Swords of Iron Day 1064: A Knife at Damascus Gate and a City That Held

Shabbat shalom from the Mediterranean Sea. This is Swords of Iron Day 1064, the sun is about to set, Shabbat is beginning, and I want to salute everyone who, like me, could not go home on leave this weekend. They are still out there defending this country so that our families can rest.

Swords of Iron Day 1064 began with something that could have been far worse. In the early hours of the morning, a terrorist rode a scooter toward Damascus Gate in Jerusalem. He waited. He scoped out the area. Then he pulled a knife and chased Jewish people through the street.

Border Police and officers confronted him within seconds. One officer fired three shots and brought him down. Tens of thousands of people were in that area at the time, streaming toward the Kotel and through the Old City. It could have been a massacre. Instead, it was stopped.

Hatred Is Taught Long Before It Is Acted On

This is what happens when people are fed lies until they believe them. The same period also brought an attempted firebomb attack on a bus, along with cases involving contact with a foreign agent and ties to terror organizations.

Antisemitism does not appear overnight. It grows. It grows through hatred, through misinformation, and through slow radicalization that starts in a classroom or on a phone screen long before it ever reaches a street corner in Jerusalem. Therefore, when someone tells you this conflict began recently, they are describing the fire and ignoring the years of kindling.

I am thankful that God watched over Israel that morning. However, gratitude is not the same as complacency. We have to keep telling the truth about where this hatred actually comes from.

Religious and Secular, One Nation Under Pressure

We must bring everyone together. Religious Israelis and secular Israelis, veterans and new immigrants, people who disagree about almost everything else. All of us need to stand in the same line.

On Swords of Iron Day 1064 we are fighting for our lives on multiple fronts at once, and our enemies do not check which synagogue we attend or which party we vote for. Unity is not a slogan here. In practice, it is a survival strategy.

Iran, Gaza, and the Refusal to Live Under Threat Again

Our prime minister says Israel has both the means and the determination to remove the threat coming from Iran. That means preventing another October 7 in Gaza. It also means preventing missiles from returning across our northern border, and stopping the attacks launched by the Houthis in Yemen.

Notice the wording on Swords of Iron Day 1064, because it matters. The goal is not simply to push the threats back a few kilometers and call it quiet. The goal is to shut down the funding and the terrorist regime standing behind all of it, including the IRGC. Pushing a threat away buys time. Removing the machine that builds the threat buys a future.

Israel Holds the Ali Taher Ridge in Southern Lebanon

Defense Minister Israel Katz says that on Swords of Iron Day 1064 we are making leaps and bounds in the north. Israeli forces have taken the strategic Ali Taher ridge in southern Lebanon, and the mission there is straightforward. Create enough security depth that tunnels and drone factories can no longer threaten the communities of the Galilee.

My view on this is simple. Israel should not withdraw until Hezbollah is genuinely disarmed and the threat to the Galilee is removed. We have already watched what happens when the world promises to disarm a terror army on our behalf. Consequently, the families of the north deserve a guarantee they can see from their own windows.

Three Years of War and the Cost Nobody Sees

We are approaching the third anniversary of October 7. I have served continuously since the very beginning. Gaza, Lebanon, reserve duty, jobs given up, families carrying the weight at home while someone they love is in uniform.

So many people have paid a tremendous personal cost, and most of it never appears in a headline. Yet the threats remain. That is the hard sentence of Swords of Iron Day 1064, and I am not going to soften it.

We have not forgotten our soldiers when they come home. This war is not over. Hezbollah remains entrenched in Lebanon. Hamas remains in Gaza. We have made real progress, but progress is not the same as finished, and we must persevere together until full and complete victory.

Tunnels Are Still Being Found in Gaza

More than two dozen tunnels have reportedly been destroyed in Gaza since the ceasefire began, and the search continues on Swords of Iron Day 1064. Think about what that number actually tells you. It tells you the terror infrastructure was never dismantled voluntarily, and it tells you that quiet on the surface does not mean quiet underground.

So we will keep searching. We will keep finding. Furthermore, we will keep removing the rest of them, because a tunnel left standing is a promise that all of this happens again.

Psalm 43 and the Smile That Comes Back

There is a verse I keep returning to on days like Swords of Iron Day 1064. Psalm 43 asks, why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Then it answers itself. Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, my salvation and my God.

Notice that the psalm does not deny the discouragement. It names the feeling honestly and then refuses to stay there. That is exactly where this nation lives right now, somewhere between grief and stubborn hope.

Sometimes it feels like we could lose hope entirely. However, God brings the smile back to our faces. He is still our God, and He has not stopped watching over this land or this people. That is why the theme of Swords of Iron Day 1064 is a smile rather than a sigh. A nation that can still smile after three years of war is a nation nobody is going to break.

Shabbat shalom from Israel.

Watch the Full Swords of Iron Day 1064 Update

You can watch the complete Day 1064 briefing on Rumble or on YouTube. For the previous briefing in this series, see Swords of Iron Day 1063, and learn more about the work of the Aliyah Return Center.

Israel is standing. Am Yisrael Chai.

About These Swords of Iron Updates

Swords of Iron Day 1064 is part of a daily series written from Israel by the team at the Aliyah Return Center in the Galilee, drawing on Israeli and international reporting alongside firsthand perspective from the ground. Our work centers on welcoming and supporting new immigrants, training ambassadors for Israel, and helping friends of Israel around the world understand what is actually happening here. If you would like to visit, volunteer, or support this work, you can reach us through the Aliyah Return Center website.