UAV Attack on Israel
Tel-Aviv was hit today by an Iranian UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle), which was launched by the Houthis (a proxy of Iran, operating out of Yemen). Apparently, at least 5 of these UAVs were launched from Yemen and four of them were shot down by the Americans, from somewhere off the coast of Yemen. The Israeli military claims that it was tracking the UAV but decided not to shoot it down. It is hard to understand why this gross miscalculation occurred but the the bottom line is that the military failed to shoot down the threat.
The UAV crashed into an apartment building in Tel-Aviv, just two blocks from two of our immediate family members. This was around 3:30 a.m. One person was killed and 8 others were injured, all civilians. Within a short period of time, as slew of ambulances arrived to care for the injured. Thankfully, none of our family members were injured though we are obviously deeply concerned about the loss of life of the one victim and hopeful for the speedy recovery of the other eight.
A military spokesman for the Houthis announced that this attack was "in sympathy with the Palestinians of Gaza" and promised that further attacks would be carried out. Although Israel is technically in a state of war with Yemen and has no peace treaty with that country - Israel has never previously been engaged in any kind of direct hostilities with Yemen (or with Iran for that matter) prior to October 7, 2023.
This is a crazy situation and it is unclear how Israel will respond. It is obviously completely untenable for the security of Israel to sit back and absorb lethal attacks like this from Yemen without responding.
The War
As you probably know, the war in Gaza and the war with Hezbollah in the north both continue to rage on. There is some sense that the Israeli army is operating in Gaza at a greatly reduced capacity - though there is still a great deal of fighting still taking place in several areas. Last week, Israel carried a targeted assassination attempt on the life of Mohamed Deif, who is or was one of Hamas' top military commanders - and one of the masterminds behind the October 7, 2023 massacre. Deif was surrounded by several Hamas military personnel and other top Hamas commanders. There has been no official confirmation by Hamas or by the Israeli army that Deif was killed but the top commander with whom he was meeting was identified by Hamas has having been among those killed.
Israeli reports have indicated that somewhere in the range of 15,000 to 18,000 Hamas military personnel have been killed in the fighting since October 7, 2023 - with estimates of the Hamas forces in Gaza running up to 40,000 or so. Many others have been injured or taken into custody.
Although the Hamas military has suffered a significant blow, the Hamas leader, Yehiah Sinwar, still seems to view this whole war as a victory for Hamas. Hamas has managed to tilt the public and political opinion in several countries towards the Palestinians - some of whom have even decided to declare recognition of a "Palestinian State" (without any defined borders). Sinwar has stated that he would be willing to sacrifice the lives of several hundred thousand Palestinians to achieve his long term goals (presumably as long as he and his family members are not among those being "sacrificed.").
While there are apparently ongoing talks to try and reach some sort of agreement to free the 120 Israeli hostages that Hamas is holding in Gaza and reach some sort of cease fire, there is no reason to believe at this point that a deal is imminent.
Prime Minister Netanyahu's government relies on the support of the far right parties, led by Itamir Ben-Gvir, Betzalel Smotrich and others, all of whom have stated that they will not accept this type of deal. They are looking for a complete surrender by Hamas - and they compare this to the deal the Allies were seeking when fighting the Nazis in World War II. Essentially, they are less interested in trying to save the lives of whichever hostages are still alive (possibly 30-60, according to some reports) and more interested in trying to achieve a "complete victory."
There are many in Israel challenging this perspective, including past and current heads of the Mossad, various high ranking military personnel, and a wide range of politicians - even some on the "right." They are concerned that this "complete victory" may not be achievable, that all of the lives of the hostages will be lost and that there is no plan for what comes next, even if this type of victory can be achieved.
The long and the short of it is that Netanyahu does not seem to be in any hurry to end this war - and certainly not on the terms that have thus far been proposed. Or at least, he does not seem willing to abandon his coalition partners to agree to a proposal of the type that is currently on the table.
In my view, this is not something that is easy to navigate. It is clearly in Israel's best interests to do everything possible to save as many of the lives of the hostages as possible. This has always been an expectation of every Israeli government - and is like a contract with the citizens of Israel. If there is a deal that can be made that will save a large number of lives - that must be an urgent priority for Israel.
The flip side is that if the deal that is envisioned would allow Hamas to resume importing weapons, underground, from Egypt, Israel will simply face the same types of attacks weeks or months later. There needs to be a second track that is dedicated to figuring out how Gaza can be run or administered in a way that will not present an ongoing threat to Israel - and which entity will be responsible for that administration. I am not even sure that there is an appetite for this on the Gaza side of the border - but the status quo is obviously untenable.
The war in the north has also been raging on with daily hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel. Hezbollah has continued to launch all sorts of attacks against cities and towns in the Israeli north and many have been lethal. Homes and institutions have been destroyed throughout the north and more than 100,000 Israelis are currently displaced from their homes and living in make-do arrangements in different parts of Israel. Aside from the human cost - in terms of civilians and military personnel who have been killed and injured in the north, the economic damage has also been massive. For example, many of the wineries in the north have suffered massive damage. This week a sizeable percentage of the Pelter vineyards were set aflame and destroyed. Many other wineries have suffered massive damage. That is just one example of an industry that has paid an enormous price for this war.
Yet the Israeli military response to all of this in the north has been relatively restrained. Israel has stated repeatedly that it is trying to finish the Gaza war first but this has led to a horrible situation for Israel's northern residents who are feeling abandoned. In this regard, even many of Netanyahu's critics on the left have called for a much greater response from Israel towards Hezbollah, even at the risk of escalation with Iran. Some have speculated that the U.S. has dictated this policy - to avoid a direct and massive confrontation with Iran - but that is unclear. For its part, Hezbollah has stated that if an agreement is reached between Hamas and Israel - it will cease its attacks against Israel. From Israel's perspective, that will only be good enough if Hezbollah withdraws its forces from the border and agrees to abide by previous cease fire agreements which have required Hezbollah to adhere to a demilitarized zone within a defined area of Lebanon.
The ICJ
Amidst all of this, Israeli TV broadcast some of the proceedings of the ICJ - the International Court of Justice - attacking Israel. Led by a Lebanese judge - the level of bias, irony and pure ridiculousness is, frankly outrageous. It is in many ways even worse than watching a group of Trump-appointed judges on the U.S. Supreme Court rule that he is immune from most criminal prosecution. But I digress.
I won't dignify the ICJ further by spending more time on it - but the whole situation in Israel since October 7, 2023 has demonstrated the incredible double standard and bias to which Israel is subjected on the world stage. Much of that is attributable to the fact that there are some two billion Muslims in the world and only about 13 million Jews. But you can be sure that if any other country were subjected to the type of massacre that Hamas carried out in Israel, the type of response would be virtually unlimited.
Imagine, for example, what the U.S. would have done, if 9/11 had killed ten times as many people proportionately - and had resulted in the taking of hostages and ongoing missile attacks against U.S. territory. You can be sure that the U.S. would have taken every possible step to eliminate the threat completely. Of course if this type of attack were carried out against other UN luminaries, like Russia, Iran, China or others, you can imagine what they would do.
Managing in Israel
Medical Issues and Getting an MRI
I have from time to time written about different issues relating to life in Israel. Some people reading these sections might not be interested at all and some might be curious about how some of these things work in Israel.
As you may know, the Israeli medical system is a universal health care system, similar to the system in Canada but with some twists. Unlike the Canadian system, Israelis can choose to pay more and see a doctor privately. As well, instead of a monopoly system, like OHIP in Ontario, there are four or five competing HMOs and Israelis can choose which one they would like to have as their provider.
The Israeli universal system includes dental coverage, a subsidized pharmaceutical program and a range of other components.
I recently suffered a bit of leg injury and required urgent care. The HMO that I use (Maccabi) runs a fractures and urgent care clinic and urges you to attend that clinic for non-life threatening injuries. If you go to the emergency section of a hospital and you are not actually hospitalized, you can face a "co-pay" of approximately $500 Cdn.
The urgent care clinic conducts x-rays on site but not ultrasounds or MRIs. So I was able to have an x-ray taken relatively quickly with the good news that nothing was broken. However, the treating physician recommended an ultra-sound.
Booking this is somewhat centralized - so we were able to phone a few times and find a cancelled appointment opening in Jerusalem the next day (about an hour's drive). After that, we were assured that the radiologist would provide a report within a week or so, which was exactly the time it took.
We were lucky enough to have a connection to an orthopedic doctor - which can normally take several weeks to see, if not longer, like in Ontario (unless you want to pay privately). We were willing to visit late at night and wait two hours in a reception room to see the doctor.
In the meantime, we received the report and the report included a recommendation to book an MRI. This can take several months to book, unless you can find a cancellation. But there is a process that is available - which we followed. You get the approval form from the HMO and then send an email to each hospital's MRI department individually and request an appointment. We sent out 14 such requests by email - and - ta-da - managed to get an MRI scheduled for the next day at 1 a.m. We were told that it could take up to 3 weeks to get a radiologist's report and we are still waiting - but it does seem that if you are willing to travel and flexible on timing - you can get an MRI scheduled reasonably quickly in Israel. (If you want to pay privately, you can apparently pay about $1,200 USD - which is another option).
Identity Cards And Driver's License Renewals
My driver's licence was due to expire next month. For renewal of a licence in Israel, the process was ridiculously easy. You simply go online, pay the fee - and they use their existing file photo of you to renew the licence for a ten year period. Perhaps on the downside, it was not necessary to do a vision test, a health test or any other kind of check. I'm not complaining - since my new licence is on the way - but it was even easier than renewing a licence in Ontario which is really not that bad. And it was about $200 Cdn for a 10 year renewal.
Renewing a vehicle permit is much more rigorous. You have take your car to a testing centre, each year, and have it pass a test in order to renew the permit. This is a full test of all aspects of the vehicle - brakes, lighting, steering, exhaust, you name it. The line-up at these testing centres can be quite long. Our car apparently had a lighting problem - where the front headlights were insufficiently intense. We were told that there was a "recall" on our vehicle for this problem and the dealership should fix the problem for free - even though we had just recently gone for full service at the dealership. So we went back to the dealership - and after some back and forth - they finally agreed to change the lighting as part of the recall. Then we had to go back to the testing centre - and wait in a line again (a slightly shorter line for follow-up visits) and get retested. But it all worked out. Overall, much more time-consuming than renewing a licence - but this probably explains why all of the cars on the road in Israel are in such great shape....(If you are not laughing, you are overdue for a visit here).
Israelis also have to have and carry around a "National Identity Card" which serves as a combination of an SSN/SIN and/or a photo ID that can be used instead of a drivers' licence. You would not normally think that this was not something that would expire - but I was advised that Israel is moving to a fully biometric system and that my current ID would expire in January 2025. If I didn't renew mine - I would be left without an identity....
So I went online to find a date to book an appointment and found a date in mid-September. But of course there are new cancellation dates released every day as long as you are flexible. So we found an appointment the next day and drove up to Hadera (about 45 minutes north) for an early morning meeting. I had my old ID card - which is a photo ID - but that is apparently not enough for the clerks. I also needed to answer a whole pile of questions - my parents' first names, my wife's parents' names, my kids names, the date of my anniversary, the year we arrived in Israel - and a few others. I managed to pass (turns out that I really was who I said I was....) - and then posed for a new photo and was assured that my new identity card would be in the mail within three weeks or so. Obviously not nearly as efficient as renewing a licence but perhaps the ID card is even more important in Israeli society. Of course I am comforted in knowing that I will not lose my identity.
I probably have several other anecdotes that you might find amusing - but I have to save some material for future blogs.
For now, as with my past blogs, I am continuing to hope for the safe return of all of our hostages, the safety of all of our military and other security personnel, an end to this war with some type of viable solution in place for long term peace and my general best wishes for health and safety for all of us. Shabbat Shalom.
