1. The Hostages and the Gaza War
I should really start with the hostages. There are still 58 Israelis being held by Hamas, of whom, it is believed that 20 are alive. This week marked 600 days since the attack and massacre by Hamas on October 7, 2023. While President Trump's designee, Steve Witkoff, has been making all sorts of efforts to strike a deal between Hamas and Israel, both sides seem reluctant to agree. This week, there were some hints from all sides that a deal was imminent but this morning Hamas rejected the latest proposal from the U.S., after Israel tentatively agreed to it. The hostages are being held in brutal, inhumane conditions. The more time that passes, the less likely it is that the remaining live hostages will survive.
The war is also taking a significant toll on the lives of Gazans - and for Israeli soldiers - both regular soldiers and reservists. It does not appear that Hamas has any interest in a cease fire deal other than one that will leave it in power - ready to rebuild for another attack. For Israel, there is little appetite for a deal that will leave Hamas in power in Gaza. As several U.S. Senators said this week - when fighting against a band of terrorists - the goal is the surrender of the terrorists - the same goal that the U.S. pursued when fighting Nazi Germany in World War II (and Japan as well).
If Witkoff is not able to broker a deal, Israel may well expand its operations in Gaza in an effort to force a surrender. This is a daunting task - especially since Israel is dealing with an enemy that would rather die than surrender (in many cases) In short, this war may continue for quite a while.
2. World Pressure
As time goes on and a deal seems remote, the casualties in Gaza are continuing to mount. France is now leading the charge to start pressuring Israel economically and politically - to end the war. Some of the other protagonists include Spain, Great Britain and Canada. France and several other countries have pledged to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian State next week - though it is unclear what the defined boundaries or other parameters will be. It would obviously be helpful for these same countries to exert their influence to cause Hamas to release the hostages and push for the end of the war - and to allow food and supplies to be transferred to the Gaza civilian population (Hamas has been confiscating food and supplies for its own use up until this week - when a new mechanism was put into place to supply civilians directly with food).
At the same time, the current Israeli government is isolating Israel more and more from the rest of the world and this could have significant consequences for Israel in the short and long term.
3. The Houthis and Iran
Israel is also fighting a war with the Yemen-based Houthis (who do not even share a border with Israel). They are promoting themselves as the defenders of the Palestinians - which for them, means, firing ballistic rockets at Israel sporadically. As you may know, Trump reached a deal with the Houthis and agreed not to attack them in exchange for an undertaking by the Houthis not to attack U.S. ships. So Israel has been left with the task of fighting the Houthis and defending against the barrages of Iranian-supplied ballistic missiles fired by the Houthis.
Yesterday, we were in an elevator, in the middle of the day, when a missile siren went off, signifying that there was an incoming ballistic missile, sent by the Houthis. Fortunately, it was shot down. though we had to wait in a safe bomb shelter room for about 10 minutes.
Just weeks ago, a Houthi missile got through the defence systems and landed near Ben-Gurion Airport. That missile hit about 45 minutes after I took off from Israel en route to Athens. As a result of that attack, most foreign airlines cancelled all of their air traffic to Tel-Aviv. Some airlines have now restarted their service but many others have extended their suspensions of service. For example, British Airways, Ryannair, Wizz Air and others all announced they would continue to suspend their service to Tel-Aviv. I note that Air Canada, not long after the recent Canadian election (see my last blog) announced that it would not resume service before September 2025, which is one of the latest proposed dates from any airline that I have seen.
Israel's fight with the Houthis is, of course, a proxy fight with Iran. As Trump is negotiating a new JOCPA with Iran, he seems to also be playing "good cop bad cop" with Iran and threatening to allow Israel to attack Iran and try to take out its nuclear program if a deal is not reached. It may be that Trump's game is more "good cop" than "bad cop" as it seems likely that he will push Netanyahu not to attack at this point. However, in the case of both Trump and Netanyahu, things are quite unpredictable.
4. Netanyahu
As you know, Prime Minister Netanyahu is in the midst of his criminal trial - which is coming to the most crucial part of the trial - next week - the cross examination of Netanyahu is set to begin as early as Tuesday or Wednesday next week. Despite all of his bravado, I find it hard to believe that Netanyahu is anxious to go through this cross-examination. Much of his testimony in chief, as reported, was unbelievable and incredible. I believe that the prosecutors are salivating at the opportunity to cross examine Bibi and I also believe that he knows it will be very uncomfortable. He may well pull out all of the stops to derail or postpone the cross-examination. What could that include? Just about anything. A sudden illness (real or imaginary). The break up of his current governing coalition. The launching of a sudden attack on Iran. Or even some kind of plea bargain deal. I think it is likely that something big is going to happen this coming week - just in time to stave off this cross-examination. This should be an incredibly pivotal week for Israel.
5. Eurovision
As you might know, Israel finished 2nd in the annual Eurovision song contest last week that took place in Basel Switzerland. This was a politically charged contest with some of the European countries pushing to expel Israel and prevent it from participating.
The Israeli contestant was Yuval Raphael, a singer who had survived the Hamas massacres on October 7, 2023 by hiding under a pile of dead bodies and pretending to be dead herself. She faced demonstrations and boos from Pro-Palestinian/ Pro-Hamas agitators. The panel of judges, representing each participating country, awarded Raphael/Israel a total of only 60 points (out of 32 scoring countries). Only Azerbaijan awarded the first place award of 12 points to Israel. Several countries gave Israel no points - and most countries awarded very low point totals to Raphael/Israel.
However, the Eurovision contest also involves audience voting by country. Here Israel finished in first place overall - which included winning the full 12 points from the audience in several countries including Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and others. In fact, Israel came in 2nd place in Ireland, a country whose current policies have been among the most anti-Israel anywhere. Israel also came in first place in the voting in Australia (which participates in Eurovision even though it is a bit far away from Europe) and Spain, two other countries whose leadership has been virulently ant-Israel. Overall, Raphael/Israel wound up finishing second in the contest, which was a really strong result.
Much of the music in any given Eurovision contest is quite awful - shlocky, poppy, minimally complex and often annoying. But you can watch the Israeli entry - Raphael's powerful "New Day Will Rise" and come to your own conclusions - especially by comparing it to the winner, JJ and their song "Wasted Love" from Austria. Last year's winner "The Code" by non-binary and stridently anti-Israel performer Nemo from Switzerland - was also fairly atrocious (in my humble opinion)
Israelis get really excited about this event and watch it in droves, even though so many of the performances are usually insufferable. But Israel's participation the contest has become a political hot potato - especially with the increasingly large Arab/Muslim populations in so many European countries that are looking for any opportunity to delegitimize Israel.
6. Flight Routes
As I touched on earlier, the options for getting back and forth from Israel are fairly limited. For my most recent flight - I flew Air Canada to Athens and then El Al to Israel. I had a long wait in Athens - about 9 hours - so I decided to get a day room a the Sofitel Hotel - conveniently located rate across from the arrival doors at the airport. Not exactly cheap but it offered some well needed rest.
So many airlines have cancelled their flights - that it is really hard to predict who might be flying on any given day. Only El Al has consistently flown back and forth - and taken full advantage of supply and demand - to charge record prices - and earn record profits.
It will be interesting to see what consumers do once this is all over. On the one hand, El Al has charged exorbitant, outrageous, even usurious prices. On the other hand, it is one of the only airlines that has continued to fly. Some consumers may stay away from El Al when there are other options - as a response to the crazy pricing. Others may appreciate that El Al has continued to serve the Israeli public - even at a high cost. I have no idea what will happen - but, for now, El Al is continuing to fly and is earning record profits.
Of course I wish they were still flying back and forth direct from Toronto or Montreal to Tel-Aviv - but they cancelled those flights well before the war broke out.
7. Nova Exhibition
While in Toronto recently, I attended at the Nova Exhibition, which will be in Toronto until June 22, 2025. After that it is moving to Washington D.C. It will actually open in Washington on June 14, 2025.
The Exhibition is a huge installation of artifacts, videos, testimony from survivors and victims (collected from their cell phones in many cases) of the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacres at the Nova festival. The Exhibition is quite powerful and well worth attending. Allow about 2-3 hours if you go.
8. Sports News- Ice Hockey
As you probably know, there is one Canadian team left in the NHL playoffs this year. The games will all be at 8 p.m., starting on Wednesday June 4th, 2025 - which means 3 a.m. Israel time. In Israel, they are being shown live on channel 59, which is better quality then my streaming services.
The Edmonton Oilers, of course, include the best player in the world, Connor McDavid. McDavid is probably the most exciting player I have ever seen play (and I have watched a lot of hockey). But he still hasn't won the Stanley Cup. Hopefully this will be his year. One of his teammates is Zack Hyman, a player who attended CHAT (the Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto). Some people are hoping that if the Oilers win the Cup, Hyman will bring it to CHAT for a visit. Unfortunately, Hyman was injured in game 4 of the semi-finals against Dallas and required surgery. Looks like he will be out for the rest of this year's playoffs but hopefully he can still come out on the ice and kiss the cup if the Oilers win.
Given the Jewish/Israeli theme of my blog - I also wanted to mention another Israeli/Jewish hockey player - Zeev Buium. Born in San Diego, California, Buium, is the son of two Israeli parents. He has dual citizenship and is apparently the first Israeli to play in the NHL - he plays for the Minnesota Wild and saw some action in the playoffs this year. Buium played for Team USA in the World Hockey Championships this year. He scored one goal and had three assists - and helped the USA win the gold medal for the first time since 1933 in the World Ice Hocky Championships. (Canada flamed out with an embarrassing loss to Denmark, despite icing a roster that included Sid Crosby and Nathan McKinnon).
I'll try to watch as many of the Oilers' games as I can - hoping to see a Canadian team bring the cup back to Canada. I did have tickets lined up for game 3 of the finals in Toronto if the Maple Leafs had been able to make it - but as you may know, they lost 4-3 in a 7 game series against the Florida Panthers. Yet again, another disappointing year for Toronto.
9. Shavuot
The holiday of Shavuot beings on Sunday night. This marks 50 days since Passover started -and commemorates the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people. More recently, the holiday has been known for being the only Jewish holiday where everyone eats dairy (and maybe has some fish). I will be making some cheese blintzes on Sunday - I try to make them in a way that is as close as possible to the way that my grandmother z"l used to make them. I find the cheese blintz recipe on toryavey.com to be as close as it gets.
We were at the supermarket this morning and there was a huge run on cheeses and dairy products of every possible kind. It was very hard to find ricotta cheese for the filling. We also visited a wine store - and they were, not surprisingly, pushing white and rose wines. We picked up Rose wines by Gvaot and Tulip's White Franc - which looks like a Rose but is technically not. We also bought some white wine from Castel (the La Vie en Rose line) and a Sauvignon Blanc from Psagot. We have to make some decisions about what to serve for an important upcoming Friday night dinner in August. We have already picked out the red wine that we will serve.
Shavuot can mark the start of some really intense heat in Israel - and the predictions are that it will be very hot across the country tomorrow and Sunday. In Ra'anana, the current prediction is about 30c for tomorrow - while in Tiberias (T'veria) it will be a balmy 36c. Apparently it will "cool down" by Monday but let's hope that the air conditioning holds up.
That's about it for now. It should be a very eventful week or two in Israel with all kinds of things going on. I am hoping for the safe return of all of the remaining hostages and for some kind of deal or end to this war. Especially hoping for the safe return of all of our soldiers including some family members that are in Gaza and other areas. Wishing everyone a happy and healthy Shavuot.
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