[Editor's note: Ruvy lives in Israel and filed this report as events and news reports rapidly unfolded.]
The day started out normally with reports of raids on Gaza and the like. The Arabs continued to send Qassams to attack us. Shmulik Haddad tells us that Qassam fired at Ashqelon.
Evidence that changes in the pattern of news first came from WorldNet Daily and Ynetnews.com. These two stories dealt with efforts of Arabs to fire rockets at all parts of the country from Samaria. In other words, this was to be a war of liberation of the entire land – the entire Zionist entity was to be extirpated. Rockets were to fall on Tell Aviv, Netanya, Kfar Sava, and Jerusalem as well as the cities closest to Gaza, like Ashqelon. All Zionist settlers were to be under threat.
This story did not get big play in the mainstream Hebrew press at all. That is because just today Prime Minister Haniya of the PA had an opinion piece published in the Washington Post in which he talked of a two-state solution, perhaps the first time he had done so. Chairman Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority favors a two-state solution, Prime Minister Olmert advocates a two state solution, and the president of the United States also advocates a two-state solution. It is an unfortunate reality of political life that the truth must not be allowed to stand in the way of whatever political program is being sold that day, and the truth of missiles attacking north Tel Aviv was not convenient in terms of selling the expulsion of 80,000 residents of Judea and Samaria.
Then news started coming in from the north. This e-mail was the first one I noticed.
The latest report as to what happened on the Northern border is that a tank ran over a HizbAllah land mine. It seems that three soldiers were killed on the spot and another eight injured. Two soldiers were captured by enemy forces and at least one was known to be alive at the time of his capture.
Please note that these soldiers were captured by enemy forces and not 'kidnapped' as is being bantered around the media. It is part of the psychosis that has grabbed Israel's ruling elite that they can not even recognize that we are at war. They have sunk so deep into the fantasy world they have created for themselves that they no longer recognize basic reality.
This was from Aryeh Zelasko at 13:00 our time. The second indication that a serious situation had developed was also an e-mail that came in seven minutes later from Harvey Tannenbaum. Reformatted for readability, it reads as follows:
1. Rumors flying that Ehud Olmert will be declaring war tonight (2 years too late)?
Article comments
1 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE
I have to regret that there is not much to update this news. Bloomberg gives a roundup of casualties, and reports on the Israeli attack on Beirut airport. The report, while talking about an attack on HizbAllah positions in southern Lebanon does not mention seriously damaging the batteries that HizbAllah has for its 10,000 missiles. The New York Times attempts an analysis that grudging admits that Hamas is the local version of the Moslem Brotherhood (linked to the Wahhabi cult, in other words) and describes the confusion in Israeli ranks as what to do with them. It points out that Iran controls HizbAllah. But like all fools, it denies the threat to the center of the country from Arab rocket launchers in Samaria. This is the threat that can hurt the ruling elite the most in Israel, as it would hit the areas where they live, Tel Aviv and its suburbs immediately to the north.
Haifa, S'derot and Ashqelon are working class cities and the elite in Tel Aviv and its suburbs doesn't give a damn about them. Jerusalem is filled with religious Jews and the secular, shrimp eating, goy worshipping elite, in Tel Aviv would probably prefer to see us dead. These are the real demographic realities that dictate actions out of the traitorous regime in Jerusalem.
Those who had trouble with this story fail to comprehend that the government is distracting everyone from the real threat with warplanes attacking Lebanon and tanks raising sand in Gaza. And the people it is distracting the most are the ones it really wants to protect. The secular elite around Tel Aviv.
For all the shouting, shooting and handwaving little has changed, and the dangers today are still what they were two weeks ago. If the Arabs in HizbAllah can't get their act together enough to shoot their missiles and destroy the north of the country, then either they are more afraid of us than they should be or Iran is not giving them the order.
2 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Another article, hopefully more clearly written is in pending as of now, both here and at DesiCritics.