DAY 194 OF THE WAR: German and UK Foreign Ministers, 14 Soldiers Wounded by Drone, Ben Gurion Gives a Timely Speech in 1955
Tel Aviv Diary, April 17, 2024
ZOOM Briefing this Sunday, April 21st, 6 PM Israel time 4 PM London 11 AM New York, 8 AM PDT
UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock visited Israel today and met with Prime Minister Netanyahu and other Israeli officials. Their visit aimed to express support for Israel following the Iranian attack and to persuade Israel to exercise restraint in its response. Netanyahu thanked them for their support and insights but emphasized that Israel reserves the right to make its own defense decisions.
Cameron later acknowledged that Israel would likely take some action, but he hoped it would be measured. In the meantime, what might truly convince Israel to restrict its actions could be the imposition of robust sanctions on Iran. The US has pledged to do so and is currently negotiating with the EU about joining in this effort. Israel appears to have decided to be strategically keeping the Iranians in suspense regarding if, where, and when it will take action.
PRESIDENT BIDEN’S OP-ED
Today, President Biden authored an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal titled: Moment of Truth on Ukraine and Israel. The article's primary goal was to encourage the House of Representatives to pass the aid packages for Israel and Ukraine. Speaker Johnson appears to be stepping up and bringing the aid package to the floor for a vote.
In the article Biden writes:
Likewise, if Iran succeeds in significantly escalating its assault on Israel, the U.S. could be drawn in. Israel is our strongest partner in the Middle East; it’s unthinkable that we would stand by if its defenses were weakened and Iran was able to carry out the destruction it intended this weekend. We can make that outcome less likely by replenishing Israel’s air defenses and providing military aid now, so its defenses can remain fully stocked and ready.
LEBANON
Today was a difficult day on the Lebanese border. Around 11 AM, Hezbollah fired two anti-tank missiles into Arab al-Aramshe, a Bedouin town on the border. Immediately afterward, a suicide drone landed on the town’s community center, where a significant number of reserve soldiers were located. A total of 14 soldiers and three civilians were wounded, five seriously and one critically.
This is the third time in a week that suicide drones have successfully attacked IDF troops near the border. Despite the heavy usage of drones in Ukraine, the IDF has not developed a good solution for downing drones used in close quarters. Deploying a jet or utilizing Iron Dome is ineffective with the limited warning in these cases. In addition, using missiles that cost $10,000 to down a $1,000 drone is not a cost-effective tradeoff. Radar-guided machine guns or the equivalent would be a significantly better idea. Below is a Hezbollah video of the attack.
Tonight, Israel responded by attacking Hezbollah's anti-aircraft targets deep in Lebanon.
GAZA
IDF operations in Gaza today took place in two areas. The first involved a return to Khan Younis to apprehend a group of terrorists who had gathered in a school building. The Army spokesman described the action as follows:
In the operation, Battalion 890, Battalion 97, Engineering Forces, Armored Units, the Shaldag unit, Unit 504, Battalion 414 (the Intelligence Unit of the Gaza Division), and Shin Bet Forces participated. They raided a central building containing two structures that were used as schools, following intelligence information indicating the presence of terrorists from the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad organizations inside the building, using civilians present as human shields
.
Before the forces entered the building, they announced and called for the evacuation of civilians from the building for their safety. The fighters arrested several terrorists from the terror organizations in a focused and precise manner while avoiding harm to the civilian population at the site. Additionally, during the operation, a number of terrorists who attempted to attack the forces were killed.
Units of the Nachal Brigade continue their operation in the central part of the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile on this hot day, “starving” Gazans flocked to the beach to enjoy the nice weather.
POLL: SHOULD ISRAEL ATTACK IRAN
Two days ago, I presented the initial Channel 13 survey on Israelis' feelings about retaliating against the Iranian assault. Today, Hebrew University released a survey whose response was slightly different and less in favor of attacking Iran directly. The
difference could be attributed to the wording and methodology of the questionnaire, or it could be that the survey was done one day later when the reality of where we stand replaced the euphoria of the Air Force’s fantastically successful interceptions of the night before.
Regarding whether Israel should respond:
52% of Israelis believe that Israel should not respond, aiming to end the current round of the conflict.
48% of Israelis argue that Israel should respond, even if it means extending the current round of the conflict.
28% of Israelis support military action even if it leads to a larger overall war, 34% oppose it, and 38% don’t know.
Israel and its Allies (USA, UK and moderate Arab countries)
74% of Israelis oppose counter-attacking Iran if it undermines Israel’s security alliance with its allies. However, 26% think Israel should strike back at Iran even at the cost of harming coordination with its allies.
56% of Israelis believe that Israel should respond positively to political and military demands from its allies to ensure a sustainable defense system over time. 32% are undecided, and 12% disagree.
59% believe that American aid to Israel against the Iranian attack obligates Israel to coordinate security actions down the road with America. 26% are undecided, and 15% disagree.
44% of Israelis support military action in Rafah if at the cost of a crisis in Israel’s foreign relations and damage to its relations with the US, 31% are undecided and 25% disagree.
The day after
43% of the of Israeli public believes that Israel should rely on its allies in the future settlement of the issue of the day after in Gaza. 33% are undecided, and 24% oppose this.
THE WOUNDED
Yesterday, at the Occupational Health Conference of the Institute for Safety and Hygiene at the Ministry of Labor, held at the College of Management in Rishon LeTzion, it was revealed that the war period led to a significant increase in individuals suffering from sleep difficulties within the population. The percentage of those affected rose from 18.7% last summer (before the war) to 37.7% (now), representing an increase of 101%. There was also a 78% rise in those who reported high levels of stress, reaching 43.5% during the war period, as well as a 55% rise in those reporting very high levels of burnout, reaching about 40% of workers.
Additional data revealed at the conference — since October 7, the Rehabilitation Department of the Ministry of Defense recognized more than 2,000 soldiers, police officers, and security forces as disabled IDF veterans, at a rate of about 60 new disabled individuals per day. Approximately 60% suffered limb injuries (including amputations), about 10% had injuries to internal organs, and about 10% suffered from mental health injuries.
BUSINESS
Dot Compliance, a startup specializing in quality process management for life sciences companies, has successfully raised $17.5 million in a recent funding round. This adds to a previous round from July 2022, bringing their total capital raised since 2015 to $50 million. The investment round was led by Israeli funds Vertex and IGP, with participation from TPY Capital. The company's Quality Management System (QMS) helps life sciences companies manage regulatory requirements and operational challenges, including process documentation and failure management. Dot Compliance's system operates on the Salesforce platform, enhancing its integration and utility in laboratory environments.
Bridgewise, an AI-based platform for analyzing global securities, has successfully raised $21 million in a Series A funding round, bringing its total capital to $35 million. The round was led by SIX Group and included contributions from Group 11, L4 Venture Builder, and other major financial institutions. Bridgewise selected investors that could serve as strategic partners in crucial markets, notably SIX Group, which operates the financial infrastructure for the Swiss and Spanish financial centers. Bridgewise provides AI-driven investment analysis tools to various financial entities, including exchanges, banks, trading platforms, investment houses, wealth advisors, and financial media and education platforms. Bridgewise currently operates in over 15 countries, such as Australia, Brazil, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland, the UAE, the UK, the US, and others.
Teva Pharmaceuticals and its Icelandic partner Alvotech received approval last night (Tuesday) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market Selarsdi, which is a bio-similar version (a biologically engineered copy of a biologic drug made from mammalian cells or bacteria) of the drug Stelara. Stelara is used for treating psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis. In the US, sales of Stelara, developed by Johnson & Johnson, amounted to $1.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023, a 10% increase compared to the same quarter in 2022. Stelara's total sales in the US for 2023 reached $7 billion, showing a growth of 9% compared to 2022.
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A PIECE OF HISTORY
David Ben Gurion Presents His Government • November 2, 1955
I had planned to write about events that led to the 1956 Sinai War in this update. However, as I researched the subject, I came across this speech presented by Ben Gurion at the Knesset. It's long, but worth reading—and this speech could be delivered today, with only minor changes. The original speech was given in Hebrew.
This translation is excerpted from Ben Gurion’s book: ISRAEL: A PERSONAL HISTORY, in which Ben-Gurion writes:
Our problem is not simply the security of our independence, our territory, our borders, our regime, but the security of a simple, physical survival. Our enemies are scheming. Not only against our territory and independence. Their plan, as many of them state frankly, is to throw us all into the sea. Let us not forget that during World War Two, the majority of Arab rulers admired Hitler and looked forward to his victory. Five years ago, on November 1, 1950, the Prime Minister and Minister of Defense announced that he did not share our public joy over past victories. The danger ahead of us now is no less grave than it was five years ago, and perhaps even more so. I am still filled with anxiety, perhaps more than I am prepared to say at this time.
It is the problem of our survival, our physical survival, plain and simple. The entire future of the Jewish people now depends on the survival of the State of Israel. And just as our security problem is different from that of other countries, our means and needs for security are greater than those of any other country. We must view the crucial difference between ourselves and our enemies with brutal clarity. Our enemies believe that they can solve the problem of Israel absolutely, once and for all, by our total destruction. We cannot and would not wish to achieve a security of this nature. It is not our wish, not our right, and not within our capacity, to liquidate millions of Arabs in the Middle East. Our security lies in constantly building up our strength in every area and on all fronts.
At this moment, the nation is deeply concerned by the large quantities of arms pouring into the enemy countries, Egypt in particular. Yet precisely at this time, the security of Israel must not rely solely on armed forces and arms, though without them there can be no security. The security of Israel means Aliya. In Egypt alone there are over twenty-two million inhabitants. In Israel, only one and a half million. Aliya is not only the supreme historic objective of our State but a security need of the highest order. Aliya means not only bringing Jews from North Africa or other countries to the shores of Israel, but giving them roots in work, in the soil of the Homeland, the economy, the Hebrew language, the values of our heritage, national responsibility, Jewish fellowship, a sense of national pride and security, and the desire and ability to be a builder, a defender, and a molder of the image of the Homeland.
Security means settlement and first of all settling the wilderness. Concentrating on industry and the great majority of the population in the central coastal plain carries grave dangers—in terms of security and otherwise—for the future of the nation. Upper Galilee, and especially the empty expanses of the south and the Negev, are the weak points. No military force can keep them in our hands if we do not settle them as soon as possible with the greatest density. Our surplus water, our surplus manpower, from the new Aliya and the youth reaching majority, our new workshops and factories, development projects, and research and scientific institutions must be diverted to the south. It is out of the empty south that the evil will break forth, and it is the south, and especially a populated and highly industrialized Negev, that will ensure our security and our economic independence. It is on these that our economic ties with the Asian continent will depend to a large and perhaps an overwhelming extent.
Security means conquest of the sea and air, to make ourselves a maritime power and a force to be reckoned with in the air. Settlement is not limited merely to land, to the soil. There can also be settlement of the sea and of the air, and the great advantage here is that there are no territorial limitations and curtailing borders. Directing a large part of the youth in the coastal cities—Nahariya, Acre, Haifa, Jaffa, Migdal, Ashkelon, Eilat—to fishing and seafaring is a national economic and security requirement of the first order.
Security is the cultivation of research and scientific ability at the highest level, the apex of knowledge, in all the physical, chemical, biological, and technological sciences. We will never enjoy quantitative superiority in manpower, equipment, or material means. Let us work toward intellectual and spiritual superiority. We must elevate our moral and intellectual ability to the highest degree. Our scientific capacity and our moral image will determine our international standing, our national image, our defensive might, and above all our influence on the Jews of the Diaspora and the attraction to Israel. Security is modem vocational training of youth in agriculture, crafts, industry, construction, seafaring; equipping them to turn out high-quality work that is competitive in the international markets.
Finally, security requires that the youth, the nation, its savants volunteer for difficult and vital objectives in settlement, in security, and in the integration of exiles. Our entire undertaking in this country would not have come into being were it not for this wonderful quality of adventurous pioneering that we showed during the three generations that preceded the creation of the State. Through the State, the law, and compulsion alone we will not reach the great goals that lie ahead of us. The outstanding symbol of pioneering and exalted love of Israel in our days is Varda Friedman of Kfar Vitkin, who, together with other young members of the veteran settlements, went out to live together with distant brothers— Kurdish immigrants from Persia — in the remote village in the distant south called Patish. Her purpose was to instruct the immigrants in work, education, and defense, and on this mission she gave her life.
Two weeks ago Prime Minister Sharett spoke of the deteriorating security situation following the developments at the Suez Canal, and I have nothing to add to this. However, we must not pass over in silence Nasser's declaration over Radio Cairo on September 27 in which he said, "Last week we signed a commercial treaty with Czechoslovakia by which that country will supply us with arms in return for cotton and rice." Two days later, on September 29, it was announced that ships had set out for Egypt loaded with tanks, guns, planes, and submarines. And Radio Cairo proclaimed, “The day of Israel's destruction is coming closer. There will be no peace on the borders, for we demand revenge and revenge means death to Israel!"
There is no doubt that the Czechoslovak government knew full well for what these arms were earmarked. Not for the improvement of the conditions of labor and the life of the masses of Egyptian workers, not for the improvement of the material conditions of the fellahin. The Czechoslovak communist paper, Rude Pravo, wrote that "the peace-loving policy of the Arab countries is universally known,” but the views of the Egyptian rulers are voiced by the Egyptian press, not by newspapers in Prague. And the Egyptian press declares that “it is inconceivable that Egypt will conclude peace with or recognize Israel.” One Egyptian paper puts the matter even more bluntly: “The Arabs regard Israel as an artificial State that has to be destroyed.” And Radio Cairo a short while back was equally blunt: “The day of Israel's destruction comes ever closer. This is our resolve: this is our faith. There will be no peace on the borders, for we demand revenge and revenge means death to Israel.” The Foreign Minister of Egypt tries to tell the American public that Radio Cairo pronouncements are not official proclamations, but he fails to note that Egypt is fully controlled by a military dictatorship. Obviously this is known to the Czechoslovak government.
It is my duty to tell all the powers that rule the world, with the modesty becoming a representative of a small nation in political affairs but with the moral force of a son of the Jewish people: “The people of Israel in the Land of Israel will not be led like sheep to the slaughter. What Hitler did to six million helpless Jews in the ghettos of Europe will not be done by any foe of the House of Israel to a community of free Jews rooted in their own land.”
On the very day when we renewed our national independence seven years ago we were attacked by the Arab states who invaded our country. We would have been destroyed but for the heroism of our sons and daughters. When the fighting was over, we did not harbor any hostile feelings toward those who attacked us. Our hand was stretched out for peace. Our neighbors, however, refused to make peace and only armistice agreements were concluded
even though they have not observed, and the war against us has been carried on in other ways: through boycotts, blockades, and frequent incursions by raiders and saboteurs.
It is Egypt that recently took the lead in this guerrilla warfare. Raids from the Gaza Strip alone in the first, the spokes of terrorists have caused a hundred and fifty three casualties in dead and wounded. The spokesmen for Egypt at the United Nations have openly accused that the state of belligerence between Israel and Egypt continues. The Egyptians have openly declared violated the basic international law of freedom of navigation in the Suez Canal, ratified by an explicit resolution of the Security Council. Is this Egypt that blocked the Suez Canal, barred passage of Israeli ships through the Red Sea Gulf in contravention of the unilateral principle of freedom of the seas. This unilateral warfare must cease, for it cannot continue indefinitely.
The Israeli Government is prepared, as in the past, to observe faithfully all the provisions of the Armistice Agreements in every detail, both in letter and spirit. But this obligation does not mean that while the other side violates them with saboteurs and murderers, they cannot remain closed to the defenders. If our rights are affected by acts of violence on land or sea, we shall reserve freedom of action to defend these rights in the most effective manner.
Our aim is peace — but not suicide. We wholeheartedly want peace and good neighborliness, and we are willing to cooperate with all our neighbors for the prosperity and well-being of the Middle East and for the strengthening of peace in the world. We do not covet a single inch of foreign soil, just as we will not permit anyone to deprive us of a single inch of our territory as long as we live. We can see no real reason for conflict between us and Egypt. On the contrary, we see a basis for fruitful cooperation between the two peoples and there is certainly no lack of good-will on our part.
In order to overcome the dangers inherent in the present unstable situation, I am prepared to meet with the Prime Minister of Egypt and with every other Arab ruler as soon as possible, to achieve a mutual settlement without any prior conditions. The Government of Israel is prepared for a lasting and enduring peace settlement and for long-term political, economic, and cultural cooperation between Israel and its neighbors. If the other side is not yet ready for that, we would also agree to a limited settlement providing for guarantees of the complete implementation of the Armistice Agreements, mutual elimination of all incidents and acts of hostility, boycott, and blockade, observance of freedom of the seas, and any further terms agreeable to both sides.
To our people at home, I would like to say: no complacency, but no despair. Although we cannot rely on verbal guarantees, let us not despair of the conscience of mankind and of enlightened world public opinion. Good men, and they are not few all over the world, can distinguish between a dictatorial regime built on force, aggression, and abasement of the dignity of man, and states devoted to the values of freedom, the transcendent worth of the individual, justice, and peace. We have given our support to the United Nations out of loyalty to the heritage of the Prophets of Israel and to their vision of peace among nations and the love of man that has been enunciated again in the United Nations Charter. But the United Nations Organization does not absolve its members from the duty of looking after themselves. Our task is first and foremost the maintenance of our security, and that is a job that will not be done for us by others. We shall have to do all that is incumbent upon us to attain peace and assure our security. If we do that, we need fear no evil.
It is my privilege to request that the Knesset approve the Government's program and express its confidence in the proposed Cabinet consisting of the following members: David Ben-Gurion, Prime Minister and Minister of Defense; Zalman Aranne, Minister of Education……