We are winning the endless war in Gaza, hands down, but you’d never know it from the pronouncements of that savage idiot who heads Hamas. Sinwar has suddenly found his voice. Or rather, deep in his self-created dungeons, he has found a way to send his poisonous messages out to the world. They say it’s a code he learned while in an Israeli prison cell before the Gilad Shalit deal set him free to destroy Gaza and the Gazans. The Wall Street Journal did an extensive article on Sinwar’s methods of communication. After the death al Arouri in Beirut, Sinwar stopped all electronic communication. So Israeli intelligence is finding it hard to pinpoint exactly where he is. Instead, they report he is sending written messages through trusted couriers, messages in a special code, which are then distributed via normal means of communication. In prison, they say, the terrorists wrote messages they then put inside pieces of bread which were left to harden and then thrown into cells.

Yesterday, senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan announced that Sinwar “will soon send a message to the Palestinian people and the world.” And sure enough, this afternoon, a letter ostensibly from Sinwar to Houthi leader Abd al-Malek Badr al-Din al-Houthi arrived. According to Ynet, the “Al-Masira” channel, which is affiliated with the rebels in Yemen, said the letter congratulated al-Malek on his “great achievement”( i.e., the missile that disintergrated and didn’t even kill a chicken in Israel): “I guarantee that the resistance is absolutely fine,” wrote Sinwar, “and what the enemy is declaring is lies and psychological warfare. We have prepared ourselves to fight a long battle, which will break the political will of the enemy like we broke his military will [Hello? Go out of your tunnel and look around!] Our combined efforts with you and our brothers in Lebanon and Iraq will break this enemy and defeat him.” In the same breath, he also mentions, as an aside, that Gazans are subjected to genocide, siege, and starvation, which requires the support of the “Islamic Ummah.”

As the leader who has brought millions of his people to homelessness, wondering where their next meal is coming from, and how they are going to keep their body and soul together when the winter rains start, I wouldn’t have used the words “absolutely fine” to describe them. Would you?

Meanwhile, both the Houthis and Hezbollah have made it clear their attacks on Israel are not related to Israeli attacks against them. Nasr ad-Din Amer, one of the senior Houthis, said that the missile that was launched yesterday was not the reaction of the rebels in Yemen to the bombings of the Air Force in July at the port of Hodeidah. “This is part of ongoing activities, until the aggression in Gaza is stopped,” he said. He also claimed that the Houthis are ready to send “hundreds of thousands of fighters” to Hezbollah, “if necessary.”

On the political front, things are brewing that are very worrisome. The recent statements of Defense Minister Gallant are hard to understand. On the one hand, he reportedly told associates that he strongly opposes a war in Lebanon, believing that the United States will successfully broker a diplomatic solution based on UN Resolution 1701.

But when this statement was leaked to the press, all hell broke loose, with Netanyahu reportedly looking to replace Gallant with Gideon Sa’ar, who demands a war with Hezbollah so that residents of the north can finally go home. And then, so suddenly it’s giving me whiplash, Gallant changed his tune again! Speaking to US envoy Amos Hochstein, Gallant said that while he would have preferred a diplomatic solution, military action is now the only way to safely return the residents of northern Israel to their homes.

As a resident of Israel who is near the North, I try not to dwell on what the full impact of all-out war with Hezbollah might look like. I know they have hundreds of thousands of rockets and drones, which they’ve shown can bypass Israel’s aerial defense system. How bad is it going to be? Yet, what other solution is there? To give up half our country to the terrorists? It’s all or nothing.

But I can’t help feeling resentful. After all, haven’t all these wars been fought and won already? It was only political stupidity and the endless, whining pressure of the Left that caused us to abandon every, single victory and put us back at square one – in Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank.

When I was reading this week’s Torah portion which deals with going out to war against your enemies, Israel is warned by God to “avoid every bad thing.” Biblical commentators discuss what things are meant. Some say it means you should keep your camp pure so that God’s grace can rest on it. You shouldn’t rape, or steal, or eat forbidden foods. This is a special warning because during times of war, men indulge in all kinds of wicked things they wouldn’t normally do, so Jewish soldiers are exhorted to keep themselves pure to welcome in God’s presence in their camp. Other commentators say the bad things include gossip and slander. Don’t do it within the camp, and certainly not outside the camp. Please note, demonstrators and journalists.

Ynet is reporting that there is a quiet, but worrisome, exodus of doctors from Israel. Department heads and skilled practitioners are slipping away to take positions abroad, with no clear date for their return. On the other hand, doctors are making aliyah. My friend Elisa, a dermatologist and oncological surgeon from Chicago, spent the weekend with me, hoping to get her license next week. The bureaucracy has been eased to help talented doctors from abroad acquire Israeli medical licenses after a period of internship.

Welcome home to all the new doctors. We love you!

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