Bits and Pieces (#2) - Hard Lessons from a Hard War and a Report from a Friend in Israel

I was going to make this for paid Subscribers only. But I decided that everyone needs to see it.

FORGETTING LESSONS LEARNED THE HARD WAY

When I read the constant exhortations from Joe Biden, Anthony Blinken, and others urging Israel to enter into a cease-fire with its mortal enemies and to participate in a “two-state solution” with those who have sworn to destroy it, I cannot help but reflect on the advice from General of the Armies Douglas MacArthur — lhard and bloody lessons learned in the Pacific from 1941 to 1945:

“From the Far East, I send you one single thought, one sole idea – written in red on every beachhead from Australia to Tokyo – ‘there is no substitute for victory.’”

Biden thinks he knows better, but he is a fool.

General MacArthur’s message comes to mind when I consider the following report from a friend in Israel.  

A REPORT FROM MY FRIEND IN ISRAEL – BOTH CHILLING AND INSPIRING

A good friend, Maya Eckstein, is just winding up a trip to Israel with members of the Jewish Community Federation of Richmond. She has sent updates to me and other friends about her experiences and observations. They are both chilling and thought-provoking. Here are some excerpts with a few minor non-substantive edits.  All photos are Maya’s:

We went from the airport to Kibbutz Nir Oz, where 80% of the houses were destroyed to the extent that they now must be demolished and more than 100 were killed.  We were taken thru it by a resident who lived there with her family and hid in their safe room for 10 hours before finally the army came. 

These photos show the communal dining hall and destruction throughout. Also shown is the community post office. Each piece of red tape marks someone murdered. Everyone with blue tape is someone kidnapped.

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These are photos of this family’s house. When they wouldn’t open the door of their safe room, the terrorists set the house on fire. They all died. 

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This is the woman who took us around the kibbutz, and this is her house. She and her husband and two kids hid for 10 hours. The terrorists came 3 times to try to get them out of the safe room. When they refused, the terrorists set their house on fire. But it didn’t burn as badly as others because it was made mostly of concrete. Still, the smoke got thru the safe room and almost killed them. They were able to open a window sporadically to be able to breathe fresh air. 

At one point, the “terrorists” they heard in their house were women and children. Our guide explained that she and her fellow kibbutzniks were leftists who always believed that the civilian Palestinians had to be distinguished from Hamas. But after hearing women and children ransacking their home and threatening, and knowing that many civilians participated in the kidnappings, they’ve lost all faith. 

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Destroyed autos of the victims murdered at the music festival

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We spoke with a member of the IDF who had just returned from Gaza, about what he experienced. He is a battalion commander and was called up 10/7. His battalion immediately all arrived in the south near the kibbutzes. Their first job was to collect the bodies of the fallen. Their next job was to go house-to-house in the kibbutzes to see who was living, who was not, and who was missing and presumed kidnapped.

Then he spoke of walking up to a house and seeing various people standing outside of it, including members of Zaka, the organization that collects bodies, and body parts, and identifies the dead. He asked why they weren’t going inside, and they all said that they just couldn’t do it. So he went inside, and inside he found a mother, father, and three kids, all huddled together with the parents’ arms around the children, and all shot to death.

He also spoke to us about seeing the buses pull up to evacuate the survivors, and seeing them walk out of their homes, with suitcases in hand, and how it immediately reminded him of scenes from the holocaust and he couldn’t fathom that it was happening in Israel.

Then he told us stories about fighting in Gaza. One of the things he told us is that after about 3 to 4 months, several of his soldiers complained that they were just exhausted and needed a break. He said they all talked about it, and, as they were talking, they realized that the women who were kidnapped were likely pregnant by then, as a result of rapes. Everyone immediately stopped complaining about being exhausted and continued on.

He implored us to understand that the Israeli soldiers were not just fighting for Israel but were fighting for all the Jews in the diaspora, too.

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We went to dinner at a restaurant whose general manager is a 22-year-old named Omer Vankert — another hostage. His father was at the restaurant and spoke with us at length about how his son was kidnapped, how he learned about his son being kidnapped, and everything he has been trying to do since that to save him. Another parent waiting 166 days for a child to come home …. Among other things, he explained that Omer has colitis for which he needs medication. They, and a few other relatives of hostages, arranged through a private entity to have medications delivered to Gaza for the hostages. Those medications later were found by the IDF at one of the Gaza hospitals — they never made it to Omer. Another story: he saw a Hamas-released video of Omer in the tunnels. In the video, he is sitting on top of things that looked like sandbags that had this written on them: “For Palestinian Refugees.” It was supplies donated by Japan for Palestinian civilians, and “somehow” made its way into Hamas tunnels.

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As to the Schumer thing, it’s a double-edged sword. On the one hand, 80+% of Israelis want to see Bibi go. He’s a complete and total failure. On the other hand, no country wants another country to dictate its leadership to it, and as a result, Schumer’s comments could have a boomerang effect, resulting in the exact opposite of what he wants to see happen.

She included a post from another Israeli:

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The resilience of the Israeli people is amazing. The entire country is suffering from trauma. And they are relying on us — no, begging us — to help them make sure the world doesn’t forget about what happened on 10/7.

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Any additional comments by me would be superfluous.