By: Ben Packer

Chag Sameach! Hope everyone is having a great Pesach, especially under the extenuating war circumstances this year. The splitting of the Sea occurred historically on the Seventh Day of Pesach, after the first Seder, so let’s hope and pray the pattern continues for more big victories and an obliteration of our enemies very soon!

Leftist liberals were terribly disappointed this week when the US military, reportedly with some Israeli assistance, pulled off an incredible rescue of a downed US airman. Normal people were elated! As most folks are probably already aware, a US fighter jet was shot down over Iran earlier in the week. Both crew members were able to eject. The pilot was rescued very quickly. The weapons specialist was out of contact for a while and was eventually rescued after about 48 hours of evading hostile Iranian forces.

There’s been a bunch of complaining by haters and idiots about the cost of the rescue, but all thinking people know that this kind of success and experience for the military forces is invaluable. And no human casualties! Absolutely amazing. There will definitely be a movie, probably made by Jews and then there will be accusations by Candace Ovens and others that the whole situation was orchestrated for this purpose in the first place. It’s all so predictable.

Coming off this massive success, President Trump’s deadline for a deal with Iran is coming up. If no deal is reached to end or at least pause the war by 8:00pm (est) Tuesday night, then the President has threatened to annihilate Iran. Specifically, he has vowed to destroy pretty much all national infrastructure and oil production facilities.

President Trump has kind of vacillated between different specific goals that are necessary to be accomplished in order for the war to end or maybe he means all of them. The ones mostly mentioned are the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, the permanent end of the Iranian nuclear weapons program and regime change.

The President has at times suggested that regime change has already been accomplished with the killing of the Ayatollah and other high ranking officials. In any semblance of a normal situation, the Iranians would do whatever it takes to reach a deal and stop the attacks, but they seem unable or completely unwilling to do so, at least at this point. They have even brazenly suggested that the Hormuz will never be open for American shipping ever again.  We will have to just wait and see how this plays out. For now, both sides are talking mad smack.

While all of this is going on, the Israeli Air Force continues to take out senior Iranian officials. This week they got the Intelligence Chief of the Revolutionary Guard and head of special operations for the Al Quds force – at the same time. Other officials were taken out as well on a pretty much daily basis. It must be getting lonelier and lonelier at the top over there. If there is a real opposition in Iran, they must be salivating about now. They could have never expected this kind of opportunity, but are likely waiting for the attacks to stop to make their move.

Lebanon

Israeli forces are absolutely hammering Hezbollah, but very methodically. The advancements deeper into Lebanon are slow, but all encompassing. Once terrorist threats are completely removed from an area, the structures are demolished and then the forces advance further. There are reports that just the Golani Brigade alone has exploded 300 structures. At the same time, Hezbollah terrorists are being taken out throughout Lebanon, with particular emphasis on the Dahieh neighborhood of Beirut, which is a known Hezbollah stronghold and where former leader Nasrallah was eliminated.

Israeli government and military officials have been clear that the threats to the northern Israeli communities will be eliminated and Hezbollah will be pushed back if not totally disarmed. There is little to no talk about the Lebanese government or army, which are virtually completely irrelevant at this point. They had their chance to take on Hezbollah and failed to do so, now Israel will give it a go. The only thing that could possibly stop Israel is a deal between the US and Iran, but even that would likely be short-term and not involve a complete Israeli withdrawal back to the most recent border.

Meanwhile, rockets are still raining down on Israel from both Iran and Hezbollah. Four people were killed by a rocket in Haifa this week and there have been impacts throughout the country. Most of the impacts are from shrapnel of intercepted rockets, but serious damage and injuries are still caused. Last week’s severely injured young girl from Bnei Brak has seen some improvement in her condition, but she remains in critical condition.

One Israeli soldier was tragically killed and another severely injured in a “friendly fire” incident in Lebanon this week. The soldiers were from an elite commando unit and were in the process of clearing hostile areas. Unfortunately these terrible incidents happen, but they also indicate that serious progress is being made in securing the area and protecting the nearby Israeli communities. The IDF soldiers are doing incredible things during the Pesach holiday so that we can celebrate for many years to come!

Supreme Court Shenanigans

The very unpopular Israeli Supreme Court doubled-down this week, because why not. So the current rule as prescribed by the Home Front Command is that groups of up to 50 are allowed to congregate if there is a bomb shelter nearby. However, some leftist freaks want to protest against the war in slightly larger groups than what is allowed. I have no idea why anyone tries to stop them from doing so. I mean, it’s not fair on some level, but if Iran actually hits them with a rocket, then it’s basically friendly fire.

Anyway, these traitors petitioned the Supreme Court – on Shabbos! This is not even supposed to be possible, but it became possible. Not only that, but the Court ruled that they can have up to 600 people in their little protest. Based on what? Whatever. The Chief Sephardic Rabbi lambasted the Court and pointed out that they have lost all trust in the observant community. Of course, this isn’t new, but with this decision they discovered a new level and sank to it.

Despite the ongoing war, Israelis flocked to various sites throughout the country in celebration of the Pesach holiday. In addition to the regular destinations, tens of thousands visited sites that had been practically off-limits to Jews because of past terrorist presence and threats. A whole lot has changed since Oct. 7th, especially in Judea and Samaria. It didn’t happen by itself. It happened because of G-d’s good favor and the courage of, mostly young, Jewish heroes risking their personal safety and comfort to wrestle these sites away from our enemies and then gifting them to the Jewish People. The least we can do is thank them, the better thing we can do is support them and so many idiots are doing the opposite. These folks should have just stayed in Egypt, this place ain’t for them.

Chag Kasher v’Sameach!