First Time Here? Readers suggest starting with the expanded Gaza Explainer in #133 and #120.
Tags: 7 Min Read; Jerusalem anecdotes (at end)!
From my apartment, you walk to Jaffa. 15 minutes to the near edge of Jaffa, an hour or so to the far edge. Closer to the near edge is the harbor. The only boats in recent decades are some pleasure boats and fishing boats. Walking through on a weekday morning, there are two fisherman selling fish on ice. We buy two. After broiling, they look like this:
Near the fish market, this:
Mail
Text Message: Go To Kaplan!
November 5 wasn't the day I expected. While on the one hand, there is this:
On the other, I was at home, looking forward to being in bed "on time" (for once), when Adina, in Jerusalem, texted: "Bibi fired Gallant. Go to Kaplan." Another friend from a suburb told me she was on her way there herself. (This is the street in front of the Ministry of Defense that is also a freeway overpass. It is where the big protests occur in Tel Aviv.)
I walked down. Protesters had the freeway (equivalent to I-5 in Seattle or California) closed for an hour or two. This is the northbound side of the freeway (it was the same on the southbound side).
Wasn't in bed until late.
In #146 you indicated it was time to move on, but in the same post you started a new section, "Dept of the Invisible." What's going on?
A mix of ongoing positive reader feedback and compulsion.
I am considering a drastic cutback to news consumption. That may affect the content or continuation of this project.
Dept of The Invisible
Items invisible in the Western media.
Gaza News #1: An Agreement?
Palestinian media: Hamas and Fatah Agreed on a Joint Committee to Manage the Gaza Strip
A Hamas source for the Shehab News Agency (affiliated with Hamas):
There is an agreement between Hamas and Fatah on the establishment of a committee of technocrats to manage the Gaza Strip. The committee will start operating immediately after the publication of a presidential decision on the matter by Palestinian Authority Chairman Abu Mazen.
The publication follows Egyptian-sponsored negotiations between Hamas and Fatah in Cairo.
Raf asks: What about terms to end the conflict? Do those terms include destroying the tunnels? (How would that be verified?)
Gaza News #2: A Protest!
This is spreading across Gaza:
Palestinian media report that the protest by Gazan residents against the high cost of living and local merchants is now spreading to markets in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza and also in Gaza City, after starting Wednesday morning in Deir al-Balah.
Raf interprets this as a protest against Hamas disguised as a protest against merchants. Protesting Hamas directly is dangerous, as such protests are put down with force (resulting in injury and death). The protest against the "black market" is a protest against Hamas that continues to hijack aid trucks and hoard food supplies, selling to the population what is supposed to be free.
The grassroots protest against the traders also extends to Nuseirat (the center of the Gaza Strip)
After Deir al-Balah and Khan Yunis, residents of the Nuseirat RC in the center of the Gaza Strip also shut down the market in Nuseirat this morning.
The demonstrators declare that they will continue until the prices of the goods in the markets go down. One of the demonstrators (the one being carried on someone's shoulders) calls out:
"Show me where there are warehouses of goods and I will break into them. Any warehouse that is there I will break into"
The warehouses are mostly controlled by Hamas. If the people break in... it would be the first popular uprising against Hamas. As of this past Friday, there were attempts to break into those warehouses, that were repelled with Hamas gunfire.
Below is footage from the protests in Gaza city:
Below: A Gazan journalist: This is what you can get for NIS 290 (US$78) in the market in the center of the Gaza Strip—e.g. the prices are crazy high, the protests have not lowered them so far.
At the same time, as of today (Sunday, November 10), COGAT, the Israeli authority that coordinates aid entering Gaza, reported that a few dozen truckloads were collected at the various crossings, and that 500 or 600 truckloads (of food and supplies) are sitting, waiting for pickup by organizations in Gaza.
This is all against the backdrop of the U.S. notice in October that arms deliveries are contingent on a dramatic increase in the Strip’s food supply. The deadline on this notice is November 13 (a couple days away). Given that Hamas still controls food distribution in the Gaza Strip, the food situation is unlikely to improve this week. Data on the GOGAT web site may indicate that food importation dropped precipitously in November (the site seems to be updated once or twice a week).
Postmark
Lebanese Television
The Lebanese Christian journalist, Tony Abu Najm (a prominent opponent of Hezbollah) in a televised debate with a Hezbollah supporter:
I don't want Hezbollah to surrender today.
I want them to continue until the end so that none will be left!
Below clip from social media:
The Lebanese journalist Hachem Haddad, whom I understand to be a supporter of the "free patriot" movement in Lebanon (Christians who were allies of Hezbollah in the last Lebanese government), presents questions in the clip below to provoke thought among Hezbollah supporters:
"When is it considered defeat?"
My observation: What we are seeing in Lebanon, and probably also in Gaza, is a version of what Thomas Friedman calls “Hama Rules” -- with far far fewer fatalities than Assad Sr. inflicted. The operative military principle is: Attacking will trigger such a response that you won't want--even if able--to attack again.
Cemetery in Southern Lebanon
A Hezbollah tunnel complex, running under a cemetery — because there was no school nearby?
This one was filled with 4500 cubic meters of concrete.
Peace Through Nicotine?
I am not sure this qualifies as part of my ongoing peace proposal.
The announcement reads:
"Before October 7, the price of a cigarette was one and a half shekels. Now it is NIS 150.
The reason: Hamas steals the cigarettes and sells them at a high price to merchants to finance its activities...Do you want to stop the abuse and move forward in your life?
Get in touch with Captain Abu Ali [IDF intelligence officer in Arabic] and you won't lose"A Marlboro cigarette [not Karelia--the more popular brand in Gaza] with a picture of a smoking Yahya Sinwar was pasted on the accompanying flyer.
Raf's Peace through Nicotine initiative envisions packaging that includes deradicalization and pro-peace messaging.
Tehran, Palestine Square
In Hebrew: "America will throw you away like used toilet paper"
This was put up in response to the election of Tr*mp. (Reference above, American Jews did not vote for Tr*mp en masse….)
Columbia University
An Israeli television host went to America to interview Jewish college students about hostility on campus. The interviews were at Columbia, Barnard and Harvard, and included young Jews who stand up for Israel and one who led rallies calling for there to be no Jewish State (he seems to think such a transition would be peaceful and bloodless).
This last guy, to support his position, used the city of Salonika (Thessaloniki) as his proof: “Jews lived there happily and productively for 400 years. [Without a Jewish State on the planet.]” Oddly (to me) the interviewer did not ask, “400 years, that’s great! Then what?”
The answer: The Nazis invaded and that was the end of the Jewish community of Salonika.
Reader M.P. writes that a notable mayor of Salonika/Thessaloniki died just in the past few days:
Yiannis Boutaris, visionary, charismatic, bon viveur, emotional, brave, generous, radical, transparent, deeply democratic, pioneer, unconventional personality, passed away yesterday.
The man who envisioned the creation of the Holocaust Museum in Thessaloniki and convinced many rich people to contribute financially to make this Museum a reality, also convinced the Germans to sponsor it with 10.000.000 euros.
The man who, during the foundation of the Museum on the Holocaust Memory Day, made a speech -punch to the part of Thessaloniki who "forgot" the 50,000 Jewish residents of the town who were taken on the trains of death to the Nazi concentration camps, he made that speech wearing a Kippah!
The mayor who, during his swearing-in ceremony, put on his lapel the yellow star that the Nazis forced the Jews of Europe to wear, to protest the two far-right anti-Semites municipal councilors who were elected.
His courageous, full of emotion, truths and high symbolism on the National Day of Remembrance for the Jewish Martyrs and Heroes of the Holocaust, on January 2018 is here.
Relief Area
Alef
[Iranian Leader] Khomeni after the firing of [Israeli Defense Minister] Gallant
Bet
American pro-Israel Jews who refuse to vote for Harris because they think she is too anti-Israel.
American anti-Israel Muslims who refuce to vote for Harris because they think she is too pro-Israel.
Gimmel
[Israeli Defense Minister] Gallant was fired on the same day as Sarah [Netanyahu's] birthday.
As I suspected!
(Sarah Netanyahu reportedly harbors enormous hatred for former Defense Minister Gallant.)
Hey
Bibi as the grim reaper.
The doors are:
Economy [first destroyed by the judicial "reform" then by the war];
Security [destroyed by Oct 7];
[Israeli Defense Minister] Gallant;
Chief of Staff and Chief of the Shin Bet [both of whom are expected to be fired by Bibi shortly]
Vav
This entry closes with two anecdotes about tzedakah (giving charity) in Israel. Street tzedakah.
#1
A few days ago, Adina and I are in the car, driving to Jerusalem. A friend, his girlfriend and his sister in law are piled into the back seat, hitching a ride with us.
At a stop light in Tel Aviv, a beggar/panhandler is soliciting. Adina and Raf drop a few coins in his hand.
He gives back a five shekel piece saying: "Give it to the young people in the back for them to give me. [So they will exercise the muscle of giving.]"
#2
A week ago, Adina and I were in a neighborhood movie theater. The snack bar is "European" style, and has an espresso machine.
I am buying popcorn when a homeless guy, seemingly an Arab drug addict, walks into the lobby, right up to me, and says, "Get me an Americano." As I start this process, he grabs a bag of chips, and I pay for his Americano and chips.
Last night, a week after the “movie theater Americano,” Adina and I are at a pizza place with friends. Totally different part of Jerusalem. We are done eating at the outdoor table and I am inside paying when... the same guy comes in, "Give me money for pizza." I say I will buy him pizza... He asks for pizza, a salad and a coke. I say I will buy him pizza. So I place the order. They cashier needs his name, "Ahmed, I am Ahmed"
I didn't think Jerusalem was that small....
I guess I know who I am feeding each time I see him…
To Peace,
Raf
(Thank you A.K., M.T., M.P.)