In the “grateful for small mercies” department, on Saturday, at 6:20 in the morning, the Home Front Command app on my phone emitted a delicate bleep and informed me that a rocket was expected in my area within a few minutes and that I should seek shelter.
This was the first time the pre-warning system had operated on my phone – the system has only been in general use for a few weeks – and I appreciated it, if that’s the right word to use in an incident involving incoming missile fire.
In some situations, the advance warning can make the difference between life and death: for those in unprotected open areas, families who need to get young children to shelter, the elderly, and the handicapped, for example.
For me, it meant I had time to brush my teeth, pee, and put on a respectable robe over my nightie before meeting the neighbors in the communal shelter. A deluxe experience compared to the usual 90-second warning we get in Jerusalem and incomparably better than the few seconds of warning that residents on the northern and southern borders usually get.
It was only a couple of hours later, when I was fully awake and after I had a cup of coffee, that I realized the significance of the advanced warning. The extra minutes’ warning was a result of the distance: the Houthi rocket was launched in Yemen, some 2,000 km. away from Israel. Even at rocket speed, it took time to reach its intended target. Fortunately, the rocket was intercepted en route and destroyed before it could cause any serious damage.
The distance underscores an important point in the ongoing war – it’s not about territory. Yemen shares no borders with Israel, far from it. Ditto the Islamic Republic of Iran, the sponsor of the Houthis, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), in addition to other terrorist organizations.
This is a war against the existence of Israel, the Jewish state. Hamas has Israel’s destruction written as an aim in its charter. The Houthis are even less subtle; their flag sports the slogan: “Allah is the Greatest, Death to America, Death to Israel, A curse upon the Jews, Victory to Islam.”
The message slammed home even more forcefully on Sunday morning, when – despite the advance warning – Israel’s incredible but not infallible anti-missile system failed to intercept a Houthi rocket. This resulted in shrapnel landing near or within the area of Ben-Gurion Airport, causing the brief closure of the country’s main airport and the cancellation of flights by several airlines.
So far, despite the multiple rocket attacks, the airport has remained relatively safe, thanks to the Iron Dome, Arrow, and other defense systems. On Tuesday, Israeli jets attacked the airport in Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, and other Houthi-controlled infrastructure.
The October 7, 2023, Hamas and PIJ invasion and onslaught – in which 1,200 people were murdered and 251 abducted to Gaza – were perpetrated under the cover of a massive rocket bombardment that also started at around 6:20 on a Saturday morning, on the festival of Simchat Torah.
Before that dark day, when there had been frequent rocket fire on the South and sporadic fire on the center of the country, the government, too often, was willing to overlook the rockets unless they resulted in loss of life.
The guiding belief – the “conceptzia” – was that Hamas did not want a war with Israel as it would be too costly for them in terms of lives and property. Excuses were made – “the rocket launch was triggered by lightning” was a favored explanation.
As I warned at the time, the lack of response was a mistake. You don’t accidentally shoot someone with a gun if it’s not loaded and pointed at them. The same goes for rockets.
That’s why there is now more talk of checking capabilities rather than focusing on guessing intent. Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon spent vast amounts of money on building up weapons supplies and constructing underground terror tunnels at the expense of the population. In Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen, there is famine, but the jihadist terrorist organization still pours money into arms rather than easing the poverty.
Why would they do this, if not to give them the ability to attack? Why does Hamas reject any suggestion of disarming?
Any deal for the release of the remaining hostages – 24 alive and 35 dead, according to official reports – needs to take into account Hamas’s future capabilities. Its jihadist ideology will not suddenly disappear.
In particular, it is essential to keep the capability issue in mind during the talks between the US and others with Iran. The Islamic Republic repeatedly claims that its nuclear intentions are peaceful, but the world ignores the ayatollahs’ capabilities at its peril. You don’t need high-precision intercontinental ballistic missiles to deliver nuclear energy. And, as my early wake-up on Saturday showed, the missiles can travel long distances. No one will be safe if Iran can attach nuclear warheads to its stockpile of missiles.
Events in Syria also make it important to keep an eye on the country’s capabilities under the new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa. Sharaa talks the talk but doesn’t walk the walk. He shoots.
The attacks in Syria on the Druze community, among other minorities, do not indicate peace and stability. Israel has come to the aid of the Syrian Druze, many of whom have relatives in Israel. The IDF and security establishment need to keep a close eye on events there and the capabilities of the new Syrian regime. It’s not enough for Sharaa to muse about joining the Abraham Accords one day if he retains access to chemical weapons or worse.
From terrorism to the wildfires in the Judean Hills
MASSIVE FIRES last week closed the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway and access roads for a few hours, and necessitated the temporary evacuation of several communities in the Judean Hills. They broke out on Remembrance Day, casting a pall over Israel’s 77th Independence Day celebrations the following day.
The cause of the initial blaze has not been officially determined, but was probably related to the high temperatures, dry conditions, and unusually strong winds. But some quickly took advantage of the situation to commit nationalistically motivated arson attacks.
As a report by Shir Perets and Ohad Merlin in this paper noted, Hamas posted a message on Telegram encouraging Palestinians to “burn whatever you can of groves, forests, and settler homes.”
“Youth of the West Bank, youth of Jerusalem, and those inside Israel, set their cars ablaze… Gaza awaits the revenge of the free,” the terrorist organization wrote.
The Jenin News Network Telegram channel also called on Palestinians to “burn the groves near the settlements.” In Arabic-language social media posts, the fires were branded as “Flames of the Flood,” deliberately echoing “Flood of Al-Aqsa,” Hamas’s name for the October 7, 2023 mega-atrocity.
Terrorism can be low-tech. It’s a matter of motivation. ISIS also used a scorched-earth policy as it swept through the Middle East a decade ago. Jihadists in Africa still set villages on fire as a means of spreading fear and destruction.
If you think this could not affect you, reading this thousands of miles away from where I sit in my Jerusalem apartment, think again. Think back to the charred remains of homes in the kibbutzim, moshavim, and villages that were invaded by the Gazan attackers on October 7. It’s another reminder that this is not about territory. As many have pointed out, people who love the land don’t burn it down.
Muslim Arab researcher Bassam Tawil, writing for Gatestone Institute, noted: “This deliberate ‘ecocide’ against nature on the land they claim to be fighting for shows that the Palestinians never truly cared about the land; they just want to seize it and kill as many Jews as possible. Will ‘green’ groups denounce the Palestinians for this crime against nature? Do not hold your breath…
“These are the same Palestinians who earlier this year celebrated and gloated as the Los Angeles fires raged. As far as many Palestinians are concerned, the US is also their enemy based on its longtime support for Israel.”
Rude awakenings don’t come only in the form of early morning rocket alerts. The world cannot afford to hit the snooze button and go back to sleep when Israel is attacked. The entire West is in the line of fire – and fires.