Saturday, February 03, 2024

U.S - UK GOES AFTER YEMEN DEATH CULT COCKROACHES.

 U.S - UK GOES AFTER YEMEN DEATH CULT COCKROACHES.

WORLD TERRORISM

GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)(HAMAS IN HEBREW IS VIOLENCE)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM)(HAMAS) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

STRONGS CONCORDANCE FOR VIOLENCE IN THE BIBLE-SEE IT FOR YOURSELVES.
2554. chamas - Strong's Concordance - chamas: to treat violently or wrong - Part of Speech: Verb - Transliteration: chamas -Phonetic Spelling: (khaw-mas') - Definition: to treat violently or wrong - make bare, shake off, violate, do violence, take away violently, wrong -A primitive root; to be violent; by implication, to maltreat -- make bare, shake off, violate, do violence, take away violently, wrong, imagine wrongfully.

GENESIS 16:11-12
11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her,(HAGAR) Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael;(FATHER OF THE ARAB/MUSLIMS) because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
12 And he (ISHMAEL-FATHER OF THE ARAB-MUSLIMS) will be a wild (DONKEY-JACKASS) man;(ISLAM IS A FAKE AND DANGEROUS SEX FOR MURDER CULT) his hand will be against every man,(ISLAM HATES EVERYONE) and every man's hand against him;(PROTECTING THEMSELVES FROM BEING BEHEADED) and he (ISHMAEL ARAB/MUSLIM) shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.(LITERAL-THE ARABS LIVE WITH THEIR BRETHERN JEWS)

ISAIAH 14:12-14
12  How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer,(SATAN) son of the morning!(HEBREW-CRECENT MOON-ISLAM) how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13  For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14  I (SATAN HAS EYE TROUBLES) will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.(AND 1/3RD OF THE ANGELS OF HEAVEN FELL WITH SATAN AND BECAME DEMONS)

JOHN 16:2
2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.(ISLAM MURDERS IN THE NAME OF MOON GOD ALLAH OF ISLAM)

SECOND ANGEL: The Middle East DR DOCTORIAN
Then Isawthat the second angel had a sickle in his hand,such asis used in harvesting. The second angelsaid, “Harvest time has come in Israel and the countries all the wayto Iran.” Isawthose countriesin a fewsplitseconds. “All of Turkey and those other countries that have refused me and refused my message of love shall hate each other and kill one another.” I saw the angel raise the sickle and come down on all the Middle East countries.I saw Iran, Persia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, all of Georgia – Iraq, Syria,Lebanon,Jordan, Israel, all of Asia Minor – full of blood. Isaw blood all over these countries. And I saw fire; nuclear weapons were used in many of those countries. Smoke rising from everywhere. Sudden destruction – men destroying one another. I heard these words, “Israel, Oh Israel, the great judgment has come.”The angel said, “The chosen, the church, the remnant, shall be purified. The Spirit of God shall prepare the children of God.” I saw fires rising to heaven.The angel said, “This is the final judgment My church shall be purified, protected and ready for the final day. Men will die from thirst. Watershall be scarce all over the Middle East. Rivers shall dry up, and men will fight for water in those countries.” The angelshowed me that the United Nationsshall be broken in pieces because of the crisisin the Middle East. There shall be no more United Nations. The angel with the sickle shall reap the harvest.

ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)

ISAIAH 54:3
03-King James Bible-For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.

The right hand was a symbol of strength-Exodus 15:6, ” Your right hand, O LORD, is majestic in power. Your right hand, O LORD, shatters the enemy.”

EZEKIEL 17:15-24 (MUSLIM COUNTRIES HISTORY)
15 But he rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses and much people. Shall he prosper? shall he escape that doeth such things? or shall he break the covenant, and be delivered?
16 As I live, saith the Lord God, surely in the place where the king dwelleth that made him king, whose oath he despised, and whose covenant he brake, even with him in the midst of Babylon he shall die.
17 Neither shall Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company make for him in the war, by casting up mounts, and building forts, to cut off many persons:
18 Seeing he despised the oath by breaking the covenant, when, lo, he had given his hand, and hath done all these things, he shall not escape.
19 Therefore thus saith the Lord God; As I live, surely mine oath that he hath despised, and my covenant that he hath broken, even it will I recompense upon his own head.
20 And I will spread my net upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare, and I will bring him to Babylon, and will plead with him there for his trespass that he hath trespassed against me.
21 And all his fugitives with all his bands shall fall by the sword, and they that remain shall be scattered toward all winds: and ye shall know that I the Lord have spoken it.
22 Thus saith the Lord God; I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon an high mountain and eminent:
23 In the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it: and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar: and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing; in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell.
24 And all the trees of the field shall know that I the Lord have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish: I the Lord have spoken and have done it.

PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they (MUSLIMS) have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, PALESTINIANS,JORDAN) and the Hagarenes;(EGYPT)
7 Gebal,(HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON) and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA,ARABS,SINAI) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)
8 Assyria (SYRIA) also has joined with them; They have helped the children of Lot. Selah
9 Deal with them as with Midian, As with Sisera, As with Jabin at the Brook Kishon,
10 Who perished at En Dor, Who became as refuse on the earth.
11 Make their nobles like Oreb and like Zeeb, Yes, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
12 Who said, “Let us take for ourselves The pastures of God for a possession.”
13 O my God, make them like the whirling dust, Like the chaff before the wind!
14 As the fire burns the woods, And as the flame sets the mountains on fire,
15 So pursue them with Your tempest, And frighten them with Your storm.
16 Fill their faces with shame, That they may seek Your name, O Lord.
17 Let them be [e]confounded and dismayed forever; Yes, let them be put to shame and perish,
18 That they may know that You, whose name alone is the Lord, Are the Most High over all the earth.

And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE..

US striking Yemen as response to deadly drone strike expands beyond Iraq and Syria-By Reuters-FEB 4,24

The United States is launching a series of strikes against Iran-linked targets in Yemen on Saturday, three US officials tell Reuters, in what appeared to be a second day of retaliatory operations following a deadly attack on American troops last weekend.The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, do not provide further details on the locations being struck, but two of them said there were dozens of targets. Yemeni media reported strikes in Al-Hudaydah and Sanaa.The United States on Friday carried out strikes in Iraq and Syria against more than 85 targets linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and militias it backs, reportedly killing nearly 40 people.But while the United States accuses Iran-backed militias of attacking US troops at bases in Iraq, Syria and Jordan, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis have been targeting commercial ships and warships in the Red Sea.The Houthis, who control the most populous parts of Yemen, say their attacks are in solidarity with Palestinians amid Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.The United States has previously carried out more than 10 strikes against Houthi targets in the past several weeks, but they have failed to stop attacks by the group.

US, Britain hit over 30 Houthi targets in fresh strikes on Iran-backed groups-Fighter jets and Tomahawk missiles fired from warships in Red Sea hit 13 sites across Yemen; Pentagon chief threatens further action-By AP and ToI Staff 4 February 2024, 12:31 am

WASHINGTON — The United States and Britain struck 36 Houthi targets in Yemen on Saturday in a fresh wave of assaults meant to further disable Iran-backed groups that have relentlessly attacked American and international interests in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war, US officials told The Associated Press.The latest strikes against the Houthis were launched by ships and fighter jets. The strikes follow an air assault in Iraq and Syria on Friday that targeted other Iranian-backed militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in retaliation for the drone strike that killed three US troops in Jordan last weekend.The Houthi targets were in 13 different locations and were struck by US F/A-18 fighter jets from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier and by the USS Gravely and the USS Carney Navy destroyers firing Tomahawk missiles from the Red Sea, the US officials told The Associated Press. They were not authorized to publicly discuss the military operation and spoke on condition of anonymity.The US warned that its response after the soldiers’ deaths at the Tower 22 base in Jordan last Sunday would not be limited to one night, one target or one group. But the Houthis have been conducting almost daily missile or drone attacks against commercial and military ships transiting the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden and they have made clear that they have no intention of scaling back their campaign. It was not immediately clear whether the allied assaults will deter them.Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement that the military action, with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, and New Zealand, “sends a clear message to the Houthis that they will continue to bear further consequences if they do not end their illegal attacks on international shipping and naval vessels.”He added: “We will not hesitate to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most critical waterways.”The Defense Department said the strikes targeted sites associated with the Houthis’ deeply buried weapons storage facilities, missile systems and launchers, air defense systems and radars.Saturday’s strikes marked the third time the US and Britain had conducted a large joint operation to strike Houthi weapon launchers, radar sites and drones. The strikes in Yemen are meant to underscore the broader message to Iran that Washington holds Tehran responsible for arming, funding and training the array of militias behind attacks across the Mideast against US and international interests over the past several months, including in Iraq and Syria by the rebels in Yemen.Video shared online by people in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, included the sound of explosions and at least one blast was seen lighting up the night sky. Residents described the blasts as happening around buildings associated with the Yemeni presidential compound. The Houthi-controlled state-run news agency, SABA, reported strikes in al-Bayda, Dhamar, Hajjah, Hodeida, Taiz and Sanaa provinces.This is what #Yemenis do during American-British airstrikes ???? They go to the roofs of their houses to watch. This one says, "even if you, America, burns Sanaa, we are with #Gaza and we will stay with #Gaza! pic.twitter.com/YJ8CjW7UHv — Mohamad Al Shami محمد الشامي (@mamashami) February 3, 2024-On Friday the US destroyer Laboon and F/A-18s from the Eisenhower shot down seven drones fired from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen into the Red Sea, the destroyer Carney shot down a drone fired in the Gulf of Aden and U.S. forces took out four more drones that were prepared to launch.Hours before the latest joint operation, the US took another self-defense strike on a site in Yemen, destroying six anti-ship cruise missiles, as it has repeatedly when it has detected a missile or drone ready to launch.The Houthis’ attacks have led shipping companies to reroute their vessels from the Red sea, sending them around Africa through the Cape of Good Hope — a much longer, costlier and less efficient passage. The threats also have led the US and its allies to set up a joint mission where warships from participating nations provide a protective umbrella of air defense for ships as they travel the critical waterway that runs from the Suez Canal down to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.During normal operations about 400 commercial vessels transit the southern Red Sea at any given time.The US has blamed the Jordan attack on the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a coalition of Iranian-backed militias. Iran has tried to distance itself from the drone strike, saying the militias act independently of its direction.Hussein al-Mosawi, spokesperson for Harakat al-Nujaba, one of the main Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, condemned the earlier US strike in Iraq and said Washington “must understand that every action elicits a reaction.” But in the AP interview in Baghdad, he also struck a more conciliatory tone. “We do not wish to escalate or widen regional tensions,” he said.Mosawi said the targeted sites in Iraq were mainly “devoid of fighters and military personnel at the time of the attack.”Iraqi government spokesperson Bassim al-Awadi said in a statement 16 people, including civilians, were killed and there was “significant damage” to homes and private properties.The US said it had informed Iraq about the operation before it started.A US official said an initial battle damage assessment showed the U.S. had struck each of its planned targets in addition to a few “dynamic targets” that popped up as the mission unfolded, including a surface-to-air missile site and drone launch sites. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details that were not yet public, did not have a casualty assessment.The Iraqi government has been in a delicate position since a group of Iranian-backed Iraqi militias calling itself Islamic Resistance in Iraq began launching attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria on Oct. 18. The group described the strikes as retaliation for Washington’s support for Israel in the war in Gaza.Behind the scenes, Iraqi officials have attempted to rein in the militias, while also condemning US retaliatory strikes as a violation of Iraqi sovereignty and calling for an exit of the 2,500 US troops who are in the country as part of an international coalition to fight IS. Last month, Iraqi and U.S. military officials launched formal talks to wind down the coalition’s presence, a process that will likely take years.Both the Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea and strikes by Iran-backed militias on US troops in Iraq and Syria have been launched as part of a campaign to support Hamas in its war against Israel, the groups claim. War between Hamas and Israel broke out on October 7 when some 3,000 Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel from the Gaza Strip and committed atrocities that led to the deaths of about 1,200 people and the abduction of iver 250 hostages.Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas in self-defense, launching an offensive that has led to the deaths of over 27,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gazan health ministry. These numbers, however, cannot be independently verified and are believed to include over 10,000 Hamas gunmen killed in battle with Israel and Palestinians killed by misfired rockets.

After US strikes, Iranian proxy says it doesn’t seek further conflict with US-Spokesperson for Iran-backed militia in Iraq says targeted sites were largely ‘devoid of fighters and military personnel’ but other sources reported casualties-By AP and ToI Staff Today, 11:04 pm-FEB 3,24

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — An Iraqi militia official on Saturday hinted at a desire to deescalate tensions in the Middle East following retaliatory strikes launched by the United States against dozens of sites in Iraq and Syria used by Iranian-backed militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.Hussein al-Mosawi, spokesperson for Harakat al-Nujaba, one of the main Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, in an interview with The Associated Press in Baghdad condemned the US strikes, saying Washington “must understand that every action elicits a reaction.” But he then struck a more conciliatory tone, saying that “we do not wish to escalate or widen regional tensions.”Mosawi said the targeted sites in Iraq were mainly “devoid of fighters and military personnel at the time of the attack.”Syrian state media reported that there were casualties from the strikes but did not give a number. Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said that 23 people, all rank-and-file fighters, were killed.Iraqi government spokesperson Bassim al-Awadi said in a statement Saturday that the strikes in Iraq near the Syrian border killed 16, including civilians, and there was “significant damage” to homes and private properties.A US official said Saturday that an initial battle damage assessment showed the US had struck each of its planned targets in addition to a few “dynamic targets” that popped up as the mission unfolded, including a surface-to-air missile site and drone launch sites. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details that were not yet public, did not yet have a casualty assessment.Iraq’s foreign ministry announced Saturday it would summon the US embassy’s chargé d’affaires — the ambassador being outside of the country — to deliver a formal protest over US strikes on “Iraqi military and civilian sites.” The US said Friday it had informed Iraq of the impending strikes before they started.The air assault was the opening salvo of US retaliation for a drone strike that killed three US troops in Jordan last weekend. The US has blamed that strike on the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a coalition of Iranian-backed militias.Iran, meanwhile, has attempted to distance itself from the attack, saying that the militias act independently of its direction.Iraqi spokesperson al-Awadi condemned the strikes as a violation of Iraqi sovereignty, particularly since some of them targeted facilities of the Population Mobilization Forces. The PMF, a coalition of Iranian-backed militias, was officially brought under the umbrella of the Iraqi armed forces after it joined the fight against the Islamic State in 2014, but in practice it continues to operate largely outside of state control.The Popular Mobilization Forces said in a statement Saturday that one of the sites targeted was an official security headquarters of the group. In addition to the 16 killed, it said 36 people had been wounded, “while the search is still ongoing for the bodies of a number of the missing.”The Iraqi government has been in a delicate position since a group of Iranian-backed Iraqi militias calling itself Islamic Resistance in Iraq — many of whose members are also part of the PMF — began launching attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria on Oct. 18. The group described the strikes as retaliation for Washington’s support for Israel in the war in Gaza.Behind the scenes, Iraqi officials have attempted to rein in the militias, while also condemning US retaliatory strikes as a violation of Iraqi sovereignty and calling for an exit of the 2,500 US troops who are in the country as part of an international coalition to fight IS. Last month, Iraqi and US military officials launched formal talks to wind down the coalition’s presence, a process that will likely take years.One of the main Iran-backed militias, Kataeb Hezbollah, said it was suspending attacks on American troops following Sunday’s strike that killed the US troops in Jordan, to avoid “embarrassing” the Iraqi government.Meanwhile Saturday, the US military’s Central Command acknowledged it had had a series of skirmishes in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden with Yemen’s Houthi rebels. On Friday, the USS Carney shot down a drone over the Gulf of Aden and there were no injuries or damage. The US also conducted airstrikes on four Houthi drones preparing to launch that it said “presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and the US Navy ships in the region.”Overnight, F/A-18 fighter jets from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier, along with the USS Laboon, shot down seven drones in the Red Sea.Escalations between the US and Iranian proxies began following the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas. Israel declared war on the terrorist group following Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.

Pope Francis decries ‘terrible increase in attacks against Jews’ worldwide-In letter to ‘my Jewish brothers and sisters in Israel,’ pontiff urges prayers for the return of hostages Hamas took on Oct. 7, says ‘we must never lose hope for possible peace’By Agencies Today, 9:13 pm-FEB 3,24

Pope Francis on Saturday condemned the “terrible increase in attacks against Jews around the world” and the global rise in antisemitism since the Hamas-led onslaught in southern Israel four months ago and the subsequent Israeli military campaign against the Gaza-ruling terror group.“We, Catholics, are very concerned about the terrible increase in attacks against Jews around the world,” the pope wrote in a letter addressed to “My Jewish brothers and sisters in Israel” made public by the Vatican on Saturday.The war between Israel and Hamas terrorists in Gaza has produced “divisive attitudes in public opinion worldwide and divisive positions, sometimes taking the form of antisemitism and anti-Judaism,” Francis said.“We had hoped that ‘never again’ would be a refrain heard by the new generations, yet now we see that the path ahead requires ever closer collaboration to eradicate these phenomena,” he said.He urged prayers “especially for the return of hostages” held by Hamas since the October 7 atrocities and called for Jews and Catholics to promote Israel-Palestinian peace.“I would also like to add that we must never lose hope for a possible peace and that we must do everything possible to promote it, rejecting every form of defeatism and mistrust,” the pontiff continued. “In times of desolation, we have great difficulty seeing a future horizon where light replaces darkness, in which friendship replaces hatred, in which cooperation replaces war. However, we, as Jews and Catholics, are witnesses to precisely such a horizon.”“We must act, starting first and foremost from the Holy Land, where together we want to work for peace and justice, doing everything possible to create relationships capable of opening new horizons of light for everyone, Israelis and Palestinians.”He also said Jews and Catholics “must commit ourselves to this path of friendship, solidarity and cooperation in seeking ways to repair a destroyed world, working together in every part of the world, and especially in the Holy Land, to recover the ability to see in the face of every person the image of God, in which we were created.”According to Vatican News, the pope’s letter was sent to Karma Ben Johanan, a professor in the comparative religion department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem who was recently involved in promoting an appeal to Francis calling to boost Jewish-Christian friendship following October 7.The letter came after Francis recalled the extermination of millions of Jews ahead of Holocaust Day of Remembrance last week, saying that war can never be justified and only benefits weapons-makers.“The remembrance and condemnation of that horrific extermination of millions of Jews and of other faiths, which occurred in the first half of the last century, help us all not to forget that the logic of hatred and violence can never be justified, because they deny our very humanity,” Francis said then during his weekly general audience at the Vatican in Rome.A day earlier, the head of the umbrella group of Jewish communities in Italy, Noemi Di Segni, complained about unnamed Catholic leaders who had “minimized the recognition of what happened on October 7 as a terrorist act compared to the right of Israel to defend itself.” She didn’t name names, but some Jewish leaders have complained about Francis’ initial comments, in which he didn’t identify Hamas by name and complained generally that “we’ve gone beyond war… this is terrorism.”Francis has subsequently always referred to suffering in both Israel and Gaza, and specifically condemned the October 7 attack, during which Hamas-led terrorists murdered some 1,200 people and kidnapped 253.In response, Israel launched a massive military offensive aimed at toppling Hamas and returning the hostages. The Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza says over 27,000 people have been killed in Gaza during the war, an unverified figure that does not differentiate between fighters from terror groups and noncombatants.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Latest hostage rally demanding deal with Hamas takes on stronger political tones-Organizers and speakers at weekly protest in Tel Aviv say faith in the government needs restoring, accuse Netanyahu of being guided by desire to avoid elections-By Canaan Lidor-and Charlie Summers Today, 11:37 pm-FEB 3,24

Speeches at the weekly Tel Aviv rally demanding the return of hostages held in Gaza took a more strongly political tone than ever before on Saturday night, with speakers accusing the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being indifferent to the hostages’ fate and Netanyahu of being guided by personal considerations and stalling to avoid investigations and elections.At previous rallies at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, organizers and speakers had adhered to a nonpartisan line, drawing a clear distinction between their movement, which is centered on retrieving hostages in Gaza, and anti-government protests that took place elsewhere at the same time.This departure from previous policy was evident at the Hostages and Missing Families Forum’s weekly rally, its 17th, which thousands attended. Emcee Rami Beja opened it, calling retrieving the hostages “the only way to restore confidence in the country’s leadership.” At previous rallies, he had urged participants to refrain from “engaging in politics.”Ronen Manelis, a reserves brigadier general and former Israel Defense Forces spokesperson, elaborated on his lack of confidence in that leadership.“The discourse taking place in recent days, the leaks, the manipulations, the lack of leadership, the inability to make difficult decisions, is leading to some difficult questions about the loss of commitment by the state to its citizens; [about whether] considerations outside this commitment are influencing the decision-making, or the absence thereof,” Manelis said.The Forum is pushing Netanyahu to accept a framework for a prisoner swap with Hamas, which is believed to be holding 132 hostages abducted by its terrorists from inside Israel on October 7.Manelis in his speech went further, accusing the government of conducting its hostage retrieval policy with the goal of avoiding elections.“The Israeli leadership, the war cabinet, its head, are afraid to make the decision” to agree to a prisoner swap, said Manelis, “because they fear a [longterm] ceasefire would lead to criticism, to investigations, and would trigger the very necessary process of going back to the voters to renew their confidence in their leaders.Avi Benayahu, another former Israel Defense Forces spokesperson and reserves brigadier general, addressed Netanyahu and his coalition partners directly in his speech, accusing them of “abandonment, neglect, arrogance, and building up Hamas.” He called National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, far-right leaders who have insisted that Israel not release large numbers of terrorists in a hostage deal, “radicals who want to take us toward chaos.”Benayahu, a longtime critic of Netanyahu, called on the prime minister to accept “a very painful, very difficult” deal with Hamas to retrieve the hostages. “Hamas is encircled, it’s not going anywhere,” Benayahu said in defense of a truce. “But the hostages are going to be lost.”Not far from Hostages Square, several thousand people protested against the government on Kaplan Street Participants, including some relatives of hostages, intermittently blocked traffic on the adjacent Ayalon Highway and Ibn Gvirol streets amid clashes with police. Horse-mounted officers and others were filmed driving back protesters and detaining some.The Kaplan Street anti-government protest and another such rally at Habima Square took place for the sixth consecutive week. Footage from those protest protests showed participants holding up signs and chanting slogans calling for Netanyahu’s resignation.The rally on Hostages Square featured multiple speeches by relatives of hostages who called on the government to retrieve the hostages, or “bring them back now in a deal,” as Carmit Palti-Katzir, whose brother Elad was abducted from Nir Oz, said.The past 120 days have been “a living hell” for her family, Palti-Katzir said, and she shared her dilemmas about explaining to her 3-year-old son where his uncle is.Palti-Katzir then listed several coalition figures and confidants of Netanyahu – Defense Minister Yoav Gallant; Minister Benny Gantz; former ambassador to the US Ron Dermer and Shas lawmaker Aryeh Deri – as well as Netanyahu himself: “I want to tell them in the most direct manner: Don’t allow partisan consideration to kill them [the hostages]. They are the flesh of our flesh and yours, too. They are not the silver platter on which the war has been handed to you. And to those who incite and call the deal in progress ‘reckless,’ we’ll say clearly: A reckless deal is a deal that abandons citizens in Gaza.”“The Silver Platter” is an iconic poem published in 1947 by Nathan Alterman, which describes Jewish war casualties as sacrifices that are necessary for achieving statehood. Ben Gvir has warned he would bring down the government if it agrees a “reckless” deal with Hamas.Some 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists invaded Israel on October 7, murdering some 1,200 people and abducting another 253. More than 100 hostages were released in a prisoner swap that took place during a weeklong ceasefire in November.The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says at least 27,000 people have died in the Gaza Strip as a result of the IDF’s military campaign to topple the terrorists’ regime and retrieve the hostages. Its figures cannot be verified and include gunmen and civilians. The IDF says it has killed at least 10,000 Hamas terrorists in its war in Gaza; over 220 IDF soldiers have been killed in the fighting.According to numerous unconfirmed reports, Hamas is demanding far-reaching concessions for a second deal. National Security Minister Ben Gvir last week called some of the reported terms of that deal – including a weeks- or even months- long ceasefire and the release of thousands of terrorists from Israeli jails — “reckless.” Ben Gvir has threatened to pull out of the coalition, endangering the government, if such a deal goes ahead.Netanyahu has ruled out releasing thousands of prisoners for the hostages. He has also rejected a key Hamas demand — ending the war and withdrawing the IDF as a condition for any further hostage releases, insisting that the war will end only when Hamas is destroyed and all hostages released.A key argument against the reported terms of a second deal with Hamas is the danger to security that the release of many convicted terrorists will entail. The controversial 2011 deal for the release of hostage soldier Gilad Shalit saw the release of over 1,000 terror convicts, some of whom later committed deadly attacks. One of them was Yahya Sinwar, now Hamas’s Gaza leader and the architect of the October 7 massacres.To counter such arguments, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum showed at the rally a compilation of statements by retired security establishment leaders who advocate prioritizing the retrieval of the hostages.Shown on a giant screen, the compilation included comments by former Shin Bet security agency head Yuval Diskin, who said: “I support releasing all the prisoners” in return for the hostages’ freedom. His successor Nadav Argaman called retrieving the hostages “the foremost mission,” and former defense minister Shaul Mofaz said that “there is no victory without the hostages.”A different group of families of hostages, the Tikvah Forum, disputes such assertions. Its members, who include parents of some of the hostages in Gaza, reject making concessions to Hamas and argue in favor of freeing the hostages either by force or through a deal that would not “endanger other Israelis,” as they have phrased it.Another rally with hundreds of participants marched through Jerusalem Saturday night demanding an immediate release of the hostages. Some of the participants carried signs and chanted slogans critical of the government, including ones demanding Netanyahu’s resignation.At the Jerusalem rally, Leebie Goldberg-Polin read a poem about her missing brother, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was badly injured and taken hostage by Hamas at the Nova music festival. “One hundred and twenty days and all I want is a hug from you,” she said about her brother.The Jerusalem event, which the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said it did not organize, encountered a handful of counter-protesters who shouted from the other side of the police barricade during speeches and held up signs comparing a prospective hostage deal to the Oslo Accords.

No comments: