At it again…...

Sizzlingly Boilingly God Dam Unrelenting Heat

Holy Christ is it ever hot here.  I haven't been here in August before, but I'd heard the rumours and it's every inch as sweat inducing as was said.  The kind of heat where you can't do anything outdoors between the hours of 9am and 5pm.  With some shade maybe, just maybe, you can get away with it, and you better pray to anyone who will listen that you have a car with air conditioning.  We have to leave our air con on at night because it's impossible to cool the upstairs down in the morning otherwise.  On the radio this afternoon they announced that it was going to get hotter from tomorrow.  I just don't know how that can be possible.  My poor skin.  I am going to come back from the Middle East looking like I spent 10 years in a solarium.  Bugger the age spots, I'll have to get an entire body laser before somebody holds me down and rips my outer layers of skin off in order to create a set of fetching high-end luggage.  Meanwhile, everyone I know is freezing their tits off back home.  Honestly, I would rather be you.  The only time I wouldn't swap sweat for a shiver, is at night when I get to walk around in shorts and a tank top.  That is my favourite bit.  And I do have shocking jet lag at the moment so night time is really my thing these days.  It's 2am now and I feel like having a snack and going for a brisk stroll.

The latest in luxury bags - The Emily Collection

Feeling hot hot hot…..

No wonder there's a war going on.  Everyone has got the major shits up because they're so boiling hot.  Hamas militants are like "Fuck this black balaclava SHIT, I swear if I have to wear it a minute longer I'm going to blow some fucking Israelis up - right that's it, those fuckers are TOAST".  Meanwhile the IDF pilots are like "FUCK it's hot in this cockpit, I'm not quite on target, but I'm just going to offload my bomb now so I can get the fuck out of here and go back to sitting in that paddling pool next to the tank with that sexy chick from unit 12". BOOM….ooops.  The whole war thing is totally understandable when you take the 40 degree temperatures into consideration.

Anyway, another day, another ceasefire.  It went into effect about 2 hours ago, at midnight.  Right before it did, Hamas went a bit crackers on the rocket firing.  We know this because we downloaded an application that beeps when a rocket has been fired and you can then check on your phone where it's expected to hit.  How full on is that?  There's been a LOT over the last couple of days.  But most of them fell, or were intercepted in the south of Israel (still highly populated areas), with only a couple of longer range missiles being fired.  None made it to Tel Aviv.  It's a good thing.

Davie Boy

To be honest - and I know this sounds horrible considering that Gaza is basically a pile of rubble - but if you didn't watch the news you wouldn't really know anything is wrong.  I'm sure that's far from the case in the south of the country though.  It's a lot quieter everywhere in Tel Aviv, and the roads don't have as much traffic, but you just wouldn't notice so much if you didn't know what it was like before.  I think a lot of people stay home as to be near their shelters maybe.  If you are driving and the air siren sounds you have to stop the car and lie down behind something that is facing south. That would be un-nerving.  Though, people have a lot of faith in the Iron Dome, so it's not like the streets are empty or anything.  At the moment there is a similar type of technology being developed called "David's Sling".  This technology is designed to take out longer range missiles more effectively and also for nuclear weapons (!!!).  Israel has these things to consider due to fears of Iran's nuclear program, as it is Iran who is currently supporting, funding, and supplying weaponry to Hamas.  They both have a similar agenda and are pretty keen to get the old Islamic Law 'Sharia' - set up around these parts.  And that's no fun for anyone - well not for gays, women, Jews, Christians, Kurds, secular Muslims…….basically anyone who's not a crazy Islamic religious nutcase anyway.  Luckily Islamic style beards are high fashion right now, all you hipsters will have no issues looking the part.  Fake it until you make it dudes.

Islamic Beard

Hipster beard

When Hamas say that their terms for a permanent cease fire hinge on Israel and Egypt opening their borders again, I'm sure that everyone thinks "Yeah, what's Israel waiting for ??  Just open the borders.  Let those poor people of Gaza get some rice and stuff.  Jesus, just let them out already".  It would be nice if that was all they wanted to do.  The trouble with Hamas is that they don't want the borders open to help their people.  They want the borders open so they can get their hands on some more serious weapons, because what they really want is Israel.  They want the entire country, and they want every single Jew killed.  By their own frequent admission.  And they won't be happy until they get it.  Then they probably won't be happy then either and will have to find some more people to kill.  

This jet is good and well, but where's my stash and that hot chick?

If they wanted to help their people, they would have used their weapon budget on providing basic needs for their fellow Gazans. Also, all the aid money that has been pouring into the region for quite some time could have built schools, hospitals and housing instead of lining the pockets of the leaders and helping with the stockpiling of rockets.  Make no mistake, the leaders of Hamas are not in Gaza throwing their lot in with the rest of the poor suckers.  They are zipping around in private jets, amassing property in Europe and possibly snorting coke out of virgins cracks (just practising for the afterlife). They could have spent it on a few bomb shelters for the kids too if they are determined to shoot rockets all over Israel, because they know how that goes.  They have only started 3 wars with Israel since 2005. 

Here's a happy group shot of the Hamas Leaders

What's a one sided article without some giant red writing to back up your point?

They also could have used the Israeli donated concrete for housing and schools as was intended.  They certainly wouldn't have used it to build an intricate tunnel system under Gaza and into Israel if they really gave a toss about the Gazans.  I saw some comment from someone saying "Oh they built those tunnels to smuggle in fruit".  I'm sorry but the last time I checked you didn't need syringes full of anaesthetic, handcuffs and stockpiles of weaponry to subdue a few oranges.  And contrary to widespread belief, Israel has not occupied Gaza since Hamas came into power.  Israel even tried to give Gaza back to Egypt long ago during the peace talks when they gave back the Sinai.  Egypt was like "No fucking way do we want that shithole".  So Israel was like "Fine we'll keep it, what the fuck".  So in 2005 when Hamas became not just a religious terrorist organisation, but the government in Gaza, Israel completely pulled out of the area and forcibly booted out 12 000 Jews who were living there.  They left behind them a complex infrastructure of green houses, farms, irrigation and other developments that could have been extremely beneficial for the Gazans.  However, Hamas burnt and destroyed it all.  "Euuughhh the Jews touched it - burn it, burn it all!!!" 

So there's also been a lot of talk on Facebook about reinterpreting the Hamas charter - "Surely they don't mean they want to drive all the Jews into the sea - does anyone speak Arabic, I think we need to clear that up".  For fucks sake - they couldn't be clearer about their plans for Israel and all the people that live there.  But one of the best examples of "Let's let Hamas off the hook" came from Russell Brand who compared Hamas both to Ghandi and to Nelson Mandela.  Russell, seriously - I honestly thought he had a clue.  The whole raison d'être for Ghandi was non-violent action for the liberation of India, and while old Nelson dabbled in a bit of sabotage in his younger days, he expressly stated that his targets were symbolic - mostly government buildings, and not against civilians. Russell's a funny guy, and seems to fancy himself as a voice of the people.  But he should stick to heaping shit on people and cracking jokes.  I sat near him on a plane into New York once.  He is seriously tall. He's got that sort of sexy filthy thing going on - but I'm sure he stinks a bit.  He looks like he does.

That is some serious Fuck Hair

I am also in awe at the casually thrown around use of the word "genocide" used to describe the tragic loss of life in Gaza.  To claim this is genocide is insulting to real victims of genocide.  Genocide in it's most narrow view is defined is a systematic wiping out of a racial group.  It is pretty obvious that is not happening in Gaza.  And if that is the true intentions of the IDF they need to step their game up.  They've had more than a month and the world's best weapons to kill everyone.  A pretty shitfull performance really if genocide is their agenda.  In my home state - Tasmania - our ancestors participated in one of the most thorough examples of genocide ever seen in the history of the world (and that is a shameful fact). Lovely.  We totally succeeded in killing off the indigenous population completely and totally.  We destroyed an entire race of people.  All gone.  Yet I'm sure everyone sleeps soundly in their beds at night satisfied that it happened too long ago to give a shit about it.  I remember once my grandmother found an old diary from one of her ancestors.  She was so excited and proud, until she read the entry from great uncle Charlie that went - "I shot an Aborigine today".  The diary didn't get much of an airing after that.  No one in the family ever mentioned it again.  There isn't a country on the face of the earth that doesn't have blood on it's hands in some form or another.  That isn't to justify the current situation, but I am of the opinion that Israel faces a scrutiny that no other country is subject to.   Other countries feel no qualms in carrying out military operations in countries far far away from their borders, and are subject to far less examination and condemnation.  

The Separation Wall - It goes on for miles

The reason now that the borders are closed, which is also the reason there is a dirty great wall between Israel and the Palestinian territories, relates chiefly to Israel's security.  The whole rationale given when the wall was built was that is was intended to stop the wave of suicide bombings that rocked Israel for 15 years.  And it worked as intended.  During the 90's and early 2000's, there were over 170 suicide attacks that killed hundreds and hundreds of Israeli civilians and injured thousands and thousands.  Of these 170 attacks, Hamas claimed responsibility for 97 of them.  

The Dizengoff Mall 

Two of the suicide attacks that resonated with me, because they targeted children and teenagers, and also because they are very close to where I live, are described next. 

To the left is a photo of the Dizengoff centre.  I go here quite a lot. 

In 1996 on the eve of a Jewish children's dress-up holiday called Purim, a Hamas suicide bomber blew himself up outside with a 20kg nail bomb, and killed 13 Israelis - many of them young teenagers dressed in costumes, and one pregnant woman and her unborn child - and injured 130 more.  This was the fourth suicide bombing in 9 days. 

All that remains of The Dolphinarium today

This is a photo of the remains of the Dolphinarium Discotheque on the Tel Aviv beachfront.  In 2001 a Hamas terrorist, after taunting the victims, blew himself up outside killing 21 Israeli teenagers and injuring 132 more.   Witnesses say that the body parts were piled up on top of each other on the footpath.  Most of the victims were under 20 years old.  

Starting them young

So you can understand the reluctance of Israel to deal with a group that has homicidal tendencies towards it's children, because unlike Israel, Hamas deliberately targets Israeli civilians.  When I see news reports or hear statements such as "Israel is deliberately targeting children" it just seems a stupid thing to say.  

Israeli forces are fighting a group that uses guerrilla tactics in an urban setting amongst a civilian population. They are up against it.  

There is evidence to show time and time again, that Hamas deliberately endanger their civilians.  They fire at Israeli forces from densely populated areas and retreat before Israel attacks back.  It is also debatable that casualty statistics are accurate.  This a typical strategy used used time and time again by Hamas.  Human rights groups acknowledge that people killed by Hamas as collaborators, and people who die naturally or perhaps through domestic violence are counted as well.  This is not to say in anyway that the numbers of civilians that have been killed and injured are not cause for concern.  Of course they are.  I just question the actions and of the terrorists against the well being of their civilian population, and I support the assertion that the truth is manipulated to further the cause of Hamas (and Iran) who are well aware of the support their movement has among Arabs worldwide, and also among young Westerners. 

And meanwhile the IDF  - who are not "just soldiers" - they are fucking hot soldiers alright  - fight under extremely difficult circumstances where buildings, tunnels and houses are booby trapped,  schools, mosques and homes harbour weapon stores, and even animals are strapped with explosives.  It's a dirty war, and a nasty business. 

See where I'm going with this hot thing….my god

See, the IDF are kind to kitties too

So will the ceasefire hold this time?  I seriously hope so.  But for how long?  It seems like the negotiations just go nowhere.  And where can they go? While Hamas is in power, Israel won't open the borders, and neither will Egypt.  Hamas will keep smuggling weapons from Iran and prepare for the next war with renewed vigour and weaponry technologies,  while the Gazans will continue to suffer.  Most people in Israel expect that nothing will change.   One thing is for sure  - serious shit is going down all over the place.  The lightning paced advance of ISIS (now simply called IS or Islamic State) throughout Syria and Iraq has surprised the world, while the ethnic cleansing of Christians and the Kurds in Iraq is shocking in it's brutality,  - this is some scary scary shit.  As the only democratic and westernised country in the region, Israel is right on the frontline of the battle against religious fundamentalists, and that is no exaggeration.  While many people living far away think that this will not effect their lives any time soon, they are wrong.  As Sam Harris stated in a recent article I posted, 'the truth is, we are all living in Israel. It’s just that some of us haven’t realized it yet'.