Today’s Top Stories
1. Residents of southern Israel spent the night shelters as Palestinians fired more than 400 rockets and mortars since Monday evening. One Palestinian was killed when a rocket struck an Ashkelon apartment building where he worked. Most of the rockets landed in open areas or were intercepted by Iron Dome, but several homes and buildings were hit. The IDF responded with air strikes on Gaza, destroying 150 targets. The Times of Israel explained that the Palestinian barrage
appeared to be the largest-ever attack in a 24-hour period from the Gaza Strip, with more than twice the number of projectiles fired than on any single day of the bloody 2014 war.
The attacks began yesterday in the late afternoon with Palestinians fired an anti-tank rocket at an Israeli bus near the Gaza. One soldier on board was injured; tragedy was averted because other soldiers disembarked minutes beforehand.
2. The man killed in Ashkelon was a 48-year-old Palestinian laborer from Halhul, near Hebron. Mahmoud Abu Asbah, who worked in the building where he was killed, is survived by a wife and six children. I’ll call him a martyr.
Identification of the man killed by rocket fire on Ashkelon overnight –>
"Mahmoud Bashir Abu Asbah (48), who worked in the building in Ashkelon,
who is from the town of Halhul, immediately north of Hebron" https://t.co/mmgqHLLiFX— Marian Houk (@Marianhouk) November 13, 2018
3. As this roundup was published, incoming rocket sirens continued in various Israeli locations and Gaza factions denied reports of a ceasefire.
Israel suspended its participation in truce talks and rejected international mediation, though trucks continued making humanitarian deliveries to Gaza at the Kerem Shalom crossing. Israel’s security cabinet ended a marathon meeting without announcing any decision.
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Israel and the Palestinians
• Regarding the intensity of the barrage, the Daily Telegraph noted:
Israel estimates that Hamas and its allies have around 20,000 mortars and rockets, meaning that they could continue firing at the current rate for weeks. “Unfortunately, they are not anywhere near the end of their capabilities,” said Lt Col Conricus.
The rapid rate of rocket fire is believed to be an effort to overwhelm Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system, which has been largely successful intercepting rockets in recent years.
Here‘s what the barrage looked like at one point yesterday.
RAW FOOTAGE: The skies of southern Israel RIGHT NOW. Dozens of rockets are being fired from #Gaza at Israeli civilians. pic.twitter.com/Iu6QwzUo8l
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 12, 2018
• The IDF completely destroyed the Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV headquarters. But Hamas was clearly prepared. The station was quickly back on the air from an undisclosed location.
The IDF said that Al-Aqsa TV was “used by [Hamas] for military activities, including sending messages to terrorist operatives in the West Bank, calls for terror attacks and instructions on how to commit them.”
The outlet was recognized as a terror group by the United States in 2010.
• Avital Leibovich made me go hmmmmm . . .
This is a picture of the seconds after #IDF hit the AL Aqsa TV building. Makes me wonder whether there was more in the building then just cameras… pic.twitter.com/VZzWdIZGP3
— Avital Leibovich (@AvitalLeibovich) November 12, 2018
Window Into Israel
• The Times of Israel examines how security cabinet confusion during the early hours of the Gaza op-gone-awry highlights the risk Benjamin Netanyahu takes by not designating a deputy PM.
• Runoff elections are being held in 55 Israeli municipalities today, most notably Jerusalem, where candidates Moshe Leon and Ofer Berkovitch campaigned to the wire. Ashkelon’s run-off election was postponed due to the escalating violence. The new date has yet to be determined.
Around the World
• “A Wisconsin school district has launched an investigation after a photo of what appears to be a group of mostly white male students holding up a Nazi salute went viral.”
• A statement from the leadership of the Women’s March condemned antisemitism while standing by Linda Sarsour and Tamika Mallory. See JTA coverage and judge for yourself if it goes far enough in distancing the feminist leaders from the antisemitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. (Once you think your head is wrapped around that, move on to why journalist Carly Pildis says the apology “erases Jewish women.”)
• How a rabbi saved four Torah scrolls from being destroyed in the California wildfires.
• Police launch hate crime investigation after Jewish teens attacked in north Toronto.
Commentary
• UCLA Chancellor Gene Block took to the Los Angeles Times to defend the public university’s decision to host the national conference of Students for Justice in Palestine. It’s all about free speech.
Ultimately, we must combat speech that is distasteful with more and better speech. If universities can find ways to rise above the current rancor and if our students in particular can model our values, then that may well provide the very best hope for our future.
SJP people who equated victims of the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre to Gazans killed in Hamas-led border clashes aren’t going to provide Block and his campus with shining examples of “more and better speech.”
Question for @UCLAchancellor Gene D. Block: when (and we know its merely a matter of time) the SJP conference spirals into an anti-Semitic hate fest, will @UCLA demand they cease? Will UCLA stand up not for #Israel but for Jews under attack more & more?https://t.co/kV0P7bHUk3
— Ryan's Ruminations (@Ryan__Hyman) November 12, 2018
• Here’s what else I’m reading today:
– Avi Issacharoff: Israel and Hamas are plunging into an all-out war that neither side wants
– Yaakov Lappin: Hamas’s emboldened risk-taking is fueling this escalation
– Amos Harel: Hamas tries to dictate new rules of game in Gaza, but it may be misjudging Israel
– David Horovitz: Hamas will never change. Sooner or later, it must be faced down
– Yoav Zitun: Hamas trying to challenge Iron Dome
– Ariel Kahana: An avoidable war becomes inevitable
– Amos Harel: Botched special op in Gaza brings Israel and Hamas to brink of war
– Yoaz Hendel: Let the IDF win
– Brig. Gen. Aharon Levran (res.): Restore Israeli deterrence in Gaza
– Bassam Tawil: Massive missile attack on Israel after Qatar funds Hamas
– Prof. Efraim Inbar: In the Middle East, you win with fear
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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