The news from Israel

Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff drives me nuts on most days, but this morning it leads off with a useful summary of the latest from Israel (links omitted below):

Violence between Gaza and Israel intensified last night, with Hamas shooting hundreds of rockets towards the Tel Aviv metropolitan area for the first time since 2018. More than 1,000 rockets have been fired at Israel since the latest round of clashes began.

Rockets rained down nearly nonstop on much of Israel yesterday evening and continued overnight. The death toll in Israel rose to six, including an Indian foreign worker killed in Rishon Lezion and an Arab father and daughter killed near Lod.

The IDF continued heavy strikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian Health Ministry officials put the death toll in Gaza at 43 Palestinians, including 13 children.

A state of emergency was declared in the mixed Jewish-Arab city of Lod, where violent clashes and riots continued yesterday, including Arabs setting fire to a synagogue in the city. Heavy clashes also raged in the mixed coastal city of Acre.

In a live address last night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that Hamas would “pay a heavy price for its aggression” and warned Israelis that a campaign against Gaza will “take time.”

Daily Kickoff to the contrary notwithstanding, I believe nothing derived from Gaza “health officials.” Concerned about their own health, they are all puppets of Hamas. Their reports about the number of “children” killed as the IDF targets Hamas chiefs with great precision should be heavily discounted without independent verification.

Daily Kickoff also includes a link to its podcast with Elliott Abrams, who comments on the current hostilities as well.

Events in the Israeli city of Lod are shocking. Israeli Arabs seized the opportunity to go on a rampage and burn down three synagogues, among other unsavory activities. The New York Post takes up that story in “Netanyahu declares state of emergency in Israeli city over riots.”

Sad but true: Twitter proves its value in the case of breaking news. Check out the excellent IDF Twitter feed here. As of the moment I am writing, the IDF reports that terrorist continue to fire rockets into Israel. The IDF also posts impressive operational footage, such as the video in the tweet below.

One more below.

The Times of Israel is also invaluable on the breaking news from Israel. Its live blog was updated seconds ago. Check it out here.

Michael Doran and Tony Badran set the Hamas/Palestinian Islamic Jihad offensive in the context of the Biden administration’s back to the future foreign policy. Their illuminating Tablet column is “The realignment.”

Was it just last year that we celebrated peace agreements between Israel and former Arab enemies on the White House lawn? This year Iran is dictating terms for its appeasement to the White House so it can intensify its war against Israel. Apparently, something happened.

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