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August 8, 2022 11:15 am
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Operation Breaking Dawn and Tisha B’Av: Viewed Through the Prism of History

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avatar by Gil Hoffman

Opinion

Rockets are launched by Palestinian militants into Israel, amid Israeli-Palestinian fighting, in Gaza August 7, 2022. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

The Haggadah read by Jews around the world on Passover says it clearly:

“Not just one alone has risen against us to destroy us, but in every generation they rise against us to destroy us, and the Holy One, blessed be He, saves us from their hand,” the text reads.

The observance of the Tisha Be’av fast that started on Saturday night was a painful reminder of several such attempts that occurred on what became the saddest day on the Jewish calendar.

The First Holy Jewish Temple was destroyed on that date in 586 BC by Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, who killed countless Jews and sent the Jewish people into exile.

Titus and his Roman legions destroyed the Second Temple, conquered Jerusalem after a brutal siege, and sent the Jewish people to an exile that lasted until the declaration of the modern State of Israel in 1948.

In between, the Jews were expelled from England and Spain and two World Wars began — all on that same date.

Nowadays, it is Iran that wants to destroy the Jewish state, and is gradually obtaining the nuclear weapons to be able to do it. The Islamic Republic is fully in command of the Gaza-based terrorist organization Islamic Jihad, funds it, and has armed it with the 450 rockets that were fired within 30 hours at Israeli civilians.

Islamic Jihad’s general-secretary, Ziad Nakhaleh, commanded the firing of those rockets from Iran. The terror group has murdered 194 Israelis in hundreds of terror attacks.

But this time, Israel did not wait for its enemies to harm the Jewish people. Twenty-eight hours before Tisha B’Av began, Israel assassinated senior Islamic Jihad’s northern command head, Taysir al-Jabari, and a terror cell that was readying the launch of an anti-tank missile against Israeli civilians.

The IDF launched Operation Breaking Dawn in preventative action to neutralize the threat from Islamic Jihad and save lives. Some 70 Islamic Jihad military targets were hit.

Israelis spent the weekend in bomb shelters and the IDF used the Iron Dome missile defense system to prevent the loss of life, while Islamic Jihad has tried to maximize harm to both sides of the border.

A failed rocket attack by Islamic Jihad was responsible for the killing of children in Jabalya, for which Palestinian reports blamed Israel. Israeli security forces did not strike in Jabalya at that time.

“All fire by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization is a double war crime: it is shooting at civilians, and using Gazan civilians as human shields,” the IDF said. “This incident is an example of Islamic Jihad harming the residents of Gaza. All harm to innocent civilians is tragic.”

The incident was an important reminder of the role the international press and social media play in war.

We at HonestReporting hope a quiet and normal life is on the way to being restored to the residents of both Gaza and the Gaza periphery in Israel and that the world media will report this defensive operation accurately, and with proper context.

Unfortunately, based on some of the latest headlines and images, it appears that leading news organizations are yet again failing their readers:

The author is the Executive Director of HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.

The opinions presented by Algemeiner bloggers are solely theirs and do not represent those of The Algemeiner, its publishers or editors. If you would like to share your views with a blog post on The Algemeiner, please be in touch through our Contact page.

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