Horrified by it all

I sat and cried this morning. I was scrolling through Facebook and saw a picture of buildings in Tel Aviv burning. People in the comments were gleeful about it.

Here's the thing.

Hamas, which has backing from Iran, did horrific things during the October 7th attacks. Terrible things, things. And they have hostages, after all this time with families who anxiously wonder if they'll see their loved ones again, hostages of different ages and backgrounds, innocent civilians who were going about their day like any of us would, several at a music festival.

Netanyahu and his government's reaction was brutal, and it was not aimed not at Hamas, but at the Palestinian people themselves, all in the name of seeking to root out those who planned the attack, but trying to displace as many as they can so they can take back as much territory as possible, in the belief that they are chosen by God and therefore deserve it  So many Palestinians have died because of this. Innocents uprooted.  So many who had been going about their everyday lives, seeking to raise families, work to make a better life, and better the world, just like most of us.  All lost, all turned to dust and blood.

Now they've turned to Iran's potential nuclear capability, which has hung over Israel and the Middle East for decades. I have no doubt that if Iran ever manages to build a bomb they will try to obliterate Israel, even though it will blowback on them and cause a greater conflict. There is a madness in the Middle East, and it's catching.  When I heard of the attack, all I could think is that Netanyahu will spark the last war we will ever see, the one that will end it all. Countries will condemn, then take sides, and millions will die, and all from one missile attack. I get the need and belief to be proactive, and the fear, but the fact of the matter is that he (and Ali Khamenei, the Iranian head of state) will have so much blood on their hands by the end of this all, as will the leaders of Hamas.

All of these are war criminals.  But to take glee in the death and suffering of the average Palestinian, Israeli, or Iranian--that is horrible to me, and that is the whole problem with how we get to this situation, by dehumanising the Other. We need to feel for others. To recognise that they're just like us, that they want a lot of the same, simple things: a safe place to raise their families, number one. Some are greedy bastards, true.  But overall, I believe most people are good. I'm not so sure about the people who liked what they saw in Tel Aviv. I'm sure there are others who felt the same about pictures of Iranian sites and Palestinian ones.  It's because they think in black and white, and that's not how the world works. It never has; it never will.

What do I hope to see? Peace. I hope this will end, that it will deesccalate before the world burns, or at least the region. One can hope. But I studied the Arab-Israeli conflict in school (the history of it, and let me tell you, it goes back to a lot of colonial bull crap and doesn't go back to ancient Biblical times, really), and I'm not sure it will ever come to an end. There's something called Jerusalem Syndrome where people who are otherwise rational go there and suddenly become zealots, regardless of whatever side they wind up being on. It's crazy. It's all crazy.

Bring the hostages home. Stop the campaign in Gaza and let people go home.  Stop the missile attacks. Sanction and cut off the supply of urananium. Stop it all. Try the aggressors for war crimes and stop the madness.  Please, just stop.

So sad

I don't care how you feel about politics. This is still wrong. Murder does not repay murder does not repay murder. Innocent Palestinians should not be dying. Innocent Israeli civilians should not have been killed during the October 7th attacks by Hamas. This young couple should not have died. He had bought a ring and was about to propose to her. A whole life ahead of them, eradicated. So many lives stolen. So much blood. When will this end?

2 Israeli Embassy staff shoot and killed in front of Capital Jewish Museum in DC

My view on things

Hmmm....okay, I'm finally weighing in on this. Although I am not Jewish, I did minor in Judaic Studies, took classes on the Arab-Israeli conflict, get news from a variety of sources, am trained to evaluate them, and at least tangentially know people impacted by the attacks on October 7th and beyond. Don't get me wrong, I'm very much for peace in this conflict. But this, along with a lot of videos showing protesters who don't actually know what their goals are and can't explain them when pressed, make me wonder what this is really all about Also, I'm sorry, saying the university should feed the protesters as one story reported? I'm pretty sure the anti-Vietnam protesters brought their own snacks. My point is that it is not wrong to protest injustice-peacefully-it should be protested, but know what you're protesting and don't be entitled gets parroting someone else's agenda, or destroying property, trespassing, or making threats against other people. Yes, the political situation is horrible. No, there should not be a sort of apartheid in Israel. The response to the terror attacks should have targeted Hamas as much as possible, not civilians. But I don't understand women's groups who support terrorists who use rape as a weapon in a society that would oppress them, or gays marching when they are considered abominations in that culture. The protesters (on both sides) are often ill-informed, they're believing a lot of disinformation, they're not thinking critically, and some of them are downright bigoted. Which is sad, particularly the 'best and brightest' at Ivy League and other prominent schools, which have failed them in their education. That's my opinion, anyway.

NYC says half of those arrested at 2 pro-Palestinian campus protests were not students

A bit vulgar, but essentially true

The Israeli-Palestinian war is already full of tragedy and death

This could make it something of epic proportions.

UN Chief Appeals for Israel to Avert a Humanitarian Catastrophe

Israel evacuation order: Tens of thousands flee northern Gaza - BBC News

I hate this

As much as I'm pro-Jewish, I am not a real supporter of Israel itself. I believe it has engaged in the equivalent of apartheid, and recent moves by the right-wing government have sparked a great deal of protest (Israel does not have a Constitution, and the Knesset, their parliament, recently took most of the power away from the Supreme Court of Israel. Thousands have been marching in the streets for months, with little coverage here in America). Neither am I a supporter of Palestine either, and Hamas has a lot to answer for, and a lot of money is funnelled in there from outside sources who do not want Israel to exist. The Arab-Israeli conflict is extremely complex with years of terror and retaliation. It hurts my heart to see death on either side. I wish we could just see peace in the Middle East. But there have been generations of hatred entrenched, and I think it might take a miracle to get the various groups to sit down and talk with one another and see their similarities amid their differences. Most people just want a better life, and one for their children. I don't understand the rest.

Hamas surprise attack out of Gaza stuns Israel and leaves hundreds dead in fighting, retaliation

Let's see if I can embed this video from Facebook :)

Post by The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com.

Good to know they can still have fun even with all the pressures where they live. (And if course, it's 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight', not 'The Lion King Song', but I won't quibble.)

Then there was this

Very Well Aged: Archaeologists Say Ancient Wine Cellar Found Archaeologists say they have discovered a 3,700-year-old wine cellar in Israel, a finding that offers insights into the early roots of winemaking.

The large wine cellar was unearthed in the ruined palace of a Canaanite city in northern Israel, called Tel Kabri, not far from the country's modern wineries. The excavations revealed 40 one-meter-tall (about 3 feet) jars kept in what appeared to be a storage room.

No liquid contents could have survived the millennia. But an analysis of organic residue trapped in the pores of the jars suggested that they had contained wine made from grapes. The ancient tipple was likely sweet, strong and medicinal—certainly not your average Beaujolais.

As a gardener and history/archaeology buff, this made me happy

Ancient biblical gardens 'bloom' again: Reconstruction of 2,500 garden relied on analyses of excavated pollen and reveals a paradise of exotic plants

An ancient royal garden has come back into bloom in a way, as scientists have reconstructed what it would've looked like some 2,500 years ago in the kingdom of the biblical Judah.

Their reconstruction, which relied on analyses of excavated pollen, reveals a paradise of exotic plants.

Hope that all will be well

Fire forces evacuation of Israel's Yad Vashem: Yad Vashem is one of Israel's national treasures, home to a museum and memorials for the victims of the Holocaust

Yad Vashem is one of Israel's national treasures, home to a museum and memorials for the victims of the Holocaust. Foreign dignitaries routinely stop at Yad Vashem when visiting the country.

The memorial holds some 140 million pages of Holocaust documentation, the world's largest such collection. It also exhibits artifacts, such as shoes, photographs, suitcases and recorded testimonies of Holocaust victims and survivors.

It also has an eternal flame in its "Hall of Remembrance," as well as the "Hall of Names," where it is collecting the identities of the 6 million Jews who perished at the hands of the Nazis and their sympathizers during World War II.

Weighing science and Zionism in the aftermath of Haifa's forest fire

Replant or wait? Israel weighs options on scorched forest

The debate boils down to the very essence of trees in the Holy Land. The typical Israeli forested landscape is made up of planted, planned lines of pine trees. And for generations, the JNF forests have been an integral part of Israel's nation building.

Natural forests like the Carmel, on the other hand, with wildlife and diverse ecosystems, are rare.

Those who care for the two distinct types of forest have different goals, explained Omri Gal, a spokesman for the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, which administers the Carmel area.

"The JNF forests are for the enjoyment and recreation of people. Our goal is to preserve nature," Gal said. "The public wants to help after something like this. They feel that by planting a tree where another was burned they are helping, but this is not always true."

I'd rather see a natural forest renew, to be honest, to see the hand of God in the renewal of an oecosystem. But that's just me.

Now that's more like it

Latest in hummus war: Israel doubles record: But Lebanon is already plotting a bigger plate of mashed chickpeas
You've got to love the opening line in this story:

Israel has taken the upper hand in a new kind of Mideast conflict, one in which bullets are replaced by chickpeas.

But most significantly:

Hundreds of jubilant Israelis, a mix of Arabs and Jews, gathered around the giant dish in the town of Abu Ghosh near Jerusalem on Friday, many of them dancing as a singer performed an Arabic love song to the beige chickpea paste.

Here's to hummus as a means to foster cooperation instead of violence. And it's quite tasty, too.

A long life lived after a mission to save people thwarted by politics

In 1947, with scars from the Holocaust still raw and haunting, thousands of Jewish refugees attempted to reach Palestine to start a new life, despite British immigration rules that limited the number of Jews who could legally enter the area. The captain of one of the ships that made that trip has died in Israel.

Captain of famed Exodus refugee ship dies: 86-year-old remembered for heroic mission to save Holocaust survivors

The Exodus 1947 ship left France in July 1947 carrying more than 4,500 people — most of them Holocaust survivors and other displaced Jews — in a secret effort to reach Palestine. At the time, Britain controlled Palestine and was limiting the immigration of Jews.

The British navy seized the vessel off Palestine's shores, and after a battle on board that left three people dead, turned the ship and its passengers back to Europe, where the refugees were forced to disembark in Germany.

The ship's ordeal was widely reported worldwide, garnering sympathy for the refugees, especially because they were taken to Germany, where the Nazi murder of 6 million Jews during World War II originated.

Captain of Jewish immigrant ship the Exodus dies

From Wikipedia:

Documents released from the British archives show that after much soul-searching, the British concluded that the only place they could send the Jews was to the British-controlled zone of post-war Germany, where the Jews could be placed in camps and screened for extremists; decision to land the Jews in Germany had been made because it was the only suitable territory under British control that could handle so many people at short notice. The British diplomats and military officers knew perfectly well that sending Jews back to Germany and putting them in camps so soon after the Holocaust would set off a fire-storm of protest.

Yitzhak "Ike" Ahronovitch tried to save thousands of refugees from the Holocaust and his efforts brought sympathy for the founding of Israel as a homeland for Jews. His daughter described the attempt as a defining influence in his life. Despite the fact that the mission was illegal, it was certainly moral and an attempt to better the lives of so many who had suffered. It was the right thing to do, and Ahronovitch showed himself up to the task with his efforts on behalf of the refugees.

How awful

Israelis rally after 2 murdered at gay center: Masked shooter opened fire in Tel Aviv, killing 2 and injuring 11

The centre was set up as a safe place for gay and lesbian youth--many still struggling with whether to come out to parents, families, and friends--could meet and receive counseling. An unknown gunman entered the centre on Saturday night and began firing, then escaped, leaving the normally vibrant Tel Aviv gay community concerned for further attacks. A counselor and a 17-year-old girl died; several others were wounded, some critically. Some parents of the wounded did not know the sexual orientation of their children until called to attend them in hospital.

What a horrible, hateful thing for someone to do. I hope they find the culprit soon, before there is other violence. I'm thinking it might be someone religiously ultra-conservative, but I may be wrong. It could just be a bigoted wingnut. But one thing's for sure--that person has to be stopped.

Home safely, for now

Reading: Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris (a favourite mystery writer--her Aurora Teagarden mysteries have a librarian as protagonist--and well, I'm not sure where you'd put the vampire stuff...it's not exactly horror, mystery, or romance, but a bit of all three).

So we're in the midst of our first (and presumably only at this late date) substantial winter storm, getting a mix of snow and ice right now and expecting 6-10 inches of snow by tomorrow afternoon. I, of course, did my nightly midnight run to pick up a friend who works second shift. Fortunately we decided against the grocery run tonight, so I am home where it is warm not out in the wind having ice pelt against me. The roads weren't bad at all yet and the snowploughs are out doing what they can. It should be interesting when I wake up tomorrow, and of course I work 10 hours then.

I did stop at a gas station on the way that had not changed its price today. It was at $2.14 a gallon and most of the stations in town jumped up to $3.25. (It's the same company I work for--I suspect the manager forgot to change it before he left.) I was ranting about the prices being jacked up when YKWIA thought I should take a page from the eco-terrorist group ELF and torch a gas station in protest (okay, Homeland Security, he was joking). He said I needed an acronym of my own and came up on the spot with TROLL (Terribly Rabid Overweight Liberal Librarian). (Yes, this is my best friend of 20 years--with friends like these....) Seriously, all ribbing aside, I had to admit it was funny. And Trolls can beat up Elves anyday, though they aren't so nice to look at. (Just for the record, I consider myself to be environmentally conscious--and was before it became trendy--but I don't believe any cause is helped by those who blow up things, destroy property, and who do so without regard for human life.)

At $3.25 a gallon I'm going to hear a lot of complaints/possibly deal with drive-offs tomorrow. Maybe everyone will stay home. I guess we won't have many car wash sales then. Of course, by Sunday it's supposed to be clear yet cold and by Tuesday it'll be in the 50s. Welcome to Kentucky weather.

YKWIA is always on the lookout for blog material for me, since he finds such interesting and random things online. Today's haul included the following videos, which didn't so much harm him (he's Jewish--all will be self-evident) as leave him just staring at the screen in disbelief. They threw him. (Chuckle). I, for one, found the first to be great. I wish my Hebrew was better to read the slogans in the second one.)

'Japanese Fiddler on the Roof'


(I figure lots of Europeans, including Jewish ones, play Japanese people in theatre (I give you the Mikado, for example). Why not Japanese playing Jews?)

Then there are the Japanese Jews who converge upon Israel once a year in pilgrimage...


According to YKWIA, they are singing a song about the Sabbath. I love the blend of Japanese and Jewish culture. The cranes of peace with Shalom are perfect. How does he find these things?