I am not sleeping well, to put it mildly. But last night was somewhat of a record. I just kept trying to sleep and these images of my grandson in Gaza kept going through my head, and when that went away, I thought about all those poor hostages, especially the little ones. It’s just unspeakable that these evil people are treating anyone that way, let alone little children.

In the morning, with the light that breaks over our peaceful village near the sea which has so far been spared any sirens or mad rushes to shelters, things looked more hopeful. The news from Gaza shows a steady pace of combat victories with more and more areas of Gaza under direct Israeli control. Thirty Hamas terrorists have actually surrendered and been taken back to Israel for interrogation.

Two photos in the news especially caught my eye: one of an IDF soldier sitting in a armchair in front of the bombed out house of Hamas leader, that rat, Sinwar, made iconic by Sinwar posing triumphantly in exactly the same chair after the last Gaza War. I hope he gets to see what the house – and the chair –  look like now! The second photo was a before and after of one of the nicest streets of Gaza near the boardwalk. Lovely homes, mature foliage. That was before. Now it is complete wreckage, like Berlin in 1945. And I can’t help thinking what these people could have turned Gaza into if not for their maniacal genocidal passion and hatred. Truly ignorant, self-destructive primitive idiots.

You know, all along I have been saying there are no innocents in Gaza. But today I came across something online that almost succeeded in changing my mind. I saw it on a website called Abu Ali Express on Telegram (highly recommended, and there is an English language version you can sign up for), a site that shows you what is being shown on Arabic and Palestinian channels and websites. The video – which I‘m truly flabbergasted was ever filmed let alone publicized – was of a medical worker in Shifa Hospital, which Hamas has been crying crocodile tears over for weeks as it attempts to convince the world that its being targeted by Israelis is a war crime, ignoring the proof that Hamas has built its entire command headquarters underneath it.

Anyway, in this video a Muslim woman in a traditional head covering and wearing a surgical mask tells the interviewer that Hamas has robbed all their medical supplies for themselves. “I had a five year-old with a fractured leg and I had to set it with no morphine. They’ve taken all the morphine for themselves,” she wept. Honestly, I felt so sorry for her and for that little boy. If only people going to these demonstrations in support of Hamas would understand who they are helping. Not the doctor or the little boy, but the people stealing the morphine and the bandages and the oil and the food and …

After what they did on October 7, why does anyone still believe Hamas’ lies? You have to really either be full of hatred for Jews and thus brothers in arms to Hamas, or just stupid.

Then someone sent me this letter which showed me that there is also a third category. This is what this Jewish woman wrote:

“I certainly can understand and agree that Hamas had one goal… to kill as many Jews as possible and destroy Israel. That said, nowhere did you mention the horrific Israeli strikes that have killed more than 9,000 Palestinian citizens including children. And now Netanyahu is targeting hospitals. I have been reading about the huge surge of anti-semitism around the world and on college campuses here in America. How truly sad that people can blame every Jew for what is happening in Israel and Gaza. I feel that Netanyahu is to blame for the extreme severity of these strikes and I also believe that Hamas knew how Israel would retaliate and make Israel and Jews more of a pariah around the globe.”

Yes, according to my correspondent, Netanyahu played right into their hands! The fact that the numbers mentioned are from Hamas, and that the dead are mostly armed Hamas terrorists, with the usual collateral damage to folks who simply refuse to budge, no matter how many warnings the benevolent Israelis give them, doesn’t seem to affect her. But now we get to the real meat of this argument. Israel’s actions in defending herself have increased antisemitism! It’s Israel’s fault for responding so massively and firmly to 1400 murdered citizens, raped woman and girls, 240 kidnap victims. Now, because of us Israelis, my reader feels unfairly threatened. They are going to blame her, and it’s not her fault! She would have been delighted to see her brothers and sisters in Israel sit quietly and wait for the next massacre, and for the Holocaust to continue.

What can I say? It sickened me and I told her so and kicked her off my mailing list.

I would like to point out that such a response is rare. Most of the lovely people on my list have been so wonderfully supportive and kind. Their responses are a true source of comfort and inspiration.

But I can’t help wonder, how many Jews out there feel the same as my disgruntled correspondent? That Israel defending herself endangers them? If you feel endangered, you need to move to Israel and try to help us defeat these beasts.

I just read that the IDF left oil on the doorstep of Shifa Hospital for the most urgent cases. But Hamas refused to allow the hospital to take it. I also read that a tentative agreement over the release of the youngest hostages and the women in exchange for all kinds of things not in our interest, has suddenly been shut down by Hamas because, according to those lying scum, “Israel is attacking Shifa Hospital.”

How I wish this whole thing was over; that Sinwar and his brother were dead. That the rest of Gaza looked like the after photo of their once pretty streets around the boardwalk. Sand, all sand, once again.

In the meantime, Hezbollah in the North has been increasing its rocket fire, targeting a civilian crew from the electric company fixing some electric poles. One is dead, and four critically injured. Once that front heats up, it is my own home that will be under fire. My bomb shelter is ready. I have water, extra batteries, a flashlight, a radio. I wouldn’t mind terribly. I’d be happy if Israel could use this time of unrest and upheaval to finish off Hezbollah and the terrorists on the West Bank, and while we are at it, lob a few fat bombs at the Ayatollahs as well.

In the meantime, I am going to prepare a care package for my grandson that I’m hopeful the army will deliver to him and his platoon before Shabbat: cakes and cookies, bandages and tourniquets and ropes and electrical tape – or so an article in Walla advises. Well, for sure the cake and cookies. God bless him and bring him home safe to us and his young wife.

God bless every single IDF soldier. They are my heroes. Like the army of King David.

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