We are going into week three of a war that could last for months, maybe even years so I decided to drop the “Devastating Attack, Day …” and change the titles of the newsletter based on what is actually going on and create some editorial room. So where are we today?
War & Hostages
It needs to be clear that any success for Israel is rooted in destroying Hamas, not just to neutralize the perpetrators of the horrific attacks of October 7, but more so to re-establish what it lost on that day: deterrence. A signal needs to go out to all of Israel’s adversaries in the Middle East and beyond that there will not ever be a repeat of an attack of this kind: anyone that wishes to try will come to deeply regret it. Above all Israel needs to restore the things it lost on that day of the attack. And that is also why over the past few days Israel’s army has been active in Lebanon and engage with Hezbollah on a selective basis: making it clear that nothing, but absolutely nothing can and will be tolerated on the northern border. At the same time this show of force is also for domestic consumption and reassure Israelis that the horribly violated blanket of security is once more in place. And for all of these reasons it is impossible to entertain a ceasefire in Gaza. Any call from western leaders and politicians to move or force Israel into this direction will be seen by Israel as ignoring its immediate security needs as well as an endorsement to keep Hamas in place as a viable partner to talk to, which of course it isn’t.
The major hurdle of going into Gaza are the hostages - 222 of them now - and last night a targeted incursion by Israeli forces to find hostages took place, apparently without success. The one Israeli with a direct communication line to Hamas and who negotiated with the terror group in the past, Gershon Baskin, wrote a must-read piece on the hostage situation in the NYT yesterday. So there are talks in progress, but in a situation where Israel is actively attacking Hamas centres while a refugee crisis is emerging in Gaza itself it is hard to see how any collaboration to release hostages will materialize right now. We will have to hope for some sort of humanitarian breakthrough that will at least see some of the most vulnerable captives returned, but as Giora Eiland, a former Israeli top security commented, chances aren’t great.
Also, the IDF today held a special session with international media where all the video footage shot by Hamas operatives during their killing spree was shared. A lot of it was recovered from dead Hamas fighters who carried GoPros and similar equipment. Journalist David Patrikarakos summarizes the meeting here.
The Response
Over the weekend there were many pro-Hamas rallies globally and the depraved behaviour of ripping off posters with hostage names that are calling for their return could be seen in London, Los Angeles and Melbourne and many other places. From the hundreds of thousands in downtown London chanting from ‘the river to the sea’ to the murdered synagogue president Samantha Wolf in Detroit, we are witnessing a global hate party the world has not seen since the 1930s.
The misinformation, the always present hate of Jews and the large groups of radicalized Muslims in big cities and on campuses have set the stage for an accelerated campaign that so far remains unchecked. Just a quick read through on LinkedIn is making it clear that it is coming to the business world too. Western politicians are quiet or - and that happens in many cases - align themselves with the hateful rhetoric. The grievances over Gaza are only a starting point in these protests and we need to be aware how it metastasizes into the rest of society and is becoming part of a broader anti-Western agenda.
Mizrahi Israel
Since it has become so popular to talk about ethnic cleansing or genocide in the context of Israel defending itself, let me take you back to the founding of Israel in 1948. No sooner had the state declared itself independent, or all the Jews that had been living in Arab nations for centuries (Mizrahi or eastern Jews) were uprooted and expelled to Israel. Often in the not most peaceful ways and without these refugees able to take their possessions with them they were thrown out of Yemen, Iraq, Morocco and many other countries in the region. A real ethnic cleanse so to speak.
It was a brutal expulsion and it was one that has shaped Israel in more ways than one. To begin with, most of Israel’s founders came from Europe or the US and these were Jews that we call ‘Ashkenazi’. They were generally well educated, often well connected and integrated easily into the parties and organizations that came to govern the new state. They were the elite and as such they were all of a sudden confronted with assimilating some 900,000 Mizrahi Jews who in one classic anecdote made a bonfire on the plane that took them from Yemen to Israel in order to prepare food. Mizrahi Jews entered Israel in 1948, but they travelled in coming from another century. One of the reasons Israel accepted billions in payments freedom Germany in the 1950s as compensation for the Holocaust was that the funds were desperately needed. Mizrahi Jews often lived under the most dire circumstances in their new homeland and Israel needed the funds to build actual homes, hospitals and care facilities.
It also meant that the population of the emerging nation was not exactly one unified entity. Jewish tradition and religion and over time Hebrew as a language unified the two groups, but there were deep divisions. It led to protest movements and some Mizrahi Jews radicalized and created a Black Panther protest group. The grievances they had around representation, social progress and an end to discrimination were not entirely baseless and Mizrahi Jews have been on a much longer trajectory to become part of Israel’s mainstream than say Jews with Ashkenazi roots. For instance, to date there has not been one Mizrahi prime minister in Israel.
That said, it was Menachem Begin as Israel’s first right-of-center prime minister who recognized the Mizrahis and successfully appealed for their votes in the 1977 and 1981 elections. Begin saw the electoral potential, but also on a deeper level understood that Jews were alike and always stood together fighting their enemies. In this classic election speech where he attacks racism in Israeli society he refers to the joint suicide of an Iraqi Jew, Moshe Barazani and his friend, an Ashkenazi, Meir Feinstein who blew themselves up together in prison in order to avoid being executed by the British forces who occupied Israel at that time. This is not just about Jewish heroism, it is about Jewish unity in the face of the most deadly challenges they faced. Begin himself is not buried with all the great Israeli leaders on Mount Herzl, but at his own request was laid to rest next to Feinstein and Barazani on the Mount of Olives. That pretty much sums up Begin, the man, the leader and the Jewish hero he was.
So over time the differences between the two constituent groups have blurred and Mizrahi Jews have seen their influence grow in business, academia, politics and of course the military. The one area where they have become increasingly dominant is the arts, in particular in Israel’s music scene where Mizrahi pop stars are setting the tone. That route was opened in the 1970s by Ofra Haza who hailed from Yemenite immigrants and grew up in the poor Hatikvah neighbourhood in Tel Aviv. She took Israel (and the world) by storm with her music and incredibly rare mezzo-soprano voice. And while the world saw her as an Israeli superstar she always remained a devout girl who spoke Yemenite at home with her family. Today’s stars like Omer Adam, Eden Ben Zaken and Eyal Golan all have Mizrahi backgrounds, and their music is - when you really get into it - far more Middle Eastern and in some instances quite Arabic in tone and style. My favourite singer here is Sarit Hadad (whose family actually hails from Dagestan), and who often performs in both Hebrew and Arab, her rendition of the classic Enta Omri is one for the books.
So Israel is its own unique melting pot where roots to the land that go back thousands of years, shared history, religion and language have combined to create a distinct Middle Eastern culture. Until that Saturday only two weeks ago we were witnessing much more collaboration and peace moves between Israel and many of its Arab neighbours. They need each other and they are in many ways very similar, modern Israel is much closer culturally to the Arab world than it is to current day Europe or North America. They are all Middle Eastern tribes that have each other much to offer and much to share. Let’s hope that we can find that trajectory again.
Sarit Hadad performs ‘Shalom Chaver’ (‘farewell my friend’) with Turkish-Jewish singer Linet Menashe (she enters at 1:33, don’t miss that moment) in a recent concert. This song has a really beautiful Middle Eastern vibe.
Photo above: the legendary Ofra Haza performs on Israeli TV in the late 1970s. She passed away too early in 2000 at the age fourty-two.