I began my day with a nice run along the former train track the travels from west Jerusalem south. Jerusalem has supreme people watching. During my morning miles, I saw Orthodox women running in their skirts, a fully covered Muslim woman working out at an outdoor park, and a monk in a long brown robe walking the same path I was running. Throughout Jerusalem, there are mini-libraries where folks can take a book and leave a book, and it is common to see elderly sitting nearby on benches, visiting with one another, sometimes reading. Jerusalem stone is everywhere (not ideal for running when wet) and the sky was a siren-free, piercing blue.

After another ridiculously decadent Israeli breakfast, we made our way to Mt. Herzl, the cemetery where all former Prime Ministers of Israel (except 3… do you know which ones? Answer at the end of this log entry!) We started at the grave of Theodore Herzl which sits at the very top of the property. Herzl is considered the father of Zionism with the Dreyfuss affair acting as the catalyst to move Herzl to push for a Jewish state in our ancestral homeland (https://www.nli.org.il/en/discover/judaism/jewish-history/dreyfus-affair). The property of Mt. Herzl is stunning and it is shared by Yad VaShem, the Holocaust museum and memorial. Yad VaShem sits at the lowest point of the property, symbolizing that the Holocaust was the lowest point in history for the Jewish people. Herzl’s grave sits at the highest point on the property, symbolizing that the creation of the Jewish state was/is the highest point in history for the Jewish people. Interesting piece of trivia: there are no dates of birth or death at Herzl’s grave. Why? I believe it is because every day the concept of Zionism and the need for a Jewish homeland, a place where we can have self-determination and the ability to defend ourselves, is essential and therefore ongoing. It didn’t just happen in 1948. It is something we have to safeguard and defend every day, then and now.

We left Herzl’s grave and went on to visit Yitzhak Rabin and his wife Leah. We spoke about Rabin as a visionary for peace. Politics aside—whether you thought he was a good leader or not, whether you agree with the concept of land for peace or not—Rabin represents the idea that Israel can and will one day live in peace. Rabin’s commitment to that vision was undeniable and he was a leader who put his people before himself, an admirable quality in any politician and not always a given, unfortunately.

We noted that between Yad VaShem and Herzl’s grave lie all the graves of those who have given their lives in defense of the State of Israel. I shared Jonatan Alterman’s famous and touching poem, The Silver Platter, which reminds me, a diaspora Jew, that I have been gifted this Jewish homeland without sacrifice and that that is a luxury and a privilege I must not forsake or take for granted. (https://zionism-israel.com/hdoc/Silver_Platter.html)

Next, we were treated to a conversation with Haviv Gur, a journalist with the Times of Israel who covers the region. Settle in because what Haviv had to share with us was INCREDIBLE and I did my best to write it all down (which was a feat in and of itself since I was typing on my iPhone). Here’s what he shared:

“The war has reached a point at which there are two clocks running at the same time: the first is the strategic and critical need to do something big in Iran, and the second, the exhaustion of the Israeli army.

On October 7, the Israeli army realized that Hamas in Gaza also exists in Syria and Yemen and Lebanon and are all strong due to Iranian support. They are proxies aligned against us. We (the Israeli public) woke up to the understanding that what Hamas just did to us, they all want to do, and when they can, they will. After October 7, there was a military call up of 300,000 men and women to the army. The single largest call up in the history of Israel. And these reservists spent months in service, and missed months of work and family. The army is exhausted. Tens of thousands have lost businesses and jobs. Families are hurting terribly. Many who have been serving have PTSD, and many have been wounded and killed. If the Lebanon war expands deeper into Lebanon--a lot of the drone and missile reserves of Lebanon are deeper into the country from the border--if Israel decides to go for it, we will have hundreds of dead soldiers and wounded just from that expansion. The call up cannot be permanent. Some units had 100 percent call up. At first, after October 7th, 130 percent wanted to be called up. Today, due to exhaustion, 75 percent show up to a call up. It’s a problem.

Israel is a small country. Not like the US. The US military can sustain a major presence without really feeling it. Israel cannot afford it. So that’s one clock that’s ticking. And that’s driving a lot of decisions in the actual war.

Israel has concluded that no one is coming to save Gaza from around the world: not the Saudi’s or the Emirates or the Egyptians. Half of Gaza society is under the age of 18. Hamas has ruled there for 17 years. So, half of Gaza is raised on a Gaza curriculum. You have got to fundamentally change the religious and ideology of Gaza. Rebuild the schools. Israel will not be able to successfully come in and say: The Islam you learned is not true. Please have this Islam instead. The Jews can’t do that, and the Muslim world is not doing it either. The Saudi’s, for example, want a de-radicalized world, but the Saudi’s are completely incompetent. They don’t have a functional army. The Emirates do have an elite special forces, but there is no serious standing army. So even if the Saudi’s were willing to take Gaza, the only way they could do it is if Hamas is destroyed and removed from power in Gaza. But the Saudi’s couldn’t even fight them on behalf of the Jews if they wanted to because they physically can’t do it. Hamas would be able to defeat Saudis. The Saudis are cowardly along with the rest of the Shiite world that would love for Israel to get rid of the Sunni menace for them.

Hamas built out a strategy in Gaza that is so unimaginably cruel that we did not believe it when it happened. On October 7th, we were in one sense shocked that they breached our super smart-AI fence in about 20 minutes. They ruled Gaza for 17 years and built nothing except 500 km of tunnels. Do you know what 50 km is? It’s more than the New York subway system or London tube system. Astonishing. And why did they spend every dime of foreign aid on these tunnels rather than on improving the livelihood of the Palestinian people in their care? So that they could put our people (kidnapped hostages) and their fighting forces in a place where we cannot get to them. These tunnels are not in rural areas. They run underneath the cities, which allows Hamas to force the enemy (Israel) to cut through the cities as the only way to come for them. And no civilian can go in the tunnels to hide and protect themselves. And in order for us to get to Hamas, we have to destroy Gaza. And kill civilians while doing it. Hamas planned this for 12 years. The destruction of Gaza they planned for 12 years. That’s astonishing. The destruction of Gaza is their actual policy. We realized that Hezbollah in the north Hamas in the south are willing to destroy their own societies in order to destroy us (Israel). That’s what we realized on October 7th. And we need to run Gaza now because no one else is going to do it besides Israel.

So how do we face enemies on all fronts who are willing to destroy all their own societies to destroy us? There is no doubt that Gaza civilians are suffering. There are no schools. No income. No help. They are totally reliant on humanitarian aid. There are 900 truck loads just sitting there and no one will distribute the aid because Hamas attacks whoever tries and especially when it’s the Israelis. So, civilians suffer even more. By the way, no one is dying of hunger. The news will tell you that they are. The news is lying AND there is immense suffering. But there is no other option for Israel. It’s a disaster for the civilians of Gaza. Hamas has never and still does not care about them AT ALL.

What else… Nasrallah (leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon) was taken out by Israelis in Beirut, and it was incredible. Nasrallah planned an October 7th attack in the north on a much larger scale. But really, September 27th was the big news. The big news was that the bomb that took out Nasrallah was a bomb built on a brand-new Israeli production line that runs 24/7 and never turns off. We are weaning ourselves off of our dependence upon foreign states to give us arms. We make our own weapons now and use only the minimum amount we need. We look at where we need to hit a building to take it out with just one hit. We want the air force to do more so ground troops can do less. Counter the exhaustion present in the army. An Air Force attack takes two people. A ground offensive could be 150 people. So, we have expanded the missile economy, and this has been awesome.

In Gaza: we broke it; we own it; we have to fix it. It’s a long-term project and difficult, and this will not end soon. Lebanon is the opposite. We have weakened Hezbollah massively as a strategic actor. Lebanon can rebuild quickly, but at the moment, it’s on its ass. In Gaza, there is nothing other than Hamas. In Lebanon, there is a lot of the rest of Lebanon that is not Hezbollah, and these citizens are turning on Hezbollah and want a country that is not a battlefield between Iran and Israel. We want to deescalate Lebanon fast so we can lower the cost and while elevating the achievements.

What’s the best way to deescalate the war in Lebanon? We need to take the war to Iran. None of this would be happening without Iran. The Hamas that carried out October 7th was fully funded by Iran. Iran pays as little cost as possible while they use their proxies to do whatever necessary at their expense to make Israel unlivable. But now Israel is getting smart, and knows its strategy should be massive escalation that has massive costs to Iran. Iran wants to destroy the Jews for religious reasons and we need to make it so costly for Iran that it’s not worth it for them. Israel has something on her side: escalation dominance, and we have more it than the Iranians. We are at the bottom of our curve, and they are at their top. We killed their guy in Damascus, and they launched a massive amount of missiles that did nothing. What did we do in response? We shot just three and hit them right by their nuclear missile center. And then we took out the guy in Tehran. And the Iranians did another missile attack which was more successful but not successful as far as actual damage. And Israel’s response was to take out their air defense system and missile production factories. We lowered their escalation curve. We flew over Tehran for SIX hours without them being able to do anything. And the best part: some of the Israeli pilots were women! This is a fascinating factoid for the Iranian opposition. Because in Iran, there are parts of the society that is secularizing as a response to the religious fundamentalism of the regime, so women flying over Iran is part of the message and helping fuel that split in their society

The Iranians know they are weak, and now everyone else does also. They don’t have a nuclear warhead right now. They are so weak now. This is the time or Israel and her allies (the US) to push them back. Break their economy and their nuclear capability. We need the US to help do this. We don’t need to fix Iran. We can just break it. In Gaza, we have to fix it. Let’s avoid at all costs a war in Lebanon. Best way to do this is exact massive costs to those funding the war in Lebanon by hitting Iran.

In the US, you hear a lot about planning for the day after in Gaza? “What’s the plan after?” is what the US keeps asking. The thing is, we don’t have to plan for the day after in Gaza because there is no day after without getting rid of Hamas. There is no solution regardless of how you feel about Israel without getting rid of Hamas. America has no idea of Iran’s atrocities in the region. Assad would not have been able to slaughter 600 thousand in Syria without Iran’s backing. The Christian community in Syria that was once 10 percent of the population: GONE. And guess what? Nobody cares. Nobody noticed. That’s Iran. 85,000 children starved to death purposefully in Yemen in 2018 and no one cares or notices and there are no protests on US college campuses. That’s Iran. What’s happening in Gaza has happened over and again and so much worse. Iran is destroying nations on the altar of a religious mission to destroy Israel.”

We were inclined to give Haviv a standing ovation. I wished everyone I knew and then some could have heard his talk. I did my best to recount it above.

As we made our way out of Mt. Herzl, we came upon a funeral for an IDF commander killed two days ago in Lebanon. Thousands had come to pay honor to this man who some knew, and others did not. In Israel, everyone knows everyone. This is everyone’s war and everyone is affected in some way.

And finally… because I know you have been waiting with bated breath… the three Prime Ministers NOT buried at Mt. Herzl are: Ariel Sharon, Menachem Begin and David Ben Gurion.

We spent the afternoon at Machane Yehuda, the main shuk (marketplace) in Jerusalem. The crowds were insane! We bought some halva, good olive oil, and had a bite to eat. From there we changed clothes and made our way to the Old City and the Kotel/Western Wall to bring in Shabbat with the throngs of soldiers, yeshiva students, and ultra-orthodox who were doing the same. From the shuk and the Kotel, you would never know that Israel is experiencing hardship and tough times. The joy and celebration for Shabbat was higher than I have ever seen it. And so it is with the Jewish state… and the Jewish people. Joy is our superpower, and no one can strip us of it: not Hamas, not Iran… no one.

Shabbat shalom…