Tags: 4 Minute Read; 8 Mins across 3 videos
The weather is sunny and warm. The cease fire is over (for now). The center of Israel is quiet. Soldiers rotate on and off duty (as always). The tourism part of the economy is dead, to be resurrected in months to come. The peripheries (the "envelope" around Gaza, the top 20 kilometers of the country near Lebanon) are a work in progress (I met a guy just out of the army on his way to live in the "envelope" to help it rebuild. Like the frontier kibbutzim of yore.)
Seen
Ice Cream and...
Ben and Jerry's in Hebrew
The beach by my place
The nearest country that tolerates their flag in pink is ____ kilometers away?
I am grateful to be wearing sandals in December
A Clock
Translation: We won't change the clock [to match daylight savings time] until they are all home safely.
Remote Control
I have discussed how Israel is a reactive party in this chain of events. Consumed with its own issues (real and artificial), it has not engaged Hamas or Hezbollah as actively as it might have. Part of the reason why is captured in this infographic (yes, I used this a few days ago, yes it has typos, no I didn't make it, no I don’t know who made it, found it on reddit):
(If you missed the "pitch deck" this is from, it is worth a look!)
Details the graphic and pitch deck miss:
In the past, Israel's military rules of engagement prevented attacks on hospitals, ambulances and mosques.
For ten-plus years, Hamas has leveraged this knowledge and used these facilities for military purposes.
Win-win for Hamas. Either:
The Israel Army maintains its rules, protecting the military capabilities of Hamas; or
The Israeli Army changes its rules, giving Hamas a propaganda victory when it shows the world hospitals and mosques bombed by Israel
No one remembers the 2014 Gaza war, when Israel documented heavy weapons stationed in mosques and avoided the big hospitals where they knew Hamas military command centers were located in tunnels underneath. Whichever choice Israel makes, Hamas wins, because Hamas follows only one rule: More blood is better. Anyone's blood. Now and/or later.
Five Minutes, in English, by Arab-Israeli News Anchor
Lucy Aharish (Arabic: لوسي هريش; Hebrew: לוסי אהריש; born 18 September 1981) is an Arab-Israeli news anchor, reporter, television host and actress. She was the first Muslim Arab news presenter on mainstream Hebrew-language Israeli television.
She has been publishing interviews and material since the war started about the hazard Islamic extremism poses to Muslim children. That material reminds me of discussions after 9/11. At that time, the political spectrum understood that the enemy was Islamic extremism, and even places like Saudi Arabia engaged in managing this (yes, both Saudi Arabia and the U.S. fueled it in the 1990's -- then they all realized it threatened them too...). The difference this year is that so much of the left side of the western political spectrum chooses to vilify Israel and Jews. Victim blaming at a new level.
The footage is neutral (just Lucy in a room). Her message is not.
(The Raf footnote: When Lucy Aharish, Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz[1] agree on what the enemy is, but the U.S. Democratic Party waffles and a Member of Congress' house is vandalized, it is a dangerous moment for the American Political Left.)
Tunnel Update
The IDF reports that over 800 tunnel shafts have been located since the beginning of fighting, about 500 of which have been destroyed. The clip below is 1 minute. The only Hebrew is at the beginning where a soldier says, "…here is a tunnel inside a Mosque..." No person-person violence. Some tunnel entrances are blown up.
Relief Area
Alef: How does this land for you?
To frame this: Imagine your city has had, say, 500 Hamas rockets launched at over four weeks since early October (like many towns in southern Israel).
Translation: Where does this meet you?
(This is what psychologists say when trying out suggestions or explanations. It is the equivalent of: "How is this landing for you?" or "How is this feeling for you?")
Bet: Picture of Hamas
Gimel: Serious Dilemma...
(Yeah, new twist on an already used theme. I know, I know…)
I am on the train from Jerusalem back to Tel Aviv. A kid behind me is exclaiming loudly, in Russian, about the planes at the airport passing by the window.
Jerusalem continues to be quiet. Tel Aviv to be sunny. Some old friends from Seattle are visiting Jerusalem and we hung out last night. Another Seattle friend comes tomorrow for a week. Even staying at my place for a few days.
Time to organize my spare room! And wash the floors... I was away for a week, and have been in a happy whirlwind since the moment I returned.
Stay well,
Raf
(Thank you A.K.)
[1] To be clear, I am not a fan of Ted Cruz. His clarity, which is similar to that of Bernie Sanders on this topic, is something all politicians can learn from. The fact that Congressman Adam Smith’s house is vandalized over Gaza, but Cruz’s was not over the abortion rights he helped steal from millions of American women or the voting rights he helped steal from millions in the American South (via his votes for nominations to the Federal court system)….