Israel must also lower its dependency on the US for arms. On the bright side, the Abraham Accords are still intact

By Efraim Inbarr, TOI  DEC 23/23

The US has displayed great support for vanquishing Hamas, and this has enhanced Israel’s position as a valued American ally. Yet, the American motives are suspect. The Biden administration’s support is predicated by an obsession with the Two-State paradigm, which requires eliminating Hamas from Gaza and restoring the moribund and corrupt Palestinian Authority (PA) there. Moreover, the American embrace aims to restrain Israel from attacking Iranian proxies, a move that could lead to a regional escalation – something Washington is eager to avert. This has been the major motive for sending aircraft carriers to the region.

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Northern Command chief Ori Gordin provides first reference from an army official to the fear of Hezbollah tunnels in Lebanese territory near the northern border; the IDF is working to eliminate all threats emerging along that border, aiming to weaken Hezbollah’s capabilities

By Yair Kraus, YNET   24 December 2023

IDF Major General Ori Gordin

IDF Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin, the Northern Command chief, addressed the concerns of residents living on the northern border due to the threat of Hezbollah tunnels, following the exposure of Hamas’ massive tunnel in the Gaza Strip.

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Peloni:  As Alex Grinsberg noted earlier this year, Russia and Iran are each driven by their respective national interests which are not mutually aligned.

By David Israel, JEWISH PRESS   24 December 2023

The Direct Polls survey that was published last Thursday (Direct Polls: Gantz and Bibi Neck-and-Neck, Smotrich Beats the Threshold) included the question: “To what degree do you support encouraging the voluntary emigration of Gaza Strip residents?”

The response of 1,487 adults (18+) who are a representative sample of the general population in Israel, with a statistical sampling error of ± 3.9%, at a 95% probability, was overwhelmingly in favor of the idea.

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Peloni:  There is no need for the US to raise an international alliance to protect shipping against the Houthi menace, and doing so will only serve to institutionalize the ongoing piracy being waged against the world, as it would take very little to restore deterrence needed to end the Houthi aggression and/or deplete its capabilities to hold the world hostage.  Given that the US is intent upon funding Iran’s terror regime and protecting its hubs of terror, there seems to be a failing interest in aiding the Americans in their charade because these nations who use to be reliable US allies are more concerned about the consequences coming from Iran than those coming from Washington.

by Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge Dec 23/23

Australia is the latest country to reject a request from the United States to send warships to the Red Sea under the command of the Pentagon’s Operation Prosperity Guardian to protect commercial vessels along the critical maritime trade route from Iran-backed Houthi.

Defense Minister Richard Marles told Sky News that Australia’s military would not send a “ship or a plane” to the Red Sea but would triple the number of troops for the US-led maritime force.

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T. Belman. Compare Netanyahu’s statement with this:
A new report claims the IDF is minimizing firepower due to American and European pressure to alleviate the suffering of Palestinians.

PM says Israel’s operational decisions are based on its own considerations as a sovereign nation, not external pressure.

Israel National News     Dec 24, 2023, 1:07 PM (GMT+2)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the fall of eight IDF soldiers in battle in Gaza during the start of the Government meeting at the Kirya in Tel Aviv today (Sunday).

“This is a difficult morning, after a very difficult day of fighting in Gaza. On behalf of all members of the Government and the entire people of Israel, I would like to send condolences to the families of our heroic soldiers who have fallen in the war over our home. Our hearts are with the families; our hearts go out for the young lives that were cut short in their prime. We all send best wishes for a quick recovery to our wounded. The war is exacting a very heavy cost from us; however, we have no choice but to continue to fight,” Netanyahu began.

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Hamas has dictated the parameters of victory

BY EDWARD LUTTWAK, UNHERD Dec 23/23

Professor Edward Luttwak is a strategist and historian known for his works on grand strategy, geoeconomics, military history, and international relations. His most recent book is The Art of Military Innovation: Lessons from the Israel Defense Forces.

During their protected wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, America’s leaders and generals could never define victory. Hamas, by contrast, has a clear understanding of what it looks like. Now that the terror group has demonstrated the failure of Israel’s deterrence, it insists it will not any more short ceasefires in exchange for hostages, but only a complete end to Israel’s offensive, which would of course leave it in full control of Gaza.

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By Michael Ordman, VGNI

It’s clear in last week’s positive news that Israeli forces are steadily clearing Hamas terrorists from Gaza. We learned that on Oct 7, another Israeli hero gave dozens of survivors a clear escape route from death. A trained IDF K9 dog is helping clear Gaza from bombs and hidden terrorists. And the IDF cleared the way for one soldier to race from Gaza to be at the birth of his baby son.

Israeli medical news includes a new therapy for clearing the breathing of asthma sufferers; a psoriasis treatment to give clear skin; and an antibody that clears the way for the immune system to destroy cancer.

An Israeli startup has won an international award for its software that gives driverless cars a clear way through traffic.  Success in Gaza has cleared the way for airlines to resume flights to Israel. And an Israeli startup is helping clear the water in Phoenix Arizona. Finally, two Israeli soccer teams have cleared the way through to the final stages of European competitions.
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Urgent call illustrates Washington’s attempts to prevent a widening war in the Middle East

By Vivian Salama,  Dion Nissenbaum  and Benoit Faucon, WSJ     Dec. 23, 2023

Israeli soldiers guard near the border with Lebanon. The war between Israel and Hamas that ignited on Oct. 7 has also inflamed tensions on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon. PHOTO: AMIR LEVY/GETTY IMAGES

WASHINGTON—President Biden urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt a pre-emptive strike against Hezbollah forces in Lebanon days after Hamas militants’ Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel, warning that such an attack could spark a wider regional war.

Israel had intelligence—which the U.S. deemed unreliable—that Hezbollah attackers were preparing to cross the border as part of a multipronged attack, pushing some of Israel’s more hawkish officials to the brink, officials said.

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30,000 EXPLOSIVE WEAPONS CAPTURED SINCE START OF WAR

Deaths bring weekend toll to 13, with 152 troops killed since start of ground op; military says chief of supplies for Hamas’s armed wing killed in Rafah strike, as campaign expands

By EMANUEL FABIAN, TOI    24/12/23

IDF soldiers announced killed in the Gaza Strip on December 24, 2023: Top L-R: Master Sgt. (res.) Nadav Issachar Farhi, Master Sgt. (res.) Eliyahu Meir Ohana, Sgt. First Class (res.) Elyassaf Shoshan, Sgt. First Class (res.) Ohad Ashur; bottom: Staff Sgt. David Bogdanovskyi, Staff Sgt. Orel Bashan, Staff Sgt. Itamar Shemen, Staff Sgt. Gal Hershko. (Courtesy)

The Israel Defense Forces announced Sunday the names of eight additional soldiers killed in fighting on Saturday, bringing the number of troops killed over the weekend to 13, as the military deepened its offensive against the Hamas terror group.

Four soldiers of the Combat Engineering Corps and a paramedic were killed by an anti-tank guided missile that hit a Namer armored engineering vehicle they were in, in southern Gaza. Another four were killed by bombs in two separate incidents during battles with gunmen in central Gaza.

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By M.B. Mathews, AM THINKER

I recently wrote a column about why I believed Trump should not run in 2024. I was wrong. I allowed my distaste for Trump’s personality to override his virtues, which are considerable.

Some people want Trump without his vices. I was among them — until I watched and listened to Tom Klingenstein’s speech titled “Trump’s virtues.”

It was masterful and shamed me that I did not make the distinction between Trump’s character and his virtues, the former being deeply flawed, the latter being almost perfect.

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T. Belman. This is absolutely brilliant. Hamas, an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, is out gunned in the military war but Israel is outgunned in the war for public opinion. That’s why Martin Sherman has recommended that Israel spend $1B  yearly on public diplomacy.

The global scope and scale of Hamas’s antisemitic influence dramatically exceeds even the Nazis from whom it takes much of its own inspiration.

By RICHARD KEMP, JPOST    DECEMBER 22, 2023

Hamas is by far the most successful antisemitic entity in the world today.

Beyond all competition, it has mobilized Jew-hatred around the world, using the State of Israel both as its target and its primary weapon. By waging war against Israel over many years, Hamas has inspired and energized international organizations such as the UN and the EU; governments and parliaments; the Western media; university authorities, professors, and students; human rights groups; businesses; and large sectors of the general population.

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The buffer zone has moved south of the border, and the IDF faces daily mortar attacks from Hezbollah.

By Jonathan Spyer, WSJ     Dec. 21, 2023

The Dvoranit outpost on the Israel-Lebanon border PHOTO: JONATHAN SPYER

Will Israel launch a military operation to clear Hezbollah from its northern border? Or is the war there already under way?

“We see a steady escalation in terms of the range and variety of munitions being launched by Hezbollah at Israel,” Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, international spokesman of the Israel Defense Forces, told a group of foreign journalists at a briefing in northern Israel on Dec. 18. “We can do the same, if we need to, against Hezbollah that we are doing against Hamas in the south. This may be the scenario that we will need to implement.”
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Hopefully, naivety will be a casualty of the Hamas War.  Children in a playground can be naive – but our world is no playground. 

By Howard Rotberg    Dec 22, 2023,

“It is well for the heart to be naive and the mind not to be.”– Anatole France

The Oxford Learner’s Dictionary defines “naive” as “lacking knowledge, experience of life, or good judgment, and willing to believe that people always tell you the truth”. To this, I, a son of a Holocaust survivor, would add “willing to believe that people are good”. Every morning, after reading the newspaper, I am reminded that this is a world of Good versus Evil, and people who don’t understand that are naive.

And so, after the Shoah, naivety should have died. Or maybe it just faded a bit and has revived itself,

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By Majid Rafizadeh,  GATESTONE   23 December 2023

• If the Biden administration thought that by rescuing Iran’s economy, which had hit bottom, and removing the Houthis from the list of Foreign Terror Organizations would make both Iran into an ally, the generosity appears to have backfired.
• If the Iranian regime is allowed to advance to nuclear weapons capability, it will be on course finally to drive the US out of the region; threaten its oil-rich neighbors; destabilize Europe; deploy military assets in Venezuela and Cuba, and, at last, come for the “Great Satan,” the United States.
• It must be made unmistakably clear to Iran that the United States will not allow Iran’s current regime, a designated state sponsor of terrorism, to arm itself with nuclear weapons and emerge as yet another global nuclear threat in the Middle East, Europe and South America.

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By Tom Nash

“According to the report, the Defense Ministry is launching a crash program with Israel’s military industries and major industrialists to make Israel independent in everything related to ordnance. In the initial phase, Israel will begin producing bombs for its aircraft. Jerusalem also intends to expand its production of tank and artillery shells, as well as assault rifles and bullets. Separately, there is increased discussion regarding the establishment of a missile force as an independent arm of the IDF. The force would reduce reliance on the air force and develop more versatile, more easily defended missile launch platforms and massively expand Israel’s missile and drone arsenals.”

It will take years to correct the damage the generals wrought by reducing the size of the IDF and inducing its total dependence on the United States

Caroline B. Glick  (December 22, 2023 / JNS)

U.S.-made MIM-23 Hawk anti-aircraft missiles on display at a military parade in Tel Aviv in 1965. Credit: Avraham Amir via Wikimedia Commons.

Two underlying assumptions guided Israel’s security establishment for the past generation. The first asserted that with the end of the Cold War, the era of conventional wars had ended. In the present age, brains, rather than brawn, would rule the roost.

The primary author of the “small and smart IDF” doctrine was Ehud Barak, who served as Chief of General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces when the Berlin Wall crumbled. In later years, the slogan was finessed.

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