It is no secret that Iran is attempting to use the population in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley to murder Israelis. The terrorist whose backpack exploded in Tel Aviv was from this area. These areas are much closer to Israel’s major population centers than Lebanon and Gaza. Just a hop, skip and jump to Kfar Saba, Herzliya and Tel Aviv. Thus, the attempt to use it as a launching pad for terror. This, Israel will not allow.

According to Ynet, the IDF launched a major operation last night to arrest wanted persons and destroy terrorist infrastructure in Samaria – in the Jenin and Noor al-Shams refugee camps near Tulkarem and in the nearby city of Tubas. At the same time, another major operation is also underway in the Farah refugee camp in the Jordan Valley. According to the Palestinians, at least 11 terrorists have been eliminated so far, most of them in Jenin. I see there is a photo of the IDF entering the East Jerusalem terrorist hotbed of Shuafat as well.

All I can say is, what a relief! An ounce of prevention will save many lives. Meanwhile, the head of the Palestinian Authority, who is supposed to be overseeing these areas and has done nothing to prevent terrorists taking them over, flew back to his home in Ramallah via helicopter after cutting his coffee drinking meetings with Turkey (or was it Saudi Arabia?) short.

As part of the large divisional operation, the IDF surrounds hospitals near the refugee camps, including Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin, to prevent terrorists from reaching them, and screens the patients who enter.

The broad operation includes significant air escort, hundreds of fighters, including undercover and security forces, and the possibility of an orderly population evacuation of the Palestinians according to the expected combat centers. Also, the IDF uses bulldozers to clear explosive devices planted under the streets. According to Palestinian reports, the army closed all entrances to the city of Jenin.

Another two soldiers have fallen in Gaza. Sargeant Amit Friedman, 19 years old from Or Yehuda, a fighter in Battalion 932 in the Nahal Brigade, was killed in battle in the southern Gaza Strip. Amit is the son of Assaf Friedman, director of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Security Committee. May his memory be a blessing.

Major General Yochai Chai Galam, 32, was killed by a sniper at the junction of Netzarim. He was called up on October 7, and being a religious Jew and the day being a religious holiday, he asked his Rabbi if he could use the telephone to recruit his entire group so they could immediately reach the battlefield. He fought in Gaza and in the north, nonstop. He is the father of two-year old twin girls, and was the support and mainstay of his widowed older sister, whose husband died eight months ago.

Since the beginning of the war, 704 IDF soldiers have been killed, 340 in the actual ground war that started on October 25. Another 4,398 have been wounded.

How tragic that these wonderful people’s lives have been cut short, and that they have been torn from their families and their lives. How evil that we have no choice but to lay down our lives to save our people and our country from cruel enemies that have decided to follow in Hitler’s footsteps. IDF, finish them off!

I could be arrested for saying that. The Chief Rabbi of France Haim Korsia stated live on a news channel: “I have absolutely no reason to be ashamed of what Israel is doing in the way it conducts the fighting” and “I am not uncomfortable with a policy that consists of defending its nationals. Everybody would be very happy if Israel finished the job, and we could finally build peace in the Middle East without people who only want one thing all the time – the destruction of Israel.”

French MP Aymeric Caron confirmed he had filed a complaint to Paris prosecutors for comments he claimed were “an apology for war crimes.” Rabbi Korsia made his comments on the BFM news channel on Monday, saying that all Palestinians were victims “of an act of war that is the responsibility of Hamas” who “refuse all proposals to stop the fighting.” When asked if he was worried about the ferocity of the Israeli attacks on Gaza, he replied: “I am never uncomfortable with a policy that consists of defending [Israeli] citizens.”

The “crime” is punishable by 5 years in prison and a 40,000 euro fine. Paris, you are doomed. Your pretty streets are filled with scum, local and imported.

I could also be sanctioned by the US State Department, which has been relying on the meagre, one-sided testimony of Palestinians to put Israeli civil defense groups on its “blacklist.” The latest are the “Hashomer Yosh” organization and Yitzhak Levy Filant. The consequences of the sanctions include limiting bank accounts, canceling credit cards, limited financial conduct and an order prohibiting entry to the US, a prohibition on raising funds or maintaining any financial relationship with an American citizen, etc. It was shown that the sanctions were imposed “without warning, investigation or legal process and hence also without the ability for legal protection.”

Filant is the Rabbi and head of the Civil Defense for Kibbutz Yizhar. Americans didn’t like that he set up roadblocks to prevent Palestinians from attacking the Kibbutz. The Hashomer Yosh organization is guilty of helping other victims of illegal American sanctions, and ousting Palestinians who took over a Jewish settlement and preventing them from returning.

So far, sanctions against Palestinian terror organizations have not been made by the State Department except for one instance. When Filant was asked by the newspaper Makor Rishon why he was sanctioned he replied: “Because I’m a Jew.” That about sums it up.

Am I next?

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