π️Lonny's War Update- October 235, 2023 - May 28, 2024 (cont)π️
π️Day 235 (cont) that 125 of our hostages in Hamas captivity
**There is nothing more important than getting them home! NOTHING!**
“I’ve never met them,But I miss them. I’ve never met them,but I think of them every second. I’ve never met them,but they are my family. BRING THEM HOME NOW!!!”
There is no victory until all of the hostages are home!ΧΧΧ Χ Χ¦ΧΧΧ Χ’Χ Χ©ΧΧ ΧΧΧΧΧ€ΧΧ ΧΧΧΧͺ
Red Alerts - Missile, Rocket, Drone (UAV - unmanned aerial vehicles), and Terror Attacks and Death Announcements
*4:45pm- South- Rockdets Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha, Gaza Border communities*4:55pm- north - rockets Metulla and Kibbutz Misgav Am*9:50pm - south - rockets Kibbutz Mefalsim and Gaza border communities. The IDF has stated that it is their belief that Hamas and Islamic Jihad is using their supplies of rockets before they are found and destroyed by our forces. Most of the launches of the last days have been from the Rafah area in fairly close proximity to our forces and to Gazan refugee population
Hostage Updates
- Islamic Jihad released a short sign of life video of Alexander Sasha Trufanov. He is 25 years old. He and his girlfriend spent the Simchat Torah holiday with his parents in Kibbutz Nir Oz. Trufanov was kidnapped on October 7 from Kibbutz Nir Oz along with his mother, Yelena (Lena); grandmother, Irena Tati; and girlfriend, Sapir Cohen — all of whom were released in a hostage deal in late November. His father, Vitaly Trufanov, was murdered in the Hamas onslaught. The four Trufanov family members, who immigrated from Russia 25 years ago, have no other relatives in Israel.
Yelena Trufanov was one of three women who appeared in a Hamas propaganda clip that was released on October 30.
Upon the release of the video, Alex's mother stated: "Seeing my Sasha on TV today is very joyful, but also heartbreaking, that he is still held captive for so long. I appeal to everyone, to all decision makers, please do everything, but everything, to bring my son and all the captives home now."
Alex's grandmother added: "My Alex, I'm so glad I saw you, my sun. I hope I will see you again." His wife Sapir wrote: "My dear Sasha, we are waiting for you to return to us, and we are making every possible effort for this to happen soon."
Yelena, 50, and her mother Irena Tati, 73, were released by Hamas on November 29 at the request of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The move came during a week-long negotiated lull in the fighting that included the release of 105 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian security prisoners Israel had jailed as well as an increase in humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Hostage Updates
- Islamic Jihad released a short sign of life video of Alexander Sasha Trufanov. He is 25 years old. He and his girlfriend spent the Simchat Torah holiday with his parents in Kibbutz Nir Oz. Trufanov was kidnapped on October 7 from Kibbutz Nir Oz along with his mother, Yelena (Lena); grandmother, Irena Tati; and girlfriend, Sapir Cohen — all of whom were released in a hostage deal in late November. His father, Vitaly Trufanov, was murdered in the Hamas onslaught. The four Trufanov family members, who immigrated from Russia 25 years ago, have no other relatives in Israel.
Yelena Trufanov was one of three women who appeared in a Hamas propaganda clip that was released on October 30.
Upon the release of the video, Alex's mother stated: "Seeing my Sasha on TV today is very joyful, but also heartbreaking, that he is still held captive for so long. I appeal to everyone, to all decision makers, please do everything, but everything, to bring my son and all the captives home now."
Alex's grandmother added: "My Alex, I'm so glad I saw you, my sun. I hope I will see you again." His wife Sapir wrote: "My dear Sasha, we are waiting for you to return to us, and we are making every possible effort for this to happen soon."Yelena, 50, and her mother Irena Tati, 73, were released by Hamas on November 29 at the request of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The move came during a week-long negotiated lull in the fighting that included the release of 105 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian security prisoners Israel had jailed as well as an increase in humanitarian aid to Gaza.
- Report: Egypt trying to revive hostage, truce talks with help of US and Qatar: An Egyptian security delegation is trying in coordination with Qatar and the US to reactivate talks to reach a truce in Gaza and release hostages, Egypt’s state-affiliated Al-Qahera News TV channel says, citing a senior official.
The official is quoted as saying that Egypt had told all concerned parties that efforts to revive the talks had been undermined by Israel’s ongoing ground operation on Rafah in southern Gaza, which had brought “dire consequences.”
The official is quoted as saying that Egypt had told all concerned parties that efforts to revive the talks had been undermined by Israel’s ongoing ground operation on Rafah in southern Gaza, which had brought “dire consequences.”
Gaza
- IDF vows full probe into Rafah strike, shows evidence it was not in designated safe zone: IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, in an English-language press conference, says the military is investigating the possibility that Hamas munitions stored in the area of a strike in southern Gaza’s Rafah on Sunday night caused a fire to spread and kill civilians.
“On Sunday, we eliminated senior Hamas terrorists in a targeted strike, on a compound used by Hamas in Rafah. The strike was based on precise intelligence that indicated that these terrorists, who were responsible for orchestrating and executing terror attacks against Israelis, were meeting inside this structure we targeted,” Hagari says.
“Sadly, following the strike, due to unforeseen circumstances, a fire ignited, taking the lives of Gazan civilians nearby. Despite our efforts to minimize civilian casualties during the strike, the fire that broke out was unexpected and unintended,” he continues.
Hagari says the deaths of the civilians in the strike is a “devastating incident, which we did not expect.” According to health authorities in Gaza, 45 people were killed.
“We are investigating what caused the fire that resulted in this tragic loss of life. An investigation is ongoing,” he says.
Showing imagery from the site, Hagari says the IDF “targeted a closed structure away from the tent area. There are no tents in the immediate vicinity.”
“Contrary to reports, we conducted the strike outside the area that we designated as a humanitarian area and called civilians to evacuate to. Our strike was over a kilometer and a half away from the al-Mawasi humanitarian area, what we call the safer zone,” he says. “The strike was conducted using two munitions with small warheads, suited for this targeted strike. We are talking about munitions with 17 kilograms of explosive material,” Hagari says, adding that “this is the smallest munitions that our jets can use.” “Following this strike, a large fire ignited, for reasons still being investigated. Our munition alone could not have ignited a fire of this size,” he continues. “Our investigation seeks to determine what may have caused such a large fire to ignite. We are looking into all possibilities, including the option that weapons stored in a compound next to our target, which we did not know of, may have ignited as a result of the strike,” he says.
“It should be noted that Hamas has been operating in this area since October 7,” Hagari says, showing another image showing Hamas rocket launchers 43 meters from the targeted site. “Hamas fired rockets from these launchers at Israel during the massacre on October 7,” Hagari says.
Hagari says the IDF is also looking at “footage, documented by Gazans on the night of the strike, posted on social media, which appeared to show secondary explosions, indicating that there may have been weapons in the area.”
“Signals intelligence intercepted some phone calls that reinforce this concern raising the possibility that weapons stored in a nearby compound caught fire,” he says, before airing one such call in which Gazans discuss the blast and “ammunition that started exploding.”
“Yes, this is an ammunition warehouse. I tell you it exploded. The Jewish bombing wasn’t strong, it was a small missile, because it didn’t create a large hole. And afterward a lot of secondary explosions,” one of the Palestinians is heard saying in the call.
“We are working to verify the cause of the fire. It is still too early to be determined. Even when we do find the cause of the fire that erupted, it won’t make the situation any less tragic,” Hagari says.
“We took a number of steps prior to the strike to avoid civilian casualties. Aerial surveillance, using specific munitions to minimize collateral damage, delaying the attack to further assess the expected civilian presence, and other means,” he continues.
Hagari vows that the investigation will be “swift, comprehensive, and transparent.” link
- US suspends aid deliveries via Gaza pier after it suffers weather damage: A part of the US military’s pier on the coast of Gaza has broken off, rendering it temporarily inoperable, two US officials say, in the latest blow to efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians.
The US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, say that bad weather is believed to be the reason that the part had broken off. They do not say how big the part is or speculate on how long it will take for the pier to resume operations. Since the pier began operations, the United Nations has transported 137 trucks of aid from the pier — the equivalent of 900 metric tons — according to a spokesperson from the UN World Food Program.
“On Sunday, we eliminated senior Hamas terrorists in a targeted strike, on a compound used by Hamas in Rafah. The strike was based on precise intelligence that indicated that these terrorists, who were responsible for orchestrating and executing terror attacks against Israelis, were meeting inside this structure we targeted,” Hagari says.
“Sadly, following the strike, due to unforeseen circumstances, a fire ignited, taking the lives of Gazan civilians nearby. Despite our efforts to minimize civilian casualties during the strike, the fire that broke out was unexpected and unintended,” he continues.
Hagari says the deaths of the civilians in the strike is a “devastating incident, which we did not expect.” According to health authorities in Gaza, 45 people were killed.
“We are investigating what caused the fire that resulted in this tragic loss of life. An investigation is ongoing,” he says.
Showing imagery from the site, Hagari says the IDF “targeted a closed structure away from the tent area. There are no tents in the immediate vicinity.”
“Contrary to reports, we conducted the strike outside the area that we designated as a humanitarian area and called civilians to evacuate to. Our strike was over a kilometer and a half away from the al-Mawasi humanitarian area, what we call the safer zone,” he says. “The strike was conducted using two munitions with small warheads, suited for this targeted strike. We are talking about munitions with 17 kilograms of explosive material,” Hagari says, adding that “this is the smallest munitions that our jets can use.” “Following this strike, a large fire ignited, for reasons still being investigated. Our munition alone could not have ignited a fire of this size,” he continues. “Our investigation seeks to determine what may have caused such a large fire to ignite. We are looking into all possibilities, including the option that weapons stored in a compound next to our target, which we did not know of, may have ignited as a result of the strike,” he says.
“It should be noted that Hamas has been operating in this area since October 7,” Hagari says, showing another image showing Hamas rocket launchers 43 meters from the targeted site. “Hamas fired rockets from these launchers at Israel during the massacre on October 7,” Hagari says.
Hagari says the IDF is also looking at “footage, documented by Gazans on the night of the strike, posted on social media, which appeared to show secondary explosions, indicating that there may have been weapons in the area.”
“Signals intelligence intercepted some phone calls that reinforce this concern raising the possibility that weapons stored in a nearby compound caught fire,” he says, before airing one such call in which Gazans discuss the blast and “ammunition that started exploding.”
“Yes, this is an ammunition warehouse. I tell you it exploded. The Jewish bombing wasn’t strong, it was a small missile, because it didn’t create a large hole. And afterward a lot of secondary explosions,” one of the Palestinians is heard saying in the call.
“We are working to verify the cause of the fire. It is still too early to be determined. Even when we do find the cause of the fire that erupted, it won’t make the situation any less tragic,” Hagari says.
“We took a number of steps prior to the strike to avoid civilian casualties. Aerial surveillance, using specific munitions to minimize collateral damage, delaying the attack to further assess the expected civilian presence, and other means,” he continues.
Hagari vows that the investigation will be “swift, comprehensive, and transparent.” link
The US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, say that bad weather is believed to be the reason that the part had broken off. They do not say how big the part is or speculate on how long it will take for the pier to resume operations. Since the pier began operations, the United Nations has transported 137 trucks of aid from the pier — the equivalent of 900 metric tons — according to a spokesperson from the UN World Food Program.
Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells IDF soldiers in the north that Israel is committed to returning residents near the Lebanon border safely to their homes.
“We are committed — in both the civilian and military spheres — to returning the residents safely to their communities and their homes. This is one of the objectives of the war and we are not conceding it,” he tells Golani Brigade soldiers during a visit to the IDF Northern District Intelligence Branch base. link It's very hard to believe what Netanyahu says, especially when he refuses to provide any kind of plan that will return the residents to their homes and to both have a safe, secure place to call home and even more important, for them to feel a sense of security that none of them feel at this time.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells IDF soldiers in the north that Israel is committed to returning residents near the Lebanon border safely to their homes.
“We are committed — in both the civilian and military spheres — to returning the residents safely to their communities and their homes. This is one of the objectives of the war and we are not conceding it,” he tells Golani Brigade soldiers during a visit to the IDF Northern District Intelligence Branch base. link It's very hard to believe what Netanyahu says, especially when he refuses to provide any kind of plan that will return the residents to their homes and to both have a safe, secure place to call home and even more important, for them to feel a sense of security that none of them feel at this time.
West Bank
Politics and the Region
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi has appointed an “advisory committee” to examine the conditions of Palestinian prisoners detained amid the war in the Gaza Strip, following allegations of torture and mistreatment.
The terror operatives and other suspects are initially held in detention facilities at the IDF’s Sde Teiman, Anatot, and Ofer bases, before being handed over to the Israel Prison Service.
Earlier this month, a CNN report detailed alleged widespread abuse of detainees, including extreme use of physical restraints, beatings, neglect of medical problems, arbitrary punishments and more, citing two Israeli whistleblowers and a Palestinian doctor who had been held in the Sde Teiman facility.
The IDF says that because of the “unprecedented number of detainees” and a shortage of space in IPS jails, many prisoners are kept in IDF facilities for “longer periods than expected,” and as such “allegations were made regarding the conditions of detention in the prison facilities.” link
The head of France’s National Assembly suspends the afternoon session of the lower house of parliament after Sebastien Delogu, a deputy of the hard-left Les Insoumis (LFI) party, waves a Palestinian flag to draw attention to the situation in Gaza.
“This is not tolerable,” French National Assembly President Yael Braun-Pivet says as she suspended the session.
“We will continue to carry the voices of peace everywhere, all the time,” the LFI party later writes on X, where it posted the video of the incident.
The incident took place as junior French trade minister Franck Riester was answering a question about the situation in Gaza. link I don't think that the flag itself is the big issue. The problem is that, in today's environment it represents support for the barbaric Hamas terrorists and not necessarily support for a moderate Palestinian State which should live in peace with Israel. The calls that generally accompany the flag now of 'from the river to the sea' means one thing, the end of Israel and that shouldn't be acceptable by anyone.
- An open letter to Naomi Klein from a progressive Israeli | Jeremy Benstein:
Although American born, I am an Israeli, having been here for over 40 years. You and I have similar values – anti-globalism, anti-consumerism, progressive climate and justice activism. I helped found the Heschel Center, Israel’s leading sustainability NGO. Your books – No Logo, Shock Doctrine, This Changes Everything – have been foundational for me. I even wrote a review (very glowing) of the Hebrew version of No Logo when it came out here in 2002, which was the cover story of the literature supplement of Haaretz that week.
I’m writing to say we – Israelis and Palestinians – need you, your voice, your energy, your clear-sighted critical perspective – as an ally in our joint struggle for justice and peace. I and others like me here are fighting to create an Israel/Palestine that I think you could identify with and support. And we need your help in that fight. I listened to and read the speech you gave at the Seder in the Streets last month, where you called for an exodus from Zionism. Where you labeled Zionism a false idol – that apparently needs to be smashed. And I’m writing to say that I think you’ve got it wrong. Or at least, that your eminently justified critique is mis-directed.
I say that we, Israelis and Palestinians, are in a struggle for justice and peace. Many on the left, the voices heard on North American campuses, would understand that to mean that we are struggling against one another. There are plenty on all sides that believe that justice will be had when one side wins, and the other loses. Nothing could be further from the truth.
There is a war here, a savage, blood-soaked, devastating conflict. And it is between two sides. But it is not between Israelis and Palestinians. It is between Israeli and Palestinian peace-seeking, coexistence-promoting moderates on one side, and Israeli and Palestinian exclusionary ethnocentric extremists on the other.
How can it be that the ones who seemingly hate each other the most – ideological and violent Jewish settlers and jihadi Hamas terrorists – are on the same side? In their shared opposition to a just and peaceful solution, in their shared desire to eradicate the other, in their joint belief that the conflict is a zero-sum game, they feed off each other and desperately need the other as the ultimate enemy that will always allow them to rally their own troops, since each represents the specter of the other’s own annihilation.
Each extremist camp needs the other extremist camp opposite in order to shut down the moderate voices from their own side, those calling for negotiation and compromise. For if there were reasonable voices on the other side, how could we justify our own intransigence? So it’s no wonder that Netanyahu propped up Hamas rule, since they represented the rejectionist alternative to the Palestinian Authority, and thus enabled his own entrenched rejectionism.
Calling to eliminate one side – whether through physical or political elimination – is part of the problem, not a solution. To be pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli is the same as being pro-Israeli and anti-Palestinian: they are on the same team of exclusionary extremism, that discourages pragmatic moderation and actual, real-world solutions. It is the sort of thinking that doomed Oslo and all attempts at a peace process, whether anti-Israeli Palestinian terrorism, or violent anti-Palestinian Jewish settlements.
You focus your critique on Zionism, claiming that it was rotten from the get-go. Yet, as any student of modern Jewish history knows, Zionism is not one thing. It is far from a monolithic ideology. From the get-go, there have been, and are, diverse schools of thought, wildly different and contentious visions of what Jewish national liberation should look like. Zionism is Marxian and neo-liberal, messianic and democratic, maximalist and minimalist, ethnocentric and Canaanite. There are even Zionisms that reject absolute political sovereignty in favor of a robust cultural autonomy. Zionism as the national liberation movement of the Jewish people and Palestinian nationalism are like weird Siamese twins, since they developed in tandem, each formulated to some degree in response to the other. One perhaps could imagine a planet without nation-states, but we still live in a world that is structured as a family of nations based on statehood, and in that world, just as there needs to be a place for Palestinians, for their language and culture and heritage and self-determination, Jews need no less. The malevolent idea that it is impossible for those to co-exist, either shared together, or side-by-side, or in some confederation to make it more geographically and economically viable – choose your preferred vision of co-existence! – is a recipe for despair and mutual destruction. That is Hamas versus the current Israeli government, again, partners in the war they are waging together against peace and reconciliation.
Grave injustices happened in the Jewish struggle for a life-saving state, the main one being that the Palestinians have remained a stateless people. There absolutely need to be forward-looking mechanisms for reparations and restorative justice. But justice will not be restored by injustice, by returning the Jews to being a stateless people.
There is currently a battle for the soul of this country, of Israel: will we be the oppressive exclusionary settler colonialist ethno-state that many see us as, and some in Israel support as part of their twisted messianic vision? Or will we be an inclusive, liberal democracy that can provide a still much-needed home for Jews and Jewish collective identity, language and culture – but while still honoring and enabling the Palestinian need for exactly the same thing? The attempted judicial overhaul of last year, and now, October 7th and the subsequent war have shown us how urgent this battle for the soul of the country is, and also that we actually have a chance of winning, since more and more Israelis are fed up with the radical right wing and where it has led us. It is time to rally the Israeli and Palestinian troops and fight the real enemy: the eliminationist, other-denying, peace-hating extremists on both sides.
And for that, we need more allies around the world to help triumph over violence, hatred, oppression and despair. Naomi, isn’t that a battle you can join? link
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi has appointed an “advisory committee” to examine the conditions of Palestinian prisoners detained amid the war in the Gaza Strip, following allegations of torture and mistreatment.
The terror operatives and other suspects are initially held in detention facilities at the IDF’s Sde Teiman, Anatot, and Ofer bases, before being handed over to the Israel Prison Service.
Earlier this month, a CNN report detailed alleged widespread abuse of detainees, including extreme use of physical restraints, beatings, neglect of medical problems, arbitrary punishments and more, citing two Israeli whistleblowers and a Palestinian doctor who had been held in the Sde Teiman facility.
The IDF says that because of the “unprecedented number of detainees” and a shortage of space in IPS jails, many prisoners are kept in IDF facilities for “longer periods than expected,” and as such “allegations were made regarding the conditions of detention in the prison facilities.” link
The head of France’s National Assembly suspends the afternoon session of the lower house of parliament after Sebastien Delogu, a deputy of the hard-left Les Insoumis (LFI) party, waves a Palestinian flag to draw attention to the situation in Gaza.
“This is not tolerable,” French National Assembly President Yael Braun-Pivet says as she suspended the session.
“We will continue to carry the voices of peace everywhere, all the time,” the LFI party later writes on X, where it posted the video of the incident.
The incident took place as junior French trade minister Franck Riester was answering a question about the situation in Gaza. link I don't think that the flag itself is the big issue. The problem is that, in today's environment it represents support for the barbaric Hamas terrorists and not necessarily support for a moderate Palestinian State which should live in peace with Israel. The calls that generally accompany the flag now of 'from the river to the sea' means one thing, the end of Israel and that shouldn't be acceptable by anyone.
- An open letter to Naomi Klein from a progressive Israeli | Jeremy Benstein:
Although American born, I am an Israeli, having been here for over 40 years. You and I have similar values – anti-globalism, anti-consumerism, progressive climate and justice activism. I helped found the Heschel Center, Israel’s leading sustainability NGO. Your books – No Logo, Shock Doctrine, This Changes Everything – have been foundational for me. I even wrote a review (very glowing) of the Hebrew version of No Logo when it came out here in 2002, which was the cover story of the literature supplement of Haaretz that week.
I’m writing to say we – Israelis and Palestinians – need you, your voice, your energy, your clear-sighted critical perspective – as an ally in our joint struggle for justice and peace. I and others like me here are fighting to create an Israel/Palestine that I think you could identify with and support. And we need your help in that fight. I listened to and read the speech you gave at the Seder in the Streets last month, where you called for an exodus from Zionism. Where you labeled Zionism a false idol – that apparently needs to be smashed. And I’m writing to say that I think you’ve got it wrong. Or at least, that your eminently justified critique is mis-directed.
I say that we, Israelis and Palestinians, are in a struggle for justice and peace. Many on the left, the voices heard on North American campuses, would understand that to mean that we are struggling against one another. There are plenty on all sides that believe that justice will be had when one side wins, and the other loses. Nothing could be further from the truth.
There is a war here, a savage, blood-soaked, devastating conflict. And it is between two sides. But it is not between Israelis and Palestinians. It is between Israeli and Palestinian peace-seeking, coexistence-promoting moderates on one side, and Israeli and Palestinian exclusionary ethnocentric extremists on the other.
How can it be that the ones who seemingly hate each other the most – ideological and violent Jewish settlers and jihadi Hamas terrorists – are on the same side? In their shared opposition to a just and peaceful solution, in their shared desire to eradicate the other, in their joint belief that the conflict is a zero-sum game, they feed off each other and desperately need the other as the ultimate enemy that will always allow them to rally their own troops, since each represents the specter of the other’s own annihilation.
Each extremist camp needs the other extremist camp opposite in order to shut down the moderate voices from their own side, those calling for negotiation and compromise. For if there were reasonable voices on the other side, how could we justify our own intransigence? So it’s no wonder that Netanyahu propped up Hamas rule, since they represented the rejectionist alternative to the Palestinian Authority, and thus enabled his own entrenched rejectionism.
Calling to eliminate one side – whether through physical or political elimination – is part of the problem, not a solution. To be pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli is the same as being pro-Israeli and anti-Palestinian: they are on the same team of exclusionary extremism, that discourages pragmatic moderation and actual, real-world solutions. It is the sort of thinking that doomed Oslo and all attempts at a peace process, whether anti-Israeli Palestinian terrorism, or violent anti-Palestinian Jewish settlements.
You focus your critique on Zionism, claiming that it was rotten from the get-go. Yet, as any student of modern Jewish history knows, Zionism is not one thing. It is far from a monolithic ideology. From the get-go, there have been, and are, diverse schools of thought, wildly different and contentious visions of what Jewish national liberation should look like. Zionism is Marxian and neo-liberal, messianic and democratic, maximalist and minimalist, ethnocentric and Canaanite. There are even Zionisms that reject absolute political sovereignty in favor of a robust cultural autonomy. Zionism as the national liberation movement of the Jewish people and Palestinian nationalism are like weird Siamese twins, since they developed in tandem, each formulated to some degree in response to the other. One perhaps could imagine a planet without nation-states, but we still live in a world that is structured as a family of nations based on statehood, and in that world, just as there needs to be a place for Palestinians, for their language and culture and heritage and self-determination, Jews need no less. The malevolent idea that it is impossible for those to co-exist, either shared together, or side-by-side, or in some confederation to make it more geographically and economically viable – choose your preferred vision of co-existence! – is a recipe for despair and mutual destruction. That is Hamas versus the current Israeli government, again, partners in the war they are waging together against peace and reconciliation.
Grave injustices happened in the Jewish struggle for a life-saving state, the main one being that the Palestinians have remained a stateless people. There absolutely need to be forward-looking mechanisms for reparations and restorative justice. But justice will not be restored by injustice, by returning the Jews to being a stateless people.
There is currently a battle for the soul of this country, of Israel: will we be the oppressive exclusionary settler colonialist ethno-state that many see us as, and some in Israel support as part of their twisted messianic vision? Or will we be an inclusive, liberal democracy that can provide a still much-needed home for Jews and Jewish collective identity, language and culture – but while still honoring and enabling the Palestinian need for exactly the same thing? The attempted judicial overhaul of last year, and now, October 7th and the subsequent war have shown us how urgent this battle for the soul of the country is, and also that we actually have a chance of winning, since more and more Israelis are fed up with the radical right wing and where it has led us. It is time to rally the Israeli and Palestinian troops and fight the real enemy: the eliminationist, other-denying, peace-hating extremists on both sides.
And for that, we need more allies around the world to help triumph over violence, hatred, oppression and despair. Naomi, isn’t that a battle you can join? link
Acronyms and Glossary
ICC - International Criminal Court in the Hague
IJC - International Court of Justice in the Hague
UAV - Unmanned Aerial vehicle, Drone. Could be used for surveillance and reconnaissance, or be weaponized with missiles or contain explosives for 'suicide' explosion mission
PA - Palestinian Authority - President Mahmud Abbas, aka Abu Mazen
PMO- Prime Minister's OfficeJoin my Whatsapp update group https://chat.whatsapp.com/IQ3OtwE6ydxBeBAxWNziB0
Twitter - @LonnyB58
Twitter - @LonnyB58
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