There is no question but that the inmates are running the madhouse today. So much is irrational, so much is upside down. But perhaps instead of speaking of sanity, I should speak about staying grounded, holding fast to our values with a measure of inner peace. Keeping our eye on better days yet to come.
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As I survey the news before doing my posting, sometimes a sense of malaise overtakes me. By this I do not mean pessimism about our final victory or about the merit of our battle.
It is rather that I see how often we are caught in situations of mendacity, deceit, injustice, perversity and broadscale disregard for Jewish rights and Jewish lives. And let us be clear: circumstances in which we face pure evil – evil that the world is reluctant to acknowledge as such. It is this last that makes us know the world has gone mad.
And so, it is perhaps inevitable that this situation would sometimes bring a heaviness of the heart: we rise above our challenges (so many challenges!), but often more slowly than we would have hoped, and with suffering on the part of Am Yisrael. We want to cry, Nu? Isn’t it over yet? But the answer is, no, not yet: we have performed miracles, and we are on the way, strong and determined – but it is not over yet.
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As I write my posts, I seek to provide you, my readers, with solid information and as much clarity as is possible. Often not much is possible because there are conflicting (and confusing) reports. I find myself writing about a failed ceasefire in Lebanon, with the Lebanese army not doing their job, and the determination of Hamas to reconstruct themselves if we turn away for a moment, and the horrendous difficulties in striking a deal for release of the hostages.
I write about these things because they are important and must be understood. But I recognize that you, my readers, surely feel that same malaise from time to time, and also want to cry, Nu? Isn’t it over yet?
And so, I want to say, stay with me – stay alert to the matters I write about, and hold fast to belief in our final victory.
When you have the opportunity, share information – in letters to the editor, talkbacks, WhatsApp discussions, conversations over coffee. There is so much disinformation; setting the record straight even in small matters can be your contribution to bringing better days.
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I begin with news of a pigua, a terror attack – one of a very serious nature in which three Israelis were shot dead. Two were women, sisters-in-law, both in their 70s and retired school counselors: Rachel Cohen (center below), and Aliza Raiz. One was a man of 35, Master Sgt. Elad Yaakov Winkelstein, a police officer from Ein Hanatziv.
Eight others were wounded – one, the bus driver, seriously – and have been hospitalized.
The attack took place near the community of Kedumim in northern Samaria. The terrorists, armed with assault rifles, had taken aim at a bus and two cars on Route 55, a main thoroughfare in the area; those who were killed were in the cars. Winkelstein’s son was in his car when he was shot dead but was left unscathed — except emotionally.
There were three attackers; two were known to authorities and have been identified as being connected to Palestinian Islamic Jihad and having come from either Nablus or Jenin (sources vary on this). The terrorists fled but are being pursued. We will get them – we always do. The IDF has dispatched a large number of troops, as well as an Israeli Air Force helicopter, to participate in the search.
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Local leaders in Judea & Samaria were particularly distressed by this terror attack because they believe there has been insufficient attention paid to the growing terrorist strength in that area. They call for stringent maintenance of all checkpoints and more.
The response from the Yesha Council (emphasis added): “Iran is establishing itself in Judea and Samaria, and the government of Israel and the IDF are not changing their strategy. We are mourning the murder of innocent citizens on this difficult morning, praying for the recovery of the wounded, and demanding that the government and army crush and defeat Iranian terrorism. Nablus must look like Gaza; Jenin like southern Lebanon.”
Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council, called for “senior IDF command to abandon the misconception about the Palestinian Authority, confiscate all illegal weapons, and begin to fight against Mahmoud Abbas, who is perpetrating this terror against us.”
But note, please what else he said: “…we will never be broken! The people of Israel will prevail, and we will strengthen ourselves. Jews will build more and more communities in Samaria.”
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/401866
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And then, a look at a situation that is both infuriating and perverse (typical of the situations we must confront):
An Israeli soldier, who survived the October 7 Nova festival massacre and subsequently participated in military operations in Gaza, speedily left Brazil on Sunday, with Israeli assistance, after a Brazilian federal court issued an investigation order against him on suspicion of genocide and crimes against humanity. The investigation stemmed from a complaint filed by the Palestinian Arab organization Hind Rajab (HRF), which is working to secure information found on social media about the military service of soldiers in order to find grounds to file a request to arrest them.
“The organization has so far failed in its schemes to arrest IDF soldiers, although its complaints have caused a reserve officer to leave Cyprus and another soldier to leave Sri Lanka.”
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/401806
The IDF has now required soldiers who served in Gaza to remove video footage of their fighting from social media.
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Since the overthrow of Assad in Syria by jihadist-linked rebel forces, the IDF has been positioned in the buffer zone between Israel and Syria, including on the Syrian side of Har (Mount) Hermon, the highest location in the region and thus strategically significant.
According to a report from Kan News, head of the Syrian regime Abu Mohammed Al Julani (aka Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa), who has been making efforts to present a moderate image and assure Israel there was nothing to fear, has demanded that the US insist Israel leave the Syrian side of the Hermon.
Israeli officials indicate they have received no official request from the US on this matter – not that there would have been compliance had the US made such a request. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar has already made it clear that Israel will take all necessary steps to safeguard our security: Jerusalem would not allow another massacre to take place “on any front.”
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But note, please, what Israeli troops have discovered on the Syrian Hermon: weapons caches and intelligence assets, including mines (pictured), explosives, anti-tank missiles, rockets and launchers.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/401815
The Syrians controlled this area since the Yom Kippur war, and it not clear when these weapon caches were hidden there; but many of the weapons appeared new, carefully wrapped and stored in wooden crates. They have been confiscated and destroyed.
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On the situation in Lebanon: It appears that attempts are being made to extend the ceasefire, thereby giving the Lebanese Army more time to deploy in southern Lebanon and Hezbollah more time to move north of the Litani River.
There is a way in which this is bewildering – because it is obvious that even if the ceasefire is extended until late February, Hezbollah is not going to withdraw fully to north of the Litani, and the Lebanese Army is not going to fully deploy in southern Lebanon and destroy all illegal weaponry.
But although this is the case, Israel obviously sees benefits to this situation rather than returning now to full hostilities. A good deal more can be accomplished, with regard to searching out and destroying Hezbollah weapons during another month of quiet.
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-836212
Israeli Minister of Defense Yisrael Katz has made Israel’s situation clear (emphasis added):
“…the first condition for the implementation of the agreement is the complete withdrawal of the Hezbollah terror organization beyond the Litani River, the dismantling of all weapons, and the [removal] of the terror infrastructure in the area by the Lebanese army, something that hasn’t happened yet,”
“If this condition is not met, there will be no agreement, and Israel will be forced to act independently to ensure the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes.”
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What is happening with regard to negotiations to bring home at least some of the hostages is so convoluted, and so confusing with regard to various reports, that I do not intend to share a step-by-step of where we are now. Paramount are issues of an agreement regarding who would be released and whether these hostages are still alive.
There is a very real and painful concern that if we agree to accept some of these hostages then the others who are held will be lost to us forever. Thus, there are families imploring the government to only negotiate a deal that brings all 100, living and dead, out at once.
It is an obscene and heart-rending situation orchestrated by a soulless Hamas. Better to bring out some? Who decides which hostages will be brought out and which left?
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When Israeli superstar Gal Gadot presented an award at the Golden Globes on Sunday night in Los Angeles she was not wearing the yellow pin that is a symbol for bringing the hostages home.
When she was criticized in Israel for this, it was reported that she had been forbidden to wear it because the award organizers consider it a political statement.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/culture/article-836308
A political statement? I want to thank these organizers for so effectively demonstrating that we are living in a world gone mad. Who other than Hamas and its sympathizers does not want to see the hostages released? Hopefully the organizers, leftist though they surely are, do not fall into this category.
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And let us end by looking at statements made by Antony Blinken, soon-to-be former secretary of state.
This is from Caroline Glick, “Blinken’s stunning confession” (emphasis added):
“The New York Times published an interview with outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken. Blinken said that Hamas has refused to agree to release the hostages in exchange for a ceasefire for two reasons.
“In his words, ‘There have been two major impediments, and they both go to what drives Hamas. One has been whenever there has been public daylight between the United States and Israel and the perception that pressure was growing on Israel, we’ve seen it: Hamas has pulled back from agreeing to a ceasefire and the release of hostages.
“The other thing that got Hamas to pull back was their belief, their hope that there would be a wider conflict…and Hamas could continue what it was doing.”
“Under harsh questioning from the Times’ anti-Israel reporter Lulu Garcia-Navarro, Blinken revealed that U.S. pressure on Israel began immediately after Oct. 7, 2023, and became a central feature of U.S. policy in relation to the war from its very earliest days.
“…What was most notable about Blinken’s admission was that he didn’t appear to believe that there was anything wrong with the policies he imposed on Israel. Many military leaders have argued persuasively that had Blinken and Biden left Israel to pursue its siege strategy, combined with airstrikes, Israel could have fomented Hamas’s capitulation, or at least its surrender of the hostages, by the end of 2024. While Blinken’s statements indicated that he is at least in partial agreement with that assessment, he gave no indication that he felt remorse for the devastating impact his policies have had on the hostages or for the fact that those policies are a primary reason that the war is still ongoing.”
https://www.jns.org/blinkens-stunning-confession/
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In another context, Blinken had yet more to say about a hostage deal: “We want to reach the finish line in the talks for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip within two weeks, and get the hostages out of there.”
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/401862
Shamelessly, Blinken is hoping that he and Biden can take the credit for the hostage release. In two weeks, Trump moves into the White House.
And it is this fact, the promise of a second Trump administration, that allows me to end this on a positive note. I have no doubt that there will be decisions Trump makes that will not be to Israel’s liking. But the statements he has made moving forward have given us every reason to believe that there will be enormous changes, the great majority of which will work in Israel’s favor: release of armaments that Biden withheld; sanctions against members of the ICC; assistance in hitting Iran’s nuclear facilities; etc. In addition to action to help bring out the hostages.
There is talk about a January surprise by the Biden administration, with Blinken leading the charge against Israel in the UN. It is not clear that this will happen, but let us pray that if it does, Trump can then at least partially mitigate the damage.
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Please, pray with a full heart…
[] for the safety of the Jewish People everywhere,
[] for the continued strength and courage of Israel’s leaders as they make the hard decisions,
[] for the safety of our soldiers in battle as they fight a righteous war,
[] and for the rescue of the hostages.
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©Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by independent journalist Arlene Kushner. Permission is granted for it to be reproduced only with proper attribution.
