The Jew News Review – August 17, 2024 – A Muddled Mess in the Middle East

Shabbat shalom! 

Let’s begin with a great story this week from Yonit Levi and Jonathan Freedland from their Unholy podcast. It starts with Israeli Channel 12 newscaster Oded Ben-Ami, who opened one of his shows this week thanking President Biden for everything he has done to support Israel. His opening was considered by many a response to the negative things being said about Biden by Nut-and-yahoo, and those close to him, and it was translated to English. Eventually, it made its way to President Biden himself, who then called Oded Ben-Ami a few nights later at midnight and spoke with him for 12 minutes to among other things, thank him for the gesture. Biden, by the way, has had more interaction with Israeli hostage families than Nut-and-yahoo. 

Which brings me to the current mess in the middle east. Israelis were on shpilkas Monday and Tuesday, and still are, thinking the Iranian a-holes would release their missile response to the embarrassing assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a “safe house” in Tehran. So far, it seems as though diplomacy, maybe pressure from the US and others, has at least delayed the Iranian response while a hostage deal is being hammered out in Cairo and Doha. And that is a good thing, but this last gasp effort to cut a deal is likely to fail, as Hamas will never agree to anything that doesn’t leave them in power, and neither will Israel agree to anything that doesn’t secure the Philadelphia Corridor and prevent Hamas from smuggling arms through it. 

And like Ben-Ami, I was very supportive of Biden and his early support of Israel, but I am increasingly more leery, and pessimistic about our overall strategy in the middle east, which seems to me a muddle mess of a holdover from the Obama team’s predisposition to appease Iran, which has been about as successful as Nut-and-yahoos strategy of appeasing Hamas in order to prevent Abbas — or anyone else in the Palestinian Authority’s West Bank government — from advancing toward the establishment of a Palestinian state. 

The Iranian mullahs, with the support of the IRGC, have successfully deployed their “Ring of Fire” strategy, surrounding Israel with their proxies bent on eliminating Israel. This doesn’t get reported enough, but Israel is currently fighting battles on seven fronts. The most dangerous is from the north, where Hizbollah has fired thousands of missiles starting on October 8, decimating the northern border and forcing the displacement of over 100,000 Israelis from their homes. Add to that the attacks from the Houthis, the Iranians, Syria and Iraq, and Hamas, and you have a dangerous existential threat to the only democracy in the region. And the threat is not just to Israel. According to the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy (FDD), there have been over 170 attacks on US troops in the middle east since October 7, and we have only responded 11 times. That is not a recipe for deterrence. See the stats below.

I am no expert on middle east policy and strategy, and will not attempt to pretend otherwise. But, one thing I have learned from many analysts and from recent history is that, at least in the middle east, hard power is more effective than soft power. Maybe it’s time the US started getting a bit more serious in the region and started taking Iran to task in a more direct manner. Biden’s “Don’t” doesn’t seem to be doing the trick. 

Rumor is that Sinwar now wants to make a deal for the hostages. Why is that? Because Israel has successfully crushed his terrorist army, and is about to close in on him in whatever tunnel he is hiding. And do not believe western journalist reports that there is nothing left to accomplish militarily in Gaza, as the NYT reported the other day in its story “In Gaza, Israel’s Military Has Reached the End of the Line, U.S. Officials Say”.  The Biden administration has been wrong countless times on the Gaza war, (e.g. delaying Israel from entering Rafah because Biden/Harris thought it would take 4 months to move Gazans out of Rafah, it took Israel only 10 days) Israel is probably weeks or less than months away from ending the Gaza war and flushing the rats out of their tunnels. Getting Sinwar alive and convicting him of war crimes would be ideal, but he will probably blow himself up like Hitler did before the allies could get to him. 

Having said all that, Nut-and-yahoo should take the deal on the table, and get the hostages back, sooner rather than later, since they probably don’t have much time left. Unfortunately many have already died in captivity and who knows what the murdering Hamas butchers will do to the others once they know a hostage deal or their imminent death is near. Can Israel deal with a six week withdrawal from the Rafah Crossing and Philadelphia Corridor? Probably. It would take longer than that for Hamas to restore a weapons and cash supply chain there. And will Hamas be able to re-infiltrate North Gaza during those six weeks? Maybe. But eradicating them again will be a lot easier than the initial fighting in that area. And according to reliable JNR sources, reports have indicated that all of Israel’s security chiefs and negotiators have been imploring him to seize the opportunity for a deal ever since the initial framework was laid out in May. It’s time to bring them home.

As for Iran, Biden’s “Don’t” needs to be replaced with a real strategy that is taken seriously by our partners and allies in the region and the world. Biden has time to get it right, but he needs to get more serious and stop the appeasement policy. Iran is a bad player, exporting to their proxies their policy of eliminating Israel. It’s time we, as a superpower, make them accountable for this bullshit and give Israeli’s some peace and a future without bomb shelters and safe rooms. We should continue to establish normalization with the Saudi’s and other Abraham Accord potential partners as this is one tactic to isolate and check the growing influence of Iran and their jihadist proxies. But, a broader, tougher strategy is desperately needed. I am not sure where Harris stands on this foreign policy challenge, but I hope we find out soon.

And now, without any further ajieu, here is this week’s generous selection of Jewie journalistic gems, culled and carefully curated, and copied and pasted from the likes of The Forward, JTA, The Times of Israel, Kveller, Jewish Boston, Haaretz, and other Jewish journals:

1. Mediators push updated Gaza truce offer, hope for deal next week, as Doha talks break – Biden says sides closer than ever to a deal after progress made in two days of talks, but Hamas rejects what it calls ‘new conditions’ from Israel; Netanyahu to meet Blinken Monday. Read the story.
2. More on the war….
   1. The U.S. approved $20 billion in arms sales to Israel, although much of what is being sold — including fighter jets and missiles — are part of contracts that will take years to fulfill.
   2. IDF orders central Gaza evacuations, as Hamas says optimism for deal an ‘illusion’. Terror group spokesman claims US backing Israeli efforts to sabotage ceasefire-hostage talks * Military says it is expanding offensive in Gaza’s Khan Younis.
   3. US official warns Iran of ‘cataclysmic’ consequences if it attacks Israel – The United States “would encourage the Iranians — and I know many are — not to move down that road, because the consequences could be quite cataclysmic, particularly for Iran,” a senior US official told reporters on customary condition of anonymity.
   4. Israel expects UK, France to help hit Iran if Tehran attacks, Katz tells counterparts – Foreign Minister Israel Katz made the comments as he met with the British and French foreign ministers making a joint trip to Israel, as international efforts to mediate a ceasefire in Gaza intensified, amid heightened fears in Israel that Iran and Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon could attack Israel in retaliation for last month’s killings of Haniyeh and Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr.
   5. Israeli settlers rampaged through the Palestinian West Bank village of Jit, killing one. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the incident and said those responsible would face legal consequences. Separately, an Israeli peace group claimed plans for a new Israeli settlement in the West Bank would encroach on a UNESCO World Heritage site. (Haaretz, New York Times)
   6. The Gaza Health Ministry said the war’s death toll now exceeds 40,000 people. Among them: Two 4-day-old twins killed by an airstrike while their father was procuring their birth certificates. (Washington Post, LA Times)
   7. The IDF said it has killed 17,000 terror operatives in Gaza, including members of Hamas and the territory’s separate, smaller terror groups. (Times of Israel)
   8. Some 3,700 Israelis moved back to their homes near the Gaza border, some 10 months after Oct. 7, as the government decided to stop paying for them to be housed in hotels. More than 80% of those displaced from Israel’s south have now returned to their homes. (Times of Israel)
3. Columbia University president resigns amid criticism of her handling of pro-Palestinian protests – Minouche Shafik stepped down Wednesday, bowing to pressure from faculty, students and public officials who widely criticized her handling of pro-Palestinian campus protests last school year. Shafik’s resignation — 13 months after starting her job — makes her the latest Ivy League president to step down following the wave of protests that roiled college campuses, joining Claudine Gay of Harvard, Martha Pollack of Cornell and Liz Magill of the University of Pennsylvania.
4. Barbra Streisand joins thousands at ‘Jewish Women for Kamala’ virtual fundraiser. “It’s been said that Jewish women are known to speak out and tell you what they think and I’m one of them,” Streisand said during the Thursday call, before lambasting Trump’s third presidential run as a “naked grab for power, a blueprint for dictatorship.” And she celebrated the “rebellious women” of Jewish tradition, including Esther and Miriam, in encouraging the call’s participants to support the same determined spirit in themselves, and in Harris. Read the story ➤
5. Israel, Gaza and Josh Shapiro: What to watch for during the Democratic National Convention – When Democrats descend on Chicago next week to nominate Kamala Harris, the party will be unified on much, but riven by a major issue that has also preoccupied American Jews for 10 months: Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza. Outside the convention, pro-Palestinian protesters plan to turn out in the tens of thousands for marches and protests. On sidelines of the convention, pro-Israel groups will feature prominently, and stars like Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro will likely take the main stage. Harris’ Jewish husband, Doug Emhoff, is also expected to take a primetime turn. Read the story.
6. Kamala Harris’s Hebrew merch is taking shape — in the form of a punctuation mark – JTA — Until recently, business was slow for Michael Zorek, a retired actor who hawks irreverent political buttons every Sunday to farmer’s market patrons outside New York City’s American Museum of Natural History. Some days, Zorek sold as few as five Joe Biden buttons. But when Kamala Harris became the Democratic presidential candidate last month, sales shot up. Now, he says, he sometimes sells as many as 150 pins touting Harris in one sitting. The surge in sales reflects the enthusiasm Harris’s campaign has drawn, and it extends to one of Zorek’s specialty offerings: Harris merchandise in Hebrew, specifically, a button featuring a comma, overlaid with the Hebrew letters “lamed” and “hay,” spelling “la” and providing a visual primer on how to pronounce Harris’s first name. 
7. Did you know that ice cream has deeply Jewish roots? There’s a good chance that your favorite ice cream brand has Jewish origins. Learn more about everyone’s favorite summer treat from this short video:

And speaking of ice cream, here’s a shout out to my grandson Cam, who celebrated his one year birthday yesterday with his first visit to Crescent Ridge Ice Cream! Happy birthday Cam!

A sweet way to end this week’s JNR! Have a great rest of the weekend, and remember, be careful out there, and have a scoop or two if you get a chance.

Brad out.