Author: AFSI Staff

Israeli troops pressed further into Rafah on Sunday but also engaged in fierce fighting in previously cleared areas around Gaza City, showing the difficulty of winning a decisive victory over Hamas as a guerrilla force.

Fighting also intensified in northern Gaza, where at least five Israeli soldiers were killed in recent days during clashes in a complicated urban environment where militants are re-establishing themselves. Israeli analysts say taking Rafah won’t deal a decisive blow to Hamas as long as it remains a potent insurgency that can pop up anywhere.

“The battle for Rafah should be the last battle of this war,” said Uzi Dayan, a former head of Israel’s National Security Council. “This doesn’t mean that this is the end of this war.”

Even if Israel were to subdue Hamas in the north, the sheer number of civilians in Rafah has constrained Israel, said retired Israeli Brig. Gen. Shlomo Brom. He said Israel may have lost much of its ability to use Rafah as a squeeze on Hamas by delaying the operation until the city absorbed so many internally displaced Palestinians.

Analysts said an operation in Rafah is most critical to shutting down Hamas’s smuggling of weapons into Gaza via Egypt, but that wouldn’t deal Hamas a knockout punch.

“It wouldn’t be an end to the war. An end to the war can be achieved only through a political decision by the two sides to agree on a cease-fire,” Brom said. “In this type of war, which is a war against a guerrilla force, I don’t think there are decisive moments,” he added.

Israel issued new evacuation orders around Rafah on Saturday as its forces pushed closer to the city’s center, though the military said the operation remains limited. Its troops moved in last week following rocket attacks by Hamas, securing key crossings and corridors, and striking more than 100 targets. Israel has told Egyptian officials that the Rafah action will take about two months, said Egyptian officials briefed on the matter.

Hamas’s military wing has taken credit for several recent rocket barrages toward military positions near Israel’s Kerem Shalom, also home to a key terminal for humanitarian aid. On Saturday evening, a separate rocket barrage injured a woman in the Israeli city of Beersheba, local medical authorities said.

The rockets underscored why Israeli leaders see Rafah as critical to achieving their war aims, which include eliminating any security threat to Israel from Gaza. Hamas’s military units in Rafah are believed to possess an arsenal of rockets.

“The idea that we will halt the war before achieving all of our goals is out of the question. We will enter Rafah and we will eliminate the Hamas battalions there,” Netanyahu said April 30, ahead of the current operation.

Israel is also counting on military action in Rafah to pressure Hamas into a deal that trades a temporary cease-fire for the release of some of the about 130 hostages remaining in Gaza from the 240 the militant group abducted in its Oct. 7 attack, which killed 1,200 Israelis, most of them civilians, according to Israeli authorities. On Saturday, Hamas said that a 51-year-old British-Israeli hostage died in captivity, allegedly from wounds sustained from an Israeli airstrike in an unspecified part of the strip. The Israeli military declined to comment.

Qatar, (NOT a neutral mediator) which hosts Hamas’s political office, has offered to revive stalled cease-fire talks.

Achieving a lasting end to the war will require a new government in Gaza to replace Hamas, which took control of the strip of 2.2 million Palestinians in 2007. Hamas will continue to fill the power vacuum until Israel brings in an alternative authority, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday. He may be right – but it is not up to him to decide Israel’s military strategy.

The congressionally approved funds and arms to Israel MUST be transferred without interference from the American administration.

Source:
In Rafah, Israel Reaches for a Knockout Punch That’s Proved Elusive, by Carrie Keller-Lynn and Abeer Ayyoub/Wall Street Journal, May 12, 2024

The U.N. General Assembly voted 143-9 on Friday to give the Palestinians unprecedented rights for a non-member observer state Full U.N. membership was still not granted.

Always one to illustrate his point, Gilad Erdan, the Israeli U.N. ambassador, used a miniature portable shredder to destroy a copy of the U.N. Charter during his speech prior to the vote. He suggested that the General Assembly was circumventing the institution’s founding principles in granting exceptional status to the Palestinians.

Erdan said the General Assembly was voting to “advance the establishment of a Palestinian terror state, which will be led by the Hitler of our times.” Erdan held up a picture of “President Sinwar” and pointed to polls indicating Hamas would take control of Palestinian territories in Judea and Samaria should another national election be held.

Professor Eugene Kontorovich offered a hopeful outlook in his New York Post article stating that the vote: “gives any future president an extraordinary opportunity. The United Nations is a corrupt, failed organization fundamentally tainted by its coddling dictatorships and chronic antisemitism, but broad efforts at defunding it have failed in Congress; now a future White House would have firm grounds to stop sending the checks.”

Sources:
At UN General Assembly, Palestinians get novel rights for non-member observer, no membership, by Mike Wagenheim/JNS, May 10, 2024

If the United Nations grants Palestine ‘statehood status’ a future prez could cut off funding to UN, by Eugene Kontorovich/New York Post, May 8, 2024

The United Nations appears to be reporting and inconsistent number of women and child casualties in Gaza, and at one point, cut these numbers in half.

On May 8, the UN published that there were 34,844 fatalities in Gaza since October 7th. This number was said to include 4,959 women and 7,797 children, comprising 20 percent and 32 percent of the total, respectively.

However, just two days previous, the UN reported that 34,735 were dead, with 9,500 women killed and 14,500 children.

Rather than providing an explanation for such a wide disparity, the UN stated that it “has so far not been able to produce independent, comprehensive, and verified casualty figures.”

Yeah, sure. What really happened here? We may never know but what we do know is that as long as the UN got another dig at Israel with the initial incorrect numbers, they’re closer to their continued goal of destroying Israel.

Source:
UN caught inflating civilian casualty figures in Gaza by twofold, by World Israel News, May 13, 2024

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant last Thursday declared his support for establishing a large new city east of Ariel, the capital of Samaria. The greater goal is for connecting the area to the center of the country.

The statement came as Gallant inaugurated an expansion of a security checkpoint on Route 5, a major traffic artery connecting central Israel with northern Samaria and the Jordan Valley.

The multi-million-shekel project aims to alleviate severe congestion at the security barrier, which poses a security threat, by adding an extra lane to ease the passage of tens of thousands of daily commuters.

Samaria Regional Council Head Yossi Dagan hailed the inauguration of the new highway as a “ray of light of victory” amid the conflict with Hamas in Gaza.

Source:
Gallant declares support for new city in Samaria, by JNS Update Desk, May 10, 2024

The Prime Minister’s Office announced on Monday evening that “The War Cabinet unanimously decided that Israel will continue the operation in Rafah to exert military pressure on Hamas in order to promote the release of our hostages and the other goals of the war.”

The IDF confirmed that the military began attacking terrorist targets in Rafah in a “targeted manner.”

Overnight on Tuesday IDF forces captured the Rafah crossing on the Gaza side. According to the IDF, the 162nd Armored Division, the 401st Armored Brigade, the Givati Infantry Brigade, and special units are operating in eastern Rafah. So far, more than 150 targets have been attacked and operational control of the Rafah crossing has been achieved. Twenty terrorists were killed and three tunnel shafts were located.

The “Palestinian” flags at the crossing were promptly replaced with Israeli flags, just in time for Independence Day.

The Rafah crossing is a key Gaza pathway for Hamas to smuggle the very weapons used to kill Israelis. Israel’s operational control of the Rafah crossing in this war is a significant achievement in eliminating the political and military power of Hamas. Israel took initiative and action as it saw fit and did not play into the hands of either Hamas or cave to U.S. and outside pressures.

Speaking of outside pressure, the U.S.’s recent backstabbing Israel by withholding a shipment of arms hurts Israel but will not stop it from its mission. The Israel Defense Forces is determined to win this war and doesn’t need support from a politician desperate for votes in the next election at the expense of Jewish lives.

Sources:
IDF begins striking terror targets in Rafah, by Israel National News, May 6, 2024

IDF Takes Over Rafah Crossing, 20 Terrorists Killed, by David Israel/Jewish Press, May 7, 2024

Biden’s arms embargo betrays Israel and America, by Daniel Greenfield/Frontpage Magazine, May 9, 2024

The UN General Assembly is expected to vote on Friday on a proposal that will grant the Palestinian Authority the rights of a state de facto.

The resolution would give the PA “the rights and privileges” to ensure its full and effective participation in the work of the General Assembly and other UN organs, “on equal footing with member nations.”

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan, said in response to the expected vote, “If passed, the decision will not change anything on the ground but will prove how disconnected the UN is from reality and how it rewards terrorism.” He added.

“Since the initiative is against the UN Charter, if it is approved, I expect the United States to completely stop funding the UN and its institutions, in accordance with American law.”

Source:
UN to vote on motion granting PA the rights of a state, Ambassador Erdan criticizes, by Israel National News, May 7, 2024

The Yesha Council announced Monday night the appointment of the head of the Binyamin Regional Council, Israel Ganz, as the next chairman of the Yesha Council. He replaces Shlomo Ne’eman.

Ganz has close ties with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with President Isaac Herzog, and with senior government ministers from all parties.

Outgoing Chairman Ne’eman said: “Ganz is both a visionary and a hard worker who promotes issues related to the status and development of Judea and Samaria. I am sure Israel Ganz will succeed in furthering the development of the communities in Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley.”

Source:
The Next Chairman of the Yesha Council: Israel Ganz, by Israel National News, May 6, 2024

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a stern message to Hamas on Sunday amid ongoing negotiations for the release of the hostages.

“While Israel showed this willingness [to compromise], Hamas remained entrenched in its extreme positions, chief among them the demand to withdraw all our forces from the Strip, end the war, and leave Hamas intact,” Netanyahu said following the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.

“The State of Israel cannot accept this. We are not ready to accept a situation in which the Hamas battalions come out of their bunkers, take control of Gaza again, rebuild their military infrastructure and return to threatening the citizens of Israel in the surrounding communities, in the cities of the south, in all parts of the country,” he continued.

On Sunday Israel’s War Cabinet approved the launch of a military operation in Rafah, which began with the evacuation of Gazans from the eastern part of the city near the border with Israel earlier on today. Two incidents preceded the decision – Hamas’ insistence on ending the war and the deadly rocket attack on the Kerem Shalom crossing in which four soldiers were killed.

There should never be recognition or reward for terrorism. Hamas will never lay down its arms nor ease up its extreme demands in the negotiations. It’s mandatory that the Israel Defense Forces enter Rafah and finish the job. The last stronghold of this terrorist scourge must be dismantled.

Sources:
Netanyahu to Hamas: We will not stop the fight, by Troy Osher Fritzhand/JNS, May 5, 2024

Israel’s War Cabinet approves first phase of Rafah operation, by Itamar Eichner and Einav Halabi/Ynetnews, May 6, 2024

 

This year the Jewish and secular calendars almost meet on Israel’s Day of Independence. The late and brave David Ben Gurion declared the new State of Israel on Friday, Iyar 5, 5708, which was also May 14, 1948. This year, Iyar 5 falls on May 13, which is Israel’s Memorial Day leading up to Independence Day.

And on Independence Day, Tuesday, May 14, our friends at Beyadenu tell us that some 500 ascendants will arrive on the Mount with Israeli flags.

A giant sign was raised last Wednesday above the northbound lanes of Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv, covering an area of 2,153 sq. ft. with the inscription “On Independence Day, we raise the flag on the Temple Mount.”

Beyadenu CEO Tom Nisani stated: “For anyone who had doubts until now, the conflict is not based solely on historical injustices due to the ‘occupation’ or the British government’s policy 80 years ago. It is not a coincidence that many soldiers who arrived in homes in Gaza found the image of the Dome of the Rock engraved on the walls. It is certainly not a coincidence that the terrorist organization Hamas chose to call for a massacre during the celebration of Simchat Torah in the name of the Temple Mount. This is a religious and national conflict, and so far, the State of Israel has refused to address it by demonstrating its sovereignty on the Temple Mount.”

Source:
500 Jews to Wave Israeli Flags on the Temple Mount on Independence Day, by David Israel/Jewish Press

The Sovereignty Movement joins those supporting the former President of the United States, Donald Trump, who distanced himself from the notion of ​​two states that he, too, finds to be increasingly unlikely.

 

This comes against the backdrop of an interview that Trump granted TIME Magazine, in which he stated that he has come around to the now widespread belief in Israel that a Palestinian state existing side by side in peace is increasingly unlikely. “There was a time when I thought two-state could work,” he says. “Now I think two-state is going to be very, very tough.”

“After the October 7th massacre, it is eminently clear, even to the most sober analysts in the United States, that these dangerous ideas pose an existential threat to Israel’s future.  It is time to promote, in practice, the alternative of sovereignty as Israel’s only realistic political plan,” said Sovereignty heads Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar.

Source:
Trump’s Statement – An Impetus for Sovereignty. It’s Time for Action, by The Sovereignty Movement, May 2, 2024