From an IDF Soldier on the Border

An IDF soldier on the border with Gaza sent me this update. (Translated from the Hebrew)

What's happening here in the staging area [area where soldiers prepare to enter Gaza] is beyond comprehension, not rationally, not emotionally and begs the imagination.

Almost every hour, a car shows up overflowing with food, snacks, cold drinks, socks, underwear, undershirts, hygiene supplies, wipes, cigarettes, backgammon and more. They're coming from the North and the Center, from manufacturers, from companies and private businesses, from prisons, Chareidim and Settlers, from Tel Aviv and even Savyon.

Every intersection on they way down here we get stopped, not by the police, but by residents giving out food. What is amazing is that the entire situation isn't organized and everyone is coming on their own without coordination between the folks coming.

They're writing letters and blessings, how they're thinking of us all the time. There are those who spent hours making sandwiches, so they're as perfect and comforting as possible.

Of course representatives of Chabad are here to help soldiers put on Tefillin and distributing Cha'Ta'Ts (Chumash, Tehillim, Tanya) for every troop transport and Breslov are showing up to the border and dancing
with the soldiers with great joy.

The Chareidim are coming from their yeshivot to ask the names of the soldiers with their mothers' names so that the whole yeshiva can pray for them. It should be mentioned that all of this is done under the threat of the terrorist tunnels and rockets in the area.

Soroka Hospital (in Be'er Sheva) today looks like a 5 star hotel. A wounded friend who was recently discharged told us how the MasterChef truck is parked outside and is preparing food for the wounded.

It goes without saying the amount of prayer services that are going on. On the religious front as well, there are lectures and Torah classes, all the food is obviously Kosher. Shachrit, Mincha, and Maariv with Sifrei Torah. 

They're giving out tzitzit and Tehilim by the hundreds. It's become the new fashion! The Rabbi of Maglan [Special Forces unit] told me that almost the entire unit has started wearing them, because the Army Rabbinate has been giving out tzitzit that wick away sweat. They're gaining both a Mitzva and a high quality undershirt. We've started calling them "Shachpatzitzit" (שכפ"ציצית - a portmanteau of the Hebrew term for body armor and tzitzit). We're having deep conversations late into the night without arguments, without fights and we find ourselves agreeing on most stuff.

We're making lots of jokes at Hamas's expense and without politics. There's lots more to add but my battery is running low and the staff has been requesting someone give a class on Likutei MoharaN (Breslov).

How happy is the nation that is like this. - אשרי העם שככה לו

IDF Spokesman: Israel Had To Bomb Gaza Media Center

The New York Times and other media outlets reported this about the Israeli strike where many broadcast companies have their offices. 

On Sunday, Israeli forces attacked two buildings housing local broadcasters and production companies used by foreign outlets. Israeli officials denied targeting journalists, and said that a second attack on one of the buildings, known as Al Sharouk, had targeted an office of the Islamic Jihad, killing four militants. The attack also hit a computer shop, sparking a blaze that sent plumes of dark smoke creeping up the sides of the building. Video footage showed clouds of smoke billowing.

IDF Spokesman Captain Eytan Buchman, who is head of the North American Bureau in the IDF Spokesperson's office, asserts in a late night email exchange that this account and others from the international media omitted crucial details. 

We targeted a building that includes intl' media a few days ago because it had Hamas communication gear," said Buchman. "This gear is used for military communications between themselves. That places it very clearly as a military target. We hit it because we needed to..but used the most precise weapons available"

Israel bombed the building again on Monday. Buchman insists that only person killed in that attack was what AP even admitted was an Islamic Jihad terrorist inside the building,"

This AP tweet corroborates Buchman's account. 

 

The Associated PressVerified‏@AP

BREAKING: Gaza group Islamic Jihad says Israeli strike on media center killed one of its top militant leaders.

CNN's Anderson Cooper also confirmed that rockets were being launched in the vicinity of the building. 

 

Anderson CooperVerified‏@andersoncooper

4 rockets just fired from near media center in #Gaza City. The same media center bldg hit by three IDF missiles earlier today

As further proof, Captain Buchman offers this compelling video of the IDF hit. 

A frustrated Buchman does not understand why the media refuses to criticize Hamas for deliberately planting terrorists in civilian locations. He argues, "Zero condemnation from the intl' media that terrorists are practically embedded in media buildings. The press even forgot that Hamas rockets hit Reuters cameraman earlier this week."

Ma'an, an independent Palestinian News agency, was one of the few, if only media outlets that reported on Hamas rockets hitting the car of the Retuers news crew. 

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=538123

IDF Spokesman: 3 Million Israelis In Line of Fire

IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) spokesman Captain Eytan Buchman is one of the people live tweeting the Gaza incursion. Yesterday, the official twitter account of the IDF, @IDFspokesperson, tweeted - 

Ahmed Jabari:Eliminated.pic.twitter.com/sCnQnKkM

Buchman, a Chicago native, explained in a phone call the reasoning behind the IDF’s increased social media activity. “We learned from Operation Cast Lead in 2008 and 2009 that there were potential new audiences that we could target rather than the traditional media,” he said. “There is so much misinformation coming out of Gaza. Videos show a man be carried into an ambulance, but don’t show the same man walking out of the ambulance a few minutes later. Hamas falsely claimed to have hit an Israeli naval vessel. Social media allows everyone to see for themselves what is happening and make their own decisions.”

As for the controversial decision to show the video of the assassination of senior Hamas leader Ahmed Jabari, Buchman defends it.“The video shows that we hit him when he was in the middle of the intersection to minimize collateral damage," he said. 

He asserts Israel tries to avoid civilian casualties but that the Palestinian leaders make that hard to do. "They put the rockets in the middle of urban areas. When the leaders know they are a target, they use Palestinians as a human shield."

He stresses that Israel tries to minimize the collateral damage. "If you ever read Sun Tzu's Art of War, you would know that surprise is important.Yet, Israel drops leaflets before an attack warning the Palestinians to leave the area. No other army in the world does that."  

Buchman is shedding no tears over the death of Jabari, He said, "Jabari has been in Hamas since 1995." He has blood on his hands and not just the sheen of blood. Gilad Shalit is just the highest profile case that he has been involved with. He is behind the stockpile of weapons in Gaza.”

The captain emphasizes 3 million Israelis now are in the line of fire from Hamas rockets. Many of them ran to bomb shelters this morning when the sirens sounded.  My cousin, Hila Tal-Lazarus, wrote this on her Facebook page: “Terrible, I can’t explain the feeling of running for shelter with a 6 months old and a three year old. This is the time that I wish I wasn’t a mommy… But otherwise we are well. Thanks!”

Captain Buchman credits the Iron Dome, which was supplied by the United States Government under President Obama, for preventing the situation from not being much worse.  “Since it was first utilized in April 2011, it has prevented 100 rockets. In the last four days, it has prevented 105 rockets.”

The IDF has 30 seconds, the length of time of a Super Bowl commercial, to make the decision to fire a missile in response to a Hamas rocket. They do not fire at every Hamas rocket, only the ones that will land in urban areas, due to the $40,000 cost of each missile.  

Three Israelis died today after being hit by Hamas rocket fire. Israel does not have enough Iron Dome batteries to cover the entire Southern region.

Buchman argues, “Those that accuse Israel of being the aggressor have not been paying attention. They should be asking why it took us so long to respond. Since 2001, 12,800 rockets and mortars, an average of 3 a day, have landed in Israel. 274 rockets have landed in Israel since Operation Pillars of Defense.”

By the way, Buchman is the one that coined the Operation Pillar of Defense name. In Hebrew, the name of the operation is Pillar of Cloud, which references the cloud that traveled with the Jews as they left Egypt and made their way to Israel. While Israelis know the Bible well, he was not sure that Americans would understand the biblical reference. 

Gaza: Pictures From A Mediterranean Paradise

The picture to the left is of the central public library in Gaza. If it does not look familiar to you, I am not surprised. Whenever there is a story on Gaza, a picture of the squalid refugee camps is usually attached. Most people do not realize that the majority of Gaza is developed and very beautiful. I hope these pictures dispel the myth of the indigence of Gaza.

I hate to scream media bias against Israel. I just hope that you realize that the reporters that neglected to show you the presentable sections of Gaza are the same ones that tell you about the suffering of the Palestinians. Draw your own conclusions. Imagine the image of New York if all the stories featured Bedford-Stuyvesant and Brownsville instead of the Manhattan skyline, Times Square, or Wall Street.

While the plight of the Palestinian is constantly told and retold, the media talks very little about the excruciation of the Lebanese Christians at the hands of the Palestinians and other Arabs. Since the United States is a predominately Christian country, this aperture in the reporting from the Middle East seems odd.

My neighbor George, a Lebanese Christian from the southern town of Sarba (near Saida), reminded me "the Palestinians were willing to leave Gaza in the late sixties and early seventies and resettle in Lebanon." During the long war between the Palestinians and Lebanese, the Palestinians killed 20 of his relatives. Some members of his family were murdered at a family funeral to mourn the original members of the clan that had been killed by the Palestinians. George can not go back to his family home because the Palestinians have stolen it from them.