Israel Brief: Wednesday, October 1
Yom Kippur on the horizon, sirens in the south: endgame talks, hard doctrine, and the duty to stay awake
Yom Kippur begins this evening. We won’t publish tomorrow—we’ll be in shul with you. Back on Thursday morning.
As Yom Kippur takes hold in Israel, our enemies are unlikely to pause. Just about twenty minutes or so ago, sirens sounded in communities near Gaza; baruch Hashem, Magen David Adom reports no 101 emergency calls so far. The IDF intercepted two missiles fired from the Gaza City area. May Israel pass this holy day in relative peace—and may the plans of our enemies be turned on their heads.
What to watch in this briefing: the clock on the U.S.-backed ceasefire plan as Hamas signals rejection; the IDF’s doctrine for the “twilight days” and the insistence on holding ground inside Gaza—not retreating to the fence; fresh “Palestinian” terrorism in Judea; and a widening ring of pressure from Tehran’s proxies to European capitals.
Read with kavvanah.
Yom Kippur begins tonight, and the daily Israel Brief won't publish tomorrow because we'll be in shul with you. The IDF braces for the war's twilight days while commanders warn against any deal that pulls them back to the fence and the vulnerabilities of October 6. The full edition reads Hamas's rejection signals, the foiled bus-stop bombing in Acre, the markets pricing deal risk, and why a perimeter inside Gaza beats nostalgia for the old border.
Commanders are blunt: a perimeter inside Gaza beats nostalgia for October 6.
The Israel Brief is the Mitzpe Institute's read on Israel and the region — most mornings, Sunday through Thursday. More at mitzpe.org.