First Time Here? This post is a great place to start. Below is important context. A good next step is the expanded Gaza Explainer in #133.
Tags: 8 Min Read; Raf Analysis; Videos; Huge Relief Area
The shuk: Always something new to try. An “actually new” bakery started advertising stone baked pizza. They kept lowering the price. I didn't really need pizza, but it was time to try.
Interesting? Yes (sesame seeds in the crust--yum!)
Amazing? No. I'll stick with the greats
I got over Corona the day after I wrote about it. Thanks for asking!
This is #120? Woof Me In The ____
120…. An accomplishment I relish not. The war in Lebanon hit new levels of intensity in the past day or two.
Battles in Gaza rage but don’t make the news. The Pentagon announced that they think but a third of Gaza’s tunnels have been damaged. Yet another uncounted/ unmeasured aspect of the war in Gaza: Booby trapped homes and buildings. Hamas plants bombs everywhere. When they are found (or strongly suspected), the IDF blows up the building. Hundreds (probably thousands) of apartment buildings have been destroyed by the IDF for this reason. Where would you like to allocate that blame? In this clip, an IDF drone identifies large bombs placed in a house in Rafah:
And Israel continues to be amazingly cohesive as an entity, given the incessant attacks on people and institutions of State by Channel 14 and the right-wing ecosystem.
I often comment on how the U.S., especially the West Coast, is rather “non tribal.” Generally, the world is a tribal place: People place each other by ethnicity and geography. The cohesiveness I observe here appears stronger than what I experience in the U.S.
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RE Alef entry in #119's Relief
That first meme seems, uh, kinda pro Nazi. See this: https://ohpi.org.au/an-antisemitic-crusader/
It's the kind of content they (Nazis and their sympathizers) post themselves.
Thank you. You are right. I included it because it is now also being used to say: There is so much antisemitism on Twitter, that you spend a few hours there and this is what it does to you.
I added a caveat under the image.
Gaza Overview
Back in November (in #29!), a reader asked for a "What is Gaza?" overview. I made one: 100 Years on One Page. In #133 I expanded it and added annotations.
And here are the top posts, based on reader views and sharing:
The World I Want. The World I Live In.
In #104 I quoted Thomas Friedman's observation that October 7 was an opportunity. An opportunity to say to the world: "There is no way the world can expect us to live with Hamas next door. Collaborate with us to solve it?"
Instead, this region being what it is, Israel went to war. This could be, as I suggested in #85 "wounded masculinity" needing to assert itself as the Big Bad Boy in the neighborhood.
It could also be what happens in societies by default. In my observation, social organizations have "zones that function" and "zones of dysfunction." It seems to me that we often see motion, or action, from whatever zone (institution) is functional. In Israel, the military is more functional than the political sphere, so that is what you get.
Another example: In the U.S. for some decades, the judiciary was more functional than Congress. As a result, protection of the "underdog" and social progress (read: employee and reproductive rights) were furthered by the judiciary (as Congress chose not to engage these topics). Judiciary damage done by the Bush Jr. and Tr*mp years undid this progress. At present, the Executive branch is reasonably functional.
It is said "When you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail." The first step is to discover what kind of hammer you are?
Non State Actors
This region has been affected (plagued?) by Non State Actors (NSAs). The PLO, Hezbollah, ISIS, Al Qaeda, Hamas. These are all NSA's. They make war on states yet get to make their own rules.
NSAs exist everywhere, in different forms. In the West, organized crime is an NSA. In Latin America, it is the drug cartels.
NSAs mix violence and economics (these are also ingredients of statehood). However NSAs are harder to defeat. They have no capital city or minister of defense. Rather than answering to a citizenry, they answer to an ideology. This makes them much harder to defeat. I think of them as “living ideas” without state borders.
NSAs grow when the state is weak. They take the space left by an undersized state. In Gaza, Hamas controls everything, end to end, as there is nothing else (because they kill everyone who represents “something else”). In the Palestinian zones of the West Bank, the P.A. works to keep Hamas (and others) small. In Lebanon, Hezbollah is the most heavily armed non-state actor in the world.
Some NSAs have Iran (an actual state) behind them: Hamas and Hezbollah. During the Cold War, the PLO had the Soviet Union backing it. Such support goes a long way toward empowering an NSA.
The "unarticulated” part of the Oslo Peace Process in this region was: Let’s get the NSAs out from the shadows and into a statehouse. The PLO was never the only NSA “representing” Palestinians, but it was the most prominent. The essential idea was: Make the PLO grow up by being responsible to its people: Make a state.
Israeli leadership, in its "wisdom" works hard to grow and empower NSAs. In his abhorrence of the P.A., Bibi actively promoted Hamas for may years. His goal was to prevent the P.A. from becoming too large. The (desired-by-Bibi) effect of his Hamas plan was to prevent the P.A. from growing. The result was creating a vacuum where a violent, Iran-backed NSA arose. (Bibi didn't find Hezbollah problem enough? I can't think of any other explanation.)
Many Israelis misunderstand the fundamental equation: Give the P.A. power and responsibility. This recipe is what makes the threat of Israeli retaliation useful: The P.A. doesn’t want to lose power. So they are incentivized to prevent violence (which they have done much of—completely unreported in Israeli media.)
As a result of Israel’s political choices (read: voters), we end up with Sinwaar, Bibi, Smotrich and Ben Gvir on the same side of the table: They all want ongoing war and they actually can't exist without the other. Without ongoing war, Bibi’s coalition could well collapse triggering elections. Ending the war is also counter to Sinwaar’s agenda, which is to keep Israel in the Gaza quagmire and further isolate Israel on the world stage. Bibi also wins from international isolation, as it fits into his “Israel vs. the World [with Bibi as its defender]” political persona.
Where The Woof Is Peace?
Lebanese Member of Parliament Sami Jameel (Christian Al-Ktayeb Party):
I support peace between Israel and the Palestinians. This is the thing, in my opinion, that will lead to peace between Israel and Lebanon and Palestine.
Why are we not dealing with this issue? Is our goal an endless war?
I like Mo Husseini's phrasing:
FACT No. 39.
Stop with the fucking history lessons about what the Israelites did, or what the Ottomans did, or what the British did, or whatever. IT IS FUCKING IMMATERIAL. There is a pile of dog shit in the living room. Instead of arguing about whose dog took the bigger shit in the living room, maybe focus on how we clean up the dog shit, and maybe we keep the dogs outside.
That is how you know who to listen to and who to vote for: Do they acknowledge that there is shit in the living room and that the project is to clean it up?
If not, they are the problem.
Which Brings Us To Protests
A member of Congress (D-NYC) posted:
The above is refers to "Pro Palestine" protesters and this type (these photos from the Israeli Day Parade in NYC on June 3):
Or, as the writer Dina Rubina wrote:
The universities of Warsaw and Torun have just canceled lectures by the wonderful Russian-speaking Israeli writer Yakov Shechter on the life of Galicia’s Jews in the 17th and 19th centuries “to avoid making the situation worse.” I suspected that this would affect me too, since academia is now the main breeding ground for the most disgusting and virulent anti-Semitism, disguised as so-called “criticism of Israel.”
Speaking Of... Haaretz Reports...
The ICC warrants for Sinwar, Bibi and others has been foreseen for some years (the ICC investigation began many years ago). A report just published in The Guardian describes a decade-long effort, done at Bibi’s directive, to thwart the ICC. Haaretz noted that they were ready to publish a similar report two years ago, but the Israeli military censor prevented publication.
They lament that had it been published on schedule, the news would have come at a "better" time, before Israeli elections and a horrible war and actual indictments.
Censorship has a cost.
Postmark
Rafah
Palestinian social media: Residents of Gaza set fire to the UNRWA warehouses in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip after stealing all the contents.
The subtext: These "UN" warehouses were controlled by armed Hamas militants who controlled and heavily taxed the goods. With the entry of the IDF into Rafah, these goods, which were donated by the international community and intended for free-of-charge distribution, were taken by the intended recipients.
"Philadelphia Axis," Gaza
So far, 20 tunnels and 82 shafts have been located in Rafah. Some of the tunnels are smuggling tunnels to Egypt - the Egyptians have been updated.
Some of the tunnels were destroyed and some are under investigation.
Dozens of rockets ready for launch were located near the border fence with Egypt.
Here is a short video showing tunnel entrances found so far in the Rafah area, and some launchers.
Another short clip of rocket launchers.
United Nations
Some good news for Israel from the World Health Organization (of the United Nations):
An Israeli physician, Dr. Asher Shalmon, was appointed a member of the organization's executive committee. Beyond that, the organization approved a resolution condemning Hamas's military use of medical facilities such as hospitals and clinics as well as ambulances. A call for the unconditional release of the Israeli abductees in Gaza was also accepted, recognizing that they do not receive any of the rights they deserve.
Relief Area
Alef
Bet: "Well, at least they are walking on it..."
(Liège, Belgium)
Gimmel
Bill Maher was left to explain he was making a joke after a wisecrack fell flat during his appearance on talk show The View on Tuesday (21 May).
The comedian and podcast host, 68, was appearing on the show to promote his new book What This Comedian Said Will Shock You.
During a spirited discussion, co-host Sunny Hostin took Maher to task for his use of the word “woke”, arguing that the term has been “weaponized and bastardized” as it has been co-opted by the political right.
Maher replied that “words migrate” just as the positions of political parties change. He added: “I mean, I think we agree about the danger of the super far right, and I can’t say it enough, I think they’re the bigger threat.
“But, don’t tell me that the left hasn’t changed. I mean, I’m old enough to remember when it was the conservatives who hated the Jews, ok?”
The comment was met by silence from the audience, until Maher clarified: “That was a joke.”
Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin responded: “Too dark! Too dark!” before Maher retorted: “Well, maybe it is, but it’s true.”
Dalet
Hey
Vav
Zayin
Chet
Tet
Yod
עמית סגל: לפני 31 שנה. מה יותר מדהים - שנתניהו כבר יו״ר הליכוד? או שצה״ל וחמאס כמעט שיחקו כדורגל יחד?
Amit Segal writes: 31 Years Ago! What is more surprising?
- That Bibi is still chairman of the Likud; or
- That the IDF and Hamas almost played each other in a game of soccer?
[The newspaper article discusses the game being cancelled due to an issue with the referee.]
Know what I think about a lot? Tom Robbins. Specifically: Skinny Legs and All. I try to use his “time compression thing” as a lens for what I see today. One of the prophets hears someone complain about terrorism in modern day Jerusalem and says, “That doesn’t sound like a big deal. In my day the streets ran with blood.” [Raf paraphrase]
When I hear folks bemoan the “situation” here I sometimes think to myself, “Do they know where they are?”
What gets under my skin is the internecine hatred. The “Fox News” of Israel, Channel 14, analyzing the casualties of October 7 by how they vote, and making meaning of the fact that they were left-leaning. The way the “moderate” Israeli Right denigrates Ben Gurion and other founders of the State because they are “lefties.” It is unbelievably gross and shockingly normalized.
May the guilty be so named. צֶדֶק צֶדֶק תִּרְדֹּף — Justice, Justice! You shall pursue. (Deuteronomy)
Stay well,
Raf
(Thank you A.K., M.T., S.F.Z.)