One Week: Jewish Terror. Hostage Desperation. Celebrating Romi.

How the quagmire in Israel seems to worsen with each passing day.

I had intended to send out a longish essay that I wrote during my 48-hour-journey from Tel Aviv to Toronto last week – via Rome and Warsaw – but it will have to wait.

Because.

Jit

On Thursday night, somewhere between 50 and 200 Jewish thugs went on a murderous rampage through the northern West Bank Palestinian village of Jit. Approximately 2,500 people live there and reportedly have had friendly relations with the nearby Jewish settlement of Kedumim, established in 1974 and with 4,500 residents today.

The Heads of the Yesha Council – a collective body that speaks for the Jewish communities in the West Bank, generally – issued a statement saying that these men are extremists who came from radical outposts nearby. Their public position is summarized in an article here.

In short, they assign blame and responsibility for the attack, which they condemn unreservedly, to young Jewish men who “settle” illegally and are not part of the local community. They come to sow unrest. The issue, of course, is much more complex. State of Tel Aviv reported on this festering social and criminal issue two years ago. Sadly, it remains relevant today. Perhaps more so.

In October, 2022, State of Tel Aviv ran a two-part investigative series by Natan Odenheimer, an Israeli journalist who spent significant time doing original investigative research and field work for these feature-length articles. Natan is now working full time with the New York Times in Israel. His first piece, entitled Teenage Wasteland, Part 1: Inside Israel's Hilltop Youth, was published on October 28, 2022 and can be read here. Part II, entitled Teenage Wasteland, Part 2: Inside Israel’s Hilltop was published on October 29, 2022 and can be read here.

Almost a year later, on August 15, 2023, we published Odenheimer’s exclusive follow-up on the subject, Murder in the West Bank: Two Jewish Shepherds Being Investigated. One Palestinian Dead, which can be read here.

For a limited time we are making these articles available to all subscribers, free and paid.

This recent attack on Jit was horrific. It was violent, wild and intended to terrorize. This is terrorism.

As horrifying as this incident was and is, what is perhaps worse is the relatively tempered reaction to the event by those in positions of power in Israel.

PM Netanyahu’s office issued a statement saying that he views the incident with the “utmost severity.” He and other government officials call for the perpetrators to be held accountable by law. Pretty tepid stuff given the context.

Ministers Ben Gvir and Smotrich - representing an extreme right-wing demographic - expressed disapproval, however equivocated by saying that the inability of Israeli forces to address Palestinian aggression with force has led to this situation.

Come again?

These crimes should be treated as terrorism, which they are. But leadership has been intimidated by Ben Gvir and Smotrich, who hold the balance of power in the coalition government. We have written extensively about their views here. Poke around on our website.

This is what we have become.

The Leak

Earlier in the week, a recording of a closed-door meeting was leaked, at which Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant referred to Netanyahu’s constant reference to “total victory” over Hamas as “gibberish.”

I tend to agree. With Gallant, that is.

From the outset, the government’s stated aim was to destroy or seriously degrade Hamas’ military capability. The “total victory” thing comes from Ben Gvir and his colleagues, who make no secret of their aspiration for Israel to remain in Gaza and establish Jewish settlements. He and fellow extremist - Bezalel Smotrich, who leads the Religious Zionist party and serves as Israel’s Minister of Finance – have been forthright with respect to their position regarding Hamas hostages. While it may be important to negotiate their release, they see that as a penultimate value. Controlling the Gaza Strip and re-establishing Jewish settlements in the territory is their paramount goal.

They see this conflict as being redemptive and supporting their position that the forced eviction of Jewish settlers from Gaza in the unilateral withdrawal of Israel from the Strip in 2005  was corrupt and wrong in every way. And they want vindication. Total victory – domination – over the Gaza Strip is what they want.

Bibi’s use of this jingoistic phrase is no accident. Mollifying his extremist colleagues is his abiding preoccupation.

The “leak” of course – likely emanating from the Prime Minister’s Office – was choreographed. Because it allowed Netanyahu to push one of Ben Gvir’s uglier lines of attack, calling Gallant “anti-Israel.”

This is the Prime Minister, baiting his base by demeaning the minister of defence for being anti-Israel. In effect, he is calling him a traitor. For working against the national interest. This is madness.

Bibi has taken great pleasure in labelling anyone who disagrees with him in recent years for being leftist, anarchist, treasonous, unpatriotic. Former Likud ministers and party stalwarts, tech and banking ceos, judges, physicians, anyone who dares to disagree with him is dismissed for being toxic to Israel.

But – in the midst of a war. To smear your Minister of Defense as being “anti-Israel”?

Netanyahu undermines Gallant – who holds what is arguably the most critical cabinet position - in order to stroke the extremists in his coalition. To some, that reflects Bibi’s political genius. To others, it signals his absolute moral vacuum.

Last Chance for the Hostages

This opportunity to negotiate a deal and secure the release of at least 33 living Israeli hostages (in an initial phase) is said to be a last chance. Hamas refuses to confirm numbers and identities of those who are alive. They continue to hold 115 persons. Many are believed to have been murdered.

And who are these people who have been advocating for a deal, urgently, for weeks? Saying that this is the “last chance?”

Why, every security official in Israel. The Hostage Family Forum. Released and rescued hostages. Physicians and therapists who have treated former hostages and understand the conditions in which they are confined. The abuse they endured.

Last chance.

And yet, we are whiplashed constantly with competing reports and facts. Deal is off. Deal negotiations going wildly well. Deal is imminent.

The School

Last Saturday, an Israeli air strike on a school in the Gaza Strip where civilians were taking shelter was denounced roundly and globally for being yet another genocidal attack. Hamas said – instantly – that more than 100 people were killed. As always, the truth was very different.

The school was commandeered by Hamas and dozens of fighters - who have since been identified - and were killed. Somewhere between 30-50 civilians are also believed to have been killed in the attack. And each one is tragic.

Each civilian death is also on Hamas. They should be held accountable and reviled for using their people so heartlessly; for telling their people that to die for Islam and jihad is the greatest honor. That they will go straight to Heaven and meet with 72 virgins upon arrival. (Sidebar: I never understood what’s in the martyrdom thing for women.)

Hamas should be shredded by the UN and every government on earth for using its civilian population as human shields. For installing military operations where the innocent take shelter. These are war crimes. They are also standard operating procedure for Hamas and have been for years.

But the criticism focuses on Israel. Always.

There are many aspects of the way in which the IDF has conducted this long war in Gaza with which I disagree. I am no military expert but one doesn’t have to be in order to see human suffering and question. Everything.

A quick point on the numbers: As urban warfare expert and John Spencer (we have an upcoming podcast with him very soon) has stated repeatedly throughout this war – there is no way to ascertain numbers of dead and wounded, military and civilian, with anything close to precision within moments of a strike. That alone makes Hamas numbers suspect. But it keeps happening and the world receives their lies as gospel. Unquestioning faith. From Spencer’s twitter account:

Shortly after the “school” incident, Hamas published on a Telegram account that one male hostage had been shot and killed by his guard and two females seriously injured. Efforts were being made to save their lives.

A day or two later Hamas seemed to understand that publishing this message might erode some of their broad support in the west, so they said that the guard was distraught upon hearing of the killing by the IDF of his two children. None of these facts have been verified because it is impossible to do so. Hamas may have killed and injured. They may just be indulging in psychological torture of the hostage families and all of Israel. They have proven to be quite expert at that.

Hostages

Sunday August 18 is the 24^th birthday of Romi Gonen, a hostage taken by terrorists from the Nova Music Festival. Her family is throwing a birthday bash for her. Why? In the faint hope that her guards will turn on a radio and she will hear about it. Or maybe one will tell her about it. We know from many rescued hostages that they caught snippets of radio reports on radios in Arabic. Some guards told their hostages of the weekly rallies supporting them and their families, more to taunt than reassure.

Here is the invitation for the Tel Aviv birthday “party” for Romi:

Below is the invitation for the New York City “celebration” of Romi’s 24th, for those inclined to attend. Your support really has made a huge difference and is critical support for the families and people of Israel.

State of Tel Aviv will be at Romi’s Tel Aviv event, bedecked in yellow.

If we forsake the hostages, then we must ask ourselves, as a nation, people and civilization: What are we fighting for?

The Video

I leave you with a remarkable short video that was produced by the Hostage Family Forum to commemorate the 300^th day of Hamas hell for the Israeli hostages. STLV social media maven and more, Maya Naftolin, has added English subtitles. This video just scrapes the surface of the popular rage among Israeli civilians.

The first speaker in the video is the daughter of a hostage. She scolds the members of a Knesset Committee for having the audacity to take a months-long recess from their legislative duties while hostages - including her father - languish in Hamas hell. That is, if they are even alive. The final speaker is the well-known Israeli actor, Lior Ashkenazi.

This is the intensity of anguish that saturates life in Israel, every moment. This is the rage that so many carry towards the government, which seems to be so detached from reality.

Watch: