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[Daily Brief Below]

Between Paradise and Armageddon

The forecast today was sunny with a chance of drones and rockets, much like most other days here in Haifa.

A friend from Detroit responded to my message after Samantha Woll’s murder on Saturday.

We talked buying a gun that shoots salt pellets instead of a real one, both for him and for us.

He asked how we’re doing.

I typed back, “Baruch Hashem. Somewhere between Paradise and Armageddon.”

In Israel, such terms aren’t just something conceptual. They’re actual places.

Case in point:

We’re about 40 minutes drive from Pardes Hanna (the town’s name means the Paradise of Hannah), 25 min from Fureidis (Paradise in Arabic - anything BUT paradise, in practice, the town is dirty as anything), and about 40 minutes drive from Megiddo, which is, you guessed it, the site where Armageddon s supposed to take place (and where the name Armageddon originates from).

So there, you have it.

The days are surreal.

My wife is home with the kids. The older ones are Zooming.

The younger one went into kindergarten for not even 2 hours today.

Huzzah!

The school board sent a message about Zoom tomorrow, after which the city sent a message saying schools are open as usual tomorrow.

This is after a drone from Hezbollah was downed in Acco, all of 25 minutes north from us.

WTF is going on in this country?

Seems like the local authorities and the, ya know, actual national government are missing in action. Maybe outside of the Defense Ministry and one or two others, the other ministries are either not functioning or at least not speaking.

It looks like private initiative is dramatically more effective at actually getting sh*t done in Israel than any kind of government.

Disturbing, but apparent.

And so we sit here, on knife’s edge between peace (50 dual-citizen hostages are supposedly getting released in the next few hours) and all-out WWIII.

Not like some distant concept, the real thing.

Iran has massed troops in Syria. It’s instructed Houthis to send long-range ballistic missiles at Israel and urged (through Hamas) Arabs to march to Israel’s borders from Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon.

Friendly neighbors, you say?

The U.S. has amassed 3 aircraft carrier groups, a bunch of destroyers and other ships with 15,000 troops, a bunch of DELTA Force special ops already here, plus a ton of special forces gathered in Cyprus along with Dutch, German, British and likely others.

Shit really feels like it’s gonna do down any moment.

But the city rushes to reopen schools fully, even when that means expecting 100 10 year-olds to run down the stairs in an orderly manner to a shelter within 1 minute.

WTF…

And more aid trucks are coming into Gaza.

We’re learning that Hamas promised each terrorist $10,000 per hostage.

The terrorists had extremely detailed instructions and… religious permission from some sort of horrible human beings calling themselves Muslims for the murders, burnings, rapes, decapitations and kidnappings. Everything was found in pamphlets in their pockets, along with poor man’s cocaine (captagon), which they were on when they committed genocide.

This shit just gets more and more insane and depraved, seemingly by the hour.

And so, we sit and wait.

We make black humor.

We work, we Zoom, we post and repost and write our observations.

And our lives hang in the balance.

Our money is getting more and more worthless here, even as the cost of living is barely budging.

Hire Israeli, guys. If you need labor of any sort that can be done remotely, just do it.

No better way to support us. Buy Israeli goods, too.

No brainer, easy way to help.

If you need HR help or leadership or negotiation coaching or content marketing help for your business, you know you can count on me.

Pray for us, make our case on social media.

Refill our coffee mug to help us keep going (LOL).

Do NOT hold back when you see the Free Palestine crowd. One POS today commented that and I tagged his employer, messages his Jewish coworker in NYC and demanded the shmuck be fired. Let’s see if they do something.

Whatever you do, DO NOT be passive, do not let the enemy shout over you.

Stay strong.

Sending love from Haifa.

We will win.

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Daily Brief (October 23, 2023)

• Iran warns it will not hesitate to launch missiles at Haifa, per an IRGC commander

• The Israeli government screened unreleased Oct 7 footage for 200 foreign journalists today in order to ‘fight Holocaust-like denials’. The 43-minute video compilation included uncensored footage taken from the dead and captive terrorists’ body cameras.

• NYT admitted they’d published unverified information in their Gaza hospital story after failing to obtain proof of Israeli air strike or the number of civilian casualties.

• Qatar is negotiating for the release of 50 hostages with dual passports from Gaza Apparently, “the missile has dissolved like salt in the water,” a senior Hamas official told the outlet. “It’s vaporized. Nothing is left.”

Military Update

Over the past day the IDF struck over 320 military targets in the Gaza Strip, among them tunnels containing Hamas terrorists and dozens of operational command centers. On Monday afternoon, drones from both Gaza and Lebanon were shot down in Israeli airspace.

After 16 days of airstrikes, the IDF has told the government that it is fully prepared for a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, and believes it can achieve the goals set out for it, even at the risk of heavy casualties to soldiers, and amid repeated attacks by Hezbollah in the north, The Times of Israel learned.

A USB device found on Hamas terrorists proves that the terrorist organization planned to use cyanide against the civilian population, just like Al-Qaeda terrorists, says Israeli president Isaac Herzog.

IDF on high alert for terrorist copy-cat attacks in Judea and Samaria, taking active precautions, with focus on areas near Arab villages.

Orthodox and ultra-orthodox Jews enlisting & helping the army, totaling over 2000 ppl. They will be taking up medical and logistical jobs.

The U.S., in alliance with the U.K., France and Germany is pouring massive forces into the region by air, sea and land. The U.S. knows its assets will be heavily attacked by Iranian proxies, armed with thousands of surface-to-surface ballistic missiles and suicide drones prepared just for this. Germany’s special ops unit has landed in Cyprus and are stationed there, along with Dutch, Italian, American and British special forces.

So far, the bodies of 780 civilians who were murdered have been identified (83% of civilians), but many are unidentifiable. The authorities are considering burying these in the interim to allow families to seek further answers.

Israeli Security Service Shin Bet formed a new division, NILI, to track down all those responsible for the Oct 7 massacre. Earlier today they reported that they have identified every perpetrator.

Hostage Situation

An IDF soldier was killed by an anti-tank missile from Hamas while helping search for bodies of the missing.

222 people have been confirmed to be held hostage in Gaza. The number does not include Judith Raanan and her daughter Natalie, who were released by Hamas on Friday night.

The New York Times, citing a senior Israeli military official, says talks are underway for the release of some 50 dual-nationals from Hamas captivity, “based on conversations between the United States and Qatar.”

Hatred Knows No Bounds

21 kids from 13 families are without parents after the Hamas attack; one is a 4-year-old hostage. The Welfare Ministry figure includes 16 cases in which both parents were murdered by terrorists; remaining kids had one parent killed while other was kidnapped or is missing

Sweden demands to aid Gaza, saying “the most important thing is how to get aid to Gaza,” ignoring Israel’s 1400+ murdered civilians.

World Support

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis landed in Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and French President Emmanuel Macron are also expected to arrive for meetings with Netanyahu.

Over 100 German companies pledged to fight antisemitism. “Never again is the obligation of each individual. Never again is now”, the campaign declares.

On the Bright Side

87% of the Jewish public believe in the IDF; 48% are in favor of a pre-emptive strike in the north. Despite the severe blow it suffered, a flash survey conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute shows that an absolute majority of the Jewish public trusts the army. Trust in the police soars and in the police it collapses

Fake of the Day

This image has been making rounds on social media today. The screenshot of what users described as a CNN Sunday evening newscast depicts a map of Israel that not only has Tel Aviv away from the sea and in the Golan Heights, but also Sderot inside the West Bank.

We wanted it to be a fake… but failed to find a verified rebuttal.