Israel at War: What happened on day 15?

The air force chief said he “wouldn’t want to swap places with our enemy and face an IDF division or brigade,” as the army continued with its plans for an invasion of Gaza.

Maj.-Gen. Tomer Bar’s comments were made on Saturday during a briefing of squadron commanders in preparation for the invasion.

At the briefing, Bar also said the Israel Air Force has struck Hamas with thousands of missiles.

“We will come in with full force and strike them as if [it was] the first day of the battle,” Bar said. “Our role is to ‘embrace’ the land forces and say: ‘The enemy you are about to encounter met us before’” – meaning that the air force had worn down Hamas before the ground forces had to enter.

IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said, “Gaza is densely populated; the enemy has prepared a lot [for our invasion], but we are also preparing,” during a visit to Golani troops.

Israel Air Force drills with foreign forces in the ''Blue Drill'' exercise in October 2021. (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his inner war cabinet, along with National Unity Party leader and war minister Benny Gantz, also met on Saturday. The content of the meeting is classified.

Earlier Saturday, IDF Spokesman Brig.-Gen. Daniel Hagari said one-fifth of the rockets fired by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have misfired in the last day, landing inside Gaza and killing civilians.

Over the course of the conflict, 550 rockets have been misfired into Gaza by the terror groups. “They are killing their own people,” he said.

The announcement came only a few days after Hamas accused Israel of firing a rocket that struck Gaza’s Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, killing dozens of people. The accusation was quickly dispelled by the IDF and independent, international investigators who found the rocket emanated from a PIJ misfire.

Weekend rockets with few hits

Over the weekend, Hamas continued its rocket fire on Tel Aviv and the Gaza corridor, but with even less success in hitting Israelis or disturbing daily life as compared to many other days in recent weeks.

Hagari said, however, that Israel is continuing to attack Hamas military targets in the northern Gaza Strip in preparation for an imminent ground invasion. Israel planned to enter Gaza last week, but delayed due to a variety of factors, including evacuating civilians, US pressure on humanitarian issues, tactical concerns about Hezbollah’s intention, and traps that Hamas might be setting. He said 700,000 residents had already moved to the southern Gaza Strip.

Hagari also updated the number of soldiers killed and hostages taken. He said Israel had been in touch with the families of 307 fallen soldiers so far. He also raised the number of hostages to 210, noting that the country constantly gathers intelligence and informs families as soon as they know something new.

“That number will continue to change, and we will update you every time we tell a new family” that their loved one has been kidnapped.

On Thursday, Maj.-Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon said a complex array of factors meant that the IDF had high certainty about a majority of its estimates, but that there were dozens or more cases that still required more examination of evidence, DNA testing, and other issues.

Some 765 civilians murdered by Hamas since the start of the war have so far been identified, the police said on Saturday.

The police, the IDF, and volunteers from ZAKA at the casualty identification station in Camp Shora have been working to identify the victims of Hamas’s massacre in the South for the past two weeks. They said the 765 victims who have been so far identified comprise approximately 75% of the Israeli civilians who were killed in the conflict.

Meanwhile, the IDF and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) on Saturday arrested 89 wanted terrorists in Judea and Samaria overnight, including 68 members of the Hamas terrorist organization.

Among those arrested were prominent and close associates of Saleh al-Arouri, who, from outside the area, manages military-terrorist networks in the West Bank. These included al-Arouri’s brother and cousin – both members of Hamas – and Abraham Suleiman from Nablus, a prominent Hamas operative and former prisoner.

In addition, the IDF demolished the home of Hamas terrorist Maher Shalon, who carried out the Almog junction shooting attack in February, which killed Israeli-American Elan Ganeles.

During the operation, several suspects threw stones at the forces and fired explosives, prompting the troops to respond with fire. Injuries were reported.

In addition, the army and Shin Bet said forces located and confiscated materials used for manufacturing weapons in the village of Qusra.

Since the start of the conflict on October 7, there have been 670 wanted individuals arrested throughout the Judea and Samaria region, as well as in the Jordan Valley and the Bekaa region, with over 450 affiliated with Hamas, the army said.

Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report. 

The first humanitarian aid convoy to be sent to the besieged Gaza Strip since war broke out arrived through the Rafah border crossing on Saturday, after wrangling over conditions for delivering relief left it stranded in Egypt.

The United Nations said the 20-truck convoy included life-saving supplies that would be received by the Palestinian Red Crescent, but the aid was a fraction of the quantity needed and it was unclear how much aid will be allowed to pass in coming days.

Rafah is the main route in and out of the Gaza Strip that is not controlled by Israel, and the focus of efforts to deliver relief to Gaza's 2.3 million residents.

UN officials say at least 100 trucks a day are required in Gaza to cover urgent needs, and that any delivery of aid should be sustained and at scale. Before the outbreak of conflict, an average of about 450 aid trucks were arriving there daily.

Trucks carrying aid arrive at the Palestinian side of the border with Egypt, as the conflict between Israel and Palestinian terrorist group Hamas continues, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, October 21, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)

"The humanitarian situation in Gaza – already precarious – has reached catastrophic levels," UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said in a statement.

"I am confident that this delivery will be the start of a sustainable effort to provide essential supplies – including food, water, medicine and fuel," he said.

Israel imposed a total blockade and launched air strikes on Gaza in response to a deadly attack on Israeli soil by Hamas on Oct. 7. The Rafah crossing has been out of operation since shortly afterwards, and bombardments on the Gaza side damaged roads and buildings that needed repairs.

Supplies running out in Gaza

The UN has warned that food has been running out in Gaza and supplies of fuel needed to keep hospital back-up generators running have reached dangerously low levels.

Israel has said it will allow no aid to enter from its territory until Hamas releases the hostages it took during its attack, and that aid can enter through Egypt as long as it does not end up in the hands of Hamas.

International donors have been flying aid into Al Arish, about 45 km (28 miles) west of Rafah in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

No large-scale relief effort has been operated from Egypt during previous conflicts in Gaza, when aid passed through the Kerem Shalom crossing, controlled by Israel.

The Israeli military said on Saturday that aid entering Gaza did not include fuel and would only go to southern areas of the enclave, where Israel has urged civilians to congregate.

Many of Gaza's residents have crammed into southern areas to avoid air strikes in the north, though they also say that nowhere in the territory is safe.

"We have upped the logistical and operational abilities of the Red Crescent by adding more volunteers and cars. We have rented storages in Khan Younis and Rafah," said Mahmoud Abu Atta, of the Palestinian Red Crescent, as he entered the Rafah Crossing to receive aid.

Western states have been pushing to evacuate foreign passport holders from Gaza and the US Embassy in Israel said any border opening on Saturday could enable foreigners to leave the territory.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited the border on Friday in a push to get the aid in, saying a mechanism for inspection of the aid demanded by Israel was still being worked out and that delivery of relief should not be tied to the release of hostages or evacuation of foreigners.

The National Security Council and the Foreign Ministry have escalated the travel advisory for Egypt and Jordan to level 4, the most severe warning, and urged all Israelis to return promptly.

"Due to the ongoing conflict, in recent days, there has been a significant increase in protests against Israel in various countries worldwide, emphasizing Arab countries in the Middle East," a joint message released Saturday morning read. "This is accompanied by hostility and violence against Israeli symbols and Jews. Concurrently, there has been a rise in the rhetoric of global jihadist entities that call for harm to Israelis and Jews worldwide."

Furthermore, the nation elevated the travel advisory for Morocco to level 3 and strongly recommended that Israelis avoid non-essential travel to the region.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators set an Israeli flag on fire during a protest near the Israeli Consulate as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues, in Istanbul, Turkey October 18, 2023 (credit: REUTERS/DILARA SENKAYA)

Foreign Ministry asks Israelis to avoid all Muslim countries

The communication stressed the importance of Israelis adhering to travel advisories, including those previously implemented. Israelis are asked to avoid visiting Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain. Furthermore, they are advised to exercise caution when considering travel to Muslim nations under travel warnings, such as Malaysia, Bangladesh, and Indonesia, as well as Muslim countries without specific travel advisories, like the Maldives.

The Israel-Hamas conflict has increased hate crimes targeting both Jewish and Muslim communities. In a recent press briefing, the FBI acknowledged a rise in threats against these communities, but specific numbers were not released.

"Here in the US, we cannot and do not discount the possibility that Hamas or other foreign terrorist organizations could exploit the conflict to call on their supporters to conduct attacks on our soil," Director Christopher Wray said.

He said the attacks could target Jewish and Muslim institutions and individuals.

The US Embassy in Israel said the Gaza-Egypt border may open on Saturday, suggesting that such a move would enable foreigners to leave the besieged Palestinian enclave.

In a social media post, the embassy said it had "received info" that the Rafah crossing would open at 10 a.m. (0700GMT). "We do not know how long it will remain open for foreign citizens to depart Gaza," it added.

The IDF continued to destroy the terrorist infrastructure of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. IDF jets continued to attack many targets throughout the Gaza Strip.

Among the targets attacked were operational headquarters, anti-tank launchers as well as other infrastructures of Hamas that were used for terrorism.

Additionally, the IDF attacked observation, anti-tank, and sniper positions of Hamas which were located inside high-rise buildings.
 

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani left Baghdad for Cairo early on Saturday to attend a peace conference over the war between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza, the prime minister's media office said.

More than 200 Israeli environmental leaders and activists have sent a letter to Greta Thunberg after she posted a pro-Hamas thread on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“Today we strike in solidarity with Palestine and Gaza,” Thunberg posted. “The world needs to speak up and call for an immediate ceasefire, justice and freedom for Palestinians and all civilians affected.”

Week 270. Today we strike in solidarity with Palestine and Gaza. The world needs to speak up and call for an immediate ceasefire, justice and freedom for Palestinians and all civilians affected.#FreePalestine #IStandWithPalestine #StandWithGaza #FridaysForFuture
Thread🧵 pic.twitter.com/0hVtya0yWO

— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) October 20, 2023

She posted it with a photo of herself holding a “Stand with Gaza” sign alongside three friends, each with a similar message. One sign read, “This Jew stands with Palestine.” 

The thread offered links to resources so people could donate and support Gaza. It also included a statement against antisemitism.

'Deeply hurt and shocked'

Thunberg catapulted to prominence in 2018 when she organized school walkouts to draw attention to the urgent need for action on climate change. From 2019 to 2020, she took a year off school to dedicate her efforts towards environmental activism, gaining widespread recognition for her dynamic addresses directed at global leaders. Her commitment to the cause made her an icon of the environmental movement.

But Israel’s environmental leaders told her over the weekend that they are “deeply hurt, shocked and disappointed with your tweets and posts regarding Gaza, which are appallingly one-sided, ill-informed, superficial and are in complete contrast to your ability to deep dive into details and get to the bottom of complex issues.”

They accused Thunberg of “[taking] sides with terrorists, with the worst and darkest representatives of humans, and plainly - with the wrong side of history.”

The letter was spearheaded by Rony Bruell, founder of the Israeli Forum of Women in the Environment. In just a few hours, Bruell captured more than 200 signatures from like-minded individuals nationwide, many in top roles at their institutions. 

The document details how Hamas brutally murdered Israelis on October 7, including burning babies and their parents alive. It also highlights the people who are held hostage, including those with severe illnesses and special needs.

A collage of a family kidnapped by Hamas during its assault on southern Israel on October 7. (credit: THE MEDIA LINE)

Specifically, they name their colleague, Dr. Shoshan Haran, founder and president of Fair Planet, a nonprofit organization that supports small farmers in developing countries. She and multiple family members have been missing since the massacre. 

Haran spent time working in Africa helping poor people and refugees, many of them Muslim. In a fiery film produced by Haran’s son, linked in the letter, he says, “My mother is also a citizen of Germany, but she is a citizen of the entire world. Please do me a small thing to help, save my family and share this video with everyone you know.”

'Does any of this sound like a part of the fight for freedom?'

“Is this the way you imagine fighting for human rights? With cold-blooded killings of civilians, violent rape of women, and kidnapping of infants and the elderly?” the writers of the letter asked. “Does any of this sound like a part of the fight for freedom? Are you seriously standing with the people who hold a grandmother with her grandchildren?”

The writers urged Thunberg “to look again at the atrocities conducted by Hamas, to read the stories of those who are no longer with us, to look at the pictures of those held in captivity and learn more about the conflicts in our region. 

“We expect you and your family will never have to run for your lives and lose sleep worrying for your loved ones, but if this ever happens, we promise not to side with your abusers,” the letter concluded. 

Dozens of others responded to Thunberg’s post, including one environmentalist who said, “The environmental movement in Israel adores you and admires your amazing work. We are heartbroken by your one-sided support in the bleeding conflict.”

Another surfer responded by posting a new hashtag: #GretasupportsISIS.

The official Israel Twitter account also reacted: "@GretaThunberg, Hamas doesn’t use sustainable materials for their rockets which have BUTCHERED innocent Israelis. The victims of the Hamas massacre could have been your friends. Speak up."

.@GretaThunberg, Hamas doesn’t use sustainable materials for their rockets which have BUTCHERED innocent Israelis .

The victims of the Hamas massacre could have been your friends.

Speak up. https://t.co/giHNJxeF6N pic.twitter.com/Z4orsm2UjD

— Israel ישראל 🇮🇱 (@Israel) October 20, 2023

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Fred Zeidman is a longtime Republican Jewish Committee leader who has been deeply critical of Joe Biden. He is backing Nikki Haley, the former ambassador to the United Nations, in her bid to unseat him.

So it was uncharacteristic when he praised a speech Biden gave before flying to Israel this week. 

“I said, ‘I’m not going to say one thing bad about this guy,’” Zeidman told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “I think this is probably the most genuine impassioned speech I have ever heard from a sitting American president.”

Zeidman was far from the only right-wing Jew to be won over by Biden during the last two weeks, as the president has delivered unqualified support for Israel’s war against Hamas, launched in response to the terror group’s deadly invasion on Oct. 7. 

“While I have been, and remain, deeply critical of the Biden Administration, the moral, tactical, diplomatic and military support that it has provided Israel over the past few days has been exceptional,” David Friedman, Donald Trump’s ambassador to Israel, said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. 

In Israel, where Trump was popular, Biden’s approval rating has shot up. A commentator on Israel’s Channel 14, a right-wing outlet that has lacerated Biden since his election, addressed him directly four days after the attack.

“Forgive us, for all that hard things that we said, and all that we thought,” said the commentator, Shay Golden. “Thank you, Mr. President, truly, thank you, thank you.”

For those who have long been on Biden’s side, his support for Israel comes as little surprise. His diplomatic ties to the country are longstanding, his affection frequently expressed. 

“He gets the DNA of Zionism,” David Makovsky, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who was a staffer in the Obama administration working on Israeli-Palestinian peace. “He just gets the idea of Israel. He has said no Jew is safe if there’s no Israel and basically, that’s what Zionism says, which is that stateless Jews are defenseless.”

Yet in a polarized political climate, even Biden’s pro-Israel bona fides have been dismissed by many on the right. The pro-Israel community in the United States and Israeli officials disdained the Middle East policy of President Barack Obama, under whom Biden served as vice president; in particular, they felt that Obama’s deal with Iran put Israel at risk. Many Republicans have mocked Biden’s age and foibles, saying they are evidence of his inability to serve at 80. And even those who might not have quarreled with Biden himself have worried that the Democratic Party is coming under the sway of progressives who are deeply critical of Israel.

Biden’s actions since Oct. 7 appear to have put all of those concerns to rest. Immediately after the attack, he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and warned Israel’s enemies not to exploit its vulnerability. Two days later, he draped the White House in the blue and white colors of the Israeli flag, saying “this is not some distant tragedy.” The next day, he addressed the nation, calling the attack “pure, unadulterated evil”.

Biden instructed his Jewish liaisons to brief the Jewish community, including on the measures he was taking to protect American Jews. He personally dropped by a White House briefing for Jewish leaders and said he was doing everything he could to release hostages. 

Biden and Blinken

He sent his secretary of state, Antony Blinken, on an extended Middle East tour to show support for Israel and garner backing from regional allies. He also ordered two aircraft carriers to the region.

“My message to any state or any other hostile actor thinking about attacking Israel remains the same as it was a week ago: Don’t. Don’t. Don’t,” Biden said on Wednesday.

The comment came during Biden’s lightning trip to Israel, where in less than 24 hours he sat in on a government meeting, met with and hugged survivors of the attack and delivered a searing speech in which he described the stages of Jewish mourning.

The visit came amid surging calls for Israel to cease bombing Gaza in its effort to quash Hamas. Seth Mandel, writing in the conservative Commentary magazine, praised Biden for resisting those calls from within his own party. “Everything in Biden’s speech today and his general demeanor …  suggest he takes the inevitability of a ground incursion for granted and is uninterested in saving Hamas,” Mandel said.

Rejecting widespread criticism of Israel, Biden said upon his arrival in Tel Aviv that he believed Israeli claims that an explosion at a Gaza City hospital was the fault of Islamist terrorists. 

He repeated that insistence during his Oval Office address on Thursday night, a rare step signifying special concern. “I am heartbroken by the tragic loss of Palestinian life, including the explosion at a hospital in Gaza — which was not done by the Israelis,” he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with United States President Joe Biden in Tel Aviv, October 18, 2023. (credit: MIRIAM ALSTER/FLASH90)

In his speech, he said attacks on Israel (and Ukraine) amounted to an attack on democracy and appealed to Congress for billions in additional defense assistance for Israel.

“He has absolutely come through in the clutch,” Zeidman said.

A photo of Biden’s face, with the massive caption, “Thank you, Mr. President,” newly graces a billboard overlooking Tel Aviv’s Ayalon highway.  Moshe Lion, the mayor of Jerusalem and a member of the right-wing Likud Party, draped Jerusalem monuments with coupled Israeli and US flags, and in a statement said the display was to honor Biden’s visit, although the president did not come to Jerusalem.

“From the beginning of the conflict, the president has stood with us firmly, assisting Israel and providing a powerful and meaningful voice against the terrible acts that have occurred in the South and against the threats from our enemies in the North,” Lion said. (Israeli troops are exchanging fire with Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based terrorist group that, like Hamas, is backed by Iran.) 

The Israeli satirical show “Eretz Nehederet” aired a joke similar to the comments that crop up among Israelis on social media: Israelis need a leader, and it is Biden, not Netanyahu.

Biden’s lightning visit, his vivid empathy in his departure speech, and his visits with victims and heroes of the Oct. 7 attacks filled a leadership gap in Israel, said Tal Schneider, an Israeli political journalist who is closely watching the 2024 US presidential election.

“People are in such shock, but they were heartwarmed and they felt embraced and many people said to me, ‘This is the first time that we see a leader,’ because since the war began… they did not hear anything with empathy, “ she said. 

“The government here, it seems like they don’t really care,” she said, referring to widespread dissatisfaction with Netanyahu, and the perception that in addition to failing to prevent the attack, he has been absent since it occurred.  “People thought that this is our father, you know, what I mean?” she said of Biden. “He came to the rescue, with all the American might.” 

The display has rehabilitated Biden’s image in the country, according to Amir Tibon, a journalist for the liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz whose father rescued his family on Oct. 7 and who was among the Israelis to meet with the US president this week.

“Most Israelis heard over the last few years derogatory things about Biden due to his advanced age,” Tibon wrote in Haaretz. “Those who had the honor of meeting him Wednesday afternoon saw his age from another perspective, one of life experience and wisdom.” Tibon called Biden “the most important Zionist leader in the world.”

At home, too, the perception of Biden among many of his critics has shifted.

“In a world that pretends Israel has no right to exist, much less defend itself, Biden has shown tremendous moral courage at a key moment, despite criticism from his own party,” said a statement from Rabbi Avrohom Gordimer,  the chairman of the Rabbinic Circle of the Coalition for Jewish Values, a right-wing Orthodox group that has also consistently criticized Democratic policies.

“The president’s actions since the massacre reflect the American people’s steadfast support for the Jewish state and underscore the shared Western values that serve as the foundation for the US-Israel relationship,” Shari Dollinger, the co-executive director of Christians United for Israel, a group consistently critical of Democratic policies, said in a text message.

And a rabbi from the Orthodox community in Woodmere, New York, a redoubt of Jewish Trump supporters, solicited and delivered 18,000 letters of thanks to Biden.

Non-Jewish right-wing voices have also been won over by Biden. “I think It may be remembered as one of the best, if not the best, speeches of his presidency,” Brit Hume, a commentator on Fox News, said after the Oval Office speech. “He was as strong as he has been, particularly in recent days — before he went to Israel and while he was over there.”

Some Republicans remain skeptical if not hostile. Trump continues to say that he would do better than Biden at protecting Israel (although he alienated Israelis by praising Hezbollah and blaming Israel’s leadership for the Hamas incursion). Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, citing differences of policy with the Biden administration over humanitarian funding for the Palestinians, and an aid-for-hostages deal with Iran, accused Biden of helming the “most consistently and virulently anti-Israel administration America has ever seen.”

And even those Jewish conservatives praising Biden in the moment, including Zeidman, Friedman and Mandel, remain in a watchful wait-and-see mode. Zeidman said he wants Biden to more directly identify Iran as a hostile actor behind the attack.

“If there’s one thing that might have concerned me just a little bit, he has yet to mention Iran,” he said. (Biden’s aides have said that Iran bears some blame to the extent that it funds and trains Hamas, but they have yet to see direct evidence that Iran was involved in the Hamas invasion.)

Republicans have in the past sought fodder to attack Biden on Israel-related policy. One story that persistently crops up describes his encounter with the late Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. According to the story, penned by a Begin confidante just after the former prime minister’s death in 1992, a decade after the fact, Biden had yelled at Begin, and threatened to cut aid to Israel if Begin did not stop settlement building.

“Don’t threaten us with slashing aid,” Begin said in their 1982 meeting in a room in the U.S, Capitol, according to that account. “Do you think that because the US lends us money it is entitled to impose on us what we must do? We are grateful for the assistance we have received, but we are not to be threatened. I am a proud Jew. Three thousand years of culture are behind me, and you will not frighten me with threats.”

Except, according to someone in the meeting, that’s not quite how it happened: Biden, who was solidly pro-Israel, asked Begin how he planned to explain controversial Israeli policies. The senator was not criticizing the policies, but Begin, famously prickly, took it as criticism, said Mike Kraft, who at the time was a staffer on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“It wasn’t a hostile or critical thing, but Begin just kind of let loose on him,”  Kraft recalled in an interview this week. 

“We’re just like, pretty neutral question,” Kraft said of the people in the room. “And Begin fired back, and I remember a couple other staff who were looking around saying what’s going on?” He chuckled at the recollection.

The Republican Jewish Coalition over the years deployed the purported Begin encounter against Biden, including in a Facebook post in 2019, just after Biden announced his intention to unseat Donald Trump.

Yet last week, its CEO, Matt Brooks, was praising Biden to the New York Times — just two weeks before all the major Republican presidential candidates will speak to RJC donors at its annual conference in Las Vegas.

“This will sound surprising, but by and large, the president has shown tremendous support, unwavering support, for Israel at a critical time,” Brooks told the Times.  “Can we quibble on aspects of policy differences, over Iran’s complicity, for instance? Sure. But by and large, the American people and the international community have seen a president who has stood shoulder to shoulder with Israel.” (Brooks declined to comment to JTA, instead referring to his Times interview.) 

And then there’s Biden’s famous Golda Meir story. When Joe Biden spoke to an Israeli embassy Independence Day bash in 2015, he knew the anecdote was old hat — he’d been telling versions of it for 42 years — but he wanted to tell it anyway.

“I’ll conclude — and my friends kid me and I imagine Ron does as well,” the then-Vice President said, glancing at the then-Israeli ambassador, Ron Dermer. “I’ll tell you the story about my meeting with Golda Meir.” 

There was knowing laughter on the balmy April evening in the cavernous Andrew Mellon auditorium across from the National Mall: Jewish media reporters, who had for years covered Biden, glanced at each other and knocked back a little wine. Biden recalling Golda had become a drinking game.

The parameters of the story were familiar: He was a neophyte Delaware senator in the fall of 1973, barely 30 years old. She was the wizened, chain-smoking prime minister. He conveyed to her his sense that Israel’s enemies were about to launch a war. She seemed pessimistic too. (The Yom Kippur War would surprise Israel within days.) She asked him if he wanted to pose for a photograph. They stepped outside of her office.

“She said, ‘Senator, you look so worried,’” he said. “I said, ‘Well, my God, Madame Prime Minister,’ and I turned to look at her. I said, ‘The picture you paint.’ She said, ‘Oh, don’t worry. We have’ — I thought she only said this to me. She said, ‘We have a secret weapon in our conflict with the Arabs. You see, we have no place else to go.’”

The 2015 speech was aimed at assuaging tensions between his boss, President Barack Obama, and Dermer’s boss, Netanyahu, over the Iran nuclear deal Obama was brokering that year. That tension was what led the coverage of the speech.

But buried toward the end of the speech was a prophecy, made by a vice president and fulfilled by the same man once he became president: America would bring its military night to bear on Israel’s behalf, if it came to that.

“The most admirable thing about you is you’ve never asked us to fight for you,” he said in 2015.  “But I promise you, if you were attacked and overwhelmed, we would fight for you.”

Biden has repeated the Golda story — now 50 years in the telling — more than once since Oct. 7. And now, the quote he attributes to Meir is emblazoned on a cafe wall in Tel Aviv, with his signature and Meir’s.

Rocket sirens were heard in Sderot, Ibim, Nir Am, and Nirim

Rocket sirens were heard near Rishon LeZion, Ben Gurion Airport, and Yavne.

Magen David Adom EMTs and Paramedics have been dispatched to areas with reported rocket strikes, according to an MDA spokesperson.