# 460 – A Hostage Deal

A Hostage Deal

The Washington Post reports there is news that a deal has been reached between Hamas, Israel and the US to release around 50 women and children in exchange for a 5-day pause. (We don’t like to use the word ‘ceasefire’). If it happens, it certainly won’t be all 50 at once. They’ll ‘trickle’ them out, making sure ‘we behave’.

Then what?

We KNOW that many of the hostages will not come home alive. We KNOW that some Hamas leaders will escape. (It took us 10 years to finally get the perpetrators of the Munich Massacre). We KNOW more innocent Gazans will die – and it won’t help to prove that ‘it was not as many as pronounced by the Gazan Ministry of Health – and it now looks less likely that we shall find the Hamas HQ under Al Shifa hospital. If we then find it under another hospital, Israel and the IDF will still be blamed.

Oh, they’ve got us. We cannot and shall never go as low as they, and as long as that is the case, they win – at least the battle. The war is a slightly different story.

I’ve been urged to repeat the fact that Aviva’s family actually came here around 1525. They came from the town of Zamora in Spain, expelled by the Inquisition. The family’s leader was David Ben Zimra who, on his way to Israel, stopped off in Egypt and was chief rabbi there for around 30 years. He was the first to ‘re-discover’ the existence of the Ethiopian Jews.

In Israel his family settled in Safed (although there is a moshav named after the family nearby, called Keren Ben Zimra – where they have great wine). In Safed, he became one of Judaism’s great scholars. His writings are admired to this day. And he was the teacher of ‘Ha Ari’ (The Lion), considered to be the greatest of all Kabbalists.

But that’s only 500 years. The fact is, of course, that we were here from the start of Judaism, about 3,200 years ago. Don’t forget that Jesus was a Jewish preacher, and he also lived in Jerusalem long BEFORE Mohammed came along. (Just wanted to get that stuff out of the way).

Today it rained cats and dogs. Which means, for the poor people in Gaza (ALL the poor people in Gaza) it has been a miserable day). 5 more soldiers killed yesterday. We name them, show pics of them on all front pages. We CARE for every single one. (Please don’t now ask ‘Yes, but do you care for the Gazans?’).

Settler violence. Let’s see if I can get this out of the way quickly. Many Jews believe that Judea and Samaria (West Bank) is part of the Land of Israel, but that doesn’t need to be the point. The 1948 UN resolution 181 gave that land to the Palestinians. WE AGREED!! The Arabs did not. They also put Jerusalem under international control. WE AGREED! The Arabs did not.

They started a war on the day the Israeli state was declared. They were losing. The international community pulled us apart; as they would always do. (No Israel-Arab war has ever been stopped with the Arabs ahead…We are not sure the UN would, in such a case, pull us apart. End of Israel). Jordan occupied the West Bank, destroyed all but one of the synagogues, prevented Jewish access to its most holy site etc. etc.

And, a reminder, Jordan wanted to keep the land for itself. During its 19 years OCCUPATION, no friendly gesture to the Palestinians, and no compliance with the UN resolution. (Same thing with Egypt in Gaza and Syria in the Golan Heights).

The Arabs started another war. Within just 6 days, a major, but not final, victory for Israel. Still no settlement. We offered to negotiate; we received the famous ‘3 No’s’ from the Arabs.

It is only rumoured that, behind very closed doors, Moshe Dayan hissed to the Cabinet “Well, fuck them. Let’s take what was ours anyway!” And the first settlers settled. Only a 1/4 or so believed in the religious history. Others were young families, easily tempted by the exciting economical opportunities. And, initially the indigenous Arabs were hardly touched. Some sold their land to the Jews. Others welcomed the new economy.

Jump to today (I know…) and there are now around 600,000 Jews in the West Bank. A thriving community, mostly mixing extremely well with their Arab neighbours.

But the ugly minorities on each side had the left-wing world on their side. The anti-settler campaign started, and it’s steamrolling its way down UN corridors.

I can assure you that a) only a tiny minority of Jewish settlers are violent – b) terrible violence against the settlers AND against their Arab neighbours by, mostly Hamas-controlled militants.

Yes, the authorities, Israel & the Pal. Authority should be working far better together. Despite the West Bank actually having a surprisingly positive economy, the internal violence is getting out of control. But that’s not unusual, is it?

What’s to be done right now?

Throw out the extreme right-wing members of Netanyahu’s coalition. Immediately! Lock ’em up, as far as most of us care. The majority did not want them before, and the greater majority hates them now. Whatever they say in public, that’s not us!! The next election will back me up. OK? (Please, Mr. Biden – ignore them!). In the meantime, our sometimes regrettable respect for democracy kills us.

Also in the meantime, you idiots over there, Iran has enriched more uranium…

Stephen