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If the late afternoon news reports - both that the Strait of Hormuz has been opened, and that a ceasefire with Lebanon is really in effect, are true, I think I can finally stop my daily updates. We were in a "war" since well before this latest month and a half hot war, and we'll no doubt still be in it after this month and a half. But the acute daily tension and fear of these past weeks can apparently now be replaced with normal daily tension and fear.
On the afternoon news after the ceasefire was declared one commentator told us that this is a sign of an Israeli failure because it shows that Israel isn't really an independent nation. Instead it shows that Israel is governed by what outside forces (Trump, the Americans) want or demand. He even told us that agreeing to the ceasefire shows that there are two very different Israels - Tel Aviv, where everything continues to function as though there's no war, and the north, where they still live under the fear of an armed and belligerent Hezbollah.
There's something very true in this, and I think I've noted this numerous times. But there's a weird subtext here as well. The commentator was telling us that Israel is weak and unable to make the necessary decisions to protect itself. By saying this he was definitely criticizing Netanyahu, while perhaps also urging him to continue the war. What didn't say, and what very few Israelis say, is that it should have been clear from well before the war started that it wasn't going to accomplish anything, let alone the goals that Netanyahu and Trump so confidently and pompously delineated.
Two runners at the bottom of the television screen ran during the 17:00 news program. One said "Netanyahu said to his cabinet ministers concerning the ceasefire - Trump asked me to agree", and the other was even more blunt - "Trump: We've forbidden Israel to continue to bomb Lebanon". (Both of these are considerably more succinct in the Hebrew.) Just how Netanyahu will convert this reality into some sort of actual victory is beyond me, but I'm sure he'll think of something.
And now it's late, and at least for now the ceasefire is holding. So maybe this really is the last of these daily reports.
Shabbat Shalom!
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