13 Dec 2023, Samaria: Israel’s envoy to the UN: “Call Hamas for a ceasefire. Here’s Yehya Sinwar’s phone number.”

This is the message Gilad Erdan delivered to the UN on behalf of Israel:
“If you want a cease fire, call him and tell him to release the hostages and surrender. No doubt, that is the quickest path to a cease fire!”

This is not a joke, even though it seems funny at first glance. The message is real. The nations want to make it seem as if the entire burden is on Israel.  But Hamas bears the burden.  Hamas declared war in the first place, Hamas took hostages, raped and murdered civilians in their beds, and continues the fight against a foe they can never beat.

If Hamas has its way, it will strike in surprise attacks again and again year after year, and then run back into its tunnels and plead for a cease fire. “Live to fight another day.”  If Israel has her way, Hamas will not be permitted to live to fight another day, and Gazans may, free from Hamas, choose a peaceful party to govern them.  Otherwise, someone else will select a party to govern the Gazans.  If Hamas survives, they will no doubt govern, and the war will last far too long.  If Gazans want peace, the first thing to do is to surrender and return the hostages.  Israel will treat the surrender properly according to international law.

Sinwar’s phone number: +970-599-373765.

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7 Dec 2023, Samaria:

Jerusalem Post, 7 Dec 2023 pg 3.

Jerusalem Post, 7 Dec 2023 pg 3.

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7 Dec 2023, Samaria:  We are hearing signs of IDF soldiers seeing miracles while in Gaza. Below is a testimony from an unnamed source, take with a grain of salt; to my eye, it does have the signs of having been translated from Hebrew into English; as the grammar errors are consistent with what I’ve seen with Hebrew speakers:

A SHARED TESTIMONY

I BELIEVE…

“A good friend of mine met with a friend’s son who serves as a fighter in an elite unit, and during the ceasefire, he left Gaza for a few hours.

And so he said: ‘After I was now in Gaza for the first time in my life, I feel that I believe, I believe that there is someone in the sky who watches over us, I have seen truly miraculous things.

“Four fighters entered the room, and a terrorist came out to us by surprise and fired at us with his automatic weapon.

“One of the fighters took a bullet in his helmet.

“One of the fighters took a bullet in his weapon.

“One of the fighters took a bullet in the ceramic object.

“And the last fighter took a bullet through his night vision device.

“None of us were scratched, and we eliminated the terrorist.

“As the fighting continued, we threw a grenade into the room. When we entered the room after the smoke and dust had settled, we saw that the room was full of charges that if they had exploded from the explosion of the grenade, our entire crew would have been killed. It turned out that the fragments of the grenade had torn the wire that was supposed to activate the charges.

“I think about all the things I went through there, and I have a lot more to think about, so my first conclusion is that I believe…”

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5 Dec 2023, Samaria:  This investigation seeks to know how certain Wall Street investors profited from advance knowledge of the war.  It’s possible that they were Hamas-affiliated investors.

Let’s pray that the investigation will result in the truth being revealed, with no coverups. 

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3 Dec 2023, Samaria: Making delivery of home defense supplies in the village in Samaria.  Yes, we do realize that pepper spray and batons are not all that much help against murderous antisemites, but it’s better than nothing, and nonlethal.  Pepper spray blinds and chokes the attacker’s breathing for up to 40 minutes.  A baton is a nonlethal tool used by police around the world.

As for firearms, Israel has quite a lengthy application, approval, and training process for every individual that seeks to acquire a firearm.  After Oct 7 there has been a surge in applications.  We’re not involved in that.  Only nonlethal means such as bulletproof vests, pepper spray, batons.

Here at Jerusalem Tabernacle of David our defense goal is to supply nonlethal tools to families as well as Samarian village civilian guards with support from donors:   David Defense Fund.

Homes receive: Pepper spray gun, baton, and pepper spray canisters.

Civilian patrol guards receive: Bulletproof vests and helmets.

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Dec 3, 2023, Samaria:  Dr. Ofer Grosbard wrote about his experience as a psychological consultant for Israel’s Military Intelligence (MI) unit.  He wrote about the organization’s tendency to elitist thinking, to patterns which punish alternative ideas rather than encourage them; even a blatant disregard for common sense, and a severe lack of interest in understanding the enemy:

When people become closed to alternative concepts, their “reward” is having gained a powerful, yet false, sense of control.   Psychologically, a sense of control is emotionally attractive to all; and we may even seek such “pretty lies” at the expense of an honest assessment of risk:

“We all get tired at a certain stage, we want quiet and a good life, and we repress recognition of danger. That happens to us repeatedly. Psychological tools can help combat this natural tendency to some extent. The wisdom of Proverbs (16:18), which tells us that, ‘Pride goes before ruin, Arrogance before failure’ (‘There will not be another war for 10 years,’ Moshe Dayan said before the Yom Kippur War; or, ‘Hamas will be deterred for five years,’ as the current head of Military Intelligence declared – reminds us how supercilious human nature can be.

“A fixed concept gives us the feeling that we are in control and understand what is going on, and it is powerful to the point of causing us to ignore many facts which, as we are now aware with regard to October 7, were also known prior to the massacre. MI actually needs people who harbor a slightly depressive tendency (research shows that the perception of reality by that group is better than that of the average person) in order to do battle against uncontrolled optimism. Anxious individuals and those with a tendency to minor paranoia (not a pathology, but a personality line) could also combat the euphoria of a ‘startup nation’ that relies on ‘all-knowing’ technology. Indeed, I can attest to the fact that the feeling in MI’s research unit was that we knew everything about Hamas.

“If you ask the man in the street whether the other side thinks differently from us, they will undoubtedly tell you that yes, they do. But if you go on to ask in what way they think differently, you will not get a clear answer. What is obvious to the average person is hidden from the eyes of MI. They assume that the enemy thinks the way we do, and thus project our way of thinking on them.”

“There is no attempt to learn systematically how the enemy thinks. Such learning makes us more modest and aware of what we do not understand, and that can provide a great advantage and even immunize us from know-it-all conceptions.”

Let us agree in prayer for Biblical wisdom to be granted miraculously to the Military Intelligence and to the government. 

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David Defense Fund:  Providing defensive supplies for Jewish villages in Samaria; both families as well as civilian guard patrols. (Psalm 144)

“I Was a Psychologist at Israel’s Military Intelligence. Here’s Why the Unit Keeps Getting It Wrong;”  Ofer Grosbard, 1 Dec 2023, Haaretz:  https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-12-01/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/i-was-a-psychologist-at-israels-military-intelligence-heres-what-its-doing-wrong/0000018c-26c2-d04a-af9f-f6f2b8500000


https://archive.is/KtUEm#selection-1235.198-1269.391

1 Dec 2023, Samaria:  As Herb Keinon wrote, “It was a week of reading about the cruel ordeals the hostages faced in Hamas captivity…”

And a look at Rimon Kirsbt, torn from her husband Yegev Buchshtav who remains in captivity. She was released on tuesday and gave attitude to Hamas and Red Cross agents:

See the Jerusalem Post for the full article.

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