Not Nice, but Evil Neighbors

Today’s (and yesterday’s) cloudy, grey skies and occasional showers and thunderstorms are a certain allegory for our general state of affairs.

The contrast between the relatively warm sea/land and relatively cool atmosphere has fueled some strong thunderstorms. This morning, there was a rather loud peal of thunder, which was almost over our home in Efrat. Fortunately, it was preceded by some lightning strikes, so I didn’t take fright and immediately dash upstairs to the safe room. There was also some hail as well. Yesterday, a neighbor in Elazar (Dale Baronowski), noted that yesterday afternoon there was a quick upsurge in wind speed to gale speed. “My big elm tree was being battered around to the point where I thought half of it would come down,” he wrote. This was most likely the result of a gust front that developed with the thunderstorms of yesterday. At least it wasn’t a midnight tornado he observed back in 1985, which knocked over electrical pylons near Elazar. Pieces of broken pylons can still be seen in the valley below.

The dismaying weather should continue for the foreseeable future. In fact, our  weather looks to continue to be on the cool side: rain chances and forecast amounts increase this coming Shabbat into Monday.

While Shabbat-Simchat Torah may have been a nice day weather-wise, it will certainly be a day that lives in infamy for Israelis, and especially for those who live or lived along the border with Gaza.

As summarized by Rabbi Natan Weinberg of Efrat (himself a Holocaust survivor): “When nighttime arrived and we were able to connect with the news, we learned of the inhumanity of Hamas, which had managed to slip through entrances of about twenty Jewish towns and murderously and savagely killed hundreds of defenseless people. The army was quite some distance from these towns and by the time help arrived, the casualties were in the hundreds. Not since the Nazis, were such horrors visited upon our people.”

This massacre was just one of past many, but had hoped would never occur again with the establishment of our state.

While it was true that the Israel government (and army) were unprepared for the attack (it was also a holiday, which led to greater complacency), that is not where the problem lay.

The real problem, I believe, was that the army never imagined or planned for such an attack in the first place. Nor did it presuppose that such a coordinated attack would happen (which is even harder to understand). How else to explain its inability to both repel the attack or even respond to it?

Yet, the old-adage that the Palestinians “never miss an opportunity to miss opportunity” certainly rings true — again.

Ironically, if HAMAS had simply breached the fence and taken hostages, it would have been a terrible embarrassment to the government of Israel and its defense forces. It would have been a major strategic win for HAMAS, as they would have “rightfully” traded hostages for jailed terrorists.

However, when Gazans breached the fence and shouted “Allahu Ackbar,” they were not wishing that God would protect them on their mission to free the terrorists.  Rather, they were praising God for giving them the opportunity to slaughter the Infidels, and especially the Jews.

So, again, the Palestinian (and Islamic) hatred of Jews has led them astray, whether when saying “NO” to a  two state (peaceful) solution or simply to be able to reap the “benefits” of their military exploits.

However, the sheer magnitude of the massacre has also done something else: it has laid bare the Palestinian death cult for all to see. And, it has opened even the most slatted eyes here and abroad– and left us with no alternative but to eradicate HAMAS and its supporters from the face of the earth.

P.S. Thank you President Biden and the American People for their material and military support at this time, including the sending of an air carrier to our shores.