We are now in the middle of Tisha B’Av, still waiting for the Iranians to make their move. So far, nada. Some Gazans are unkindly making fun of the mullahs because of this. At 2 AM they posted a video of a paper plane set on fire, mocking the Iranian hint that the attack would come at that time. It was a no-show. Part of me is, of course, relieved, but another is disappointed. First of all, it’s the sense of “let’s get this over with.” But on the other hand, I would much prefer that an attack take place on a day in the Jewish calendar less associated with God’s wrath against the Jewish people. Maybe tomorrow?

So, am I saying I’m looking forward to being attacked? No. But I would love for Israel to have an excuse to take out Iran’s nuclear program. The mullahs know this too and are probably terrified of lighting the fuse that will lead to this. They have also been warned by many countries across the globe not to try their luck.

In the midst of this endless war, hundreds of Jews have taken advantage of the tight security to go up to the Temple Mount and openly pray, led by that half-crazed prophet and dangerous moron Ben Gvir. Ever since I came to Israel, the Chief Rabbis have banned Jews going up to the Temple Mount because it is sacred ground, and Jews might inadvertently wind up stepping into the Holy of Holies, which is forbidden for anyone to enter except the High Priest after ritual purification on Yom Kippur. Now, other rabbis disagree, saying it’s perfectly fine. I myself have never been up there for religious reasons.

Netanyahu has condemned this massive influx of Jews as a violation of the status quo which basically forbids Jews to pray on the Temple Mount. Ben Gvir disagrees. He says Israel has sovereignty over the Temple Mount and Jews should have complete religious freedom to pray wherever they want.

All I can say is that after what happened on October 7, we can all agree that adhering to the status quo and preventing Jews from praying on the Temple Mount has not diminished one iota the satanic hatred of our Islamic foes toward us. In fact, one of the reasons given for Oct. 7 was the Jews desecrating Al Aksa! So perhaps Ben Gvir – about whom I haven’t changed my opinion – is right in this particular case. Perhaps hundreds of Jews praying on the Temple Mount in full view of the Muslims might even give them a sense of what they’ve lost, as well as the kick in the behind they deserve. Meanwhile, Palestinians complained first about “800 settlers” who came to the Temple Mount, and then about the “1400 settlers”. I’m sure by day’s end, they will say it was thousands. (Yes. The number now stands at 2, 950!)

When Israel was about to invade Rafah, it was warned that the invasion would lead to thousands of civilian deaths. Now, after months routing terrorists in their Rafah strongholds, it turns out that almost no civilians at all have been killed, except by Hamas. South Rafah – source of Hamas rocket fire to Israel, has been wiped off the map.

The 5.5 earthquake last night felt in Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan, was also felt in Israel, although I admit I didn’t feel anything. But many in Syria and Lebanon have left their homes for fear of their buildings collapsing. Syria has reported 25 injured, and buildings damaged. It also reported 15 aftershocks. Are we in for the big one? Is that how this war is going to end? Symbolic it happened on Tisha B’Av although I haven’t quite got a handle on what it all means. Perhaps our God shaking all of us up to remind us who is really in charge?

Writing in Ynet, Yoav Zeyton explains how the IDF is preparing for a Hamas-style invasion from the North:

“The fatal attack on Majdal Shams became another reminder of how normalized Hezbollah has made attacking the Golan Heights and the Galilee, viewing it as a single battlefield. This was the second time in two weeks that a standard, large, state rocket, made in Iran, outwitted the IDF’s Iron Dome systems and killed civilians in the Golan with a direct hit. As the months pass, most of the Israeli victims in the north are actually from here, from the Golan, whose inhabitants were not evacuated at all.

Outposts and bases in the Golan are under attack on a daily basis with rocket barrages and explosive drones, from the customs house junction and east to the border. Terrorist operatives under the auspices of the Syrian army are attempting to get even closer to Israeli settlements, to open a ground front from here that will engage the IDF and encourage the evacuation of more Israelis deep into Israel, in the event of an outbreak of an extensive military conflict.

“The IDF is changing to confront this threat, re-staffing 50- and 60-year-old outposts that have become historic sites on the border, such as in the Be`qa Valley and in front of Tel Hara; it is rehabilitating engineering obstacles such as old trenches against tank invasions that will slightly delay the entry of the pick-ups of the militias and Hezbollah operatives from the east On Judgment Day; and above all, perceptions have changed: every building in the demilitarized zone that is used militarily in front of Israel is bombed, every “shepherd” who approaches under the guise of gathering intelligence, is arrested or gets shot in the foot, on every centimeter on the ‘Alpha Line’ that is beyond the fence but in Israeli territory. Every soldier and officer here in the 80 km between Hamat Geder and Majdal Shams prepares for one task: how to prevent the 7 October in the Golan Heights.

According to IDF estimates, within a minimum range of about 40 km and beyond from the Golan, there are tens of thousands of ‘unemployed’ pro-Iranian militia activists throughout Syria and Iraq, who still receive wages, training and weapons from Tehran, but since the end of the civil war in 2019, they mostly sit on the fence, waiting for the order. The IDF insists that they are far enough from the border with Israel, with the mediation of Russian police forces and the Syrian army, and above all the Israeli ability to monitor and follow if they start speeding on their vans west towards the Golan Heights. Such a scenario could come as a surprise as an Iranian initiative, or in a regional war whose beginnings have already been felt in Israel for months.

“In the meantime, the same militias are content with launching explosive drones at Israel and from time to time also daily rockets but still in small numbers. Fortification of the border with Syria started with the beginning of the civil war about a decade ago with the construction of a high and new ‘hourglass’ fence, of the type that is easily breached. That’s why the combat engineering fighters are working around the clock, practically conducting their training courses there even before October 7th.

“We have a plan on how to prevent the arrival of masses of terrorists, while taking advantage of the terrain route, which is mostly level and monitored by observation,” one of the officers tells me. The buffer zone here – based on the cease-fire agreement from 1974 – stretches between tens of meters and a kilometer on average, from the perimeter fence to the demilitarized area marked by a line of barrels. Beyond this ‘Line Alpha’ there is the ‘Line Bravo,’ another long narrow road where no heavy military force is allowed to stay. During the civil war, Israel turned a blind eye to the arrival of Syrian armored forces in the area near the border, including into the adjacent villages of Khan-Aranba, in order to try and allow the Syrian army to fight the rebels, including Jabhat al-Nusra, the same branch of ISIS opposing Israel. Now even the slightest movement of armored vehicles from the Syrian army is detected even if it doesn’t violate the open fire agreements, and even if not within sight with binoculars, indicating signs of nervousness in the area.

“Alongside the IDF’s activity and new gun batteries and precision artillery that have been deployed here in the past six months, Division 210 makes sure to send troops every day beyond the perimeter fence, in a visible and noisy manner, to exercise Israeli sovereignty. UNDF inspectors patrol here all the time, and the Quneitra crossing , the only one between Israel and Syria, actually opens three times a week just for them. The days of Druze weddings and the selling of apples from Majdal Shams to villages in the Syrian Golan have long since become a dim memory.

“The spatial division here is basically defensive after the trauma of October 7: to allow people to live here, farmers to work up to the last furrow, and to allow the renewal of the battered tourism industry with its empty B&Bs and badly damaged nature sites depleted of visitors. For this purpose, the IDF is building defense lines here against enemy invasion. The front line described above, with its cobweb laden outposts between burrows and trenches is now fully restaffed with fighters, mainly from reserve battalions; and a second line of defense is based on the settlements own highly armed and skillful standby squads.

“Although this sounds like an imaginary scenario from past times (the era of Kahalani and Ya-Ya, mythic IDF fighters from wars past in the Golan Heights) the shock of October 7 has caused unprecedented changes in the IDF at all border sectors. ‘’We are already practicing the new defense concept, a transition from routine to emergency together with the settlements and on the basis of the existing forces even before the reinforcements arrive,’ the army explains, ‘we have not yet conducted an exercise to evacuate settlements from the plateau, but there is talk about it.’”

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