Israel Update: June 12 (Day 251)

Jay Zeidman –

• Link: Call Me Back – with Dan Senor: OPERATION ARNON – with Nadav Eyal on Apple Podcasts
• We have just witnessed one of the most extraordinary 48-hour periods in Israel since October 7th, as we learned news of an extremely complex military, intelligence and hostage rescue operation.
• This operation has been renamed OPERATION ARNON, after Colonel Arnon Zamora, who was the chief inspector of the Israeli Police’s special commando Counterterrorism Unit. He was the only Israeli to have fallen in this operation. May Arnon’s memory be a blessing. To learn more about Arnon’s life, you can read here: Hero of Israel
• In this episode, NADAV EYAL provides a comprehensive picture and analysis of what actually happened in this operation. Nadav is a columnist for Yediot. He has been covering Middle-Eastern and international politics for the last two decades for Israeli radio, print and television news.
• To read Nadav’s piece in Yediot: Even in the darkest times, we shine the brightest

• The U.N. Security Council on Monday overwhelmingly approved its first resolution endorsing a cease-fire plan aimed at ending the eight-month war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. However, according to Barak Ravid with Axios, Hamas rejected the proposal for a hostage deal, which was laid out by President Biden in his speech. Secretary of State Tony Blinken said Wednesday that Hamas has not accepted the U.S.-backed proposal for a hostage and ceasefire deal and presented “numerous changes” that go beyond its previous positions.
• Hezbollah launched more than 200 rockets as well as several missiles and drones deep into northern Israel on June 12 after the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group lost one of its most senior commanders to an IDF strike. According to KAN, due to the difficulties in reaching a political settlement in the north, the US administration is concerned about a “significant” escalation on the Lebanese border, and discussions on the issue have recently intensified. Blinken to Netanyahu: Prevent the Conflict from Spreading
• “We experienced things that I will never tell you.” Rescued hostage Andrey Kozlov told his parents. According to the Times of Israel and WSJ, horrific details are now coming to light about captivity of the recently freed hostages
  • “He said he was brainwashed… they told them that nobody wants them, that nobody is fighting for them,” she said. “They said that the Israel Defense Forces wants to kill them and that this will be the solution for the war. So, at the moment when the IDF came, Andrey thought that they came to kill them.

• 1,589 Israelis dead, including 651 IDF soldiers (298 IDF soldiers during the ground operation in Gaza) – an increase of 4 since our previous update
  • Maj. Tal Pshebilski Shaulov, 24, St.-Sgt. Eitan Karlsbrun, 20, Sgt. Yair Levin, 20, and Sgt. Almog Shalom, 19, were killed Monday night in an incident in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip in which a building collapsed, the IDF announced on Tuesday.
• Additional Information (according to the IDF):
  • 1,927 IDF soldiers have been injured during ground combat in Gaza, including at least 376 who have been severely injured.
• Note: we have always included the number of casualties in Gaza, as reported by the Gaza Health Ministry. We feel it is important to include this information with the caveat that this reporting ministry is not a trusted source of data by many. Most recently, The United Nations has begun citing a much lower death toll for women and children in Gaza, acknowledging that it has incomplete information about many of the people killed during Israel’s military offensive in the territory.
  • According to unverified figures from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, 36,731 people have been killed in Gaza, and 83,530 have been injured during the war.
  • We also encourage you to read this well documented piece from Tablet published in March: How the Gaza Ministry of Health Fakes Casualty Numbers
  • The Associated Press, an outlet with a demonstrated anti-Israel bias, conducted an analysis of alleged Gaza death tolls released by the Hamas-controlled “Gaza Health Ministry.” The analysis found that “9,940 of the dead – 29% of its April 30 total – were not listed in the data” and that “an additional 1,699 records in the ministry’s April data were incomplete and 22 were duplicates.”

• On October 7th, a total of 261 Israelis were taken hostage.
• During the ceasefire deal in November, 112 hostages were released.
• A total of 7 hostages have been rescued and the remains of 19 others have been recovered. Tragically, 3 have been mistakenly killed by the IDF, and 1 was killed during an IDF attempt to rescue him.
• This leaves an estimated 120 hostages still theoretically in Gaza, with somewhere between (assumed) 35-43 deceased. Thus, at most, 85 living hostages could still be in Gaza.

• There are 11 operational and floating field hospitals
  • So far, 3,273 sick and injured individuals and 754 escorts, left Gaza for medical treatment abroad.

• John Spencer, Chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the War Institute, posts in response: “I’m sure people will argue against the 80-90% civilian casualties in modern war statistic (take that up with the @UN @CivCenter & others that have been using it for the last 5 or more years) “In cities…civilians account for 90 percent of the casualties during war” as well as try to use out of context statistics when in fact Israel’s ratio is lower than any in modern history. Yes even the 2016-2017 Battle of Mosul 1:2 against a much smaller enemy force.”

• The non-surprise is that professional anti-Israel voices, United Nations officials and the European Union foreign-policy chief rushed to attack Israel. Egypt condemned the operation “in the strongest terms.” How dare Israel rescue its own citizens. Didn’t it know there would be casualties? The BBC asked whether Israel gave a warning that the rescue raid was coming. Seriously? A tip-off to terrorists? Perhaps read them Miranda rights too.
• “BREAKING: Gaza’s Health Ministry says 274 Palestinians were killed during the Israeli operation,” reports the Associated Press, only 48 hours after it had exposed how the Hamas ministry’s daily death tolls are “at odds with underlying data.” When will the media stop taking the kidnappers at their word?
• Hamas started the war with a massacre, took these hostages and hid them in a crowded civilian area. Then, when Israel came to free them, Hamas responded with heavy fire, including RPGs—yet people are condemning Israel. It makes us wonder if the West has lost the moral discernment and instinct for self-preservation needed to defend itself in a world of killers. Hamas could not survive if not for its enablers around the world.
• Link: Blaming Israel for Rescuing Its People – WSJ

• On midday Saturday in Tel Aviv, my husband and I were sitting on the beach with our 2-year-old son when the lifeguard’s voice came over the loudspeaker. “Attention, citizens of Tel Aviv! We are thrilled to announce that four hostages have been rescued by the Israel Defense Forces alive! Noa Argamani, Andrey Kozlov, Almog Meir Jan, and Shlomi Ziv! Am Yisrael Chai!”
• Because it was Saturday, secular Israelis posted handwritten notes with the announcement and the names of the rescued hostages around religious neighborhoods to update their neighbors who observe the Sabbath and wouldn’t have been checking their phones or watching TV.
• Pundits on CNN talked about the “released” hostages. But they were not released. They were liberated. They were saved in a daring daylight operation
• Around the world we are condemned for a war we did not start and did not seek. Even the rescue mission is spun in the press as Israeli overreaction, and one BBC commentator asked an IDF spokesperson whether the Israeli military should have warned the neighborhood in advance of. . . a sting operation.
• All of this is happening as the unofficial war at Israel’s northern border heats up with constant rocket barrages fired by Hezbollah. Every young mother in my apartment building—I am one of them—has a husband who will most likely get called up to serve, again, against an enemy far mightier than the one we’ve faced in Gaza. When will that happen? We don’t know. We cannot sleep from the worry.
• But if there is one thing we are certain of, it is this: we live in a country of heroes. We live in a country in which strangers feel like family. A country in which other men and women will sacrifice their lives to liberate us, to bring us home.
• Link: When Hostages Come Home | The Free Press (thefp.com)

• For months, Yahya Sinwar has resisted pressure to cut a ceasefire-and-hostages deal with Israel. Behind his decision, messages the Hamas military leader in Gaza has sent to mediators show, is a calculation that more fighting—and more Palestinian civilian deaths—work to his advantage.
• In dozens of messages—reviewed by The Wall Street Journal—that Sinwar has transmitted to cease-fire negotiators, Hamas compatriots outside Gaza and others, he’s shown a cold disregard for human life and made clear he believes Israel has more to lose from the war than Hamas.
• His ultimate goal appears to be to win a permanent cease-fire that allows Hamas to declare a historic victory by outlasting Israel and claim leadership of the Palestinian national cause.
• Early in the war, Sinwar focused on using the hostages as a bargaining chip to delay an Israeli ground operation in Gaza. A day after Israeli soldiers entered the strip, Sinwar said Hamas was ready for an immediate deal to exchange its hostages for the release of all Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
• But Sinwar had misread how Israel would react to Oct. 7.
• Sinwar appears to have also misinterpreted the support that Iran and Lebanese militia Hezbollah were willing to offer.
• Sinwar in a message urged his comrades in Hamas’s political leadership outside Gaza not to make concessions and instead to push for a permanent end to the war. High civilian casualties would create worldwide pressure on Israel, Sinwar said. The group’s armed wing was ready for the onslaught, Sinwar’s messages said.
• Link: Exclusive | Gaza Chief’s Brutal Calculation: Civilian Bloodshed Will Help Hamas – WSJ

• The main takeaway from the article has been what should’ve been clear long ago: The ceasefire negotiators are getting played by a man whose every decision is calculated to cause as much bloodshed as possible. But the Western naivete isn’t merely unsuccessful as a negotiating strategy; it has relieved Sinwar’s isolation. That makes it one of the more consequential strategic blunders in modern history.
• As the texts show, he has personally ordered the escalation of violence each time there appears to be a diplomatic breakthrough—whether between Israel and another country, such as Saudi Arabia, or between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, or even between Israel and Sinwar himself. His entire military and political strategy revolves around literally blowing up peace talks.
• He knows Israel will be blamed for any lack of aid getting into Gaza, for example, so he orders attacks on aid crossings. If at any moment not enough Palestinians are dying, Sinwar will adjust accordingly and make sure to change that. Palestinian deaths are more important to the success of his strategy than Israeli deaths, although both are necessary to his hold on power.
• Link: Saving Sinwar – Commentary Magazine

• The overall structure of how the civilian-Hamas network functions in Gaza has not been revealed and is probably not fully understood. For instance, one doctor who volunteered in Gaza returned in May with stories from many people he met in northern Gaza who do not support Hamas. However, he also painted a picture of how it controls hospitals and also controls the black market of stolen aid. He described a hospital in Gaza where one of the floors was a “VIP” section for those connected to Hamas.
• This criminal activity of Hamas requires more study by international organizations and human rights groups. It’s important to document how the terrorist group has unlawfully exploited and endangered civilian areas through holding hostages in them and putting weapons in civilian homes.
• The reluctance of many human rights groups and international groups to tackle the Hamas crimes in Gaza has enabled it to continue exploiting schools, hospitals and other locations. The recent raid that freed hostages in Nuseirat is evidence of how Hamas has brought ruin on Gaza. Many people were killed in the raid because Hamas has purposely embedded its criminal empire in densely populated areas, such as Nuseirat.
• Link: What are the ramification of Hamas detaining hostages in civilian homes? – The Jerusalem Post (jpost.com)

• Over the weekend, in the reaction to the heroic rescue of four Israeli hostages in the middle of Gaza, it became clear that many world leaders, commentators and protesters in the street have zero expectations for moral, ethical behavior for Hamas and those supporting them in the streets of Gaza or in the streets of cities around the world. They assign no agency to Gazans, relegating them to the role of perpetual victim – a soft bigotry – while at the same time, seeing Israel and the Jewish people as eternally evil – a hard bigotry to be sure.
• The scholar Daniel Jonah Goldhagen called the ordinary Germans who went along with the Nazis “Hitler’s willing executioners.” Here, we have Hamas’s willing kidnappers – and a similar phenomenon of people acquiescing and abetting evil.
• Some bemoaned the death of a “journalist” who once contributed an article to Al Jazeera. But they never asked why a journalist would keep three kidnapped civilians in his home.
• They never asked why a physician who lived in that house seemed to take his oath to Hamas more seriously than the Hippocratic oath.
• Some prominent commentators have asked, were the deaths of a reported 200 Gazans worth the lives of four Israeli hostages? Yes, this question absolutely should be asked – directly to Hamas. It should be put to Hamas leaders in Doha who reject peace overtures and sit comfortably on vast fortunes while their people suffer needlessly in poverty.
• The failure to set any expectations of acceptable behavior – let alone enforce them – is not just its own form of “soft bigotry.” It also can feed and foment hard bigotry.
• Link: The hard bigotry of no expectations  | Jonathan A. Greenblatt | The Blogs (timesofisrael.com)

• We’ve lost Gen Z Jews, and the problem is they have a very different dynamic and makeup in their population. It is diverse, almost majority Brown, LGBTQ, and there’s a massive amount of acceptance of all these differences. So, the “oppressor-oppressed” mentality holds true for Jewish kids too. We found in January that a third of Gen Z Jewish kids actually think [Israel’s actions constitute] apartheid.
• “Never again” is [a phrase] about the Holocaust. We tested it, and 25% interpreted it [the phrase] as meaning no more Holocaust, 25% interpreted it as meaning no more Palestinian genocide, 25% interpreted it as meaning no more war in the Middle East, and 25% interpreted it as meaning something else.
• Gen Z Jews are more closely aligned with their peers than with their parents regarding their views on the Hamas/Israeli conflict.
• 36% of Gen Z Jews believe Israel’s control over the West Bank and Gaza Strip constitutes apartheid** (higher than the overall Gen Z population at 31%).
• 36% of Gen Z Jews perceive Israel’s actions as reflective of the beliefs of Jews around the world.
• 20% of Gen Z Jews do not view supporting Hamas’ actions as inherently antisemitic.
• 39% of Gen Z Jews do not believe Israel is justified in bombing Gaza.
• 36% of Gen Z Jews attribute responsibility for the killing of innocent Palestinians to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
• Link: Gen Z Jews: Different Views From Their Parents. Brand Israel Has a Problem (theheartmonitors.com)

• Last night, I went to New York City’s Union Square to cover a rally against the “massacre in the Nuseirat Camp regions of Gaza.” That’s what pro-Palestinian protesters are calling the operation that freed four Israeli hostages and killed at least a hundred Palestinians—a mix of Hamas combatants and civilians caught in the chaos as Hamas fired RPGs at the hostages. All around the country, similar anti-Israel protests sprung up to rouse those furious at the hostage rescue operation.
• In the context of these protests across the country this week, this was very mild. For anyone visibly Jewish who happens to be near one of these mobs, or anyone like a security guard trying to keep peace, the interactions are often much more harrowing. Here are a few data points of the escalation over the last 24 hours.
  • Yesterday at UCLA, a crowd of pro-Palestine protesters, most with makeshift shields, swarmed a security guard. As he tried to flee, one smacked him over the head with a smartphone, causing him to bleed.
  • Later that night on campus, a masked protester berated UCLA Chabad Rabbi Dovid Gurevich, calling him a “pedophile rabbi,” adding that “Israel is full of pedophiles.” When Gurevich asked why he wouldn’t reveal his face, the man replied, “If I show my face, I’ll have to fucking kill you.” Other protesters shouted at the rabbi and others: “Go back to Poland or Ukraine,” “Go back to Europe,” and “Death to fucking Zionism.” Twenty-five protesters were arrested.
  • More scenes were captured on video in Union Square in New York. One man yelled at a small crowd that had come out to support Israel, “I wish Hitler was still here, he would’ve wiped all you out.”
  • On Wall Street, the protest mob chanted “Israel go to hell” outside an exhibition memorializing the Nova Music Festival, where Hamas murdered 364 innocents. As the crowd took its “citywide day of rage for Gaza” downtown via the subway, one protester proclaimed on the train, “Raise your hands if you’re a Zionist. This is your chance to get out.”
• Link: I Went to Cover a Protest. I Was Surrounded by a Mob. | The Free Press (thefp.com)
• Link: Olivia’s video