Global SITREP C29-14: Operation Protective Edge Morphs Into War of Attrition

IDF Merkava Mk4 MBTs form up in ranks to return to Israel from Gaza

3 August 2014 - Operation Protective Edge Day27: After 27 days of combat in Gaza, Israel's political leadership has decided that Operation Protective Edge will have achieved its mission objective of destroying all terrorist tunnels. Along with this determination the IDF also declared 2LT Hadar Goldin KIA and therefore not a prisoner of the enemy in Gaza. Israel can now go home, it's mission in Gaza is complete and there are no MIA soldiers to search for in Gaza. Yes, it appears as if 2LT Goldin's corpse, as well as that of SGT. Oron Shaul, will be left in the hands of the terrorists of Gaza; Israel abandons its soldiers on the field of battle for the purpose of political expediency; not everyone gets to come home.

With HAMAS, the PIJ, Islamic State and all other jihadi factions still extant on or under Gaza's soil this war will now morph into a war of cross-border attrition with rocket, missile, mortar and sniper fire coming out of Gaza being responded to by Israeli airstrikes, artillery and tank fire coming into Gaza. There will be no demilitarization of Gaza by the IDF, not this time anyway. And Israel's population will have to live with the sound of Code Red sirens 24/7 indefinitely. No army pulls itself out of a war zone, (i.e. relinquishes conquered territory) just to re-group, spin around and then go back in a day or a week later. The destruction of the terrorists of Gaza will have to wait for another day, another war.

In this type of unilateral disengagement the government of Israel can make all the claims that suit its political purposes and whims, but it has not achieved anything close to a comprehensive military victory. Israel has not won this war; it has postponed it to another day in the future. The Islamic Republic of Iran, though its proxies, has achieved a state of perpetual war on Israel's southern border with Gaza, a war of attrition which is guaranteed to continue to consume Israel's resources of every type imaginable for the foreseeable future. It also remains to be seen how the Israeli public will react to the current situation; how Likud manages to spin this fiasco and remain in power after the next election. Israel's generals did not get to fight this war with respect to any established doctrine; the politicians in Jerusalem made certain of that.

4 August 2014: OPE Day 28 was pretty much the same as what occurred on OPE Day 27. The terrorists launched another 100 rockets at Israel. The difference, if one can it that, is that yet another in an endless stream of worthless 72-hour cease fires has been scheduled to erupt in about four and one-half hours from now (0800 Israel time) during what we might ostensibly refer to as OPE Day 29. Same old, same old, including the quasi-intifada going on in Jerusalem's environs. By the way, as of sunset this evening Tisha B'Av officially commenced in Israel.

HaKirya, Israel government center and IDF HQ in Tel Aviv defended by the Lord's Qadiym

Final Update 4 August 2014 - OPE Day 28: On Sunday, 3 August, there was a report in Israel Today in which an Iron Dome anti-missile system operator admitted that there was a very rare instance recently where a HAMAS long range rocket (an M-75 of R-160 no doubt) that was inbound for the high-value the HaKirya (Campus) of central Tel Aviv. The inbound rocket was targeted, fired at and missed three times by its Arrow interceptors. This kind of failure of Iron Dome is virtually unheard of.

What happened within the next few and precious seconds is straight out of Genesis 41, Exodus 10/14 and especially Job 27:21, which says: "The east wind (qadiym) carries him away, and he is gone; It sweeps him out of his place." This is precisely what the Hand of God did to save hundreds of lives in the the HaKirya. As translated into English from the Hebrew kooker website, here is the Iron Dome operators narrative:

"A missile was fired from Gaza. Iron Dome precisely calculated [its trajectory]. We know where these missiles are going to land down to a radius of 200 meters. This particular missile was going to hit either the Azrieli Towers, the Kirya (Israel’s equivalent of the Pentagon) or [a central Tel Aviv railway station]. Hundreds could have died.
"We fired the first [interceptor]. It missed. Second [interceptor]. It missed. This is very rare. I was in shock. At this point we had just four seconds until the missile lands. We had already notified emergency services to converge on the target location and had warned of a mass-casualty incident.
"Suddenly, Iron Dome (which calculates wind speeds, among other things) shows a major wind coming from the east, a strong wind that…sends the missile into the sea. We were all stunned. I stood up and shouted, ‘There is a God!’
“I witnessed this miracle with my own eyes. It was not told or reported to me. I saw the hand of God send that missile into the sea.”

Despite all that is now occurring, or not occurring, as we may perceive these events in the Israel-HAMAS War this summer, one thing remains true above all else - the God of Israel is in total control; His will is being done for His purposes. Nothing is finished until He says "It is finished!"

Thank you Abba, in Jesus Name!