DAY 184 OF THE GAZA WAR: Six Months of War, Israel Pulls Out of Khan Younis, Growing Protests, Hostage Body Recovered
Tel Aviv Diary, April 7, 2024
Today marks the six-month anniversary of the war’s onset. It's astonishing that, even after half a year, Hamas continues to hold more than 100 hostages. During this period, more than 100,000 people have been displaced, seeking refuge in hotels far from their homes. It’s difficult to grasp that, six months on, rockets are still being launched at communities near Gaza. Despite Prime Minister Netanyahu's assertions that “victory is imminent”, the Army’s recent withdrawal of most troops from Southern Gaza casts doubt on the veracity of this claim. Six months ago, we enjoyed the support of much of the international community; support that has eroded over the past half-year.
Yes, it's unfair, and yes, other countries might have acted as we have, but we are not other countries. As a small country, our economic and military dependencies hinge on our relationships with the rest of the world. Our forces have been engaged in a prolonged four-month conflict in Khan Younis, a city akin to a medium-sized American suburb.
These six months have been a period of profound heartbreak, marked by a cascade of increasingly dire news. Today’s withdrawal from Khan Younis comes in the wake of a particularly grim weekend. On Saturday, four commando school soldiers were killed. They were on patrol in the security zone of the logistical corridor north of Khan Younis. During their mission to clear buildings and neutralize threats, they were ambushed by terrorists emerging from a tunnel. This attack resulted in three fatalities and one critical injury, with the latter succumbing to injuries in the hospital.
The soldiers retaliated, killing one of the attackers, while the remaining terrorists fled back into the shaft. Subsequently, the troops discovered an explosive device and a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) prepared for an ambush near the shaft, prompting them to withdraw from the location. Shortly after, a tank arrived to provide cover, during which time another group of terrorists launched an RPG at the tank, fortunately resulting in no casualties. The terrorist group was successfully eliminated.
On Saturday, authorities announced the recovery of Elad Katzir’s body from Khan Younis. Katzir, kidnapped from Nir Oz on October 7th, had been held captive by the Islamic Jihad and appeared in their propaganda videos as recently as early February. Tragically, Katzir was executed by his captors shortly after the last video was recorded. The retrieval of Katzir’s body required a complex military operation.
On Sunday morning, a terrorist opened fire on a bus traveling along Route 55. Two people were wounded, including a female soldier, who is currently in critical condition.
SIX MONTHS OF COMBAT: SOME STATISTICS
At the six-month milestone, the IDF released some key statistics:
✦ In Gaza: over 12,000 terrorists have been killed, including 125 commanders.
✦ In Lebabon: 330 Hezbollah members were killed, including 30 commanders.
✦ Additionally, 420 terrorists have been killed in the West Bank.
✦ 32,000 targets were hit from the air, and 3,600 from the ground.
✦ 3,250 rocket launchers were either destroyed or captured.
✦ 4,250 pieces of terror infrastructure were destroyed (the specific nature of "infrastructure" is not clarified).
✦ In the North, 1,400 targets were struck from the air, and an additional 3,300 from the ground.
The Air Force logged 185,000 hours of flight time over six months.
In the West Bank, 3,700 individuals were arrested, including 1,600 Hamas members.
Regarding reservist mobilization:
✦ 300,000 reservists were mobilized, with 17% women and 83% men.
✦ Age distribution was 45% ages 20-29, 32% ages 30-39, 15% ages 40-49, 6% ages 50-59, and 2% ages 60-69.
Casualty and injury statistics include:
✦ 1,300 wounded soldiers were evacuated by helicopter and 2,360 by ground.
✦ 604 soldiers were killed during the war, with 260 deaths since the beginning of the ground attack. Of these, 41 were due to accidents, including 20 from friendly fire.
✦ A total of 3,193 soldiers were wounded, including 497 seriously, 852 moderately, and 1,844 lightly.
Rocket attacks:
✦ Since the beginning of the war, 9,100 rockets have been fired from Gaza, 3,100 from Lebanon, and 35 from Syria.
GROWING PROTESTS
Last night, the largest rally since the start of the war took place, drawing an estimated crowd exceeding 100,000 people returning to Kaplan and Begin streets. Demonstrators called for both an immediate deal to secure the release of the hostages and demanded an election. During the course of the rally, a driver deliberately ran over four demonstrators, seriously injuring one. The driver has been arrested.
NEW PUBLIC OPINION POLLS
The following are a series of findings from an opinion pole conducted by Israel’s Channel 11, focusing on who is responsible for the October 7 catastrophe and the proposed measures that should be taken to hold those individuals accountable.
Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish
Here’s an excerpt from Andrew Sullivan’s “Daily Dish” I don’t always agree with Sullivan but here he makes some uncomfortable points:
The atrocities of October 7 — like the 9/11 mass murder of Americans — were cunningly designed to provoke an over-reaction. That’s how asymmetric warfare works. The Al-Aqsa Flood consciously mimicked Nazi tactics to inflict a psychic wound on Israelis as traumatic as any since the Shoah. The goal? To prompt an over-the-top response that could then be leveraged into further international pressure on Israel.
The key condition of the success of this strategy, of course, was Hamas’ despicable willingness to sacrifice tens of thousands of Palestinian women and children to undo the incipient Saudi-Israeli rapprochement and to provoke one more mass-casualty event which future Palestinians would be willing to avenge.
And so far … it’s worked out just as Hamas intended, hasn’t it? The Israelis did not merely fall into the trap Hamas laid; they jumped into it headfirst and unleashed a war of terrifying devastation.
ANTISEMITISM IN AMERICA
Antisemitism, as we would identify it from today’s right-wing perspective, originally stemmed from nativism. In America, there’s a longstanding history of established ethnic groups harboring animosity toward the newest wave of immigrants — often based on religious (e.g., Catholics) and/or ethnic (e.g., Irish) distinctions. When Jews constituted a small minority in the country, the enmity towards them was somewhat limited. However, there were notable incidents of discrimination, such as General Grant's directive to expel Jewish merchants from following his armies — a decision that President Lincoln later reversed. The German Jews represented the first significant influx of Jewish immigrants to the U.S., and initially they did not suffer much discrimination.
The Grand Union Hotel, a 19th-century resort for the affluent, once attracted American elites, including the Bavarian-born Jewish banker Joseph Seligman. For years, Seligman and his family vacationed at the Grand Union, until 1877, when hotel manager Henry Hilton refused them entry solely because they were Jewish. This incident, known as “The Seligman Affair”, stands as one of the most notorious examples of anti-Jewish discrimination in American history.
The incident’s notoriety is amplified by Seligman's prominence as one of the wealthiest and most well-known American Jews of his time. Scholars often reference this episode as a key example of "social antisemitism", a term coined in the late 1890s to characterize the systematic exclusion of Jews from social circles, and it has become a fundamental lens through which historians view anti-Semitism in America. The mass immigration of Eastern European Jews catalyzed a new wave of antisemitism.
In 1913, Leo Frank, a 29-year-old Jewish factory superintendent in Atlanta, Georgia, was wrongfully convicted of murdering a young female co-worker, a verdict heavily influenced by his Jewish heritage and widespread prejudicial sentiments. Although the governor later commuted his sentence to life imprisonment, a group motivated by antisemitic fervor kidnapped and lynched Frank. This tragic event heightened the American Jewish community's fears about society's failure to safeguard them against rampant antisemitism. Such mob violence worsened during World War I, fueled by fears of foreign influence and Bolshevism, with Jews unfairly scapegoated for these broader societal anxieties.
The rise in antisemitism led to efforts to amend the immigration laws to restrict Jewish immigration. Following World War I, anti-semitism in America intensified. When American colleges adopted a system of admissions based on academic achievement, they soon found that Jews were making up the majority of those admitted. Unwilling to accept this change, the elite colleges created a broad series of criteria that effectively limited Jewish enrollment at these prestigious institutions.
In the 1920s, Henry Ford, infamous for his antisemitic beliefs, published “The Dearborn Independent”, in Dearborn, Michigan, filled with antisemitic content, alleging Jews aimed to control global commerce. Ford’s views were later echoed in Hitler’s Mein Kampf. During the 1930s, individuals like Father Charles Coughlin, William Dudley Pelley and Gerald L.K. Smith spearheaded antisemitic campaigns, spreading conspiracy theories that accused Jews of undermining white American society and Christianity.
The 1930s experienced an upsurge in antisemitism, marked by calls to exclude Jews from American societal spheres. During this era, right-wing demagogues attributed the Great Depression and the looming threat of war in Europe on an imagined Jewish conspiracy. They derogatorily labeled Roosevelt's New Deal as the "Jew Deal”, accusing Jews of swaying Roosevelt’s policies and steering the U.S. towards war. Prominent antisemites of the time included Catholic Preacher Charles Coughlin and Protestant Minister Gerald L.K. Smith. Figures like Fritz Julius Kuhn of the German-American Bund also emerged, promoting a distorted vision of Americanism, deeply entwined with "Christian character”.
Tomorrow- Postwar America
–––––∞–––––∞–––––∞–––––∞–––––∞–––––∞–––––∞–––––
A PIECE OF HISTORY
Chaim Weizmann President
Chaim Weizmann stood out as a prominent leader within the Zionist Movement during World War I. Weizmann played a pivotal role in persuading the British government to issue the Balfour Declaration. He also held the position of President of the World Zionist Organization for several years. In the turbulent times leading up to the establishment of the State of Israel, Weizmann was the only Jewish leader whom U.S. President Truman consented to meet. While not a resident of Palestine, nor a member of the Yishuv's leadership, Weizmann's reputation as the venerable elder statesman of the Zionist Movement was undisputed. Apart from David Ben Gurion, Weizmann's contributions to the creation of the state were unparalleled.
In recognition of his extraordinary contributions, it was fitting to offer Weizmann the largely ceremonial role of President of the State. At the provisional government’s the inaugural session on May 16, 1948, the motion to offer Weizmann the Presidency was unanimously approved. His formal nomination occurred during the first Knesset’s opening on January 14, 1949. Weizmann was elected as the first President on February 16th and was officially inaugurated on February 17, 1949.
Today’s Zoom Briefing