1. Summary: In recent months, Israel has intensified its operations against Palestinian militants in the Tulkarm refugee camp, part of its broader campaign in the West Bank. On September 10, 2024, Israeli forces launched a new operation in Tulkarm, initially entering the Nour Shams refugee camp with armored vehicles, including D9 bulldozers, from the Nitzanei Oz settlement. After a brief presence in Nour Shams, the IDF moved towards Tulkarm Refugee Camp without facing resistance from militants. Sources within the Palestinian Authority report that militants have changed tactics due to Israeli attacks on their infrastructure, as public dissatisfaction grows and fears of a Gaza-like scenario mount. The IDF returned to Nour Shams later in the evening, prompting women and children to leave the areas under Israeli control, while men hid in homes to avoid arrest. IDF foot soldiers conducted sweeps for militants, who largely remained non-reactive, and Israeli armored vehicles continued to move between the Nour Shams and Tulkarm camps throughout the night.
Reason and mystery in Israel’s defense posture
Israel’s jihadist enemies draw palpable power and purpose from a literally primal loathing of reason and rationality.
Louis Rene Beres| Sept 10, 2024
The scene where a missile fired from Lebanon hit a home in the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona on Sept. 4, 2024. Photo by Ayal Margolin/Flash90.
There is something inside us that yearns not for reason, but for mystery … for whisperings of the irrational.”
— Karl Jaspers, Reason and Anti-Reason in Our Time (1952)
In complex matters of national defense, truth is sometimes counterintuitive. While for Israel, the most tangible source of power is its military, this source should never be considered in isolation.Because jihadist adversaries often regard personal death avoidance as more rewarding than anything else, their highest form of power is never just a matter of military assets, strategy or tactics. Rather, it is a matter of “power over death.”
