First Time Here? Readers suggest starting with #120.
Update: After this entry went by email, the artwork in Zayin of Relief Area was updated with its attribution.
Tags: 5 Min; Videos; Raf Analysis; Big Relief Area
Yes, Gantz resigned from the war cabinet. Yet Bibi survives. A dozen years ago (or more) a friend in northern Israel said, "I don't know a single person who votes for Bibi. No one in my shul. No one in my family. I joke around with one of the Arab guys at work: 'It's you, right? You voted for Bibi?'" Gantz said a month ago that Bibi had to come forth with a plan for Gaza or he would leave the War Cabinet.
A small and growing number of military and intelligence leaders are accepting their responsibility for the October 7 failure and resigning. Concurrent with the resignation of Gantz, Brigadier General Avi Rosenfeld, Commander of the 143rd Gaza division, announced his resignation. Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar announced his resignation a few months ago.
I imagine there are many others that don’t make the news.
וּבְמָקוֹם שֶׁאֵין אֲנָשִׁים, הִשְׁתַּדֵּל לִהְיוֹת אִישׁ
In a place where there is no menschlichkeit, strive to be a mensch.
Avot, 2:5
Terminology
Jihadist
In my usage it includes movements and individuals who justify or call for violence and/or forced relocation to kill or expel what they define as "western," "colonial," "non-native" or somehow undesirable people. This includes Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and Iran. Also protesters in Western countries who call for intifada and "River to the Sea." It also includes people like Ben Gvir, Smotrich and their enablers (e.g. Sheldon Adelson, American Evangelicals, etc.). The position "no peace with or for Palestinians" is warmongering.
Mail
Enough About Tunnels, Talk About Antisemitism!
I'll let others talk about antisemitism?
What we observe today on the world stage is latent antisemitism inflamed by a small group of professionals (the funders and full time activists of BDS and "pro-Jihad/Palestinian liberation" movements). It doesn't matter, to me, that “good-hearted,” naive people are exploited by cynical war mongers. From a historical perspective, I see nothing new in this phenomenon.
Turns out TikTok and social media was designed to promote ethnic violence.
BDSers and jihadists are neither humanists nor peace activists. They are cheerleaders of violence who make the problem worse.
I leave antisemitism to deep thinkers: Dara Horn (People Love Dead Jews), Julia Neuberger (Antisemitism, What it is...) and David Nirenberg (Anti-Judaism).
The ADL has excellent essays, and now even rates universities (what a world).
Here is one snippet, from Freud:
Freud's Jewish identity seems without doubt to have had a massive influence on the form and content of his psychoanalytic discoveries and on the formation of the movement itself. He did not lay out a systematic theory of racism, nor even of anti-Semitism. However, arising from his personal experience as much as, or perhaps more than, from his clinical judgment, he articulated the various sides of the Jewish experience that are related to anti-Semitic phenomena. The Jews are hated partly because they survive; they are forced into difference and this in turn provokes hatred; they are excluded and then seen as holding themselves separate. They are objects of fascination, seen as a kind of yeast for culture in general, but this creates envy; they are allowed only the currency of intellectuality, and then their fantazised "cleverness" is feared. Above all, if psychoanalysis as well as popular culture is to be believed, they are sexualized, with their "castrated" state provoking anxiety as well as desire. Jews like Freud, as well as psychoanalysts, might think that they are on the side of reason and hence of the advancement of human culture, but they very easily become the bearers of 'unreasonable," irrational projections; that is, they become the carriers and recipients of culture's repressed underside.
(PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)
I talk about tunnels because they illustrate the, er, depth of the problem. Eight months of war by a capable military. How can there be a tunnel left? How can the world "care" about Gaza yet ignore the depravity that allowed massive resources to be stolen for warfare and filched by Hamas leaders? Resulting in a garrison state at a scale never seen before?
Also: The drip drip of tunnel news in this blog is a message: There has never been a military solution for Gaza. Never was. Never will be. It needs open borders (so people can leave, as they have wanted for years [recall, it is Egypt and Hamas who prevented emigration]), homegrown politics, and actual engagement. When a crisis hits an African country, the world directs resources and opens its doors to refugees. Gaza, a slow motion disaster repackaged for political (and regional) agendas missed the world's "crisis radar."
Perhaps a "gift" of October 7 is to recalibrate that radar?
NSAs in #120
I found Blog #120 interesting. The overview of NSAs (Non State Actors) was clearly something you have spent time thinking about and it was a great articulation
Thank you.
Based on where we grow up, we have different ideas of what the "state" should be. How much should it know about me? What are the trade offs? The U.S. with its "weak state by design" architecture is a stark contrast to most of the West. The recurring rise of armed insurrectionist groups and domestic terrorism illustrates how much "room at the margins" is left by the American system. More paternalistic approaches fill more space, with Soviet style systems at the other extreme.
These essays revolve around themes of political and military power. I have not yet seen a useful analysis of the economic aspect. The economic corruption of the P.A. (in the West Bank) has been an international concern for years. Economic exploitation of the Gaza population, by Hamas, Egypt and Sinai power brokers, is a largely unsung sob story. Since the war, many tens of millions have been siphoned by the crisis (a small story of this kind below). How much was stolen by other players (involved in food distribution, medical care, etc.) will probably never be known.
Vacuums are filled. Not only in physics.
NGOs are different
NGOs (Non Governmental Entities) solve problems that may or may not be within governmental remit. Activism and advocacy are done by NGOs as are some forms of relief work (Doctors without Borders, World Food Kitchen come to mind).
Postmark
Internet... Digital "Begging"
In the era of "doxing" internet cutouts... (read: documenting the identity of fake identities on the internet): In this case, a "fundraiser," who has been documented as a current or former resident of East Jerusalem with Canadian citizenship, raised over 1.5 million Canadian dollars (better than many “legit” professional fundraisers).
Over the past months, I have seen documentation of over a dozen such scams that have amassed tens of millions. I suspect there are hundreds of them. (And doubt anyone is doing a comprehensive review.)
Rafah
Tunnels
IDF Spokesperson: A Significant Tunnel that was used by Terrorists for Force Build-up and Terror Activities in Rafah was Destroyed; The Troops of the 162nd Division Continue to Operate in the Area
The combat teams of the 12th Brigade, the Givati Brigade, the 401st Brigade, the Yahalom Unit, and Unit 504 have been conducting precise, intelligence-based, targeted operations in the Rafah area for the past few weeks under the command of the 162nd Division.
The troops have located several significant tunnel shafts that led to a long tunnel route that reached as far as the Philadelphia Corridor. The tunnel route’s length is approximately 2 kilometers and it connects to several other routes in the area.
The tunnel that was located was extensive and contained blast doors, inside which the troops located weapons such as AK-47s, anti-tank missiles, many intelligence assets and explosives.
The tunnel route was investigated and destroyed by troops of the Yahalom Unit.
Nusirat
Relief Area
Alef
Bet
Gimmel
Dalet
Hey
Vav
Zayin
(On a Silver Platter: Artists to Benefit CCA, Tel Aviv, 2024 — Incidentally, the CCA Tel Aviv is about three blocks from where I live)
Chet: So Which Is It?
Tet
I gave a talk last week about the features and flaws of venture funding in high tech. Speaking to a smart, engaged group is fun. I have been rereading Chabon’s Yiddish Policemen’s Union. In the current situation, it hits different. A novel for the ages.
This is a week of family visits. Expect fewer posts.
Stay well,
Raf
(Thank you A.K., M.T., N.Z., K.T.)