Shabbat January 16-17

How quickly can things change. After 15 months of unremitting battles, there is an air of optimism in the Middle East. Yet there is also an air of pessimism, which hovers like a dark cloud within the silver lining. With a hostage agreement entering phase 1 beginning on Sunday, many hopes and many fears come to the surface. Let’s discuss some thoughts about the issues and questions in a bit. 

In the family news and events department, we left off last week as our home and an adjoining apartment (let me know if you are looking for a Netanya Rental!) were invaded by Nomi, Elan, Shoshana, Shlomo, Nadav, Aryeh and Eitan as well Gila, Ariel, Elisha, Ora and Adi. We had the whole gang for Shabbat, plus Friday night dinner included our friends Lori and Alvin Small. It is an understatement to say that there was a lot of energy in the house! According to Shlomo, Shabbat was a lot of fun, and Nadav says that the meals were yummy! I would attest to both. We spent a bit of time preparing and the results were superb! Plus, it’s great to spend time with the whole Israel gang. The dynamic of having teens, pre-teens and little ones means that activities now need to be tailored to different ages, but that’s a big part of the fun. For example, Shabbat afternoon Barbara and I took the younger kids (Eitan age 3, Adi 5, Aryeh 7 and Ora 7) to a series of parks along our waterfront boardwalk, and the older kids (Shoshana 16, Shlomo 14, and Elisha and Nadav, a month shy of 11) hung out with their parent to play board games. At synagogue, we enjoyed the 2 almost 11 years olds leading the end of our services, with the 7-year-old siblings hanging out in tow! It’s honestly amazing to have these times (albeit exhausting!), and we hope we can soon have Monty and Daniella, Tali and Ezra join in (either in Israel or in North America) so we can have all the cousins together at once, which is unfortunately quite rare. 

The week moved on rather quickly, with Bruce having a proposal due on Wednesday. Still, we found time to have the Smalls over for tea one night and to check out a new Sushi restaurant in Netanya name Dashi, which has the best and most creative sushi we have had in Israel! Thursday, with the proposal deposited, was a day to catch up, shop a bit, and then it was off to Jerusalem to celebrate Shlomo’s 14th birthday! This included a big family shushi night out and a visit to the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens where there was the Winter Dreams Light Festival. The Gardens were decked out in lights with large light sculptures of animals (whales, dolphins, lions, monkeys, reindeer, you name it) all through the grounds. The weather was lovely, about 12C as is typical of Jerusalem an evening in January. Everyone enjoyed the spectacles, with lots of pictures taken imitating the animals or hugging the sculptures. The evening was topped off with a cup of hot apple cider or hot chocolate from the festival food market and then everyone came home tired and happy (despite a bit of a traffic jam, but that’s another story!).

OK, now to the ceasefire. Part of your perspective obviously will be colored by what you read to get your news (Al-Jazeerah, CNN, National Post, Tik-Tok Smarty Pants…?). What I will do is provide a perspective, based on what we have observed, and try to be divorced from political slant. From a purely humanitarian point of view, a ceasefire at this time was crucial for being able to rescue as many of the remaining hostages from Gaza who are still alive. That includes two preschool children who appear to be on the list of those being released in the upcoming first phase, elderly people, and women. Hopefully by the end of phase 3 the remainder of the 98 people (or sadly their bodies) will also be returned. It also does bring obvious relief to the people of Gaza. You would think that this would be a cause for universal celebration in Israel but as you may have seen in the news, this is not the case. The reason for this is because there is a clear sense of déjà vu as the war has evolved. Although many things in the battle since October 7, 2023 have been very different (the magnitude and brutality of Hamas’ invasion, the fact that the war opened on multiple fronts, including Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Iran, Arab villages in the Yehuda and Shomron (AKA the West Bank) plus Syria, the extent of the destruction in Gaza in the pursuit of uprooting Hamas, there are some things that have previously happened in the negotiation of other “permanent ceasefires” and prisoner exchanges. We have witnessed attacks from Hamas in 2007, 2012, 2014, 2021 and now. These wars have always ended with a “permanent ceasefire”, but clearly the definition of “permanent” is different for the two sides. Prisoner exchanges have also been characterized by civilians or soldiers who were kidnapped and held for the ransom of hundreds, if not thousands of Palestinians who were imprisoned for terrorism or murder. Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of October 7th, was a prisoner released in the deal for Gilad Shalit. Thus, the concern is that we will have another period of calm for several years, until the multitude of released prisoners are rearmed by Iran (or Russia or North Korea or whoever they can purchase arms from) and we will relive the horrors again. 

Now, I think that this ceasefire and prisoner exchange was the correct thing to do, and the timing is actually better now than when this framework was first negotiated in May 2024. The world has changed significantly; Hezbollah is much weaker, Iran is weaker and somewhat embarrassed, Lebanon has elected a president and Prime Minister who are both anti-Hezbollah, Assad is out of power and Syria has a chance for a better future, Hamas’ leadership was decimated, and the most important “Regime Change” may have been in the US, with the election of Donald Trump appearing to have put pressure on all sides, Israel no less than Hamas, to find a way to bring some quiet to the region. Bringing home the hostages has always been top of mind in Israel, no matter where you stand on the political spectrum. Universally here, there are signs everywhere, from when you land in the airport, to ones on every street corner, on people’s cars and hanging in peoples’ windows. The difference of opinion was mainly, what means was best to get them back. At this point, it is a relief that there was a negotiated settlement, no matter how ominous the potential for rearming and reattack may be. Yes, despite what some pundits write and what some politicians ( on both sides) say, there was never a plan for Israel to recapture Gaza or have a permanent place there; these are minority opinions, and the war was never about that. At least Israel is aware of the potential for future conflict and should be more on guard than October 6th. The rest is, as we say in G-d’s hands. 

With that, we move into Shabbat here in Efrat. I have Nadav looking over my shoulder and he is giggling that I am writing about him. Tough luck, Nadav, you are now in the blog! OK, I guess that means it’s time to get ready for Shabbat, so let’s sign off for now. 

We wish everyone a peaceful shabbat and let’s hope that we can sincerely be optimistic about our prospects for a better world in 2025!

Barbara and Bruce

Happy Anniversary to Roanne and David!

Happy Birthday to Linda Lieberman!

And the most special Happy Birthday to Barbara! I could never dream of having a better partner in life! May we always share special times together, have much naches from our children, and lots of great things to blog about together!