Shalom all,

Lots of folks wanted to take a break for the holidays, slow down and take it easy a bit, spend time with family and friends and bring in a healthy new year, with anticipation that it will be better than the year that was passing away. The holidays came and went, Christmas, Hanukkah and the year 2024. We entered 2025 with prayers and hope that maybe, just maybe, this will be the year when people will take the time to listen to one another, to embrace rather than right, a year when weapons will be turned into plowshares and the citadel of self will collapse, giving way to concern, compassion and care. Nice thoughts, but the realities of human existence push them to a future time, when truth and righteousness will indeed reign. In the meantime, the population of planet earth continue to spiral downward, caught in the web of sin and the quagmire of death and destruction. 

Israel entered 2025 pretty much the same way that it ended 2024 – fighting wars on multiple fronts, facing enemies whose raison d’etre is not only to remove the State of Israel from the Middle East, but to eliminate it and the Jewish people entirely. Of course there were changes in this area of the world during the last quarter of the year – the leadership of Hezbollah was decimated and the organization’s missile arsenal was significantly diminished; the rule of Bashir al-Assad in Syria came to an end and terrorists formerly associated with ISIS and Al-Qaida donned suits and began to woo the west, lulling many into a readiness to believe that leopards will change their spots overnight. And the Houthis became an unexpected military nuisance that Israel, as well as the rest of the world, needs to reckon with. Iran lost prestige, but continues to bide its time, as it continues to try to foment conflict throughout the Middle East and other parts of the world, while it pursues Its nuclear ambitions.

But, what hasn’t changed much is the ongoing war with Hamas, the terrorist organization that succeeded to invaded southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and caused the worst death and destruction to the Jewish people since the Holocaust. About 100 hostages are still being held by Hamas and on-again, off-again, on-again negotiations have become another form of psychological warfare, which has taken its toll on Israeli society. The IDF managed to eliminate a sizeable portion of Hamas’s military forces, but a massive recruitment effort by the terrorist organization has managed to restore much of the military manpower that it lost during the last 15 months of fighting. And, it still makes the decisions regarding the hostage release – prisoner exchange negotiations. 

Throughout most of the course of the fighting, Israel has systematically pursued the terrorists that wreaked havoc in the communities along the Gaza Envelope, raping, burning, dismembering and killing over 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. When Israel responded in force, it didn’t take very long for the international community to point its finger in the wrong direction, accusing Israel as the aggressor and forgetting that it was the victim of terror, not the instigator. Hamas was almost a non-entity in the international equation. The “people of Gaza” became the victims, instead of the “people of Israel” along with the citizens from dozens of countries who were also victims of the slaughter perpetrated by Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Over the months, the blind and befuddled international community accused Israel of committing ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza – a totally absurd accusation, given the fact that the population in Gaza had increased, not diminished. Military experts from different countries praised the IDF and lauded its morality and professionalism. But world pressure on Israel shifted the focus of the reason for the war in Gaza and demanded that Israel provide humanitarian aid to the people in Gaza, the very people who cheered Hamas’s belligerency towards Israel and shared the terrorist organization’s desire to eliminate the State of Israel. There was a widespread willingness to be voluntarily blinded to the reality that the mindset of Hamas is deeply ingrained in the mentality of the population. The organization grew in numbers and influence with each terrorist incident, beginning with the suicide bombings in the ’90s and continuing beyond the second intifida. The use of human shields by Hamas rarely made the tabloids. Its violent behavior towards “its own people” was similarly ignored and almost irrelevant, as long as there was Israel, who could be blamed for every evil, even for continuing to exist after numerous attempts had been made to destroy her.

A rational person would have thought that at some point, the finger-pointing and the blame for the ongoing war would be directed at Hamas, instead of Israel. But, with rare exceptions, that didn’t happen. Some of the hostages died during the course of the last fifteen months, a few by military accident, others by cold-blooded murder and still others from injuries and disease. The IDF has also suffered the loss of over 800 soldiers. Thousands were seriously wounded and the number of suicides among the IDF is the highest that it’s been in decades. So, why hasn’t the war ended? Why haven’t the hostages been released? Why is Israel still being blamed for trying to finish what Hamas started?

In two weeks time, the United States will undergo a change of leadership. The incoming President has issued a stern warning to Hamas that there will be “hell to pay”, if the hostages are not released by the time he is sworn in. Will this warning be effective? Will Hamas act in anticipation that the threat by the incoming U.S. President will be carried out? Maybe, maybe not. They still have two weeks to find out.

But, why should it be necessary for the U.S. to threaten Hamas? Because until now, the one that has been “threatened” by the American leadership has been Israel. Some may think that this is a fairly strong accusation. Indeed, it is. But, if the shoe fits…

And then, almost as a gift from heaven, the outgoing U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, gave an interview to the New York Times. The content of the interview was eye-opening and illuminating, enabling us to gain insight into the processes and pressures that, in effect, extended the war in Gaza, shifted its original focus and explained the rationale and the continued resistance of Hamas to conclude negotiations that will result in the return of the hostages and end the war. If you saw, or are interested in seeing and listening to the interview, you might want to pay close attention to the questions that were asked and the impression that those questions were to make upon the listener. The interview about the Israel-Hamas war starts around 24.45 minutes.

The interview can be seen/heard here and a few of its main points appear in an article by the Times of Israel, such as:

1. Blinken traveled to Israel 5 days after October 7th, and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders, where he argued “for hours on end about the basic proposition that the humanitarian assistance needed to get to Palestinians in Gaza…And that was an argument that took place because you had in Israel in the days after October 7 a totally traumatized society. This wasn’t just the prime minister or a given leader in Israel. This was an entire society that didn’t want any assistance getting to a single Palestinian in Gaza. I argued that for nine hours.”.

2. He had to threaten Israeli leaders that if the humanitarian aid would not be forthcoming, then he would call President Biden, who was planning to come to Israel, and tell him not to come.

3. Blinken actually did call the President “to make sure that he agreed with [Blinken’s position] and he fully did”.

4. He stated that the U.S. does not believe that Israel is carrying out genocide in Gaza, but said there were times when Israel wasn’t “doing enough” regarding humanitarian aid.

5. On the positive side, he said that Hamas was to blame for the failure of the hostage-cease fire deal, not P.M. Netanyahu. “What we’ve seen time and again is Hamas not concluding a deal that it should have concluded…Whenever there has been public daylight between the United States and Israel and the perception that pressure was growing on Israel…Hamas has pulled back from agreeing to a cease-fire and the release of hostages…There are times when what we say in private to Israel where we have a disagreement is one thing, and what we’re doing or saying in public may be another.”

6. He was astonished that most of the global pressure to end the war in Gaza has been directed at Israel and not at Hamas. “[You] hear virtually nothing from  anyone since October 7 about Hamas.”

7. He added, “Why there hasn’t been a unanimous chorus around the world for Hamas to put down its weapons, to give up the hostages, to surrender — I don’t know what the answer is to that. Israel, on various occasions [prior to the war], has offered safe passage to Hamas’s leadership and fighters out of Gaza. Where is the world? Where is the world saying, Yeah, do that! End this! Stop the suffering of people that you brought on!”

8. He also noted that world pressure on Israel harmed the hostage release negotiations and provided encouragement to Hamas to reject, time and again, the deals to release the hostages and end the war. “Hamas, when they saw Israel under pressure publicly, they pulled back. The other thing that got Hamas to pull back was their belief, their hope that there would be a wider conflict, that Hezbollah would attack Israel, that Iran would attack Israel, that other actors would attack Israel, and that Israel would have its hands full. Hamas could continue what it was doing. So we’ve worked very hard to make sure that that didn’t happen.”

There was more in the interview, but let’s take a brief look at the importance of what was said by Blinken.  He came to present a position in preparation for President Biden’s planned visit to Israel. And when Biden came, he expressed unequivocal support of Israel. But, as I have repeatedly mentioned in this blog, in this area of the world, no one does something for nothing. So, there was a price to pay for the unequivocal support of the United States – a re-focusing of our obligations. No longer were we to be primarily responsive to the goals of the war and the needs of a nation in trauma following the events of October 7th. Instead, we needed to take care of the people who put Hamas in power and granted it authority and who aligned their thinking with the terrorist organization. Provide humanitarian aid … or else! So much for unequivocal support of a friend and ally.

But, even more problematic was the fact that Antony Blinken was “calling the shots”. He presented the demand for humanitarian aid, which reduced and almost eliminated Israel’s siege of Gaza – no one and nothing in and no one and nothing out. This is totally permissible in war and that was Israel’s original intention. If it had been allowed to pursue this strategy, it could have quickly brought Hamas to its knees. So, after arguing with Israeli leaders for nine hours, according to Blinken, he had to threaten that if the siege wasn’t lifted and if humanitarian aid wasn’t forthcoming, he would tell the President not to come. And he did, in fact, call President Biden “to make sure that he agreed with [Blinken’s position] and he fully did”.

Blinken called the shots and then asked for backing from the President. So, who was really in charge? Obviously, if Blinken had even the slightest idea that Biden would not agree with him, he wouldn’t have spent nine hours arguing his position, which culminated in a threat. Is this the way that friends behave towards one another? Is this the way that an ally assists and provides unequivocal support to another ally that is suffering, traumatized and needs help? The United States should bow its head in embarrassment. It could have led world opinion in a different way, one that would have condemned Hamas and allowed Israel to conduct the war the way it deemed best and finish it quickly. But, Uncle Sam deemed it necessary to force its priorities on us in exchange for its continuing to maintain an “unbreakable bond” between our countries. The unequivocal, yet qualified, support of the U.S. ended up strengthening Hamas, who captured and benefitted from the humanitarian aid that was intended for the Gazan population. And while humanitarian aid was increased, Hamas relied more and more on the international pressure against Israel to enable it to carry on a war that could have ended long ago, if Israel were allowed to conduct the war the way it originally planned.

The hostage-cease fire negotiations are ongoing. The list of hostages offered today are the same as those that were on the list presented in July. Negotiations could end tonight or tomorrow, or they could go on for an extended period of time. If the hostages are not released within the next two weeks, we’ll see whether the new U.S. administration follows through with its threats against Hamas. At least from the perspective of the incoming administration, the blame is finally being placed on the proper party.

It’s a new civil year and it is open before us. It could be a year of blessing and prosperity in many respects, or the world can continue to wallow in the muck and mire of pride, hatred and war.

The Dry Bones Blog – 28 December, 2024

Please pray for:

The hostages who are still alive, that they would remain alive and be returned to their families; 

The wounded, whose lives have been turned upside down as a result of the injuries sustained in the war, as well as for the medical teams that are attending to them;

Comfort for the families whose loved ones have been killed, wounded or were taken captive;

The IDF, that it would accomplish what it knows how to do, with wisdom, courage and precision – that they would go out and return in peace;

The population of Israel, that there would be a recognition of the need for unity and the avoidance of division;

The government of Israel and its leadership, for wisdom to make decisions that are beneficial for the entire nation;

The leadership of the nations that condemn Israel, that the eyes of their understanding would be opened and that they would realize that God doesn’t change, nor do His promises – those who bless Israel will be blessed and those who come against Israel will suffer the consequences of having touched the “apple of His eye”.

In you, Lord my God, I put my trust. Deliver Israel, O God, from all their troubles! (Psalm 25:1, 22)

As we begin this new year, remember: “A gentle word turns away wrath” (Proverbs 15:1), so bless, be blessed and be a blessing.

Have a great week!

Marvin