Tags: 7 Min Read; 7 Min of Videos
No post yesterday! Eeek! I was on the road. And hiking. And driving. And eating.
Riddle: Why do farm workers in the Galilee need four wheel drive pickup trucks?
Answer: Because for a couple of months a year, it rains, and the mud is... profound. Hiking can be a challenge in spots.
And more: Lunch in Abu Gosh (most amazing hummus on earth); Overnight in Givat Ela; Multiple hikes; An evening in Zichron Yaakov with friends:
Abu Gosh, this is where you want to stop... It's worth it.
Sunday night @Givat Ela: Hanukah drash by a scholar and founder of Pelech Tel Aviv. The text? The S.Y. Agnon memoir: “Ma‘aseh ha-Menorah”. (Text in Hebrew and in English: Tale of the Menorah)
And hikes (two of ‘em):
His son Shimon said: "All my days among the wise, I didn't find anything better than silence. The Midrash is not the main thing but rather the deed. Those who multiply speech bring about sin."
Pirkei Avot 1.17 (translation: A.K. & R.Z.)
There has been a lot since then. Tomorrow may be another catch up day.
Thanks for the fan mail! Suggestions, corrections, observations and jokes.
Read
From the letter by the Director of Shin Bet (Israeli equivalent of the FBI) to the UN Secretary-General
(For what it is worth, the Secretary General stood up this Director some months ago when he was in New York to discuss regional issues, including the problem of arms smuggling into Gaza.)
"This is the time to remind you, Mr. Secretary-General, that Yahya Sinwar himself [the head of Hamas, who was released from an Israeli jail some years ago] was sentenced to five life sentences in Israel for murdering Palestinians – not Jews. Gaza should be freed from Hamas, not from Israel. Hamas is ISIS."
I would add that while Sinwar was convicted of murdering five Palestinians, it is understood that he had a direct role in the murder of many more. This was 10+ years ago. This is the man who architected the Hamas military and October 7.
It is widely documented that in the past two months Hamas gunned down Gazan civilians who were heeding Israel's request to evacuate northern Gaza.
Call Your Mother
Israeli soldiers have been in Gaza for two months now. Many units have been active for several weeks. Soldiers in combat typically get a couple of days off every ten or fourteen days. Photos of units in Gaza show a lot of grey beards (reservists). Parents don’t hear from their kids (and kids don’t hear from their parents) for weeks at a time (no news is good news).
There are indirect signs that significant efforts are underground, in the “Gaza Metro” (the nickname for the huge tunnel network under Gaza). Reports of pumping seawater into the tunnels, for example. There are also increasing reports of Hamas surrenders, including of relatively senior members of the Hamas military.
Numbers
The Gaza Health Ministry (e.g. “Hamas, a terror organization”) says there are 18,000+ fatalities thus far.
What does the Israeli Army say?
Reading between the lines, 10,000+ Hamas fighters have been killed and captured.
Animated presentation by the IDF about senior military personnel of Hamas that were eliminated in the north of the Gaza Strip.
Victory: How Does It Look?
I suspect Hamas leaders, dead and alive, consider October 7 a victory. A big one. They successfully exploited Palestinian lives to bring the world closer to chaos. If I squint, it can appear that killing Israelis is not the primary goal of Hamas’ actions. Their primary goal is to shake up the western world to expand Islamist extremism. Causing the destruction of Gaza has done much to achieve this. Anti-Israel agitation in Western capitals achieves, one might argue, more for expanding Islamist extremism than destroying the Twin Towers.
What does victory look like for Israel?
Anshel Pfeffer in Ha'aretz writes:
Israel should know by now: The perfect victory image doesn't exist.
The attempt to produce a victory image while fighting a bloody war is doomed to fail. And even if there will be a picture that can encapsulate an Israeli victory against Hamas, it is unlikely to come from the ruins of Gaza.
On the long list of items Israel is still paying for 56 years after its lightning victory in the Six-Day War is the unquenchable need for a "victory image."
The paratroopers joyfully crying at the Western Wall, thousands of pairs of army boots abandoned by the Egyptian soldiers littering the Sinai Desert and the young tank officer Yossi Ben-Hanan taking a swim in the waters of the Suez Canal – an image so iconic it made the cover of Life Magazine.
Six years later, after the Yom Kippur War, there were no victory albums, just long lists of casualties and recriminations. Military historian Amiram Ezov, who has written a series of books on the war, wrote that the desire for a final victory picture was behind the decision to send Israeli soldiers into the city of Suez, a decision that cost the lives of 80 soldiers. And if anything, that increased the unrequited desire for another victory picture.
...
What Israelis failed to understand is that the era of victory images was over by then, and not just for Israel. World War II had its iconic images of the Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima and the soldiers of the Red Army (with the looted wristwatches edited out) on the roof of the Reichstag. In the next generations, as the wars became much more controversial, the camera shifted to the civilian casualties like Phan Thị Kim Phúc, the Vietnamese child whose clothes were burned by napalm. And it wasn't just the professional photographers who won Pulitzers with those pictures: with the advent of cameras on cellphones, everyone became a photographer.
Last week, someone thought they had the perfect victory image: Dozens of Palestinian men detained in Gaza and stripped to their underwear in a search for explosive belts. The photos were leaked to right-wing Israeli reporters, who breathlessly presented them as victory images of Hamas terrorists who had surrendered (though only a few of them were held in custody as suspects after initial questioning). That didn't stop the IDF spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, from trying to latch on to the narrative of mass surrenders in his daily briefing. Only later did the IDF claim that these were not officially sanctioned photographs.
The IDF is unlikely to have a victory image from the ruins of Gaza. Even if, or when, it succeeds in tracking down Yahya Sinwar, evil mastermind of the October 7 massacre, as cathartic a moment as that may be for Israelis, his body probably won't deliver a photo-friendly scene.
Israelis would do better to look beyond Gaza's borders for their victory images. The tractors once again plowing the wheat fields of the devastated kibbutzim and the hostages returning home should be enough.
Arabic Language Sources
Hamas Hijacks Aid Trucks in Gaza
Below: Southern Gaza: Hamas armed terrorists secure the aid trucks and take what they need.
Below: Gaza Strip: Hamas operatives shoot at Palestinian residents who try to approach the aid trucks that the operatives have taken over. One of the Gazan residents was killed as a result.
Bribery on the Egyptian Border
I lived my life on the U.S. West Coast. There is, shall we say, a lot of "pressure" (human pressure) on the U.S.-Mexico border. People need to move, "documented" or not. Human pressure, like water or gas pressure, finds a way. Are you a Mexican who needs to get to the U.S. without a visa? There is a fee for that. Even a menu. Choose the pricier option and you can sit in a car and drive across the border in daylight.
It is no surprise to read:
Hamas-identified channels complain about Egypt:
The Hamas-affiliated Quds network is publicly speaking out against the Egyptian authorities and claiming that the Egyptian police officers at the Rafah crossing are demanding a $5,000 bribe from Palestinians who wish to leave the Strip for Egypt. It was also reported that even in the hospitals in Egypt to which Palestinians were evacuated, those Palestinians are treated badly and are forbidden to purchase cell phones and connect to the Internet.
Relief Area
Yeah, I missed Gimmel yesterday. (Thank you, G.M.S.)
Alef
Alef Part Two
Bet
(Paper menorah because real ones aren't allowed in the international space station...)
Gimmel: Call in the drones…
Dalet
I’m at home in Tel Aviv. It has been pouring off and on. Hanukah week in Israel is one party, gathering, event after another. The past four days have been… packed… and amazing…. Just returned from a concert at the Hall of Culture to benefit Kibbutz Beeri. If you want to lend a hand, this list of vetted organizations gives options to support mental health, paramedics, pizza for soldiers and everything in between.
Stay well & Visit Israel (it’s great, even now)
Raf
(Thank you A.K. — Thank you M.N. for content.)