Pre-Shavuot Update 2025

It is the weekend before Shavuot 2025 and I thought it was time to try and put together a blog covering a variety of things in no particular order.  There is much to write about - too much, in fact - and I have been very busy with remunerative work - so less time for the hobby of writing blogs. But I will try to cover a bunch of items and leave some for later.

1. The Hostages and the Gaza War

I should really start with the hostages.  There are still 58 Israelis being held by Hamas, of whom, it is believed that 20 are alive.  This week marked 600 days since the attack and massacre by Hamas on October 7, 2023.  While President Trump's designee, Steve Witkoff, has been making all sorts of efforts to strike a deal between Hamas and Israel, both sides seem reluctant to agree.  This week, there were some hints from all sides that a deal was imminent but this morning Hamas rejected the latest proposal from the U.S., after Israel tentatively agreed to it. The hostages are being held in brutal, inhumane conditions.  The more time that passes, the less likely it is that the remaining live hostages will survive.

The war is also taking a significant toll on the lives of Gazans - and for Israeli soldiers - both regular soldiers and reservists.  It does not appear that Hamas has any interest in a cease fire deal other than one that will leave it in power - ready to rebuild for another attack.  For Israel, there is little appetite for a deal that will leave Hamas in power in Gaza.  As several U.S. Senators said this week  - when fighting against a band of terrorists - the goal is the surrender of the terrorists - the same goal that the U.S. pursued when fighting Nazi Germany in World War II (and Japan as well).  

If Witkoff is not able to broker a deal, Israel may well expand its operations in Gaza in an effort to force a surrender.  This is a daunting task - especially since Israel is dealing with an enemy that would rather die than surrender (in many cases)  In short, this war may continue for quite a while.

2. World Pressure

As time goes on and a deal seems remote, the casualties in Gaza are continuing to mount.  France is now leading the charge to start pressuring Israel economically and politically - to end the war.  Some of the other protagonists include Spain, Great Britain and Canada.  France and  several other countries have pledged to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian State next week - though it is unclear what the defined boundaries or other parameters will be.   It would obviously be helpful  for these same countries to exert their influence to cause Hamas to release the hostages and push for the end  of the war - and to allow food and supplies to be transferred to the Gaza civilian population (Hamas has been confiscating food and  supplies for its own use up until this week - when a new mechanism was put into place to supply civilians directly with food). 

At the same time, the current Israeli government is isolating Israel more and more from the rest of the world and this could have significant  consequences for Israel in the short and long term. 

3. The Houthis and Iran

Israel is also fighting a war with the Yemen-based Houthis (who do not even share a border with Israel).  They are promoting themselves as the defenders of the Palestinians - which for them, means, firing ballistic rockets at Israel sporadically.  As  you may know, Trump reached a deal with the Houthis and agreed not to attack them in exchange for an undertaking by the Houthis not to attack U.S. ships.  So Israel has been left with the task of fighting the Houthis and defending against the barrages of Iranian-supplied ballistic missiles fired by the Houthis. 

Yesterday, we were in an elevator, in the middle of the day, when a missile siren went off, signifying that  there was an incoming ballistic missile, sent by the Houthis.  Fortunately, it was shot down. though we had to wait in a safe bomb shelter room for about 10 minutes. 

Just weeks ago, a Houthi missile got through the defence systems and landed near Ben-Gurion Airport.  That missile hit about 45 minutes after I took off from Israel en route to Athens.  As a result of that attack, most foreign airlines cancelled all of their air traffic to Tel-Aviv.  Some airlines have now restarted their service but many others have extended their suspensions of service.  For example, British Airways, Ryannair, Wizz Air and others all announced they would continue to suspend their service to Tel-Aviv.  I note that Air Canada, not long after the recent Canadian election (see my last blog) announced that it would not resume service before September 2025, which is one of the latest proposed dates from any airline that I have seen.

Israel's fight with the Houthis is, of course, a proxy fight with Iran.  As Trump is negotiating a new JOCPA with Iran, he seems to also be playing "good cop bad cop" with Iran and threatening to allow Israel to attack Iran and try to take out its nuclear program if a deal is not reached.  It may be that Trump's game is more "good cop" than "bad cop" as it seems likely that he will push Netanyahu not to attack at this point.  However, in the case of both Trump and Netanyahu, things are quite unpredictable.

4. Netanyahu

As you know, Prime Minister Netanyahu is in the midst of his criminal trial - which is coming to the most crucial part of the trial - next week - the cross examination of Netanyahu is set to begin as early as Tuesday or Wednesday next week. Despite all of his bravado, I find it hard to believe that Netanyahu is anxious to go through this cross-examination.  Much of his testimony in chief, as reported, was unbelievable and incredible.  I believe that the prosecutors are salivating at the opportunity to cross examine Bibi and I also  believe that he knows it will be very uncomfortable.  He may well pull out all of the stops to derail or postpone the cross-examination.  What could that include?  Just about anything.  A sudden illness (real or imaginary).  The break up of his current governing coalition.   The launching of a sudden attack on Iran.  Or even some kind of plea bargain deal.  I think it is likely that something big is going to happen this coming week - just in time to stave off this cross-examination.  This should be an incredibly pivotal week for Israel.

5.    Eurovision

As you might know, Israel finished 2nd in the annual Eurovision song contest last week that took place in Basel Switzerland.  This was a politically charged contest with some of the European countries pushing to expel Israel and prevent it from participating.  

The Israeli contestant was Yuval Raphael, a singer who had survived the Hamas massacres on October 7, 2023 by hiding under a pile of dead bodies and pretending to be dead herself. She faced demonstrations and boos from Pro-Palestinian/ Pro-Hamas agitators.  The panel of judges, representing each participating country, awarded Raphael/Israel a total of only 60 points (out of 32 scoring countries).  Only Azerbaijan awarded the first place award of 12 points to Israel.  Several countries gave Israel no points -  and most countries awarded very low point totals to Raphael/Israel.

However, the Eurovision contest also involves audience voting by country.  Here Israel finished in first place overall - which included winning the full 12 points from the audience in several countries including Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and others.  In fact, Israel came in 2nd place in Ireland, a country whose current policies have been among the most anti-Israel anywhere.  Israel also came in first place in the voting in Australia (which participates in Eurovision even though it is a bit far away from Europe) and Spain, two other countries whose leadership has been virulently ant-Israel. Overall, Raphael/Israel wound up finishing second in the contest, which was a really strong result.

Much of the music in any given Eurovision contest is quite awful - shlocky, poppy, minimally complex and often annoying.  But you can watch the Israeli entry - Raphael's powerful  "New Day Will Rise" and come to your own conclusions -  especially by comparing it to the winner, JJ and their song "Wasted Love" from Austria.  Last year's winner "The Code" by non-binary  and stridently anti-Israel performer Nemo from Switzerland - was also fairly  atrocious (in my humble opinion)

Israelis get really excited about this event and watch it in droves, even though so many of the performances are usually insufferable.  But Israel's participation the contest has become a political hot potato - especially with the increasingly large Arab/Muslim populations in so many European countries that are looking for any opportunity to delegitimize Israel.

6.    Flight Routes

As I touched on earlier, the options for getting back and forth from Israel are fairly limited.  For my most recent flight - I flew Air Canada to Athens and then El Al to Israel.  I had a long wait in Athens  - about 9 hours - so I decided to get a day room a the Sofitel Hotel - conveniently located rate across from the arrival doors at the airport.  Not exactly cheap but it offered some well needed rest.

So many airlines  have cancelled their flights - that it is really hard to predict who might be flying on any given day.  Only El Al has consistently flown back and forth - and taken full advantage of supply and demand - to charge record prices - and earn record profits.

It will be interesting to see what consumers do once this is all over.  On the one hand, El Al has charged exorbitant, outrageous, even usurious prices.  On the other hand, it is one of the only airlines that has continued to fly.  Some consumers may stay  away from El Al  when there are other options - as a response to the crazy pricing.  Others may appreciate that El Al has continued to serve the Israeli public - even at a high cost.  I have no idea what will happen - but, for now, El Al is continuing to fly and is earning record profits.

Of course I wish they were still flying back and forth direct from Toronto or  Montreal to Tel-Aviv - but they cancelled those flights well before the war broke out.

7. Nova Exhibition

While in Toronto recently, I attended at the Nova Exhibition, which will be in Toronto until June 22, 2025.  After that it is moving to Washington D.C. It will actually open in Washington on June 14, 2025.

The Exhibition is a huge installation of artifacts, videos, testimony from survivors and victims (collected from their cell phones in many cases) of the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacres at the Nova festival.  The Exhibition is quite powerful and well worth attending.  Allow about 2-3 hours if you go.

8. Sports News- Ice Hockey

As you probably know, there is one Canadian team  left in the  NHL playoffs this year.  The games will all be at 8 p.m., starting on Wednesday June 4th, 2025 - which means 3 a.m. Israel time.  In Israel, they are being  shown live on channel 59, which is better quality then my streaming services.

The Edmonton Oilers, of course, include the best player in the world, Connor McDavid.  McDavid is probably the most  exciting player I have ever seen play (and I have watched a lot of hockey).  But he still hasn't won the Stanley Cup.  Hopefully this will be his year.  One of his teammates is Zack Hyman, a player who attended CHAT (the Community Hebrew Academy of  Toronto).  Some people are hoping that if the Oilers win the Cup, Hyman will bring it to CHAT for a visit. Unfortunately, Hyman was injured in game 4 of the semi-finals against Dallas and required surgery.  Looks like he will be out for the rest of this year's playoffs but hopefully he can still come out on the ice and kiss the cup if the Oilers win.

Given the Jewish/Israeli theme of my blog - I also wanted to mention another Israeli/Jewish hockey player - Zeev Buium.  Born in San Diego, California, Buium, is the son of two Israeli parents.  He has dual citizenship and is apparently the first Israeli to play in the NHL - he plays for the Minnesota Wild and saw some action in the playoffs this year.  Buium played for Team USA in the World Hockey Championships this year.  He scored one goal and had three assists - and helped the USA win the gold medal for the first time since 1933 in the World Ice Hocky Championships.  (Canada flamed out with an embarrassing loss to Denmark, despite icing a roster that included Sid Crosby and Nathan McKinnon).

I'll try to watch as many of the Oilers' games as I can - hoping to see a Canadian team bring the cup back to Canada.  I did have tickets lined up for game 3 of the finals in Toronto if the Maple Leafs had been able to make it - but as you may know, they lost 4-3 in a 7 game series against the Florida Panthers.  Yet again, another disappointing year for Toronto.

9. Shavuot

The holiday of Shavuot beings on Sunday night.  This marks 50 days since Passover started -and commemorates the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people.  More recently, the holiday has been known for being the only Jewish holiday  where everyone eats dairy (and maybe has some fish).  I will be making some cheese blintzes on Sunday  -  I try to make them in a way that is as close as  possible to the way that my grandmother z"l used to make them.  I find the cheese blintz recipe on toryavey.com to be as close as it gets.

We were at the supermarket this morning and there was a huge run on cheeses and dairy products of every possible kind. It was very hard to find ricotta cheese for the filling.  We  also visited a wine store - and they were, not surprisingly, pushing white and  rose wines.   We picked up Rose wines by Gvaot and Tulip's White Franc - which looks like a Rose but is technically not.   We also bought some white wine from Castel (the La Vie en Rose line) and a Sauvignon Blanc from Psagot. We have to make some decisions about what to serve for an important upcoming Friday night dinner in August. We have already picked out the red wine that we will serve.

Shavuot can mark the start of some really  intense heat in Israel - and the predictions are that it will be very hot across the country tomorrow and  Sunday.  In Ra'anana, the current prediction is about 30c for tomorrow - while in Tiberias (T'veria) it will be a balmy 36c.  Apparently it will "cool down" by Monday but let's hope that the air conditioning  holds up.

That's about it for now.  It should be a very eventful week or two in Israel with all kinds of things going on.  I am hoping for the safe return of all of the remaining hostages and for some kind of deal or end to this war. Especially hoping for the safe return of all of our soldiers including some family members that are in Gaza and other areas.  Wishing everyone a happy and  healthy Shavuot.

 

Israeli Military Response in Yemen, Olympics and Other Updates July 2024

It is not often that I write blogs so closely together but sometimes there are so many things going on that I feel the urge to put together a few in a row in rapid succession.  This often happens just before or during Israeli elections or when there are some very unusual, challenging or different events taking place.  So whether or not you managed to read my blog from Friday July 19, 2024, I have put this one together to cover 6 or 7 items that I wanted to write about.  In a way, this might be viewed as an extension of the last blog but, quite simply, there are so many things going on here that I felt I just had to put this one together.  Of course it helps that today is Sunday - and I do not really have to work too hard on my normal business today (which is looking quite hectic for the coming week, thankfully).  So here goes - I have divided it into a bunch of headings and I hope you will find it interesting.

1. The Israeli Counter-Attack on Yemen

As you probably read, Israel launched a counter attack against the Houthis in Yemen yesterday.  Israel attacked the port town of Hodeidah, Yemen, which is apparently used as one of the main supply areas for the delivery of weapons from Iran to the Houthi forces.  Interestingly, Hodeidah had a large Jewish population at one time, with members of the Jewish community very active in trade, commerce, crafts and other artisanal efforts.  As with most of the rest of the Yemenite Jewish community, the Jews of Hodeidah left Yemen as part of Operation Magic Carpet in 1948-49 and immigrated to Israel.  

The targets hit by Israeli forces included oil fields and power stations.  Israel used fighter jets that flew on a 1700 km mission (each way) to carry out the counter attacks.  The attacks came after Yemen claimed responsibility for its drone attack against Tel-Aviv on Thursday night that killed one Israeli and injured 8 others.  Since October 7, 2024, the Houthis of Yemen have also been launching numerous missile attacks against Eilat and other parts of Israel, attacking Israeli ships and other ships bound for Israel - and taking other hostile actions against Israel.  The Houthis are armed, trained and supported by Iran and have been used as one of the proxies of Iran since October 7, 2023 to attack Israel without the attacks coming directly from Iran other than on one occasion.  The Houthis have reported that 3 people were killed and many others injured in these Israeli counterattacks.

The Houthis, the Iranians and various other groups are now vowing further attacks against Israel in response to this counterattack - so it seems reasonably likely that things will continue to escalate between Israel and Yemen and sooner or later between Israel and Iran - which is the main source and force behind just about all of the fronts that Israel is currently facing in the current war.

I just saw an interview with a Tel Aviv resident who was asleep on his balcony one building over from the drone attack in Tel-Aviv.  Debris from the drone crashed  through his makeshift roof and destroyed one of the two sofas he had on the balcony.  He was sleeping on a sofa that was connected to the other sofa that was destroyed.  He was in remarkably good spirits for someone who had been just a few feet away from likely death.  When asked about this, he said "I am especially thankful that the debris didn't destroy my barbecue.  That would have been a real disaster."  

I don't mean to make light of the situation.  One person was killed by this drone attack and 8 others were injured.  But sometimes, a sense of humour is the way people deal with very stressful situations.

2. The Olympics

As you know the Olympic games open this week - on Friday.  Some events start before the official opening. The Israeli men's soccer team will be playing its opening game against Mali on Wednesday.  That is very exciting since it is only the second time  in Israel's history that its soccer team has qualified and will be participating in the Olympic games.  In the first round, Israel will also play Paraguay and Japan.  They will need to come up with some major upsets to get out of this group and advance to the next round.

But the big story in Israel - is the security concerns.  Israeli athletes in a wide range of sports have been receiving death threats, mock funeral notices and subjected to all kinds of other intimidation tactics.  

The athletes all seem resolved to press ahead, represent Israel and put their trust in the security arrangements that are being made to protect them.  But these threats are very frightening and I can imagine that it must be quite difficult to have that additional layer of worry - while preparing for the biggest sports challenge of one's life.

3. Adidas

In a related note, as you might have read, Adidas chose this occasion to roll out a new advertising campaign for a retro shoe - its 1972 version of one of its sneakers.  Hmm.... Adidas chose to use Bella Hadid for its advertising campaign.  Hadid has been a fierce defender of Palestinians and Hamas since the October 7, 2023 attacks.  And as you might recall, 1972 is the year in which Palestinian terrorists attacked Israeli athletes and murdered 11 athletes and coaches.  So when you string all of this together, this was quite obviously a pro-terrorism, anti-Israel campaign by Adidas to commemorate, in a positive way, the massacre of Israeli athletes.  Completely disgusting.  After receiving all kinds of complaints (Not only from Israelis and Jews), Adidas has apparently "suspended" this offensive campaign.  Adidas has claimed that it "didn't make the connection..."  I will leave it to intelligent readers to draw their own conclusions.

4. Ultra-Religious Enlistment    

As you might recall, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that Israeli Haredim (ultra-religious) are no longer entitled to an exemption from the army and must now be recruited like everyone else.  Apparently, today is the first day that thousands of ultra-religious 18 year-olds began receiving conscription orders.  It remains to  be seen whether they will actually report for duty and if so, how many, but there is a sense that the landscape on this issue is starting to change. We may soon seen large numbers of Haredim in the Israeli army.

5. Prime Minister Netanyahu

Prime Minister Netanyahu is planning to fly to the U.S. this week and address a joint session of Congress. He is also supposed to meet with President Biden and apparently he will also meet with former President Trump.  The meeting with Biden is contingent of course on whether Biden is healthy enough to meet Netanyahu and whether Netanyahu can be assured that Biden is no longer contagious. Netanyahu is not particularly interested in picking up a case of Covid - even though thousands of Israeli soldiers are risking their lives as we speak in much more dangerous ways.

Netanyahu is, of course, looking to bolster U.S. assistance in the war with Gaza as well as all of the other fronts that Israel is currently facing - including Hezbollah, the Houthis, the Syrians, the Iranians, the Iraqis and other potential threats.  Netanyahu is certainly looking for assurances that the U.S. will continue to supply much needed weaponry as well as diplomatic support.

For the U.S., the current administration is quite interested in bringing the war to an end and is likely to push Netanyahu to agree to a deal.  Apparently, the parties are fairly close to a deal though there are a number of issues that have not yet been resolved.  One issue relates to the Gaza-Egypt border - and what assurances will be in place to keep Hamas from being resupplied with weapons through this border.  Israel would like to retain some level of control over that border which it now controls.

A second concern is that Hamas has been insisting on the right to send armed forces to reestablish control over northern Gaza.  Israel has not been prepared to agree to this condition, which would lead to further hostilities very shortly.

There is some concern that Netanyahu will be using the trip to try to pressure Biden and campaign implicitly (if not explicitly) for Trump, just as he did while Obama was President. It is a calculated gamble by Netanyahu since there is always the possibility that things could turn around for the Democrats and he will have alienated an administration that he would have to work with.  Moreover, it is not even clear that Trump will be as supportive as expected, if Trump does win.  J.D. Vance has espoused some very isolationist views and is certainly unclear that Trump will be as great for Israel as many assume.

Finally, it hasn't escaped anyone in Israel's attention that Prime Minister Netanyahu's son, Yair, will be celebrating his 33rd birthday on Friday July 26, 2024.  Netanyahu will of course stick around after speaking at Congress to help his son celebrate.  It is unclear what form the celebrations will take or whether they will be paid for by the State of Israel. No one seems to know what Yair is even doing in the U.S. but he has requested a diplomatic passport and full 24 hour security detail.  I'm not about to speculate on what Yair has been up to - (other than sending out obnoxious twitter feeds) but I know that his father really enjoys fine wines, Cuban cigars and high end meals.  So it will probably be a pretty nice celebration, wherever it takes place.

6. Flying to Israel

As you may have seen, Air Canada announced that it would now cancel all flights through November 2024 at least between Canada and Tel-Aviv.  El Al stopped flying directly a while ago.  So if you are planning a trip between Toronto and Tel-Aviv, you can either fly through the US and connect with one of the El Al routes - or you can travel through Europe.  El Al flights are generally heavily booked and very expensive.

For my next flight, I am planning to fly Aegean via Greece and the pick up an Air Canada flight.  We will see how that goes.  I haven't tried that route yet.

That's all for now.  As usual, hoping for a deal that leads to the safe return of all of our hostages, the safety of our soldiers, some type of lasting peace deal for the whole region - and best of health for everyone otherwise.

Iranian UAV Strike on Tel-Aviv July 2024 and Other Updates

I have put together another blog with a few updates and a variety of issues - since there are so many different things going on here. This is really just a limited snapshot of a few things I wanted to highlight - so I hope you find it interesting and informative.

UAV Attack on Israel

Tel-Aviv was hit today by an Iranian UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle), which was launched by the Houthis (a proxy of Iran, operating out of Yemen).  Apparently, at least 5 of these UAVs were launched from Yemen and four of them were shot down by the Americans, from somewhere off the coast of Yemen.  The Israeli military claims that it was tracking the UAV but decided not to shoot it down.  It is hard to understand why this gross miscalculation occurred but the the bottom line is that the military failed to shoot down the threat.

The UAV crashed into an apartment building in Tel-Aviv, just two blocks from two of our immediate family members.  This was around 3:30 a.m.  One person was killed and 8 others were injured, all civilians.  Within a short period of time, as slew of ambulances arrived to care for the injured.  Thankfully, none of our family members were injured though we are obviously deeply concerned about the loss of life of the one victim and hopeful for the speedy recovery of the other eight. 

A military spokesman for the Houthis announced that this attack was "in sympathy with the Palestinians of Gaza" and promised that further attacks would be carried out.  Although Israel is technically in a state of war with Yemen and has no peace treaty with that country - Israel has never previously been engaged in any kind of direct hostilities with Yemen (or with Iran for that matter) prior to October 7, 2023.

This is a crazy situation and it is unclear how Israel will respond. It is obviously completely untenable for the security of Israel to sit back and absorb lethal attacks like this from Yemen without responding.  

The War

As you  probably know, the war in Gaza and the war with Hezbollah in the north both continue to rage on.  There is some sense that the Israeli army is operating in Gaza at a greatly reduced capacity - though there is still a great deal of fighting still taking place in several areas.  Last week, Israel carried a targeted assassination attempt on the life of Mohamed Deif, who is or was one of Hamas' top military commanders - and one of the masterminds behind the October 7, 2023 massacre.  Deif was surrounded by several Hamas military personnel and other top Hamas commanders.  There has been no official confirmation by Hamas or by the Israeli army that Deif was killed but the top commander with whom he was meeting was identified by Hamas has having been among those killed.

Israeli reports have indicated that  somewhere in the range of 15,000 to 18,000 Hamas military personnel have been killed in the fighting since October 7, 2023 - with estimates of the Hamas forces in Gaza running up to 40,000 or so.  Many others have been injured or taken into custody.  

Although the Hamas military has suffered a significant blow, the Hamas leader, Yehiah Sinwar, still seems to view this whole war as a victory for Hamas.  Hamas has managed to tilt the public and political opinion in several countries towards the Palestinians - some of whom have even decided to declare recognition of a "Palestinian State" (without any defined borders).  Sinwar has stated that he would be willing to sacrifice the lives of several hundred thousand Palestinians to achieve his long term goals (presumably as long as he and his family members are not among those being "sacrificed.").

While there are apparently ongoing talks to try and reach some sort of agreement to free the 120 Israeli hostages that Hamas is holding in Gaza and reach some sort of cease fire, there is no reason to believe at this point that a deal is imminent.

Prime Minister Netanyahu's government relies on the support of the far right parties, led by Itamir Ben-Gvir, Betzalel Smotrich and others, all of whom have stated that they will not accept this type of deal.  They are looking for a complete surrender by Hamas - and they compare this to the deal the Allies were seeking when fighting the Nazis in World War II.  Essentially, they are less interested in trying to save the lives of whichever hostages are still alive (possibly 30-60, according to some reports) and more interested in trying to achieve a "complete victory."

There are many in Israel challenging this perspective, including past and current heads of the Mossad, various high ranking military personnel, and a wide range of politicians - even some on the "right."  They are concerned that this "complete victory" may not be achievable, that all of the lives of the hostages will be lost and that there is no plan for what comes next, even if this type of victory can be achieved.

The long and the short of it is that Netanyahu does not seem to be in any hurry to end this war - and certainly not on the terms that have thus far been proposed.  Or at least, he does not seem willing to abandon his coalition partners to agree to a proposal of the type that is currently on the table.

In my view, this is not something that is easy to navigate.  It is clearly in Israel's best interests to do everything possible to save as many of the lives of the hostages as possible.  This has always been an expectation of every Israeli government - and is like a contract with the citizens of Israel.  If there is a deal that can be made that will save a large number of lives - that must be an urgent priority for Israel.

The flip side is that if the deal that is envisioned would allow Hamas to resume importing weapons, underground, from Egypt, Israel will simply face the same types of attacks weeks or months later.  There needs to be a second track that is dedicated to figuring out how Gaza can be run or administered in a way that will not present an ongoing threat to Israel - and which entity will be responsible for that administration.  I am not even sure that there is an appetite for this on the Gaza side of the border - but the status quo is obviously untenable.

The war in the north has also been raging on with daily hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel.  Hezbollah has continued to launch all sorts of attacks against cities and towns in the Israeli north and many have been lethal.  Homes and institutions have been destroyed throughout the north and more than 100,000 Israelis are currently displaced from their homes and living in make-do arrangements in different parts of Israel.  Aside from the human cost - in terms of civilians and military personnel who have been killed and injured in the north, the economic damage has also been massive.  For example, many of the wineries in the north have suffered massive damage.  This week a sizeable percentage of the Pelter vineyards were set aflame and destroyed.  Many other wineries have suffered massive damage.  That is just one example of an industry that has paid an enormous price for this war.

Yet the Israeli military response to all of this in the north has been relatively restrained. Israel has stated repeatedly that it is trying to finish the Gaza war first but this has led to a horrible situation for Israel's northern residents who are feeling abandoned.  In this regard, even many of Netanyahu's critics on the left have called for a much greater response from Israel towards Hezbollah, even at the risk of escalation with Iran.  Some have speculated that the U.S. has dictated this policy - to avoid a direct and massive confrontation with Iran - but that is unclear.  For its part, Hezbollah has stated that if an agreement is reached between Hamas and Israel - it will cease its attacks against Israel.  From Israel's perspective, that will only be good  enough if Hezbollah withdraws its forces from the border and agrees to abide by previous cease fire agreements which have required Hezbollah to adhere to a demilitarized zone within a defined area of Lebanon.

The ICJ

Amidst all of this, Israeli TV broadcast some of the proceedings of the ICJ - the International Court of Justice - attacking Israel. Led by a Lebanese judge - the level of bias, irony and pure ridiculousness is, frankly outrageous.  It is in many ways even worse than watching a group of Trump-appointed judges on the U.S. Supreme Court rule that he is immune from most criminal prosecution.  But I digress. 

I won't dignify the ICJ further by spending more time on it - but the whole situation in Israel since October 7, 2023  has demonstrated the incredible double standard and bias to which Israel is subjected on the world stage.  Much of that is attributable to the fact that there are some two billion Muslims in the world and only about 13 million Jews.  But you can be sure that if any other country were subjected to the type of massacre that Hamas carried out in Israel, the type of response would be virtually unlimited.

Imagine, for example, what the U.S. would have done, if 9/11 had killed ten times as many people proportionately - and had resulted in the taking of hostages and  ongoing missile attacks against U.S. territory.  You can be sure that the U.S. would have taken every possible step to eliminate the threat completely. Of course if this type of attack were carried out against other UN luminaries, like  Russia, Iran, China or others, you can imagine what they would do.

Managing in Israel

Medical Issues and Getting an MRI

I have from time to time written about different issues relating to life in Israel.  Some people reading these sections might not be interested at all and some might be curious about how some of these things work in Israel.

As you may know, the Israeli medical system is a universal health care system, similar to the system in Canada but with some twists.  Unlike the Canadian system, Israelis can choose to pay more and see a doctor privately.  As well, instead of a monopoly system, like OHIP in Ontario, there are four or five competing HMOs and Israelis can choose which one they would like to have as their provider.  

The Israeli universal system includes dental coverage, a subsidized pharmaceutical program and  a range of other components.

I recently suffered a bit of leg injury and required urgent care.  The HMO that I use (Maccabi) runs a fractures and urgent care clinic and urges you to attend that clinic for non-life threatening injuries.  If you go to the emergency section of a hospital and you are not actually hospitalized, you can face a "co-pay" of approximately $500 Cdn.

The urgent care clinic conducts x-rays on site but not ultrasounds or MRIs.  So I was able to have an x-ray taken relatively quickly with the good news that nothing was broken.  However, the treating physician recommended an ultra-sound.

Booking this is somewhat centralized - so we were able to phone a few times and find a cancelled appointment opening in Jerusalem the next day (about an hour's drive).  After that, we were assured that the radiologist would provide a report within a  week or so, which was exactly the time it took.

We were lucky enough to have a connection to an orthopedic doctor - which can normally take several weeks to see, if not longer, like in Ontario (unless you want to pay privately).  We were willing to visit late at night and wait two hours in a reception room to see the doctor.

In the meantime, we received the report and the report included a recommendation to book an MRI.  This can take several months to book, unless you can find a cancellation.  But there is a process that is available - which we followed.  You get the approval form from the HMO and then send an email to each hospital's MRI department individually and request an appointment.  We sent out 14 such requests by email  - and - ta-da - managed to get an MRI scheduled for the next day at 1 a.m.  We were told that it could take up to 3 weeks to get a radiologist's report and we are still waiting - but it does seem that if you are willing to travel and flexible on timing - you can get an MRI scheduled reasonably quickly in Israel.  (If you want to pay privately, you can apparently pay about $1,200 USD - which is another option).

Identity Cards And Driver's License Renewals

My driver's licence was due to expire next month.  For renewal of a licence in Israel, the process was ridiculously easy.  You simply go online, pay the fee - and they use their existing file photo of you to renew the licence for a ten year period.  Perhaps on the downside, it was not necessary to do a vision test, a health test or any other kind of check. I'm not complaining - since my new licence is on the way - but it was even easier than renewing a licence in Ontario which is really not that bad. And it was about $200 Cdn for a 10 year renewal.

Renewing a vehicle permit is much more rigorous.  You have take your car to a testing centre, each year, and have it pass a test in order to renew the permit.  This is a full test of all aspects of the vehicle - brakes, lighting, steering, exhaust, you name it.  The line-up at these testing centres can be quite long.  Our car apparently had a lighting problem - where the front headlights were  insufficiently intense.  We were told that there was a "recall" on our vehicle for this problem and the dealership should fix the problem for free - even though we had just recently gone for full service at the dealership.  So we went back to the dealership - and after some back and forth - they finally agreed to change the lighting  as part of the recall.  Then we had to go back to the testing centre - and wait in a  line again (a slightly shorter line for follow-up visits) and get retested.  But it all worked out.  Overall, much more time-consuming than renewing a licence - but this probably explains why all of the cars on the road in Israel are in such great shape....(If you are not laughing, you are overdue for a visit here).

Israelis also have to have and carry around a "National Identity Card" which serves as a combination of an SSN/SIN and/or a photo ID that can be used instead of a drivers' licence.  You would not normally think that this was not something that would expire - but I was advised that Israel is moving to a fully biometric system and that my current ID would expire in January 2025.  If I didn't renew mine - I would be left without an identity....

So I went online to find a date to book an appointment and found a date in mid-September.  But of course there are new cancellation dates released every day as long as you are flexible.  So we found an appointment the next day and drove up to Hadera (about 45 minutes north) for an early morning meeting.  I had my old ID card - which is a photo ID - but that is apparently not enough for the clerks.  I also needed to answer a whole pile of questions -  my parents' first names, my wife's parents' names, my kids names, the date of  my anniversary, the year we arrived in Israel - and a few others.  I managed to pass (turns out that I really was who I said I was....) - and then posed for a new photo and was assured that my new identity card would be in the mail within three weeks or so.  Obviously not nearly as efficient as renewing a licence but perhaps the ID card is even more important in Israeli society.  Of course I am comforted in knowing that I will not lose my identity.

I probably have several other anecdotes that you might find amusing - but I have to save some material for future blogs.

For now, as with my past blogs, I am continuing to hope for  the safe return of all of our hostages, the safety of all of our military and other security personnel, an end to this war with some type of viable solution in place for long term peace  and my general best wishes for health and safety for all of us.  Shabbat Shalom.