Is Raf OK? -- Installment #72

2024-01-28 -- Somewhere in California

Jan 28, 2024

Update: Feb 1, 2024: the caveat to the infographic below was expanded.

Tags: 5 Min, Relief Area

Making Sense

About war, I read of "...an acceptance of the impossibility of making sense of the events." (From a book review by Caroline Alexander of Peter Englund's new book: November 1942.

Arabic language sources document several different marches in Gaza of Gazans demanding that Hamas free all the prisoners. Some of them openly call for Hamas to step down. There are are also reports that Hamas continues to put a tax on the food aid entering Gaza (guys with guns enforce whatever rules they want).

The Gaza marches line up (interestingly?) with the press buzz of an imminent hostage deal.

ICJ, Not Talking About It

Except to cite one judge. Former Israeli Supreme Court Justice Aharon Barak (President of the Supreme Court of Israel from 1995 to 2006) was invited to be a Judge Ad Hoc on the ICJ for the recent case against Israel. His opinion, in English.

Tunnels... (again)

There are far more of them than previously thought... Just in Khan Yunis, the estimate two weeks ago was 100 miles. This week the estimate is 150 miles. The understanding of the tunnel system is that there are three "classes" of tunnels: Attack tunnels, used on October 7 and used now to surprise Israeli forces; Operational tunnels, that are larger and include rooms for sleeping, keeping captives, and weapons factories; and Command tunnels that are deeper, lined with tile or marble, and are for senior leadership. Haaretz sources estimate that only %20 of the tunnel system has been destroyed so far.

January 16, 2024, New York Times:

But Israeli officials and soldiers who have since been in the tunnels — as well as current and former American officials with experience in the region — say the scope, depth and quality of the tunnels built by Hamas have astonished them. Even some of the machinery that Hamas used to build the tunnels, observed in captured videos, has surprised the Israeli military.
The Israeli military now believes there are far more tunnels under Gaza.
In December, the network was assessed to be an estimated 250 miles. Senior Israeli defense officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, are currently estimating the network is between 350 and 450 miles — extraordinary figures for a territory that at its longest point is only 25 miles. Two of the officials also assessed there are close to 5,700 separate shafts leading down to the tunnels. ... Hamas has improved its ability to conceal the tunnels, but the senior official said the Israeli military had figured out one of the group’s operating models. The official called it the “triangle.” Whenever the Israeli military finds a school, a hospital or a mosque, soldiers know they can expect to locate an underground tunnel system beneath them, the official said.

Full article. (PDF here)

Genocide... Who Had That Idea?

Soviet era propaganda is a big part of it. See the essay, with images, "Contemporary Anti-Zionism’s Connections to Soviet Propaganda." I don't know why the author fails to translate the Soviet cartoons. The red axe says in Russian "Genocide."

"There is no place on earth for colonization!"

"Colonizing nations under the torchlight of freedom"

The open and acted-on positions of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah, are genocidal. This conflict is, by its nature, a genocidal one.

Western Leftists digest the whole package, unaware that they are eating a meal cooked up by the KGB 50+ years ago.

The long arm of propaganda.

Heard from many Israelis:

Hamas is successful. They made Israel [a small place] a lot smaller.

Because Israelis will no longer live in vast swaths of what is still considered Israel.

That is a big thing. That is ethnic cleansing.

(The way Palestinian population growth is calculated is messy partly because, we have learned during the conflict, UNWRA does not check eligibility and serves everyone who shows up. There has also been emigration, particularly from the West Bank, over the past 20 years. In all cases, significant [2x, 3x or more] population growth is uncontroversial.

I acknowledge that while the truth of this infographic is supported by all data known to me, the graphic commits the sin of exaggerated presentation, something Huff discusses in How To Lie With Statistics.)

Rockets

One of the many IDF finds of the day. 2 Min.

'Fauda' star Idan Amedi speaks after injury in Gaza

Severely injured while his team was preparing to demolish a tunnel. 9 Min, Dubbed in English.

How To Send Videos From This Blog?

Some videos are on YouTube. Those can be opened in YouTube (while watching here, click on the YouTube logo, it opens in YouTube, then you can send the YouTube link.)

Some videos are hosted here. You can get a link directly to that section of the blog (for a video or anything else) with these steps (requires a laptop or desktop computer):