Israel and The Sin of Expulsion

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Commentary;

This blog asked a few days ago if the Israeli government will squander the IDF’s Gaza War achievements. Events on the diplomatic front continued to show strong indications that Israel’s Troika of Olmert, Livni and Barak are close to doing just that, wasting the degradation of Hamas’ capabilities, the lives of the 9 fatalities and more on a ceasefire based on international forces in Gaza — a rerun of Lebanon.

So concerned are IDF’s defense establishment officials that Ynet’s Hanan Greenberg reports that they have warned;

That the IDF has not yet completed its mission in the Gaza Strip. “Continued military pressure on Hamas could significantly improve the end result of the entire operation,” a high-ranking officer told Ynet Thursday.

The officers are concerned that the political echelon might decide to declare a ceasefire in Gaza before all the objectives of the operation have been obtained.

Despite the hard blows it has sustained until now, Hamas continues to fight, and therefore the officers see no reason to halt the military offensive yet.

“At this stage of the operation the IDF has made nice gains, but Hamas has not been crushed yet. The decision-makers will have to take this into consideration,” the officer explained.

The IDF commanders urged the political leadership not to lose the momentum vis-a`-vis Hamas: “This operation must be concluded with a sense of strong deterrence against them,” one official stated.

“The harder we hit Hamas now – the longer and more genuine the truce will be,” he concluded.

The US now appears to be an active participant. The US has indicated qualified support for the French-Egyptian ceasefire proposal, although the Americans are still seeking additional clarity as to what the proposal entails. Meanwhile, Hamas continues vowing not to surrender in Gaza and rejects the French-Egyptian plan.

The lack of self-pride and national pride amongst Israel’s political and diplomatic echelons boggles the mind. MB

Katyushas Return to the North [2 More Strike town of Shlomi Later in AM], IDF Retaliates, by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu and Hana Levi Julian (Israel National News)

Lebanese Rocket Attack on Israel Threatens to Open 2nd Front, by Allyn Fisher-Ilan (Reuters)

Rockets Fired at the North: Several Lightly Wounded as Rocket Hits [Nahariya] Retirement Home, by Yaakov Katz (Jerusalem Post)

Mortar Attack Wounds 5 in Eshkol Region, by Hana Levi Julian (Israel National News)

Gaza Terrorists Continue to Aim Rockets at Southern Israel [Sha’ar Hanegev Region, Be’er Sheva], by Yehudah Lev Kay and Hana Levi Julian (Israel National News)

Temporary Ceasefire for Humanitarian Reasons [Day 2 — 1PM - 4 PM]

Four Injured in Mortar Attack [in Eshkol Region, Apparently During Humanitarian Ceasefire]

Rocket Explodes in Sha’ar HaNegev, No Injuries [During Humanitarian Ceasefire]

Rocket Explodes in Ashkelon, Three Injured [During Humanitarian Ceasefire]a>

One Wounded in [Ma’alei Adumim] Gas Station [Terror] Attack

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Tuesday Rocket Total Hits 20

Grad Rocket Strikes Open Area in Beersheba; No Wounded Reported

3 Kassam Rockets Hit Sderot; None Hurt

IAF Hits Home of Hamas Rocket Chief [IDF: Terror Chief, Iman Siam, in House in Jabalya at Time of Strike, 10 Hamas and Islamic Jihad Gunmen Killed in Other Battles], by Yaakov Katz (Jerusalem Post)

PM: No to [European Union] 48-Hour Ceasefire

80 Trucks Full of Humanitarian Supplies Allowed Into Gaza [Through Kerem Shalom Crossing]

Gaza Terrorists Widen Rocket Range [to Gedera, Five Miles South of Rehovot], by Hana Levi Julian (Israel National News)

Two Kassams Strike Open Areas in Eshkol Region; None Hurt

3 Rockets Hit Eshkol Region, One Strikes Netivot Area, None Hurt

Paratrooper Officer Killed During Overnight Gaza Operations [Possibly Friendly-Fire, as With Other Incident Which Killed 3], by Yaakov Katz (Jerusalem Post)

Excerpts;

An IDF officer from the Paratroopers Brigade was killed overnight Monday during operations in the northern Gaza Strip…

The IDF was looking into the circumstances of the death, and was reportedly investigating the possibility that the soldier may have been killed by an errant tank shell.

Should the possibility turn out to be true, the case would mark the second friendly-fire incident of the night. Hours earlier, during separate clashes in northern Gaza, three IDF soldiers were killed and two dozen wounded when a tank shell destroyed a house that they were using for cover.

‘IDF Prepared for Entering Urban and Built-up Areas of Gaza’, by Yaakov Katz (Jerusalem Post)

Israel Expects Hamas To Strike Tel Aviv

IDF Casualties Stream into Soroka Hospital [At least 34 Being Treated for Light to Serious Wounds], by Abe Selig (Jerusalem Post)

Israel Setting Rules for Truce: Foreign Monitors at Border, by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu (Israel National News)

‘Al-Hayat’: UNIFIL, Lebanese Army Aaise Alert Fearing Hezbollah Attacks

Barak to Knesset Committee: We are Prepared on Northern Border, by Maayana Miskin (Israel National News)

Two Wounded in Mortar Attack on Shaar Hanegev

Four Kassams Land in Ashkelon

Grad-Type Rocket Slams into Empty Ashdod kindergarten [13 People Treated for Shock]

Excerpts;

Also Monday afternoon, nine people were lightly wounded when two Grad rockets were fired at Ashkelon. A building was damaged in the attack, which came moments before two more rockets hit open areas in Beersheba and another hit Ashdod. Several people were treated for shock following the attacks.

At least 30 rockets had been fired at the South by mid afternoon, including a Grad that slammed into the Yavne area, east of Ashdod - some 40 kilometers from Gaza.

Rockets also struck the the Eshkol, Sdot Negev and Sha’ar Hanegev regions. No one was wounded in the attacks.

Israel Radio reported that in the last nine days, … at least 500 projectiles had been fired at Israel.

… Schools, kindergartens and other educational institutions within a 40-kilometer range from Gaza remained closed Monday. Cities within that range include Beersheba, Ashdod, Kiryat Gat, Yavne, Gan Yavne, Gedera, Netivot, Ashkelon, Kiryat Malachi and Sderot.

IDF Arrests 16 [PA] Terror Suspects

Arabs Throw Rocks [at Bus, Autos in El-Arub, Near Beit Omer, Halhoul], [7] Molotov Cocktails [at Soldiers at Kever Rachel]

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Commentary;

IMRA’s Dr. Aaron Lerner notes that the current regime, the Olmert, Livni, Barak Troika are aiming to emulate, in Gaza, the Lebanon cease-fire model which columnist Caroline Glick recently described.

Dr. Lerner cites Roni Sofer’s report; Israel Examining International Treaty to Isolate Hamas which follows up his (Sofer’s) report of Sunday, noted on this blog, where he lists Olmert’s conditions to end the conflict.

Lerner comments;

There is a fairly straightforward explanation for PM Olmert’s interest in an international force: The Olmert-Livni team adamantly claims that the Second Lebanon War was a fantastic success because it concluded with the introduction of the grossly ineffective international force…. They thus see their reputations tied to the validity of using international forces.

But Lerner continues by citing;

The recent high profile discovery of rockets about to launch in South Lebanon was not the result of the efforts of the “hear no evil see no evil” international force that studiously avoids even inspecting areas that are most likely to have Hezbollah activity, but instead thanks to a Lebanese villager who discovered the rockets and brought them to the attention of the authorities.

Considering the premeditated blind-eye and deaf-ear paid by the UN international force to the above rockets which were aimed at and about to launch on Israel, as well as numerous Hezbollah violations of UN resolutions regarding international forces, such as this one cited in June, 2008 referring to massive Hezbollah war preparations in South Lebanon, it obviously constitutes suicide to bring any other force, besides IDF to secure and insure Israel’s southern border,regions and urban centers against terror. Anything less than Israeli forces charged with national security is premeditated dereliction of governance. MB

IDF: 80 Terrorists Killed in Ground Operation

Next Stage of Gaza Operation: ‘Root canal’ for Terror, by Hanan Greenberg (Ynet)

Excerpts;

According to the IDF, the forces are now facing their main mission – to conduct a ‘root canal’ treatment on the terror infrastructure in Gaza, and to search and destroy rocket launching pads and terrorists.

Military sources said that the clashes in the sector were expected to continue throughout the night and even escalate with dawn.

Seeking intelligence, bargaining chips

Another objective of the forces is to arrest Hamas operatives in Gaza and bring them for questioning in Israel. This is aimed to serve two purposes: Obtaining new intelligence from the detainees that could be used by the forces on the ground; and using the captives as bargaining chips in future negotiations.

The IDF has set up a facility near the Strip in which captives will be held and interrogated.

Golani Soldier Escapes Kidnap Attempt [on Sunday]

Likud MK Erdan: Block Arab Channels

Humanitarian Aid [sic] to Enter Gaza

[Monday Morning] 18 Rockets Fired at Southern Israel [Including Ashkelon, Ashdod, Sderot], Ilana Curiel (Ynet)

Rechovot, Rishon L’Tzion May be in Rocket Range

IDF [Allegedly] Dents Hamas Rocket Attacks, by Hana Levi Julian (Israel National News)

IDF [Allegedly] Controls Most Rocket Launching Areas

IAF Hit 30 Targets Overnight, Ground Troops Advance

Summary of Overnight Activity (IDF Spokesperson)

[3] Rockets Fall near Ashdod, Kiryat Malachi, Yavneh

Two Kassams Fall on Ashkelon

2 Rockets Hit Eshkol Region, 1 Strikes Sha’ar Hanegev; None Hurt

Two Kassams Launched at Sdot Negev

Kassam Narrowly Misses Visiting American Jews [Leaders of Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations]

[20] Arab Youths [From Wadi Arah Area] Arrested for Throwing Rocks

IDF Arrests 25 Terrorists in Judea and Samaria [15 in Village of Al Aroob, 19 in Beit Omar and Near East Jerusalem]

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Commentary;

The results of the first day on the ground show that Operation Cast Lead will be anything but a cake-walk. Israel lost her first ground fatality;

St.-Sgt. Dvir Emmanueloff, 22, from Givat Ze’ev and of the Golani reconnaissance unit, was killed on Sunday by mortar shell shrapnel during clashes with Hamas terrorists near Jabalya.

Meanwhile, Ynet’s Roni Sofer reports Olmert’s comments to Tony Blair, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev regarding the goals of the operation. These comments leave more questions than they answered.

Sofer reports;

The Prime Minister’s Office said that Olmert presented the three with Israel’s demands for a truce: The end of all projectile fire on Israel, the end of all terror acts, international monitoring of Gaza and the complete disarmament of Hamas. Olmert stressed that Israel will continue its operation in Gaza until its conditions are met.

For instance, how will international monitoring of Gaza insure “complete disarmament of Hamas”? How will international monitors not restrict Israel’s freedom of military movement and how does a sovereign nation tolerate such restriction? Are international forces not the mark of defeat, judging by what we know of them in the 60 year history of Israel’s past wars? We need look no further than the Lebanon model.

And what about Gilad Shalit visa vi any ceasefire?

Why not go back into Gaza to stay? It is Jewish land and the propaganda spins that surrounded the expulsion of Jews have been shown to be naked, devoid of any logic or common-sense and beyond sheer folly.

Consider this, that two cabinet ministers refrained from voting on the expansion of Cast Lead to encompass ground operations. Why? Israel National News reports;

The two refused to vote after their demand to include the toppling of the Hamas regime in Gaza as a goal of the operation was met with silence.

It seems apparent that whatever gains, i.e. severe degradation of Hamas’ weaponry and terror legions will either be negated by ceasefire with international forces in Gaza, and/or by the PA filling a void in Gaza followed by a repetition of arms and terror build-up, as well as renewal of rocket bombardment — this time not by Hamas, but by Abbas’ PA.

In short, the Olmert, Barak, Livni Troika continues to clearly be leading the IDF and Israel down the path of repetition of the Lebanon defeat. MB

IDF Operations in Gaza Affecting Hamas Command-and-Control’, by Yaakov Katz (Jerusalem Post)

Excerpts;

The IDF split the Palestinian territory in half and began surrounding Gaza City. Hamas, the officials said, was encountering difficulties in commanding and delivering orders to its forces.

Another soldier was critically wounded in the attack. Earlier in the morning, 30 soldiers from Battalion 51 of the Golani Brigade were injured in clashes, and on Sunday night four soldiers were shot and wounded by Palestinian sniper fire.

By Sunday afternoon, the IDF had divided the Gaza Strip into two segments, in a move aimed at cutting off the flow of arms, supplies and fighters to the northern part of the Strip, as Palestinians claimed IDF tanks had taken up positions near the former settlement Netzarim and troops began surrounding Gaza City. Some 40 rockets landed in Israel on Sunday, scoring direct hits in Sderot and Ashkelon.

Military sources said that since Operation Cast Lead was launched last week over 1,000 targets had been bombed by the Air Force. On Sunday, the Palestinian death toll also climbed past 500 as IDF troops killed close to 40 Hamas gunmen during the ground operation in northern Gaza.

Defense officials said that the IDF operation was having an effect on Hamas’s command-and-control capabilities and that the group was not able to mobilize large forces to fight against the IDF. Officials said that it was likely that a number of senior Hamas operatives and terror chiefs were hiding and conducting their operations from within Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

“Hamas operatives are in the hospital and have disguised themselves as nurses and doctors,” one official explained. Military intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin told the Cabinet that Hamas was using mosques, public institutions and private houses as ammunition stores.

Defense officials said that Hamas was trying to kidnap soldiers operating inside the Gaza Strip and that commanders had been ordered to take extra precautions to ensure their soldiers’ safety.

As the ground operation picked up speed, the IDF kept up its pressure on Hamas leaders and began preparing to escalate and deepen its operations in Gaza by using large forces still amassed along the border.

Senior Hamas terrorist Hussam Hamdan, who was in charge of Grad-model Katyusha rocket cells in northern Gaza - behind the attacks on Beersheba and and Ofakim - was killed in an IAF strike in Khan Younis. Another senior Hamas terrorist, Muhammad Hilo, was killed in the same strike. Hilo, the IDF said, was in charge of the Hamas special forces in Khan Younis.

Mohamad Shalpoch, a member of Hamas’s commando forces, was also targeted in an IDF strike near Jabalya on Sunday. It was unclear whether Shalpoch was killed in the strike.

Gaza health officials said around 20 civilians had also died in air strikes and shelling, including a 12-year-old girl, five members of the same family, and another eight civilians killed by a tank shell in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya. The deaths brought the total death toll in the Gaza Strip since last Saturday to more than 500.

Residents of the small northern Gaza community of al-Attatra said soldiers moved from house to house by blowing holes through walls. Most of the houses were unoccupied, their residents having already fled.

Summary of Events Since This Morning (IDF Spokesperson)

Palestinian Terrorists Fire Two Rockets at Ashkelon; No Casualties

IDF: Ground Operation the Only Way to Destroy Infrastructure

Livni: Shelling Gaza [Islamic] College a Hit on ‘Death Sciences’ Department [Lab for Developing Long-Range Rockets, Mortars], by Roni Sofer (Ynet)

Two IDF Soldiers Lightly Wounded in Clashes with Hamas in Gaza

Palestinian Phone Company: Gaza Network Close to Collapse

6 Hurt as 45 Rockets, Shells Hit South [Kassams Hit Near Sderot, Near School in the Sha’ar Hanegev Region, in Eshkol Region]

[11] Retired IDF officers: Schalit Must be Part of Any Cease-Fire Deal, by Shelly Paz (Jerusalem Post)

Siren Testing Monday in Mateh Yehuda Region

Firebomb Attacks in Samaria

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This author recalls a commentary by the K’li Yekar (Judiaca Press Chumash, Vol.3, page 600) on the first posuk of Parsha Vayechi which is leyned this Shabbos.

The K’li Yekar explains the lack of a space between the end of the previous sedra Vayigash and our parsha as meaning that the two poskim are understood together. The final verse of Vayigash reads;

And Yisrael dwelt in the land of Mitzriyim in the land of Goshen, and they acquired property in it and… multiplied greatly.

The first posuk of Vayechi reads;

And Yaakov lived in the land of Mitzrayim for seventeen years…

The K’li Yekar indicates in part that Yaakov lost his Ruach HaKodesh; his ability to give prophesy, and that the Shechinah, Hashem’s presence (if you will) departed from him during his 17 years in Mitzrayim.

The K’li Yekar further indicates that the loss of prophesy and the departure of the Shechinah;

was caused by the attitude taken by the children of israel in Mitzrayim, who knew how long their exile would last and allowed themselves to become permanent citizens of Mitzrayim. For this reason, there was no space between the final verse of Vayigash and and the initial verse of Vayechi, to imply that since the children of Israel considered themselves permanent residents of Mitzrayim, Yaakov’s spirit was not with him all of the seventeen years that he spent in Mitzrayim.

In short, the Sh’vatim, the Am forgot about their true home in Canaan, in Eretz Yisrael.

This author has often repeated on this blog the point that Israelis, Jews MUST commit themselves to bring real change and suggests the following;

But until the Jews are willing to commit themselves to the axiomatic reality of change based the attributes of fairness, integrity, merit, experience and worthiness, as well as V’Ahavta, L’Rei’echa, Kamocha — treating our brethren as we ourselves would want to be treated, we will continue to have same effete leadership: Olmert, Peres, Barak, Livni, Ramon, Sheetrit, Mofaz, etc. — leaders who mirror who we are.

May we, the B’nai Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently settled and be made totally whole, that our dear brother Jonathan Pollard, captive Gilad Shalit and the other MIAs be liberated alive returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem and that we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nai Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha to see the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bim hay v’yameinu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!

Good Shabbos!
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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of the Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.

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Commentary;

IDF ground action in Gaza commenced Motsei Shabbos after troops began firing artillery at Gaza targets. Are Cast Lead’s goals the destruction and eradication of Hamas or merely a “dream world” concept of “restored security” and disabusal of Hamas from terror attacks either via rockets or mortars or any other mode of attack? Will it be “a war to the bitter end”? Or is this a high-stakes stinking political maneuver with the lives of both Jewish troops and a major urban section of Israel with a collective population of approximately 800,000 on the line? And what about the freeing of Gilad Shalit?

Israel National News writer Gil Ronen interviewed a top National Union candidate who invoked King David’s Eighteenth Psalm as advice regarding Gaza:

“I will chase my enemies and catch up to them and I shall not return until I annihilate them.”

“This should be the slogan of every leader and IDF commander,” he said. “The enemy must know that whoever raises his hand against Israel, we will teach him a lesson and annihilate him as well as all his helpers and supporters, and only thus will we take out their will to fire missiles at us.”

However, he is under no illusions that the present government will do so.

Jerusalem Post editor David Horowitz seems hopeful although he defines his understanding of Cast Lead’s goals in terms of;

Creation of a new reality in which Hamas would not fire rockets into Israel; would not seek to fire rockets into Israel; would not manufacture rockets; would not produce or smuggle in the materials for manufacturing rockets; and would not engage or prepare for other acts of terrorism. If Hamas’s ability to rule Gaza was destroyed in the process, so be it.

Quite apart from the presence at the helm of a chastened prime minister, a more experienced defense minister and a quietly effective chief of General Staff, many other central factors combined to give the operation a realistic chance of success.

Caroline Glick however notes that the current government has not taken to heart the lessons of the Lebanon conflict. She writes;

George Orwell once quipped, “The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it.”

Since Tuesday it has become clear that the Olmert-Livni-Barak government has decided to end the war with Iran’s Hamas proxy army in Gaza as quickly as possible. That is, the government has decided to lose the war.

Most Israelis are unaware of this state of affairs. In an obvious attempt to bolster the popularity of Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak ahead of the February 10 general elections, the local media have spent the six days since the government launched Operation Cast Lead praising the government’s competence and wisdom, and declaring victory over Hamas after every IAF sortie in Gaza.

What the media have declined to notice is that the outcome of the war will not be determined by the number of Hamas buildings the IAF destroys. The outcome of this war - like the outcome of all wars - will be determined by one factor only: Which side will achieve the goals it set out for itself at the outset of the conflict and which side will concede its goals?

Depressingly, the current machinations of the Olmert-Livni-Barak government demonstrate that when the fighting is over, Hamas and not Israel will be able to declare that it accomplished its goals.

Hamas reinstated its attacks against southern Israel on December 19. It did so after a six-month hiatus that it used to restock its arsenals and strengthen its military forces. As it resumed its terror offensive against Israeli cities, Hamas announced that it will continue its current round of terror war until it wins full control over Gaza’s land and sea borders.

Israel, for its part, has been less clear in stating its operational goals. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Livni and Barak have said that the goal of Operation Cast Lead is to compel Hamas to end its attacks against Israel, but they haven’t said how they intend to affect that outcome. They have rejected Hamas’s demand for control over Gaza’s land and sea borders and in turn demanded that Hamas end its weapons smuggling operations across the Egyptian border.

Somewhat disconnectedly, the Olmert-Livni-Barak government has demanded that in the event it reaches some sort of mediated accord with Hamas, an international monitoring force must be deployed to Gaza to enforce its terms. Since Wednesday, this appears to have become Israel’s main demand in relation to any mediated cease-fire talks with Hamas.

And so, ground troops now become a factor along with aerial bombardment. We can only hope that we don’t see embarrassing prime ministerial scenes like this one from the Lebanon conflict regarding an attack by Israel where the Islamics claimed a massacre of over 50, later to be disproven by both the IDF investigations and blogospheric findings.

We pray that with Divine Help, even this bumbling, bungling regime emerges with purely a clear, decisive military victory, but without national political spoils. But, with the abject absence of expression to Anshe Gush Katif of clear, sincere, heart-felt and evidentiary contrition, this author notes that Glick’s assessment of a replay of international troops stationed in Gaza may be closest to on-the-mark. MB

Fire with Hamas Gunmen Inside Strip, by Yaakov Katz (Jerusalem Post)

Ground Troops Move into Gaza, by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu (Israel National News)

IDF Begins to Fire Artillery Shells into Gaza Strip

Tens of Thousands Called to Reserves

3 Hurt as Rockets Hit Buildings in South [34 Rockets Over Shabbos, 36 on Friday]

IDF Destroys Rocket Launcher Operating in Refugee Camp Cemetery

Bank Website [Bank Discount] Hacked by Islamist Group

Report: Israel Hit Mosque, Killed 14 [Apparently Another Weapons Storage Facility]

Summary of Today’s Events (IDF Spokesperson)

Several[Ashkelon] Buildings Damaged in Saturday Attacks

Only Missile Alerts on Radio Darom during Shabbat

Be’er Sheva Chief Rabbi: ‘Pikuach Nefesh’ Law Sabbath

IAF Continues to Strike Hamas Targets in Gaza

Summary of Overnight Events (IDF Spokesperson)

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Received the email below from Lema’an Achai’s David Morris;

Here in Israel, innocent sounding measurements of distance, have turned into death threats.

This program is in partnership with the Bet Shemesh Municipality,
various well-established non-profit organizations, such as Lema’an Achai, Amutat Kehilla, Shaalei Torah, Ezrat Achim, Bat Ami, and many many good hearted individual volunteers, who are putting their own lives on-hold, to help our fellows in danger and distress.

This follows the model Lema’an Achai successfully developed for both
the 2nd Lebanon War “City of Refuge” program, and for the 2006-8 Gush
Katif Evacuees Relief Fund - probably the two most successful
Emergency Relief programs in Israel’s recent history.

Lema’an Achai is a community organization, without big-time fundraising budgets. The cheapest, fastest and most effective way for us to raise the money we need right now and for the duration of this
war, is for you to send this email on (only! please do not spam!) to
your friends and relatives, your community/shul list, and other
individuals and organizations who may be willing to donate & support
this zero-waste, grass-roots, immediate, practical War Relief program.

By Phone 24/6 Donations Hotline (Hebrew): 02 99.999.33

For local residents to volunteer their time, their hospitality or to
offer objects for families in the South, please call the Hotline: 02
9999822 (Ezrat Achim)

David & Avrohom
Bet Shemesh - 45 Killer-Meters from Hamas

SMALL PRINT: In the happy event that the war finishes, and any funds remain, they will solely be used for helping families in need.

———————————————————-

David Morris, Chairman
Rav Avrohom Leventhal, Executive Director

Lema’an Achai - It’s All About Caring

www.SmartChesed.org

david@lemaanachai.org

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Commentary;

The necessity of an operation like Cast Lead, now in its 7th day, came about through Israel’s misguided sense of morality: “merciful to the cruel, cruel to the merciful” which distinguishes an enemy’s “civilian population” from the operatives which hide, move about, launch rocket, mortar and sniper attacks from within the protection of “civilian human shields.” These “civilian human shields.” who by permitting and enabling missile launching and sniping operatives to use them, have established themselves as strategic weapons of warfare and thus constitute an integral part of an enemy military force. Cast Shield also came about as result of allowance of “Humanitarian Shipments” covering for weapons and ammunition deliveries as well as from past toleration of immense numbers of smuggling tunnels and from free passage of weaponry through an open crossing between Egypt and Gaza. All the while, the range of the smuggled-in, Chinese-made Grad - Katyusha rockets is a mere 7 km from Beit Shemesh.

Therefore, contrary to recent polls indicating that Barak’s Labor party shows new signs of life as a result of the war and Kadima steady poll position, the Troika of Olmert, Barak and Livni should be subject to an Investigative Tribunal for apparent dereliction of national duty and governance regarding their toleration of the above regardless of the outcome of this operation. MB

Grads Taken to Gaza Via Open Crossing [Crossing Blown Down by Hamas to Let Civilians into Egypt — Dual Purpose?]

Israel to Allow 72 Trucks Carrying Humanitarian Aid into Gaza Friday

New Details Revealed About IAF Operations Against Hamas, by Yaakov Katz (Jerusalem Post)

Iranian Daily: Hamas Hiding Forces in Nurseries and Hospitals (Palestinian Media Watch)

Grad Lands in Ofakim Area; No Injuries

Seven Rockets on Ashkelon

4 [Grad] Rockets Hit Ashkelon Area, 2 Strike Sderot; No Word on Casualties

Air Force Hits Launchers that Hit Ashkelon

Two More Kassams Land Outside Sderot

Three Lightly Wounded in Early Morning [10] Rocket Barrage

Summary of Overnight Events (IDF Spokesperson)

[Jabalya] Mosque Used as Launching Pad Hit

IDF Strikes Second Hamas Leader [Nabil Abu el-Amrin], by Maayana Miskin (Israel National News)

IDF Destroys Fifth Mosque

Strikes: 15 Hamas Heads Homeless; 12 Casualties

IDF Soldier Thwarts Stabbing Attack at Tarkumia Checkpoint

IDF Arrests Two Terror Suspects [Near Ramallah, Bethlehem]

Galilee: 10 Arab Youths Arrested for Rioting

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