Agro-Terrorism

I read two articles today that got me thinking far more in-depth than I had been about the agricultural issues resulting from October 7. I knew that fields and farm animals suffered severe damage. That vast swaths of crops were rotting because many farm workers had been called up into the military and a lot of foreign workers had gone home (there are still local- and regional postings almost every day looking for volunteers to pick crops). I certainly knew that food prices had gone up.

What I didn't realize is that it was all part of the evil plot Hamas carried out on October 7. Mishpacha magazine's excellent article "Bitter Fruits" quotes the head of an agricultural community in the affected region who says, "Agriculture wasn't just collateral damage, as the general narrative goes. It was a deliberate target". The area affected, the WSJ notes, "produces 70% of the country's vegetables, 20% of its fruit and 6% of its milk".

The Wall Street Journal discusses Kibbutz Alumim, just 2 miles over the Gaza border. Three chicken coops there were burned to the ground on October 7, but 300,000 more chickens died of thirst and hunger after terrorists destroyed the automated dispensers that gave water and food for five more chicken coops, and no humans were around to tend to the chickens by hand.

In Nachal Oz, where the Mishpacha interviewee lives, "all 40 irrigation control boxes were smashed and the terrorists went straight for the customized computer chips that regulate the entire system; every farm vehicle was either burned or taken into Gaza".

In a previous post here about "The Hostages You Might Not Have Heard About" I mentioned foreign workers like Bipin Joshi. Why would Hamas want to take him hostage? Yonoson Rosenblum (of whose work I am quite the fan) and Rachel Ginsberg of Mishpacha explain:"Because Israeli agriculture can't survive without foreign workers, the terrorists located, massacred and abducted foreign workers in order to neutralize this vital labor source.....When the first Israeli soldiers reached  [the barracks where Thai workers slept] they found Thai workers not just killed, but horribly mutilated. Those photos were subsequently sent to the king of Thailand, with the specific intent that he would order his subjects to return to Thailand". Which something like 85 percent of them have done....

I encourage you to read both pieces:

https://mishpacha.com/bitter-fruits/

https://www.wsj.com/articles/hamas-agricultural-terrorism-oct-7-israel-food-supply-trying-to-break-the-community-e4d91a71?st=jtwkaauxhbgs4id&reflink=article_gmail_share

Click here if you would like to donate to the Save a Farm Fund from Keren HaShviis (mentioned in the Mishpacha article):

photo from Save a Farm Fund

Guest Post by Fern: War Day #220 Yom Hazikaron: What gets lost

Yom HaZikaron, Memorial Day, was yesterday. 

''What gets lost

Our glasses.

Our keys. 

The umbrella that used to be in that closet. 

6,000, in the Israeli War of Independence.

Our cellphones, 

the phone charger, 

the pacifier, and the small bear.

In 1963, one thousand lost, in just six days. 

The dress watch.

The remote control. 

Our place in the book. 

2,500 lives in the Yom Kippur war (three times the per capita of the Vietnam War to the US.)

Some things are lost and then found. 

Some are lost, and never recovered. 

That pen.

And one blue striped sock, in the laundry. 

Our feeling of belonging in the world. 

They say 25,000 total lost in wars. Plus many more in intifadas.

Six million, of course. 

We have not lost our resolve.

But our energy for battle? 

Can one lose what one never really had?

And then 1,200 all at once, on October 7th.

And with those 1,200, our confidence in our army, and Anne Frank’s belief in the essential goodness of people. 

And some of us have lost our faith. 

(Though, ironically, we pray for its return.)

We lose weighty things:

The moment,

Our temper, 

Our sense of self,

World support. 

Even our sanity. 

And hostages, 

So many loved ones 

gone astray,

With no trace. 

Our national anthem, Hatikvah, says: 

‎עוֹד לֹא אָבְדָה תִּקְוָתֵנוּ

“Our hope is not yet lost.”

We cling to this hope, but how long until we lose that, too?

May you have a meaningful Yom Hazikaron.

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https://fernmusing.substack.com/

Eurovision Update

Nice to share the happy news that Israel made it into the finals of Eurovision, to be held Saturday night.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/defying-haters-israels-eden-golan-advances-to-the-eurovision-grand-final-on-saturday/

With thanks to the Times of Israel for pointing out that the European Broadcasting Union that televises Eurovision used its high-tech "anti-boo technology" (I'd make fun of the name, but will refrain because I'm glad there is such a thing) to make sure home viewers did not hear the hate in the actual arena.

A large rally protesting Israel participating in Eurovision (although, from the photos, it just seems to be an anti-Israel rally) was held in Malmo, and, sadly, another is planned to Saturday, when the final competition happens. 

Rooting for Eden and Israel! Shabbat Shalom!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/05/09/eurovision-israel-protests-eden-golan/ (if you want to read more).

Hurricane

 "Hurricane" is probably a better title, so that no one worries that the weather here has gone crazy (although it did pour TWICE on Monday, and rain after Purim is unusual and rain after Pesach is downright rare. Monday was Yom HaShoah/Holocaust Memorial Day and my friend Michal, whose mother was born in a DP camp to her Holocaust-surviving grandparents, very movingly described standing in the pouring rain for the two minute national siren that causes the nation to stop and stand in honor, and feeling that Gd was crying with her).

The "Hurricane" I'm referencing is Israel's entrance to the international singing competition, Eurovision (I wrote once before about Eurovision and, in homage to all of us clueless Americans, called my post "Euro-Whata?"). This year, there has been a huge amount of controversy associated with Eurovision. Aside from calls and petitions for Israel to be refused entry to the competition, the song itself, originally called "October Rain" was disqualified for being "too political" and required several weeks of rewrites before being accepted with its current, much more oblique, lyrics ("it's really about making it through any challenging time".  Yeah, right....).

Singer Eden Golan, all of 20, did not participate in the Eurovision opening ceremony on Monday, instead opting to go to a Yom HaShoah memorial event with the Swedish Jewish community. Golan was "welcomed" back with boos and screams of "Free Palestine" during the dress rehearsal the next day, to the extent that she had to wait to start her song (how this young woman has done such an excellent job keeping her composure is beyond my comprehension [I got teary just watching the video of the dress rehearsal]). Golan was born in Israel and moved to Russia when she was six for her father's work. They didn't move back until Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 (her mother is Ukranian). If she'd like my input, I think North Korea might not be a bad place to move next, if she's trying to have more hate in her life.....

During the actual competition, Golan will be on stage with backup dancers (all of whom are wearing clothing that looks like rags/bandages. The yellow outfit she was originally supposed to wear was rejected as "too political" given its references to freeing the hostages. Sigh). For anyone interested in hearing the song, I'd like to point you to this beautiful AI video (kol isha, no real humans are shown): Hurricane Video

Israel is participating in the semi-finals Thursday (ie hopefully the day you are receiving this). Voting for one's home country is not allowed, so if you'd like to vote/send Israel some love, please visit https://www.esc.vote/. 

Pesach Roundup 2024

 It was a pretty mellow Pesach, and that suited me juuuuust fine.

Seder highlight: Menashe saying the Four Questions in Spanish, with Penina joining in when she could (I suggested that they increase the adorable newlywed vibes and practice to say it in unison next year).

Chol HaMoed highlight (although, since this was the only family trip I participated in, there was no competition): Guided tour of the gorgeous new National Library of Israel 

and a fun time messing around in the Library's sculpture garden:

The thrill of being in Israel for Passover truly never goes away. From seeing the streets get cleaned early in the morning erev Pesach

to having entire rows closed off in the supermarkets because they're chametz 

and having a chuckle at the sign on the soda machine assuring that everything inside is kosher for Passover.

The flip side is also true: the emotional depth of being in Israel is so intense.....Yizkor: the last time this memorial prayer was said was over Sukkot, just as the war was starting. How many people were saying it for the first time this Pesach? How many parents mourning children, especially soldiers killed in action? Took my breath away to think of.....

The Hostages You Might Not Have Heard About

 Every morning when I daven the blessing "matir assurim" (You free the captives", which, goodness knows, never felt so relevant in my life as it has the past 6.5 months....), I stop for a few minutes and say the names of each of the hostages (as far as we know. See chabad.org/hostages). 

There are the "special ones", like the Bibas children, adorable Kfir ben Shiri, who, if still alive, turned one in captivity and has spent the bulk of his short life as a hostage, and his four year-old brother Ariel ben Shiri 

And the hostages I have some tenuous connection to: NationOnPause.org sent me a new name to daven for after Elad Katzir was confirmed murdered (felt like a kick in the gut when I opened my email and saw this, even though I had already heard the confirmation of his death)

Now I am "dedicating my Shabbat" to 83 year-old retired journalist Oded ben Bilha Lifshitz (doesn't he look like everyone's favorite grandpa??)

But then there are other names on my list....Last month, at a talk outside the United Nations, Rachel Goldberg-Polin, mother of American-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, said that hostages include 8 Muslim Arabs, a Catholic and a Hindu, 8 Thai Buddhists and at least 2 black African Christians. Here are some of their stories:

Bipin Joshi, from Nepal who, only three weeks before October 7, arrived in Israel on an academic program about farming

Mohammed El Alatrash, a Bedouin father of 13

Qaid Farhan Alkadi, a Muslim Bedouin

Hamza Alziadna, a Muslim Bedouin. An uncle murdered on October 7, another uncle hailed as a hero for stuffing more than 30 people into his 14-seat minivan and speeding through Hamas shooters to save people from the Nova music festival, and Hamza taken hostage along with a brother, sister and their father, Yusuf Alziadna.... 

Orion Hernandez Radoux from Mexico. He is German-Israeli Shani Louk's boyfriend.  A photo of Shani, half dressed and lying face down in the back of pickup truck while surrounded by jubilant Hamas terrorists, won the AP "Team Photo of the Year" Award. I choose NOT to post that photo, but one showing her glowing with life:

Please Gd, as we end Passover, the Holiday of Freedom, may all of these people and every one of the 133 people still being held hostage, be home soon, and may our beautiful county only know permanent peace and security. Chag Sameach.

Guest Post by Kara

 From my friend and neighbor, Kara, who sums up the current situation better than my Pesach-cleaning brain can:

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Clean out the cabinets for Pesach, but make sure you’re stocked with food for 3 days.

Don’t watch the news, but keep an eye on Iran.

Keep your kids safe, but draft your son tomorrow.

Make your summer tickets, but don’t plan too far ahead.

Send your kids to Jerusalem on the bus every day, but watch out for Ramadan terror attacks.

Bring the hostages home at any and all cost, but absolutely no ceasefire with Hamas.

Attacks are imminent, so store your passports and stock your safe rooms, but don’t panic.

Talk to your kids about what’s happening, but not too much.

Finish Hamas, but also pull the army out of Gaza almost completely.

Strike Lebanon on the daily, but don’t go to war.

Take care of your mental health, and don’t stay stuck inside, but don’t go too far from home.

Celebrate our Exodus from Egypt, but also your GPS says you’re in Cairo.

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My son went into the Army last Wednesday.

Too many emotions to describe.

Love.

Pride.

Fear.

Duty.

Pride.

Separation.

Honor.

Pride.

Love.

Hashem should bless and keep all of our soldiers safe. Physically, emotionally, healthy in body and spirit.

Sruli, Yisrael, named for the land that has always had my heart, we love you and are so incredibly proud of you, and are with you every step of the way.

Blessing him before he leaves

Shabbat Shalom