Thank you all (again) for the messages, which include humor, ideas, responses and questions. A question was sent on LinkedIn which we will engage today. (Er, no, hopefully tomorrow.)
After dinner last night with a gay couple, I'd thought to write on Pink Washing. How LGTBQ-identified protests in favor of Hamas spin heads here.
But the Surgeon at the table posed a thought exercise.
Today's entry has two parts:
Thought Exercises (two of ‘em)
Gaza Explainer (a Raf version and a link or two)
Wait, pushing the Gaza Explainer to tomorrow. (Why? Cause it's Woody Allen time, that's why.)
NOTICE: The Thought Exercises below take a certain perspective and push it. They are exercises. Not "what Raf thinks is deeply true."
Perhaps try: Imagine them as SNL skits.
Thought Exercise One: Mazal Tov! Twins!
The following was shared with me by Dr. R. A thinking type. I believe this is his own analogy.
Take some perspective on October 7. Everyone gets wrapped up in the detail. We stop thinking. There is exactly one way to think about it: A mother gives birth to healthy twins. The doctor says Congratulations! Make a choice: A) We kill one baby now and send you home with the other; or B) We come to your house in a year and kill both. This is it.
Choose.
Because we [Israel] had intelligence failures and all that, what happened on Black Saturday was A: One baby killed. If we had "succeeded" (had the right intelligence, not been _____ or ____) and largely defeated the assault, a year or three in the future would have been another attack, bigger, better. Half the country would have been occupied, raped. Every Bedouin, Israeli (Arab and Jew) shot, and every building burnt to the ground.
Why consider this model? Consider: They have unlimited money, unlimited uncompromising ideology, and the collaboration (wittingly or not) of UNWRA and other aid organizations.
Horrible and tragic as October 7 is, at least it wasn't B. We got a chance. It had to be that big for anyone (Israel, the World) to take the problem seriously enough to engage it. And had it failed it would have come back, bigger and badder, down stream.
Thank you Dr. R.
Thought Exercise Two: Raf's Imaginary Vaja
A few days ago this blog shared Raf's imagination of Iran's Secret Service (the Vaja aka Vevak). In the days after Black Saturday, Raf's imagined himself as a member of the Vaja finance team thinking about asymmetric warfare. His thoughts:
Asymmetric warfare proved itself. Low-cost Iranian weapons used by Russia against Ukraine was half a lesson. But with both Russia and Ukraine using these “asymmetric-style” weapons (cheap drones, hacking everyday tech for military purposes) the power of low cost, low tech weapons doesn’t tilt the battlefield.
Gaza/Israel is different. Hamas used cheap drones and other Iranian-designed, low-cost systems to defeat high tech Israeli systems. Asymmetric practices by Hamas, based on both Iranian and Hamas’ own designs, were fantastically successful. If, over the past ten years, Iran had invested more in advancing it’s asymmetric weapons (and sharing that technology with Hamas) rather than pursuing the expensive A-Bomb, Hamas on Oct 7 would have overrun Israel.
Possible conclusion: Stop the expensive "Iranian Manhattan Project." Put a third of that money into Iranian and Hamas asymmetric weapon development. Spend the rest on populist initiatives for the Iranian people: Fuel, bread and kitchen appliances (to buy popularity for the regime), and march to glory!
--End of Thought Experiments--
Seen
At the Ramat Gan National Park
In Ramat Gan
Traffic! No parking! And "The Falafel" stand busy at work. Spelt Pita just three shekels extra (about a buck).
The chef is wearing one of the tags: "My heart is prisoner in Gaza"
And a Nachman-Mobile... Sorry I didn't get the happy guys hanging out the side door. Turn up the audio and you can hear the music.
Relief Area
Alef
Still looking for Together We Will Win eggs but I did find: The People Israel Lives eggs! Bought a dozen!
(Like, what crazy tribe even does this?)
Bet
An Israeli in Brazil saw a pro Palestinian protest. So he started marching with them, and yelled out a slogan (Palestinians are bastards). The protestors couldn't tell the difference between Hebrew and Arabic, so they continued repeating the slogan as he led them through the streets. (The joke here, to Raf’s eyes: No one tracks each other, and so many folks involved don’t know either Arabic or Hebrew.)
My day was OK. I am neither a resident of Gaza nor a soldier there. The yoga studio was full. The instructor’s disclaimer: “If there is a red alert, stay here. This is the shelter for the building. Everyone will come down here, and will be kind of stressed out. We need to share our yoga vibe with them.”
No alarm rang during the class. Vibe-sharing did not occur.
Stay well,
Raf
(Thank you A.K., P.Y. & Dr. R. )