As I have been writing you, it is my belief that the mullahs are planning their attack over the 9^th of Av, the most unfortunate day in the Jewish calendar. Giving perhaps some strength to this theory is that Iran has issued a NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) closing its airspace near Iran’s Nojeh air base in Hamada. The Iranians explained this as being connected to “gun firing exercises which are to take place from August 11 to August 14, 2024, between 04:30 and 14:30 UTC each day.” Or could it mean missiles will be sent flying to Israel from there at that time? The 9^th of Av begins this year at sundown on Monday, 12 August and ends at nightfall on Tuesday, 13 August.

A series of terror attacks have been ongoing in Israel. Yesterday, a female border guard, age 20, was stabbed in the back at a security checkpoint at the entrance to the tunnels leading to Jerusalem with a sharpened screwdriver. The soldier was lightly wounded and evacuated to Hadassah Hospital and released later that day. The terrorist, a 27 year-old resident of the Bethlehem area in the West Bank who was on a bus operated by an East Jerusalem company, was attempting to enter the Jerusalem area without a valid permit. During a routine security check, he attacked and was shot dead.

This comes two days after a Palestinian man stabbed and killed two elderly Israelis taking a walk in a public park in Holon, a suburb of Tel Aviv. Since October 7, twenty five Israels have been killed in terror attacks. Today, at noon August 11, terrorists opened fire on cars traveling in the Jordan Valley on Route 90 near the Machola Junction. A 20 year-old Israeli man was murdered and a 33 year-old man was moderately wounded. The injured were treated on the spot by MDA medics and paramedics in collaboration with an IDF medical force, which unfortunately had to pronounce the death of the twenty year-old. The moderately injured man was taken by helicopter to the Rambam Hospital in Haifa. As of this writing, the terrorists are still at large with security forces hunting for them. I have no doubt they will be found soon and eliminated.

Again we are seeing the scenario of Hamas infiltrating a humanitarian “safe zone” in and firing rockets at Israeli towns, only to cry crocodile tears when their military outpost is blown up by the IDF. Take yesterday morning’s attack at the a-Taba’een school in Gaza City in which the IDF eliminated 20 terrorists, publishing their names and photos. Palestinians are claiming it’s a school and a mosque (boo hoo, boo hoo). They are claiming Israel used one-ton bombs from the Americans –  a total lie, as you can see from photos that the building remains intact, not the case with the use of large bombs. They are claiming 100 dead “mostly women and children” (of course) but out of this number, 67 names and ID numbers are missing… Such liars. They never change. It was a targeted attack, and included a Brigadier General of Islamic Jihad.

But none of this matters. The world press is reporting it as “Israel attacks school, kills children.” Condemnations are flowing in from all over: Spain, France, Algeria, who want the UN to convene the General Assembly, etc. What is wrong with these people?

A group of reservist cadets finishing an officer training course sent a signed letter to Chief of Staff Halevi calling into question the IDF tactics to win the war in Gaza. They complained that precision strikes are not enough, and that Israel has to take and hold territory to win the war. I also saw a post by a well-known Christian Arab commentator in which he said that as many of them as we kill, it doesn’t matter. They’ll just replace Haniyeh, Deif and the others. The only thing that matters to the terrorists, and the only thing that will hurt them, is for Israel to take away their land and build Jewish settlements all over Gaza. I think that’s true. But it will never happen because our government doesn’t have the guts.

We hope that the next few days will pass without mass casualties on the Israeli side. We pray for wisdom for our leaders, and strength for our dear soldiers.