Tags: 8 Min Read; Videos; Huge Relief Area
The way you know Hezbollah (or Iran) is threatening something is... when GPS is jammed. Like the past couple hours (shots from my phone, which thinks I am at the Beirut airport):
Google Maps thinks I can drive from Beirut to Tel Aviv in under seven hours. Cute, no? If Google says it, it must be true, right?
Not.
Mail
What's 100 Years?
My Dad put two things together: Mark Rudd's observation in #112: "...the only difference between New Mexico and Israel is 100 years..." and Mo Husseini's #37 from #110: "Every fucking empire in history has fucked their way through the Levant. There is no pure indigeneity."
Dad recalls:
Speaking of the 100 years of difference, the year Mary and I got married we got to the island [Madeline Island in Lake Superior] almost three weeks before anyone else was there. …In the neighbor cottage there were 3 seniors who Mary joined as a fourth for bridge. At that time I was just a kibbitzer. The oldest of them, Corbin Schaus, was born in Miami Oklahoma when it was still Oklahoma Territory. He went to school along with Native Americans.
Read - One Take on the ICC Arrest Warrant for Bibi
On the contrary, this is a positive twist for everyone.
It will take another week or two for most Israelis to get used to the idea of Bibi in The Hague. Then it will turn out that, just like in Serbia, this is the most elegant solution - after six years of civil war ignited by Bibi's refusal to stand trial, we send him to be tried in The Hague! He can do there like he does here: Smear the prosecution and the legal system. He can threaten the judges, like he does here! He will be able to announce a coup d'état and appoint Netherlands’ fascists to the government - he will be able to do everything he does, only there, not here.
It's good for everyone - The Hague is closer to Bibi's dear son in Miami, the laundry in The Hague smells better [c.f. #117], and the prison conditions there are much better than at Maasiyahu Prison (maybe even as good as Falik's villa [the zillionair's house in Jerusalem Bibi has used lately, to the neighbors’ consternation]).
London may not be waiting [A reference to this Chava Alberstein song] for us but The Hague is the best bargain right now, when all the other alternatives are so terrible.
The Hague was not what we demonstrated for, but life is full of surprises. As Nahum once said? "It's for the good." [Talmudic reference]
Here is the original (Credit and thank you: A.P., used with permission):
להיפך, זה טוויסט מאוד חיובי עבור כולם
ייקח עוד שבוע-שבועיים, עד שרוב הישראלים יתרגלו לרעיון של ביבי בהאג. ואז יסתבר, שבדיוק כמו בסרביה, זה הפתרון הכי אלגנטי - אחרי שש שנים של מלחמת אזרחים שהוצתה בגלל סירובו של ביבי לעמוד למשפט, נשלח אותו להישפט בהאג. שם הוא יוכל ללכלך על התביעה והיועץ המשפטי, יוכל לאיים על השופטים, יוכל להכריז על הפיכה משטרית, למנות את הפאשיסטים בהולנד לממשלה - הוא יוכל לעשות את כל מה שהוא עושה, רק שם, לא אצלנו.
זה טוב לכולם - האג קרובה יותר לבן יקיר לי במיאמי, הכביסה בהאג מריחה טוב יותר, ותנאי המאסר שם הרבה יותר טובים ממעשיהו (אולי אף מתקרבים לוילה של פאליק).
לונדון אולי לא מחכה לנו אבל האג היא המציאה הכי טובה כרגע, כשכל יתר האלטרנטיבות כל כך נוראות.
זה אמנם לא היה צפוי כשיצאנו להפגנות הראשונות אבל החיים מלאי הפתעות, ואיך אמר פעם נחום? ״גם זו לטובה״.
Raf's Take on the ICC Warrant
To my eyes, a core issue of the mess in this region flows from lack of accountability. This is why I consider AIPAC part of the problem (they set no ethical standards for who they support in the U.S. nor what Israeli behavior is out of bounds). This is why the violent Israeli Right is part of the problem. This is why the (much larger than we think) Evangelical influence in Israel is part of the problem. (Know why Bibi loves Evangelicals but not mainstream American Jews? Because the Evangelicals don't hold him to account....)
If it takes the ICC getting involved, as long as they also hold to account leaders of Palestinian violence (including their political leadership in the Gulf and their funders), tell me why I should be upset about it?
I am just not upset about it. I agree with A.P.
Postmark...
Rafah
Palestinians report: The IDF dropped flyers this morning over Rafah announcing a significant expansion of the "safe area" to which the displaced can move. The old (smaller) area and the expansion announced by the IDF are highlighted on the map - the significant expansion includes almost the entire area of the Khan Subdistrict Younis as far as Deir al-Balah.
Also in Rafah... another day, more rocket launchers found...
The IDF Chief of Staff visits Jabalia
"We are in a war that we said at the beginning that it would be prolonged. Years of defense have been dug in here, and it is not dismantled in a week or a month. The mission, is to kill as many Hamas commanders as possible, as many terrorists as possible, to destroy the infrastructure. This pressure, we really want, will also help us ... to bring hostages back alive. We are ready to do dangerous and complicated operations to bring the bodies of our hostages back to be buried in Israel. This is of great value and I tell you, talk to the fighters about these things. We dismantle the military arm of Hamas, we want to bring our abductees home, and we want to bring the abductees who are unfortunately not alive to be buried in Israel...."
2 Min. In Hebrew, use Automatic Translation setting to get (most of it) in English
Part 2: The Chief of Staff visiting troops in Jabalia. 30 Seconds. No real soundtrack.
Elsewhere in Gaza
How do Gazans (and Israelis) benefit from the closure of the Rafah crossing?
A brave Gazan recounts the "miracle" caused by the entry of goods from Israel:
According to him, 55 trucks that entered from Israel (without the "Hamas tax") lowered the prices of goods in the markets immediately, something that the hundreds of aid trucks coming through the Rafah crossing daily in "coordination" between Egypt and Hamas (with a "Hamas tax") weren't able to do.
One can only guess just how much money Hamas was making from all these trucks coming in through the Rafah crossing each day.
The US exerted immense pressure to let these trucks in via Rafah, and Israel repeatedly warned against it, saying that it was ineffective and that Hamas violently takes and hoards the aid the moment it enters.
Taking over the Rafah crossing appears to materially change the position of Hamas in the Gaza economy.
By way of corroboration, from a report on the JNS site:
According to Israeli estimates, Hamas has been stealing up to 60% of the aid entering the Gaza Strip, and a Channel 12 report last week revealed that the terrorist organization has made at least $500 million in profit off humanitarian aid since the start of the war on Oct. 7.
The Floating Pier: Arab Military Gearhead Bloggers Report:
The US has placed a C-RAM system for intercepting rockets (like the one in the US Embassy in Baghdad) as well as an M-Lids type system designed to intercept drones on the floating American dock in Gaza.
Further, a video surfaced of the system apparently in use:
A commentator asks:
Is this considered boots on the ground?
Or on the beach doesn't count?
Iran
A protest cartoon of the Iranian opposition against the honor the UN gave to the "executioner" Raisi.
According to the opposition, the reaction to his death should be happiness and joy.
Seen
אני מאמין
באמונה שלמה
שאלה השמים
ושזאת האדמה
כאן היה עבר
פה יהיה עתיד
האמנתי פעם
אני אאמין תמיד
I believe
with complete faith
That this is the sky
And this is the earth
Here was the past
Here will be a future
I once believed
I will always believe
(Translation: A.K.)
Relief Area
Alef (90 seconds)
Bet
Smotrich: Let's give Hezbollah an ultimatum, and if they don't answer we'll occupy a security zone in south Lebanon!
(Because Israel did that in the 1980's and... it wasn't great....)
Gimmel
Dalet
Hey
The "golden" touch of the President of Azerbaijan:
3 days after he shook hands with the prime minister of Slovakia, there was an assassination attempt on the latter.
On the same day he shook the hand of the president of Iran, the latter died.
Vav: "Genocide Joe" ?
"No Gaza aid delivered through U.S.-built pier has been distributed, Pentagon says"
The inescapable conclusion is that the United States is intentionally starving Gazans?
Zayin
Het
Big guy: I'm in for murder. You?
Small guy: I said to Bibi: You are the leader. You are guilty/responsible.
Tet: “Kidnappers’ Square,” Tel Aviv
(Play on words: In Hebrew, “כיכר החטופים” — Hostage Square [a place that exists in Tel Aviv in the plaza of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art] — has the same sounds, rearranged, as what is in the cartoon below: “כיכב החוטפים“ — Kidnappers’ Square.)
(Pictures of Bibi and far right ministers. Another play on words: Pictures of hostages say “Bring them home” where in the cartoon above it says “Send them home.”)
Yod
At the shuk buying vegetables just now, I was lectured, by an Israeli Arab, about how religious Jews from France immigrate to Israel and are such right wingers, politically, and support Bibi no matter how bad Bibi is for Israel. This guy clearly follows the news, as he had all the updates on what is going on in Lebanon, what the Israeli radical right Ministers are saying, Biden’s bumbling and more.
It is the Tel Aviv Documentary Film Festival. I am going to buy some tickets.
Stay well,
Raf
(Thank you A.K., S.F.Z., M.T., A.P.)