Nine Items for Blogging Last Week

1. Radio talk show. Murderer sentenced. In May 2020, he strangled his 19-year-old girlfriend. Her father was interviewed. How did he feel, sitting in the courtroom during the confessed murderer’s trial? “Unbearable,” he said, “to think this guy’s bare hands, at little more than an arm’s reach from him, strangled his daughter.”

I thought of Hamas.

I thought of revenge. Wondering why revenge is designated a natural reaction, acting on it thereby justifiable in warfare. I wonder why, alternatively, bereaved families committed to resolving conflict, to prevent further loss of life, are subject to condemnation.

2. Balancing acts. I was thinking about political parties. Costs politicians pay in coalitions. I will vote knowing the party platform has no chance for absolute execution within any foreseeable government. Even my votes in the primaries will have negligible impact, but it’s important enough to me to do it.
3. “Bibi must go” or variations on a theme with compromise? Head of pre-military academy in West Bank settlement town, Eli, Rabbi Yigal Levinstein, stated last month: “The army fears no enemy. It is deathly afraid of the radical feminists.” Hilli Tropper, so-called moderate religious politician, announced he would not join a coalition that would close this academy, nor Channel 14 , the current government’s megaphone. Commendable that he doesn’t endorse all Smotrich’s actions in the West Bank. In coalition negotiations, a party that will represent me may face that.
4. Post-trauma. Intelligence. Soldiers knew. They knew hostages’ locations, conditions in captivity. They knew of pending deaths, not preempted. On the radio, I heard an advocate for government-subsidized PTSD treatments for these non-combat soldiers. Who could question it?
5. My friend mentioned the depth of a grave situation. Her army-aged son overheard her. He had a question. “Mom, how deep do you think we went in the tunnels in Gaza?” Not much deeper than 60 meters (close to 200 feet), he told her, because at 70 meters (almost 230 feet), the likelihood of the sandy earth caving in upon them became too great.

6. Train schedule to Jerusalem – on the app and on the website. Checking times to get there for a meeting. Notice says Israel Police require passengers to and from Jerusalem order a voucher in advance. That’s new. You don’t order tickets in advance for the train in Israel. Apparently, a new security and safety measure in consideration of the long, underground stretch of this route. A friend in Jerusalem assured me she took the train to Tel Aviv last week without a reservation. Relieved, not comforted.
7. Mother-son conversation after his military duty in Gaza. He says she can become enraged about the IDF killing children in Gaza, but from his experience: kill the child or jeopardize your soldiers’ lives.

The harsh sting of the thought.

Spare me oversimplification: We shouldn’t be there. They shouldn’t be there.

Why is conflict resolution so underrated? What’s wrong with narratives ending in believing you’re the better nation for forfeiting violence that your presumed rights justify, in the name of life? Different narratives in perpetuity, could share that chapter.

8. Repeatedly applauding IDF achievements. Not that we need shed a tear for proclaimed terrorists who eagerly designed and executed plans for October 7 and other brutal attacks. But when news headlines trickle down to boast our pride in eliminating others, does it not dangerously consolidate an ethos of militancy?
9. Two AI platforms translated the word “resolutions” into Hebrew for me. Both used the word that translates back to English as “decisions.” However, in the given context, “resolutions” in Hebrew is “resolutziyot.”

It reminded me of the process, words seeping into other languages with the same, or different, meaning. In Hebrew, the F-word has assumed nothing less than a respectable place in commonplace conversation.

Fleeting recollection. Human rights activist from “Looking the Occupation in the Eye” called. Our conversation included her describing current ethnic cleansing tactics of Jewish settlers: disconnecting water from a Palestinian village. An Israeli Protective Presence volunteer provided a solution for the Palestinians. The settlers aborted it.  The IDF and the Israel Police demonstrated their indifference.

In conclusion: the F-word, WTF!

Harriet Gimpel, July 21, 2026