First Time Here? Readers suggest starting with #120.
Tags: 5 Min Read; Videos; Raf analysis; relief
Update 2024-07-04: A new footnote [1] was added and a small text addition to Peace through Nicotine.
I am back in Tel Aviv after three weeks in the U.S. Unexpected encounters on my U.S. travels:
Many of the home health aids in northern California are from Fiji. The coordinator who set up care for my stepmom was in the Gaza envelope on October 7, helping set up overnight housing for the Gazan workers who used to enter Israel on work permits. (If you have been infected by the false report that these day laborers were Hamas spies, the Shin Bet disagrees.[1])
On the short flight from Seattle to Santa Rosa, the lady across the isle sported an Israeli "Free the Hostages" dog tag.
On another short flight, a well dressed African American, wearing much gold, sat next to me. While his dress was African American, I quickly discovered that he is Ethiopian, in the U.S. ten years. He speaks flawless English and runs two businesses. His first question (since I was wearing a kippah): "Is it true that all Ethiopians are Jewish?" We spoke the entire two hours of the flight.
At a shared Airbnb (set up like a boarding house), one of the other guests was from Kenya, in Seattle for his son's college graduation. He and his wife had been to Israel on a tour a handful of years ago. Regarding Gaza, he told me a Kenyan proverb: "Why do you cry when I beat you? I will beat you until you stop crying." (He was saying that Israel must punish the people of Gaza until they stop complaining or fighting back.)
What people think...
Stories that Tell Us...
I have been thinking about how ideas have friends and enemies.
For example, the 1979 peace treaty with Egypt had (and has) friends and enemies. The enemies include Islamic Jihad (who assassinated Anwar El-Sadat in 1981 and today are allied with Hamas in Gaza), and the Meir Kahane movement in Israel. Friends of this idea have prevailed for 40+ years now. I suppose even were the peace agreement to end tomorrow, we could call it a success. (Two generations of peace--an achievement, in my book.)
A few months ago, the press quoted the father of an IDF soldier killed in Gaza. The father blames Oslo for the death of his son.[2] I thought that was interesting. In my eyes, Oslo has been dead for many years already (and the unilateral pullout from Gaza was both a nail in Oslo’s coffin and was done because the Gaza occupation cost Israeli lives on an ongoing basis).
But perhaps this reaction of mine is too simple.
Oslo names an idea. An idea, like others, with friends and enemies. The enemies were (and are) violent people. An Israeli enemy killed Israeli Prime Minister Rabin. Palestinian enemies killed many Israelis in acts of terror. This is an example of "practical" alignment of Jewish and Palestinian extremists: They both hate an idea and are willing to kill to make the idea stop.
The interesting thing to Raf is when folks say, "Oslo failed." Oslo was only, ever, partly (heck, fractionally) implemented. It is a ten point plan stuck at step three. The parts actually implemented have, to a material degree, succeeded: There are domains under full Palestinian control. The PLO moved into governance. These domains have, in hundreds (or even thousands) of cases collaborated with Israel to reduce violence (which, when Palestinians are in power, stops serving them).
When Gaza had elections after the 2005 Israeli pullout, Hamas (one of the violent anti-Oslo groups) killed hundreds of Fatah politicians and activists (intra-Palestinian violence that continues to the present day). Another violent anti-Oslo act.
So Oslo, as an idea, was effectively killed (the current Israeli prime minister was against it before it was born). It wasn't tried. It didn't fail. It was killed before it got off the ground.
Figuratively and literally.
(And, as we have discussed, ideas don’t die. They may be in the foreground or background, but they don’t die.)
Seen
Our hearts are captive in Gaza.
-- Banner on Tel Aviv University dormitory.
Noa Argamani (the famous hostage whose capture by Hamas was broadcast widely… by Hamas) speaks for the first time to media since release. (Hebrew w/English subs)
Mail
Peace through Nicotine?
In #124 Raf wrote:
(Raf thinks: Another missed opportunity by Israel. Hamas controlled and taxed tobacco products for 15 years. This is Israel’s chance to make friends with Gazan smokers by allowing import of tax free cigarettes.)
Reader M.T. responds:
I think this is meant to be a joke, but doesn't all aid come into Gaza for free and wind up taxed by Hamas? I'm not sure Israel has any role in this or can do anything about it other than get rid of Hamas
No and no.
As far as Raf knows, tobacco is not part of "aid." To the best of my knowledge, all tobacco products are imported by businesspeople.
Yes, Hamas taxed everything taxable, and tobacco products were a serious revenue source for terror. The Rafah crossing (and tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border) were the entry points for tobacco products. With the IDF controlling the Gaza side of the Gaza-Egypt border, Egypt has refused to allow the Rafah crossing to open, fearing the appearance of "collaboration" with Israel. (Example #____ of Egypt screwing over Gazans, who are the ones who benefit from opening the crossing.)
Raf is not joking when he says: Israel could make a lot of friends in Gaza by facilitating the import of cheap/free/lightly taxed tobacco products. Gazans want the stuff (and can often pay). Make new friends: Give them what they want.
Peace through nicotine. (I am not joking even a little bit.)
Relief Area Correction
Relief Area Bet in #124 has been updated with the right Hebrew translation (that is what I get for rushing! Thanks M.T.!)
Brett Stephens: What Would A Better Prime Minister Do?
Brett Stephens and Thomas Friedman are among the clearer thinkers on the scene. I am, generally, a "Friedman-ite." Generally, I am not a "Stephens-ite," but he thinks and writes clearly on that Gaza situation. Here is his essay: What Would a Better Israeli Prime Minister Do? (PDF here)
Postmark
Gaza
The Gaza news agency Sawa, according to UN sources:
For the first time since the IDF took over the Rafah crossing, Gazan children with cancer departed to Egypt for receive medical treatment.
According to the report, they leave through the Israeli Kerem Shalom crossing and from there to Egypt.
It should be noted that this is the first time since the 2005 Israel pullout that Israel approves departures of Gazans to Egypt.
Doctors Without Scruples
I hate to say this...
Remember Fadi al-Wadiya👆, from "Doctors Without Borders" and the Palestinian Ministry of Health - who was killed in an Israeli attack?
After he was presented with doctor's whites (for the benefit of Palestinian propaganda abroad), the coordinator of operations in the territories reveals photos of Fadi in the uniform of a military operative of Islamic Jihad.
Dr. Fadi and Mr. al-Wadiya... Here is the Twitter account of Doctors Without Borders - where they whine about the death of Fadi and received more than two million views
I want to like Doctors without Borders. Their philosophy to “treat everyone who is hurt and ask no questions” is a humanist approach that works for me. I am not sure it works for me if they do the same for members of their staff….
Social Media
There is nothing more important than the hostages. Nothing.
Pre-Relief
Thought Excercize
(Yes there are typos, this is about the thought exercise, not spelling.)
Chess
Israel has a habit of playing chess with itself and usually it loses.
Amit Segal, Israeli Journalist
Mirrors a comment from old friend: Many problems here are caused by Israeli actions and decisions.
21st Century Fascism
Dreams...
(3 min, Hebrew w/English subs)
On Drafting Haredim to the Israeli Army
The Army says:
I Get: Three of the Best Years of Your Life
You [the drafted] Get: Irreversible injuries to the body and soul; A serious economic hit; Demeaning and humiliating treatment at the hands of "the system;" Rare visits to see your home and family; Experience relevant for citizenship; In certain cases, death.
(The “deal” above applies to every military. It is cogent in Israel because: 1) There is a draft; and, 2) Expanding the draft to the religious is a leading topic.)
Relief Area
Alef
Bet
(Commenting on an unintelligent twitter poster.)
Gimmel
Cartoon of the Iranian opposition: participation in tomorrow's elections empowers the regime.
Dalet
Hey
1 min.
Vav
(Bamba is a peanut snack that Israeli kids love… the saying is: Israeli babies learn to say bamba before they say mama…)
At the airport, I observed that many airlines have resumed flying here (United, Whizz, Austrian Airlines and many others). Israel is in summer mode: Fans and AC blasting here and there. The Tel Aviv shuk was rather empty, though traffic seems as bad as ever.
Allenby Street (a main drag in Tel Aviv) is ripped up and closed — part of the light rail project.
Stay well,
Raf
(Thank you A.K., M.T.)
Note [1]
And to the question of how the Hamas attackers knew the layouts of military posts and addresses of various chiefs of security, that has been documented as coming from social media posts by soldiers and government web sites.
Note [2]
The father may mean that Gaza has been under Palestinian administration since 2005 because of the Oslo agreements. By available information, this would be a misread. Those “at the scene” of Ariel Sharon’s decision to pull out of Gaza attribute the action as an effort to torpedo Oslo. Such as this comment by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's senior adviser, Dov Weissglass:
The significance of the disengagement plan is the freezing of the peace process, and when you freeze that process, you prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, and you prevent a discussion on the refugees, the borders and Jerusalem.