WHAT NEXT?
How do we begin to heal as we look back now on the devastating events of October 7th. A day that saw the nation of Israel torn apart leaving more than 1200 massacred in cold blood , and over 250 kidnapped and dragged bleeding and dying into an evil labyrinth of Hamas.
86 returned in coffins, including strangled babies. So many stories, so many left grieving with wounds that can never heal.
Although there is a ceasefire in Gaza, there are daily reports of terrorists trying to harm IDF troops on the demarkation line and still, there are tunnels, out of which Hamas randomly pop up armed to continue the fight. One may ask how are there so many Hamas left in Gaza after over two years of war. The answer is that so many in Gaza are Hamas, and each one that is killed is quickly replaced by young ones hoping to be martyrs leaving their families to benefit from the martyrs stipend funded by the EU.
How can there be so many innocent civilians when every house hid a terror tunnel, every hospital, every mosque, every school was part of the “resistance” ?
Now instead of sitting in their houses on their tunnels they are in tent cities and their suffering is real.
There is food, but families need much more than food to survive, but until the people decide to reject terror and oust Hamas and cease filling the positions of the eliminated terrorists, there can be little progress.
We will have to see what this new “Board of Peace’ cobbled together by Trump achieves. Its remit is to coordinate international efforts to foster peace, reconstruction and a temporary government . Unless there is a will on the side of the people to live in co-existence and peace with Israel its hard to see how this can be successful. Tony Blair, Jared Kushner and Marco Rubio certainly have their work cut out and we wish them every success.
The question now that the last hostage has been returned home, is what will Israel do next and what can the Jews of the diaspora do to re-establish their lives without fear and hatred.
The events that then unfolded since that tragic day, sucked every Jewish community in the world into the sorrow, fear, disappointment and shock.
Not since the days of the Third Reich have Jews known so much hatred in the West and felt so unwelcome in countries, where they are citizens and that had offered their parents and grandparents sanctuary during Europe’s darkest days.
The flags and bill boards against Israel were on the streets within hours of the attack, marking the start of a relentless campaign of lies and hatred that culminated in the attack on Heaton Park Synagogue on Yom Kippur and shortly followed on Chanuka in Bondi Beach, with innocents losing their lives by the crazed haters, the likes of who we now find in many town centres, especially Brighton, our home town, vomiting their lies at passers by. They now even go door to door preaching their hatred against Israel with their favourite lie of genocide promoting BDS.
Tucker Calson, a well known American political commentator, who just visited Israel, but failed to leave the airport claiming he was detained. That claim is denied by both Israel and the US. He is now sprouting nonsense about the Israelis having no connection to the biblical Jews, but he didn’t bother to go to Jerusalem or to any of the museums that display an incredible amount of archaeological relics proving without any doubt that the modern day State of Israel sits firmly on Jewish land. He didn’t want to see the evidence and has closed his mind and ears to anything that challenges his anti semitic beliefs. This is the common trait among the haters of today who scream out from the River to the Sea without even knowing which river or which sea they are so passionate about.
Despite the new figures issued by Hamas themselves, showing the breakdown of civilian deaths to combatant deaths as 1:1 ,( absolutely unprecedented in urban warfare)!, during the Gaza war, and debunking the false genocide narrative, they continue with their chants and accusations.
The cutting off of the head of snake which is Iran, may be the only way to force those who wage war and terror to stop . Without financial support they can no longer manufacture bombs and drones. In Gaza the funding of the education system that groomed the young to be martyrs have been dismantled by the ousting of UNWRA. Ironically, the UN would like to re-establish UNWRA !
Possibly more than half the world hates Trump, as his style is certainly not to everyone’s taste , but for Israel he is promising to be a great friend. Of course, due to his unpredictability and unorthodox way of expressing himself, Israel is afraid he may step back from the brink and leave Iran to continue growing her ballistic weapons and resurrect her nuclear capabilities .
No one can predict what will happen next and as we all know it is easy to start a war but the end is never certain.
Most Israelis have prepared their bomb shelters, but life is carrying on as normal and flights are not disrupted. The roads are as busy as usual, the shops are full and the country is adopting the World War 11 slogan “Keep clam and Carry On’. Tourists are starting to return and Whizz are setting up a new hub in Tel Aviv. Easy Jet is due to restart flights at the end of March. BA seems to be flying with a stop in Larnaca.
The political divides remain and the schism between the Orthodox and the rest was really highlighted when two IDF female soldiers went into a religious area on IDF business, and were set upon by a frenzied crowd. Society in Israel is bruised and bleeding and Yair Lapid has rightly called for unity. These division give oxygen to our enemies who watch closely for any opportunity to damage the Jewish State.
Israel is certainly facing its own internal problems but it is still a unique place that has taken 2.000 years of suffering and turned it into dignity and built a nation that excels in so many fields, even under the pressures of war.
There is a massive US military build up in the Middle East. 16 war ships are in the area and the USS Abraham Lincoln is off the coast of Oman. The USS Gerald R. Ford is expected in days .
In the event of an US attack on Iran, it is virtually guaranteed that Hezbollah will attack from the north and The Houthi from the South. There are also militia in Iraq that support the Mullahs. It is currently Ramadan and previously religious festivals have been respected, as war effects mostly the civilians with the regimes running to hide.
We have been reading about re-newed demonstrations in Iran. The usual Pro Palestinian demonstrators are surprisingly quiet about the killings in Iran and seem to have nothing to say in their support of human rights.
Keir Starmer is not allowing the US to use UK military bases if they attack Iran. Recently, he recognised a Palestinian State, without a capital, a government, a currency or borders, although they do have a constitution, which includes destroying Israel. Sadly, he has shown much less perspicacity regarding recognising the traits of those he chooses for his government .
More talks with Iran are scheduled for Thursday but to date they seem to have yielded little to avert an attack.
No one has a crystal ball and we are left in limbo not knowing what will happen and when.
Perhaps the powers that be have a plan as all we know is this is not yet over by a long shot.
Kind Regards
Carolyne Davis