11/9/23

 Thursday, November 9, 2023

In bed at 11, awake at 4:50 and up at 5:13. Let Lilly out, 40°, high of 50°, back and CPP, windy, sunny day ahead, wind 16 mph, 9-19/34, 0.5" of rain in last 24 hours.  Sunrise at6:36, sunset 4:34, 9+57.

Treadmill.  Not looking good, exceptionally bad perineal pain day, both frequency & intensity. I sent a secure message to Jennifer Garrison at the VA PT.  Tom and Sue coming soon for an overnight visit.  Keeping my fingers crossed. . . .  Went to bed from 1 to 2 p.m., felt better rest of day.  No treadmill time.

From Tom Friedman's column in this morning's NYT:  "The euphoric rampage of Oct. 7 that killed some 1,400 soldiers and civilians has not only hardened Israeli hearts toward the suffering of Gaza civilians. It has also inflicted a deep sense of humiliation and guilt on the Israeli Army and defense establishment, for having failed in their most basic mission of protecting the country’s borders. . . While the army insists that it is hewing to the laws of war, it wants to show that no one can out-crazy Israel to drive them from this region — even if the Israeli military has to defy the U.S. and even if they do not have any solid plan for governing Gaza the morning after the war.

. . . . . 

Netanyahu had just told ABC News that Israel plans to retain “overall security responsibility” in Gaza “for an indefinite period” after its war with Hamas.

Really? Consider this context: “According to Israel’s official Central Bureau of Statistics, at the end of 2021, 9.449 million people live in Israel (including Israelis in West Bank settlements), the Times of Israel reported last year. “Of those, 6.982 million (74 percent) are Jewish, 1.99 million (21 percent) are Arab and 472,000 (5 percent) are neither. The Palestinian Bureau of Statistics puts the West Bank Palestinian population at a little over three million, and the Gaza population at just over two million.”

So, Netanyahu is saying that seven million Jews are going to indefinitely control the lives of five million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza — while offering them no political horizon, nothing, by way of statehood one day on any demilitarized conditions."

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I am remembering Biden's arrival in Tel Aviv, the hug with Netanyahu and my thinking Biden is going to regret that warm embrace of the thug.  I'm wondering now whether Biden hugged Bibi or Bibi hugged Biden.  I suppose the facts don't matter; it looked like a mutual embrace.  It linked Biden and Netanyahu in the minds of millions of Arabs, Muslims, and even Americans as 'brothers-in-arms' in the deaths of thousands of Palestinians, especially those ubiquitous Palestinian children.

Biden didn't help himself, or the U.S., when he cast doubt on the accuracy of the casualty counts from the Gaza Health Authority.  WHO and Red Cross authorities have said that the numbers are consistent with their counts, but Biden is being accused of minimizing the Palestinian casualties and devaluing Arab lives.  If 10,000 deaths isn't the accurate number, what is?  only 9,000?  only 7,500?  What's the point?