As has become the tragic norm, we awoke to the heartbreaking news of two more IDF soldiers killed in Gaza. And yet, we cannot but feel the pride of all our army has accomplished so far. Forty two days into the war, our soldiers have destroyed over 100 kilometers of the beastly terrorists’ tunnels, or 1/5 of them, which are the supply lines for their weaponry needed to continue this battle. Using clever, Star Wars technology, this has been done without sending a single soldier underground. I am no expert, but I have heard of AI technology that detects underground movements; foam bombs that explode and fill the space, which then hardens making passageways impenetrable, and equipment worthless.

All this has apparently played havoc with Hamas’ engineering and its battle plans to use the tunnels as hiding places from which to emerge, kill our soldiers, then beat a hasty retreat. One can only imagine how many Hamas operatives are now sealed in their underground battlegrounds turned tombs. What a horrible way to die! It couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch.

I’ve been reading about the Hamas murderers captured who took part in the October 7 atrocities. While all told, including the Hamas operatives in the West Bank picked up by the IDF, the number is about 2,500, the actual number of war criminals who participated in the atrocities is much lower. MK Ben Gvir, Minister of Internal Security, apparently gave some government officials a tour of the jail they are being kept in, separated from other prisoners, which is was described as “basic.” No visitors, no lawyers, no relatives, no reporters. No commissary visits. One thing that stuck in my mind was the revelation that all cells are equipped with speakers on which Hatikva is played 24/7…

Then, before I even finished lunch, we were stunned to hear of the terrorist attack in the tunnels outside Jerusalem by three Hamas murderers from Hebron who managed to kill a young soldier from Haifa and injure four others. The Hamas terrorists were hard-core, one the son of a Hamas terrorist whom Israel killed in 2004, the other a brother of another Hamas terrorist expelled from the country in the Shalit deal. There is an expression in Hebrew “zerah m’rayim”, bad seed.

The Jerusalem road tunnels, which lead from places like Hebron and Gush Etzion, were built during the Intifada to prevent Palestinians from shooting at Israeli cars. Unfortunately, they have a serious security problem, the narrow opening causing traffic jams perfect for terrorists hoping to open fire. What happened today, however, is somewhat of a miracle. Surprised by the approach of soldiers checking cars, the three terrorists opened fire, and were summarily “neutralized,” as Israeli forces like to put it.

An examination of their car, which had forged Israeli license plates, revealed that a much different terror attack had been planned: there were machine guns, hand guns, axes, knives and hundreds of rounds of ammunition as well as a supply of dates—which terrorists bring to eat when they expect to be somewhere for a long period of time. If that car and its passengers had been able to drive into Jerusalem, one can only imagine with horror the outcome.

So here we are, my day is not even half over, and I have had to process all these things while making an attempt to actually cook for Shabbat, which comes in so early these days that Friday is not enough. In between reading about terror tunnels, and near escapes from more terrorist atrocities, I’m making pumpkin soup, vegetarian chopped liver, wild rice with cranberries and pecans, blintzes….

I’m also trying to arrange for a store to deliver a crib for my new great-granddaughter who is coming back to Israel soon with her parents. And soon, I will be traveling to my son in Modi’in to see my granddaughter, also an IDF soldier. I’m not worried about her. She has a top secret job which is very important, but forces her to at all times be in the safest spot in Israel. I can say no more.

I read somewhere that one of the Hamas scum interviewed by the Shabak said that they chose to attack at this time because they felt all the turmoil in Israel had weakened us.

Instead, what these wicked people have done is to kindle a fire within the Jewish people in Israel and all over the world that will last far beyond Hamas’ unconditional destruction and defeat. As terrorists’ bodies lie rotting in their tunnels and beneath their bombed out cities where once stood lofty buildings, financed by Iran and Qatar in exchange for the promise of a steady supply of bloody slaughters of the Jewish people, we Jews will grit our teeth, mourn our dead, then rebuild, marry, raise kind, brilliant, educated children. We will grow and we will prosper.

Honestly, what I think of when I see IDF tanks plowing up dust in the decimated cities of Gaza, now empty of the human refuse who lived there and supported this evil regime, is The Battle Hymn of the Republic, written during the Civil War during the righteous fight to end the evil of human slavery. Except for the very Christian final stanza, it describes precisely what we in Israel are seeing and doing today.

Mine eyes have seen the Glory of the coming of the Lord,

He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored,

He has loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword,

His truth is marching on.

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