The Week That Was: Is Israel Bordering On Insanity?
Another Week Of Insanity - Pushing Israel & Worldwide Jewish Communities To The Brink
"The Definition Of Insanity Is Doing The Same Thing Over And Over Again And Expecting Different Results."
A Week Of Insanity - Yet Again.1
A few news items in Israel recently hit the wires. One was from Israel's widely respected and revered President, Issac Herzog.
“No One In His Right Mind…”
In a speech he gave to this forum on January 18, 2024, to The World Economic Forum, Herzog summed up the prevalent majority of how the normative Israeli views the current war in Gaza with Hamas. In it, he said:
“But if you ask an average Israeli now about his mental or her mental state nobody in his right mind is willing now to I think about what will be the the solution of the peace agreements because everybody wants to know can we be promised real safety in the future. Every Israeli wants to know that he will not be attacked in the same way from north or south or east you have Hizbollah in the north armed up to its neck by Iran financed by Iran and simply firing ongoing and killing civilians and killing soldiers and going to war with Israel.”
“NOBODY IN HIS RIGHT MIND” IN ISRAEL IS THINKING ABOUT POST-WAR DEALS, HERZOG TELLS DAVOS
In a compelling address at the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland, Israeli President Isaac Herzog pushed back against US and European pressure to agree in advance to a “pathway to a Palestinian state.” He emphasized the current Israeli mindset towards peace talks with Palestinians, dramatically impacted by what has happened since October 7. Positioned next to a photograph of hopefully-just-turned-one-year-old Israeli hostage Kfir Bibas, Herzog’s words squeaked forth on Thursday, reflecting a nation’s apprehension in the wake of violence.
Herzog candidly expressed the prevailing sentiment in Israel, stating, “If you ask an average Israeli now about his or her mental state, nobody in his right mind is willing now to think about what will be the solution of the peace agreements.” The devastating attack orchestrated by Hamas terrorists, has erased that issue from public support. “Every Israeli wants to know that he will not be attacked in the same way from north or south or east,” he added, highlighting the pervasive demand for assured safety.
Recently, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly rejected a proposal from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken which suggested Saudi Arabia would normalize relations with Israel only if Jerusalem’s commitment to a pathway towards Palestinian statehood. Herzog remarked, “Israel lost trust in the peace processes because they see that terror is glorified by our neighbors.”
Blinken, speaking at Davos, countered by asserting that Israel could not attain “genuine security” without a Palestinian state. He argued that such a step is crucial for Middle Eastern unity and would help isolate Iran, a major adversary of Israel.
On the other hand, Biden and Blinken may soon no longer be on the pathway at all.
And let us not forget. There are still 132 hostages in the hands of Hamas.
The Day After, Yet Again
The question we must ask ourselves is why no one normative Israeli will even consider the “day after” until the 10/7 war is done. And the answer lies in the definition of insanity. For this, we must look just a few years into the past.
From Wikipedia & the Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
From December 27, 2008 to January 18, 2009, Israel launched a military operation in response to rocket attacks from Gaza. Israeli forces conducted airstrikes, artillery shelling, and a ground invasion in response to the rocket attacks.
Why It Matters: This was the first major conflict between Israelis and Palestinians since the end of the Second Intifada in 2005. This also saw Israeli forces re-enter the Gaza Strip for the first time since its withdrawal in 2005 due to the terror threat posed by Hamas. The conflict resulted in significant casualties and destruction in Gaza, as well as international condemnation.Gaza Strip air raids (18–19 August 2011) – A series of targeted killings and raids on PRC targets in Gaza, in response to attacks on southern Israel.
Operation Returning Echo (9–14 March 2012) – A series of Palestinian rocket attacks and Israeli reprisals following the targeted killing of PRC chief.
Operation Pillar of Defense (14–21 November 2012) – In response to over a hundred rocket attacks on southern Israeli cities, Israel began an operation in Gaza with the targeted killing of Ahmed Jabari, chief of Hamas military wing, and airstrikes against twenty underground sites housing long-range missile launchers capable of striking Tel Aviv.
From November 14 to November 21, 2012, Israel launched an operation to target terrorists and rocket launchers in Gaza, in response to increased rocket attacks from Gaza into nearby Israeli communities.
Why It Matters: The operation resulted in a ceasefire agreement brokered by Egypt and other international mediators, which ended the hostilities. While a ceasefire was brokered, this conflict reaffirmed the threat that Hamas posed to Israel, especially after the much larger 2009 conflict. In particular, Hamas’ firing of rockets into Israeli civilian areas led to more investment in Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system as well as bomb shelters and a civilian alert system in Israel. It also renewed international criticism of Israeli policies, including questions over disproportionate force by human rights groups.
Operation Protective Edge (8 July – 26 August 2014) – The IDF ended Operation Brother's Keeper, which brought tension in the region and increased rocket fire from Gaza at Israel and commenced Operation Protective Edge to retaliate on rocket fire.
In June 2014, three Israeli teenagers - Naftali Fraenkel, Gilad Shaer, and Eyal Yifrah - were abducted and killed by Hamas terrorists while hitchhiking in the West Bank. Their murder by Hamas led to a widespread Israeli crackdown on Hamas terrorists in the West Bank as well as increasing tensions and rocket fire on Israel. This eventually escalated into Operation Protective Edge, which lasted from July 8 to August 26, 2014.
Why It Matters: The operation aimed to uncover and neutralize a network of tunnels that extended from Gaza into Israeli territory as well as end Hamas rocket fire. These tunnels were viewed as a significant security risk, potentially allowing terrorists to infiltrate and carry out attacks in Israel. Hamas also has held the bodies of two Israeli soldiers - Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul - leading to significant tension between Israel and Hamas. It was also the last time Israeli ground forces entered the Gaza Strip until the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack.Operation Wall Guardian (May 2021)
Operation Breaking Dawn (5 August 2022)
This three-day conflict resulted in over 1,000 rockets being fired at Israel by the Iranian-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group and the targeted killing of PIJ commander Tayseer al-Jabari.
Why It Matters: While the operation quickly ended in a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, it was significant in that Hamas, the de facto ruler of Gaza, did not take part in the hostilities. The conflict was a setback for the Iranian-backed terror group, but tensions between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad continued into 2023 in both Gaza and the West Bank.
Israel launched Operation Shield and Arrow to end the threat against Israel posed by Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists after they fired over 100 rockets into Israel.
Why It Matters: The violence stemming from Gaza was also linked to increasing terrorism in the West Bank, specifically from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Backed by Iran, these Palestinian terror groups have sought to export their operations to the West Bank, specifically in Jenin, in order to carry out additional terror attacks against Israel. As such, Israeli security forces had been conducting near-daily counterterrorism operations in the West Bank to quell the violence.
2023 Israel–Hamas war (October 2023, ongoing) -"Operation Swords of Iron".
Every single one of these operations ended with a brokered agreement or ceasefire with Hamas or other terrorist organizations—every single one.
Israel was hoping against hope that somehow Hamas and the leadership in Gaza would finally gain some modicum of sense and realize that these constant incursions and wars and rocket fires into Israel would go nowhere. Israel wanted peace, at the very least, a cessation of hostilities. No nation, no community, no people could live like this forever.
Thus, the consistent argument that has appeared in the news is that “Netanyahu and Israel propped up the Hamas.” Of course, Israel did it. Of course, we allowed suitcases full of cash from Qatar to enter Gaza. Israel was hoping that this would placate the “terror” cells in Hamas and help the people in Gaza reach some financial independence.
Israel also continued to allow workers from Gaza to enter Israel daily for work. Work means salaries. Salaries mean money. Money means financial independence. As we know today, a high percentage of these workers (though not all) were acting as spies for Hamas, mapping out roads, homes, homeowners, and the populace.
So those who believe Israel should have reacted in the same manner as it has done in the past, with an incursion, then agreement to a ceasefire, then wait years upon years to negotiate for the return of hostages - they, by very definition, are the “insane” ones.
And let us not forget. There are still 132 hostages in the hands of Hamas.
The Genocide Travesty & The Hague Hypocrisy
This is a topic that a simple Google search will reveal every newspaper in the world giving their opinions and outlook. There is no need to list them. The simple question remains: Does Israel have the right to do what it is doing in Gaza, or should it have just let this go as it did in the past?
So let us view the options:
Rely on mediation. As we have seen, that never worked out. Indeed, with each round, the situation only got worse until 10/7.
Rely on the International community to do something about Hamas and the hostages. That is a no-brainer. The community cannot even get their hostages out of Gaza.
Rely on bodies such as the International Red Cross. That is laughable.
No options. All were tried again and again. Remember the definition of insanity? Sometimes, the insane thing to do in a situation is the sanest answer possible.
Two Hostages Killed By Hamas
Then, most recently, came the announcement of the deaths of two hostages in the hands of Hamas. Accompanied by a video.
Hostages Yossi Sharabi and Itai Svirsky reported dead in Hamas video
The update from the Gaza-based Islamist terror organization comes in a video featuring Argamani, where the 26-year-old reported the death of her fellow hostages.
Is it true? Is it the ploy of psychological warfare?
The Hamas terror organization announced on Monday that hostages Yossi Sharabi, 53, and Itai Svirsky, 38, had been killed in captivity. Noa Argamani, 26, is reportedly still alive.
The update from the Gaza-based Islamist terror organization comes in a video featuring Argamani, where the 26-year-old reported the death of her fellow hostages.
Hamas has been teasing the announcement
The video followed Hamas's sequence of teased announcements, where they claimed that they would announce the fate of the three Israelis.
Well, it seems it was true. It seems they were beheaded.
Another type of insanity reigns.
The Saddest Birthday In The World
As Kfir Bibas turns 1 in captivity, supporters from Tel Aviv to Davos mark ‘the saddest birthday in the world’
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Three weeks after her cousin was abducted and taken to Gaza along with her family, Yifar Zailer said she knew one thing for sure: “I don’t want to be here in two months, celebrating Kfir’s first birthday.”
And yet that’s exactly what Zailer did on Thursday, returning to Hostages Square in Tel Aviv for what her family had dubbed “the saddest birthday in the world.”
Zailer was there along with hundreds of others to mark the first birthday of Kfir Bibas, the youngest hostage to be taken hostage when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7.
Kfir and his 4-year-old brother Ariel became an early face to the hostage crisis that morning, when Hamas released a video clip showing them being abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz along with their mother Shiri, whose terror was visible. Their father Yarden Bibas was also abducted.
As Kfir Bibas turns 1 in captivity, supporters from Tel Aviv to Davos mark "the saddest birthday in the world."
Kfir and his 4-year-old brother Ariel became an early face to the hostage crisis.
Many people in the crowd were wearing orange in homage to the two brothers’ distinctive red hair and clutching orange balloons. The balloons were released at the end of the event to the tune of “They Call Me Gingi,” a new song composed for the baby by several Israeli performers.
Is It Really A Delusion?
In an analysis article in Israel’s well respected though thoroughly left-wing newspaper, Haaretz, entitled:
Netanyahu's Government Gets More Delusional as Israel's Campaign in Gaza Grinds On
Amos Harel, the author, portrays from the view of the Israeli left another type on insanity. Yet he is caught in his own words:
The thought that it would be possible to bypass the conflict with the Palestinians by means of peace and normalization arrangements with Gulf countries has been refuted. So, too, has the twisted idea of strengthening Hamas at the expense of the Palestinian Authority, in the hope that it would be possible to maintain eternally a divide-and-rule policy in the territories, which would thwart the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
All refuted. All proved wrong. All insane hopes for peace. So what is Amos Harel’s answer? Forget it all and let Hamas go. Get the hostages back, if possible, and move on.
Yet another type of insanity, leading to yet another even worse attack and yet again another war.
And beware. This is not the majority opinion in Israel. This comes from the far left. It certainly in no way reflects the current 80-90% of support for the war and to finish the war. (Do not confuse that with support for Netanyahu. They are two different things.)
And Once Again, Another Hamas Tunnel
IDF reveals details of massive Gaza tunnel where hostages were kept
"About 20 hostages were held at different times in difficult conditions, without fresh air," said the IDF spokesman.
The tunnel was 830 meters long and 20 meters deep. During the advance in the tunnel, the soldiers encountered a number of terrorists, which they subsequently eliminated. When the forces reached the tunnel, there were no hostages in it; they had been previously moved to another location.
The tunnel was located in the heart of a civilian area in Khan Yunis, and its entrance was from the house of a Hamas terrorist. According to Israeli intelligence estimates, millions of shekels were invested in its construction.
For those who need translation from the metric system: 830 meters long is 2723.1 feet or a little over one-half of a mile. 20 meters deep is 65.6168 feet deep. This is not a “Great Escape” tunnel, as seen in the video. It is set up with blast doors and jail doors.
And let us not forget. There are still 132 hostages in the hands of Hamas.
And On The World Front:
At least 30 Jewish families in Oakland, California, have pulled their children out of the public school system due to rising antisemitism.
In New York, a Brooklyn public school displayed a map that deliberately excluded Israel and instead referred to the area solely as “Palestine.” The U.S. subsidiary of the Qatar Foundation provided the map to the school.2
In Washington, DC, protestors chanted “No votes for Genocide Joe” and clashed with Secret Service agents outside the White House last weekend.
In the United Kingdom, a man threatened a Jew in London’s Hyde Park, giving a Nazi salute and saying “Heil Hitler.”
At a pro-Hamas rally in London, Palestinian activist Mohammed El-Kurd implored the crowd, “We must normalize massacres as the status quo,” receiving applause.
"This is a moment for transformation. There have been 30,000 martyres. This is our moment to transform the world," he called. "We must reject Zionism in all of our institutions because to be anti-racist is to be anti-Zionist."
"It does not contain multitudes, it does not contain double meanings, it is not romantic. Zionism is apartheid, it's genocide, it's murder, it's a racist ideology rooted in settler expansion and racial domination and we must root it out of the world. We must de-Zionize because Zionism is a death cult."
Signing off, the activist called to "normalize the massacres as the status quo."3
In South Africa, the Jewish captain of the U-19 cricket team was removed from that role amid backlash to his pro-Israel statement. Also, the International Ice Hockey Federation barred Israel from future competitions, citing “security concerns,” prompting a rebuke from the National Hockey League.
This week, Israel defended itself from South Africa’s genocide claim against it at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. South Africa’s accusation garnered support from the virulently anti-Israel ex-UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and U.S. Congresswomen Cori Bush and Rashida Tlaib, as well as the nations of Bangladesh, Namibia, and Slovenia. Standing with Israel, the United States and Germany publicly pushed back against South Africa’s complaint.
Why am I not surprised that the name of Rashida Tlaib pops up yet again?
Finally, as some of the most prominent leaders in the world met this week in Davos, Switzerland, software giant Palantir organized an event providing a platform for freed Israeli hostages and family members of those still held in Hamas captivity to share their stories and call for the release of all who remain in Gaza.
Is Israel going insane? Is this war driving us to the brink of sanity?
Yes, the war is driving us to the brink of sanity. Yes, we are sick and tired of the death and destruction. Yes, we want our hostages back. Yes, we want to live in peace.
And sooner or later, that threat of pushing us into the sea may become much more realistic if we stop now.
Insanity after 10/7 is not to finish what Hamas began.
Insanity is to let the world dictate its version of humanity to us.
Insanity is to repeat the mistakes of the past, over and over again.
We cannot afford such “sane insanity” ever again.
And let us not forget. There are still 132 hostages in the hands of Hamas.
A quote widely though erroneously attributed to Albert Einstein. The source of this quote is probably from the mystery writer Rita Mae Brown. The phrase “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results” can be found in her 1983 book Sudden Death. However, many still claim Einstein used this quotation, though there is no source for it.
https://nypost.com/2024/01/11/metro/brooklyn-public-school-erases-israel-from-map/
https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/europe/1705180308-we-must-dezionize-because-zionism-is-a-death-cult-we-must-normalize-massacres-as-the-status-quo