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Feature

Paraguay to open Jerusalem embassy by end of year

by admin September 15, 2024

written by admin

The legation will be the sixth in Israel’s capital.

Etgar Lefkovits

(JNS)

EXCLUSIVE—The Republic of Paraguay will open its embassy in Jerusalem by the end of 2024, in a sign of support for Israel in Latin America, Paraguayan Foreign Minister Rubén Ramírez Lezcano said on Thursday.

The embassy move, which had been planned before the start of the war against Hamas in Gaza, is a diplomatic boon for Israel at a time when it has faced international opprobrium over the 11-month-old war triggered by the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre.

Paraguayan President Santiago Peña will travel to Israel for the inauguration of the embassy in Israel’s capital, Ramírez Lezcano said in an interview with JNS.

“It is the government’s intention to open the embassy in Jerusalem before the end of the year,” Ramírez Lezcano told JNS. “Work is being done on the logistical aspects for the opening.”

He added that preparations were underway for a state visit by the president this fall for the opening of the embassy.

“The upcoming embassy move shows that the relationship between Paraguay and Israel is entering a new era of unprecedented bilateral cooperation and growth,” said Leopoldo Martinez, Latin America director of the Washington-based-Israel Allies Foundation.

Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana is scheduled to travel to both Paraguay and Argentina next week, where he will meet the presidents of the two countries, both staunch Israel allies who have pledged to relocate their embassies to Jerusalem.

Back and forth

Paraguay first moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2018, following then-President Donald Trump’s lead and becoming the third country to do so after the United States and Guatemala.

However, months later, the embassy was returned to Tel Aviv, setting off a diplomatic crisis with Israel. The surprise decision led Israel to shutter its embassy in Asunción, citing harm the Paraguayan move had caused to bilateral relations.

Election pledge

During his election campaign last year, Peña pledged that he would return the embassy to Jerusalem.

“The State of Israel recognizes Jerusalem as its capital,” he said. “The seat of the parliament is in Jerusalem, the president is in Jerusalem. So who are we to question where they establish their own capital?”

Landlocked Paraguay has a long history of friendship with Israel, dating back to its vote for the creation of the Jewish state at the United Nations in 1947.

Five countries currently have their embassies in Israel’s capital: the United States, Guatemala, Honduras, Kosovo and Papua New Guinea.

All of the other countries that have ties with Israel maintain their embassies in Tel Aviv or in Tel Aviv suburbs due to the political sensitivities over the holy city.

Trump’s landmark decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem in 2018 set the stage for other countries to follow suit in the following years, with additional nations expected to make similar announcements after a delay caused by the war against Hamas.

Image: From left, Israel Allies Foundation Latin America Director Leopoldo Martinez, Paraguayan President Santiago Peña and Paraguayan Foreign Minister Rubén Ramírez Lezcano in New York, Sept. 18, 2023. Credit: Courtesy of the Israel Allies Foundation.

September 15, 2024 0 comments

Trail of the Ark Premiere Coming Soon

by admin September 11, 2024

written by admin

The long awaited board game Trail of the Ark is to be premiered later this fall according to informed sources. The premiere is a Jewish TV Channel exclusive.

This game involves the search for the missing trail of the lost Ark of the Covenant. What makes it unique is that selected players can also participate in a real time expedition aimed at uncovering valuable information related to missing temple artifacts.

The following video provides an introduction to the game and will be the first in a series related to the actual game play itself.

September 11, 2024 0 comments

Community Entertainment JTVC Breaking News

‘The Bibi Files’ featuring Netanyahu interrogation screens in Toronto

by admin September 11, 2024

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Recordings of police interrogations of the prime minister and his family have generated acute interest in the film.

David Isaac

(JNS)

“The Bibi Files” premiered at the Toronto Film Festival on Monday evening. The documentary film features never-before-seen footage of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his wife Sara, his son Yair, and friends and associates as they’re interrogated by police.

The roughly two-hour film, still a work-in-progress, paints an unflattering portrait of Netanyahu, maintaining that his recent political moves are driven by personal interest, namely a desire to delay his corruption trials.

In 2019, Netanyahu was indicted in three separate cases for receiving bribes, fraud and breach of trust. The trial is ongoing and will likely take years to work their way through the courts.

“Many Israelis believed that Netanyahu’s attempts to delay his own trial are key to understanding recent events: his tacit approval of expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank, his controversial handling of hostage negotiations, and military decisions that created a situation the U.N. Secretary-General called ‘a moral stain on us all,’” a movie blurb on the film festival website states.

The filmmakers also claim that the government’s judicial reform push last year was an effort by Netanyahu “to elude the consequences of the prosecution against him.”

“Our job in this film was to link these investigations and the corruption trial to everything that came after,” said the film’s director Alexis Bloom.

Generating greater-than-usual interest in the film, produced by Oscar winner Alex Gibney, is the interrogation footage—what Ynet termed “the great power of the film.”

The recordings, gleaned from thousands of hours of footage, were made between 2016 and 2018 when Israeli police questioned Netanyahu, his family and associates to determine whether to bring corruption charges against the prime minister.

The footage was leaked to Gibney in 2023, according to Variety magazine.

Political opponent

The film is banned in Israel due to a law against broadcasting unauthorized footage without court approval. “I hope the film will reach Israel in other ways,” said Gibney following the screening.

On Monday, Netanyahu made a last-ditch effort to block the film’s screening in a request to the Jerusalem District Court, though it was unclear how it could be enforced in Canada. The judge rejected the request.

Netanyahu also requested an injunction against Raviv Drucker, a Channel 13 reporter known for his antagonism towards the prime minister, who is a producer on the film and appears in it.

“Whoever publishes a visual or audio recording of an investigation, in whole or in part, without the permission of a court, shall be sentenced to one year in prison,” Netanyahu’s request said. “Drucker publicly declared himself a political opponent of Netanyahu and someone who wished to end his tenure as prime minister. He crossed red lines several times.”

According to Ynet‘s entertainment reporter, who viewed the Toronto screening, “One can understand why it disturbs the slumber of the prime minister’s associates. The picture emerging of his leadership, his considerations, his personal decision-making, and especially Netanyahu’s personality, is not flattering—to say the least.”

“These recordings shed light on Netanyahu’s character in a way that is unprecedented and extraordinary,” Gibney told Variety. “They are powerful evidence of his venal and corrupt character and how that led us to where we are at right now.”

Gibney and Bloom have referred to the interrogation footage as “political bombs.”

‘”[The film] reveals something Shakespearean about the man in the sense that his slow corruption of character and his desperate need to stay in power led him to do terrible things that we’re now seeing evidence of,” Gibney said, according to Ynet.

Bloom, whose father is Jewish, said they wanted to get the film out even though it was a work-in-progress. “There’s a real sense of urgency here with this war continuing. It’s an old-fashioned truth-to-power film. And he’s in power,” said Bloom.

Image: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his wife, Sara, and U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman attend an American Independence Day celebration in Jerusalem on July 2, 2019. Photo by Marc Israel Sellem/POOL.

September 11, 2024 0 comments

Community JTVC Breaking News

IDF control of Gaza-Egypt border ‘determines our future’

by admin September 3, 2024

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Netanyahu: IDF control of Gaza-Egypt border ‘determines our future’

“The axis of evil needs the Philadelphi Corridor; for this reason, we need the Philadelphi Corridor,” the Israeli prime minister said.

(JNS)

The Israel Defense Forces will stay on Gaza’s border with Egypt to prevent Hamas from rebuilding its strength by smuggling in arms, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday night. He also vowed to exact a “very heavy price” from the terrorist group for its recent execution of six captives.

“We are in the midst of an existential war against Iran’s axis of evil, and the first condition of victory is unity among us,” the Israeli leader said in an address to the nation. “We must stand united against a brutal enemy seeking to destroy us all—left or right, religious or secular, Jews and non-Jews. We have seen that not only on October 7, but throughout the war.”

Netanyahu said that, in conversations with the families of hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, Carmel Gat and IDF Master Sgt. Ori Danino—who were executed by Hamas terrorists last week and whose bodies were retrieved for burial in the Jewish state over the weekend—he asked for forgiveness that Israel’s government and security forces failed to bring them back home alive.

“We were very close, but we were not able to do so,” Netanyahu said, warning that Hamas “will pay a very heavy price” for the six murders.

The premier continued by saying that all of the government’s war goals in the Gaza Strip, including the return of the 101 remaining hostages, “go through one gate, the Philadelphi Corridor. It’s the oxygen of Hamas.

“The axis of evil needs the Philadelphi Corridor; for this reason, we need the Philadelphi Corridor,” Netanyahu said, using the IDF’s name for the 8.5-mile-long belt of land along Gaza’s border with Sinai. “This corridor determines our entire future.”

If Israel gives up control of the border area, as Hamas has demanded during the ongoing hostages-for-ceasefire talks, the remaining captives could be smuggled out to Egypt and from there to Iran or Yemen, he said.

The premier noted during his address that Israel controlled all other entry points to the Gaza Strip, by land and by sea, and that leaving the Sinai border open since the 2005 disengagement was what had enabled Hamas to arm its forces and fight three previous wars against Israel.

Pivoting to the U.S.-brokered ceasefire negotiations, Netanyahu noted that Hamas did not budge for months. “The first crack came when we went into Rafah and took over the Philadelphi Corridor, when we took over the passage; that’s when they started talking differently,” he said.

“As soon as they think there is weakness on our side, or pressure, they’ll go right back,” warned the premier, adding that he was “absolutely shocked” that some Cabinet members, most notably Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, have suggested that Israel leave the Philadelphi Corridor.

Pointing to a document that was reportedly discovered by forces in a Gaza tunnel earlier this year, he said that shifting all blame towards Netanyahu was a key component of Hamas’s psychological warfare.

“We have agreed to the outline presented by President Biden on May 31; we have agreed to what they called the final bridging proposal on August 18, but Hamas said no to the first and no to the second,” the prime minister noted, in an apparent reference to Monday’s criticism from the American president.

Netanyahu concluded, “Together we stand, together we fight, and together, with God’s help, we will overcome.”

One hundred and one hostages—alive and dead—are still held captive in Gaza after more than 300 days. Off-and-on negotiations have continued for months with the United States, Egypt and Qatar acting as mediators.

Image: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks in Jerusalem during a televised address to the nation, Sept. 2, 2024. Photo by Chaim Goldberg/Flash90.

September 3, 2024 0 comments

Community JTVC Breaking News Travel

With few airlines flying to Israel amid war, El Al in hot seat for fares

by admin August 30, 2024

written by admin

“I think El Al is in a tough spot here,” the founder of DansDeals told JNS.

Etgar Lefkovits

(JNS)

El Al Airlines, which standardized fares last week to four cities that will serve as global transportation hubs until the end of the year, faces an Israel Competition Authority investigation for allegedly “unfair” prices.

Travel experts told JNS that some of the charges leveled at the private company, which is traded on the Israeli stock exchange but whose security costs the Israeli government pays, are a lot of hot air.

A debate, however, centers on whether the issue is price gouging—El Al’s fares are considerably more expensive than in previous years with record profits in recent months—or a case of supply and demand

“When seats are scarce, prices will skyrocket. That’s just market forces at work,” Daniel Eleff, founder and CEO of the Cleveland-based discount website DansDeals, told JNS.

“I think El Al is in a tough spot here,” he added. “They are making record profits due to the scarcity of seats to and from Israel, but that’s just based on their pricing algorithms working as programmed.”

With most airlines having halted service to and from Tel Aviv since the Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7 and the ensuing war with the terrorists in Gaza, many travelers have had no choice but to turn to El Al.

As the High Holidays loom and with the threat of another front with Hezbollah on the northern border, the Israeli flagship carrier again finds itself the sole mode of international transportation.

Mark Feldman, Jerusalem director of Israel’s Diesenhaus Tours, told JNS that “factually, they are a monopoly to North America, but economically speaking, there is simply not enough supply to handle the demand.”

Feldman noted that most people snagging last-minute tickets to and from the United States this month on El Al were either rebooked from the United States or other carriers that canceled flights to or from Israel or had to travel for a family or other emergency.

That meant that every available seat was taken at the height of the busy summer season.

“Anyone buying a ticket at the last moment and can find space will pay stratospheric prices,” he told JNS. “But only because there are simply so few seats available.”

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) sent a letter on Wednesday to the CEOs of American Airlines, Delta Airlines and United Airlines asking them to consider relaunching flights to and from Israel to “prevent the appearance and the substance of discrimination against the Jewish state,” Jewish Insider reported.

“The suspension has been so prolonged and so pervasive that El Al, an Israeli airline, has become the sole carrier offering direct flights from America to Israel,” the pro-Israel congressman wrote. “The lack of competition has made air travel to Israel less available and less affordable, putting customers at the mercy of a de facto monopoly that can easily gouge prices with impunity.”

‘A lifeline for people’

Yoni Waksman, vice chairman of Israel’s Ophir Tours, told JNS that “there has been talk that they are exploiting the situation, but whether or not this is the case is the subject of an investigation.”

El Al is also “doing a lot for Israel, and it is thanks to them that we can fly and are not under closure,” he said.

Still, the increased wartime fares and record-breaking profits for the airline are garnering headlines, as in a recent story in the Israeli financial daily Globes, whose English headline read “El Al milks monopoly on Tel Aviv-New York flights.”

Eleff, of DansDeals, told JNS that “others will argue that a flag carrier is obligated to help in the war effort by keeping airfare affordable, though I’d argue that the airline is doing so just by continuing to fly and be a lifeline for people to fly to and from Israel.”

Feldman, of Diesenhaus Tours, said the answer is “definitely somewhere in the middle.”

“It’s not like El Al has planes sitting around,” he said, noting the carrier runs five daily flights to and from New York.

By the numbers

The Israel Airports Authority told JNS that just 30 of 100 international carriers that flew to Israel before the war currently offer service to the Jewish state. El Al now runs almost half of all the flights to and from Tel Aviv, per the authority.

El Al Airlines — El Al Israel Airlines. Credit: Courtesy.

On Wednesday, it operated 76 of 184 departures from Ben-Gurion International Airport and 77 of 183 arrivals, according to airport data.

Since Oct. 7, El Al has routinely held a 70% to 85% market share of every city where it’s flown since Oct. 7, according to Feldman. Meaning that along any route to or from Israel, Israel was responsible for roughly three-quarters of the flights between the Jewish state and that city.

The carriers with the most flights to and from Tel Aviv this month after El Al—with significantly fewer flights than the flagship carrier—have been two smaller Israeli carriers, Israir and Arika.

Ben-Gurion reported a 30% drop in passengers during August, normally its busiest month, according to the airport authority.

‘A small drop in the bucket’

El Al’s recent announcement of fixed prices to the four international cities is being seen by some as an effort to throw cold water on the Competition Authority probe and to placate the public.

“Since Oct. 7, El Al has been conducting a strict price policy that includes regular price reductions, while increasing the supply of flights to nearby destinations, in order to allow as many Israelis as possible to leave or enter the country,” the Israeli carrier told JNS.

“Throughout the period, the company repeats and emphasizes that advance planning and early purchase of flight tickets allow you to enjoy much more favorable prices,” El Al added.

Feldman told JNS that the fixed prices to the four cities “is a populist response to handle those thousands of Israelis who had tickets on airlines no longer flying and are paying thousands of dollars to get home.”

“It is a small drop in the bucket,” he said.

Eleff told JNS that fixed prices aren’t the solution. “Government-set price controls distort the free market, creating artificial scarcity that creates other problems and doesn’t solve the real issues,” he said.

He said the Israeli government would be better off coordinating insurance coverage, which may be preventing other airlines from flying to Israel. That, he added, would mean that there would be enough seats on the market, which would bring down prices.

As the High Holidays approach, El Al seems to be the only option for those who want to fly directly between Tel Aviv and New York—the state with the largest population of Jews in America and many with relatives or even second homes in Israel—with Delta and United tentatively slated to fly the route again in the fall and American in the spring.

“New York is a very profitable route for the airlines,” Waksman told JNS. “The U.S. airlines would be happy to be back.”

Image: El Al Israel Airlines. Credit: Courtesy.

August 30, 2024 0 comments

Community JTVC Breaking News Judaism

Ben-Gvir’s call for synagogue on Temple Mount

by admin August 28, 2024

written by admin

US condemns Ben-Gvir’s call for synagogue on Temple Mount

“The ongoing reckless statements and actions of this minister only sow chaos and exacerbate tensions,” Foggy Bottom spokesman Matthew Miller said.

Andrew Bernard

(JNS)

The U.S. State Department stated on Tuesday that it “strongly opposes” Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s call for construction of a synagogue on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.

The proposed Jewish house of worship “on the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount” would “would demonstrate blatant disregard for the historic status quo with respect to the holy sites in Jerusalem,” Matthew Miller, the State Department spokesman, said.

“The ongoing reckless statements and actions of this minister only sow chaos and exacerbate tensions at a moment when Israel must stand united against threats from Iran and its proxy terrorist groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah,” Miller added. “They directly undermine Israel’s security.”

Ben-Gvir said in an interview with Israel’s Army Radio on Monday that Jewish prayer is allowed on the Temple Mount. That prompted a denial from the Prime Minister’s Office, which stated that policy on the Temple Mount is determined by the government and the prime minister.

“There is no change to the status quo,” Netanyahu’s office stated.

Under the “status quo” promulgated after Israel recaptured the Old City of Jerusalem in 1967, Jews are permitted to visit the Temple Mount but not to pray there.

During the interview, Ben-Gvir was asked repeatedly if he would build a synagogue on the Temple Mount. He replied “yes.”

Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia were among the Muslim countries that officially condemned Ben-Gvir’s comments. The Temple Mount is frequently described as the third-holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina. It is the holiest site in Judaism and the former site of the two Jewish Temples.

Miller reiterated the Biden administration’s commitment to the Temple Mount status quo on Tuesday and called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to uphold the policy.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Office has made clear that the actions and statements of Minister Ben Gvir are inconsistent with the government of Israel’s policy, and a number of responsible voices in the Israeli government have condemned them,” Miller said. “It is critical that the government of Israel continue to ensure its policy is adhered to.”

Image: Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir prays at the Kotel in Jerusalem’s Old City, after his visit at the Temple Mount, July 18, 2024. Photo by Chaim Goldberg/Flash90.

August 28, 2024 0 comments

Community JTVC Breaking News

In prisoner swap, Russia releases Gershkovich, three other Americans

by admin August 2, 2024

written by admin

“It says a lot about the United States that we work relentlessly to free Americans who are unjustly held around the world,” President Joe Biden said.

Andrew Bernard

(JNS)

Evan Gershkovich, a Jewish Wall Street Journal reporter, was one of four U.S. citizens and permanent residents released in a prisoner exchange between Russia, the United States and several other Western countries on Thursday as part of a 24-person swap.

Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine who was first arrested in Moscow in 2018; Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a U.S. permanent resident and prominent Russian opposition leader, were also released.

Eleven other foreign nationals and Russian dissidents were released from Russia, as was a German national held in Belarus, as part of the deal.

In exchange, the United States, Germany, Slovenia, Norway and Poland released eight convicted or accused Russian spies and agents, including a man convicted in Germany of murdering a former Chechen separatist in Berlin in 2019.

U.S. President Joe Biden thanked the countries who made the deal possible. “For anyone who questions whether allies matter, they do,” Biden said on Thursday. “Today is a powerful example of why it’s vital to have friends in this world—friends you can trust, work with and depend upon, especially on matters of great consequence and sensitivity like this.”

“It says a lot about the United States that we work relentlessly to free Americans who are unjustly held around the world,” Biden added. “It also says a lot about us that this deal includes the release of Russian political prisoners.”

“They stood up for democracy and human rights,” he said. “Their own leaders threw them in prison. The United States helped secure their release as well. That’s who we are in the United States.”

Jewish groups welcomed the release of Gershkovich—whom Russia arrested on espionage charges, which the Journal and the U.S. government said were a sham—and the other prisoners.

“Since the arrest of Evan Gershkovich in March 2023, Jewish Federations have been active in advocating for his release, including a letter-writing campaign in which nearly 3,000 people sent Rosh Hashanah wishes to Evan Gershkovich,” the Jewish Federations of North America stated.

“Today, Federations are overjoyed and relieved at the news of Evan’s release, along with the release of Paul Whalen and other political prisoners,” the Jewish Federations stated.

“Evan, our community has been incomplete without you. Welcome home,” the Jewish umbrella group added.

Gershkovich, Whelan, Kurmasheva and Kara-Murza are slated to arrive at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, D.C. at around 11:30 p.m., when Biden is scheduled to greet them.

Image: Credit: Adam Schultz/White House.

August 2, 2024 0 comments

Community History JTVC Breaking News

Evidence found of the last Jewish revolt against Rome

by admin June 17, 2024

written by admin

The little-known Gallus Revolt in 351-354 C.E. saw Lod, Tzipori and Tiberias destroyed.

(JNS)

In a historic first, evidence of the last Jewish revolt against Roman rule in Israel 1,650 years ago has been uncovered in the central Israeli city of Lod, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Sunday.

The discovery of a large public Jewish building from the Late Roman-Early Byzantine period that had been violently destroyed over a millennium and a half ago unveiled a hoard of 94 coins hidden underneath the flooring dating back to the time of the final revolt, the state-run archaeological body said.

The silver and bronze coins, dated between 221 and 354 C.E., were placed there by a person or persons unknown in the hopes of returning to collect them when the situation calmed down.

The dates coincide with the little-known Gallus Revolt against the Romans in 351-354 C.E., in which major Jewish communities such as Lod, Tzipori and Tiberias were destroyed by the forces of Roman Ceasar Flavius Claudius Constantius Gallus more than two centuries after the failed Bar Kochba Revolt.

(Under Emperor Constantius II, Gallus served as deputy emperor, based in Antioch.)

Among the various finds in the building, which was uncovered during an excavation on Nordau Street, were impressive stone and marble artifacts; Greek, Hebrew and Latin inscriptions; and one inscription bearing the name of a Jewish man from a priestly family, which is still being studied.

The inscriptions and the complete absence of pig bones in the bone assemblage uncovered at this site attest to this building’s association with the Jewish community, the IAA said.

Lod Mayor Yair Revivo visits the site. Photo by Yoli Schwartz/Israel Antiquities Authority.

Lod after the destruction of the Second Temple

In the wake of the Roman destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem almost 2,000 years ago, Lod became a significant Jewish center in the Land of Israel. Some of the renowned Jewish “Sages of Lod” include Rabbi Eliezer ben Horkanos, Rabbi Tarfon, Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Yosi HaGalili.

“In all likelihood, this is a magnificent Jewish building that housed the city’s elders,” said the site archaeologists, Shahar Krispin and Mor Viezel of the IAA.

“This building, destroyed down to its very foundation, is a clear indication that the revolt was forcefully put down with violence and cruelty, and was not simply a local uprising event, as some earlier studies contended. This is the singular witness, thus far, to the extent and power of this revolt in Lod, located in the country’s center,” they reported.

“This is an exciting and very emotionally moving find, another link in the chain of Lod’s Tannaitic period heritage as host to the authors of the Mishna, and to Lod’s Jewish history,” said Mayor Yair Revivo. “The finds in the area prove that Lod is one of the oldest cities in the world. Lod is connecting to its past and is looking forward to a bright future.”

The details of the find were published in a book that will be available at the annual Central Israel Region Archaeological Conference which will take place on June 20 at the Eretz Yisrael Museum in Tel Aviv, hosted jointly by Tel Aviv University, Bar-Ilan University and the IAA.

Image: Lod Mayor Yair Revivo visits the site. Photo by Yoli Schwartz/Israel Antiquities Authority.

June 17, 2024 0 comments

JTVC Breaking News

‘I heard gunfire a lot,’ says US civilian embedded in Khan Younis for a day

by admin February 28, 2024

written by admin

A husband and father, Gabriel Boxer told JNS that he didn’t sleep much a few nights before his stint in the Gaza Strip.

Alan Zeitlin

(JNS)

Gabriel Boxer of Long Island, N.Y., never expected that a joke would result in his spending a day in Khan Yunis this month in the central Gaza Strip.

The 43-year-old had made several trips to Israel to bring in supplies since the Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7. In his capacity working with the American Friends of Judea and Samaria raising funds for surveillance drones, he was talking to Yigal Dilmoni, CEO of the Yesha Council.

“As a joke, I said: ‘You should bring someone in to see how everything is working to raise money for more of them,’” he told JNS.

Boxer, who also blogs online as the “Kosher Guru,” was surprised that he subsequently got permission to embed with the Israel Defense Forces—a highly unusual, if not unprecedented, arrangement for a civilian.

“It took over a month and a half to get final approval,” he told JNS. “I heard there was a lot of back and forth behind the scenes.”

He figures a sticking point was how bad it would look if a U.S. civilian was harmed.

“I was told not to leave the side of the commander because I was not dressed as an Israeli soldier, and if I didn’t follow that, they would not be responsible if anything happened,” he told JNS.

In fact, during the more than five hours he went through Khan Younis on a Humvee, Boxer told JNS that there were some tense moments, including when Israeli soldiers ahead of him fired at four Hamas terrorists.

“I heard gunfire a lot of the time,” he told JNS.

Gabriel Boxer in Tunnel — Boxer in a Hamas terror tunnel in the Gaza Strip, February 2024. Credit: Courtesy.

‘Wasn’t thinking about it’

A husband and father, Boxer told JNS that he didn’t sleep much a few nights before his trip.

“I told my wife and children what was going to happen, but I didn’t tell my parents until after. I didn’t want them to worry,” he said. “I was definitely concerned.”

Boxer had faith that God would protect him while he was there. “I wasn’t thinking about it so much,” he said. “I was thinking about the bravery of the Israeli soldiers and how it is tragic that things have to be this way because of Hamas.”

An Orthodox Jew who wears a yarmulke, Boxer told JNS that Israeli soldiers showed him photographs from a school in Gaza where painted images show an exploding Israeli Egged bus.

“When we saw video and read about Oct. 7, we wondered how human beings could do such things,” Boxer said. “Part of it is the indoctrination in schools where, from a young age, there are years of radicalization.”

“This has to be addressed if there is any future hope for peace,” he said.

Wardrobe mishap

In Gaza, Boxer wore a helmet and bulletproof vest. But there was a miscommunication on his attire with Dilmoni.

“Before I went, I asked what I should wear, and he said to wear black,” Boxer said. “So, I wore jeans and a black shirt. He said I looked like Hamas. So, he said I should stay close to him.”

Generally, only certain journalists for top news organizations are given permission to embed with the Israeli army. When asked how unusual it was for a person like Boxer to do so, an IDF media representative told JNS that it frequently gives journalists a chance to embed, though did not elaborate on civilians.

Boxer told JNS that he thinks the IDF needed donations of drones to quickly avoid bureaucratic red tape.

His sense after spending time on the ground is that Israeli soldiers are up to the task, although the fighting is intricate and difficult.

“The morale is high,” he said. “The feeling is we are winning. But it isn’t easy.”

Image: U.S. citizen Gabriel Boxer in a Hamas terror tunnel in the Gaza Strip in February 2024. Credit: Courtesy.

February 28, 2024 0 comments

JTVC Breaking News Terrorism

IDF reservist flies home to fight Hamas in plane’s washroom seat

by admin February 27, 2024

written by admin

“I felt for the first time that it was a war for our existence.”

Etgar Lefkovits, Rehovot

(JNS)

When a 27-year-old Israeli university student vacationing in Thailand on Oct. 7 was determined to fly home to join his military reserve unit, he was given an unusual seat on the sold-out and overbooked El Al flight to Tel Aviv: the plane’s restroom.

“I felt for the first time that it was a war for our existence, and that we need to be here to protect our country,” Itay Kahana recounted in an interview with JNS on Sunday after completing nearly five months of reserve duty. “I had no second thoughts,” he added.

Itay Kahana (center) in Samaria. Photo: Courtesy.

From paradise to firefight

On that fateful autumn morning, Kahana had completed a diving course on a Thai island and was lunching on Chicken Pad Thai on the beachfront when he and two friends got word via social media apps on their phones of the Hamas massacre underway in Israel. He quickly understood the situation was dire.

“It was the most surreal situation possible,” he recalled. “In one second, we went from enjoying ourselves on this paradise beachfront to complete and total shock.”

Concerned that the existence of the State of Israel was at stake, Kahana, who had no return ticket, bought a domestic flight from the southern Thai tourist island of Ko Pha-ngan, where a halfmoon party was underway, to Bangkok.

The airport was flooded with Israelis trying to get back home, but nearly all the flights to Tel Aviv were canceled, with the exception of the direct flights on El Al as well as a connecting route via Dubai, which had been flagged as a security risk due to the outbreak of war.

For three days, Kahana, who received an emergency call-up order from his IDF combat unit, desperately tried to get on an El Al flight, encouraged by his father, who said he would always regret it if he stayed in Thailand during such a fateful time. For 72 hours, he went back and forth from the airport to the city to sleep.

Finally, on the third day, 20 minutes before the midnight flight, an El Al stewardess told a group of reservists that she was taking 25 of them on the place even though it was overbooked, he recounted. Five were seated in the cockpit, five in the airline stewards’ seats and 15 in the plane’s washrooms.

“Of course with my luck, I got the washroom seat,” he said with a grimace.

The airline, which days later was chartered by the Israeli government to bring back reservists from around the world, charged him $650 for the one-way flight, he begrudgingly notes, which was later refunded by the military.

(His for-pay washroom flight seat left him angered at a recent El Al television advertisement, which received national and international plaudits, depicting reservists being flown home on the flagship carrier. The airline has also offered military personnel a free ticket to a European destination.)

During the eight-hour flight, Kahana walked the aisles, where other reservists were sleeping on the floor, and only had to take his assigned seat during takeoff, landing and times of turbulence. If he was in his washroom seat, he would redirect passengers to other restrooms unless it was for a quick freshening up.

The mood on the overnight flight was dour. He met a seated traveler, whom he had earlier seen in the Far East, whose farmer father was murdered during the Hamas invasion.

In the morning, he landed in an Israel at war.

Kahana, who lives in a village near the central Israeli city of Rehovot, raced to his military base not knowing if he would be sent to Gaza or to the northern border where Hezbollah was raining down missiles.

In the end, he was stationed near Ariel in Samaria amid concerns that Palestinians in other regions would join in on the violence. The day after he deployed, his unit engaged in an intense firefight with Palestinian gunmen near the village of Huwara, a hotbed of violence outside Nablus.

“A day before my flight I was getting a Thai massage and two days later I was being sprayed by an automatic weapon with 40 bullets at a distance of 100 meters,” he said.

No regrets

As he completes his reserve service next week and returns to civilian life and his university studies, Kahana said he would have made the same decision to immediately return home—select plane seat notwithstanding—“in a heartbeat.”

“We need to be here to protect our country,” he said. “Also, just being here we showed our enemies that they don’t break our spirit.”

He is looking forward to his next trip abroad to relax after things calm down, preferably with an upgrade.

February 27, 2024 0 comments