Remembering the Victims at Har Nof

The four rabbis murdered in last week’s terrorist attack on a Jerusalem synagogue came to Israel to devote themselves to the study of sacred texts, to teach, and to serve. Giulio Meotti remembers them and contemplates their legacy:

When Palestinian terrorists stormed the synagogue in Har Nof, the four rabbis had their eyes turned to the east praying toward the Old City of Jerusalem where once stood the Temple and the holy Ark of the Covenant. They were killed wearing their phylacteries and prayer shawls, eyes still fixed on the siddur, the book of prayer, about to say a psalm: “This is the gate of the Lord and the righteous will enter it.”

They were really the princes of Israel. The day after the massacre, at the yeshiva of Bnei Torah on the western hill of Jerusalem, the blood of the martyrs, the kedoshim, was removed to be buried along with their poor remains. But the day after, dozens of Jews returned to the synagogue to thank God. So that God can smile down at His people again after that horrific day. I bow before them.

Read more at Israel National News

More about: Aliyah, Jerusalem, Judaism, Martyrdom, Palestinian terror

What a Strategic Victory in Gaza Can and Can’t Achieve

On Tuesday, the Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant met in Washington with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Gallant says that he told the former that only “a decisive victory will bring this war to an end.” Shay Shabtai tries to outline what exactly this would entail, arguing that the IDF can and must attain a “strategic” victory, as opposed to merely a tactical or operational one. Yet even after a such a victory Israelis can’t expect to start beating their rifles into plowshares:

Strategic victory is the removal of the enemy’s ability to pose a military threat in the operational arena for many years to come. . . . This means the Israeli military will continue to fight guerrilla and terrorist operatives in the Strip alongside extensive activity by a local civilian government with an effective police force and international and regional economic and civil backing. This should lead in the coming years to the stabilization of the Gaza Strip without Hamas control over it.

In such a scenario, it will be possible to ensure relative quiet for a decade or more. However, it will not be possible to ensure quiet beyond that, since the absence of a fundamental change in the situation on the ground is likely to lead to a long-term erosion of security quiet and the re-creation of challenges to Israel. This is what happened in the West Bank after a decade of relative quiet, and in relatively stable Iraq after the withdrawal of the United States at the end of 2011.

Read more at BESA Center

More about: Gaza War 2023, Hamas, IDF