GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War – Day 201

Seeing Things Correctly

US Backs Down

We read in a report from i24news.tv that the United States will not sanction IDF troops:

The United States has opted not to impose sanctions on Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) Netzah Yehuda Battalion, Ynet reported on Wednesday afternoon, citing sources from within Israel.

The decision comes after intense pressure from various segments of the Israeli political spectrum.

The US maintained that human rights were being abused:

Last Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken hinted at potential actions regarding military aid to specific Israeli army units accused of human rights violations in the West Bank before October 7.

Friday’s announcement was not received well by the Israeli leadership:

Initial reports suggested that Blinken might move forward with sanctions against the Netzah Yehuda Battalion, raising concerns and sparking reactions from Israeli officials.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strongly opposed the possibility of sanctions, vowing to challenge the decision with all available means.

All sides of the political range weighed in:

In a statement published on Saturday night, Netanyahu criticized the proposed sanctions as "the height of absurdity and a moral blow."

Similarly, opposition leader Yair Lapid voiced his disapproval, labeling the potential sanctions as a "mistake" and emphasizing the need for Israel to take action to prevent them from being implemented.

This issue may be raised again once the war is over, but for now it appears the issue is put aside.

Canary In The Coal Mine

In an article from CBN.com we see that Prime Minister Netanyahu is warning the world that what we are seeing in America now could spread across the globe if it is not addressed:

With outrageous antisemitic, anti-Israel protests spreading like a virus on U.S. college campuses, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stepped into the gap to condemn the surge of dangerous rhetoric and threats.

Here is the full text of his message:

"What's happening in America's college campuses is horrific. Antisemitic mobs have taken over leading universities. They call for the annihilation of Israel. They attack Jewish students. They attack Jewish faculty. This is reminiscent of what happened in German universities in the 1930s. It's unconscionable. It has to be stopped. It has to be condemned and condemned unequivocally. But that's not what happened. The response of several university presidents was shameful.

More must be done, he said:

Now, fortunately, state, local, federal officials, many of them have responded differently but there has to be more. More has to be done. It has to be done not only because they attack Israel, that's bad enough, not only because they want to kill Jews wherever they are, that's bad enough, it's also when you listen to them, it's also because they say not only, 'Death to Israel. Death to the Jews,' but 'death to America.' And this tells us that there is an antisemitic surge here that has terrible consequences.

The Prime Minister says that it isn’t Israel that should be accused of genocide:

We see this exponential rise of antisemitism throughout America and throughout Western societies as Israel tries to defend itself against genocidal terrorists, genocidal terrorists who hide behind civilians. Yet it is Israel that is falsely accused of genocide, Israel that is falsely accused of starvation and all sundry war crimes. It's all one big libel. But that's not new. We've seen in history that antisemitic attacks were always preceded by vilification and slander, lies that were cast against the Jewish people that are unbelievable yet people believed them.

He ends with a plea to the world to take actions of their own:

Now, what is important now is for all of us, all of us who are interested and cherish our values and our civilization, to stand up together and to say enough is enough. We have to stop antisemitism because antisemitism is the canary in the coal mine. It always precedes larger conflagrations that engulf the entire world.

So I ask all of you, Jews and non-Jews alike, who are concerned with our common future and our common values to do one thing: Stand up, speak up, be counted. Stop antisemitism now."

I pray that his calls for action will be heeded.

Sinwar Sighting

Apparently Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar came out of the tunnels recently as we see in an article by The Jerusalem Post:

Hamas's chief in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, exited the terrorist movement's tunnels and met with the movement's forces aboveground recently, a senior source in Hamas told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed on Wednesday.

Sinwar "recently inspected areas that witnessed clashes between the resistance and the occupation army, and met some of the movement's fighters on the ground and not in the tunnels," said the source.

The source said that Sinwar isn’t out of touch:

The source claimed that Sinwar is "not isolated from reality" where he's hiding, adding that "talk that Sinwar is isolated in the tunnels is nothing but a claim on the part of Netanyahu and his agencies to cover up his failure to achieve the goals declared to the Israeli street and to his allies."

The article goes on to address the hostage negotiations:

The Hamas source also denied reports that Hamas had changed its demands to only being willing to release 20 hostages instead of the 40 originally discussed in the first phase of any agreement. The source stated that while it's not possible to "accurately determine the number of living hostages," it is "certain" that the number is higher than the number being cited in some media reports.

The source claimed that Hamas has about 30 IDF and Shin Bet officers and that these hostages are being kept in "highly secured places, far from the hands of the occupation, and it is impossible to reach them under any circumstances."

While those leading the efforts to release the hostages believe the reports are true, Israeli intelligence sources think it isn’t a big deal and caution against putting too much into the report:

Micah Kobi, a former senior Shin Bet officer who interrogated Sinwar back when Sinwar was still in prison in Israel, told Maariv that "theoretically, there is a possibility that Sinwar is taking advantage of the IDF's shuffling and the withdrawal of most of the forces from the Strip, for his freer movement while commanding his fighters."

"Hamas' discourse in the media, and especially the report on Sinwar's exit from the tunnels, is nothing more than media spin," insisted Kobi. "They now know that the highest probability is that the IDF will enter Rafah, and therefore, through false information, they are trying to confuse us and divert us from our main goals there."

Kobi says this is part of Hamas’ misinformation playbook:

"Always before a military or political move, every time Israel declares a military intention, Hamas tries to cloud our view. Their media 'spins' are well known; this is Hamas' culture of lies that wants us to act contrary to our common sense. In the end, the research elements in the army know which statements should be given importance - and which statements are false," added the former Shin Bet officer.

Kobi also denied the Hamas source's claims about the number of hostages who are IDF and Shin Bet officers, saying that they are "not at all accurate and incorrect."

We need to pray that the IDF has the anointing of the Sons of Issachar and can discern what information is good and what is not so they can act correctly. And we as intercessors do the same thing as we pray.