Hamas/Gaza War Musings #58: A "Deal" Won't Bring Peace-- Just More War

 

This plan/deal Bibi and Trump are cooking up won't bring Israel peace. It's a Trojan horse. It will only leave Israel more vulnerable than before. It doesn't take care of the real problem and leaves us even more dependent on the United States. I'm a realist, a pragmatist.

The key to peace is settling the Land, not policing it with new businesses. Donald Trump isn't in the real world of war and Bibi, our failed Prime Minister has never had the guts to really lead. He's just a master of oratory.

At first I was going to simply say that Bibi should have stayed in America and not returned. For those who either don't remember or are too young to know, Bibi had started a very successful career in the USA where he had gone to high school and university. He even changed his name to Ben Nitay.

A few years after his brother Yoni was killed in the legendary Entebbe rescue, he returned to Israel and his name. Then the more I thought about it, I realized that staying in the USA wouldn't have been a good idea. He'd be worse to Israel than Kissinger was. Henry Kissinger had tried to get Golda Meir to follow American "advice" during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, which would have left us in a dangerous position. The Americans had been hiding their involvement with the "surprise*" attack on Israel. Even then, during that war I had suspected that Nixon and Kissinger had planned for Israel to reach a stalemate, not a victory. Then they'd come in and take over. They were sure that Kissinger could control Golda and the rest of the government. He was "one of us;" wasn't he? Couldn't a Jew convince them?

We must stop consulting with foreign rulers. They won't give us peace!

*Bruce Brill's memoir of the Yom Kippur War when he was with the NSA spills the beans about American involvement and passed censorship.

Hamas/Gaza War Musings #57: Important Pre Rosh Hashannah Message- SOVEREIGNTY & VICTORY

 

I really should have gone to bed already, but there's something important rattling around my brain. It has me very worried, so I'll just blog the simple message, and then Gd willing I'll feel better.

As my readers, friends and Facebook followers know, I'm very concerned about the lack of victory in Bibi's lexicon. He doesn't mention total victory, and his voiced plans for after the war are awful. We'd basically just police Gaza, which won't give us peace. It'll only cause our soldiers death and give the Gazan terrorists time to prepare for the next war.

Some of the other "plans" is to expect peaceful Gazans to make it a safe place. Duh?!?! Is he going to perform lobotomies on them for a permanent personality change?

There's only one thing that will bring us peace... that's declaring Israeli Sovereignty ריבונות on Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley plus resettle Gaza with Jews and then annex it, too. In the history of the world, that's a very normal action of a victorious nation. We should have done it in 1967. 

Who cares what "the world" says? If we had done it immediately after the Six Days War, we wouldn't have suffered through the Yom Kippur War and the subsequent ones and terror attacks. But we've had a series of weak ghetto Jew leaders. They've actually gotten worse since after the Six Days War. We won that easily, because we had no allies to "help" and "advise." 

The "world" condemns Israel for "breathing," for fighting our enemies, because we act weak and scared and especially because we try to "please" them so they'll like us. The State of Israel must act as a strong confident independent country. That's the key to survival, not "allies."

Sorry that this ended up wordier and longer than I had planned, but it has been sitting on my heart and mind for too long. Please feel free to comment and of course share.

Hamas/Gaza War Musings #56: VICTORY Prayer Haiku #3

Here in Israel we're just a few short weeks from two years since the heinous Gazan terror attack on thousands of innocent Israelis, men, women, children, infants and the elderly. The victims were tortured, murdered and kidnapped. They were raped, decapitated, incinerated and in many cases forced to watch their loved one suffer before they all died. The survivors and those who survived trying to rescue them are so emotionally scarred, their lives will never be the same.

This was a cruel immoral pogrom. In many cases the victims were the same people who had aided those very Gazans who attacked and guided terrorists to unarmed, undefended peace-beliving civilian homes. 

So many words are being written about it, some based on truth and mercy and others on hatred and lies. I don't have the strength for long wordy arguments, explanations and personal prayers. That's why I like the simple haiku, just seventeen 17 syllables in three lines, 5, 7, 5. Here are a few more of my Morning Coffee Haikus. I hope they speak to you. They're posted most mornings on my Facebook page. I've posted two other haiku posts, 1 and 2; please click and enjoy.

sound of the shofar

fills the air to remind us

DAY OF JUDGEMENT soon....

many sorts stormy skies

no VICTORY soon forecast

but Gd willing rain

Learning Tanach* helps

understand what should be done

yes, even today

--*Bible

grateful for blessings

even when mourning and war

survival demands...

evil dominates

media, schools, Hollywood

must be defeated

normal life's struggle

surviving when danger's near

unpredictable

for better future

we need more than prayers to Gd

our actions crucial

we need VICTORY

our enemy's SURRENDER

no deal will do it

good news: we're alive

bad news: VICTORY not close

we need brave leaders

clouds hide rising sun

life's not always so easy

pray for strength to cope

Chodesh Elul Tov

Gd willing VICTORY soon

only Gd will help

Shabbat's survival

for my mind, soul and body

Jewish medicine

SOVEREIGNTY's key

plus strong Jewish SETTLEMENT,

VICTORY make PEACE

Hamas/Gaza War Musings #55: Who's Whitewashing Gazan Civilian Attack of October 7, 2023?

 What really happened on October 7, 2023?

On October 7, 2023 and for awhile afterwards there were lots of photos, videos/YouTubes and reports of Gazan civilians-- even those considered friends and had been employed by Israelis who unabashedly, enthusiastically guided the Hamas terrorists and joined in attacking, their naïve Israeli friends. These Gazan civilians knew their way around the kibbutzim and knew their victims. These terrorists, who didn't wear uniforms, proudly took pictures and videos of their cruel acts, sending them off to their families and the wider world via the internet. Some stole phones of the victims  and got perverse pleasure showing their "victories" to their victims' families and friends.

Strangely the articles I read about this in October, 2023 can't be found online. At least I couldn't find any, nor did anyone I asked on Facebook. One friend said that she had saved the links of the articles, but the links are as dead as the victims...

In my searches I found the report that the Israeli Government has on its site. That's what I screenshot above. Even Bibi's government is masking the true story. They give the impression that Israel was invaded by uniformed soldier terrorists, not a ragtag group of Gazans of all ages, uniformed and not. I guess the government wants to hide the fact that the IDF and civil defense were defeated by amateurs. Volunteers came from all over the country to defend the innocent Israeli citizens, from infants to the elderly, while the army waited for orders and transportation.

The cruelty of the Gazans was worse than what the Nazis had done. Nazis had herded Jews of all ages into buildings, and then gassed them dead. They didn't butcher, decapitate the Jewish victims like the Gazans, read this. 

Now I can't find the articles. I asked on Facebook, and even people who had saved links, say that the links no longer function. Why has this happened? Why protect Gazans? Is this a conspiracy to rewrite history and invent the Myth of "Innocent Gazan Civilians?" If you have functioning links, please add them in the comments.

While hostages, Israeli citizens, still rot and starve, some alive and some long dead, as prisoners in Gaza, Bibi keeps sending food to Gaza. The Gazans don't need our food or any other aid. It's an agricultural area; they can grow what they need. They don't need medical supplies, when there are over two dozen hospitals there. It doesn't make us look moral or magnanimous; it makes us look guilty and foolish. The same must be said for Bibi's fokokt woke "moral" fighting. He warns Gazans to leave their homes before we bomb them. Duh!?! These are the terrorists and their supporters who've been cheering the deaths of our precious soldiers and the victims on October 7th. Coddling the enemy won't give us victory, and a "deal" won't give us peace. 

Only a TOTAL VICTORY and resettling Gaza with Israelis will give us peace.

Hamas/Gaza War Musings #54: VICTORY NOW! Bibi, Stop Your Games!

 

This is what I wrote last night. Maybe it's not polished enough, but it's the truth. 

Gnite

Sometimes being too smart isn't smart at all. No doubt Bibi Netanyahu can memorize things better than me. He's a great orator with an impressive voice and can charm people. No doubt that his IQ is phenomenal. I'm not any of that, but I see the bottom line and the big picture.

It's clear that as Prime Minister Bibi hasn't a clue as to what it means to win this war for our very survival. Clever daring things like the beeper attack or assassinations of terror leaders don't make for a victory. It's like putting a few chocolate chips on a cake and calling it icing.

The fokokt woke warnings before bombing, feeding the enemy and other ridiculous "humanitarian" #$%#$ just make us look guiltier and utterly idiotic. That's besides wasting our weapons on empty buildings and making us into laughing stocks. Gaza Arab terrorists have started about a dozen wars since Bibi became PM. Just because he refuses to call them wars, doesn't mean they aren't. Or simply say that this one has been going on since Disengagement and has only gotten worse since Bibi took over. Not only haven't we destroyed the enemy, gotten them to surrender, but they've gotten progressively stronger and more confident. Our idiotic generals, who've been sent to "war college" in the USA failed in real life. They totally misread the signs before October 7, 2023 and chastised the young female observers who insisted that the Arabs were planning an attack. Bibi's responsible as Prime Minister along with all the IDF's upper echelons. I'm a pragmatist. Look at the facts, not theories nor dreams.

Gd willing a better tomorrow.

Hamas/Gaza War Musings #53: VICTORY Prayer Haiku in 17 Syllables

I really love the seventeen 17 syllable restriction of classic haikus. It forces me to reduce my words and syllables to the very minimum while writing something important. Click for the first collection of Hamas/Gaza War Haikus; following is the second.

TOTAL VICTORY

only way to live in peace

prevent destruction

clouds move rapidly

though VICTORY seems vetoed

by our government

news repetitive

too long without VICTORY 😢

not even a hit

I don't have power

over Israel's government

just can pray to Gd

optimism's hard

holding onto faith in Gd

humans make mistakes

Hamas/Gaza War Musings #52: VICTORY is Not on Bibi's Menu

 

I know that many people think I've been exaggerating or distorting Prime Minister Binyamin Bibi Netanyahu's ignoring the concept of VICTORY as the only way to really end the war, our war of survival against Hamas/Gaza. Well Bibi has admitted it. He listed five principles, five aims, five requirements needed for this war to end. The crucial, only way to really end the war and give us peace VICTORY isn't on the list and neither is Gazan/Hamas's surrender.

screenshot from my computer of the Jerusalem Post

Here's Bibi's list:

1. Hamas Disarmed
2. All Hostages Freed
3. Gaza Demilitarized
4. Israeli overriding security control
5. Non-Israeli peaceful civil administration

You may notice, as I did, that there's not even a hint of resettling Gaza by Israelis. Bibi does not support a return to Gush Katif. In all honesty, this list won't work. It won't give Israel peace. It's no more effective than all the other "ends of hostilities" that we've suffered through in the close to two decades of Bibi's reign.

Bibi is hoping we've forgotten, but there have been more wars/attacks on Israel during his rule than any other twenty years of Israel's existence. And none of them ended in victory. Bibi would just declare them over, claiming that we showed the terrorists that we're stronger. Duh? That's why it was so easy for Gaza/Hamas to successfully attack us just under two years ago.

Bibi's list is not going to work. History and common sense prove me right, unfortunately. Let's see who from the coalition have the guts to tell the truth and vote against Bibi...

Twenty Years Since Disengagement- Deja Vu- The Elephant in The Room

From my blog post Opening Old Wounds, Disengagement, Part 1

There have been so many articles and youtube videos about Disengagement in the media. They mention all aspects of it, and I didn't notice any claiming that it had been a good policy decision. Thank Gd for that. 

I wrote a "letter to the editor" to the Jerusalem Post concerning the articles I had read in the paper and the magazine. This post is based on that letter which, as of today, hadn't been published. 

I was very pleased/impressed by the great variety and quantity of articles in last Friday's paper about twenty years since Disengagement, but maybe I missed something. It's a very big elephant in the room, especially for someone who has lived in Israel since 1970. I'm referring to Menachem Begin's "Camp David Accords," which is to blame for Israel's withdrawal from the Sinai and the total destruction of all Israeli communities, Yamit and others there. Disengagement was clearly modeled on it, and both Begin and Arik Sharon were Prime Ministers from the Likud. Yes, just like the Likud elections slogan: "Only the Likud Can Do It." Voluntarily destroying Jewish communities, especially agricultural ones, had been a "red line" for the Labor Party. 

Close to a half century after Menachem Begin proudly announced his "achievement," I still consider it the most insanely dangerous decision in Israeli history. As we've seen since then, Israel doesn't know how to negotiate wisely. Why didn't he insist on keeping all of the moshavim and towns in Sinai as proof of peace?

Menachem Begin, Ariel Sharon and Binyamin Bibi Netanyahu were/are plagued/cursed with a desire to show the world that they're reasonable moderates and as a result they do what they consider "diplomatic," generous endangering the security and existence of the State of Israel. 

I'll never forget Begin's speech afterward the withdrawal/destruction of Jewish communities in which he claimed that the remaining and new Israeli communities in Gaza and nearby would be forever, fully recognized forever by the world as part of Israel. 

Gush Katif was to be the replacement of the Sinai for Jewish settlement. For example, Neve Dekalim was named for the destroyed Moshav Dikla. 

Twenty plus years ago, I was incredulous that the anti-Disengagement organizers didn't use Begin's speech in the campaign. I tried to contact them about it but failed.

Tzachi Hanegbi, whose mother Geula Cohen left the Likud over the withdrawal, described the agreement as the precedent for legitimizing Disengagement.

For many of us, the scars of Begin's Sinai withdrawal have only gotten more prominent with Disengagement and Bibi's unending destruction of Jewish communities throughout Judea and Samaria.

Hamas/Gaza War Musings #51: "Conflict?" Nope-- They Want to Destroy Us

The woke lexicon has made it to Israel, very unfortunately. How can a war, with such clear differences between aggressors and victims be called a "conflict?" What's a "conflict?" According to the Oxford online dictionary, it's:

a serious disagreement or argument, typically a protracted one.

"the eternal conflict between the sexes"

That doesn't sound like the war for survival that Israel has been fighting for over a year and a half. Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and the international intifada supporters want to destroy the State of Israel and aren't embarrassed to say so. Why has the Jerusalem Post joined those calling this war a "conflict?" I was additionally shocked to read Barbara Sofer claiming that she wrote "by the time you get this, I'm sure this conflict* will have blown over," during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. That was a WAR, and nobody called it anything else. I was a mother of two at the time living in Jerusalem.

To survive, win this war, we must refer to it as a war and fight it as determined warriors. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has a "thing" about the word "war," "milchama." For years, whenever our enemy has attacked us, Bibi would downplay the attack and declare our defense and "operation," mivtzah," instead of declaring war against the enemy and resoundingly defeat them. After a bit he would announce that they've calmed down, learned how tough we are, and that would be it. 

War, surrender and victory are not words we Israelis hear or read. There are those who want to hear the government's plans for "after," but after what they don't say. They don't use the "V word" and seem to expect that at some point the terrorists who attacked on October 7, 2023, will just get tired and cease fighting. And if they do stop and sign some "deal," the next war, and there will be a next war, will be much, much worse than this one with many more hostages. The only way to stop the "cycle of violence" is to decisively defeat the enemy. Don't warn them before shooting; don't feed them. We must fight to total victory. Hamas and our other enemies must surrender, and we Gd willing must declare full sovereignty in all the Land of Israel. 

No negotiations. Negotiations are for compromise. 

• How can we compromise with people who want to destroy us totally? 
• How can we compromise with people who bragged about raping, decapitating, murdering innocent Israelis?
• How can we compromise with people who want to burn and destroy our country?

Get real. Read their lips!

I'm a realist. I don't believe in fairy tales, fantasies... Please think. Be rational. Terrorists don't turn into peaceniks.

*emphasis mine

Hamas/Gaza War Musings #50: Deja Vu, Yet Again-- Will Israel Ever Learn?

This post is based on my last night's "Gnite" on Facebook. That's a message I write most nights before going to sleep. Sometimes I haven't a clue what my fingers are going to type out, and sometimes I find myself elaborating on what has been filling my head, generally something to do with the WAR.

I think it's extremely important to remember that Israel's WAR FOR SURVIVAL has a number of fronts. From what I understand, the northern front is now quiet. But what does that mean? Did our enemies surrender?

Just a few weeks ago Israel decided that the time had come to try to destroy Iran's nuclear development, which seemed impossible, since we don't have strong enough bombs to go deeply enough. Also Iran immediately began bombing Israeli cities, and our Iron Dome and other defensive "machinery" only partially prevented destruction and death in Israeli cities. After the USA completed the bombing of Iran's nuclear development center, utilizing the damage that Israel had accomplished. This front also quieted down without anything that could be called a surrender by Iran.

Now Israel has returned to fighting in Gaza, Deja Vu.

Early in the war, I'd read in the newspapers and internet interviews with IDF reservists on the southern front who'd say it's the second, third or fourth time ... or more, they've battled and taken over the same sections of Gaza. After each of the previous wars, Bibi who was usually (or always) Prime Minister at the time, would declare that we "won," and the Gazans/Hamas/or whatever you want to call them had been stopped and "know that we're stronger." Then we'd leave, the terrorists would return and within a year or two or three, they'd attack us yet again.

Of course 20 years ago, when Arik Sharon ordered Disengagement, we were told that if the Arabs dared to attack us ... we'd be back. Obviously that was a very empty threat.

In the past twenty years, since the Israeli Government destroyed Gush Katif and turned thousands of hardworking Israelis into refugees, destroyed homes and successful businesses, we've been attacked, bombed, suffered rocket attacks and then the perverse, violent, murderous massacre and kidnapping on October 7, 2023. Arik's Disengagement failed completely.

How many wars and how many dead Israelis will it take for Bibi to get/comprehend the message? We need a TOTAL VICTORY. The enemy must surrender. It's suicidal to make a "deal" with those terrorists. And he's not even demanding that every single solitary hostage alive and dead be returned before he'd even "talk." Bibi Netanyahu doesn't know how to negotiate. He just surrenders.

I know that this may sound "cruel," but someone ought to tell the yellow "bring them out at any cost" crowd two simple things:

    1- their campaign is showing the terrorists how to break us. Just kidnap Israelis and Israel will fold.

    2- Bibi and the IDF aren't holding the hostages. They should have focused their demonstrations on the Red Cross, who've never even visited the hostages.

There won't be peace until we fight to win, to destroy the enemy and to do this we must stop the woke "humanitarian aid" and the ridiculous counterproductive "warnings" which undermine the effectiveness of our fighting and endangers our precious soldiers.

OK, I said it. I could say more... maybe next week. Gd willing...

Hamas/Gaza War Musings #49: Life During War in 17 Syllables, Haikus

I've been writing Haikus for years and have a facebook group I call #morningcoffeehaiku. Pretty much every morning, while drinking my coffee, I describe my feelings in haiku form. That means three rows of text. The first has five syllables, second has seven, and the third five syllables. Writing these haikus has trained my mind to express myself in minimal words. 

Here are a few, most recent first:

Chodesh Tammuz Tov

pray and fight with equal zeal

we all have a job

VICTORY's needed

before celebrations start

enemies laughing

war's hibernating

at least Iranian front

I must "seize the day"

such confusing times

Iran is only one front

we're still in danger

Thank Gd for so much

though the road is much further

for true VICTORY

looking for humor

while world wants to destroy us

Jewish survival

wartime exhaustion

but sans VICTORY can't end

being realistic

victories end war

simmering is just deadly

we need VICTORY

summer finally

talking about the weather Can I ignore war?