Is Raf OK? -- Installment #57
2023-12-15 -- Tel Aviv
Tags: 3 Min Read. No Videos.
Want to trigger Israelis and Jews? Use the word "genocide" in a paragraph discussing Israel or its army.
That was... interesting.
The idea that Israel is committing a genocide is, to me, preposterous. Horrible: Telling civilians their neighborhood is about to be a war zone. But doing that in advance (as Israel has) means: We have to do something ugly and we don't want you to get hurt. Yes: The U.N.'s definition is broad. Really broad. Broad enough to drive a truck through it. Broad enough that it seems to capture every Palestinian terror event in the past sixty years. But to that definition: No: No one in the Israeli military, from the bottom to the top, wants to point a weapon at anyone other than a Hamas terrorist/gunman/militant. And, given the zillions of opportunities to point a weapon that way, they consistently do not.
That is the ikar that is missed: Hamas and its ilk point their weapons at any Israeli, including non-Jewish Israelis. Including non-Israelis who happen to be in front of them. As mentioned a month ago:
My discussion yesterday is for folks who have decided that what is happening in Gaza is genocide. I don't expect to change their minds. I just ask that they be even handed.
There is plenty of blame. Enough to go around.
So be generous.
Heard & Seen
At a college campus in the U.S…. I don’t know when this occurred
At a J Street Web Event
I joined a Zoom for Seattle J Street last night. The presentation was great. The questions from Seattle J Streeters were the interesting part.
The framing seems to be:
(As presented, and as experienced first hand by Raf.) Israel is reeling from trauma. It is completely self focused. The events of October are, physically and psychically, as large or larger than the 1973 Yom Kippur War. While there is a lot of coverage of the ground war in Gaza, images of the Gaza civilian situation are not front and center. Only people who look for them find them. (Many do look, but it is a small fraction of Israelis.)
(As communicated by J Street members and Raf’s observation.) However in the West, the media focus has been on the people of Gaza. Their lot was ignored (for whatever reasons) prior to October 7, but since then has been “the news.” This creates a lot of pressure, particularly on the “left side of the left” to focus on the humanitarian angle.
Read
It's A Tough Battlefield
Anshel Pfeffer writes in Ha'aretz:
The war has been raging for over two months now and perhaps half of Hamas' military capacities, in personnel, rockets and arms and tunnels, have been degraded. In off-the-record conversations, senior Israeli officers and security officials acknowledge that in a matter of weeks, the military campaign will shift from, one in which entire armored divisions are engaged within Gaza's cities to a more mobile offensive with smaller formations spending less time in the Strip.
Arabic Language Sources
Wanted
Israel is dropping flyers over Khan Younis and offering a reward four times smaller than what is being offered on the head of Yahya Sinwar.
Price list:
Yahya Sinwar 400 thousand dollars
Muhammad Sinwar (his brother) 300 thousand dollars
Rafe Salamah 200 thousand dollars
Muhammad Deif for (only) 100 thousand dollars.Maybe because in the case of Muhammad Deif not all the parts arrive..
Hamas Responds to Military Pressure?
Senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk in an interview with Al-Monitor in the English language:
We are interested in joining the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization under the control of Fatah, which signed the Oslo Accords and the recognition of Israel-PA).
We need to respect the recognition of the PLO of the State of Israel.
It was a mistake to kidnap women and children on October 7
Also reported:
Last night Ismail Haniyeh, the chairman of the political bureau of Hamas, stated that the war is about to end.
Don’t Mess
Reports continue of Hamas hijacking aid trucks and killing Gazans who approach. (I won’t include the video.) Given that Hamas hijacked enormous quantities of building materials for 12+ years (to build tunnels and bombs), “nothing has changed” in Gaza.
Relief Area
Alef
(picture of Bibi's sons)
An emotional picture: The two sons of the Prime Minister meet right before entering the Foreign Ministry to engage in the difficult battle to get a diplomatic passport. Ambassadors [the sons], take care of yourselves!
(There are layers to this, including that most men this age are in combat and combat support roles, being called up for reserves, including the sons of senior members of the government, while Bibi's sons do g-d knows what with the shelter of diplomatic passports.... So we say “take care of yourselves” the way we say it to soldiers going into danger.)
Bet
(The reference is to flooding Hamas tunnels with seawater)
Gimmel
When people use the words Zionism/AntiZionism/Genocide….
When I was writing last night (Thursday night), there was a loud party nearby. Now on Friday morning it is sunny and nice. Went to yoga. And visited my Yemenite Hole In The Wall for lunch. Some pictures and clips.
That is the news.
Shabbat Shalom. I am off to Jerusalem for Shabbat.
Raf
(Thank you A.K.)