Portion of a newsletter I received from Israel today:
The IDF is determined to staunch the threat from the south, because they understand the brutality of the enemy. On October 7, 19 yr old Adir Tahar was brutally murdered when Hamas terrorists fired an anti-tank missile at him, then followed up by throwing three grenades. When Adir’s father, David, read the autopsy report, it showed that his body was severely damaged and that the terrorists had decapitated him and stolen his head. This began a father’s desperate and tragic search for the head of his son, so that he could bury him with at least some dignity. After weeks without a lead, a terrorist under interrogation confessed that he had Adir’s head and had attempted to sell it in Gaza for $10,000. Based on his information, the IDF searched an ice cream shop in Gaza and found Adir’s head in a suitcase stored in the freezer. David was finally able to bury his son intact. It is stories like these that will keep us Israelis fighting until we are sure that all our borders are safe.
Iran’s Conflict with Syria, Iraq, and Pakistan
Iran fired a ballistic missile at the Pakistani headquarters of Jaish al-Adel, an armed Sunni militia, in Pakistan’s Balochistan province near the Iranian border. Pakistan immediately warned of serious consequences to the attack, then proceeded to close its border with Iran while deploying forces into the area. Baluchi militants didn’t wait for the Pakistani government to act against Iran. The group Gish al-Adel on Wednesday shot to death a high-ranking IRGC officer in Balochistan. Also, on Wednesday, Iran launched another air attack into Pakistan, and now Pakistani F-16s are flying around the border. Then, today, the action continued. Pakistan fired a drone and rocket attack against terrorist organizations in southeastern Iran. Not hitting official Iranian targets was a strategic move, letting Tehran know that Islamabad was capable of the same kind of cross-border air attack. Instead of a punch, this was more of a bumping of the chests. Iran, in an act of whatever the Persian version of “chutzpah” is, demanded an explanation for Pakistan’s actions, and immediately ordered military exercises to take place in the area. This is a conflict that must be watched, and, again, it can’t be emphasized enough that this change of philosophy by the Islamic regime in Iran to engage directly rather than through their proxies is a significant step.