024

Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said he is working to ban the pro-Hezbollah Al Mayadeen TV channel from operating in Israel and is awaiting an opinion from the security establishment.

He was responding to Israeli anger after an Al Mayadeen reporter broadcast live from the Majdal Shams soccer field where 12 children were killed in a Hezbollah rocket strike. One day after the deadly attack, reporter Hanaa Mahamid, claimed on the air that the children were killed in “an Israeli attack,” and insisted that Majdal Shams residents were skeptical that the rocket had been fired by Hezbollah.

“Allowing a Hezbollah reporter to broadcast from the scene of the massacre that Hezbollah carried out is absurd by any standard,” he said.

Source:
Israel working to ban pro-Hezbollah TV channel, by Pesach Benson/TPS, July 29, 2024

It’s been just over a day since Hezbollah fired an Iranian made Falaq-1 missile into a soccer field in the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Northern Golan, killing 12 children. Israel’s security cabinet has voted to give Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the power to decide when and how to respond to Hezbollah’s massacre.

The attack came as a shock with the Prime Minister still in the USA - forcing him to fly back early. Most people believe that this attack crossed enough red lines to push the region over into total war.

“For the deaths of little children, [Hezbollah chief Hassan] Nasrallah should pay with his head,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich tweeted,” asserting that it was “time for action” and that “Lebanon as a whole has to pay the price.”

Did Hezbollah intentionally push Israel’s button to see if it will declare war? If, when, and how Israel will respond remains to be seen. In the meantime, reports are quickly circulating about other countries taking every precaution by evacuating their people from Lebanon and the surrounding areas, and Israel’s hospitals are under a state of intense war readiness, possibly never seen before.

Source:
Hezbollah Massacres 12 Children; Bibi and Gallant to Decide on Israel’s Response, by Micha Gefen/Israel Unwired, July 28, 2024

Recep Tayyip Erdogan has escalated threats against Israel: “Turkey can invade Israel just as it did in Karabakh and Libya,” said the Turkish president at a meeting of the Justice and Development Party.

“We must be very strong so that Israel cannot carry out these actions (attacks) against Palestine. Just as we entered Karabakh, just as we entered Libya, we might do the same to them. There is nothing we cannot do. We just need to be strong,” the Turkish president said.

That’s all the noise. Here’s the signal: Turkey is considered a ‘haven’ for Hamas and has even been identified as a potential replacement for Qatar as the sponsor of the terrorist organization, if Qatar expels its political leaders.

Source:
Erdogan: Turkey can invade Israel, by ILH Staff/Israel Hayom, July 29, 2024

The Supreme Court last Thursday heard the petition of the Movement for the Quality of Government, which claimed that the Firearms Division under National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir distributed weapon permits improperly.

The High Court accepted, at least for now, the response of the investigators who stated that “the findings of the investigation so far indicate that upon initial examination it turns out that the majority of [the permits] were distributed to people who meet the criteria established by law.”

A continuation of hearings in the case will continue.

Source:
Ben Gvir Wins Round One in Court over Distribution of Weapons Permits to Civilians, by David Israel, July 26, 2024

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday addressed a joint session of the US Congress amid the war with Hamas in Gaza and rising tensions in the North. This is the tenth address of an Israeli Prime Minister to Congress and Netanyahu’s fourth, surpassing British Prime Minister Winston Churchill for the most by a single foreign leader.

“We meet today at a crossroads of history. Our world is in upheaval. In the Middle East, Iran’s axis of terror confronts America, Israel and our Arab friends. This is not a clash of civilizations. It’s a clash between barbarism and civilization. It’s a clash between those who glorify death and those who sanctify life.

For the forces of civilization to triumph, America and Israel must stand together. Because when we stand together, something very simple happens. We win. They lose.

And my friends, I came to assure you today of one thing: we will win.”

Netanyahu speech was a historic message to America and the world at such a time of severe upheaval and chaos. His delivery broke the record of standing ovations for a foreign leader in Congress, receiving 58 standing ovations during his speech, breaking the previous record of 28 in 2015.

Acknowledged overall and in the audience were October 7 survivors, families of hostages, and IDF heroes. Netanyahu also voiced a message for the anti-Israel protesters outside the building: “When the tyrants of Tehran who hang gays from cranes and murder women for not covering their hair praise, promote, and fund you, you become Iran’s useful idiots.”

We like Daniel Greenfield’s review of Netanyahu’s speech. He states that the Prime Minister’s words were “meant to remind Americans of what Israel, and we, are fighting for. The choice between good and evil is all too clear. All that remains is to make it.”

Sources:
PM Netanyahu’s Address to a Joint Meeting of the US Congress, Prime Minister’s Office, July 24, 2024

Netanyahu Defends America Before Congress, by Daniel Greenfield/Frontpage Magazine, July 25, 2024

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