Is Raf OK? -- Installment #92
2024-03-20 -- Tel Aviv
Tags: 4 Min Read; Videos (including new Eretz Nehederet!)
Edits: After the email release, this web page was adjusted: Some links were added/fixed; the “Camp 1” paragraph was slightly modified.
Your Mail
Bret Stephens
Referring to an entry in #90:
Bret Stephens is usually too conservative for my taste...
Also true for me. My guess is that, when it comes to foreign policy the U.S. is, I think, broadly in two camps:
Camp 1: Withdraw: Either because of isolationism (e.g. "America First/Steve Banon") or economics (e.g. "The U.S. is poor").
Successful penetration by Palestinian activists is, in its result, the same. During the cold war it's goal (underneath) was to give a win to the USSR. Today, it's result is to give a win to Iran and leave the Middle East in greater chaos than it has seen in the last 100 years. (The Gulf money behind "Palestinian activism" is probably similar to the money that funded Al Queda. Petro-wealth + religious [Muslim] guilt = funding for anti-Israel/Pro Palestinian causes. Add Iran, and presto! Regional conflagration. Turn the clock back to 9/11: Gulf money, from the hands of religiously "conservative" Muslims, flowed to Bin Laden and Al Queda. Al Queda attacks the U.S. The U.S. counterattacks in Afghanistan and Iraq. Which country, ultimately, expanded its sphere of influence and regional domination? Iran.)
Camp 2: Old Fashioned Global Power: The U.S. has a role to play in global stability. Two of today's leading threats are Putin's Russia and Iran. Sending money and weapons to counter these threats is "cheap."
Relief Area: Those "chill Jews"...
...they might not have been chill/"this is fine" - a lot of them would have happily left if they could
Fair call.
Word Play
The sign on the right: “Government of the destruction of our home/Government of destruction go home.” (Word play.)
the phrase is a little more loaded than your translation implies -- https://ohr.edu/this_week/whats_in_a_word/7453
More about Uri Geller (Thank you M.T.)
First is a pointer to this great article. (PDF Here))
And also an angle on Geller from the Center for Inquiry: Uri Geller Fools ‘The New York Times’
Israeli Politics
The real issue is not what Senator Schumer said. It is the issue coming to a head (that even Nassralah is talking about). The clip below, courtesy Eretz Nehederet, has been denounced by Israeli right wing media (like Channel 14). So it's gotta be good (2 min, Hebrew w English subs by Raf):
More on this topic is discussed in a March 15 articles in The Atlantic (PDF Here.)
Arabic Language Social Media
Has a lot of photos of food in Gaza: Huge deliveries of flour (in what look like 20 kilo sacks). Also shawarma stands operating in multiple Gaza cities. The feed I watch says over and over: "There is no starvation in Gaza." There are certainly challenges (of all kinds, it is a war zone), but given that almost all the hospitals are functioning (even Shifa, site of battles and controversies months ago), trucks are rolling in every day, air drops are happening most days. I have seen no non-debunked visual evidence of hunger (when there are loads of visuals of everything else), this is hard to parse.
For example, large quantities of “free” aid have been commandeered by Hamas operatives and are offered for sale on social media, including photos of a small warehouse piled high with bottled water and other supplies.
The challenge of prevalent social media: Everything is “true” and nothing is real.
How Many Fronts?
Israel bombed a Hezbollah site in western Syria yesterday. Ammunition factories and storage. Reportedly, this is a spot Israel almost never attacks. The clip I saw shows many secondary explosions, and the fire burned for a long time (an indication of ammunition-making supplies).
From the Gaza Front... Shifa
Joint IDF and ISA announcement:
The IDF and ISA are continuing to thwart terrorist activity in the Shifa hospital
The IDF and ISA, led by the 401st Brigade, and Shayetet 13 special forces are continuing precise operations in the Shifa hospital to thwart terrorism. 20 terrorists have been eliminated at the Shifa hospital thus far in various engagements, and dozens of apprehended suspects are currently in questioning.
Terror funds intended for distribution to Hamas terrorist operatives, in addition to numerous weapons, were located in the hospital. This is further evidence of Hamas' systematic abuse of hospitals and civilian infrastructure for its terrorist activities.
The above is from about 72 hours ago. Targeted raids in Shifa continue through, as I understand it, today. The IDF reports: 460 Hamas operatives arrested. Ninety+ combatants killed.
More Gaza -- Tunnels
Documentation of the activity of the engineering forces of the 162nd division: 17.03.24
The engineering forces of the 162nd division break the way for the infantry fighters and the armored tanks and expose the area.
The forces in cooperation with the Yalam unit this week destroyed the longest underground route located in the north of the Gaza Strip. The length of the route is over two and a half kilometers, crossing battalions and brigades and connecting the north and the south.
"We are at the end of destroying part of a network of tunnels," says the engineering officer of the 162nd division, Lt. Col. Ran, "about 12 kilometers of outdoor tunnels. From there we will continue to more tunnels."
The Home Front: High School
Excerpted from a write up by Nerya Cohen, resident of Tel Aviv, Principal of the Amit Bar Ilan School in Petach Tikvah. Emphasis from the original.
Lastly, the war presents a substantial challenge for all those who seek to promote humanistic values in the educational system. All educational efforts are based on the optimistic belief regarding the choice that is given to each person and the potential for good that is hidden within them. The traumatic encounter with pure evil that we experienced on Simchat Torah put a spoke in our wheels, in a certain sense, and made it very difficult to educate according to these values.
In the first days of the war, I went to a funeral for a soldier that I know. Precisely in those difficult moments, the family chose to play the song “Between the Sounds” of Yonatan Razel, a song that strives to strengthen this optimism and belief in humanity. In the words of the song: “Yet I am full of hope, because people are created in the image of God.”
Relief Area
Alef
Bet: Hashem gives his hardest battles to his toughest warriors
I dunno, I like kugel and would like to like tongue. (M.Z. and I were just discussing tongue, which I mostly experienced at the table of a Great Aunt.)
Gimmel
I had a blast seeing folks from Seattle who were in Israel as part of a Samis Foundation visit. Tel Aviv is mostly itself. Not quite as frenetic. Everyone in my circle is hoping the governing coalition cracks. No one here seems aware the degree to which D.C. is cracked.
At the moment, I need to shower and head to the train station.
Stay well,
Raf
(Thank you A.K., S.D. and M.T.)