מקור ביטחוני: פקודה סודית של קבינט המלחמה, תחת הכותרת “תמחה את זכר עמלק”, מטילה על צה”ל והשב”כ למצוא ולהרוג את קרוביהם של ראשי חמאס ושל כל מי שהשתתפו במעשי הטבח
URGENT: This report is a major breaking news story. It is the kind of journalism you will not find anywhere else. It is reporting that takes you inside Israel’s military and intelligence apparatus to learn secrets they often don’t want you to know.
Tikun Olam is live-blogging the Gaza war.
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A well-informed Israeli security source tells Tikun Olam that the security cabinet has ordered the IDF and Shin Bet to assassinate all of Hamas’ leadership, the commanders who planned the attack on southern Israel and their families.
The order, according to the source, is to “find and kill as many relatives as possible of Hamas’ members who carried out Oct. 7 massacres, and these senior officials: Mohammed Deif, Yahya Sinwar, Saleh al-Arouri, Khaled Mashal, Marwan Issa and Ismail Haniyeh.”
The same story was leaked to Ynet as well. But military censorship prevents Israeli media from reporting key elements of the story which I’ve reported here. It does not mention who gave the order for the assassinations and also omits that the families are also being targeted for death.
The headlines and graphics in the Ynet report are lurid and homicidal. They positively celebrate these potential assassinations. It’s the primordial cry of the predator on the hunt for prey. Accompanying photos of the targeted Hamas leaders :
Dead men walking: Six Hamas leaders who must pay with their lives for the massacre. [Hamas] Leaders in the gun-site.
As if genocide wasn’t bad enough, now Israel has become a psychotic serial killer. It is only a few steps away from a repetition of the Holocaust. This is how a nation becomes one that exterminates another–just as Samuel commanded Saul and the Israelites to eradicate the Amalekites. This is how Germany slid down rung by rung into Hitlerian Hell.
Israel has become a nation steeped in blood and mass murder. This is clearly what a Supreme Court justice called a “black flag order.” A command given to an army officer which is flagrantly illegal and must not be obeyed. But niceties like the black flag ruling are a thing of the pass. No order is too insane. All is permitted. Murder. Arson. Torture. There are no longer limits. No longer restraints.
So despite the clear hostility among the IDF senior command towards Netanyahu (and vice versa), it will most likely carry out the task. I wish I could say differently. That one among them will say: No. This is a red line I cannot cross. But I’m afraid I can’t say that.
There is a slim possibility that this leak is intended to intimidate Hamas; to put it on notice that Israel can take revenge on all the families of the leadership. It leaves them petrified that it will do so; petrified about when and how it will do so. But it also makes them wonder if it will do so. Is it a bluff? A game of psychological warfare with many lives in the balance? Or Israel going to do a Munich, but on a massive scale.
This decision wreaks of desperation; a wounded animal lashing out at its attackers. Like that beast, Israel is now beset on many fronts by enemies, waiting for it to launch its ground attack on Gaza. Iran has threatened to intervene should Israel invade the enclave. Its most powerful ally in the region, Hezbollah, has been launching probe attacks on IDF positions in the north for days. Israel has evacuated tens of thousands of residents of a score of towns near the Lebanese border. Iran has also activated its militia proxies in Iraq and Syria which have, for over a week, launched multiple drone attacks on US troops in both countries leaving 24 soldiers injured.
Iran’s Houthi allies in Yemen fired three cruise missiles and eight drones targeting Israel (over 1,000 miles away!). Most were shot down by the USS Carney in the Persian Gulf. Saudi Arabia also downed one of the them.
China has directed six of its warships to the Gulf as well. This may be the reason that Pres. Biden redirected one of the two carrier strike groups originally headed to the Mediterranean, to the Gulf instead. This development brings the US-China rivalry into the Middle East theater.
Once the Cold War pitted the US against Russia in a competition for global influence. This even included proxy wars like Vietnam. Can the world withstand another such rivalry, given the massive weapons at the command of both superpowers? Could a multi-party conflict like this ignite war? Do we want to wait to find out?
Israel’s security cabinet thinks the way to respond to Hamas is by eliminating everything and everyone connected to it. It believes that the world is disgusted enough by the 1,400 Israelis murdered that it will turn a blind eye to mass murder. Not just to the 5,000 Gaza civilians it has already killed (almost half of whom are children), but to scores of family members of the group’s leadership. It’s possible that Israeli propaganda has worked, and the world won’t raise its voice or stop it. My rule is never to underestimate the world’s ability to hide its head in the sand in the face of genocide.
תִּמְחֶה אֶת-זֵכֶר עֲמָלֵק is written in Deuteronomy first and is said to be destroyed b/c it was the first nation that dared to fight Israel after the exodus. Saul come hundreds of years later.
The democracies of the world unequivocally support Israel b/c there no way to nicely wrap the pogrom done by Hamas to civilians. If Hamas would have stuck to army bases and capturing soldiers, their would have had a great military success as well as PR. But instead, they went after a music festival and families dining a holiday meal. That is without mentioning the beheadings, burning of bodies and rape on top of the mass slaughter.
Greetings from Israel,
Apparently, your ‘source’ is privy to the secret directives of the Israeli wartime security cabinet, which makes him or her, pretty high up.
How is your source able to reveal secrets to you, without running afoul of the Shin Bet?
The story was also published in Ynet today. But much of I its was censored and its report is partial. We probably both have the same source. The other difference between my acct and theirs is that I gave partial attribution.
Bullshit. Haniyeh had 14 members of his brother annihilated a few days ago. You are too late but enjoy your fantasy
“This decision wreaks of desperation; a wounded animal lashing out at its attackers.”
My interpretation is quite different … Homo sapiens’ decision is “rational” choosing the moment because “We Can” under full protection of U.S. Military might.
Israel will get full support of EU Islamophobic nations led by France President Macron and the Dutch under caretaker PM Mark Rutte …
Macron wants a Grand Coalition to fight Hamas, and sends a warning to Iran | EuroNews |
Hamas = ISIS
Indeed, don’t forget Iran as Netanyahu has succeeded to fill his war cabinet with ultra hawks, contrary to 2012.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, called on Guterres to resign.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan proposes to organise “International Conference on Palestine-Israel Peace” in which all influential actors in the region will participate. He also offers Türkiye’s guarantorship system for Israel-Palestine peace.
Extremely divided within the EC Commission, individual states call for a ceasefire for humanitarian aid and medical supplies into the Gaza Strip refugees camps.
In rare praise, Israel hails Qatar’s ’crucial’ diplomatic efforts in Gaza crisis. As I understand Qatar is mediating for the release of all captives held by Hamas.
Will Israel be forced to negotiate a definitive peace and accept a sovereign Palestine in a two-state or one single democratic state to end illegal occupation and apartheid. There may be no other escape for Israel to live in peace with its neighbors as codified in the UN Charter.
“As if genocide wasn’t bad enough, now Israel has become a psychotic serial killer.” How does this sentence make any sense? I know that nowadays the word genocide means basically anything the speaker wants it to mean, but I never figured it could mean something less serious than killing Hamas leadership and their families. I don’t think it’s acceptable for Israel to kill relatives of Hamas leadership based solely on their status as relatives, but surely genocide should be something far worse than that. Unless the word really means nothing at all.
In 2017, a U.S. Navy SEAL Team killed four unarmed associates of Osama bin Laden, along with bin Laden and bin Laden’s son, Khalid.
Two years later, the United States assassinated another son of bin Laden’s, Hamza bin Laden.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/u-s-has-intel-osama-bin-laden-s-son-heir-n1037236
Honestly, I’m not bothered in the least by the extrajudicial deaths of bin Laden’s family members and associates. Who is?
-and-
The leader of the Islamic State died during a raid by U.S. Special Operations commandos in a risky pre-dawn attack in northwest Syria. Rescue workers said women and children were among at least 13 people killed during the raid.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/02/03/world/us-raid-syria-isis
@Rex – @Yellow
Fake Hamas = ISIS
False equivalent October 7th is not Pearl Harbor or 11 September
No equivalent to the Shoah, Kristallnacht, Nazi atrocities or Galician pogroms. Netanyahu uses the Holocaust comparison to hide his own hideous acts against Palestinians.
Legitimate cause of Palestinians … a Free Palestine 🇵🇸
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I hope you don’t get mad at me for posting this, but Netanyahu is playing with fire here. One of the missions of those Hamas infiltrators into the country is to find and assassinate him. So it’s going to end up being an eye for an eye situation. He may have thought this war would help him get out of his legal trouble, but it’s going to end up seeing him killed on or around the 28th anniversary of Rabin’s assassination instead. Even though he is psychotic and a genocidal maniac, I genuinely don’t think he has a death wish, but who knows. We’ll see how good his protection is. I think he’s more vulnerable than he realizes.
Israel is bombing the family homes of the Press in Gaza, the family homes of Doctors in Gaza, and the family homes of anyone in Leadership Positions in Gaza, including the family homes of Hamas in Gaza.
“I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.” — Lincoln’s House Divided Speech
Israel will either push all Palestinians out of Palestine, or the Palestinians will become the majority population in ONE STATE, Palestine Israel.
Ahmed Abu Artema, the inspiration behind the Great March of Return has been targeted by Israeli bombardment …
https://twitter.com/preacherdog/status/1717714604988453065
IDF Targets Families of Doctors and Reporters
Palestine Ambassador to UN Fayad Monsour spoke today before an emergency session of the UNGA in New York. In his speech he urged the Assembly to take urgent action for humanitarian aid and protection of the civilian population in Gaza.
He gave testimony to another incident today …
Wael El-Dahdouh, Al-Jazeera Bureau Chief in Gaza, was reporting live when an Israeli airstrike targeted the southern Gaza building where his family sheltered, killing his wife, son, daughter, and grandson.
Targeted assassination of enemy personnel assets whether military, political or spokesmen,
has long been part of security doctrine for Israel among other nations
So that is not news. Here’s a link to the ynet article: https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/skq1100jhfp
But nowhere mentioned in ynet that family members have been targeted specifically.
While one may safely assume that family members are considered collateral damage, claiming that the objective of the war is targeting family members of senior Hamas operatives must be considered hearsay and especially so, absent attribution.
Overall, I enjoy reading your blog, as it serves to balance my perspective as one who lives here in Israel. But this story only reinforces my impression that your reporting needs to be taken with a grain of salt every now and then.
@David: It doesn’t matter how long Israel has been assassinating its enemies. It was/is immoral and a violation of the laws of war and conflict. Not to mention that all major strategic and military analysts declare that assassinations and torture do not work in achieving national objectives.
As for the YNET report, the story is under censorship. Ynet cannot report what i did. But my source is permitted to leak stories like this to me. So what Ynet published or didn’t pubolish is irrelevant.
Family members are being targeted. Again no matter what Ynet did or didn’t say. The murder of Dahbouh’s family proves this.
As for attribution. Sources lay conditions for leaking. journalists honor those conditions. As I did. Journalists publish stories with sources who are anonymous every day. It’s a long established and legitimate practice. SO i Could give a flying f* what you think of my report or source. I didn’t invite you here. I don’t write for your approbation. If you don’t like what you’re reading, go elsewhere.