Gaza and Israel, a New Word Association Game - Israel News - Haaretz.com
Besieged. They are – not us. The long-term parking lot at Ben-Gurion International Airport is exploding with cars. We're bombing them. Let them learn a lesson. Hungry. Crammed together. Around 50,000 people per square kilometer.
Who's counting? The atrocities of October 7. The wounded. The bombed. The thirsty. That's them. Our hostages. Shelled. We're doing the shelling. They drink contaminated water. What do the hostages drink? Four hundred people lined up for a toilet. Diarrhea. There is no water or toilet paper. The prices are sky-high. How are the hostages managing? There are no sanitary pads either. What are the hostages managing with?
A father cries as he carries his dead baby. You won't see it on Israeli television. The Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, walks in flip-flops through a tunnel. Yes, seen on Israeli television. With his children. Some 10,000 Palestinian children have been killed. Maybe 11,000 already. How many babies? Who can count them all? We've bombed them. We've killed them. A girl in a pink dress. A boy who loved ice cream. Blue plastic shrouds. A mass grave. White cloth shrouds.
Here lie their dead in the square. Impressive tactical achievements, the army spokesperson says. We make every effort not to harm innocent civilians. Today we killed dozens of terrorists. The army killed police officers securing aid trucks from looters. A soldier is killed in an encounter with terrorists in Gaza. Protecting their home. Was there a home?
Let the Israel Defense Forces finish its work in Gaza. Our soldiers know how to work. The Labor movement seems to be back. Red flag. Red line. Don't stop at a red. Cross red lines. How many? Who can count them? We've run out of words. Silence. Indifference. What are 10,000 dead children?
We won't forget you, children of the Israeli communities near Gaza. An eye for an eye. Thousands of eyes for one eye. Thousands of wounded children.
A child with an amputated limb. Smart bombs. Stupid shells. President Isaac Herzog writing a wish on a shell. A boy covered in dust is shaking all over. Where is his mother? He's afraid and misses her. A girl is trembling all over. Where is her father? He's looking for ways to leave Gaza. Horror and death as a means of expulsion. You won't see it on Israeli television. There's social media. Soldiers gone crazy. Why do they upload incriminating pictures of themselves?
A child looks through hung-up laundry in Gaza City this month. They get shelled. We're doing the shelling. They drink contaminated water.Credit: AFP
The International Court of Justice refused South Africa's request to issue an injunction against a ground offensive in Rafah. There is still time. Washington will provide Israel with more weapons. There is no time. The United States is checking cases where Palestinian civilians may have been killed by its ammunition. And the world stands still. You can't compare. The war will continue for many months, Benjamin Netanyahu said. From where will he get so many kids who will kill? And get killed?
Miami. The prime minister's son. A voyeuristic press. Serious journalism. The right-wing newspaper Makor Rishon. "Your brothers will go to war and you will sit idly by," reads an ad sponsored by reservists addressing the ultra-Orthodox community; it was published this month in Makor Rishon, the newspaper "for people who think differently." The ad includes the number of graduates of religious Zionist schools who have been killed in the fighting.
A father cries as he carries his dead baby. You won't see it on Israeli TV. Yahya Sinwar walks in flip-flops through a tunnel. Seen on Israeli TV.
Elsewhere in that issue it's written: "1,962 years after the last red heifer was slaughtered by Ishmael Ben Phiabi (a high priest), and after a decade of labors by the Temple Institute to obtain a pure red heifer in a multitude of ways yet to prove themselves, it seems they are getting closer to the goal, which may even be achieved in the foreseeable future."
Where was the editor? This was the lead to an article by Arnon Segal, "The Red Heifer Status Report." The ashes of a red heifer were used to purify a Jew who came into contact with a corpse, and will enable Jews to roam all over Al-Aqsa/the Temple Mount and, with God's help, build the Third Temple.
"Next on the agenda are five red cows imported from the United States; they are being raised at the visitors' center for this purpose at Tel Shiloh," Segal reports. Tel Shiloh, the ancient city, is Khirbet Seilun, from which the village of Qaryut developed northeast of Ramallah in the West Bank. Khirbet Seilun was part of the village, whose residents were expelled. Like the Palestinians at Susya. Archaeology expels.
Settlers with the help of the army also expelled Qaryut's residents from their springs. Herds of kosher Jewish heifers expel shepherds from their land, and farmers from their water sources. The dairy and meat industry as a tool for expulsion. Kosher slaughter. Mitzvot. The Chosen People. Red heifers for sacrifice. Some of the five cows, Segal reports, "reached the age of 2, suitable to be used as red heifers, but they crossed the finish line with quite a few white hairs."
After the bombings, a few hairs on Gaza children's heads turn white. White shrouds. Blue shrouds. A mass grave. The IDF excavates cemeteries. Brings back bodies in vans. The finish line. The red line.
Rabbi Azaria Ariel of the Temple Institute told Segal: "The Holy One, Blessed Be He, decides. It was not for nothing that He placed the Temple where it exists. There is a special sensitivity regarding it, that to move something there by nature's ways, widespread consent among the people of Israel will be needed."
So he said, and left us wondering. Just move "something." What does that mean? Something like the Dome of the Rock? Something like the Southern Mosque (Al-Aqsa)? And "by nature's ways." What does that mean? Earthquake? Airstrike? Powerful explosive? "And the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and their households." (Numbers 16:32) Miracles.
Miracles. By the hand of God. By the hand of Allah. One is great and one is greater. It's all written in the holy scripture.