2022-08-12 Residents from the Arab village next door threw Molotov Cocktails over this security fence, aiming to injure residents of these homes in my Jewish village in Samaria. This was around 11:30 pm during Shabbat, on the 12th of August.
2022-08-14 JTOD org update: My village was attacked with Molotov cocktails this Shabbat (11:30 pm on the 12th). Nobody is reported injured. I probably wouldn’t have even known, except that a dear friend overseas (who visits Israel occasionally and watches and prays) picked up this story from the news media and alerted me. This morning I biked over and took this photo, on the security road which encircles my village.
So, here’s the layout: The Jewish homes on one side, and extra-high / extra-secure version of the security fence on my other side. (See here for the type of security fence we have on the other side of town). Near the fence pictured, the neighbors have told me previously that sometimes the Arabs throw stones at them, right over that fence. So, this is probably the section of wall where they threw the Molotov cocktails. It’s near the street that was in the reports. So – I assume that at least one Molotov landed in at least one yard and exploded uselessly. Of course, that means that nobody was sitting in the yard at that time, to enjoy the Shabbat evening breeze.
Behind this fence next to me, the hill is quite steep leading up to the Arab homes in the Arab village next door, so, I think that hill makes it a bit easy for people to toss things over the fence and aim for the Jewish homes. At this point, I’m upset about this; I’m trying to calm down. I reached out to some of the neighbors who are my friends, and heard back from one. The affected street is not far from her mother’s house. So, she and I were able to trade back and forth some dark humor, which takes the edge off a bit. I know that many people would say to me, “It’s all YOUR fault! You deserve to be killed by Arabs!” Whatever.
Portable hospital, or Giant Ambulance? You decide. When troubles arrive, this baby rolls into town just in case.
Today there’s an increased presence of Israeli military activity in town. In the bakery three soldiers came in for lunch, they are tall, strong, and armed to the teeth, and very relaxed, with their sandwiches and iced coffees. These guys are bigger than the regular everyday soldiers I see around town. Also unusual: There’s a field hospital set up on the edge of town, it’s housed inside a converted city bus. So it’s like an ambulance and rolling hospital, combined. I saw a tractor smoothing out the sand on the ground right next to the security fence. That means the Army can easily spot the footprints in the sand, if Arabs had cut thru the fence somewhere. More and more I’m slowly getting over it. That’s part of the Israeli experience, to get normalized to terror, and carry on with life as if nothing happened.
8 Aug, 2022: Egypt helped negotiate a cease fire between Israel and Islamic Jihad. Went into effect at 11:30 tonight, after 1,000 rockets fired at Israel. Let’s see how this goes.
More Palestinians in Gaza were harmed by Palestinians than by Israelis. How does that work? Islamic Jihad hides among Palestinian civilians (war crime #1) to fire missiles against Israeli civilians (war crime #2), many of which fell short and landed on apartment buildings inside Gaza. By contrast, Israel does not fire on civilians. That’s how this war resulted in more Arab civilians harmed by Arab fire than by Israeli fire.
“Every Jew is raised to think it’s his moral obligation to help and love the weak and the underdog.”
“Every militant knows that if you are caught trying to kill Jews and happen to get wounded, the Jews are the only people in the history of warfare who will provide the best medical attention in order to save your life. “
Jackie Mason, Jewish comedian, 18 Aug, 2014 in his op-ed found at: https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/Thank-God-for-the-Republican-gentiles-371433
Excerpt from “When we get used to living with war: Israel in times of crisis is a mix of routine and solidarity,” by Herb Keinon, Jerusalem Post, 12 Aug 2022 pg 13.
12 Aug 2022, Samaria:Whenever Israel is attacked by missiles, I switch on the notifications on the Red Alert app in my handheld. I sometimes choose “all areas,” and sometimes just the areas close to me for alerts. This helps me pray for various locations, as well as make decisions about my own movements, where the nearest bomb shelters are located, and how much time I would have to make it into a shelter before the shrapnel and explosions land.
During Pillar of Defense in 2012, I didn’t have a smart phone, nor did I during Operation Cast Lead in 2008-2009. By 2014 I had acquired a 5-year-old iPhone 4, second-hand, from a Filipina caregiver from Jerusalem. So, Protective Edge was my first experience with nationwide missile alerts. That was also the season that I started taking my own personal fitness more seriously, doing jumping jacks and chin-ups at the local soccer field.
One year ago, we lived through Guardian of the Walls in 2021. That one was extra odd, because while missiles rained down from Palestinian Arabs in Gaza, local Israeli Arabs (with Israeli citizenship) rose up and attacked their Jewish neighbors on the streets, marking Jews’ doors with symbols for home invasion attacks. This was odd; normally, Arabs with Israeli citizenship did not express their solidarity with Palestinian Arabs in such a blatant way.
That brings us to August 2022, the three days of missiles during Breaking Dawn.
Back in Dec-Jan 2008-2009, I lived through Operation Cast Lead, which was when Israel unilaterally withdrew all its villages and military presence from Gaza, in a sign of peace. Within two week, Gazans took that gifted land and used it to fire missiles at Jewish civilians, beginning with Operation First Rain (started when Gaza started heavy Qassam rocket fire on Sderot) and then Operation Cast Lead.
Then, in between all the other wars listed above, we endured “minor wars” such as Summer Rains, Autumn Clouds, Warm Winter, Closed Garden, and Black Belt.
Occasionally, as I check the alerts in the Red Alert app, I also check the comments. Those fall into two categories: Arabs who write “death to Jews” and such things, and prayer warriors who write things like “May Y’shua guard and protect the people from harm,” and then occasionally, things like “Israel’s army ought to turn Gaza in to a parking lot,” meaning, bomb it all to the ground in order to stop the missiles for good.
It’s that third category that I’ll address here. First, Israel, along with the Judaistic perspective, cannot in any way justify the wholesale killing of all the people in any area. There are many who accuse Israel of doing just that. Well, that’s a false accusation and here’s why. Year after year after year, the population of Gaza is still around 1.8 million people. If Israel set out to wipe them all out, they’re doing quite a poor job of it. There are those that argue that Palestinians are David and Israel is Goliath. Well, if that were true, then certainly Israel has enough technology and firepower to do it. So why don’t they? Morals. And in reality, Palestinians are part of a pan-Arabic solidarity that encompasses Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, etc. So Arabs would be the Goliath, and Israel would be the David, in the big picture. Evidence: the wars in 1948, 1954, 1967, 1973, 1981 when groups of nations coordinated their armies together in wars against The Jews. Currently, the strategy is different, with Iran not-so-secretly shipping munitions and money to Arab militias in such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza, and Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria.
Remember all that cash that President Obama sent to Iran in the now-defunct Iran Nuke Deal of 2015? None of that money practically made it to the Iranian civilians. All of it went to “good causes” such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and the nuclear reactor program that was supposed to be halted.
So, again, despite all this, modern Judaism does not permit, morally, any type of genocide. “Every life is a world,” as Jews say. Further, Jews quote the Bible as saying “the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.” (Lev. 19:34 KJV). I must add, that in Leviticus, those same strangers were required to live like the Jews and walk in obedience to the Torah, just like the Jews. Modern Judaism and modern Israel makes no such requirements upon “strangers,” despite Exodus 12:49 which states, “There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you.” (Ex. 12:49 ESV). Modern Judaism attempts to extend the gift of honor and respect to non-Jews, even to Arabs living with or without Israeli citizenship, but without any of the Biblical expectations that such foreigners must obey Biblical instruction. That’s just the current situation.
Secondly, if Israel were to “wipe them all out,” logically and militarily, just how would that solve anything? Isn’t there a never-ending stream of terrorists and Jew-haters? Even for a secular Jew who may not even acknowledge YAH’s existence, or who may subscribe to a different religious belief, this idea is not reasonable. We are left with managing the situation rather than solving it. Therefore, Gaza’s Arab population remains growing from around 1.8 million. Israel’s perspective is expressed in the phrase, “mowing the lawn,” which means, when the terrorists rise up again and start attacking Jewish civilians in their homes and businesses, try to take care of the situation quickly without destroying the whole yard. Because, every human life is valuable, according to Judaism.
Excerpt from the Jpost article in the photo above (emphasis added):
“The downside, however, is that there is something deeply troubling about hundreds of rockets shot off toward Israel’s population centers becoming routine.
“Some argue that if we didn’t accept these rounds as routine, then we would take pains to end them once and for all. The counterargument is that this is something that you can’t end once and for all; that there are always going to be terrorists out there who want to destroy Israel; and that the healthy and positive response is to just try to minimize their ability to do so as much as possible – through, for instance, periodic military campaigns – and live under this shadow in the most constructive and productive way possible, something Israel has proven wonderfully adept at doing.”
full article at this link (copy paste): https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-714541
So that’s how it is for us as civilians in Israel: Living under the shadow of constant war, but doing so in the most healthy and positive way possible. Please join me in praying that Israel will continue to find healthy ways to survive with as little harm to Israel’s enemies as possible.
2 Aug, 2022: Israel arrested Palestinian Islamic Jihad senior member Bassam al-Saadi in Jenin. Jenin, located in the northern Samaria, aka northern west bank, is part of the palestinian government regime. Home base for the PIJ is in Gaza, where the PIJ is the second most powerful terrorist organization, after Hamas, which was elected into power over a decade ago. After the arrest, foreseeing trouble, Israel put the Jewish communities near Gaza on lockdown for their protection.
5 Aug, 2022: Israel used a precise drone to assassinate Tayseer al-Jabari, on the 7th floor balcony of a “safe house” apartment located on “Martyr Street” (Al-Shuhada St.) in Gaza. Jabari, 50, had risen through the Islamic Jihad ranks for decades, had replaced Baha Abu Al-Ata, who Israel assassinated in a surgical strike in 2019. Jabari was in charge of Islamic Jihad’s missile arsenal, including anti-tank missiles (also used against Israel civilian cars), as well as the #1 coordinator with the Hamas terror organization.
The surgical strike left Jabari dead, and his wife and children uninjured in the very next room on the afternoon of 5 Aug. The type of strike used was scientifically engineered to not penetrate walls.
At 9 pm that night, Islamic Jihad began its indiscriminate launch of hundreds of missiles at civilians. This is a double war crime. First, for hiding behind civilians and mosques in order to launch the missiles, and second, for launching in the direction of civilian non-combatants. Israel, in contrast, fires only at combatants.
Israel has a military web page for citizens to receive information: how many seconds they have for to get into a bomb shelter when they hear the siren for their area. Friday night, that web page crashed as Israelis overwhelmed the site.
By the end of the 3 day operation, Islamic Jihad fired nearly 1,000 missiles at civilian targets in locations such as Ben Gurion Airport, Tel Aviv, Beersheva, Holon, Bat Yam, Rishon LeZion, and hundreds of others. 160 of those missiles fell short and landed in Gaza.
6 Aug 2022 At around 9 pm Sat evening a building in Jabalya, Gaza, was struck, and four children tragically lost their lives. Arabs, including Israeli Arab Ahmed Tibi, a member of the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) and leader of the Joint List Arab Party. MK Tibi claimed that Israel had fired the shot. Within a short time, Tibi deleted his tweet, as Israel showed with video proof that it was an Islamic Jihad missile. PIJ fired the missile from Gaza at Israel, but it changed direction in mid-air and landed on a building in Jabalya, in northern Gaza. The false claims had already spread on social media, but Israel’s quick response prevented a public relations disaster. The whole world, including CNN and even Ahmed Tibi, did in fact accept Israel’s proof as true. Every dead child is tragic.
Islamic Jihad had fired that missile toward Israeli civilians (a war crime) from a mosque in Gaza (a war crime) and it landed among civilians in Jabalya, Gaza (a war crime).
Original photo of the start of the work, performed by Palestinian non-Israeli Arab construction workers:
Removing the 30+ year old rusted chain-link fencing.
Background: the old fence removed, and new fence posts have been installed and are standing as the concrete dries. In the foreground, part of the old fencing still remains.
New fencing has now been mounted onto the new fence posts.Seen from another angle: here the new section is in the foreground and the old outdated fencing is in the background.
8 Aug 2022 Update:
As of this morning, another section of old fence is removed, and holes dug for the new posts to be embedded in concrete..
10 Aug 2022 Update:
10 Aug: Section now has new fencing (foreground and background).
Here in the village in Samaria, aka “West Bank,” we have intelligent and active security guards which usually prevent problems; thus, we can afford the risk to go ahead and hire palestinian construction workers to help build our security fences and even our homes.
So, Israel has recently shot down drones from Iran and Hezbollah (Iran’s proxy army terrorist group which runs the Lebanese government and is active in Syria as well). As for nukes in Iran, this time around neither the USA nor the Israeli government are stable and strong enough to do much: Israel increasingly needs to look to YHWH alone for protection. Meanwhile, USA’s President Biden travels to Saudi Arabia this week, I suppose to make oil deals, which is odd considering he closed down lots of oil business in Texas; but anyway… and then after that, the White House plans to stop by Israel for a visit, and the government coalition has just fallen apart here, last week.
So with all that in mind, this morning an unmarked military plane, about the size of a C-141 passed over my house in Samaria. It was an unusual sound, much lower rumble than the commercial planes ✈️ and instead of flying west towards Ben Gurion airport, this one was heading South-East. Very strange. Two minutes later, a plane with commercial markings and colorings followed behind on the exact same path.
Therefore, I think that flight had less to do with Iran, and more to do with Saudi Arabia. It may have been US or Israel military and support staff heading over to assist the White House people in Saudi Arabia. All this to say – let’s remember to pray for the leaders of the USA, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, as the Bible instructs us to do – regardless of any opinions we have about them. If we pray for them to become saved, and serve YHWH, and walk according to His purposes, things will certainly be better. Thanks.
In May 2021, Gaza launched over 4,000 rockets at Israel, in many attempts to overwhelm Israel’s “Iron Dome” defensive technology. The tech still functioned at 90% effectiveness. Militant groups in Gaza are undoubtedly preparing for another attack, while regional powers such as Egypt and Qatar work for negotiations.
