Is Raf OK? -- Installment #70
2024-01-13 -- Jerusalem
Tags: 5 Min; Jumbo Relief Area!
Amazing day in Jerusalem. Walked through part of the old city. The sun was out. The air was cool. Walking by a church we happened on a classical organ concert. Reservists (you can tell because they carry their big weapon) pushing relatives in wheelchairs or strollers.
Political protests have started in earnest. Both against the government and to advocate for the hostages. Yesterday, on a bus heading out of Tel Aviv the driver pulled over and parked. The road ahead was blocked by a protest. Better to pull over for ten minutes and let it pass.
Back On Topic
I am not including footage from the Pro Palestine demonstration in London Saturday (Jan 13, today) where the loudspeaker chants: "Fuck the Jews, Fuck [rape] their Daughters..." There is also footage from Gaza of IDF soldiers handing out water bottles and giving medical help to Gazans moving north on the Coastal Road (recently reopened).
We Get Mail...
Entry #69 triggered multi-paragraph responses from you, dear readers. Here are two, in toto, with permission:
S.F.Z. (my father) Writes:
How proud Adolph Shickelgruber [read: Hitler] would be of continuing proof that ‘tell a lie enough times it becomes the truth’. The population of Gaza fell under the spell of Hamas. They had way more time to tell the lies because the lies go all the way back to the schnooks who insisted that the refugees not be integrated into society but stay in refugee camps. Some now for 70+ years. The rational for refugee camps was always to have a captive population that the lies could be pounded into. Successful beyond the originator’s original hopes and dreams. Partly exemplified by the story of the Israeli woman kidnapped by ‘plain folks’ and then sold to the ruling class.
Can you imagine how everyone (including UNWRA) became complicit to the point of having a landscaped compound in the middle of a ‘refugee camp’? Hamas is just the latest ruler. Aargh!
This armchair general sees no change of action unless at this probably too late date, the hostages are released. Any path other than destruction on a scale large enough to eliminate Hamas doesn’t seem open to discussion.
Sob…
My Cousin Sheryl Dworkin Writes:
Not only are there no street demonstrations for the Lebanese (or, for that matter, the displaced Israeli kids), but there were no demonstrations for the children of Yemen, for the children of Iraq or Afghanistan, for the children of Syria due to the civil war, or any other children in war zones (other than some for the Ukrainians in the beginning of that war). What's the difference between all of those and this time? It's Jews that are involved, and therefore the Arab world cannot tolerate their losses, and the rest of the world cannot accept that Jews will have the gall to defend themselves.
I've seen lots of videos of the rocket factories, the weapons stashes, the concrete needed to build the tunnels, etc. I have two thoughts: a) it's a wonder that the surface of Gaza has not collapsed into the tunnel infrastructure, and b) the Israeli/Egyptian blockade was really a shitty blockade - how the hell did Hamas get all that stuff in, or the materials to make all that stuff while in Gaza, with the Israelis and Egyptians supposedly blockading the entire Gaza strip? Of course, it then begs the question as to why there is all of that military stuff there, but no food, water or fuel?
Other Mail
In my dvar on Va'eira I mentioned my stint on a Collective Farm in the Soviet Union. This prompted:
What were you doing on a Soviet collective farm? What were you doing in the USSR at all? And when was this?
In the 80's and early 90's I was involved in a few NGOs that sought to avoid nuclear war and build peace with the USSR. This was a time of a lot of anti-Russia war mongering on the American Right. Among other things, I was in the Soviet-American Peace March from Leningrad to Moscow in 1987.
One chapter of that work was the creation and operation (for three years) of a study abroad program between a small American college and a college in the USSR (in Pyatigorsk). I was in the USSR four times, twice for 6-7 months each. The program's agenda was to "go native,” so our students joined Soviet students for the month of September on a Collective Farm, helping with the harvest. (We picked grapes.)
(And I did a Masters in History focusing on the USSR.)
The USSR experience was formative and informing. During the Trump years, it gave wisdom: How to live under an undemocratic regime. Today, I am reminded of the hefty chunk of citizens in the USSR who believed Soviet propaganda. Today, here and in the West, such folk believe either in some flavor of messianism (Hamas, far right Christians, far right Jews are examples of messianic thinking) or in "Colonialism and privilege" as a basis for self-abnegation or violence.
Relief Area
Alef
Bet
Gimmel
Dalet
The Druze are a regional minority who live in Israel, Lebanon and Syria. In Israel they have equality, and serve in the Israeli Army. (I have been told that the high schools with the highest test scores in the country are Druze High Schools for girls.)
The Braslov Hasidim are known for their positive, "always happy" outlook and for their vans that blast music to a bunch of nearby dancing Hasidim.
Since Oct 7, there has been a lot of love directed at the Druze. In this video, Breslov Hasidim play a Druze song to support a Druze community in the north of Israel:
Hey
I don’t have to remind American readers of the ongoing dysfunction in the U.S. Congress. I find myself having to explain to Israelis things like this:
Yes, Representative Jayapal (congresswoman from Washington) takes a hard left position, and is, for all intents and purposes, anti-Israel and antisemitic. If you focus on that, you will miss that Biden and the Democratic Party has been trying to pass a bill for military aid to Israel and Ukraine, since early October. This was blocked in 2023 by Republican gamesmanship. It now hasn’t a chance of being acted on until, at least, middle or late February.
Abortion politics are in control of Washington D.C. America’s foreign policy agenda has suffered and will continue to suffer as a result.
The Republican Party “rah rah” support for Israel is secondary to its other agendas which, as you can see right now, bring Washington to a stand still for one to two months at a time. Shutting down the legislative process is not in Israel’s interest. We are now in the second or third such lockup just in the past 12 months.
Fun?
Stay well,
Raf
(Thank you A.K.)