ZOOM BRIEFING SUNDAY, JULY 21, 6 PM ISRAEL, 4 PM GB, 11 AM EDT, 8 AM PDT
In the early morning, 20 rockets were fired at the Western Galilee, including at Nahariya. The Iron Dome successfully intercepted all the rockets, none of which were headed toward open fields. Today, Nasrallah issued a warning that if Israel continues to kill Lebanese, he will expand the area at which he launches rockets.
During last night's security cabinet meeting, a discussion took place about the negotiations for a hostage deal. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a harsh statement, asserting:
We don't need to be under pressure. Hamas should be the one under pressure. The hostages are suffering, but they are not dying.
In response, Hostage Families Headquarters issued the following:
We demand an immediate clarification from the Prime Minister regarding his recently published statement: “The hostages are suffering, but they are not dying.”
That the Prime Minister's statement outrages the hostage families is factually incorrect, and he practically abandons them. Unfortunately, the facts speak for themselves. Hostages have already been murdered in captivity, and we have no way of knowing whether additional hostages are not being murdered at this very moment.
It was reported that at the same meeting, Mossad Chief Ronen Bar said it would take many weeks to develop a system capable of preventing Hamas from moving arms to the North, a time frame that the hostages cannot afford.
Minister Ben-Gvir declared: “To make an agreement now is to slap Trump in the face and give a present to Biden.”
Both MK Miri Regev and MK Gila Gamliel countered: “We need to reach an agreement now; there is no time to waste.” Gamliel added tonight:
There is an agreement, and we need to make it happen. The threats to topple the government made by [Finance Minister] Smotrich are the reason he should be fired immediately.
Netanyahu spoke at the Knesset today and stated:
We are advancing towards achieving the war objectives: dismantling of Hamas and ensuring that Gaza will not be a threat to Israel, thanks to military and diplomatic pressure. Hamas is indeed under pressure because we are destroying the tunnels and eliminating thousands of its terrorists. Hamas is under pressure because it understands that we are not yielding to the immense pressures from within and outside. Even with the U.S., I insisted on not stopping the war.
They said that [Hamas] is an idea that cannot be defeated. There was an idea called Nazism, and it was defeated. There are neo-Nazis, but Nazism was eradicated. We are going to eradicate Hamas. We will not leave a quarter of the Nazi army standing. We will do this because we are on the path to absolute victory. When we were about to enter Rafah, we were told to stop by Biden and the entire international community. In the Middle East, they respect the strong, not the weak. The IDF persists in its strikes, and Hamas is starting to relent. They told us Hamas would not bend, that we had reached the limits of our capabilities, and that Hamas would not agree to release hostages without us agreeing to stop the war, but they are agreeing.
… Regarding the Commission of Inquiry, I can't do both things simultaneously. I want to defeat Hamas, and afterward, we will have time to deal with the investigation.
Lapid to Netanyahu:
Do not go to the U.S. without a deal; do not embarrass us; the damage you did in 2015 is enough.
You are not a victim, Sir. You live in two villas at the State's expense, with a convoy of armored black Audi-8s. If it's so hard for you, you are welcome to resign. The overwhelming majority of Israeli citizens would be very happy.
Former Defense Minister Gantz responded by saying:
Mr. Prime Minister,
You were afraid to enter the maneuver [in Gaza].
You delayed the entry into Khan Younis.
You hesitated to enter Rafah.
You spoke about Rafah City for a campaign, while we stressed the need to first capture the Philadelphi Corridor and prevent Hamas from rearming.
Everything will be revealed when the protocols and testimonies are heard in the State’s Commission of Inquiry, which will have to ask the questions—Why did you delay the entry into Rafah and Khan Younis? Why were you afraid? Why did you delay? Why were you hesitant? What costs have we paid and continue to pay because of your delays?
Tel Aviv Diary is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
WE CAN’T DENAZIFY GAZA
Netanyahu continually draws parallels between the current situation and the Nazis, and he is not the only one to do so. Many talk about the “denazification” of the Palestinians, comparing it to the US’s actions in Germany and Japan. It is a terrible, flawed comparison. The Nazis governed Germany for 11 years, and their movement went back an additional decade prior. Germany was a modern country with advanced universities and was regarded as one of the most liberal countries in Europe before the Nazis rose to power with 40% of the vote.
The Germans had no fundamental disagreements with the United States or the American people. In contrast, regardless of who is more historically correct, the Palestinians have been in conflict with us for over a century. Those in Gaza have grown up with the belief that we have usurped their homes, homes in which they have endured sub-standard living conditions throughout their entire lives. Effectively addressing this matter must extend beyond merely removing anti-Israel material from school curricula; it requires a complex process. Furthermore, there will be no way of even initiating such a process without first achieving an outcome that might be unattainable, i.e., a long-term agreement with the Palestinians.
Today, a march led by parents whose children were murdered on October 7th commenced from Nachal Oz. The march was an urgent call for the creation of a National Commission of Inquiry
.
ULTRA-ORTHODOX DRAFT
The Army will be sending out draft notices to prospective ultra-Orthodox conscripts on Sunday. This evening, the Torah Council of Shas ordered all Yeshiva students who follow them to ignore any of the notices they receive.
Human Rights Watch (HRW), known for its anti-Israel stance, released a comprehensive report detailing the numerous war crimes committed by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups during the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. The report, published on Wednesday, outlines hundreds of highly coordinated atrocities that sparked the ongoing conflict in Gaza. These crimes include deliberate attacks on civilians, sexual violence, hostage-taking, and inhumane treatment of captives.
HRW Associate Director Belkis Wille emphasized the scale and organization of the October 7 assault, stating, “It’s impossible for us to put a number on the specific instances [of war crimes],” but noted that “there were obviously hundreds on that day.” The report describes how fighters targeted civilians in various locations, including cities, kibbutzim, a music festival, and military bases near the Gaza border. “Across many attack sites, fighters fired directly at civilians, often at close range, as they tried to flee, and at people who happened to be driving vehicles in the area,” the report states.
The HRW investigation also uncovered evidence of sexual and gender-based violence, including forced nudity and the non-consensual sharing of sexualized images on social media. While the full extent of these crimes may never be known, due to various factors, including victim deaths and stigma, the report cites a UN team that interviewed witnesses who reported instances of rape and gang rape in at least three locations.
HRW’s findings challenge early claims made by Hamas and Israel regarding the nature of the attackers. Wille clarified, “The reality is that it really wasn't civilians from Gaza who perpetrated the worst abuses. That was a claim made very early on by Hamas to distance itself from the events and by Israel to justify its retaliation operation." The HRW report provides crucial documentation of the events that triggered the current conflict, offering a foundation for potential future war crimes cases and a deeper understanding of the atrocities committed on October 7.
HOW ULTRA-ORTHODOX COMMUNITY GROWTH IS IMPOVERISHING THE COUNTRY
During the next two days, I will share parts of an interesting study titled “Jerusalem and the increasingly Haredi towns: A PARABLE FOR ISRAEL” by economist Professor Dan Ban-David of the Shoresh Institute.
I heard Professor Ben-David interviewed today, and he made some very critical points. Ben-David emphasized that if we do not find a way to gain control of the relationship between the ultra-Orthodox and the State, there could be no future for the country. At the moment, Jerusalem is a bankrupt city that relies on NIS 1 billion annually from the government for its maintenance. Ben-David poses a poignant question: What happens when the entire country mirrors the situation of Jerusalem?
Prof. Ben-David finds that out of all Israel’s cities and towns, the four experiencing the sharpest socioeconomic decline since 1995 have been municipalities where there has been a rapid increase in Haredi populations coupled with a sharp decline in their secular populations.
The Shoresh study shows that Haredi fertility rates are roughly three times the fertility rates of secular Jews, traditional Jews, Christian Arabs, and the Druze – and they are double the effective fertility rates of religious (non-Haredi) Jews and Muslim Israelis.
Ben-David focuses on the vast discrepancies in fertility rates, finding that these are accompanied by a greater number of Jews becoming Haredim than those leaving the sect. The bottom line is reflected in a doubling of the Haredi share in Israel’s population every 25 years. As a result of this exponential population growth, 26 percent of all toddlers and infants today are Haredim.
An average of all PISA [Educational Assessment] exams given since 2006 highlighted in the Shoresh study indicates that Israel’s education system is one of the worst in the developed world. Haredi boys do not study a complete core curriculum. Of the remaining children who do, the secular pupils place below the majority of OECD countries; religious (non-Haredi) pupils place below 80% of the OECD countries, while Arab speakers in Israel perform below many third-world countries.
Jerusalem
Israel’s capital city, Jerusalem, encapsulates a transformation process that is informative for the direction that the country as a whole is headed.
• The Ben-David study shows that the share of secular Jewish pupils in Jerusalem’s primary schools has collapsed from 33 percent to 9 percent in just over three decades
.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Tel Aviv Diary to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.
