Category: Israel

For Nov. 5 Vote Diamond Ponders Deregulation of Entrepreneurs, Survival of Israel, Defense of Freedom of Speech

Art Diamond on 9/26/24 with red Nebraska sign.

I requested a red Nebraska sign that was delivered yesterday. Our Omaha district is sometimes called “the blue dot” because it sometimes votes against the rest of red Nebraska. To decide what to do on Nov. 5, I mostly ask three questions. Who will most reduce regulations so that entrepreneurs can create the goods and services that allow us to flourish? Who will stand firm for the survival of the freedom sanctuary that is Israel? And especially, who will stand firm for the nonpoliticized rule of law and for freedom of speech?

“Hamas Knew” It Was “Starting a Devastating War” With “Heavy Civilian Casualties” Among Gazans

(p. 1) On Oct. 7 [2023], as the Hamas-led attack on Israel was unfolding, many Palestinians took to the streets of Gaza to celebrate what they likened to a prison break and saw as the sudden humiliation of an occupier.

But it was just a temporary boost for Hamas, whose support among Gazans has been low for some time. And as the Israeli onslaught has brought widespread devastation and tens of thousands of deaths, the group and its leaders have remained broadly unpopular in the enclave. More Gazans have even been willing to speak out against Hamas, risking retribution.

In interviews with nearly a dozen Gaza residents in recent months, a number of them said they held Hamas responsible for starting the war and helping to bring death and destruction upon them, even as they blame Israel first and foremost.

. . .

Some of the Gazans who spoke to The New York Times said that Hamas knew it would be starting a devastating war with Israel that would cause heavy civilian casualties, but that it did not provide any food, water or shelter to help people survive it. Hamas leaders (p. 9) have said they wanted to ignite a permanent state of war with Israel on all fronts as a way to revive the Palestinian cause and knew that the Israeli response would be big.

Throughout the war, hints of dissent have broken through, sometimes even as Gazans were mourning loved ones killed by Israeli attacks. Others waited until they left the enclave to condemn Hamas — and even then were at times reluctant in case the group survives the war and continues to govern Gaza.

In March [2024], the well-known Gaza photojournalist Motaz Azaiza caused a brief social media firestorm when he obliquely criticized Hamas after he left the territory. He was one of a handful of young local journalists who rose to international prominence early in the war for documenting the death and destruction on social media.

“If the death and hunger of their people do not make any difference to them,” he wrote in an apparent reference to Hamas, “they do not need to make any difference to us. Cursed be everyone who trafficked in our blood, burned our hearts and homes, and ruined our lives.”

. . .

Gauging public opinion in Gaza was difficult even before the war began. For one, Hamas, which long controlled territory, perpetuated a culture of fear with its oppressive system of governance and exacted retribution against those who criticized it.

. . .

One Gaza resident who in recent months fled to Egypt with her family said that she hears regularly from friends and family that they do not want the war to end before Hamas is defeated in Gaza. She said Hamas had prioritized its own aims over the well-being of the Palestinians they purport to defend and represent.

“They could have surrendered a long time ago and saved us from all this suffering,” said the woman, who asked not to be named for fear of possible retribution if her criticism were made public.

For the full story see:

Raja Abdulrahim and Iyad Abuheweila. “Gazans Voice Their Distress Under Hamas.” The New York Times, First Section (Sunday, June 16, 2024): 1 & 9.

(Note: ellipses, and bracketed years, added.)

(Note: the online version of the story has the date June 15, 2024, and has the title “As War Drags On, Gazans More Willing to Speak Out Against Hamas.”)

U.N. Official Says Criminal Attacks on Gaza Aid Convoys May “Undermine Everything We’re Trying to Do”

(p. 9) A group of Palestinian men approached a United Nations warehouse in central Gaza last week and demanded access to aid stored inside. The gang wasn’t interested in food, fuel or medicine. It wanted something it considered far more valuable: contraband cigarettes hidden in the humanitarian cargo.

The incident, described by a U.N. official, is emblematic of a significant new impediment to aid deliveries in the enclave. Rampant cigarette smuggling—fueled by high prices for tobacco—has become the latest manifestation of a breakdown in law and order that is slowing the delivery of lifesaving assistance.

Aid trucks and storage depots have become targets for Palestinian smugglers seeking to retrieve illicit smokes stashed inside shipments by their accomplices, say U.N. and Israeli officials. Other local criminals are also attacking vehicles they suspect have cigarettes hidden somewhere on board, they say.

Cigarettes sell for as much as $25 apiece in isolated Gaza, so getting hold of even a pack can be enormously profitable.

. . .

Criminal attacks on aid convoys have become so severe that over a thousand truckloads of aid have been left sitting on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom border crossing with Israel. Even a daily Israeli pause in fighting along a critical supply route hasn’t been enough to get aid groups to move shipments. “This is threatening to undermine everything we’re trying to do,” a U.N. official said.

For the full story see:

Stephen Kalin, Dov Lieber and Fatima AbdulKarim. “In Gaza, $25 Cigarettes Make Aid Trucks Targets.” The Wall Street Journal (Thursday, June 20, 2024): A7.

(Note: ellipsis added.)

(Note: the online version of the story was updated June 19, 2024, and has the title “At $25 Each, Cigarettes Are Turning Gaza Aid Trucks Into Targets.”)

Israel’s Version of Reagan’s Missile-Defense System Protected Against Iran’s Barrage

(p. A13) Allow me to identify who saved the people of Israel last weekend from Iran’s missile barrage: Ronald Reagan.

In 1983, President Reagan in a televised speech proposed what he called the Strategic Defense Initiative. Its core idea was that the U.S. would build defense systems that could shoot down nuclear-armed ballistic missiles, then expected to be fired by the Soviet Union at the U.S. mainland.

Democrats and much of the defense establishment mocked the idea, with Sen. Ted Kennedy naming it “Star Wars.”

. . .

By universal acclamation, the hero of last weekend was Israel’s missile-defense systems. The world watched in real time Saturday night as Reagan’s commitment to shooting down missiles protected Israel’s population from the more than 300 drones and ballistic and cruise missiles fired by Iran and its proxies at cities across Israel.

No nation more quickly recognized the necessity of missile defenses than Israel, a small, population-packed country that couldn’t afford the conceit of some U.S. politicians, then and today, that the American landmass is somehow safe from missile attacks. Within two years of Reagan’s announcement, Israel signed a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. to develop missile defenses. The fruits of that four-decade partnership couldn’t be clearer.

. . .

Reagan’s missile-defense legacy does have an important advocate: Donald Trump. As president in 2019, Mr. Trump revived the U.S. missile-defense program, and he restated that commitment, citing Reagan, during this year’s New Hampshire primary.

For the full story see:

Daniel Henninger. “WONDER LAND; Reagan Just Saved Israel.” The Wall Street Journal (Thursday, April 17, 2024): A13.

(Note: ellipses added.)

(Note: the online version of the story has the date April 18, 2024, and has the title “WONDER LAND; Ronald Reagan Just Saved Israel From Iran’s Attack.”)

Ondrasik Sings in Support of Israel’s Fight “For Freedom, Democracy, Life, Civilization”

(p. A11) The music industry loves a good cause. Band Aid, Live Aid, Farm Aid, Stand Up to Cancer, Hope for Haiti, the Concert for Sandy Relief, the Concert for Ukraine—when the issue is potent enough, big-name musicians from every genre will come, and usually perform for free. All they typically want is to show the world how much they care.

The ability to shine a light on issues and causes that matter is a perk of fame. For John Ondrasik, right now, that’s Israel. The Grammy-nominated American singer and musician, who goes by the nom de chanson Five for Fighting, has been steadfast and outspoken about the Jewish state’s security needs since the Oct. 7 attacks. This has made him a unicorn among his music-industry peers. Most prefer simply to keep their heads down.

. . .

Mr. Ondrasik, 59, isn’t keeping his head down. He appears on Fox News and on Mark Levin’s radio show. He’s aggressive on Twitter in support of Israel. He is, as his stage name suggests, something of a brawler. On April 13 [2024], the night before Iran launched a barrage of missiles and drones at Israel, he performed at an outdoor concert in Tel Aviv and condemned “the evil that is Hamas.” He sang his Oct. 7-themed song, “OK”—the refrain is “We are not OK”—for the families of hostages still in Gaza.

“Why are you doing this?” Mr. Ondrasik says people always want to know. He isn’t Jewish. He doesn’t have relatives in Israel. He’s from Southern California and his heritage is Slovak. But, he says, “I’m human.” In Tel Aviv he told the crowd, “One doesn’t have to be Jewish to support Israel in their fight—sorry, our fight—for freedom, democracy, life, civilization, against those who want to tear it down.”

. . .

The left-right dynamic infuriates Mr. Ondrasik: “It’s not political. It shouldn’t be.” He says his support for Israel derives from the same impulse that led him to champion Ukraine in its fight for survival against Russia. They are both free nations fighting to preserve the Western values of democracy and human rights against those who would replace them with tyranny.

For the full interview see:

Matthew Hennessey. “THE WEEKEND INTERVIEW; A Lone Voice Sings for Israel.” The Wall Street Journal (Saturday, April 27, 2024): A11.

(Note: ellipses, and bracketed year, added; some words in the original were italicized, but the format of this blog does not allow that to be distinguished.)

(Note: the online version of the interview has the date April 26, 2024, and has the title “THE WEEKEND INTERVIEW; Five for Fighting: A Lone Voice Sings for Israel.”)

Organized Gazan Cigarette-Seeking Attacks on Aid Convoys “Pose a Formidable Obstacle” to Feeding the Hungry

(p. A1) A new problem is bedeviling humanitarian aid convoys attempting to deliver relief to hungry Gazans: attacks by organized crowds seeking not the flour and medicine that trucks are carrying, but cigarettes smuggled inside the shipments.

In tightly blockaded Gaza, cigarettes have become increasingly scarce, now generally selling for $25 to $30 apiece. U.N. and Israeli officials say the coordinated attacks by groups seeking to sell smuggled cigarettes for profit pose a formidable obstacle to bringing desperately needed aid to southern Gaza.

. . .

(p. A5) Andrea De Domenico, who runs the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Jerusalem, confirmed that aid officials had “seen cartons of U.N.-branded assistance with cigarettes inside.” He said the contraband cigarettes had created “a new dynamic” of organized attacks on aid convoys.

. . .

Mr. De Domenico showed The Times footage he had taken during a recent drive along the road leading into Gaza from Kerem Shalom: Full flour bags can be seen strewed along the side of the road, seemingly of little interest to the looters.

“Their main purpose here was to search for the cigarettes,” said Manhal Shaibar, who runs a Palestinian trucking company at Kerem Shalom that ferries U.N. aid.

. . .

One cigarette seller in Gaza City said prices could range up to $40 per cigarette for more sought-after brands. Desperate smokers were willing to pay the high prices, despite being impoverished after several months of war, he said.

The seller, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared retribution, said Hamas forces were still present in the area but not as police to apply the law, just as “mafias.”

For the full story see:

Aaron Boxerman and Natan Odenheimer. “Cigarettes Smuggled in Gaza Aid Attract Mobs and Stall Convoys.” The New York Times (Wednesday, July 10, 2024): A1 & A5.

(Note: ellipses, and bracketed years, added.)

(Note: the online version of the story has the date July 9, 2024, and has the title “Cigarette Smuggling in Gaza Turns Aid Trucks Into Targets.”)

Hamas Used $1 Billion of United Nations Aid to Build Tunnels and Buy Weapons

(p. A7) For years, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency sent millions of dollars each month to Gaza to pay employees and support hospitals, schools and other infrastructure, according to a new lawsuit. The money was wired from New York, where the agency has an office, to the West Bank, where financial institutions loaded some of that cash onto trucks to be driven across Israel to Gaza.

The suit, filed Monday [June 24, 2024] in federal court in Manhattan, said some of those dollars ended up funding the military operations of Hamas, the Islamist group that has controlled Gaza for nearly 20 years and has pledged to erase the Jewish state. The money trail is at the heart of the case against seven current and former top UNRWA officials who are accused of knowing that Hamas siphoned off more than $1 billion from the agency to pay for, among other things, tunneling equipment and weapons that aided its attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

. . .

UNRWA was created in 1949 and is funded primarily through donations from U.N. member nations. The United States has long been the largest contributor, giving $371 million in 2023, nearly 30 percent of the agency’s contributions, according to a congressional report.

. . .

The suit relies on a long and tortuous trail of cash that stretches from Manhattan to the Middle East.

. . .

The complaint says the group used the money “to buy via smugglers its weapons, ammunition, explosives, construction materials for the tunnels and rocket-making supplies.”

. . .

The complaint does not reveal what evidence the plaintiffs will present to prove with certainty that UNRWA money in Gaza was used to finance the Oct. 7 attack. Nor does the complaint provide specific details to support the claim that Hamas controls the currency exchanges.

But a report by Key Aid Consulting for UNRWA in 2018 said that the exchanges are open to “leakage,” which includes “misappropriation, fraud, corruption, double-counting and any irregularity considered as a diversion of cash grants or vouchers from legitimate uses.”

For the full story see:

Ken Belson and Katherine Rosman. “Hamas Siphoned Off $1 Billion in U.N. Aid, Lawsuit Claims.” The New York Times (Wednesday, June 26, 2024): A7.

(Note: ellipses, and bracketed years, added.)

(Note: the online version of the story has the date June 24, 2024, and has the title “Hamas Skimmed $1 Billion in U.N. Aid for Weapons and Tunnels, Suit Says.”)

Jerry Seinfeld Knows “the Extreme Left and P.C. Crap” Hampers Comedy

(p. C1) Since the attacks of Oct. 7 [2023] in Israel, and through their bloody and volatile aftermath in Gaza, Mr. Seinfeld, 70, has emerged as a strikingly public voice against antisemitism and in support of Jews in Israel and the United States, edging warily toward a more forward-facing advocacy role than he ever seemed to seek across his decades of fame.

He has shared reflections about life on a kibbutz in his teens, and in December traveled to Tel Aviv to meet with hostages’ families, soberly recounting afterward the missile attack that greeted him during the trip.

He has participated, to a point, in the kind of celebrity activism with which few associate him — letter-signing campaigns, earnest messages on social media — answering simply recently when asked about the motivation for his visit to Israel: “I’m Jewish.”

And as some American cities and college campuses simmer with conflict over the Middle East crisis and Israel’s military response, Mr. Seinfeld has faced a measure of public scorn that he has rarely courted as a breakfast-obsessed comedian, intensified by the more vocal advocacy of his wife, Jessica, a cookbook author.

. . .

(p. C4) Since “Seinfeld,” he has spoken most expansively about the art of comedy itself, framing it as a morally neutral pursuit whose highest aim is to make people laugh. (Mr. Seinfeld recently made headlines for suggesting in an interview with The New Yorker that “the extreme left and P.C. crap” had hampered comedy.)

For the full story see:

Matt Flegenheimer and Marc Tracy. “Jerry Seinfeld Is Clearly No Longer About Nothing.” The New York Times (Monday, May 6, 2024): C1 & C4.

(Note: ellipsis, and bracketed year, added.)

(Note: the online version of the story has the date May 4, 2024, and has the title “Jerry Seinfeld Can No Longer Be About Nothing.”)

Hamas Steals or Slows Plentiful Aid Israel Allows into Gaza

(p. A17) A new study by a group of Israeli academic nutritionists and physicians finds that more food is being delivered to Gaza today than before the war.

. . .

The study analyzed airdrops and food shipments delivered by land from January through April 2024, based on shipping details provided by international donors and recorded by Cogat, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories.

. . .

The study revealed that the supply provided an average of 3,374 calories per person daily, well above the 2,100 recommended by the Sphere humanitarian movement as the minimum standard. It also confirms the daily availability of 101 grams of protein and 80.6 grams of fat per person, in compliance with the standards.

The problem is that distribution within a war zone is extremely challenging, and food doesn’t necessarily get to Gazans—or to hostages. When Hamas has had the means to do so, particularly earlier in the war, it has stolen aid, fired rockets from humanitarian zones, and fired at Israeli troops near aid corridors. Despite this, in a survey conducted on March 20 [2024] by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, 96% of Gazans said they could access food and water, albeit often with “great difficulty or risk.”

That’s because Cogat places no restrictions on the admission of humanitarian aid into Gaza, provided it is coordinated in advance with the Israeli authorities and passes through legitimate security screening. So far, 98.7% of all aid trucks sent were approved and entered the Gaza Strip.

For the full commentary, see:

Joel Zivot and Matthew Rabinowitz. “Plenty of Food Aid Is Getting to Gaza.” The Wall Street Journal (Thursday, June 6, 2024): A17.

(Note: ellipses, and bracketed year, added.)

(Note: the online version of the commentary has the date June 5, 2024, and has the same title as the print version.)

The study discussed in the passages quoted above is:

Fliss-Isakov, Naomi, Dorit Nitzan, Moran Blaychfeld Magnazi, Joseph Mendlovic, Sharon Alroy Preis, Gilad Twig, Aron M. Troen, and Ronit Endevelt. “Nutritional Assessment of Food Aid Delivered to Gaza by Land and Air Drops, During the 2024 War.” Working Paper, June 2, 2024.

Rex Murphy Saw We Are Governed by People Who Look Down on Us

(p. B12) Rex Murphy, a Canadian newspaper, radio and television commentator who delighted his country’s conservatives with sharp attacks on environmentalists, liberal politicians and what he called their “woke politics,” died on May 9 [2024] in Toronto. He was 77.

His death, from cancer, was announced on the front page of The National Post, the widely read daily newspaper for which he wrote a column, one of several he had over the years in Canadian papers, including The Globe and Mail in Toronto. His editor at The National Post, Kevin Libin, said Mr. Murphy died in a hospital.

. . .

Mr. Murphy’s sharp political turn to the right — from commenting for centrist outlets like the CBC and The Globe and Mail, where he had a regular column until 2010, to the right-wing views he espoused at The National Post — had its roots in his own working-class background, in the view of those who knew him.

. . .

He regularly took on what he deemed the sins of “woke” politics and “wokeism.” In a February 2023 column, he wrote: “I have finally fixed upon the definition of progressivism. It means the dismissal of everything that counts, unconcern with what makes life hard for most, and a scorn for the realities of day to day; instead shepherding to very particular political interest groups.”

In his final days there were diatribes against critics of Israel during its war with Hamas and against the liberalism of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

. . .

Mr. Murphy was animated, Mr. Libin said, by “the sense that we were being governed by people who looked down on us.”

. . .

Throughout his career, Mr. Murphy set great store by verbal expression. His fans and his critics agreed that his distinctive, sometimes high-flown use of English was what set him apart from his country’s other journalists. Profiles noted that he was as devoted to the works of John Milton as he was to “The Simpsons.”

For the full obituary see:

Adam Nossiter. “Rex Murphy, 77, a Pundit on the Right in Canada.” The New York Times (Friday, May 24, 2024): B12.

(Note: ellipses, and bracketed year, added.)

(Note: the online version of the obituary was updated May 23, 2024, and has the title “Rex Murphy, a Dominant Pundit on the Right in Canada, Dies at 77.”)

Researchers and Entrepreneurs Experiment with Once-Taboo Geoengineering Projects to Reverse Global Warming

(p. A3) Dumping chemicals in the ocean? Spraying saltwater into clouds? Injecting reflective particles into the sky? . . .

These geoengineering approaches were once considered taboo by scientists and regulators who feared that tinkering with the environment could have unintended consequences, but now researchers are receiving taxpayer funds and private investments to get out of the lab and test these methods outdoors.

. . .

In Israel, a startup called Stardust Solutions has begun testing a system to disperse a cloud of tiny reflective particles about 60,000 feet in altitude, reflecting sunlight away from Earth to cool the atmosphere in a concept known as solar radiation management, or SRM. Yanai Yedvab, Stardust chief executive and a former deputy chief scientist at the Israel Atomic Energy Commission, wouldn’t disclose the composition of the proprietary particles.

Yedvab said Stardust has raised $15 million from two investors and has conducted low-level aerial tests using white smoke to simulate the particles’ path in the atmosphere. After the company completes indoor safety testing, it intends to conduct a limited outdoor test of the dispersion technology, monitoring devices and particles in the next few months, Yedvab said.

. . .

Experiments aimed at cooling the atmosphere by reflecting sunlight away from Earth are an attempt to mimic what happens when a volcano erupts. In 1991, Mount Pinatubo, an active volcano in the Philippines, spewed sulfur and ash into the upper atmosphere, lowering the Earth’s temperature by .5 degrees Celsius (.9 degrees Fahrenheit) for an entire year.

For the full story, see:

Eric Niiler. “New Experiments Aim to Cool Planet.” The Wall Street Journal (Thursday, February 15, 2024): A3.

(Note: ellipses added.)

(Note: the online version of the story has the date February 14, 2024, and has the title “Scientists Resort to Once-Unthinkable Solutions to Cool the Planet.” The online version says that the title of the print version was also “Scientists Resort to Once-Unthinkable Solutions to Cool the Planet.” But my print version has the title “New Experiments Aim to Cool Planet.”)