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A great miracle happened when this missile fell. 

the rav of the local eruv went out to fix what he assumed would be a destroyed eruv, sensing that the eruv poles and wires in that immediate area would have been damaged by the explosion. When he got there with his tools he discovered the eruv was fully intact having incurred no damage at all.

A miracle!

5 people got injured, but the eruv wire didnt tear and that's what is important.

This was such an amazing miracle that the rabbonim of Bnei Braq went out to see the miracle for their own eyes and expressed that in the merit of shabbos observance of the people of Bnei Braq it protected the city and I guess it protected the eruv that helps them observe shabbos.

This is a tremendously busy area. There are skyscrapers there alongside large malls and businesses, with almost permanent traffic jams. A large missile hit the area, did not hit any of the large buildings , caused some damage to a couple stores and a bus but it didn't knock down any of the skyscrapers it narrowly missed, didnt destroy tens of people in their cars on those busy roads, injured only 5 people in an area that could have seen tens of injured or killed...

But the eruv is the big miracle.

אִם ה' לֹא יִשְׁמָר עִיר - שָׁוְא שָׁקַד שׁוֹמֵר

  -- Finance Minister Betzalel Smotritch regarding the incident at a recent protest in which two illumination bombs were thrown at the Prime Minister's home in Cesaria

hmmmm... that can be applied to so many other people in the IDF and the government, some of whom admitted responsibility but didnt resign, some who didnt even admit responsibility...

Since the war began, once it became apparent this would be a long war, I felt that the situation will have to change, people wont be so forgiving about tens of thousands of young men being let out of the draft while others have to serve for so long. While I dont have a solution I do believe this is largely a missed opportunity by Haredi leadership to propose a solution. Instead of proposing a solution they chose to dig in their heels and fight against the drafting of Haredi men with no compromises. 

Had they proposed a solution that would have drafted a reasonable number of people from the Haredi community (whether it would be those who don't learn in yeshiva full time or to draft into the religious services portion of the army, to do National Service within the Haredi community, or to establish some sort of medical corp adjacent to the army that Haredim would serve in, etc), I think most of Israel would have been ok with that, in some form or another, and the issue would have been put to rest. They dug their heels in and refused to talk about anything, and now even the above suggestion likely wouldnt be enough - now people just want them int he army, after a nearly 14 months of people serving multiple times in Gaza and Lebanon, families collapsing, fathers of ten being killed in battle, people losing jobs and businesses going under..people by now have had enough. 

So to me, this is mostly a missed opportunity of the Haredi leadership.

That being said, I do have two questions, one for each side:

1. For those of you who think it is too late, Haredim have to draft - how do you solve this? Draft them and then what - will they go to the army or will they refuse? Are you going to send in police to arrest the rabbis and thousands of yeshiva students, until they agree to go, which they very well might not? How does this get resolved for the good of Israeli society?

2. For those of you who are against drafting the Haredim (because they don't want to be drafted), how do you explain to the rest of the nation collapsing under the burden of this extended war why tens of thousands of young healthy men are not participating and relieving middle aged men from such long stays on the battlefield? How do you sell the difference why some people (most of the country) can be forced to serve but some people shouldn't be forced to serve?

I have seen people argue incessantly online over the past few months about should they or shouldn't they be drafted, but I haven't seen anyone explain how it could work, in either direction... I would like to hear how a forced draft could work, and I would like to hear how a mass exemption could work. The government will do whatever it finds politically expedient to do, without actually doing whatever it thinks to be morally and practically the right thing. If they pass the law to grant the exemptions, it wont suddenly resolve the arguments in society so I would like to hear ideas how this can be resolved in a way that most people would be ok with.

Interestingly, it is being reported via the New York Times that Tehran has not gotten involved and told Hezbollah to agree to a ceasefire that will push them back past the Litani in accordance with UN Resolution 1701. Iran has told Hezbollah that they will help rebuild and re-arm the terror group and this current war should end now.

I know there is some dispute as to whether Israel should or should not have rights of enforcement and be allowed to make excursions into Lebanon when it feels Hezbollah is violating the agreement in some manner. This is a fact that can be a sticking point for such a deal but I believe at some point Hezbollah will agree tot hat as well - Israel can go in anyway at any time, as it has shown, so this shouldnt be a factor. Lebanon itself has protested this demand saying it harms the independence and sovereignty of Lebanon but we all know that is just a funny joke - Lebanon has no sovereignty - it was taken over by Hezbollah and Syria and Iran with no protest. Now's not the time to cry about sovereignty. Save your country Lebanon and dont let that joke of a complaint get in the way and allow your country to be destroyed even further until you eventually agree.

So I am good with a ceasefire agreement if the military and political leadership are comfortable with the arrangements.

All that being said, as I have said before I do not think Israel should agree to a ceasefire in Lebanon without tying it to Gaza. Hezbollah tied itself to Hamas by attacking continually over the past year+ in solidarity with Hamas saying they wont stop until a ceasefire is reached in Gaza. Israel should keep to that and keep them tied together. Hezbollah and Iran want a ceasefire means they can't take the destruction any longer. Leverage that. Make Iran tell Hamas to come to the table with reasonable demands and offer the hostages in return for an end to the war and surrender without all the other demands that are unacceptable. Iran wants to climb down off this tree, between the destruction they have absorbed and the fact that Trump is coming into office soon and that will be even more damaging to them, they rightfully want to climb down and back off. Only let them if it includes Hamas and the hostages

The talk of ceasefire in Lebanon has heated up again.. so I wanted to comment on victory as it has been on my mind for a while..

What is victory? How does this war end? When will a ceasefire be justified? Are we going to fight forever until someone on the other side holds up a white flag of surrender? Minister Betzalel Smotritch said the other day that he will not support ending the war until every last Hamasnik has been killed - is that even possible or is he condemning us to live with an active war forever?

Let's start by mentioning that the return of the hostages is one of the objectives of the war, so perhaps there is no victory until that is achieved. the thing is, it looks like this can only be achieved by a deal. The vaunted "only increased military pressure will bring them home" has not [yet] proven itself. While the IDF conducted heroic rescue operations, they succeeded in bringing home just several hostages, and killed several as well. More hostages have been brought home by a deal than by military operations, and the numbers aren't even close. And with the rescue operations, as heroic as they are and as happy we are for each hostage that gets rescued and for each body that gets recovered and brought back for a Jewish burial, many more hostages remain in Gaza with their whereabouts unknown despite the 13 months of war and destruction of Gaza above and below ground, with Hamas seemingly not having budged an iota in its demands when discussing the possibility of a deal.

So with the return of the hostages being one of the objectives of the war it might be difficult to declare victory as long as that has not been achieved.

Personally I do believe that from a military perspective we won the war a long time ago. 

Neither Hamas nor Hezbollah were strong enough to destroy Israel, though they made a lot of trouble for us and maybe Hezbollah could have made more. But the IDF recovered and destroyed Hamas and then went and destroyed Hezbollah. once the IDF started getting to work, Hamas and Hezbollah had no chance. They are fighting a war with rockets, with their fighters and rocket supplies being diminished every day by the IDF, while we are destroying everything about them with our air force and ground troops. Militarily we already won, even though the war continues. We can stop at any time that we deem we have hurt them badly enough and they are willing to give us the security we demand..

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I never heard of this guy before. This interview was shocking. Morgan described it well when he said he is gobsmacked. It wasnt just shocking as to how antisemitic this guy is but when pressed for sources and facts he just says he doesnt really know. He forms strong opinions of hate all based on a single article he once read.

I debated back and forth over the past few days as t whether or not I should post it. I obviously decided to show to show his hatred and his stupidity.

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There not too many details available at this time, but the IDF has announced several times that it has captured massive amounts of military equipment, weapons, armaments, from Hezbollah in Lebanon. Much of the weaponry captured was supplied originally by Russia. 

The question is what to do with all that [possibly] valuable stuff.

From what I understand, Israel won't use at least much of it due to Israel's policy of only using NATO-approved weapons. Destroying it seems to be wasteful, though if there is no other use for it that is what the IDF will continue to do.

MK Dan Ilouz (Likud) has proposed a law by which any of these captured Russian-supplied weapons and equipment that the IDF will not use should be transferred to Ukraine to use in its battle against Russia.

So, the IDF gets first dibs to put whatever it feels it can use into use in its own military efforts.

After the IDF decides it has taken what it will and has no use for the rest, the Defense Ministry should find a way to securely send the rest to Ukraine to use in its war against Russia.

Interestingly, Ilouz writes in the text of the proposal a couple of interesting points.

First, Ilouz explains that this is in order to maintain security stability in the region and internationally and "to assist countries fighting for their sovereignty", Israel should transfer these weapons to Ukraine, etc...

I hope this text won't come back to be used against Israel, as other countries will defend their support for the Palestinians as a country fighting for its sovereignty which the Israeli Right supports while pointing to this law.

Second, Ilouz calls this poetic justice - supporting allies internationally against those who supply our terrorist enemies with weapons with those very weapons. And this would be a poetic justice.

This will probably upset Russia

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