GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War – Day 106

Making A Deal With The Devil

Iran Vows Revenge

The conflict with Hezbollah is still getting more intense, but now after Israel allegedly hit Damascus and killed members of Iran’s army, Iran says they will retaliate as we read in an article from The Times Of Israel:

Iran on Saturday accused Israel of a strike in Damascus that killed five Revolutionary Guards members, the latest attack on the Islamic Republic’s personnel abroad, and vowed to avenge it.

Israel has been accused of intensifying strikes targeting senior Iranian and allied figures in Syria and Lebanon who are backers of the Hamas terror group, raising fears that the Gaza conflict could expand further throughout the region.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) confirmed it lost five members in the strike that it blamed on Israel, updating an earlier toll from four.

The IDF declined to comment on the attack, but Hamas and Iran is pointing the finger at Israel and Iran said this about what they would do next:

Hamas condemned what it called a “heinous crime.”

The strike was a “desperate attempt to spread instability in region,” said Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani in remarks reported by state media. “Iran… reserves its right to respond to the organized terrorism of the fake Zionist regime at the appropriate time and place.”

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi vowed to punish Israel too.

“The Islamic Republic will not leave the Zionist regime’s crimes unanswered,” Raisi said in a statement, state broadcaster IRIB said.

This could be retaliation for an attack on a suspected Israeli spy location:

The alleged Israeli strike came days after Iran fired missiles at what it said were Israeli “spy headquarters” in an upscale neighborhood near the sprawling US Consulate compound in Erbil, the seat of Iraq’s northern semi-autonomous Kurdish region.

Last month, senior IRGC officer Brig. Gen. Razi Mousavi was killed in an alleged Israeli airstrike in Damascus, drawing Iranian threats of retaliatory action.

It is no secret that Iran is supporting Hezbollah and are doing it through sites in Syria like the Damascus airport:

Recent weeks have seen several alleged sorties carried out against sites in Syria as part of Israel’s ongoing efforts to prevent Iran from supplying arms to its proxy Hezbollah, which has stepped up attacks on northern Israel over the past several months amid the ongoing war in Gaza.

New Hostage Deal Proposed

Apparently Hamas is wanting to stop the brutal beating it is taking and is using the release of hostages to get it done as see in a report from i24news.tv:

In a report by News 12, the terms of Hamas's proposal for a hostage deal have been revealed, shedding light on the intricate negotiations surrounding the release of abductees.

The terrorist organization, seeking an end to hostilities, demands a complete cessation of the war, the withdrawal of IDF forces from the Gaza Strip, and international guarantees to maintain its rule.

Of course, Israel rejected those terms:

Minister Gideon Sa'ar, a member of the political and security cabinet, unequivocally rejected the conditions set by Hamas during the "Shishi-Tarbut" conference, stating, "Of course, we will not agree because we have to go back to living in the area."

Making things more difficult is a report that IDF leaders don’t see how releasing the hostages and winning the war against Hamas can happen:

Earlier, the New York Times published interviews with four senior IDF officials who spoke anonymously. They contended that achieving both goals of the war—freeing the hostages and destroying Hamas—simultaneously is challenging. The officials asserted that "the long battle aimed at destroying Hamas will probably cost the lives of the hostages." They emphasized the potential for diplomatic means to secure the release of hostages, distancing from a strictly military approach.

An IDF spokesperson quickly responded:

The IDF spokesperson promptly responded, declaring, "The statements made on behalf of senior IDF officials are not recognized and do not reflect the IDF's position. The release of the abductees is part of the goals of the war, and a supreme effort by the IDF."

And the families of the remaining hostages are saying this:

The hostages' families are saying to Netanyahu that Israel should bite the bullet and take the deal with Hamas.

Making A Deal With The Devil

As we must always remember, terrorists are never negotiating in truth and Hamas is surely not going to honor any deal with Israel. And if we turn to prophecy, the most antisemitic person in history, the Antichrist will make deals and break them all in the end. Why should the people he works through now who also hate Jews be any different. Israel knows the history of dealing with these terrorists which goes all the way back to Mohammed, the founder of Islam who made a deal with a Jewish settlement to only break it when he was strong enough to wipe them out. I dealt with this before, but a little reminder is needed. While many in other cultures see a pause or ceasefire as a break from fighting, in the Muslim mind, there are words that they use that are anything but simply a ceasing of war. We turn to David Bedein, who has run the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron Center in Jerusalem since 1987 for a deeper look at how Hamas is looking at this deal:

The current “cease fire” proposal now discussed in Gaza is anything but a cease fire.

Indeed, a real “cease fire” might result in the kind of armistice that ended hostilities in World War I, on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, on Nov. 11 1918, paving the way to the Versailles peace treaty and the genesis of the League of Nations.

However, the three Arabic nuanced terms discussed with Hamas have nothing to do with a “cease fire.” Those terms are Hudna, Tahadia and Hudaybiyyah, all three terms imply continued war, after a respite.

Bedien goes into the etymology of each word to explain:

Hudna — a tactical pause intended only for rearmament, and a temporary respite in the war between Islamic forces and non-Islamic forces.

The authoritative Islamic Encyclopedia (London, 1922) defines hudna as a “temporary treaty” which can be approved or abrogated by Islamic religious leaders, depending on whether or not it serves the interests of Islam; a hudna cannot last for more than 10 years.

Tahadia — a temporary halt in hostile activity which can be violated at any time.

Hudaybiyyah — An understanding that there will be no fighting for 10 years, named for the “treaty of Hudaybiyyah” in 628 C.E. The Islamic Encyclopedia mentions the Hudaybiyyah treaty as an “ultimate hudna.”

The key word in his assessment are the words are “abrogated” and “violated.” “Abrogated” is defined as this:

formal : to abolish by authoritative action : annul. abrogate a treaty. 2. formal : to treat as nonexistent : to fail to do what is required by (something, such as a responsibility)

“Violated” is pretty easy to understand, but I’ll give its definition just to be thorough:

to break or act against something, especially a law, agreement, principle, or something that should be treated with respect.

They Have A History

The line “Trust but verify” was made famous by former President of the United States Ronald Reagan in relation to his dealings with the former Soviet Union. And you hear tones of it in the words of the leaders of Israel who obviously know what it means. Bedein takes a little trip down memory lane to further understand why Israel is wary of the current deal:

The late PLO leader Yasser Arafat often referred to “a hudna” in his speeches when he defined and described the nature of the Oslo Accords.

In the words of the Islamic Encyclopedia, “The Hudaybiyyah treaty, concluded by the Prophet Mohammad with the unbelievers of Mecca in 628, provided a precedent for subsequent treaties which the Prophet’s successors made with non-Muslims. Mohammad made a hudna with a tribe of Jews back then to give him time to grow his forces, then broke the treaty and wiped them out. Although this treaty was violated within three years from the time that it was concluded, most jurists concur that the maximum period of peace with the enemy should not exceed 10 years, since it was originally agreed that the Hudaybiyyah treaty should last 10 years.”

Hudna, Tahadia and Hudaybiyyah — the only options on the table with Hamas — do not compare to the “mu’ahada” treaty of peace that Egypt signed with Israel in 1979, or the mu’ahada treaty of peace that Jordan signed with Israel in 1994.

How many people remember that three hudnas already concluded in recent years with Gaza?

How many people remember what occurred during those hudnas? Well, the people in Sderot and the Negev region of Israel remember.

Current Examples

Bedien concludes his article this way to emphatically warn us about the current “hudna”:

From Nov. 26, 2006, until May 15, 2007, a Hudna between Hamas and Israel went on for almost six months. One cannot ignore the statement made by Hamas five days before the hudna went into effect: “Hamas’s military wing will stop the rocket fire when residents evacuate the city of Sderot” (from Nov. 21, 2006).

During that hudna, Gazans launched 315 missiles targeted at Sderot and the western Negev, according to an IDF spokesman.

And there was another hudna with Gaza which lasted until the end of December 2008, which witnessed 878 attacks fired from Gaza.

And there was a hudna from the end of Operation Cast Lead on Jan. 18, 2009, to the first day of Operation Pillar of Defense on Nov. 12, 2012. During that period, approximately 2,000 rockets and missiles were fired from Gaza, sending one million Israelis running to shelters.

And from the end of operation Pillar of Defense, through June 30, 2014, 300 aerial attacks were launched from Gaza towards southern Israel — during yet another tenuous Hudna.

What country would tolerate one missile fired into its territory… and agree to a Hudna, Tahadia and Hudaybiyyah that promises yet more aerial attacks?

The time has come for Middle East pundits to warn that a Hudna is anything but a cease-fire.

And now we know how to pray more specifically for Israel and the IDF. Allowing Hamas to simply go back to Gaza cannot be an acceptable option given their history of such truces. If these hostages are to be rescued it will not be from a deal as many want.