Pre-Shavuot 2026 - Eurovision, Pre-Election, Wars and More

Tori Avey's Blintzes

Hello from Ra'anana Israel on this very hot Monday.  It's a lukewarm 28c today (84F).  Lukewarm for late May in Israel.  It probably won't drop too much below this temperature after this week until sometime in October - though there are reports of only 23-25C (76-77F) for a couple of days this week.  I see from the weather reports that Toronto is supposed to enjoy a scorching 27C this afternoon but then cool off with a lovely 12-14C for the rest of the week. 

It is not a long weekend here in Israel.  In fact, Israel never really has long weekends unless they are part of Jewish religious holidays.  For that matter - Sunday was a normal work day (as it always is here in Israel). But since my work schedule is based in Canada - I get the day off today.  Can rest up a bit before watching the Montreal Canadiens play game 7 vs the Buffalo Sabres at 2:30 a.m. tonight. Hoping for the best - and that I will still have a Canadian hockey team to watch in these NHL playoffs even if that means a major disruption to my sleep patterns.

This blog may be a bit of a smorgasbord as there are so many topics to cover. So I will write about whatever I think might be interesting and leave you to decide whether my selections match up with your tastes.  

Eurovision

I have to start with Eurovision, the annual shlock fest in Europe.  As you might have heard, the Israeli singer Noam Bettan, finished in second place with his song Michelle, which he sang in French, Hebrew and English.

Bettan is 28 years old, the son of immigrants to Israel from France.  His family immigrated to Ra'anana (some people say that is only 15 minutes away from Israel - partially because of the high number of immigrants living in Ra'anana from western countries).

Bettan went to high school with a family member of ours - and was known to enjoy the famous chocolate chip cookies made by another family member.  (As they say in Hebrew, those who know, know). ("Hamevin yavin").

In any case, this was the 70th anniversary edition of Eurovision - the annual European song contest which also includes Israel and Australia. Eurovision has been using the motto "United by Music" since 2023 - but this year - the contest was definitely not united.

Despite pressure from anti-Israel activists, the contest rejected efforts to oust Israel from the contest, led by such moral luminaries as Spain (which still hasn't come to terms with its 1492 Inquisition and Expulsion of  its Jewish population).  When the efforts of the anti-Israel coalition failed, five of the protagonists boycotted the contest and withdrew over the issue - Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, Iceland and the Netherlands.  That left 35 countries participating in the contest, of which 25 made it to the final.

Israel's 2nd place finish was the second consecutive runner-up finish for Israel - and Israel's fourth time finishing in the top  5 in the past 5 years.  Israel last won the contest in 2018 with "Toy" sung by Netta Barzilai.  Over the 70 year history of the contest, Israel has won four times.

The contest is known for spring-boarding the careers of many musical artists including Abba, which sang Waterloo in 1974 and Celine Dione who successfully represented Switzerland in 1988 to capture first place.  Dione was not Swiss (she was Canadian of course) but at the time, as long as the composer and lyricist were from the country - the country could engage a performer from any foreign country. I have been waiting for my phone call with the opportunity to sing for Lithuania, Romania or maybe even Montenegro - but apparently Eurovision has since changed the rules and you have be a citizen of the country you wish to represent vocally.  I think it's too late for me to carry the flag for Israel - and the competition is too steep, but who knows, maybe one of our three kids? One day?

Over the past few years, the issue of Israel's participation has created dramatic tension inside and outside of the event venues.  It is true that Eurovision kicked out Russia in 2022 following Russia's invasion of Ukraine - which was an arguably unprovoked invasion.  One could argue about geopolitical reasons for Russia's actions but I think it is fairly difficult to argue that this was anything but unprovoked. Ukraine had not attacked or threatened to attack Russia in any way even though Ukraine was looking to join NATO.

On the other hand, Israel was attacked on October 7, 2023 by Hamas/Gaza - which Israel had left in 2005.  Israel was also attacked, simultaneously or shortly afterwards by Yemen, Hezbollah (Lebanon) and groups from Syria and  Iraq, all sponsored and trained by Iran, which ultimately entered the war directly.  More than 1000 Israelis were murdered in these initial attacks, many of whom were civilians and many of whom were tortured to death.  The idea that Israel should be ostracized and subject to bans and boycotts because it responded with strength to these massive attacks is really quite obnoxious. Thankfully, most European countries rejected this call and refused to boycott the contest over the issue.  In fact, the winner of the contest, a singer from Bulgaria, Dara, who sang "Bangaranga" spoke publicly in support of Israel just days before the final. Contrast this with "Nemo" the non-binary winner of Eurovision 2024 from Switzerland, who attacked Israel at every available opportunity.  Sadly, Nemo is probably unaware (or simply hypocritical) about the fact that Israel is probably one of the only countries in the Middle East (if not the  only country) in which they could freely celebrate their sexual identity. Nemo would probably be safer in Israel than many of the other European Eurovision contestants.  

There is much more than can be written about Eurovision - many Israelis are glued to their screens annually on the night of the finals, waiting to see if Israel will finish "on the map" and  demonstrate to the world that it has important cultural and musical contributions to make - even if they are being made as part of a shlocky contest.  

Just one final comment  about it - and that is about the judging.  In the finals, each country has a jury of "professional" judges that award points to 10 other countries - except  their own.  Historically, these professional juries are a cesspool of politics, deal making and shady exchanges.  For example, Cyprus and Greece almost always award each other the highest number of points.  (This year was no exception).  Likewise for the various Scandinavian countries - and Britain and France often enjoy the same arrangements.  Historically, the "professional" juries rarely provide high numbers of points to Israel, no matter who is signing.   But the the other half of the voting  comes from audience votes - phone  in and on-line voting.  There, Israel  has done exceptionally well, even in the countries that boycotted Israel this year.  

So after all of the judging this year, Israel was in 10th place or so after  all of the "jury votes" had been announced.  As the audience vote came in, Israel moved up higher and higher.  Six different countries awarded Israel the highest number of votes from audience voting (including France, Germany and Switzerland) but only one country's "professional jury" gave Israel the maximum votes - and that was Poland. After Israel's audience total was announced - Israel moved up to first place - and held on to that spot until the very last country's votes were announced - Bulgaria - which then overtook Israel by a significant number.

Going in to the contest, Finland had been the heavy favourite.  Voices in Finland were calling for Finland to bar Israel from participating next year if it had won (the winner hosts the following year's contest).  But Finland lost - and Bulgaria  has no stated intention of banning Israel.  It will be interesting to see if the five boycotters continue to boycott next year or they will re-join or try to re-join the contest.

For now, I have taken Spain, Iceland, Slovenia, Ireland and the Netherlands off my travel list.  I hear that Iceland is quite beautiful the right time of year and I enjoy Amsterdam.  Slovenia wasn't really on my list anyways and Ireland has been a bastion of anti-Israel hatred for some time now - so I wasn't planning to visit Ireland anytime soon either.

To conclude on Eurovision - (I have written much more than I intended to write), here are two more videos for your enjoyment.

First of all- here is Noam Bettan's song Michelle in Yiddish, with the name changed to

"Rachel". Thanks to some AI apparently.

Finally - this a version of "A New Day Will Rise," Israel's entry to last year's Eurovision sung by Yuval Raphael as a duet with Noam Bettan.  In other words - Israel's back to back 2nd place finishers at Eurovision - singing together. This was recorded in March 2026.  Enjoy.  

I particularly enjoy this duet - and I hope you are able to access these videos from wherever you are in the world.

Israeli Politics

As you might know, Israel must have elections before the end of October, 2026. This means the current Knesset will be dissolved shortly  and a date will be chosen.

The ultra-religious parties have indicated they would prefer a date two days before Rosh Hashanah - or in between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. They are betting that the highest number of their constituents will be available to vote those days.  Secular Israelis are often out of the country on those dates - since it is an extended three-week holiday break for many companies - or at least a period with a much lighter schedule.

Prime Minister Netanyahu is pushing for the latest possible date - at the end of October.  Supposedly, this would give him more time to try and improve his support (which has been fading) or to negotiate a plea bargain deal and leave office permanently, perhaps coupled with a pardon from the Israeli President.

As of now, Israeli parties are still putting together their final slates of candidates.  Prime Minister Netanyahu still seems to have a plurality of votes but not a majority. Predictions for Netanyahu seem to  range from 25 to 36 seats out of 120 Knesset seats. Right now, former Prime Minister Bennett and  former Prime Minister Lapid are running together as a joint slate and are polling in second place with 24 to 26 seats.  The key is that in almost all of the pools, Netanyahu's government seems  to be polling at between 49 and 52 seats out of 120 down from their current number of 68 seats. If these polling numbers turn out to be accurate, that would be a dramatic  loss of 16 seats for Netanyahu's ruling coalition.

On the other hand, the opposition parties, not including the Israeli Arab parties (which have usually avoided joining the government), seem to be polling the range of 56 to 59 seats.  According to these results, the opposition would need the support of either the ultra-religious parties or the Arab parties in order to form a government - unless the numbers move by a few seats.

We could well wind up with a stalemate but it is too early to make predictions.  The final slates have not even closed yet and there could be dramatic changes still to come in terms of the field of candidates.

What is certain is that Israel will not elect a "left" or "far left" government.  If Netanyahu loses, it will be something similar to Hungary - where we would see a change of leadership - and changes on some big issues, primarily domestic, I think - but not too many immediate dramatic shifts.

I do think that if the opposition were to win, we would be likely to see less corruption, a dramatic difference in the tone of public statements, and a reinvigorated respect for the judicial system in Israel.  It is too early to say what kind of policy changes we will see vis-a-vis the Palestinians, Lebanon, Syria and Iran.  But Bennett is campaigning on a variety of domestic policy changes including the availability of civil marriage in Israel, enlistment for all Israelis including the ultra-religious and respect for the judicial system.  So the public discourse would certainly be quite different with new leadership.

The War/s

Israel remains, unquestionably, in an ongoing state of war on several fronts, despite some different cease-fire agreements.

Israel is fighting most actively against Hezbollah and Lebanon. Lebanon has continued to send attack drones, missiles and rockets to Israel, with its most  potent weapon being drones that are not using gps systems.  Several Israeli soldiers were killed over the past two weeks fighting in or near Lebanon.

Captain Maoz Recanati z"l was killed on Friday.  He was a 24 year old Golani soldier due to marry his fiancee next month.  20 year old Staff Sargeant Negev Dagan Z"l, another Golani soldier, was also killed on Saturday in Southern Lebanon.  I picked these two only because they were the most recent fatalities.  In total, since October 7, 2023, more than 1,150 Israeli  soldiers have been killed and 850 civilians have also been killed.

Although Israel would love to have a peace deal with Lebanon and many Lebanese would like nothing more - Lebanon is effectively being held ransom by Hezbollah, an Iranian backed terror organization, that controls large swaths of Lebanese territory, including large sections of Beirut.  The Lebanese government needs to be able to control Hezbollah and prevent  it from attacking Israel.  If it cannot do that, and Hezbollah continues to attack Israel, Israel has no choice but to continue to fight Hezbollah. Israelis are hoping that Israel will soon reach a real peace deal with Lebanon and  citizens of both countries will be able to tour each other's countries.  But for now, this still seems like a distant dream.

In Gaza, there continues to be some ongoing fighting, though access to news is somewhat limited.  Recently, the current commander of Hamas was killed in fighting.  Ultimately, Hamas continues to try to reassert its control over Gaza while Israel and some other partners seek to disarm Hamas and create the conditions for different leadership in Gaza.  It is unclear to me when or how some end to the fighting will be reached with Hamas / Gaza but I am hoping that someone will soon figure out a way to resolve this situation.

With Iran, Israelis seem to believe that a new round of fighting is imminent, possibly starting today, tomorrow or over the next few days. This was the view of a the Russian ambassador in a recent interview, apparently, and seems to be the view of many  commentators.  Although Trump has massive American military might in the region, he has been making threats for weeks and seems to have little domestic support for renewed hostilities with Iran. However, the Iranians do not seem to be interested in accepting the conditions that Trump is offering for a full permanent cease fire. Iran is acting as if it holds all of the cards - or most of them. As I write this, there was just an announcement that the U.S. has rejected Iran's latest "proposal" to end the war.

Both Trump and Iran seem to be playing chicken.  Most commentators that I have heard claim that neither Iran nor the U.S. is interested in renewed fighting.  However, the current state of affairs is nothing less than an embarrassing loss for the United States - with no significant, demonstrable gains other than a major degradation of the Iranian military forces.

Netanyahu is pushing for renewed hostilities because he understands that none of the war aims have been achieved. Iran  still has its enriched uranium, its missile program and its proxies, even though some of the proxies have been degraded to an extent.  There has been no regime change and Iran continues to threaten several countries in the region - the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Israel and any countries relying on the use of the Hormuz Straits (other than Iranian allies). From the Israeli government's perspective, Israel and the U.S. should try to "finish the job" and achieve some or all of their war aims.

Trump is of course facing massive domestic pressure, a decrease in popularity, an increase in oil prices and a sense, I would say, that these "war aims" may not even be achievable.  Trump is concerned that renewing the fighting may not put the U.S. in a better position and he may simply wind up deeper in the quagmire.  For Netanyahu, he would prefer somewhat of a "Hail Mary" pass.  If the fighting can be renewed and completed before election time, he might be able to claim that the whole operation was victorious because of his leadership.  However, if things go awry, and that is at least reasonably likely, Netanyahu might slide even further in the Israeli polls and might need to consider taking a plea bargain deal rather than standing for re-election.

For now, there is a great deal of uncertainty here in Israel, since renewed fighting could break out at any time and throw the whole region into disarray.

Travelling to Israel

Most foreign airlines have still not resumed their normal service to Israel, though some are scheduled to so at the end of May or the beginning of June.  El Al prices are very high and space is limited. Arkia, Air Haifa and Israir are also flying out of Ben Gurion airport, but let's just say that I am not that excited about flying on any of those airlines.

Last month I flew via London.  (El Al to London and Air Canada from London to Toronto).  The El Al planes were the very nice Dreamliner 787s with screens.    Similar to the planes that Air Canada uses.  Smooth, quiet and a bit more spacious than some other planes.  El Al even rolled out a proper boarding system this year, starting in January 1, 2026, replacing its chaotic "everyone can board now" with an orderly board by zone process.  And in London, yes, it worked.  Boarding was orderly, organized and reasonable. The food was decent, the entertainment screens had a wide variety and the flight was quite nice.  Too bad El Al is not a member of one of the major alliances as the "Matmid" program for frequent flyers is still horrible. But otherwise, this was quite a nice trip.

I should also note that the UK now uses pre-travel visas - ETAs - which you need to arrange before you fly.  But once you have done so, immigration processing is quick and  efficient.  It was great.

Flying back, I flew via Zurich.  Zurich immigration was less organized and took much longer.  I spent a day in Zurich (which is only a 10 minute train from the airport) but that is for another blog perhaps

From Zurich, I flew El Al.  This was the "good old-fashioned El Al."  No real boarding zones were used, the planes were older and noisier, the food was terrible and there were no personal screens.  Of course, it is the only show in town flying from Zurich to Tel-Aviv so I suppose El Al can afford to run whatever service it feels like running.  

A large contingent of Israelis held a prayer service just before take off - though it was around 6 p.m. and they were having a big fight trying to decide whether to pray Minchah (afternoon prayers) or Ma'ariv (evening prayers). In the end the Ma'ariv voices won out  - even though it was too early to count the Omer (Observant Jews count the Omer for 50 days starting on the second day of Pesach (Passover) after dark each day  You can't count the Omer until after the sun goes down.

In any event, surely with all of the daveners on the plane, I could take comfort in the enhanced safety of the plane, assuming that these prayers had reached the intended recipient.

Shavuot

I am going to wrap this up by noting that we are celebrating Shavuot on Thursday night May 21st and Friday May 22nd this year in Israel (it is only a one day holiday here).

Following in the footsteps of my late grandmothers z"l and my dear mother (who hasn't made blintzes in a while), I will be making a decent sized batch of cheese blintzes to be served as part of a dairy meal, best eaten with sour cream. A shout out to Tori Avey's recipe site which has some excellent blintz recipes.  As well as all kinds of other recipes.  I have tried many of them and they are really terrific.  Her Rosh Hashanah honey cake, made with chopped granny smith apples, is excellent - but I digress.

Some Jews observe the tradition of eating dairy on Shavuot - and Israel's dairy industry loves that tradition.  We went  out to buy some cheeses today to fill the blintzes and it was a zoo in the dairy section of the supermarket.  But we went early.  I am sure it will be completely insane by Wednesday - if there is anything left on the shelves. A few years ago, we left things a bit late and had a very difficult time finding some cheese products that we needed.

There are others who maintain that you cannot properly celebrate a  Jewish holy day unless you actually eat meat on the holy day but we have always been part of the first school.  (Some extended family members of mine here in Israel are decidedly in the second group).

The tradition is to study Torah all night on Shavuot, which is after all, a holiday marking the receipt of the Torah  by the Jewish people.  What goes best with dairy and Torah studying?  Cheese cake and White or Rose wine of course - and both of those will be served at our Erev Shavuot dinner even though I am not a  big cheesecake fan myself.

I have lots more  to write - perhaps I will do a bit of a travel blog about a number of sites we recently visited in Israel.  But for now,  I am going to call it a day.  This has taken quite a while to write and I am running out of gas (and we all know how expensive gas is these days).

Wishing everyone a Chag Shavuot Sameach and looking forward to seeing many of you soon in North America.

Are We Nearing the End of the US/Israel-Iran War?

As I am writing this article, I am listening to the latest Israeli news reports.  There is speculation that there may be a cease fire between Israel and Lebanon - perhaps temporary - perhaps longer term - but we are still waiting for details.  At the same time, there are reports that the U.S. and Iran are making progress towards some kind of broader cease-fire deal - which may initially include a further temporary cease fire between the U.S. and Iran to see if a deal can be concluded.  I will come back to this.  So far - lots of talk but no confirmation that there is a deal.

Even though the war is perhaps the most important  topic - I decided to go in reverse order this time and write about sports and other items first.  So if you  do not like reading my sports updates you can skip down below.

Sports

First of all, as a Canadian, I have to start with ice hockey news.  The Israeli national ice hockey team won Division IIB of the IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation) Tournament.  Israel finished first in this round robin hockey tournament by beating a variety of ice hockey luminaries including Kyrgyszstan, Iceland, New Zealand, Bulgaria and Chinese Taipai.  The clinching game was a 5-2 win over Iceland on April 12th.  The tournament's leading scorer was Hanadz Malashchanka with 12 points over 5 games.  Israel will now move up one level to the Division II Group A.  In case you are wondering - that would still put them two groups behind the "real" international hockey powerhouse teams.  But for Israel, this is a big and exciting win.

In other sports news, Israelis are filled with pride over the performance of Deni Avdija, who scored 41 points last night in an NBA game to help the Portland Trail Blazers make it into the playoffs.  Israeli news reports that this will be the first time an Israeli player has played in the NBA playoffs.  I have not verified that - and I am not really an avid basketball fan - but Israelis are super excited about this.

Personally, I am getting for a view sleepless nights as I try to watch a few Montreal Canadiens' playoff games and maybe some Edmonton  Oilers games as well.  I will be back in Toronto late next week, so if either or both teams make it through, I will get to watch some games from North America at saner hours.

Random Thoughts

I needed to renew my Israeli passport.  I am used to the Canadian system of filling in a detailed form, going and getting passport pictures somewhere and other steps. In fairness, Canada has simplified things a bit over the years - if you are simply renewing a passport - and you already have one that has not expired yet - or has expired only recently.  Here in Israel, I booked an appointment on-line simply by providing my national ID# - and confirming which type of passport I wanted. I then paid on-line, and booked an appointment. I showed up at the office in Tel-Aviv ( I was a bit late because of the horrible Tel-Aviv traffic but nobody seemed to mind).  I was shuffled over to a machine - that took my photo, took my finger prints, checked my ID card and current passport - and - ta-da - I was done.  No need to talk to anyone, take photos in advance or take any other steps.  Quick and easy.  Now I just need to wait to  collect it. It is supposed to arrive by courier within 4 to 6 weeks.

Travelling back and forth between two countries, I sometimes lose perspective about how different things can be culturally on different sides of the world. I felt it quite a bit today when I walked into a crowded coffee/baked goods shop.  People were calling in their orders from all over the shop - "hey Kobi - make me a double latte - no foam" - and the different staff working behind the counter were simply taking the orders and trying to keep up.  "No problem sweetie, did you want that for here or to go."  This was quite a far cry from a Starbucks, Second Cup or even a Canadian  branch of Aroma (an Israeli chain) where there is an orderly line and an evident ordering system in place. Now in fairness, if you walk into one of the bigger chains in Israel, like Arcaffe (one of our favourites of the Israeli chains), the experience is much more like being in North America.  But in a smaller local shop - well this seemed like much more of the Israeli experience and it is very different from the North American experience for sure.

Yom Hashoah v'Hagvurah

Yesterday was the Day of Commemoration of the Holocaust and Heroism in Israel and around the world.  In some years, I have dedicated my whole blog simply to that day.  I was not able to write a blog yesterday or the day before - so I decided to include some comments here.  That is not intended to diminish the importance of the day.

On Monday night, we decided to watch the national televised ceremony rather than attending the in-person commemoration in Ra'anana.  Given that we still do not have a cease fire in place with Lebanon, there are still some restrictions in place for public gatherings.  Prime Minister Netanyahu went to significant lengths to politicize the day by drawing comparisons between the Iranians and the Nazis.  Aside from  his speech, there were some powerful musical performances and wreath-laying ceremonies.

In Israel, on Yom Hashoah v'Hagvurah, the whole country comes to somewhat of a standstill. All restaurants and shops close early in the evening  (this year on Monday) and the TV stations show Holocaust related programming exclusively for a 24 hour period - other than news. At 10 a.m., there is a two minute siren throughout the country.  Israelis stop what they are doing - and stand at attention.  Even those who are on the highway stop their cars and get out to stand at attention.  It is very powerful.

Commemoration of the Holocaust and its six million Jewish victims is of paramount importance in the Jewish State of Israel - as is the recollection of the bravery of those who fought the Nazis and the remembrance of those, including non-Jews, who went out of their way to help save Jewish people.  For Israel, so much of the messaging is tied to the central idea that only having a strong Israel could have prevented this horrible event - and is the only way to protect the Jewish people today - especially in the face of raging anti-Semitism in so many countries.

We watched a variety of documentaries - including "One Flight For Us."  This documentary looks back at the failure of the U.S. army to bomb the railways or death camps, despite flying over different  camps repeatedly.  It includes interviews with U.S. politicians, historians and  others looking back at historical records to assess what the U.S. and its allies knew about what was going on in Nazi Germany, when they knew and what they might have been able to do.  The movie also ties that in with an arranged fly-over carried out by Israeli fighter pilots, who flew over Auschwitz symbolically to represent a very different reality.  This type of movie demonstrates the Israeli viewpoint that  although the message of the Holocaust does have universalist warnings and messages, it is ultimately the targeting of and impact on the  Jewish people that is most significant for us, as Jews.  I note, parenthetically, that this difference between a universalist message and a particularist one is evident if one contrast visits to Yad Vashem (the Israeli Holocaust Museum) versus the National Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C., for example.

For  the  Canadian side of things, I participated in a Law Society of Ontario Zoom program dealing with the latest developments in the area of hate speech in Canada - including a recent criminal conviction for a Holocaust denier.

I have written more about this subject in other  blogs - and they are searchable using my index if you would like to read more of my thoughts on this.  As is the case with so many Jewish people, it is a subject very close to my heart - as we have many ancestors and extended family members who were victims of the Holocaust as well as some who were survivors or the descendants of survivors.

Justice, Justice You Shall  Pursue

In case you did not recognize it, that is the approximate translation of "Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof" which appears in the Torah in the book of Dvarim (Deuteronomy).  So I adopted that line as my intro for a few comments on legal proceedings in Israel.

The Israeli Supreme Court, yesterday,  in a nine-person panel, heard a petition to remove Minister Itamar Ben Gvir from his role as cabinet minister.  The argument, in part, was that he had breached various duties, obligations and laws, and was eroding the independence of the police force by appointing more than 1,200 loyalists (Ben-Gvir's numbers) to key positions without the proper jurisdiction to do so.  I am not going to get into a detailed  discussion of this now - but it raises all kinds of issues  as to the boundaries of judicial jurisdiction weighed against political prerogative and authority.  Various members of the Likud Party and Ben-Gvir's party appeared at the  hearing and tried to disrupt it until they were thrown out of the hearing by the court.  As well, there were dozens of demonstrators outside of the courthouse arguing that the vary fact that the Court was hearing this type of petition was inappropriate and an  overreach by the court. 

At the same time, Prime Minister Netanyahu was granted a further two week adjournment of his criminal hearing due to "security issues."  Netanyahu is becoming quite concerned that if the war ends and he has not been pardoned, his trial will move along at a much faster clip and might even be headed towards a verdict.  I have discussed this in the past and I won't belabour it other than to say that it is my view that it is highly unlikely that he will be able to emerge from this unscathed if it goes to a verdict.  In my view, he will either get his pardon, reach a plea bargain deal or find some other way out of it before a verdict is ever handed down.  This is simply because he and his team know that there is overwhelming evidence on some of the counts (otherwise the case would not have proceeded in the first place) and their main strategy is to delay the process and ensure that it never gets to a verdict.

War Update

Israel is still involved in ongoing wars on several fronts, the most active being the battles with Iran, Lebanon and Gaza.

As you know, the U.S. and Iran are still in the midst of a two-week cease fire period and are actively negotiating to try to find a way to end the conflict.  Some of the latest reports suggest that Iran has agreed to turn over its enriched uranium, if not to the U.S. then to an agreed upon country, and the U.S. has agreed to release millions of dollars in frozen funds.  At the same time, the U.S. has also increased its military contingent in the region, either as an increased threat to Iran or as part of a plan to restart the war.  I am simply not in a position to assess what will happen next week.  Certainly from the direction that things appear to be taking, it is looking likely that there will either be a further extension of the cease fire or an outright deal. The deal will certainly include Israel as well.

The situation with Lebanon is somewhat different.  Lebanon and Israel have no reason to be involved in hostilities. Israelis believe that the majority of Lebanese would like to have a full peace deal with Lebanon.  However, approximately 30% of Lebanon is Shi'a Muslim - and some of that population supports Hezbollah.  Hezbollah is a proxy of Iran - a terrorist militia operating throughout Lebanon to do the bidding of Iran, attack Israel (and/or Syria if called upon) and give Iran power and influence in the country. Hezbollah does not control the government but has often been part of it.  However, it is a powerful extra-governmental militia, funded, armed and supported by Iran - that has attacked Israel, both in October 2023 (when Hamas attacked Israel) and now in the current war after Israel and the U.S. attacked Iran.  In fact, Hezbollah is still firing rockets, anti-tank missiles, drones and other weaponry at Israel, aiming mostly at civilian populations.  

Iran tried to insist that any ceasefire included a cease fire in Lebanon.  However, Israel is not interested in leaving large numbers of armed terrorists on its border without a commitment from Lebanon to reign in these terrorists and prevent attacks.

Despite all of this, Israeli officials met with Lebanese officials for one of the first times ever, face to face, to discuss these issues and try to work towards a resolution.  For Israel, that would mean disarming Hezbollah and getting an assurance from the  Lebanese government that no attacks on Israel will take place from Lebanese soil.  The concern is that the Lebanese government is probably too weak to implement that type of deal.  So this one continues to be tricky and it remains to be seen what type of arrangement can be negotiated.

In the meantime, we have had one family member stationed up in Southern Lebanon/ Northern Israel, who thankfully returned today for at least the next week or so. So many Israelis from across the country are currently serving in reserve duty -  in Gaza, near the Lebanese border and  in all kinds of other positions.

Next Week

Now, after observing Yom Hashoah v'Hagvurah, we are headed towards Israel's Memorial Day for Soldiers and Victims of Terror (one of the saddest days of the year) (on Monday night and  Tuesday) and then Israel's Independence Day (Yom Haatzmaut) (one of the happiest days of the year) on Tuesday night and  Wednesday.  All of these events are taking place while a cloud of certainty still hangs over the country, waiting to see what will happen with the unresolved wars.

But no matter what the situation is, most Israelis will find a way to light up the barbecue and get together with friends or family on Tuesday or Wednesday and celebrate the modern state of Israel's 78th anniversary - even if that means being in and out of shelters and protected rooms in between the chicken wings, kebabs and skewers.

Pre-Pesach and War Update 2026

I arrived back in Israel last night on a full El Al flight from London.  Okay - it wasn't totally full - the seat next to me was vacant - which was nice.  But otherwise, it was fairly full.  These days, the only airlines flying into Israel are El Al, Arkia, Israir and Air Haifa.  The flights coming in are full -  even though only a limited number are arriving.

It is much harder to leave.  Flights are leaving Israel with only 40 or 50 passengers and many of  these flights have been cancelled.  I know quite a number of people who have left Israel though Taba (at the Egyptian-Israeli border) and taken a cab or other transportation to the Sharm-El-Sheikh airport and flown from there.  Some  have been flying from  the Taba airport.  They fly to Cyprus, Athens, Istanbul or other European destinations - and then onwards to wherever they are going.

Some have been crossing into Jordan and flying on Arkia from Aqaba airport in Jordan.  However, apparently, today, the  Jordanian government announced a change in its policies and refused to allow Arkia flights to take off with a large number of Israelis stranded at the Aqaba airport.  This is a developing story - and I am not sure how this will get sorted out.  Apparently, some of these flights are now being rerouted to Taba airport but some have been cancelled altogether.  Sounds like quite a bit of chaos for people trying to leave Israel through these alternate routes. Meanwhile, the Egyptian government has been increasing the border fees that are being charged to people who want to cross from Israel into Egypt to leave from the  Taba airport - payable only in U.S. cash. So if you are crossing into Egypt from Israel, you should probably have at least $500 USD per person with you - arrive early - and be prepared for delays and cancellations.  As for Aqaba - that seems like an even less reliable option - unless you fly on a Jordanian airline - or  one that has clearly been approved by the  Jordanian government.

For my return flight, since it was so close to Pesach (which starts on Wednesday night) there were many people on the plane coming to Israel (or coming home) for the holiday.  Several men held a Mincha service before the plane left - so of course we knew our flight would be a safe one. The last twenty minutes of the flight were quite nerve wracking as everyone wondered if there would be a missile alert as we were coming in for landing (despite the prophylactic prayer service that had taken place earlier together with multiple people reading tefillat haderech - the prayer for the traveller).  But all was quiet and the plane landed uneventfully - at which point clapping, cheering and signing all broke out.  It was quite emotional. So perhaps the cynicism is unwarranted.  I'll let each person drawn their own conclusions.

The Ben Gurion airport was quite empty. This was the only flight arriving.  No flights were leaving at this time.  It still took a while to collect my suitcase (they made me check my carry on bag for "security reasons.") The roads were  also fairly empty and  it took only about 20 minutes to get back to Ra'anana once I had collected my bag.

At  1:30 a.m. we had our first missile alert - and had to go into the safe room (the "Mamad") until we received the "all clear."  Our next missile alert was at about 2 p.m. or so.  This contrasts quite a bit with yesterday where central Israel had 11 sirens through the first 2/3 of the day. From Friday's missile barrage, six people were reported as having been wounded, though none are in serious condition. Since I have been back (Thursday March 26th in the evening) there have been 5 missile alert sirens in Ra'anana - which means going into our protected safe room and waiting until the threat has passed - usually about 10 minutes in total).  We have not had one yet today - I think that last one was at some point on Saturday morning.

That's not to say that there have not been missile attacks today - there were apparently several in southern Israel including Beersheva and other places - including a reported direct hit on a factory.  But so far, missiles have not been aimed today at Tel-Aviv and its surrounding cities.

State of the War

As you might know, President Trump delivered an ultimatum last week.  If the Iranians did not agree to his demands by 5:30 p.m. on Friday (right after the markets closed), he was going to escalate the war and  attack Iranian  energy sites and/or seize the Hormuz Strait. The Iranians responded by threatening to attack sites across the Gulf and to take other escalated actions.  So we were left to speculate as to what would happen.  In one of his posts this week, Hillel Fuld, a well known blogger, went though the different scenarios and I do agree that he outlined them correctly:

1. One scenario is that if Iran does not acquiesce (and it seems highly unlikely that they would), the U.S. would escalate the war significantly.  This could include trying to find the Iranian enriched uranium, seizing Iranian oil-producing facilities or taking steps to open the Strait of Hormuz.  Iranians have threatened their own forms of escalation in response.  The U.S. has moved a significant number of marines and other service personnel to the region and it still seems like there is a decent chance that the U.S. will proceed with a massive escalation at some point.  Supporters of escalation include Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Trump's Evangelical supporters, MBS of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and most of the Israeli public (70-75% according to some poll numbers).  These different proponents believe that the job is not finished, that none of the war aims have been achieved yet and that the mission can actually be accomplished.

2. Another scenario is that Trump could simply look for the best off-ramp and take it.  It seems that he is being pushed in this direction by many non-Evangelical MAGA supporters.  He is also facing pressure from world leaders in many different countries, poll numbers in the U.S. showing vast disapproval of this war, other domestic opposition and pressures of the markets and the rising price of oil.  Trump of course, likes to portray his image as being dependent only on himself - so it is unclear that all of these pressures would really sway him. Especially if the Iranians are not prepared to  present a proposal that Trump can sell as a victory.

3. A third scenario would be for the U.S. to end its involvement and let Israel continue on its own versus Iran, Hezbollah and the Houthis. This is  not very likely in my view.  If Trump declares an end to the war - Israeli will almost surely follow, irrespective of whether Bibi has yet to receive his pardon or whether Israel agrees that the war should end.  The war may continue for a period  of time between Israel and Hezbollah until a deal can be reached - even after there is a deal with Iran.

Earlier in the week, I was wavering on which was more likely.  It looked to me like Trump was pulling the  plug on the whole war and looking for an off-ramp. However, he couldn't give the name of  anyone  he was actually speaking to, the Iranians were denying that they had agreed to anything - or were going to -   and more troops were being moved to the region. This was looking more like a potential U.S. surrender (like the way that the U.S. left Viet Nam).

By Wednesday, I was convinced that we would know by Friday night.  Either there would be a big announcement of a breakthrough deal - or a huge U.S. attack would begin Friday night. My thought was that a major escalation was starting to look a bit more likely.

However, on Friday, Trump announced that he was giving the Iranians 10 more days until April 6th to agree to his plan or reach a deal. Although a major U.S. escalation is still possible, this is looking much more like a U.S. capitulation.  The Iranians  do not appear to be giving in on any major points - and Trump appears to be increasingly interested in concluding this war.

However, as of mid-day today, Trump has continued to announce further troop deployments - either to ramp up the threat as a bluff - or because he has decided that he is going to escalate.  We will know the answer soon.

I think the situation is not looking great either way.

At the war's outset, the U.S. set out four war aims.  The aims included ending the Iranian nuclear program, changing the leadership in Iran, destroying the system of Iranian proxies getting support for terrorism from Iran (Hamas, the Houthis, Hezbollah, Iraqi militias) and destroying the Iranian long-range missile program. Although the U.S. and Israel appear to have made progress on items 1 and 4, it does not appear that any of these goals have really been accomplished.

The U.S. has now, as of Sunday March 29, 2026, announced that even more U.S. troops, planes and ships will be deployed to the region.  Unless Trump is able to negotiate something that looks like he has achieved at least one of his aims, we may see a major escalation starting by April 6th.

From the Israeli side of things, Israel has been advancing further into Lebanon in a bid to push Hezbollah back and stop or reduce attacks on Israel - especially the towns and cities in Israel's north.  Hezbollah may face a reduced access to funds as Iran is weakened but it is still a formidable challenge for Israel.  The solution is a peace deal with Lebanon in which there is an agreement that Hezbollah will not return to Israel's borders.  This need to be enforced, perhaps by some sort of international force that will actually do the job (unlike the UN which simply turned a blind eye to Hezbollah violations of past agreements).

Meanwhile, many Israeli reservists (which is the vast majority of people aged 21-45 in the country) have been called into reserve duty including, now, two of our family members, at least one of whom may have to miss our family Passover Seder. 

Pesach

Pesach begins with the Seder on Wednesday April 1, 2026.  Israel just changed its clocks and sprung ahead on Thursday night March 26/27 - so sundown in the centre of the country is  now 6:42 p.m., which means that the Seder can begin at about 7:30 p.m. after people come back from synagogue.  That  is about an hour earlier than Toronto, which is quite nice. There is only one Seder in Israel and only a total of 7 days of Pesach instead of  8 outside of  Israel.

Stores are well stocked with Passover products but do not go as crazy with the shelf lining paper etc., as they do in North America.  However, during Passover, Israeli stores do not even sell products that are not kosher for Passover - they block whole sections off and temporarily remove the bar codes from the cash register systems - so that you cannot even pay for the Hametz  products.  This is all dictated by Israeli law.

Israel Elections

As of now, Israeli elections are still scheduled to occur by the end of  October 31, 2026.  Hopefully this war will be over well before then.  I will hold off on making any  election predictions until closer to the election date.  

I would simply say that if there is no clear indication that  this war has been a success for Israel (and right now, that seems to be the case), the situation is likely to be similar to what it is now or perhaps a bit worse for Prime Minister Netanyahu.  On the other hand, if the United States and Israel wind up accomplishing one or two of the war goals that they had set out - that could  provide Netanyahu with a significant jump.

Mood

It has been a very difficult period for Israelis - going all the way back to 2020.  Since Covid and then the October 7th war - things have been in a state of uncertainty and extreme economic challenge for most of the 6 year period.

In speaking to various people, many are really finding the challenges difficult - economically, psychologically, physically.  So many Israelis have spent a huge amount of time serving in reserve duty. People are in and out of shelters.  Some people have safe areas in their homes or apartments - which is convenient and reasonably safe.  Other people have to run down to shared community shelters -  where people bring their pets, their friends, etc., Some of these shelters can hold more than a hundred people  -any time of day - even in the middle of the night.

All of that being said, I think Israelis are still generally optimistic and hopeful - that this will all work out well - and that the end result will have made things worthwhile.  I hope that this optimism is well founded.

Lighter Note

Someone sent me a meme the other day - that said "Israel is one of the few countries in which you have no idea when exactly your bus or train might come - but you know, to the minute, what time the missile attack will be arriving."  

Sports

Even in these crazy times, I have managed to catch a bit of the first two Toronto Blue Jay games -  both walk-off wins.  I think we are in for a super-exciting season for the Blue Jays.  That's not something that you can watch too easily when in Israel -  unless you have a VPN and a Sportsnet login.   

Usually this time of year, I am getting ready to watch some hockey playoffs - and see the Leafs go one or two rounds (usually just one).  This year, they collapsed even before the playoffs - so I am left with two Canadian teams to cheer for - the Montreal Canadiens and the Edmonton Oilers.  Small chance that either the Ottawa Senators or the Winnipeg Jets might also make it in but for  now, it is looking like only two Canadian teams.  Less hockey to watch, more time for work and keeping up with the news.

Oscars

This was one of the first years where I think I managed to watch all 10 Oscar nominees.  I actually enjoyed most of them.  A full article about all of the movies is for another time.

However, one theme that ran through at least three of the movies -  Train Dreams, Sentimental Value and Hamnet - was the theme of a family member working far away from his family for periods of time - and some of the challenges that creates.  One a writer, one a movie director and one a railway worker/ lumberjack.  Different types of work for sure, but a common theme of being away from family while young children grow up.  For someone who has been doing this for 17 years now, this is a theme that resonated quite a bit with me.  I would recommend all three movies - not  necessarily because of that theme. They were all really good movies otherwise.  

With that, I am going to wish everyone a happy, healthy and  Kosher Pesach. With the hope that we will soon see an end to these wars - and that we will have accomplished some of war goals aimed at creating conditions for a long lasting period of peace in Israel and throughout the Middle East.

Latest Blog From Israel - February 2026

Good evening from Ra'anana Israel.  It has been a busy few months but I am going to cover a variety of topics - not necessarily as much focused on politics or Israeli legal developments as some of my more recent blogs.  Instead, perhaps a few other stories that might interest you.  Of course, I will probably stick some discussion of Israeli politics in here but I'm starting a bit differently.  Here goes.

1. Milk Revolution

I find this one fascinating.  "New Milk" or "HeHalav HeHadash" in Hebrew, is a new cow-free dairy product, that features real milk proteins which are identical to dairy milk.  It is produced and sold by Gad Dairies.  The "milk" is produced using yeast fermentation to create proteins in labs.  No cows, no animal product of any kind.  New Milk is designed to taste, look, smell and act like regular milk but it is lactose free and has lower sugar content then regular milk.  

Most interestingly, it has been certified as Kosher and Pareve (Neither dairy nor meat) by the highest levels of Kashruth authorities in Israel and by the OU in the U.S.  

For those who keep kosher - and would like a cappuccino or other traditionally dairy dessert after a meat meal, the options until now have included products made with soy, coconut, almonds or rice.  (Maybe there are others as well).  But this is now a game changer.  Since it looks, tastes and acts like regular milk, you can now have a regular cappuccino after a meat meal - or cheeses can be made with this product. Or many other traditionally dairy desserts. 

In Israel, for example, most wedding halls are strictly Kosher and most are designated as having meat kitchens.  After a wedding meal, you can usually get a cappuccino made using one of the milks I have mentioned above - soy, coconut, almond, rice etc.,  But these usually have their own unique taste and are not nearly the same as milk.  (Which is fine because we are used to having these rules in place).

But now - you will be able to order a cappuccino that will pretty much look and taste like a regular cappuccino.

That's just one small mention of the uses of this new milk but if it takes off, it will probably spread like wildfire in the observant Jewish community.  It is probably not Kosher for Passover (made from yeast) and is apparently nut free and lactose free.  And of course no cows are required. Sales just began in October 2025.  

I bought a container of it this week and I intend to try it.  I'll have to report back.

2. Sports News

I know some of you roll your eyes when you get to the sports section of my blog (if it is included) but it is usually connected in some way to the theme of the blog.  So bear with me.

A. Olympics

Israel has sent a delegation of 9 athletes to the 2026 Olympics in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, competing in five different sports.  Israel has two skiers (alpine skiing), 4 bobsledders (a men's team), 1 cross-country skier, 1 figure skater and 1 brave soul competing in the  "skeleton."

Israel's bobsled team reported that their apartment in the Olympic village was burglarized on February 7th. Their suitcases, shoes, equipment and  passports were stolen.  The robbery is being investigated by Italian police.

Not sure whether Israel has a chance at any medals but it is nice to see some representation.

There are also at least 8 other Jewish (non-Israeli) athletes participating including Aerin Frankel, the Team USA women's hockey goaltender, Avital Carroll, a mogul skier representing Austria, Emery Lehman, a speed skater from the U.S., Jack Hughes, Quinn Hughes and Jeremy Swayman, all hockey players for the U.S. men's team, and Korey Dropkin, a curler for the U.S. Yes, there are Jewish curlers.

There may be others but those are the names  I have been able to find.

Here in Israel, there are at least 4 different cable networks (sports channels) showing Olympics night and  day - including the various hockey games.  I watched the Canadian women secure their first victory and we are all set to see them face off against the Czech team tonight.  I am really looking forward to the Canadian "dream team"  hitting the ice later this week - the Canadian men's hockey team - truly an amazing chance to see Canada's best hockey players all on one team.

B. Super Bowl

Congratulations to the  Seattle Seahawks on their Superbowl win over the New England Patriots.  It was not the  most  exciting game ever though the Seattle defence was incredible.   I watched it on an Israeli  sports channel which featured Israeli commentators using  all sorts of funny lines.  My favourite was (In English with a thick Israeli accent) "the New England Patriots offence is very offensive tonight..."

Here we watched the game starting at 1:30 a.m., after seeing the Green Day kick off show at 1 a.m. I think bed time was around 5:30 a.m. after watching the final ceremonies etc.,

Can't say that I loved the Bad Bunny half-time show, though I have read some  interesting articles about everything that was referenced and can appreciate that much thought was put into it even if it wasn't my type of music.  For me, it was probably more enjoyable than the previous year's Kendrick Lamar show though there was also quite a bit of thought put into that performance - even if the music  genre wasn't my thing. I had no interest in watching the Turning Point alternative half-time show.  I'll leave it at that.

Once the Olympics end, I get a bunch of free time for other pursuits - unless I become an avid March Madness college basketball fan - though that is looking fairly unlikely as of now.  By mid to late April, hockey playoffs will start and that is one of my favourite things to watch and can be all consuming until mid-June.

3. Flights To and From Israel

As you may know, Air Canada resumed its direct flights to Israel from Toronto and I have been taking advantage of that.  The prices have been okay though they have not been filling up the planes -  perhaps because of the uncertainty as to whether Air Canada will continue to fly.  Having a direct flight is terrific, especially after not having any direct flights available during the war and before that during Covid.

El Al was apparently considering adding a range of new cities - some were hoping that would include Toronto.  But instead, El Al announced a number of new direct destinations from Israel - Hanoi, Manila and Seoul and a number of others - but still no Toronto.

Meanwhile, Air Canada completely revamped its Aeroplan program effective January 1, 2026, to focus almost exclusively on money spent with Air Canada rather than miles travelled.  This is a terrible change for long distance "commuters" who were able to pick up lots of Aeroplan miles at a fairly reasonable cost. Now, the more you spend, the more Aeroplan points you get and that is just about it.

To give you an example, I was flying "Flex" between Toronto and Tel-Aviv, which meant earning 5,750 each way or 11,500 for a round trip in 2025.  In addition, "Super Elite" members would get a bonus of another 5,750 each way, while 75K status members would get 4,312.  This means that for a round trip up to December 31, 2025, I was earning a total of about 23,000 Aeroplan miles for one round trip to Israel.

I flew back in January, from Toronto to Tel Aviv, in flex and I earned a total (including bonuses) of 4,875 (instead of 11,500 including bonuses).

So for flyers like me, the program represents a massive devaluation.

On the other hand, if you go to Israel from Toronto  4 times a year and you buy business class tickets, let's say at $8,000 Canadian per round trip ticket, you would make Super Elite and enjoy all of the benefits that entails.

4. Stuart Razin Z"L

I recently lost a good friend, teacher, mentor (and avid blog reader of mine).  Stuart Razin z"l passed away on January 17th.  

Stuart had served as the Executive Director of Beth Tikvah Synagogue in Toronto where had played a key role in overseeing the growth of Beth Tikvah into a 1000+ member shul.

Before taking on the Executive Director role, he had served as the Principal of the school and had run the Hebrew High School program.  I had the privilege of studying Holocaust literature with him.

I also worked with him as a Board Member of the shul while he was the Executive Director.  One of the most memorable events that we worked on together was a fundraising concert where the great Israeli singer Chava Alberstein came to perform at Beth Tikvah.

Stuart and his late first wife Marsha Razin z"l made Aliyah to Israel, where their three children lived (or were in the process of moving to). Marsha was a wonderful and engaging teacher.  Stuart and Marsha shared a wonderful life together for many years. After Marsha died, Stuart remarried to Jennifer.  Stuart was tragically predeceased by his son Gideon 2019.  Stuart will be missed by his large extended family of children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and so many people who loved him.

Over the years, Stuart and I spoke regularly.  He attended  at our family simchas and we would get together with him regularly.

Stuart was always up to date on the latest current events.  He took an active interest in Israeli, American and Canadian politics and loved to speak for hours about the latest developments.  He would regularly read this blog and then call or write to me to discuss things that I wrote.

While at Beth Tikvah, Stuart had been known for his amazing memory and his attention to each and every one of the members. He took a keen interest in people.  He would ask about each family member, how they were doing, what they were up to - and then he would remember all of the information and keep it updated. He genuinely cared about each and every one of the people with whom he interacted.

For me and my family, he was always a pleasure to speak to, and always had interesting things to say and principled points of view.  He was a true mensch and someone who I will dearly miss.

5. Israel - Latest News

I do not have too much to write this time - not because of a lack of topics - but more in the interest of keeping this blog to a reasonable length.  Instead I will quickly mention a few things:

A. Iran

We continue to wait to see what the U.S. will do and whether it will attack Iran, either to harm Iran's nuclear ambitions, to damage Iran's missile program or to try to foment regime change in Iran. There has been lots of rhetoric, lots of threats and lots of speculation.  An attack on Iran may well draw Israel into a war and we may face large barrages of missile attacks.  Whether this will occur or not is unclear - and probably depends as much as anything on which side of the bed President Trump wakes up on any given day. Israelis seem to be relatively relaxed about it, all things considered, but it is a real powder keg that could go off any day.

B. Gaza

There continues to be a great deal of uncertainty as to how Gaza will be governed going forward, whether Hamas will disarm, whether there will be further rounds of intense fighting - and what, if anything, the U.S. and the international community will do to affect things in Gaza.  Frankly, I have no idea where this is all headed but I am hoping that there will be some level of stability for Gaza and in the whole region.

C. Syria

With U.S. involvement, some progress seems to be taking place with Syria. For example, the Syrian government  this week announced that it would restore a synagogue in Aleppo and permit or even encourage free Jewish worship there.  If that is the start of a genuine change - we might even be able to visit Damascus in my lifetime (and perhaps Beirut).  Let's not get ahead of ourselves, but anything is possible and these are really amazing developments.

D. Netanyahu's Trial

Prime Minister Netanyahu's trial continues to plug along.  He is involved in several "fronts" to try to get out of it - including a possible plea bargain deal, a request for a pardon from the President of Israel (including recruiting Trump to pressure the President of  Israel) and the possibility of a legislated end to the trial (which would probably never get passed the Israeli Supreme Court).   The clock is ticking for Bibi and I believe he is hoping to get this all resolved before Israel's elections - scheduled to take place later this year. For Bibi trial watchers, this should be a really interesting period of  time.

E. Israeli Elections

Israel will have an election this year before the end of October 2026.  Some new parties are still in the process of amalgamating, registering or redefining themselves.  We will probably not have the final list  of competing parties and configurations until much closer to the election date.  However, the polls are now predicting a fairly close race - with Prime  Minister Netanyahu still having a reasonable shot at winning once again, much to the  chagrin of his many detractors.  Israeli politics promises to be super interesting over the coming months.

Okay these were all of the things I planned to cover for now.  I will probably write a few much more political blogs in the coming months - as Israeli elections approach.  For now, let's all  enjoying the remaining month or so of winter and get ready for Purim which takes place starting on March 2, 2026 in the evening.  Here in Ra'anana it is about 22C during the day.  While I was in Toronto, we enjoyed a few days of -24C weather - which meant a 46C spread from one place to the other.  That's a very big shift in temperature. 

So to those of you in North America - it's "stay warm" and to those here in Israel - it's "enjoy the weather"  (even though Israelis are upset that it is not yet warm enough to swim in the Mediterranean - though that can change as soon as early March).

Best regards to all - and for the most part, based on those reading this - stay warm!

Deal Has Been Signed - Hostages Are Coming Home

I was in the local convenience store this morning, getting a few items that we  had forgotten earlier.  We were talking with the cashier - who said - "it is the first day in two years that he has actually seen several people smiling."  And that about sums up the type of night we had - with the news about a cease fire that has been reached.

In my last blog, I wrote that we were hoping for a deal soon.  That was in July.  Here we are, more than three months later, and we seem to have finally reached some sort of deal that will see the return of all of the live Israeli hostages and an end to this current war with Hamas, at least for now.

I have not had the chance to go through the deal in detail yet - I am not sure it is even available in full.  However, I think we can take several key points from the detail:

1. All of the live hostages will be returned immediately, as early as Sunday or Monday of this week, all at once. No more deals of releasing one or two a week or anything like that.  This was apparently not something that Hamas had been willing to agree on earlier - though I am not sure anyone really knows.

2. In return, Israel will release some prisoners from its jails (these are mostly, if not all, convicted murderers and terrorists  who have killed or tried to kill Israeli civilians).  However, Israel (for now at least) won't release some of the highest profile prisoners (like Marwan Barghuti) and won't return the bodies of Yahyah Sinwar or Mohammad Def. 

3. Many of the subsequent details have yet to be agreed upon.  However, Israel will pull back its troops from some of their current positions and Hamas will agree that a new - international supported entity will take over the administration of the Gaza Strip - even though that may take time to implement.

4. President Trump used his extraordinary influence (or whatever else) to get Turkey, Egypt, Qatar and others onside. I don't think we know what he promised each of them at this point, though I am quite sure that it is something significant. It remains to be seen how harmful these promises may turn - some articles claim that Trump agreed to supply Turkey and Egypt with new, very sophisticated military airplanes.  Apparently, there are also stronger assurances of defence for Qatar - though I am not sure Qatar has agreed, in exchange, to stop sponsoring worldwide terrorism.

I am sure that more details will emerge in the coming days.  For now, we are hoping that the initial phase goes ahead as planned and that the 20 hostages will come home alive and that they can be rehabilitated.  Many of them have probably been tortured, starved and suffered all kinds of injuries, physical and psychological.  Israel is also seeking the remains of the other 28 hostages who were captured but Hamas is claiming that it only has 13-15 of those bodies at this point.

I am definitely concerned about the prospect of terrorist attacks - in Israel and around the world at Jewish sites in the coming days - especially with so much of the BDS and terror supporting crowd opposing this deal.  I hope that our security forces here and around the world will be on full alert and will prevent or minimize any such attacks.

Meanwhile in Israel, the deal itself still has to approved by Israel's cabinet, which is expected to take place tonight.  By all accounts, it is anticipated that the deal will pass by a significant majority.  Cabinet ministers Ben-Gvir and  Smotrich still have not announced their positions, but they may well oppose the deal.  However, this will not bring about the fall of the government, since there are enough votes to pass the deal and keep the government in power, for now.

What's Next:

Israel is due to have elections by October 2026.  It is unlikely that Prime Minister Netanyahu would ever be in a better position to win an election than he would be shortly after the return of all of the hostages and so there is a strong prospect that elections will take place earlier.

There is one "little" problem - Bibi's criminal charges.  One option is  a plea bargain deal.  However, I don't believe that the State Prosecutor is prepared to recommend a deal that Bibi could live with - i.e. the dropping of all the charges - or a guilty plea to some very inconsequential offences.   The Prosecution continues to insist that, at a minimum, Bibi plead guilty to offences that are deemed more serious under Israeli law and would bar him from running for office for 7 years, even if he avoids jail time.

An alternative would be a pardon from the President of Israel - Isaac Bougie Herzog. Up until recently, President Herzog maintained that he would not grant an unconditional pardon.  However I believe that Herzog may now be willing to provide one under conditions that are much less severe.  In other words - we could see a guilty plea of some sort, combined with a pardon - that would free Netanyahu to run again.

Ultimately, once Netanyahu has received a pardon - he may be willing to leave public office at some point.  I believe that he would like to first secure a peace deal with Saudi Arabia - but that is pure speculation on my part.

Many Israelis, a large majority according to many polls, would like to see a  full public inquiry into what happened on October 7, 2023 - with every issue, every failure and every event subject to full examination.  Only with this type of inquiry will we be in a position to address security issues and strengthen our borders and our military readiness. For now, Netanyahu has strongly opposed this type of inquiry.

Other Stuff to Mention

There are so many things that I could write about since so much has been taking place.  But I have been very busy - with personal celebratory events (thankfully), with work and with many other things.  We are in the midst of the last holiday of the holiday season - the holiday of Sukkot - which is also known as the "time of our happiness."  It culminates in the holiday of Simchat Torah - the "Rejoicing of the Torah" but that is also the day on which the horrible massacre of October 7th occurred.

Our Rosh Hashanah was a bit more low key than usual with a few of our family members out of the country.  Days later, we conducted our Ra'anana Yom Kippur tefillot (prayer services) outdoors in one of the family's backyards - with about  50 participants.  It was intimate, inspiring, participatory - and particularly comfortable (weatherwise this year). Yom Kippur, the day of  awe, is  actually quite awesome in Israel - to see the country come to a complete standstill - other than people taking the streets to walk or bike around.  

We were a bit slow off the mark to get our Sukkah put up - but we managed to stop by the  annual Ra'anana sukkot market - buy a lulav set with an etrog - that we could wave around in all the different  directions - and now the sukkah is ready for an event or two.

Around the World

The news of all kinds of outrageous anti-Semitic and  anti-Israel activity around the world is simply shocking.  

In Canada, our extremist Prime Minister (yes it is fair to call him extremist on this issue) has recognized a Palestinian State - without negotiations, borders, concessions, terms....  In fact, just a year prior, the House of Commons voted down such a step.  But the Prime Minister did not put it to a new vote. Prime Minister Carney, bolstered by some even more extremist cabinet ministers, like Minister Anita Anand, has joined the ranks of some of the most extreme anti-Israel world leaders - in places like Ireland, Sweden, Spain and Turkey.  I think one can only say that this is frightening, sad and very concerning about where Canada might be headed in the future. And do not think that this is only an issue affecting Israel and the Jewish community. Supporting Muslim extremism can have disastrous long term consequences in a range of other issues.

There were several demonstrations across Canada by pro-Hamas agitators mixed together with extreme leftists (those in the Syd Ryan /CUPE camp) - in support of the October 7, 2023 massacres - and very little outrage, that I saw, other than from the leader of the opposition Pierre Poilievre and a handful of others.  Imagine widespread demonstrations across the U.S. or Canada in support of the 9/11 attacks. Or commemorating the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in a positive way.  That is what we are talking about.

In a North York High School, on October 7, 2025, the two year anniversary of the October 7, 2023 massacres, Earl Haig High School played the Canadian national anthem - "Oh Canada" on its speaker system in Arabic.  Yes this is true! The principal explained that this was organized by a  student group, that they were commemorating "Islamic Heritage Month" and that they didn't know it was related to October 7th.   Give me a break!  It's obscene.  Simply obscene.  A celebration of, indeed, an encouragement of  the terrorism that took place on October 7, 2023. 

We have seen attacks on synagogues, Jewish high profile figures, university students and other Jews and  Jewish institutions all over the world since October 2023 - even while leaders in some places - rail on about "islamophobia."  This is simply unjustifiable.  I hope that countries like Canada and  others will take steps to assure the safety of their Jewish communities in the face of these vile activities. But often, these issues require leadership from the top. We need leadership that will make it clear that  these types of activities - from shutting  down universities to vandalizing Jewish owned businesses - to protesting outside synagogues are not permitted and  will stopped. And the perpetrators will be prosecuted, fully.

I hope that the current deal will  bring about a change for Israel and for its friends and allies around the world.

Sports News

I can't write one these blogs without a few sports comments.

First of all, Israel will be playing Norway and Italy on Saturday night and Tuesday night respectively in World Cup qualifying games.  These are crucial games if Israel is to have any chance of making it to the World Cup. There has been a great deal of pressure on FIFA from anti-Israel countries and some football players to try and expel Israel from FIFA.  But to date, FIFA has rejected these demands.  Israel's chances of qualifying are still quite low - since Norway is a very strong side but I think that it is fair to say that these are some of  Israel's biggest football games in quite a while.

Last night, as I was watching  the breaking news from Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt and Washington D.C., I was also watching the Blue Jays clinch a trip to the MLB American League Championship Series - a best of seven semi-final - with the winner going to the World Series.  It was super exciting and I am hoping that I will be able to get to an ALCS or even a World Series game in the coming weeks.

While this is not sports news - I wanted to mention that those same anti-Israel  protagonists -  especially Ireland and Spain, have been clamouring to kick Israel out of the annual Eurovision song competition.  Fortunately, Germany and a few others have apparently stood up to this pressure and  refused to given in to this anti-Israel sentiment and kick Israel out.  So as of now, Israel will participate in the 2026  Eurovision contest - Israel placed second last year - winning a large majority of the popular vote

Airline News

Air Canada is scheduled to restart direct flights to Israel today - almost as if they knew that this is when the war would end.  I always believed that Air Canada (unlike so many other airlines) would only begin flying when there was a cease fire deal.  Now there is one - and perhaps Air Canada will now be back on track with regular direct flights.

There is so much more to write but my time is limited. I wish everyone a Chag Sukkot Sameach. Hoping that the deal with proceed, that the hostages will be returned and that the war will end and usher in many years of expended peace with all of Israel's neighbours.

- 

Israel Update July 4, 2025 - Close to a Deal with Hamas?

I arrived back in Israel last Friday, shortly after President Trump had declared a cease fire between Iran and Israel.  I had to scramble to find a ticket to Israel and wound up flying on Arkia Airlines from Athens.

Getting to and From Israel

In case you are thinking of flying Arkia - my suggestion would be to try to find something else if you can. 

I arrived in Athens via Air Canada and was supposed to have about four hours until my Arkia flight.  Of course there is no baggage transfer agreement so I had to go through Greek immigration (which had a long line-up but moved quickly), pick up my suitcase (which wasn't too bad) and then go check in for the Arkia flight.  Surprisingly, when I got to the Arkia counter, I was offered the chance to get on an earlier flight (almost 3 hours earlier than scheduled).  I asked if I would have enough time (only 45 minutes left according to the flight schedule).  I was assured I would be fine so I took the earlier flight - no extra charge.

From the check-in counter, I had to go through the Greek exit security (Immigration).  The line-up  was unbelievably long and very slow.  Pylons everywhere directing people to walk up and down temporary aisles.  Every few minutes, the authorities would call out an airline and destination and take people out of the line-up into an expedited process.  "Anyone on the Air Canada flight to Toronto? Come with me..."  As I was waiting in line, I noticed that we were only about 30 minutes before departure time, but nobody was calling out Arkia passengers to Tel-Aviv.

I finally got through this line up at 12:55, which was exactly the boarding time for the flight.  But still no call for Arkia passengers.  I still had to go through personal security (the x-ray machines etc.,).  By the time I left the whole area and headed towards the gate - it was about 1:15.  I got to the gate - and no worries - there was a whole line-up of Arkia passengers waiting in line.  Boarding was delayed.  We would still need to take a bus to the plane and then board.

Ultimately, the "earlier" flight that I was able to get on - left 1.5 hours after its revised scheduled time - which was about 4.5 hours after its original scheduled time.  So I actually wound up leaving about half an hour before my originally scheduled time even though I was put on an earlier flight.  Meanwhile the flight that I had been scheduled for originally wound up about two and a half hours late.

For this privilege, I had to spend about $600 - the only way available to get to Israel - during that period of time. (That was just the cost of a one way Arkia ticket from Athens to Tel-Aviv).

Since last week, several airlines have resumed flights to Israel but so far it is mainly the Israeli carriers and a handful of others - Arkia, Israir, Tus Airlines and of course El Al.  Several other airlines have announced that they will be resuming service but at all different dates. From my quick look at the Ben Gurion Arrivals board today - there are flights showing for Air France, Fly Dubai, Delta and some other airlines - though some of these may be code shares with El Al or other airlines.

Over the coming months, it certainly appears that more and more airlines will resume service as long as the security situation continues to improve.  I understand that British Airways, Wizz Air, Air Canada, American Airlines and several others have cancelled their service to Israel until well after September 2025.  If you are planning to come to Israel (let's say for a wedding and a Hina or something like that....), the only airline you are really going to be able to count on for the coming months is El Al, which has demonstrated that it will continue to fly to Israel even in the most difficult conditions - albeit at very exorbitant prices.

It is likely that Arkia, Israir, Tus Airways and Blue Bird airways will also continue to fly - especially from Cyprus or Athens - and maybe  from Rome. These may all be fine as long as you don't mind lengthy delays and sky high baggage charges. After that, some of the airlines that have been willing to bring back their service more quickly than others have been Aegean Airlines (Greece), Fly Dubai, Emirates, Ethiopian Air and Lufthansa.  Several other airlines have scheduled dates for return in August 2025 including United Airlines - but I think it is going to be questionable for now to rely on United.  For Canadians, we may well not see Air Canada resuming its Tel-Aviv service until deep into the fall or even sometime until 2026 but hopefully, with a pending cease fire, Air Canada will resume sooner rather than later.

Gaza War

As of the time I am writing this article, indications are that Hamas is prepared to accept or mostly accept - a cease fire deal for 60 days proposed by President Trump and his negotiators.  I am not going to get into all of the specifics here other than to say that the deal apparently calls for the immediate release of 8 live Israeli hostages by Hamas, followed by the release of 15 bodies.  2 more live Israeli hostages would be released 60 days later, with information provided about the remaining hostages at some point along the way. Estimates are that between 20 and 23 Israeli hostages are still alive and that Hamas is holding a total of approximately 50 hostages in total - including those who are no longer living.

Israel would release hundreds of Hamas prisoners, many of whom are facing lengthy prison sentences for violent terrorist attacks.  Negotiations would continue over the coming 60 days for a settlement of all outstanding issues.  If negotiations fail, hostilities could resume though President Trump is apparently providing "personal assurances" that the war will not restart.  Of course there is nothing more reliable than the word of President Trump - so the Hamas terrorists will certainly take comfort knowing that they have the President's promise.  (You can read this any way you like, depending on your politics).

The war with Hamas will not go down in Israeli history as one of Israel's great victories.  Israel suffered tremendous losses initially - civilian and military losses - and whole villages were wiped out by Hamas even though they will now be rebuilt. While Israel was able to assassinate many Hamas leaders and destroy a significant part of Gaza, Israel was not able to recover the hostages militarily, defeat Hamas or end, definitively, its rule in Gaza.

881 Israeli soldiers have been killed since October 7, 2023 and close to 6,000 have been injured.

The war has also caused a high rate of casualties for Palestinians in Gaza, although the breakdown between military and civilian casualties is difficult to ascertain.  While the Hamas "Gaza Health Ministry" claims that more than 59,600 Palestinians have been killed, there is a great deal of uncertainty when examining any claims made by Hamas.  We do not know how many of these Palestinian casualties were Hamas fighters, though it is likely to be a fairly high number.

It does appear that as the war has progressed, the proportion of Palestinian civilians being killed relative to the total numbers of casualties has been growing -  even though the numbers are likely not as as high as those reported by Hamas.  We also know of several cases where Hamas claimed that Israeli troops opened fire on groups of civilians - and it turned out that the reports were completely false (even after they were reported as true by the BBC, for example).(The BBC later recanted and apologized).

Unquestionably this war has been a disaster for Hamas and for the Palestinians living in Gaza.  But it was also the culmination of several smaller wars started by Hamas over the past several years since Israel disengaged from Gaza in 2005 and Hamas took over the Gaza strip.

Ultimately the only long term solution for the Palestinians in Gaza is going to be having a government committed to resolving issues peacefully with Israel rather than militarily.  Hopefully that train has not left the station.  Continued Hamas rule will only lead to more violent confrontations with Israel.  President Trump's plan of "voluntary relocation" coupled with building a riviera in Gaza might be dismissed as a pipedream (or a war crime) but the geography, topography and location of Gaza does create endless economic possibilities if Gaza were to be run in a collaborative way with Israel.

Other Regional Developments

Israelis were hoping (and continue to hope) for a regime change in Iran and the emergence of a new Iranian government willing to make peace with Israel.  One of Israeli's leading Iranian experts, Benny Sabati, who was born in Iran and lived there for several years before emigrating to Israel, predicts that within 3 to 5 years, Iran will have diplomatic relations with Israel.  He believes that the current Iranian regime will fall during this period of time.  Let's hope that he is correct. A  change of regime in Iran could lead to very significant developments in the Middle East and a future with much more  stability.

President Trump and  Israeli officials are openly talking about trying to add Lebanon and  Syria to the Abraham Accords.  I think the talk about Syria is likely somewhat premature since it will be difficult to resolve the dispute over the Golan Heights.  During President Trump's first term, he recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan  Heights (which Israel first captured in the 1967 Six Day War).  Syria is not about to enter into a peace arrangement with Israel that sees Israel continuing to hold the Golan Heights - and Israel is  not about to give up the Golan  Heights to a Jihadi-led, ISIS inspired neighbour.  If Syria gives up its dream of taking back the Golan Heights - at least for now - perhaps a peace deal can be signed but I am not holding my breath on that one.

Now that Assad is out of the picture in Syria and Hezbollah has been weakened, there may be no impediment to Lebanon coming to a deal with Israel.  A stable Lebanon, with the restoration of Beirut as the "Paris of the Middle East" would be a very exciting development - not just for Lebanon and its people but for the whole of the Middle East.  It this were to happen, it would be a direct result of one of the clear victories in Israel's current war - the tremendous weakening of Hezbollah as a regional force, one which controlled and terrorized the people  of Lebanon for many years.

Meanwhile, if Iran sets out to rebuild its nuclear program as quickly as possible, there may be a second round of this war between Iran and Israel, though it may be a year or two down the road.  The alternative for Iran will be a negotiated solution with the United States and Israel - and perhaps the Iranian leadership will start to falter afterwards. In the short term, it  is hard to predict which way this will go.  In the long term, we have to be optimistic that the people of Iran will be able to shed themselves of this horrible dictatorship.

Bibi's Trial

One cannot overestimate the impact of Prime Minister Netanyahu's current criminal trial on all of  these matters. Bibi is currently in the midst of his cross examination, even though last week he asked the court for a two week hiatus to deal with "security affairs."  The court agreed so the cross-examinations will not resume until the week of July 14th, I believe.

We are clearly at the "meat" of the trial - the cross-examination, and Bibi has no interest in having this continue.  It is embarrassing, excruciating and by most analysts' accounts that I have read - unwinnable.  Accordingly, Bibi had his lawyers contact the state prosecutors last week to feel out the prosecution for a plea bargain deal. (His lawyers later issued a denial that they initiated the contacts).

It appears that all of the lawyers, on both sides of this trial, recognize that Netanyahu is highly likely to be  convicted on at least some counts if this ever gets to a verdict. As  I have said previously, I do not believe we will ever see a verdict in this case.

If a conviction,  as part of a verdict or a plea bargain deal, carries with it the designation of "Kahlon" or "moral turpitude," Netanyahu, under Israeli law, would be barred from running for office for several years.  He is not prepared to agree to that.

On the other hand, the state is not prepared to agree to a guilty plea to only more minor offences, especially since the prosecution feels very confident that it can get a conviction with "Kahlon."

One way of trying to change this reality for Bibi has been a campaign to oust the current Attorney General, replace her with someone more "Bibi-friendly" and then negotiate a deal that is more palatable.  Bibi and his Likud party  have been trying to do this - but they face several legal hurdles and conflict of  interest allegations that are making it difficult to replace the AG.

A second alternative, floated by some of Bibi's Likud party members just last week, would be to legislate an end to the trial.  This would be shocking.  Even some Likud members have indicated that they would not support it  And the Israeli Supreme Court would surely strike it down.  I am hopeful that this idea is a non-starter. Netanyahu would need an even more right-wing government to have a chance at pulling this off.

A third idea, and I think one that is most likely at this point, is a negotiated plea-bargain deal combined with a pardon from President Herzog.  This type of  deal might allow Bibi to plead guilty to more serious offences (which would save face for the prosecution) but with a pardon, he would still be able to run again.  The issue is that this could cause somewhat of a crisis for the justice system.  The State would have to demonstrate that it obtained some concessions from Bibi in exchange for the pardon, even though the pardon would be coming from the President rather  than the State.  So Bibi will have to give something to get this type of deal - and I am not really sure what that could be.

There is another alternative.  The current Israeli government might fall, even without a plea bargain deal in place  for Bibi and he may hope that an election will give him a government more willing to help him deal with his criminal challenges. In my view, that is probably a risky strategy.  I think we are more likely to see  a deal in place before an election is called.

I am not going to spend much time dealing with President Trump's tweets calling for Israel to "free Bibi from his trial" as if this were a purely political trial. Fortunately, Israel is not a banana republic (not yet anyways) and none of the actors involved in Bibi's trial (the judges, the prosecutors etc.,) are going to be moved by Trump's calls.  It is more likely that Trump's tweets show a certain desperation on Bibi's part as he tries to enlist the help of Trump to get him out of his legal predicament.  In fact, a number of Israeli commentators speculated that the tweets were written by Bibi himself based on the language used. I am not in a position to comment one way or other but it is an extraordinary level of interference by President Trump into Israel's domestic affairs.  Then again, Bibi himself did everything he could to help the Republicans defeat Obama, Biden and Harris - so interference in domestic political affairs for Bibi and for Trump are par for the course.

Mood in Israel

Israelis are a resilient lot - they have to be to survive in this area of the world.  The 12 day war with Iran was quite frightening.  Many buildings were destroyed. 29 people were killed and more than 3,200 were injured.  But the war was perceived as a major military victory for Israel - perhaps one  of  historic proportions.

The war with Hamas has been going on since October 7, 2023  and over the past few weeks, Israelis have been receiving reports of soldiers dying in battle almost daily.  I believe that the majority of Israelis are hoping that this war with Hamas will end as soon as possible and that things will start to improve.  In other words, I think there is a combination of despair over how things have gone in Gaza but cautious optimism about the future.

Concerts and events have reopened. The airport is gradually increasing its capacity.  I am hopeful that by the end of August (big event time for us...), things will be even better than they are now.

Sports News

I do not have too much to write about sports as the moment.  But I thought I would mention a couple of things quickly.

The Israeli men's national football (soccer) team is trying to qualify for the 2026 world cup.  Israel is in a group with Norway, Estonia, Italy and  Moldova.  On June 6, 2025, Israel beat Estonia for the second time.  Israel will play Moldova on September 5th in Moldova and it will play Italy on September 8, 2025 in Hungary.  It will also play Norway  on October 11, 2025 in Oslo.  Israel lost its first game to Norway but as of now, still has a chance to make it into the 2026 World Cup.  It looks like the road will go through Rome - (Israel will have to beat Italy) but stay tuned.

Israeli TV does not broadcast very many baseball games - but I couldn't resist streaming last night's Blue Jay game.  The Blue Jays swept the New York Yankees in a four game series, featuring a gazillion runs, which moved the Blue Jays into first place in their division.  Even if that is only temporary and even though it is only July, it was still pretty exciting. There may be some very meaningful baseball games for Toronto fans to watch in October.

I think that is about it for now - but I wanted to share these thoughts and wish everyone  a Shabbat Shalom, a happy Fourth of July, a belated Happy Canada Day - and a celebration of all the great events that our family has in July - birthdays, an anniversary etc., Hoping for some good news in the coming days including the return of our  hostages, the cessation of hostilities and maybe even an Israeli election call.