Jerusalem News.
4 September 2024, 1 Elul 5789.
Contents:
1. IDF Chief of Ground Forces Resigns.
2. Hamas Guards Instructed to Kill Hostages When IDF Approaches.
3. Netanyahu Says no Chance of Ceasefire. Transcript.
4. Worth Notinmg: Daniel Piples. "The United States has become an active military ally of Israel."
5. This Week: Torah Portion: Shoftim - Judges, Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9.
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1. IDF Chief of Ground Forces Resigns
By
Hana Levi Julian
https://www.jewishpress.com/news/israel/idf/idf-chief-of-ground-forces-resigns-his-post/2024/09/03/
Extracts:
The IDF Chief of Ground Forces, Major General Tamir Yadai, has resigned from his position, becoming the third Israeli military leader to step down in the aftermath of the October 7th massacre.
Yadai, who has served in the post for three years, cited 'personal reasons' for the decision in his letter requesting permission to step down.
The findings of an initial investigation released earlier this week showed that Israel's southern border security fence was breached in 119 different places, enabling 7,000 Hamas-led terrorists to invade the Jewish State.
On October 7, a Shabbat that coincided with the joyous Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, some 1,200 people were slaughtered by the terrorists. Thousands more were wounded and 251 others were taken hostage and dragged into Gaza, where nearly 100 remain captive. Most of the victims were civilians.
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2. Hamas Guards Instructed to Kill Hostages When IDF Approaches.
https://www.jewishpress.com/news/eye-on-palestine/hamas/guards-of-hamas-hostage-instructed-to-kill-them-when-the-idf-approaches/2024/09/03/
By
David Israel
Extracts:
Hamas spokesman Hudayfa Samir Abdallah al-Kahlout, known by his nom de guerre Abu Obaida, posted on the Hamas Telegram that the guards of Israeli hostages in Gaza have been instructed to kill their wards when IDF soldiers come close.
'Continued attempts to free the captives through military pressure instead of an agreement will only mean that the hostages will return to their families in coffins,' he warned.
On August 31, the IDF found the bodies of six hostages in an underground tunnel in the Rafah area. The following day, militants claimed the captives had been killed by Israeli airstrikes. However, an examination by Israel's Health Ministry revealed that the hostages had been shot at close range by Hamas fighters. The findings suggest that the killings occurred 2-3 days before the bodies were discovered.
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3. Netanyahu Says no Chance of Ceasefire. Transcript
https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/netanyahu-says-no-chance-of-ceasefire-transcript
Oct 31, 2023
Ladies and gentlemen, this is a turning point, a turning point for leaders and nations. It is time for all of us to decide if we're willing to fight for a future of hope and promise or surrender to tyranny and terror.
Now rest assured, Israel will fight. Since October 7th, Israel has been at war. Israel did not start this war, Israel did not want this war, but Israel will win this war. Hamas launched this war by perpetrating the worst savagery our people have seen since the Holocaust.
Hamas murdered children in front of their parents, murdered parents in front of their children. They burned people alive. They raped women. They beheaded men. They tortured Holocaust survivors. They kidnapped babies. They committed the most horrific crimes imaginable, and they're part of the axis of evil that Iran has formed, an axis of terror that works by arming, training, and financing Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis and Yemen, and other terror proxies throughout the Middle East and beyond the Middle East.
In fighting Hamas and the Iranian axis of terror, Israel is fighting the enemies of civilization itself. Victory over these enemies begins with moral clarity. It begins with knowing the difference between good and evil, between right and wrong. It means making a moral distinction between the deliberate murder of the innocent and the unintentional casualties that accompany every legitimate war, even the most just war.
It means holding Hamas responsible for the double war crime it commits every day by deliberately targeting Israeli civilians, while deliberately using Palestinian civilians as human shields. It means making clear that the use of human shields is not only an immoral tactic of terror, but also an ineffective one, because as long as Hamas' use of Palestinian human shields result in the international community blaming Israel, Hamas will continue to use it as a tool of terror, and so will others.
Hamas will continue to use the basements in Gaza's hospitals as the command post of its vast terror tunnel network. It will continue to use mosques as fortified military positions and weapon depots. It will continue to steal fuel and humanitarian assistance from UN facilities.
While Israel is doing everything to get Palestinians civilians out of harm's way, Hamas is doing everything to keep Palestinian civilians in harm's way. Israel urges Palestinian civilians to leave the areas of armed conflict while Hamas prevents those civilians from leaving those areas at gunpoint.
Hamas is also preventing foreign nationals from leaving Gaza altogether. Most despicably, Hamas is holding over 200 Israeli hostages, including 33 children, holding them, terrorizing them, keeping them as hostages. Every civilized nation should stand with Israel in demanding that these hostages be freed immediately and freed unconditionally.
I want to make clear Israel's position regarding the ceasefire. Just as the United States would not agree to a ceasefire after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, or after the terrorist attack of 9/11, Israel will not agree to a cessation of hostilities with Hamas after the horrific attacks of October 7th. Calls for a ceasefire are calls for Israel to surrender to Hamas, to surrender to terrorism, to surrender to barbarism. That will not happen.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Bible says that there is a time for peace and a time for war. This is a time for war, a war for our common future. Today we draw a line between the forces of civilization and the forces of barbarism. It is a time for everyone to decide where they stand.
Israel will stand against the forces of barbarism until victory. I hope and pray that civilized nations everywhere will back this fight, because Israel's fight is your fight, because if Hamas and Iran's axis of evil win, you will be their next target. That's why Israel's victory will be your victory.
But make no mistake, regardless of who stands with Israel, Israel will fight until this battle is won, and Israel will prevail. May God bless Israel and may God bless all those who stand with Israel.
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4. Worth Notinmg: Daniel Piples. "The United States has become an active military ally of Israel."
https://www.meforum.org/daniel-pipes-making-sense-of-the-hamas-israel-war
A: The United States has become an active military ally of Israel, without saying so. The United States has, within the last few days, killed a number of Houthis and attacked a number of Houthi installations in Yemen. This was not portrayed as something helpful to Israel, but rather for freedom of navigation. But, in fact, the United States and Israel are on the same side and their alliance has deepened. Also, in October, a US ship shot down missiles going from Yemen to Israel, something that had not happened before. So, things are changing, and while there's a reluctance on both sides, Israeli and American, to note what I've just said, the new reality exists.
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5. Ths Week: Torah Portion: Shoftim - Judges, Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9.
7 September 2024 / 4 Elul 5784
Parashat Shoftim is the 48th weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading.
Torah Portion: Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9
Shoftim ('Judges') discusses guidelines of leadership, opening with a command to appoint judges and continuing to detail laws of kings, priests, and prophets. It also describes laws relating to cities of refuge for accidental killers, false witnesses, warfare, and the rite performed in a case of unsolved murder. [1]