Israel, War, Olympics

A busy week: Bibi's speech, hostages, Hamas, Houthis, Iran. And: the games are on.

While all eyes were on Washington as Biden, finally and visibly, handed the nomination to Kamala Harris, a not unimportant foreign visitor flew into the same town trying to get some attention too. And he got that, in spades. Bibi Nethanyahu delivered an amazing speech to Congress, setting a record for a foreign leader to do so, beating Churchill, with endless standing ovations. With guest Elon Musk, sitting right behind freed hostage Noa Argamani and her dad and next to writer Douglas Murray, the scene was complete. And yes, a number of Democrats opted to not attend while a few that did, like Rashida Tlaib, used the opportunity to protest. So it had all the necessary ingredients for a real spectacle and while the speech itself was a successful call to support Israel, the question really was who he was talking to.

Was he addressing the Republicans who are supportive anyway or Democrats who are more skeptical about Israel, or to the world at large? Bibi’s performance was by some Israeli pundits seen as a political stunt to strengthen his image at home. He may only have partially succeeded in that in a country where some 70% of the population cannot wait to see him go. His inability to conclude a hostage deal and his efforts to frustrate a public investigation into the disaster of October 7th still hangs over his head although he may have increased his domestic support a bit. Whichever way you look at it, the speech was strong.

What he did do - and that is my addition - is that he did raise Israel’s profile and was able to meet in person with all the key people he needed to see, most importantly Biden, Harris (yesterday) and of course Trump (today). It was also an opportunity to dispel the insane and dangerous narratives that the world has grown so accustomed to when talking about the Gaza war. The evidence of such misconceptions was right outside on the streets of Washington where Hamas supporters torched American flags and assaulted Capitol police.

The interesting thing to see was how the new presidential candidate framed her meeting with Nethanyahu. Harris who was notably absent from the speech a day earlier (in her role as VP she presides over the Senate and should have been there) gave a terse briefing in which she highlighted her support for Israel, but also went out of her way to emphasize the Gazan side and that a hostage and ceasefire deal had to be done now. In that it appeared that she publicly put more pressure on Nethanyahu and it may signal a different approach to Israel. A departure from the Biden line so to speak. She has been on record to express support for the protestors saying she understood ‘their emotions’, but after yesterday’s chaos she quickly distanced herself from the pro-Hamas crowd as they effectively delivered free content for the Trump campaign. Harris is conducting a politically expedient balancing act to keep all sides of her party happy, but the skeptics are rightly worried as to how that might translate into US foreign policy if she ends up in the White House.

So this is why we should not lose sight of how the US elections are informing the war. A Trump administration - a likely scenario - will bring on a far more aggressive approach to push Iran back into a corner. The continued attacks on Israel by its proxies Hezbollah and the Houthis are to be seen into that context: a ramping up of hostilities during a time where they still may go relatively unpunished. The window of a somewhat less aggressive American approach that seeks to find ways to co-exist with Iran may well be closing depending on November’s outcome.

The other window closing rapidly is that for the hostages. It is no longer a secret that a deal could have been done much earlier with both Hamas and Nethanyahu delaying or frustrating real progress. But things are looking quite hopeful right now and that was also one of the things that was centre stage this week in Washington. And again electoral calculations come into play as it may be the last chance for Hamas to actually derive value from a deal as Israel’s progresses on the ground militarily with a possible Trump administration on the horizon.

So, there are a lot of moving pieces. The war in the north with Hezbollah is ongoing, the Houthis from Yemen have effectively opened a third front while Hamas is losing. A hostage deal is imminent but the reality of how many are left - another five were found dead this week - will be extremely painful. The war and the suffering continue and so do the political games in the capitals of the world.

The Olympics

Yes, it’s on. Another edition of the global sports extravaganza with lots of drama and politics. And as at every edition, one of the first things that comes to mind is 1972, the Munich games. And from today’s vantage point what happened on September 5 and 6 in that year wasn’t all that different from October 7th: torture, even a case of castration and murder. The only added element now is radical Islam.

It has been a very small group of people who have kept the memory alive and who have fought an incredible and uphill battle to make these 11 men part of Olympic history and find justice. Yes, the Olympics too are soaked in Jew hate and Jewish blood. It is thanks to the relentless efforts of Ankie Spitzer, widow of the murdered fencing coach Andre, that after some fifty years progress has been made on this. Here on this newsletter we will never forget and always remember these men who came to compete and were murdered:

David Berger, 28, weightlifter

Yossef Gutfreund, 40, wrestling referee

Moshe Weinberg, 32, wrestling coach

Eliezer Halfin, 24, wrestler

Mark Slavin, 18, wrestler

Ze’ev Friedman, 28, weightlifter

Yossef Romano, 32, weightlifter

Kehat Shorr, 53, shooting coach

Andre Spitzer, 27, fencing coach

Amitzur Shapira, 40, track coach

Yakov Springer, 51, weightlifting judge