The siege is very tight. Not enough food or water. No electricity at all. The lucky ones use solar systems to charge mobiles. We walk four miles to get water to our building.
Bakeries are closed due to lack of flour. Last week I bought some flour and paid 300 shekels (75 €).
[In December 2024 one kilo of flour was 35 shekels, about 8 €]
Indeed miserable and hard times.
No medications as well for my high blood pressure.
« Who can make the muddy water clear ? Let it be still, and it will gradually become clear. »
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching 3
« Those sharp weapons are instruments of evil omen, and not the instruments of the superior man ; he uses them only on the compulsion of necessity. Calm and rest are what he prizes ; victory by force of weapons is to him undesirable. To consider this desirable would be to delight in the slaughter of men ; and he who delights in the slaughter of men cannot get his will in the kingdom. » Tao Te Ching 31
Of course, I am just like you. This book, I had found it in a lovely bookstore, for students and scholars, on the right side of the road, after Qalandiya, on my way to a bilingual school, with pupils on both sides, Jews and Arabs. Was it Hand in Hand, in Katamon, with its 1,350 Muslim, Jewish, and Christian students ? I don’t think so, Katamon is in the South of Jerusalem. Anyway, the thing is, there is not just one open educational place for both Jews, Muslims, and others, in the Land. You should investigate.
Of course, people don’t know, flooded as we all are by these social networks and systems of depressing or irrelevant news, night and day. And, of course, once I got lucky enough to walk into this heavenly, unexpected place on my way, I read the book rather fast, and then forgot about it.
But, basically, you know, no alibis, no excuses. We all have free access to Google, Wikipedia, and the such. It’s all there, for all to seek and find. So, why the Chinese faces to start with ? As a respectful salute to Professor Gui Haichao, who was the first Chinese civilian to go up into space, and join the Chinese Space Station there, Tiangong, on May 31, 2023.
As for the lady in a spacesuit, she is Liu Yang, a well-respected major in the air force, the first Chinese woman to ever fly up, as far back as June 2012, and again, lately, on June 5, 2022, to join Tiangong.
Of course, nobody knows. Either about Tiangong, or about Liu Yang and Professor Gui. Myself, until Gui Haichao went up, a few days ago, I knew nothing of Chinese folks up there.
I had not been informed. As if this was a non-subject, of zero importance. As if such a Chinese endeavour, in the West, did not matter. Well, you should keep an eye open for the Chinese foray into the Middle East at least.
Does anybody remember the horrific war in Yemen, between Iran-supported Yemeni Houthis, and the Arabia-backed Yemeni loyalists, which left 400,000 dead in its bloody wake ?
And who remembers, for that matter, the 600,000 dead in Ethiopia, from « the most murderous conflict of the 21st century » ?
One million human beings wiped out from the surface of the Earth, all in the same limited sector of Africa/Arabia. Not to mention the 300,000 killed in Syria.
Reminding us of the moonwalker’s dismay and despair, when he was watching it all from up there.
This « feeling of deep despair – the darkest, deepest despair. The most agonizing emotional pain I had ever felt, as I contemplated man and his condition on Earth, behaving like ancient warring tribes fighting over food and territorial rights ».
The good news : these three wars are now over. Leaving us with the tantalizing question : what did these 1,300,000 persons die for ? Since all wars stop in the end.
Take it back to our two previous Newsletters, 114 and 115. What are we driving at ?
What was it we stated in May 2023 ? That we had other burning concerns than the antediluvian quarrel of the « Arabs » and the « Jews », when the Islamic Jihad in Gaza fired hundreds of rockets at its neighbour, suddenly.
First concern, the Rising Global Heat. Second, the current Threat of World War (US & Euros vs Russia).
And what do we have now, as of June 7, 2023 ?
On one hand, that heavy orange smoke all over New York, that spreads as far North as Quebec to South of Washington, D.C., due to the two hundred forest fires in Canada out of control.
On the other hand, this liquid mass of water, over four times the Sea of Galilee, flowing furiously through that broken dam, since 2 :50 in the night of Monday to Tuesday. June 7, 2023. Thrusting tens of thousands of people out of their homes, wading through muddy waters, saving what they can in bags and suitcases. On the Eastern coast of the US, tens of millions are gasping for breath, wearing masks again to survive, as the new virus is this monster manmade warming that sets countless extents of woods ablaze, like never before. Like some insane rerun of September 11, 2001, this time on a much wider scale. People will not die in a few minutes, but from respiratory diseases and distress, through the weeks, and months. Where to go ? Where to live ?
https://twitter.com/i/status/1666550214302347267
https://twitter.com/i/status/1666508242959081490
Please watch the videos taken in Manhattan.
September 11 was a concerted attack aimed at three specific targets, taking three thousand lives. From a precise enemy, leading to the American invasion of Afghanistan, with a toll of over 160,000 killed – and what results, after twenty years of warring and military occupation ? The victory of the reviled talibans, and the restoration of the Islamic State of Afghanistan. Afghanistan, much like Viet-Nam…
Speaking of Viet-Nam now, record temperatures of 44°C were registered in early May, last month, as well as in Laos, Thailand, Burma, Bengla Desh… At mid-day cities like downtown Hanoi were empty, their inhabitants confined inside until the evening.
This is where we’re at. Now. Much faster than we might have thought.
Take it to zones of temperate climate, in Western Europe, the middle Northern part of it. The grass is all dried and yellowish-white, like in August, and the earth bursts with deep crevices, cracks, just like during the worst of droughts. Hay is becoming sparse. Water in wells is getting low and dirty. Every drop of water counts.
Whether by water or by fire, whether by explosives or by neglect and carelessness, the small spaceship we all live in is leaking, reeling and rolling.
Whether you call it Eretz Israel or Falastine, temperatures of 40°C to 50°C will become the new norm. In that tiny piece of land, there were some 200 fires in early June, « like » in Canada.
« In other words, things are happening much faster than we feared. »
https://www.ynetnews.com/environment/article/h1xtd11r9ln
https://www.jpost.com/environment-and-climate-change/article-745343
« What was it you wanted ? …What’s happening in there ?… We can start it all over, get it back on the track… » (Shadow Kingdom). We better get our priorities straight, in the big picture as in details.
Since the summer of 2014, 8 European Heads of Foreign Affairs have been to Gaza.
The 1st one was Borge Brende, from Norway, on September 8, 2014. Then came George Vella, from Malta, on October 29. Followed by Martin Lindegaard, from Denmark, on November 4, 2014. A few days later, the Head of External Affairs for Europe, Federica Mogherini, made it to Gaza in her turn.
In 2015, the first one to enter the Gaza Strip was José Garcia-Margallo from Spain, on January 13, 2015. On February 16, 2015, Charles Flanagan, from Ireland, was the 6th European Minister of Foreign Affairs to see for himself. Then came Frank-Walter Steinmeier, from Germany, on June 1st, and Bert Koenders, from the Netherlands, on July 15.
To each of them go our appreciation and gratitude. They represent the Europe that we believe in, standing for awareness and responsibility.
“We cannot wait until talks about a two-state solution are back on track, to improve living conditions.
We are sitting on a powder keg here. We must make sure it doesn’t ignite.”
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier upon his visit to Gaza, on June 1, 2015 GermanyForeignOffice @GermanyDiplo
FM Steinmeier in Gaza: I take the hope from my Talks in Jerusalem + Ramallah, that the danger of a burning powder keg is being seen.
FM Steinmeier : Need opening of Gaza borders + economic development. Gaza must not become launch pad for rocket attacks on Israel again.
The Times of Israel, February 1, 2024 https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-february-01-2024/
In The New York Times, January 31, 2024, you find mention of a “Biden Doctrine” aiming at a demilitarized Palestinian state, in the West Bank and Gaza. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/31/opinion/biden-iran-israel.html
Beyond wishful thinking, just about the only rational approach to what the Security Council of the United Nations termed “a durable cessation of hostilities”, in its December 22, 2023 Resolution 2720. (13 votes in favour, Russia & US abstaining).
Demanding the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages (§7) and that all parties to the conflict comply with their obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law, including with regard to the conduct of hostilities and the protection of civilians and civilian objects (§1), reiterating its unwavering commitment to the vision of the two-State solution where two democratic States, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace within secure and recognized borders(§12) https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/12/1145022
If we truly want a sustainable peace to last, the unending series of rockets and reactions, of attacks and counter-attacks, has to stop, permanently. We have checked the chronology : since the time Israel evacuated its 8,000 settlers in Gaza, it has been the continuous target of rockets from the Strip – first, elementary qassams, with a range of a few miles, to finally advanced Iranian models, with a range of dozens of miles, and warheads of 300 kg.
The crater of this rocket, launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in mid-November 2019, was 2 meters deep, with a diameter of 16 meters, as can be seen comparing with the size of the man in the hole.
On the whole, it is a clear timeline and equation, combining Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel and Military operations of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It computes mathematically.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel
Since 2001, Palestinian militants have launched tens of thousands[1][2][3][4] of rocket and mortar attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip as part of the continuing Palestinian–Israeli conflict. The attacks, widely condemned for targeting civilians, have been described as terrorism by the United Nations, the European Union, and Israeli officials, and are defined as war crimes by human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The international community considers indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets to be illegal under international law.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_operations_of_the_Israeli%E2%80%93Palestinian_conflict
Wikipedia is a fairly reliable and precise site on these matters. You can always double-check with other sites.
Considering the terrible gap in losses both sides, a radical change in strategy on the Palestinian side would make sense.
Leading to the rational prospect of demilitarization, the way it was done in Ireland and the Basque homeland.
We are just surprised at the silence of the Irish and Basque former chiefs of the armed organizations involved in terror.
Aren’t they in an ideal position to explain how you move from attacks and terror to negotiations and a farewell to arms?
February 2, 2024. News from Ireland. From giving up sectarian violence to winning the elections.
An Irish nationalist, member of the former political wing of the IRA, slated to become First Minister tomorrow, Mrs Michelle O’Neill. “This is a historic moment in time, it’s not lost on the wider public,” she said. “But it depends on what you do with it… Let’s get down to business. Let’s actually deliver, for the wider society out there.”
It’s been a quarter of a century since the 1998 peace agreement that ended all types of military action, and saw the IRA dump its arms. A referendum on a united Ireland still is a possibility, depending partly upon the evolution of demography between protestants and catholics, although the incoming First Minister hasn’t mentioned it.
Call it a historic shift, and see what happens next. Non-violently.
February 3, 2024. Bargaining with people’s lives.
The current talks about a cease-fire: The military quintette in Gaza would agree about a limited cessation of fire, until mid-March, and an exchange of prisoners in three parts. The big wigs in Doha and Turkey want more.
There’s dissent between those who bear the brunt of their suicidal October strategy and the happy few who live in style abroad. Disunity confirmed between the military wing on the ground & underground, and the political wing abroad.
Wall Street Journal reveals the real reason there’s no ceasefire yet
In yesterday’s Jerusalem Post, an analysis by Yaakov Katz worth reading too :
When the war in Gaza stops, the political war in Israel will begin
On both sides of the divide, the problem is with the pre-October 7 leaders :
– those who let it happen, who did not see it coming,
– those who conceived the onslaught, its scope, and gave full licence to kill, loot, maim, and rape.
February 4, 2024. Hostages detained in the damp dark : what are we waiting for ?
“Hamas infighting pushes off hostage deal”
“According to Arab intelligence sources, the stance of Hamas in Gaza differs from that of the movement’s leadership abroad. Surprisingly, the Gaza leadership is willing to engage in such a deal even without international guarantees for a complete ceasefire and without Israeli withdrawal.”
Avi Issacharoff, one of the all-time best observers, on January 30, 2024. For Ynet News. Confirming emerging internal divisions within the leadership of Hamas, creating almost visible cracks that are expected to widen in the coming weeks if the terror group maintains its resistance to a deal.
The prospect is a month-and-a-half ceasefire, expected to extend to weeks, possibly months, after mid-March, assuming that the ceasefire could start by the end of this week, around February 8 or 9. The whole process could drag on though :
more and more tunnels are being exposed as the IDF records tactical achievements in underground combat. This effort will continue in the coming weeks and is expected to create even greater pressure on senior Hamas figures to agree to a deal mediated by the Qataris and Egyptians.
February 5, 2024. 3 a.m. “Returning to routine is out of the question – in no way”.
Clara Marman, kidnapped from kibbutz Nir Yitzhak on October 7, released on November 28.
“I cannot go back to normal because I am in a fight until the end”
Clara’s brother, and her companion, are still held incommunicado somewhere underground in Gaza. Along with some 130 hostages – around 30 of them are believed to be dead. Whichever way you think about this, kidnapping civilians is not resistance.
Rape is not resistance. The strategists of October 7 have, indeed, severely corrupted the Palestinian cause. As testified by former Egyptian MP Tawfik Okasha. (see below)
A parallel between Ireland, the United Kingdom, Israel and Palestine :
“This is a historic day that represents a new dawn,” O’Neill said. “That such a day would ever come would have been unimaginable to my parents’ and grandparents’ generations. Because of the Good Friday Agreement, that old state that they were born into is gone.”
Former Egyptian MP Okasha, about Hamas :
“I mourn for every death on the Israeli side and every death on the Palestinian side, but I do not mourn Hamas personnel that have been killed because they are a terror organization that has profited from the Palestinian issue. They are an organization that turned Egypt into a no man’s land, and its hands are covered in the blood of Egypt. I will not forget it.”
“Hamas corrupted the Palestinian cause as well as led to the loss of opportunities of reaching a two-state solution because of their uprising against the PA in 2007.
“They orchestrated an attack on Israel on October 7 and used the same tactics and tools as ISIS and al-Qaeda,”
https://www.jpost.com/international/article-785216
February 6, 2024. The in-depth dimension of the confrontation.
Few people in the rich Northern hemisphere know where Yemen exactly is.
A number of people have heard that Yemeni Houthis have hit commercial vessels heading for the Suez canal. Arguing that they were thus targeting Israel and its allies. The consequence being that hundreds of such Northbound ships have had to navigate around the Southern tip of Africa to reach Europe, leading to a sharp rise in transportation fees.
More recently, we have heard about ballistic missiles launched at Israel from Yemen.
“Arrow intercepts missile in red Sea headed for Eilat”
https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-784928
Eilat, even my garage mechanic knows where that is, due to the Club Med where he spent holidays scuba-diving, long ago. Eilat being 1840 km from Sanaa, as the crow flies, it makes you wonder what the hell the devil’s equation may be between Houthis, Israelis and all the others involved (especially when you learn that the US and the UK have sent planes to bomb Houthi sites).
You then look at the Houthi flag in Yemen, check out for the translation, and you go : Huh-huh… there we go again. Déjà vu, all over. Allahu Akbar. God’s the Greatest. Death to America. Death to Israel. Curse the Jews. Victory to Islam.
Not so subtle, especially the “Curse the Jews” line, but at least explicit.
It’s the-Jews, all over again, isn’t it ? Goebbels’s got to be laughing out loud in his non-grave, the Biederitz river, having the time of his death…
February 7, 2024. Probably the most important testimony since October 7, 2023.
Yahyah Mahamid, YNet News, February 3, 2024
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/sjoltmh56
February 8, 2024. Growing weariness.
We all get wearier, by the days. But the hostages, and the thousands of displaced people under tents or in temporary structures, in South Gaza and in Israel, are incomparably wearier than us. With those who expect their homecoming.
Why do the academics and so many Nobel laureates keep so silent ?
February 9, 2024. The feeling of betrayal.
Reading Jonathan’s October message again, from East Negev, stating “The people who lost their lives have been betrayed.”
Thinking of Hayim Katsman, the philosopher-musician, who was murdered in Kholit, the Southernmost, closest to Gaza kibbutz. Like Vivian Silver, Haim Peri, he was one of the volunteers who would drive sick Gazans to the best hospitals in Israel, and back.
February 10, 2024. Going against the flow.
“going against the flow and forging a new path usually comes at a price”
Yahya Mahamid again. https://www.ynetnews.com/article/ry0kwr6ka#autoplay
February 11, 2024. Into Gaza.
“… utter devastation. It’s a huge destruction, of almost biblical proportions.” Avi Issacharoff, YNet News
“Welcome to the grinder: How IDF is burrowing deeper into Khan Younis” February 10, 2024
February 12, 2024. The damage done.
East or West, the damage done since October 7 is dizzying. People are afraid – of facing the facts of October 7, their ethnical, cultural context, and the consequences. “the October 7 massacre is the largest antisemitic massacre of the 21st century”.
Le massacre du 7 octobre est le plus grand massacre antisémite du 21e siècle. Le contester est une faute. Sembler le justifier, en y mêlant le nom des Nations Unies, est une honte.
Ces propos sont d’autant plus scandaleux que la lutte contre l’antisémitisme et toutes les formes de racisme sont au cœur de la fondation de l’ONU.
February 13, 2024. A clear and loud statement from France.
From the French president to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, facing denial by a U.N. spokesperson :
“The October 7 massacre is the largest antisemitic massacre of the 21st century. To contest it is a fault. To seem to justify it, involving the name of the United Nations, is a shame.
These declarations are all the more outrageous that the struggle against antisemitism and all forms of racism are at the heart of the foundation of the United Nations.”
February 14, 2024. Captives and fugitives in a rat-trap.
Images keep coming up from the darkness of the Gaza tunnels.
The man in flip-flops, and pajamas, is supposed to be the leader of the military quintette, fleeing in one of the tunnels, with his wife, his brother, and three kids.
They speak of psychological warfare, of belittling the man, in his colleagues’ eyes, in Gazans’ eyes, and in his own eyes.
Getting closer to “The End” ?
No progress whatsoever in the talks about the release of hostages.
We have entered another warped dimension of time yet.
No news of the captives – but one and a half million people in Gaza are captives as well, and what will they come home to, “in the end” ?
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PEACE LINESMESSAGERIES DE LA PAIX www.peacelines.org |  |
Newsletter 136
« Courage faces fear and thereby masters it. »
« If we assume that life is worth living and that a human being has a right to survival, then we must find an alternative to war. » MLK
In the beginning of hope, there was Oslo. September 1993. Signed by Israel (Rabin) and the secular Palestine Liberation Organization (Arafat).
It only took three weeks after Oslo, for Hamas (founded in 1987) to send a booby-trapped car to Beit El (settlement close to Ramallah). 29 wounded. And then, another one, two days later, to Afula (Israeli town North of Jenin). 8 killed. A week later, a bomb in a bus in Hadera, on the coast. 5 killed.
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronologie_du_terrorisme_palestinien
Take it back to the 1988 Hamas Covenant. Articles 13 & 15.
« It is necessary to instil the spirit of jihad in the heart of the nation so that they would confront the enemies and join the ranks of the fighters. » https://avalon.law.yale.edu/21st_century/hamas.asp
The revised 2017 Hamas Charter only reinforced the stand, defining Palestine as a strictly « Arab Islamic land ». Articles 3, 4, 21, 25.
Oslo ? « the Movement rejects these agreements and all that flows. »
« Resisting the occupation with all means and methods is a legitimate right (…) At the heart of these lies armed resistance. » « Hamas rejects any attempt to undermine the resistance and its arms. »
https://archive.org/stream/hamas-charter-2017/Hamas%20Charter%20%282017%29_djvu.txt
In the beginning of illusions lost was October 7, 2023. The kidnapping of over two hundred civilians from Israel.
Dozens of whom died in captivity.
On Route 232 to Re’im
These were some three thousand kids, most in their twenties, who had gathered for a three-day open-air psychedelic music festival dedicated to « friends, love and infinite freedom ». Five kilometers from Gaza. Two companies of a Hamas battalion proceeded to slaughter all the attendees they could see, raping included. They left 364 bodies on the killing field, and dragged 40 to captivity in Gaza – among them Noa Argamani, Shani Louk, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Omer Shem Tov.
Making it the worst pogrom, massacre of civilians ever.
Darkly reminiscent of the BaTaClan concert hall massacre, in Paris, in November 2015, when 90 concert-goers out of 1,500 were slaughtered, and scores wounded by gunfire, in much the same manner – this time at the instigation of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (a.k.a. Daesh).
Eerie stillness of the killing field.
« But climb on your tears & be silent,
Like a rose on its ladder of thorns. »
Return to Re’im always, and to Liraz’s Memorial, to question destinies.
On the Road to Nir Oz
Today, there are only three survivors of the October 7 onslaught who remain in Nir Oz, a rural community of around 400 people until October 6. 386 were present in the morning of October 7. They were overwhelmed by some 500 assailants, who murdered 41 residents, and kidnapped 76 of them into Gaza – to this day, five are still detained there, along with the bodies of nine captives.
There was no army to defend them – troops only came around 3pm, after the last attacker had left.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/massive-failure-first-troops-reached-kibbutz-nir-oz-40-minutes-after-last-terrorists-left/ Nir Oz, the forsaken community
In Nir Oz now, there are a few volunteers who have come to empty the devastated homes (213 out of 220), fix what can be fixed, and help harvest potatoes and avocadoes. Most refugees have been installed in high-rise towers some sixty kilometers North via Route 232. Among them, Ran Pauker, whose motto is « You have to look forward, not backward ». Ran, an agronomist, who did transform the desert into a blooming oasis, from 4 trees when he came to 750 drought-resistant plants, and 65 species of eucalyptus, from South America, Baja California, and South Africa.
Ran, the Man who Planted Trees, with his friends, among them two Gaza Palestinians, whom he still talks to when they can, as their relation has not changed.
« If I can have good Arab friends, why can’t the others ? » asks Ran.
You should listen to Ran speaking of his Gaza friends, Nasser, who came to Nir Oz when he was seventeen, in the seventies, with a truck and his kids, to plant pine trees together, and his younger brother, Salah, who « knows Israeli politics better than I », and visited in his home a lot. You should see the simple, natural warmth in his eyes, in his voice then.
« My hope », says Ran, « is to return to Gaza as friends, to drink coffee together ».
A fat chance ? « Jumpstarting Hope in Gaza », which started years ago through an alliance between the Arava Institute (in Kibbutz Ketura, North of Eilat) and a nonprofit Palestinian n.g.o., Damour for Community Development (run by two ministers in the former cabinet of PM Salam Fayyad), hasn’t stopped operating.
12,000 displaced persons are currently living in their « sustainable refugee camps », with kitchens, educational areas, electricity generators and water-treatment systems.
On Channel 13, this year, Ran was interviewed, with the other Nir Oz dean, Nathan Bahat, and a third survivor, asked about their thoughts. Immediately, the three of them insisted : « to make peace ». As the interviewer was gaping, they added « Only peace will bring us security » – and if peace is not on the horizon for the time being, it must be a long, lasting ceasefire.
« How to make peace ? » « I don’t think we can make peace now, but start with a cease-fire, and then we’ll continue, as they did in Europe after 1945 ; the new children of the cease-fire will be able to make peace, the next generation, twenty years from now ».
Not that it’s been easy for him. Out of four families of neighbours, two have been devastated, from kidnappings and killings, his own brother was killed. « Not easy, » broods Ran, « but I can’t change what happened.»
Looking back, towards what the root causes of so much bloodshed could be, he says, « in 1967, after the Six Day War and our conquest of Palestinian territories, we went to Gaza with my wife, I told her : « We have lost the war… because our noses went up… We forgot to give others ownership, self-rule…». What of Hamas and the like ? « A small worm in an apple makes the apple rot… We have our terrorists, they have theirs, more than us… ».
We then think of numbers. How many hard-core terrorists could they have ? Twenty thousand ? That would be roughly 01% of the people. Reminding me of this acquaintance in Maale Adumim, the settlement East of Jerusalem, who maintained that 97% of the settlers in the West Bank were non-violent. But then, 3% of 600,000 people represent close to 20,000 riotous, armed men.
Looking forward, he says that what is needed is a Middle East five-star Marshall, « the Organizer of Victory » for Churchill, « a genius, who helped them [Germans] recover… The problem is : How to help them [Palestinians] recover ? Not to let them down… ». « Do we have a Marshall ? No. »
The Nir Oz Gardener’s warning, as of mid-March 2025 : « Killing makes our living harder. No military will succeed to give us security. The military cannot give us security. IF WE DO NOT STOP THIS WAR IT IS A CATASTROPHE. »
In Nir Oz the last visit was to the friends we could not bring back and embrace.
Haim Peri, Yoram Metzger, Oded Lifshitz.
At the gate, three black flags were posted.
There is a plan to rebuild Nir Oz.
Without chopping a single tree.
Gadi Mozes, one of the released hostages, has vowed « to buckle down, roll up sleeves, stand up, work shoulder to shoulder ». « Let’s get to work ! »
The Educational Bookshop, in Jerusalem
In any tentacular or labyrinthic city, New York, Algiers, Paris, Berlin, Cairo, Copenhagen, London, Thessaloniki, you need havens, nooks and crannies, to retreat and restore your mind from the frantic pulse of the madding crowds. It could be a public garden, a museum cafeteria, an ancient chapel or church, an old mosque, a library or a bookshop, a particular restaurant… Jerusalem is no exception.
Whether it is the Garden Tomb, Al Aqsa, the Anan Ben David synagogue, the Greek Catholic Patriarchate, the Chapel of the Condemnation, or its four main bookshops, Ludwig Mayer’s behind the Great Post Office, Steimatzky on Jaffa Road, Sharbain’s and the Educational Bookshop on Salah al-Din Street. Out of these four latter sanctuaries, one only is dedicated to the well-being of its users, with its coffee and cookies counter, and its mezzanine wifi space.
How come then that it is precisely the one that was raided by the police, on February 11, 2025 ?
You can read about it in The Times of Israel, Books are Dangerous ? The Raid on the Educational Bookshop. https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/books-are-dangerous-the-raid-on-the-educational-bookshop/
Like the author, Hillel Schenker, I have long been a regular there, and could not possibly see what «disturbance of public order », let alone « incitement to terror » was to be found on the shelves.
Against all odds, the Educational Bookshop was raided again, on March 11, and here are some of the books that were seized or thrown to the ground, and into garbage bags. Rumi’s Love Poems, Khalil Gibran’s Jesus, Amos Oz’s Dear Zealots, the occasional Chomsky and Pappe. I then thought, had I bought it off the shelf, would it have saved the owners from trouble ? I had already read it. Who’s so afraid of Chomsky and Pappe anyway ?
My own choice, on my last visit : Amos Oz, for sure ; The 51 Day War, by Max Blumenthal, about the 2014 Gaza war – that stopped me from resuming my educational work there ; Rumi’s Love Poems (Jalal al-Din Rumi ; a highly seditious Persian poet of the thirteenth century, who left us such thoughts as « Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion ») ; and that famously dangerous British bard of the sixteenth century, William Shakespeare – his King Richard III, King Henry V. Later on to be followed by Lao Tzu, the Chinese philosopher born in the sixth century before our era – Tao Te Ching. All of them in the beautiful, gilt-edged, handy, Macmillan Collector’s Library, since the Muna family offers us this fine revolving showcase of masterpieces.
What is happening in Jerusalem, these days, in 2025 ? « East Jerusalem », admittedly. What do they know about it in « West Jerusalem » ?
Have they protested, demonstrated against it ? What if it had been Ludwig Mayer’s targeted (the first bookshop in Palestine, founded in 1909) ?
I met Ahmad Muna on March 6
He told me « the file » was still open. Little did we think they would be raided again five days later. What had it been like the first time ? Not nice, said he. They spent forty-eight hours in jail, the first half in solitary confinement, no food, no windows, electricty off and on repeatedly. Just a concrete bunk, with the thinnest of foam mattresses, and no pillow of course.
« Have they touched a book in the last forty years ? » laughed Ahmad.
In the media, or even their site, they often portray their bookshop as specializing on the Middle East and the Arab-Israeli conflict. True as it is, they are not the only ones in town, but there are few like them who also propose such standards as Cervantes, Daniel Defoe, Dickens, Dostoievsky, James Joyce, Victor Hugo, Conan Doyle, Gaston Leroux, Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, Colette, Dylan Thomas…
Dangerous ?
I confess. Books are expensive after a while, and need space to accommodate. Plus, they’re heavy ! And, there’s more to it :
« For books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life…
… as good almost kill a man as kill a good book…
he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself…
Many a man lives a burden to the earth ; but a good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life. (…)
We should be wary therefore what persecutions we raise against the living labours of public men, how we spill that seasoned life of man, preserved and stored up in books ; since we see a kind of homicide may be thus committed, sometimes a martyrdom… »
John Milton (Areopagitica, 1649) …/… Ray Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451, 1953) …/… Michael Moore (Fahrenheit 9/11, 2004)
« You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them. » Criminalize the trade of books, with the implicit end of destroying a culture, of starving, paralyzing people’s minds…
As of this writing, March 27, 2025, it is not just people’s minds that are being starved.
« Gaza : No aid has reached war-torn enclave for more than three weeks »
UN News,March 26, 2025. Did we know there was such a thing as United Nations News, beyond CNN, CBS, BBC, and the such – all the mainstream media channels that frame and format the stories ?
Read it again : No aid has reached war-torn enclave for more than three weeks – since early March.
No aid : no food trucks, no supplies of medicine, nothing. No water, no electricity, we’re told.
Coincidentally, the last message we received from friends displaced who had returned « home » in Gaza City, a university teacher’s family, was on February 25. Nothing since.
It read, « Yes please send us some support to continue living… The University is completeley destroyed. Very few birds or cats, lots of rats. »
© UNICEF/Eyad El Baba Devastation in Gaza after “new waves” of intense Israeli bombardment reported by the UN aid coordination office, OCHA. https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/03/1161531
Did we lose our train of thoughts there ?
The UNICEF, United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund.
Have we forgotten the Children’s Emergency Fund ? The Children’s Emergency ?
« According to UNICEF, more than 14,500 children have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war: that’s more than the number of children killed in 4 years of wars worldwide. 25,000 children have been injured: Gaza has the highest number of child amputees per capita in the world. 17,000 children have been separated from their parents as a result of the conflict, or find themselves unaccompanied following the death of their parents. Over a million children have been displaced. These are terrible figures. The war has destroyed almost all essential infrastructure. »
declared the Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations, to the Security Council, in New York, on January 23, 2025
https://onu.delegfrance.org/the-conflict-in-gaza-has-been-particularly-deadly-for-palestinian-children
How could we forget fifteen thousand children killed, by now ? Why should we obliterate them ?
Because they are « Palestinians », « Arabs » ? Made invisible before they were massacred ?
At last, a message from Gaza City, on March 29, after one month’s blackout :
« Not enough food due to the last escalation. We are eating very much less, and same food, rice or red lentils. No net in my area. There is shelling now. I am using an esim on the roof. Will go down soon. »
We struggle and we strive for sense and sanity. For understanding. The news we get, we scrap them from all over the place, from Jerusalem, Beirut, from Saudi Al Arabiya, from Egypt, Jordan, England…
https://messageriesdelapaix.org/index.php/2025/02/14/media-march-2025/
Given that the Western media will only inform you from a Western angle, considering various Western interests first. Little wonder that a U.S. President could think of finally razing all of the Gaza Strip, buy the rubble, and build a « Riviera of the Middle East » instead. The two million two hundred thousand people of Gaza do not exist in this light, do they.
Back to the days of totalitarian propagandists, as exposed by Aldous Huxley in his 1946 Foreword to Brave New World. « Great is the truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view is silence about truth. » « By simply not mentioning certain subjects (…) they have influenced opinion much more effectively… » And back to the days of 1947-1948, when the Goldstein Manifesto was conceived by Orwell, as the cornerstone of his famous 1984 fireship – The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism. Still the same day, when war has become so continuous that it has, somehow, ceased to exist – at least in the conscience of its inured spectators. One media nail will drive out the other.
Hence our increasing resort to deeper, different levels of inquiry.
Opening other channels, primarily rooted into this forlorn artefact, humanity.
Cut speechifying short. Take the letter published in The Times of Israel and Ynet News on March 21 :
‘Israel choosing endless war’ : 40 freed hostages demand end to fighting, return to talks **
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/sjhfxbjnyl
44 former hostages demand Gaza ceasefire to free remaining captives
Looking for that « direct beeline into our soul », as evoked by Nobel Roald Hoffmann in his essay Why Buy That Theory ?
Today, there are sixteen Nobel laureates worldwide, echoing the freed hostages’s demand :
from the U.S., from Iran, Yemen and England, from India, from France, Norway and the Netherlands, and from New York (which is not quite the U.S.)… This is not quite enough yet, is it.
A 147-word clarion call, The Jerusalem – Nablus Call to end the war
For the sake of humankind
Are we not the same blood groups ?
End all fighting now.
Let them all go home,
All the forsaken survivors,
The hostages, the displaced.
Let the fighters lay down their arms,
let them all recover from the deadly din of war.
The only final victory is to break the endless cycle of retaliations.
We are all in counted time, on a limited stretch of land. Let us make the best of it, both in separation and togetherness.
In support of the European border commitment at the Rafah Crossing with Egypt, we call all parties to remedy the condition of severely suffering civilians.
For a true cessation of hostilities, we call for a permanent end to all attack tunnels,
and empowering the lasting reconstruction of Gaza within a peaceful, demilitarized Palestinian state alongside Israel.
In Bertrand Russell’s and Einstein’s words : « We appeal as human beings to human beings : Remember your humanity, and forget the rest. » (The Russell-Einstein Manifesto)
n.b. This is not « just about Gaza » – there is as much danger, growing, for humanity, from Jenin to Nablus. This is not about Us vs Them. This is, whether you really like it or not, about Us All.
This Newsletter started with two pictures, one of the Liraz Asulin Memorial, on Route 232, from Sderot to Be’eri and the Re’im killing field. Liraz, 37, was murdered by gunmen from Gaza, along with 363 other revelers, who were desperately fleeing the Nova music festival, on the morning of October 7, 2023.
The other one, of Mahmoud Sanaqrah’s mother, who lost her third son in the morning of February 27, 2025, in Balata, Nablus. He was 25, still in bed, defenceless, when an army platoon broke into his family’s home, and shot him dead, before taking his body away with them.
There is no symmetry between these two tragedies. They still are the two complementary faces of what has to be stopped.
** Extracts from the freed hostages’ letter – as can be found in The Times of Israel (March 21, 2025) :
“This letter was written in blood and tears. It was drafted by our friends and families whose loved ones were killed and murdered in captivity and who are crying out: ‘Stop the fighting. Return to the negotiating table and fully complete an agreement that will return all of the hostages, even at the cost of ending the war,” the letter implored. “The military pressure is endangering them and there is nothing more urgent than returning all hostages.”
“We all support [stopping the fighting],” the letter continued. “Those who returned from captivity and endured the horrors in their flesh, the families of the hostages still in Gaza and paralyzed with terror, those who received their loved ones back into an embrace, and those who were forced to bury their loved ones, knowing they could have been saved.”
The letter also said that the fighting kills living hostages and vanishes dead ones. “This isn’t a slogan, it’s reality. Forty-one hostages paid with their lives, we, their family members, paid. They could have returned for an embrace and rehabilitation, but they won’t return.”
The letter criticized the government for “choosing an endless war over saving and returning the hostages, and by doing that sacrificing them. This is a criminal policy — you do not have a mandate to sacrifice 59 hostages.”
As victims of the October 7 Hamas onslaught, the signees wrote that they are raising “a red flag and warn: a return to fighting will cost more hostages their lives’’
The letter ended with a call “to stop the fighting and return immediately to the negotiating table to reach a complete agreement for their return: all the hostages in exchange for the end of the war and finding a solution for the day after. If you don’t do that, the blood of the next hostage and the fate of all of the hostages will be on your hands.”
Signatories include former hostages Gadi Mozes, Keith Siegel, Ofer Calderon, Eliya Cohen, Liri Elbag, Sagi Dekel-Chen, Agam Berger, Karina Ariev, Ohad Ben Ami, Raz Ben Ami, Arbel Yehud, Ada Sagi, Shani Goren, Nili Margalit, Gabriela Leimberg, Yaffa Adar, Ditza Heiman, Ofir Engel, Amit Soussana, Keren Munder, Ruti Munder, Liam Or, Adina Moshe, Hannah Perry, Raaya Rotem, Liat Beinin Atzili, Noga Weiss, Shiri Weiss, Margalit Mozes, Rimon Kirsht Buchshtav, Sharon Alony Cunio, Danielle Aloni, Ilana Gritzewsky, Karina Engelbert, Noralin Babadilla, Meirav Tal, Jimmy Pacheco, Amit Shani, Agam Goldstein, Sahar Calderon, Erez Calderon, Shoshan Haran, Fernando Marman, Ofelia Roitman, Clara Marman and Raz Ben Ami.
One whole month without a message from our friends, the University teacher and his family.
“Palestinians in Gaza are being systematically starved. Food is rotting on trucks that are prevented from reaching malnourished children just a few miles away, and vital medicine for sick patients is expiring while blocked at the border. Yesterday all bakeries in Gaza had to close as they ran out of flour and cooking gas.
Since 2 March, Israel has completely shut all crossings into the territory, preventing any humanitarian or commercial supplies from entering, including food, medicine and fuel.” ReliefWeb, April 2, 2025.
On March 2, Israel’s army started a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, before launching bombers, drones, and then tanks. No food trucks were allowed anymore. No water, no electricity – hence the month-long silence. No way to reload mobiles.
Until this came, in the early afternoon, before the Eid :
“Yes, not enough food due to the last escalation. We are eating very much less, and same food rice or red lentils. No net in my area. Hope for truce or ceasefire again. There is shelling now. I am using an esim on the roof. Will go down soon. Please make dua…”
Learning words from Gaza – eSim : a new generation of Sim, totally digital. You don’t need a material Sim card anymore.
make dua : dua is an invocation, a supplication to God, for a deeper connection, a request for help. A Save Our Souls.
Our friend Masud, as far as I know, and I have known him for over fifteen years, has always been on the secular side of things, attracted to Western literature more than to Eastern spirituality. The daily hell he’s been living through, with his family, since they had to leave their flat in October 2023, there is no way to fathom. We’re too set and stuck into comfort, ease and pleasant habits.
From the few echoes and pictures we get (particularly the January 29 exodus back North along Al Rashid road, along the sea) leaves us bewildered, stunned. Dumbstruck. And now, since March 18, war again.
War again : “At least 322 children reportedly killed in Gaza in 10 days — UN” AFP – The Jordan Times
March 2, 2025. The day a new blockade was imposed on Gaza.
“Humanitarian aid and supplies have not entered the Gaza Strip since March 2, when the Israeli authorities imposed a siege. This siege has now lasted over three weeks, surpassing the duration of the total siege first imposed in October 2023 when the war started. As a result, critical humanitarian supplies, including food and medical aid, are rapidly depleting.”
Source : ReliefWeb, UNRWA. https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/unrwa-situation-report-165-situation-gaza-strip-and-west-bank-including-east-jerusalem-all-information-updated-19-25-march-2025
As a humanitarian non-governmental organization, we have been supporting a family in Gaza since January 2024, one of the thousands of families who were forcibly displaced and lost everything they had in the process. They have been known to us for over a decade. He used to be a well-respected university teacher, appreciated by all his students, for his kindness, open mind, and gentle humour.
No message from them for a month, since the end of February. The little electricity they had was cut, along with the delivery of food. Finally, a short message came yesterday, March 29.
“Yes, not enough food due to the last escalation. We are eating much less, and same food, rice or red lentils. No net in my area. There is shelling now. I am using an esim on the roof. Will go down soon.”
One whole months without direct news. As for the media, it is a global blackout. Unbelievable. You look for figures, facts, you type “food trucks into Gaza”, and you find practically nothing, the last articles or videos being dated January or February 2025.
Blackout : “temporary loss of consciousness”.
“Great is the truth, but still greater, from a pratical point of view is silence about truth.
By simply not mentioning certain subjects, by lowering what Mr Churchill calls an ‘iron curtain’ between the masses and such facts or arguments as the local political bosses regard as undesirable, totalitarian propagandists have influenced opinion much more effectively…” Aldous Huxley, 1946 Foreword to Brave New World.
For goodness sake, there has been deliberate starving of a whole population for a month now, on a level far worse and longer than in October 2023, and not a voice has been heard about it in the mainstream channels ? Is this where we’re at, in the spring of 2025, in the West, Business As Usual, starting with the emperor’s new haircut, the vice-emperor’s visit to the Norsemen’s arctic lands, and more nonsense about renaming channels and gulfs ?
Looking at things and situations worldwide from a given place and angle, we had to question the range and validity of our sources, starting with the inverted earthquakes of January 15, 2025, when war at last stopped in Gaza, and March 18, when it resumed.
Could we have been limited and biased in our perception and framing of reality ?
Take the case of two different friends, one living in the West, a regular reader of a partisan newspaper founded by Jaurès in 1904, the other living in the Middle East, who would daily get his dose of Qatari news, for thirty years, and little else. How could we trust their evaluation of events, based on such a restrictive set of views, opinions ? How could we get into any open, constructive dialogue ?
Until the end of January 2025, we took some pride in scanning not just a couple or a few, but a dozen news outlets daily, from the left-wing Israeli Haaretz to the right-wing Israel National News, adding Al Monitor, with the occasional forays into The Guardian, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Le Monde, the BBC, et al.
It then struck us that there had to be other sources in the Middle East – or was this once called ‘Holy Land’ a lonely island in a desolate (Atlantic) ocean ?
As a result of this shift in the quest of complementarity, our three main daily sources, in March, remain YNet News, Haaretz, the Times of Israel, followed by Egypt Today, the Jordan Times, and Al Arabiya, leaving Al Monitor behind due to its extension of pay tolls. Plus a dozen other sources – among them, UN News, L’Orient Today, Anadolu Ajansi…
“Complementarity, in its most basic form, is the concept that one single thing, when considered from different perspectives, can seem to have very different or even contradictory properties.” Nobel Physics laureate Frank Wilczek, Complementarity is mind-expanding, Ch. 10 of his 2021 essay, Fundamentals, Ten Keys to Reality.
Does this entail a radical change of orientation ? Rather, a cartesian, methodical approach, once you are “constrained to avow that, of all the opinions that I once accepted as true, there is not one which is not now legitimately open to doubt, not through any lack of reflection or lightness of judgement, but for very strong and deeply considered reasons.” Descartes, About the Things We May Doubt. Simply.
Egypt makes new proposal to restore Gaza ceasefire deal, sources say
Reuters, The Jerusalem Post, March 24, 2025
