Wailing Sirens, Shofar and Rocket Blasts Blur Sacred and Surreal - Reporter's Notebook
Notes begun pre and post-Rosh Hashanah, 2024, and continued ever since Oct. 7th, 2023. They'll no doubt be continued, so please subscribe to follow my updates from our lives on the northern border
“366 days of Rocket Alarms in 71 seconds: Statistics and video illustration of a full year of rocket fire and alarms from 06:29AM Oct 7th 2023 - Oct 6th 2024:
Rockets Launched:
13200 from the Gaza Strip
12400 from Lebanon
400 from Iran
180 from Yemen
60 from SyriaAlarms:
10914 from the Gaza Strip
12049 from Lebanon
4384 from Iran
415 from Yemen
60 from Syria
29 from IraqTotal number of alarms including false alarms: 29177
Taken from:
* Launches - IDF spokesman
* Alarms - Homefront command website
(Source: @LittleMoiz)”
I’ve restarted this post numerous times, both on SubStack’s cellphone app and on the desktop; time is compressed and fluid as breaking events overtake every sentence, paragraph, image and video, since 06:29, Oct. 7th, 2023, and going forward. So, apologies for the disjointed, longish sections. Rockets are still falling across the north - and now, the south - and the Tel-Aviv/Gush Dan region, as I’m trying to sum up:
Rosh Hashana:
We hosted wife’s son, his wife, and their three rambunctious kids (10, 8, 3), and their even more rambunctious fast-growing pup, for the three-day holiday; they live in Tzfat, and being by us was a sort-of break for them - at least, compared to what they and our mutual friends have and are enduring, along with the rest of city's some 37k residents; 14 rocket and exploding drone attacks over the holiday and Shabbat alone. This has been going on for a year.
His sister and her partner, living in the southern Golan, and my grown triplets have also suffered terribly for the last year and lost close friends and colleagues, both as civilians and in uniform; my grown daughter living in the central Golan, other grown daughter and her husband in Tel Aviv, and my son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter, have all been deeply affected to the core of their being.
Trust me: sharing a "festive" religious meal with family on your back porch (we have a small cottage, so seating is tight inside), and your granddaughter falling asleep on your shoulder, while incoming rockets and outgoing Iron Dome interceptors, Apache attack helicopters and jets race overhead to return fire, while not-so-distant booms shatter the otherwise Galilee pastorale was - to put it mildly - difficult, and as I noted in the title, “surreal.”
Not to mention having to show my grandson where the bomb shelter was in the synagogue, and prompt him to run upstairs to the Ladies' gallery to tell his mother and sisters how to reach it if there's a rocket siren - so, not a part of the "traditional" Rosh Hashanah service. Several residents of nearby Carmiel and Dir al-Assad (Google the names) were directly injured in the barrages - which shook our walls - and several homes and buildings were struck in the - I stress - purely civilian areas.
We, ourselves, also had several sirens and hurry-to-shelter of our own here in our village about 25 minutes outside of Tzfat, and the close to 800 Hezbollah rockets and drones fired across northern Israel during the duration—and since—the three-day have been stressful. And, as artisanal beekeepers, we've had to cope with working our hives under live rocket fire:
Read my previous updates here and over at Life on the Border for running accounts of life in wartime in Israel.
My post from the night and morning of Oct. 7th, 2023 - Shabbat and the sacred holiday of Simchat Torah:
A very dark night here: over 250 Israeli Jews slaughtered, upwards of 1,500 wounded by two-legged Iranian-backed monsters, and scores taken hostage - men, women, teens, children, infants, and the elderly, and dead and dying - within Gaza and in multiple hostage situations nearby within Israel.
As of this update, massive IDF forces are en route to Gaza. Meanwhile, the IDF Northern Command says the "Army is preparing for Hezbollah to join the war on Israel, forces in northern Israel are being significantly bolstered," since the Iranian-backed terror proxy declared today that any IDF ground attack in Gaza would entail their entering the fighting.
Besides "thoughts and prayers" for our and our troops' well-being, sharing this post, telling family and friends about what's really going on - including your local congresscritter or gov'mint' rep', would really be useful at this moment.
Thank you.
Update: 20:00 IST:
A truly massive barrage of rockets just now into central Israel, and the Tel-Aviv - Gush Dan area.
I am writing this from our safe room in the Galilee and have been hearing jets and assorted aerial vehicles overhead since early this morning - which is rare for a Shabbat. It's just a note that the war Israel is fighting doesn't stop at the Gaza Periphery - but extends throughout the country. The Iranian-backed local proxy, Hezbollah, today, demanded UN so-called "Peacekeeping Forces" evacuate the area they patrol in Lebanon - about 15 km from where I'm typing this. That means they intend to join in the battle currently being waged in the south, including Hamas cells aiming at yours truly, along with family, friends, neighbors, and the rest of us.
Read the entire post here.
Oct. 7, 2024:
You know, sitting here at 06:00 in a darkened room - instead of motivating myself to get up and go to regular weekday morning services - and waiting for 06:29—the exact moment the Islamic supremecist invasion of Israel— began exactly one year ago seems grievously appropriate:
Waiting for maniacal foes to strike first:
Exactly one year ago Iranian-led, funded, trained, equipped, and religiously indoctrinated and propagandized proxy forces opened a seven-front anhillationist war against the third Jewish Commonwealth.
So, I have an out-of-the-box suggestion, non-passive idea; hear me out: drop two of the Jewish State's (rumored, according to foreign sources) small-yield nukes on Iranian soil: one at the Fordow (or other appropriate nuclear weapons R&D facility), and one deep in one of their deserts, far from civilian centers.
I mean, it worked at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and ended WWII in the Pacific within days, and if it’s good enough for our bestest ally evah’ - and ours aren’t aimed at civilians…:
The first weapon to destroy a looming existential threat to the State of Israel, and the West in general in order to make a point: "Never Again" refers to your demonic, openly, malevolently-exhorted intent to eradicate our ancient people - and the second - to emphasize our ability and willingness to continue doing it as long as it takes in order to vanquish the Axis of Evil tormenting us — collectively here on Israel and across the Jewish world —and at any price.
The following verse is a modern-day riff on this paragraph, seared into the collective Jewish soul since antiquity:
“Remember what Amalek did to you by the way, when you came forth out of Egypt; How he met you by the way, and struck at your rear, all who were feeble behind you, when you were faint and weary; and he did not fear God” (Deuteronomy 25:17-18).
"זָכוֹר אֵת אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה לְךָ הּעזתּי.התינוקות בני יומם.
הזקנים ממיטתם.
הנשים והנערות שגופם חולל.
הילדים הקשורים.
האחים שלנו, שנטבחו, שנשרפו.
המאות שנחטפו, וחלקם עוד לא שבו.
נזכור, ננקום, לא נשכח.
מעפר נקום ונצמח."
הלל ביטון רוזן .
"Remember what the Gazan did to you.
To the newborn.
To the old people in their beds.
To the women and girls whose bodies were desecrated.
To the bound children.
To our brothers, who were slaughtered, who were burned.
To the hundreds who were kidnapped, and some who have not yet returned.
We will remember, we will take revenge, we will not forget.
From dust, we will rise and grow."
Hillel Biton Rosen (Reporter, Ch. 14)
In the thoughtful, utterly cogent words of friend, David Bogner:
"People tend to talk about (and imagine), the Vikings along the lines of popular culture, cartoons, operas, and literature; rugged Norsemen in longboats, arriving on the shores of unsuspecting coastal European villages in order to pillage.
"Few, if any, of us really take the time to imagine what it must have been like for those on the receiving end of these brutal raids. In fact, I've heard several scholars refer to the positive effects; such as the introduction of fresh genetic material to Europe and the British isles (hmmm why are there so many blondes and red-heads in England, Ireland, and Scotland???), and the establishment of lucrative trade routes.
"Heck, so prevalent were these Viking raiding routes in eastern Europe that Russia supposedly got its name from the old Norse word 'Rus, a term for 'men who row'.
"But few of us really contemplate the savagery of the rape (by which the handsome Scandinavian genetic material was left behind), pillaging and utter destruction that is tidily describe as 'Viking raids'.
"Imagine you are a family living on the coast of what is today northern England. Sails appear on the horizon, and very quickly a few longboats full of men armed with swords, axes, and bows beach themselves near your village. The Vikings stream out of their longboats and begin killing anyone standing between them and anything of value. Your wives and daughters are raped before being killed or taken as slaves. And the religious centers (churches and monasteries), are deliberately targeted for their transportable treasures.
"The reason we don't think too much about the horror of these raids is because more than a thousand years of civilizing influences have made this kind of warfare inconceivable to us. A sense of commonality and membership in the family of man has placed such savagery and brutality firmly in the realm of criminality that the world will immediately punish.
"Yet one year ago today on October 7th 2023, thousands of Palestinians from Gaza came pouring over the border with Israel with goals far more horrible than any Viking raid; more horrible because the savagery itself was the primary goal.
"They were instructed to kill, rape and capture as many Israelis as possible. They were promised a cash bounty for any Israeli body – dead or alive – brought back into Gaza, and were encouraged to maim, mutilate and sexually brutalize both women and men. They deliberately murdered family members in front of one another, and burned entire families alive if they couldn’t manage to quickly breach the armored safe rooms that most homes had. In one documented instance a fetus was cut from its mother's body before both were killed.
"Many of the terrorists livestreamed their brutality and gleefully called friends and family back in Gaza to brag about how many Jews they had killed. Yet despite this self-documentation…from that time to this, their well-wishers around the world try to downplay, or even justify, the extent of the attack.
"And in case you might think that it was only trained members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad that took part in the invasion, more than a third of those who took part in the savagery were 'ordinary Gaza civilians' who followed the first wave of invaders through the breaches in the fences and took part in the rape and pillaging every bit as enthusiastically as their 'official comrades'.
"And once Israeli forces entered Gaza, it became immediately clear that the idea of 'innocent Gazan civilians' was a hollow myth. Nearly every home, school, mosque and hospital was filled with weapons, ammunition, rockets, launchers and drones. The millions of dollars in 'humanitarian aid' hadn't gone to building a better life for these 'poor downtrodden Palestinians'. It had been used to build the extensive terror infrastructure and to enrich the leaders of the various terror factions.
"But even now, the world refuses to acknowledge the deliberate savagery, or the nearly universal participation of the entirety of Palestinian Gaza in the preparations for, execution, and aftermath of October 7th.
"'Palestine' is worse than a failed proto-state. It is a malignant political entity that was created and nurtured with the sole purpose of destroying the Jewish State. The proof is that all those calling for a 'two state solution' conveniently ignore the fact that all of the Palestinian maps of their future state share the same outline as the current state of Israel. And every concession Israel has ever made to foster Palestinian autonomy and self-reliance has been cynically used to weaponize every aspect of Palestinian society with the single aim of replacing Israel; not living peacefully alongside it.
"As we mark this dark anniversary and mourn those who are dead or still in captivity, let us take at least this one lesson from our national tragedy:
"Peace is only possible between parties that all have something to gain from it.
"Without the 'Nakba'… without the conflict… without that manufactured victimhood… the Palestinians lose their entire raison d'etre.
"They have no plan for fiscal solvency or an economy.
"They have no plan for a national infrastructure.
"They have no plan for responsible governance.
"They can't even agree on which of the many armed factions will be in charge.
"They have no mechanism for transparent use of foreign aid (which would be their entire source of income), so they would continue funneling it into feathering the Swiss bank accounts of the leaders and funding the next round of attacks."
This report will be updated as events dictate. Meanwhile, please feel free to share this post, subscribe, and help support my efforts to bring you accurate, sourced reporting, and close-up-and-personal slice-of-life scenes here in northern Israel and our Life on the Border - thank you for your consideration:
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Warm regards,
David Bender
Very thoughtful
As you pondered blue eyes being sourced from Viking blood in the Brits I've pondered the blue-eyed red-haired factor with pictures of non-arab looking Arabs being sourced from stolen Europeans used as slave breeders.
Geller report stated a 4.6 on the Richter scale was detected in Iran and folks are speculating a nuclear test.
My daughter's in Jerusalem and as much as I follow the news it was a reality check when she told me no one's going anywhere yesterday.
I'm ambivalent if not negative towards a display of power using fission now, especially if it does not directly hurt the mullahs in power.
I thought that Israel should be more rash and harsh/ unpredictable and as I've listened to Pollard talking 6 months ago about escalating massively I see the wisdom/practicality of the Netanyahu approach.
The Balochi population awaits activation along with other ethnic minorities and patriotic Iranians who despise the mules and despite the anniversary of today and the booms that you hear it feels like Israel is winning.
Wouldn't it be sweet if Gutierrez and that Italian cuntese had a pager incident?
I keep pondering the 15,000 employee 40 acre US embassy compound combined with the CIA and all other spy ears manifested by the US that could not catch/find two wanted terrorists for 40 years and think that the US is much more nefarious than I was previously inclined.
Thanks for your considered thoughts. The Iran segment is, actually, the first time I've ever written that aloud - nominally being a non-violent centrist by both Israeli and even liberal American standards. But some evils cannot be talked away, or even deterred by "mere" tactical attack. Lots more to say but enough for now.