Day 180

Chaim starts by saying that we’re at a critical moment in history when Anti-Semitism is manifesting itself in many new and shockingly evil ways. But Israel is standing strong against the forces of barbarism, a bulwark against the rising tide of evil that protects the whole world, including many of those in Western countries who are criticizing it so harshly.

Chaim quotes Psalms 9:6-9; O enemy, destructions are finished forever! And you have destroyed cities; Even their memory has perished. But the Lord shall endure forever; He has prepared His throne for judgment. He shall judge the world in righteousness, Snd He shall administer judgment for the peoples in uprightness. The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.

Next Chaim describes an Iranian plan that’s been uncovered to destroy Israel in one day, similar to the plot that’s described in the Book of Esther.

The plan included attacks from the north by the “Radwan” commando units of Hezbollah and the “Nukbah” commandos of Hamas from the south. They were to advance and take key areas, taking hostages and pushing out the emergency response teams.

The Hamas was supposed to dig in and establish a defensive position called “the Beer Sheva Line” which would isolate the IDF forces in the Negev from the rest of the country, while the Radwan forces were meant to establish a similar position in the north near the Golani Junction. This would cut Israel into three parts and make it very difficult for the IDF to mobilize and push these terrorist forces out.

 This was meant to encourage other terrorist groups in the region to also jump in and attack Israel while it was disorganized and off guard. The hope was that Palestinian Islamic Jihad, as well as the Houthis in Yemen and other Iranian-sponsored terrorist groups, would jump in with attacks and ultimately maybe even regular Iranian forces.

The ultimate goal was that Israel’s defensive systems and forces would simply be overwhelmed.

Seen in this context, the attacks by Hamas on October 7th were meant to be a catalyst for all these other forces to pounce on Israel all at once. But miraculously, that didn’t happen. Hamas acted alone and none of the other terrorist organizations were ready to jump in with their own attacks.

Meanwhile, despite achieving a tactical surprise by crossing the border in force, Hamas failed to establish the planned “Beer Sheva Line” because the people of the border kibbutzeem, despite being surprised, outnumbered and outgunned, managed to hold them off for a few critical hours while the IDF forces were mobilized and sent to the area to confront them. This broke the momentum of the Hamas assault and led to them failing to achieve their strategic goals.

It also motivated the Israelis to strike back hard, which Hamas and their Iranian patrons apparently didn’t think they would do. The IDF also managed to quickly mobilize hundreds of thousands of reservists and deploy to defensive positions in the north, which prevented Hezbollah from carrying out a surprise assault of their own, which was the second critical part of the Iranian plan.

Now the IDF is filled with righteous determination to finish the job!