First Time Here? Readers suggest starting with the expanded Gaza Explainer in #133 and #120.
Tags: 7 Min Read; Lots of videos; Lots of Relief
Update: After email release, three small changes were made to this entry: a) A photo of yours truly with Einat Wilf was added; b) Small text change to Relief Alef; and, c) Small text change to Relief Vav. (Thank you M.T.)
Angles! Count 'em!
I just finished a long piece about recent deserters from the Russian Army. (PDF here -- 100+ pages!). While fascinating to read, it is a classic playbook: Strongman government; Ass-covering bureaucrats; Corruption (financial and moral); and, War-for-no-reason.
Contrast this to what I hear both from Israelis: "This war must be a wake up call" and Palestinians who say a similar thing (specifically that the Palestinians have allowed themselves to be abused by narrow minded leaders who push a false dream of a better future via "return").
This region is full of smart, caring and compassionate people. It is damaged--on all sides--by self-serving, division-sowing leadership. Material segments (e.g. >%20) of all sides want peace and coexistence more than anything else. Similar sized chunks would cut and run (e.g. emigrate from the region) if they had the passport.
Headlines
Media is a drug, right? I mean, we put up with stuff like this even though we know it’s bogus. I just saw a recent Jon Stewart piece and he mentioned (not for the first time) "All the bombs come from us... so if we want it to stop...."
No, Jon. Not all the bombs come from the U.S. Lebanon is full of Iranian bombs pointed (and actively fired at) Israelis. And the Washington Post piece above? Lebanon has been bombing Israel continuously for, like, eleven months.
It is war, folks. Countries and Non State Actors (like Hezbollah) are throwing bombs at each other.
Shitty media coverage doesn't help.
Intelligence
A frequent comment the past ten days: The Mossad is doing such amazing work! (Operation Pager, Walkie Talkie, Entire command of Hezbollah's Radwan wiped out, 100's of Hezbollah caches destroyed.) Where the hell were they October 6?
The elimination of most of Hezbollah's leadership and masses of armaments indicate effective intelligence. An example:
The IDF reveals documentation that testifies to the depth of the intelligence penetration achieved by the IDF within Hezbollah:
High quality still photos of a civilian house where a missile (of the Zalzal 2 type) was hidden in the attic.
And it's opposite...
Until October 7, 2023, Bibi and his minions talked up "...the most peaceful decade in Israeli history."
I heard Einat Wilf speak last week in Tel Aviv. She said: Let me explain October 7 with an analogy, a story:
There is a good looking couple living the high life. Three huge houses. Big boat. Parties with the rich and famous. Garages full of the fanciest cars.
They party for years.
One day, out of the blue, in their prime years, he has a heart attack and dies. She starts to go through their finances and affairs. What does she find? Nothing but debts and unpaid taxes. If they had once been wealthy it was long ago. For the past many years, they had not been rich. Ever. It was an illusion of wealth.
That describes Israel's security situation. And that is the lie that Israeli leadership has been pushing on Israelis for the past ten or fifteen years.
Postmark
Bremen
Hersh Goldberg-Polin was a big fan of Werder Bremen and today the fans have once again dedicated a choreo to his memory.
Receiving End of Hezbollah's Rockets
This is how the war feels to residents in Israel's north just now:
And this is how Hezbollah's rockets are enjoyed by residents of the village of Zabada (Jenin governorate, West Bank).
IDF Attack on al-Azia (Sidon district, Lebanon)
Seems there was some quantity of munitions there... (American munitions helped destroy those bombs… but the bombs igniting in this clip are… Iranian. Got that, Jon?)
Southern Lebanon
This morning the IDF spokesman appealed to the people of Lebanon (in Arabic) and called on them to immediately leave the houses where Hezbollah has stored weapons. The IDF spokesman shows an example of a civilian building (a residence) that was attacked and where a cruise missile was stored, and also shows an illustration of the burying of cruise missiles and another weaponry inside civilian homes.
The Lebanese communications company Ogero:
Over 80 thousand contact attempts, suspected of being Israeli, to Lebanese residents, as part of the evacuation notice.
That is a fraction of the SMS, WhatsApp, voice and radio messages sent to residents of southern Lebanon asking them to leave areas where there are Hezbollah weapons.
IDF Spokesperson (in Arabic)
Hezbollah weapons that were hidden inside civilian houses and explode as a result of our attacks.We are preparing to attack targets hidden within civilian infrastructure in the Beqaa area soon.
Residents of Lebanon in the Beqaa region, this is a warning for you, immediately move away from the houses where there are weapons!
The IDF spokesman in Arabic publishes a map of the Beqaa area (marked in red) - in anticipation of the upcoming wave of IDF attacks that will include civilian homes where weapons are hidden.
From Lebanese social media: Secondary explosions in a house used as a weapons cache in Southern Lebanon yesterday.
Above: The IDF spokesman publishes a video from the village of Jabal al-Batam in the Tyre governorate (south-western Lebanon) showing the secondary explosions of a weapon that Hezbollah hid inside a civilian house.
Among the casualties: A number of Shia clerics. If Hezbollah operates the way Hamas does (it does), this is because the clerics' homes were used for weapons storage.
Another example of rockets in homes (source: IDF spokesman):
Bint Jabil
Syrian exiles welcome the death of Ali Dabaja, a senior Hezbollah official from Bint Jabil who was killed today in an IDF attack.
According to them, he massacred many of Syria's Sunni citizens. (source: Abu Ali Express)
Beirut: Ain El Remmaneh
"Displaced people from southern Lebanon are not welcome here!"
Clashes in the Ain El Remmaneh area, a Christian suburb of Beirut. The reason: the residents of the Christian suburb refuse to accept in their territory Nasrallah's Shiites who fled from southern Lebanon.
The Lebanese army was called in to restore order.
Further, reportedly several thousand (or more) Lebanese are evacuating to… Syria. (Of all places?)
Lebanon by Numbers -- as of Sept 23
Sept 23: Hezbollah launched about 80 rockets at Israel. Among the targets hit: The West Bank. The Red Crescent reports two wounded Palestinians in the village of Deir Istiya. One a 60-year-old Palestinian man, wounded by shrapnel in the head. The second an elderly Palestinian woman, wounded in the face.
Sept 24: According to the IDF spokesperson, Hezbollah launched approximately 300 rockets today, injuring six Israelis, most of whom were lightly injured.Sept 23: The IDF carried out 650 sorties in Lebanon.
Sept 23: The Lebanese Ministry of Health reports at least 275 dead and 1024 wounded.
Summary: Lebanon overtook Gaza in casualty numbers.
However, in other news:
Since yesterday at 10 AM (local time), Hezbollah stopped reporting casualties, as it has been doing as a matter of course for years.
It can be assumed that the high number of casualties in the past 24 hours and the significant disarray in its ranks are the reasons for this.
It is also possible that Hezbollah's policy has shifted, perhaps to avoid demoralization within its ranks.Time will tell.
Palestinians from the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp in Lebanon hand out water to displaced people from southern Lebanon who got stuck in traffic jams when they evacuated from Hezbollah supporting areas...because of Yahya Sinwar.
Do the Palestinians feel a bit guilty?
About Civilians (in Gaza & Lebanon)
Einat Wilf, and others have observed: It isn’t possible to turn Gaza into a deeply fortified and armed garrison over 15 years without a healthy chunk of the populate supporting the effort. Hamas didn’t do it alone. Same goes for Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Relief Area
Alef
Gal: He is for sure thinking about other women...
Guy: Since the situation with Lebanon was quiet for about 20 years and no one knew that October 7 would happen, so why did they spend years working on Operation Pagers?
Bet: In light of recent events: Nasrallah's message to the West:
Gimmel: As a Yokneam resident I must say there is nothing to attack there...
(Where Hezbollah rockets fell recently...)
Dalet
(They were all at an in person meeting in Beirut and were killed in an IDF airstrike.)
Hey
Vav
Hezbollah opponents mock the flight of displaced persons from southern Lebanon (who are heading north and east) on social networks:
No, no. This is not the direction!
The road to Jerusalem is in the opposite direction... (south)
(Relevant because Hezbollah is a religious, messianic group that uses religion as the justification for its war-making. In their death announcements, Hezbollah announces its casualties: "…who ascended as a martyr on the path to Al-Quds. [Jerusalem]." )
Zayin
Chet
The most stereotypical Israeli-Father-in-law is visiting New York City. We were downtown, walked by this protest, he sees some minister protesting against Israel. Not Catholic, but he had one of those white collars on with a beige suit. Anyway, Israeli-Father-in-law has a giant star of David necklace, and starts arguing. The minister said "Jesus would be supporting the Palestinians against the occupation"
Father in law takes the cigarette out of his mouth, and in full blown Israeli accent says. "Jesus was a Jew. If he was still preaching in Judea and Samaria now, the Palestinians would have sold him to Hamas and he'd be in a tunnel while Mary and Joseph were on CNN"
Sunrise was also the moment at which many rave participants had just begun to experience the full psychoactive effects of the psychedelic substances they had taken. At the same moment, Hamas invaded the festival premises and began shooting at participants, chasing them down the surrounding fields, raping them, and kidnapping them, festivalgoers were under the acute effects of drugs like 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), while running for their lives in an attempt to escape the terrorists.
and
...there is psychedelic assisted therapy in Israel using ketamine, esketamine, and cannabis; and Israel was one of the clinical trial sites for psilocybin and MDMA. This means that the country has a significant number of mental health professionals trained in psychedelic assisted therapy.
Who knew?
I recently read Sheryl Abbey's piece about the phrase Am Yisrael Chai (The people of Israel live). Two snippets:
Through these long nine months, I have learned that flourishing is not an available option during war. The best one can hope for is muddling through, staying afloat, doing exactly what the Am Yisrael Chai slogan celebrates—being alive. What’s more, during such uncertain times, survival is no minor event; it is a monumentally lucky one.
She then goes on to discuss childbirths among spouses and families of hostages and "...some 30 wives of IDF soldiers killed in action have given birth...."
Thank you Sheryl. Your essay brings me down to earth.
For escape (should the earth be too heavy…), allow me to add to the film recommendation in #139 (The Red Sea Diving Resort--Netflix), some humor: Alex Edelman's Just for Us (HBO Max). I saw it live in New York a year or so ago. He filled a Broadway theater for months. Give it a try.
To Peace,
Raf
(Thank you A.K.)