Netanyahu signals to Iran from the air force base: "We are also preparing for scenarios of challenges from other arenas"
The war in Gaza swelled her soul in the dead of night. The funeral was held in a small forum, in the bosom of the family. Please avoid condolence visits. Anyone who is willing to bet that the IDF divisions will return to rush into Gaza en masse to take control of Rafah - is putting their money on the deer fund. Yes, the IDF is now operating in the central camps. raid. Like the one in Shifa. And it is possible that in the future there will be some kind of operation in Rafah, but it will be limited and its only purpose will be to allow Netanyahu to loudly announce that we have reached "total victory". By and large, the majority is behind us. The ambition now is to turn Gaza into a miniature model of Judea and Samaria, a place where the IDF can enter at any given moment without mobilizing reserves, in order to mow the grass of terrorism or deal with a specific threat and kill it. Like in Yosh. maintenance.
So how much is it over? Did we win or lose? First of all, we must not forget that a war with Iran and Hezbollah can, at any moment, take the place of the campaign against Hamas. There is no reason to panic. Israel is strong enough even against these enemies and at least here the American backing still exists - if we give it enough time, Bibi will destroy that too. Regarding victory or loss, opinions differ. Most of the howls of victory are heard from the direction of Netanyahu's trumpets. As far as Yanon Magal and his friends are concerned, since Pharaoh's armies were destroyed in the Red Sea, we have not seen such a heroic, heavenly, absolute and miraculous victory. The six days is a humiliating defeat compared to the six months of glory in the Gaza Strip. Eshkol, Dayan and Rabin, who conquered Judea and Samaria, the Golan Heights and Sinai in six days, are now eating dust in front of the performance of Messiah Netanyahu. We destroyed, conquered, trampled, burned, destroyed and proved that Bibi is the greatest leader of all generations, forever and ever. And one more thing: this is not the victory of the army, this is not the victory of the people, this is not the victory of the spirit. This is Bibi's victory. The leader who was touched by the hand of God. And whose defeat preceded this victory? Ah, the defeat belongs to all the others: the army, the people, the spirit and of course also Gali Beharve-Miara, the Chief of Staff, Gadi Eisenkot, Tzipi Livni, Ehud Barak and the High Court.
In front of the trumpets, stands an opposing group that believes we have been unconditionally defeated. A humiliating, stinging defeat, the most difficult in the history of modern Israel. The most accurate and persuasive column that represents this concept was written by the talented Chaim Levinson in his "Mtkal Tweet" section, which has already been published digitally and will be published today in Israel. Broadly speaking, Levinson writes that "the goals of the war will not be achieved, the abductees will not be returned under military pressure, security will not return, international ostracism will not disappear. We lost. This is the reality. We lost. This is the situation. We lost the war. This is the clear conclusion of all Israeli citizens." According to Levinson, this is the feeling of most Israelis, but because it's hard for us to admit that we lost, we tell ourselves that we won.
Levinson lays the blame for "the worst leadership in the history of the country", and perhaps in "the history of all countries". He laments the story of "The Day After", which does not allow Israel to find a replacement for Hamas in Gaza, details the inaction of Netanyahu, "the man who loses his judgment in front of a free cigar", the Israeli public's addiction to ignoring the harsh reality and the Bibist machine of lies and poison that is the current condition for its existence He is an aggressive pompom of the great victory, on which the political survival of the leader and his trumpets depends. The longer they keep screaming that we're winning, Levinson writes, the more obvious it will be that we're losing. Life here will be less safe since until October 7th, the international ostracism will not disappear, the dead will not return, neither will some of the kidnapped.
What do most Israelis think? In my opinion, they are somewhere in the middle. Mostly embarrassed. On Yom Tov, let's say after the heroic release of the two hostages, or a successful foiling, or any optimistic news, the Israelis rejoice and approach the feeling of victory. On the worst days, and by now most days are bad, they measure towards the loss tag. the truth? As usual, in the middle. Everything that Levinson wrote about the leadership, the shofars, the poison machine and Netanyahu, is true. Part of what he wrote about the picture of the battle is accurate. Pictures of the beginning of reconstruction are already coming out of Gaza. Water lines are being re-laid, the markets are crowded, people are returning to their homes (except those who are left). In our country, on the other hand, the settlements are still standing in ruins. The market in Sderot is empty. A significant part of the people have not yet returned to their homes. 133 hostages are still in the hands of Hamas. Yahya Sanwar has not been caught yet. And we haven't talked about the north yet (we'll get to it soon, and in detail).
But there are also other aspects to what happened here in the last six months. Important, strategic aspects of widespread significance. First of all, the war itself that Israel embarked on in Gaza. A war that proved to everyone who believed in the weakness of Israeli society and its unwillingness to pay a price and its addiction to fake peace, that they were wrong. The most basic working assumption of Nasrallah, Sinwar, Khamenei and his ilk and all the other wolves looking at us from the forest, was that Israel has lost its ability to mobilize and fight. Israel has lost its ability to pay a high price. its staying power in long systems.
They did not come to this conclusion out of a hallucination. It is based on a simple observation of Israel's behavior over the past two decades. in the destructive "inclusion" policy. Indulging in silence in Otef, silence in the Upper Galilee, because we are right before the B&B season, or the tourism season, or the wedding season, or the holidays, or Ramadan, or something. A regional power whose soldiers are not allowed to shoot at terrorists who cross the fence in the north, a regional power that bribes a terrorist organization so that it will not launch incendiary balloons and rockets, a regional power that refrains from using force against enemies sworn to extermination just to buy another week, two weeks, two months or two years of false peace.
The father of this defeatism is Benjamin Netanyahu. Ariel Sharon went to a protective wall and displaced the Palestinian terrorism in the West Bank, an action that seemed impossible to many. Ehud Olmert, after him, went to the last ground maneuver in Gaza ("cast lead") and went to war against Nasrallah for violating sovereignty, killing and kidnapping soldiers. After him came Netanyahu and crushed, with determination and thoroughness, the Israeli deterrence. Netanyahu is a human panic balloon, a scarecrow who has adapted to himself the look of a general, the baritone of a leader, and the multitude of foolish followers typical of false messiahs. Well, all of this was blown to pieces on October 7.
This disaster set up the With Israel to begin with. Like a legendary phoenix that was buried for ages in the desert sand, we rose up, shook ourselves off and attacked. It suddenly became clear that Israel knows how to pay prices. That Israel knows how to fight. That the IDF is capable of overwhelming anyone who stands up against it and its power is tens of times greater than the power of Hamas. Once the stars align and the instruction is given, there is no matchup between our army and the one standing on the other side. It turned out that the cooperation between the ground forces and the air force and all the other technological means in the IDF is almost perfect.
But make no mistake: the order was not given and the stars did not align. The order that Netanyahu gave was to contain, hold back, avoid provocations and continue to feed Hamas with hundreds of millions of dollars. The disaster that this conduct Biya, he was the one who gave the order on October 7. Simply, because there was no choice. Then we discovered, anew, that no army and no country has the human resources that we have in the IDF. the warriors The young people who jumped into the fire, the reservists who showed up en masse and stayed as long as needed, the masses who forgot all the disputes and went out to defend the house and of course also the powerful, creative, dedicated and decisive civil society that backs all this up.
Our lives here, in the Middle East, are built on the principle of deterrence. In the last 15 years this deterrence has been eroded. In the last six months she has risen to life. After the clouds of smoke dissipate and the Gaza Strip is revealed to the Arab world in all its destruction, there will be no one here who will not understand and know what will happen to whoever raises a hand against Jews next time. I don't know yet how the conflict in the north will end, but it seems to me that it will take a long time, a very long time, until someone around will think that it is possible to attack Israel and slaughter hundreds of its residents without a reaction. Because in the face of the poor display of the leader, in the face of the amazing fact that there is no state here, no shell, no ability to manage, no leadership and no statehood, it became clear that there is a people here, there is an army here, there is a spirit here and there are citizens here who are unique in their kind, the kind that are not found anywhere else another place in the world. And when they are called to the flag, it is impossible to stand against them.
True, the next government will have to restore the alliance with America. Yair Lapid was in Washington this week and tried to maintain what was left of the special relationship with the administration. He received a lot of respect there, but also heard harsh things about the current government and the future of relations, if all this continues. And this, perhaps, is the most terrible sin of the scarecrow who continues to be called "the prime minister". The fact that he allowed himself to dismantle the solid foundation of our strength, embodied in this alliance, just to keep Ben-Gvir and Smotrich in his government.
All I'm trying to write here is that it's not all black. The IDF crushed Hamas and Israel restored a significant part of its deterrence in the face of the hostile world around us. We came to know that we are strong, determined, courageous and know how to sacrifice and pay prices. We rediscovered our civilian strength. I don't know what to call it, obviously not "total victory" , but it is significant. And I guess we still have a trip to Rafah in store at some point. Netanyahu must someday announce "total victory". I believe he has already written the text. It will be more of a recorded, total victory. That's all, this man led us A disaster, not a victory. A failure like no other, a defeat and humiliation like no other. Then, amidst the fire, blood and smoke, the warriors and wonderful citizens of this country rose to save the day. There was simply no choice.
Israel abandoned the Gaza enclave on October 7. The criminal, unprecedented neglect that brought the Jews back at once to the days of the pogroms in the Diaspora. The failure starts at the political level, continues at the military level and ends in destruction. There is no atonement for him. 6 months have passed since then. The IDF used its full force in the Gaza Strip and inflicted a fatal blow on Hamas. Despite the failure of the political echelon to create an alternative to "the day after," it is likely that Hamas will not return to control Gaza. Slow down, to their route. The residents have a kind of horizon. They have a schedule. They have an address (Moshe Adri, from "Takuma"). They have hope.
In the north, the situation is much worse. The north is withered, noble and collapsing. The abandonment in the north is happening now. The tramp cries out to the sky. No schedule, no dates, no address, no treatment. There is mainly opacity, ego battles, bureaucracy and zero capacity of the state. The residents have been living in temporary housing solutions for six months. The strongest of them rented apartments and started recording in new places. Two surveys conducted regarding Kiryat Shmona show that 40% of its residents do not intend to return to the city. These are the stronger residents. They left the hotels, rented apartments, found a new job or continued their previous job, arranged the children in a different education system. Those who will return are those who have no choice. The elderly, the sick, the poor, those in need of welfare. Similar results are measured in other places. The north was not only abandoned, it was also thrown to the dogs and broken. And what does the state have to offer against all this? Nothing, and nothing. A bunch of ego-inflated zeros.
A sane government would have passed, a long time ago, a five-year plan to strengthen and restore the north. Allocating her billions. A plan that will include strengthening the local industry, jobs, and education. A program that will focus on the anchors, the university, the train, the hospital, the front emergency room in Kiryat Shmona. There is a lot to do to make it clear to the residents that it is worth staying. that the state did not abandon. Something that will radiate strength, renewal and hope. This government did not do that. Netanyahu went up to the north more than two months ago and announced that within ten days the government will pass a strategic decision to deal with the north. This decision did not pass. Yesterday, a draft was presented to the heads of councils in the north. Too little, too late, too shabby, too improvised.
"Everything is falling apart because of ego battles," says an official involved in the incident, "there was talk of establishing a revival-style administration, but the government refused. So there was talk of appointing a projector to be the comprehensive, unifying address of the entire event, and that didn't happen either. After we almost gave it The Minister of Finance came to the Ministry of the Interior and wanted to give it to Sarah Orit Struck, to justify her existence and her budgets. Then the CEO of the Prime Minister's Office, Yossi Shelli, came and wanted it for himself. That's how they fought for long weeks and nothing happened. There is no address, no treatment, no money, nothing."
Director General of the Prime Minister's Office Yossi Shelli is about as qualified to restore the north as Netanyahu is to run Israel. Maybe a little less. At the moment, no one knows how the Prime Minister's Office will be restored after Shelly will leave. This is a long-standing unemployed person without any qualifications. Now they are trying to arrange for him the position of the next ambassador to the Emirates. Let's hope he doesn't destroy that too (there are difficulties in the appointment due to complaints from his previous term as ambassador to Brazil). Meanwhile, the North continues to disintegrate and crash. Instead of assigning the northern project to someone who is capable of lifting it (the most suitable is, of course, the Minister of the Interior Arbel. Minister Wasserlauf, who demonstrates positive activism, can also do this), continue to fight over honors.
On Wednesday, the heads of the councils were invited to a meeting with Finance Minister Smotrich. He tried to apologize for the delays and take responsibility. It didn't convince anyone. Here is a collection of things that Smotrich heard in this explosive meeting. Moshe Davidovitz, chairman of the settlement line settlement forum, said: "You are mixing us up, I sat with you several times, you told me we will take care of the north, we will take care of the north, and what did you do? is nothing! I don't care if you don't count us, but what about the northerners? Do they not count in your eyes? The public will not forgive you!".
Benny Ben-Mubacher, head of the regional council of the Hermon suburbs: "We buried 21 of our people who were in hotels! Communities are falling apart. People won't come back. They now understand what they are losing, that they are at the end of the country." Later that day, Ben-Mubacher was interviewed by me and Aryeh Eldad on 103. I asked him about the meaning of the number "21 deceased" that the finance minister threw out. Ben-Mubacher confirmed it. It tells Double the number of people who die on normal days from among the residents of the council. Later I spoke with David Azoulai, head of the council in Metula, who said: "I have had four displaced residents die in six months. In Metula, 3 people die in a normal year. That means the current rate is 8 per year. Almost 3 times. I tell you for sure, the people are dying of grief. The families tell how they wither quickly as soon as they are displaced from their home, from the landscape they are used to, from the place they have built their whole lives."
Mayor of Kiryat Shmona, Avichai Stern: "I thought I was coming here from the north and I would leave with good news. It turns out I was wrong. You're talking about money in 3 months? Do you know what my city looks like? All the surveys show that I will lose 40% of the population. You are not able to provide solutions Save this city. I don't sleep at night. I no longer have solutions to pull out of my sleeve for my residents. Big factories are already leaving me. Should I pay for protection, or the state? At least transfer money to protection!"
Amit Sofer, head of the Marom HaGalil Council: "Since this started, you have not given me one, business, real solution, for all the businesses that have been destroyed here, in tourism and other areas." Shimon Guetta from Ma'ale Yosef: "All our shacks are destroyed, you have no solution. Same as the shacks in the Upper Galilee and in the entrances of Hermon." Ben Mobacher: "Help us, I'm begging you, we're losing our residents, everyone is becoming in need of welfare. The death rate doubled. The number of those in need has doubled. I go at night with a lantern to bury the dead in the dark, in Kfar Yuval, because it is forbidden to turn on a light. Where is the Minister of Agriculture to help the collapsing industries? Where is the state?"
The only ray of light at the yeshiva was Interior Minister Moshe Arbel's willingness to give up his ego and let someone else complete the task of saving the North. The problem is, Arbel is perhaps the only one who is capable of doing it properly. One of the few ministers who is giving work on the issue, in general. But In the meantime, the Jewish wars continue, Yossi Shelley insists on "generalizing" everything and mostly succeeds in spoiling everything. What has been created on the ground is a mess. Now, hastily and amateurishly, they decided to finally present the government plan. They informed the heads of the authorities on Wednesday, handed them drafts at night and asked them to make comments until the next day at noon, the time when the plan will be officially presented to them. The first response of the heads of the authorities was to announce that they would boycott the meeting on Thursday at noon. Then they relented. They depend on the government. Only David Azoulai and Giura Zaltz decided, despite everything, not to come An act of protest.
I spoke yesterday with David Azoulai from Metula. Here is a summary of his words: "I am 58 years old, I have never been in such a situation. I appreciated the three hours that the Minister of Finance spent yesterday in an effort to find a solution. The Minister of the Interior is also doing his best. I am not going today to meet the Director General of the Prime Minister's Office in Nof HaGilil, to present the plan. Waste of fuel money. Better to spend it on the residents. This decision is an attempt to mix us up. They took all kinds of money that we organized for Iron Swords and say they will transfer it to us. Blessed is the believer. They are talking about 1.9 billion for protection. Do you know that this decision on protection has already been passed by several governments and has never been implemented? In my opinion, in the end, Smotrich brings some 300 or 400 million. That's not even funny. But leave the money. What about security? Half a year into the war. Bring us back home! I slept only 3 days outside of Metula. I stayed here. I'm alone. The place is empty. For half a year I have been head of a council without residents. We ask for protection. Make sure that Hezbollah is not 8 or 10 km from the border. You understand that there is a security zone here, but on our side? This is a shame! The strongest country in the Middle East."
"Today they are presenting a plan to strengthen the Galilee. We summoned all the heads of the councils, even those who were not evicted and are irrelevant, instead of giving us real answers. Nahariya, Ma'alot, these are places that are flourishing now, because they were not evicted, and they are thriving, among other things, because of our residents, who were absorbed There. This country is completely closed. I will remain loyal to my residents. After all, it's all a show. Even if there is a decision, it will not be implemented and it will amount to pennies. Heard a joke, there is a lot of army here, the soldiers live in the houses of the residents. The houses are being destroyed in the meantime. Anyway, army Do you understand that the citizens continue to pay the electricity bill, even when they are not at home? And the property tax. At least they will be paid rent, something. Does it make sense to you? And there is no one to talk to. Everyone is gone and gone. I have 6 businesses that were directly hit by anti-tank missiles. And needless to say, all businesses are closed. And I have to continue collecting property tax from them. Do you understand? The state is not even ready to exempt them from property tax. They say, they will be renovated through property tax. Do you know how long it will take? Why not do the opposite? They will be exempted from property tax now, then they will be compensated with property tax. It's wierd. Matula, which was never evacuated, has been empty for six months. There is a standby class of 34 people, me and two council workers. This. This is what is left of Zionism in the Galilee."
One of the only people trying to shed light on the darkness is MK Michael Biton from the state camp, who heads a special committee of the Knesset for the salvation of the north. It is enough to go through the documents, letters, demands, tours and alerts that Bitton has been issuing in recent months, without any results on the ground, to understand the depth of the neglect, decay, incompetence and shamelessness of the body known as the "Government of Israel". Kiryat Shmona, the only city in the northeast, facing Hezbollah, is falling apart live. Metula, founded 128 years ago, is desolate and ruined. The traditional ceremony to mark the 11th of Adar, which has been held for 104 years in a row, has been canceled. Agriculture is collapsing, tourism is falling apart, the residents are losing hope and the labor of decades is going down the drain. limited and stingy, which may reach implementation in 60 days.
So on Thursday the heads of the councils came to a meeting with Yossi Shelley in Nof HaGalil. At the end, Moshe Davidovitch, the chairman of the Conflict Line Settlements Forum, published a premature and skeptical message: "At this point, the draft that was presented to us still does not provide an answer to the overarching goal, especially in the absence of fundamental policy amendments that are critical to healing the economic, social and psychological rift experienced by the region. I believe that the Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the staff of his office, who were attentive, will bring together with us in the coming days an appropriate proposal to strengthen the line of confrontation."
And on this it is said, Blessed is the believer.
The following story is not gossip. It is a story that in a normal government would have made headlines. Imagine if Eitan Haber, director of Prime Minister Rabin's office, or attorney Dov Weisglass or Uri Shani, directors of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office, or Tzachi Hanegbi, director of Prime Minister Shamir's office, would disappear one clear day, as if swallowed by the earth One day at 12:00 noon they are still the directors of the bureau of the most important man in the country, five minutes later they are outside, after they took away their entry badges, the transit certificate, all the benefits and etiquette and sent them home, permanently.
So this is what happened to Yair Kasparios, director of the bureau Netanyahu. He arrived there 15 years ago, as Nir Hefetz's close assistant, when he was appointed head of the information department. Kasparios was Hefetz's assistant at Yediot Ahronoth. In the bureau, he became the couple's apprentice. His first job was to hold the spray to blur the baldness of his head the government and run after him. Then he also got the lady's make-up bag. He is a smiling guy, quite cute, harmless. Not one to leave any kind of mark, but his skills in managing 17 suitcases of dirty laundry between the residence and the Prime Minister's plane and the luxury hotel in New York were Not bad at all. An object was ejected, as is known, from the office at some point. Kasparius continued to advance. The generation dwindled, the significant laggards who still agreed to work there disappeared one by one, the ones who remained were the digital boys brought in at the time by Ben Yair (Urich, Topaz Lock, etc.), Tzachi Braverman, Kasparios and a few other insignificant Pancha judges. These are the people who manage those who are supposed to manage our lives.
In the meantime, a typical drama took place when someone who was brought to the bureau a short time before, was ejected from it. She was a kind of general helper, walking around the aquarium and attracting attention, which is probably what led to her termination. Kasparius did not decide to fire her (he has no real powers), but the task was assigned to him. So it was. The dismissed woman, imbued with feelings of revenge, maintained contact with Mrs. Netanyahu and at one point showed her correspondence with Kasparios in which her mental state was discussed. The lady's, I mean. and recommendations for treatment (with electric shocks, apparently). Well, about ten minutes after this incriminating material was presented to the lady, Kasparius became distant history.
Since then he is at home. With a salary and a car, but disconnected from the bureau and waiting for a suitable arrangement. like many before him. By the way, he says to his associates that the correspondence presented is fake, that he did not exist, was not created, he will never slander the lady, etc., etc. His associates nod in embarrassment. This story demonstrates what happens in the office, which is more reminiscent of the cuckoo's nest on difficult days. Tzachi Braverman also recently went through a difficult experience, when on March 17 a rumor spread in the bureau that someone was distributing a tape in which Braverman could also be heard talking about "the lady". The head of staff (Brewerman, yes?) made a hysterical effort for several days to find out if there was such a tape (and if so, to claim that it was fake, of course). He raised a pot in his hand. Currently, there is no tape. On the other hand, let's not forget that the last time there was no tape, Netanyahu himself ran to the television and confessed his sins.
Another close associate of Netanyahu received some hard news this week: Shlomo (Momo) Filber, the state's witness, who mocked the agreement signed with him and performed an impressive flip-flop jump in which he denied his original testimony. Now he is being served the bill. Too little, too late, but better than never. The prosecutor's office eroded its deterrence capacity with its own hands in the narcissistic conduct throughout the management of the Netanyahu cases. Good thing she's coming to her senses now. Filber's story reminds us all that Netanyahu's cases continue to be conducted in the Jerusalem District Court. At this rate, within a few months Netanyahu himself will have to take the witness stand and give his version. According to all the experts and jurists who follow the event, Netanyahu's testimony could cause him strategic damage. The prosecution keeps quite a few hidden cards up its sleeve that are supposed to be pulled out in front of the accused. He will also have to deal with all the blatant lies he spread in his investigation, and with all the endless instances in which he remembered nothing and nothing.
Not long ago, a discussion was held in an intimate forum of the Prime Minister regarding the question of this testimony. Attorney Amit Segal supported its existence. He is convinced that Netanyahu will come out of it strengthened. Mrs. Netanyahu, on the other hand, expressed grave concern about the incident. The other attorney, who has already retired, Boaz Ben Zur, expressed grave concern about the testimony at the time and recommended an effort to reach a plea deal more in front of her We are dealing with other issues, after all, fate for the security of the state, but the trial continues and nothing good threatens Netanyahu. If we ignore the flurry of whistleblowers who try to exonerate Netanyahu through endless conspiracy theories and idle and vain publications, then the best case for him is an acquittal of the bribery charge and a conviction on two or three charges of fraud and breach of trust, at the highest bar. This means a prison sentence in practice. Up until now, Netanyahu has skipped all opportunities to exit the event and close a plea deal without a prison sentence, which would mean the end of his political life. If he continues to procrastinate, there is a situation where he will bring himself to the gates of his actions with his own hands. Or, at least, to the witness stand.