Updated May 8 with link to Rabbi Nussbaum’s essay.
Tags: 4 Min Read; Jumbo Relief Area; Jumbo Postmark Gaza
The buzz on media across the Middle East: A cease fire in Gaza is imminent. (Even within hours.)
I'll believe it when I see it. (There are many on both sides who benefit from the war, and countless others who promote violence as a solution.)
There is also buzz about a ceasefire in Lebanon (the French are heavily involved with this one). I would guess IDF operations in Syria will continue in all events.
My personal buzz changed: An airline rescheduled a flight so my trip to Budapest is off. Budget airlines have cut back due to weak tourism demand, so options are few.
If You Read One Thing....
Read Mo Husseini's blog post (PDF here). (Thank you Rabbi Rachel Nussbaum for the link.)
(Link to Rabbi Nussbaum's entire essay. Perspectives on campus protests and the various meanings of “Zionism.”)
Postmark:
Gaza
Below: IDF: For the first time since the beginning of the war: The Erez Crossing in north Gaza opened for the entry of humanitarian aid on May 1. (The crossing was destroyed by the Hamas attack on October 7.) Video below.
Precision Strike
Below: Documentation of a May 3 attack in the displaced persons' tents in Rafah in the south Gaza Strip - note the rocket rising into the sky. This indicates a precise hit on Hamas rockets and munitions stored in the midst of a tent city.
I see the interviews with World Food Program leadership and others describing impending famine in Gaza. From where I sit, there is much counter-evidence. I do not know where the truth lies. Trucks of aid per day into Gaza have increased dramatically since mid February. Food prices in Gaza fell dramatically already weeks ago. More than half of the Gaza population is near the Rafah crossing where the majority of aid has been entering. I have seen zero reports of food shortages in the populous lower third of Gaza.
Below: There are now signs of abundance in the northern Gaza Strip (the area most at risk due to problems of distribution): Gazan donkeys receive fresh pita bread.
A Gazan in the north of the Gaza Strip says to the donkey: Once (when there was a shortage of bread) we ate from your food, now take and eat bread today. You are better than many people...
Palestinian Ambassador in Egypt:
Taking the month of April into account, it can be estimated that about one hundred thousand Palestinians left the Strip since the beginning of the war.
Below: Gazan Voice RE U.S. Campus Protests
Should demonstrating students come to Gaza and run a food distribution network? Gazans are afraid to do this because Hamas shoots them when they try. To the specialists making models of health and nutrition for Gaza (and exuding pessimism and alarm), I ask: Are you taking into account all the people leaving Gaza? (Which is approaching %5 of the population.) They don’t need to be fed by aid or treated by doctors. Or the 10,000-20,000 Hamas members who have access to well stocked Hamas controlled warehouses. They also don’t need to be fed by aid. And of course, the kibbutzim that Hamas attacked on October 7 used to export much of their output to Gaza, but that shortfall is chalked up as Israel’s responsibility….
West Bank
Palestinian media reports: On May 2, the Palestinian Authority's Security Services killed Ahmed Abu Al-Ful, the commander of the "death squads" in the military wing of the Islamic Jihad in Tulkarm.
In conversation yesterday, I had the honor of reminding a local that Abbas' P.A. Security Services have, in recent years, saved more Israeli lives than any unit of Israeli commandos.
This observation actually shut the guy up.
Willful blindness is shocking. When I find this I have stopped "just listening." (Bibi's crowd gives no credit to the P.A., so Israelis forget.... Leadership self-defined by opposition to enemies must continually repaint the enemy image... As such leaders do not exist on their merits.)
Damascus
Israeli bombings have resumed on targets of the Syrian military.
Iran
There are reports that an IRGC operative was killed in Tehran. Neither Israel nor Iran has officially confirmed the incident. This was reported by the anti-regime [anti-Iranian-regime] media outlet Iran International on April 29.
Berlin
A large fire at the Diehl company's weapons manufacturing plant. The Diehl company manufactures defensive weapon systems and guided missiles.
Raf analysis: Smells like Russian sabotage.
Relief Area
Alef
Bet
Gimmel
Dalet
Hey
Vav: Trolled by Google Translate.... (Which offers the exact opposite of what the Hebrew means!)
(The above isn’t a mockup… Raf reproduced it!)
Another Google Translate Mistake:
Zayin: May 1, Workers’ Day in Gaza
A Palestinian cartoon on the occasion of May 1, Workers' Day: For the Palestinians, the workers to celebrate are the tunnel diggers of Hamas.
Chet: Measuring Pesach
I am on the fence about blueberries. I like to have them on Shabbat. But they are flown in. Should I eat such non-local food? (I can still get strawberries, so perhaps I should stick with those as long as they last….)
On the flip side, I was introduced to a fruit seller in the shuk who has first class fruit. Crazy tasty. I feel like a shmoo buying two kinds of produce from one stand, mushrooms from another, basil from a third, tomatoes and bananas from a fourth, and citrus from a fifth... True, they are all within fifty feet of each other, but still...
Stay well and pray for peace,
Raf
(Thank you A.K., R.N.)