Wednesday, December 20, 2023

Israel At War Wednesday Dec 20

Israel at war day 75

-Chinese warships deployed in the Red Sea refused to assist Israeli cargo ships in Bab Al-Mandab and rejected their distress calls

-2 more soldiers killed in Gaza
Lavie Gahisi of Chashmonaim 
Omri Schwartz of Shadmot Devora

- The IDF is nearing the end of its ground offensive in the northern Gaza Strip after dismantling most Hamas battalions in the area, IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said on Wednesday.

The military has begun fighting Hamas in the Gaza City neighborhoods of Daraj and Tuffah, adjacent to Shejaiya, he said, nearly two months since the IDF began the ground offensive, which has focused largely on northern Gaza.

- Israeli and Lebanese Mediators fear that Time has almost Run Out to prevent a Full-Scale War in Southern Lebanon between the Israel Defense Force and Hezbollah, with Officials in Washington worried that the U.S. will likely be Directly Drawn-Into such a Conflict.

- Sirens sounding in Kiryat shmona

- WSJ:  Hamas rejected an Israeli offer to stop fighting for one week in exchange for dozens of hostages, saying it wouldn’t discuss releasing their Israeli captives until a cease-fire goes into effect first 

- Netanyahu amid reports of possible hostage deal: “We are continuing the war to the end. It will continue until Hamas is eliminated – until victory. “Whoever thinks that we will stop is detached from reality.”

- The White House says negotiations for the release of the hostages are quite serious, but there is no conclusion yet. President Biden says hostage deal is not near. US Secretary Blinken says both the US and Israel are interested in negotiating a hostage deal and ceasefire but Hamas isn’t showing interest.

- Reports swirl around possible hostage deal
Source says ‘intensive’ talks taking place  Hamas confirms proposal to free 40 hostages for weeklong pause. According to a report, Palestinian prisoners accused of serious offenses could be included among those released. Israel continues to insist that Hamas complete the release of women, as in a previous truce, and the infirm.

-Israel is considering a two-week ceasefire, the Washington Post reported. According to the report the purpose of this ceasefire would be to enable Hamas to collect all hostages from around Gaza and release several dozens of them. (Washington post)

- Another soldier killed raising toll during ground campaign to 134. Uriel Cohen,35 from Tzur Hadassa.

- New details about the killing of the three abductees: five days earlier, a IDF dog entered the building where the three were staying. Identified two dead terrorists. One of the hostages Alon Shimriz, knew that there was a GoPro camera on the dog and the three shouted at the dog that they were Israeli hostages. Only after the three were killed did they discover the video and documentation.

- IDF troops of raided several Hamas sites in northern Gaza’s Jabaliya this morning, discovering a truck with long-range rockets inside.

- Bloomberg: The US and its allies are considering possible military strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen, in a recognition that a newly announced maritime task force meant to protect commercial ships in the Red Sea may not be enough to eliminate the threat to the vital waterway.
- Yemen's response: “Even if America succeeds in mobilising the entire world, our military operations will not stop … no matter the sacrifices it costs us,” “Any escalation in Gaza, there is escalation in Red Sea; calm in Gaza there will be calm in Red Sea” ~
“We have capabilities to sink your fleet, your submarines, your warships,” a top Houthi official said, according to the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim news agency. “The Red Sea will be your graveyard.“

10 comments:

  1. Israelis are COMPLETELY out of their minds. When you extend this war, you delay the return to normalcy (there's no flights, no tourism, hundreds of thousands of soldiers away from their homes, no economy). For 40 people, you shut down a country of 8 million people for a week? How does that make sense mathematically?

    Besides, there's a decent chance that Israel will eventually be able to free some of those hostages by force (as they almost did with the three hostages that unfortunately perished).

    Besides, we got into this problem in the first place because of prisoner exchanges.

    Besides, we are allowing Hamas to entrench themselves, potentially causing HUNDREDS of soldiers dying.

    I thought Israel was crazy when it imposed INSANE COVID restrictions. Now I am sure of it.

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    1. It is not a mathematical equation.

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    2. Yes. Most of the important things in life aren't

      BECAUSE in this atmosphere everybody fights & goes about their lives so much better if/when your policy is we don 't leave a single body in enemy hands eg US Marines

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    3. That policy of "not leaving a single body in enemy hands" cannot be maintained alongside the policy of "winning wars."

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  2. 75 days into it, and we are still fighting a fierce battle and gaining little ground. It doesn't seem like Netanyahu has a legitimate military strategy. Where are we finding new buildings to bomb? Why weren't they bombed until now. What will be accomplished tomorrow that can't happen today? Ending Hamas is like eradicating Rats from NYC. Not going to happen.

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    1. Agree,until the last sentence
      Keep calm,grin it ,& carry on till the end

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    2. MANY DO NOT UNDERSTAND AMERICA.

      America is the quintessential liberal republic (contrast to civic republic like the Roman Republic). Liberals believe in freedom of enterprise and HATE communism in all forms. Here is the point.

      Justice Holmes said that the purpose of speech is acceptance in the market place of ideas. A majority of human endeavor can be understood in market terms.

      There always is that scoop that for a journalist. There is no collective communist "the media."

      Half (I assume) of lawyers and judges are Democrats. Of course, one court in one state will decide one way. Ultimately, this is question under the federal constitution so the US Court will decide.

      Same thing with prosecutors. Out of 100 prosecutors, 50 will hate Trump (as I do because he stood by when the Congress, the sovereign branch of government, was attacked) and these lawyers do whatever they can to make a name for themselves s to build a case. That is how America works. It is a market.

      And if a majority is one way of thinking, there is always that man, a real man, not a wimp that wimps out and cries about "The Liberals," who can prove the other side wrong.

      America is still thriving.

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    3. False.
      Ha.which reinvention wringer have you been through?
      A republic is never supposed to be a mediocre market.
      The Founders would've rather given the land back to the King if somebody would have told them that in a couple centuries this would come to define America is thriving .

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    4. Little achievement? How do you know? How can you know?

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  3. The early Americans were very into Destiny.
    A Continental forthright teleology.
    They're abjectly wouldn't have stomached the land being turned into this shpiel tweedledee tweedldum you so contently are satisfied that it now has become ad infinitum
    Thriving in Dante's inferno

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