There Is No Other Hand

Noa Argamani is quite possibly the most recognizable face of October 7th. Screaming as she is hauled into Gaza on the back of a motorbike, we have witnessed her abduction over and over on tape, in photos, on posters world-wide. Her boyfriend, Avinatan Or,  who had been trying to protect her from the terrorists was also taken. His condition and whereabouts remain unknown at this time. But right now, Noa Argmani is finally with her terminally ill mother. 

Let's be real clear about this: Ms. Argamani was NOT RELEASED by Hamas as some kind of humanitarian gesture. That is utter bullshit. She was rescued by the IDF from the Nurseirat home where she was imprisioned, enslaved by journalist Abdullah Aljamal, his physician father, and his family. Enslaved. That means she was held prisoner and required to work for the family. While Al Jazeera denies Aljamal was a reporter for them, he did have a profile on their web page, and published regular articles in The Palestine Chronicle , and seemed to have been a spokesperson for the Hamas-run Ministry of Labor. Think about this for a moment. This guy is reporting about Gaza and the treatment of the civilian population while he is holding a 26-year old university student hostage in his own home and using her as slave labor. 

Ms. Argamani said she had been held in several locations, all seeming to be homes and flats, but never in the tunnels. Apparently, this is okay in Gaza....keeping hostages in your home as slave labor. And according to others who have been freed, sometimes as sex slaves. 

Hamas claims 274 civilians were slaughtered in the raid to free Ms Argamani and three other hostages held at a separate location. Andrey Kozlov, 27; Shlomi Ziv, 41; and Almog Meir Jan, 22 were also rescued from a home in Nurseirat near to where Ms. Argamani was being held. But here's the thing: where does the Gaza Health Ministry get their instant body count from? No one actually knows. In a March 26th, 2024  analysis published in The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Gaza Fatality Data Has Become Completely Unreliable, Gabriel Epstein observes:

In the first month of the war, the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health (MOH) in Gaza relied on its existing collection system, made up primarily of hospitals and morgues, to certify each death. Starting in early November, however, hospitals in northern Gaza began to shut down or evacuate during the Israeli ground invasion, spurring the MOH to introduce a new, undefined methodology for counting fatalities: media reports. This methodology, which the MOH has rarely acknowledged publicly, accounts for the majority of fatalities reported over the past four months, surpassing the traditional collection system.
 
A comparison of the two methodologies, using MOH reports and claims published by the Hamas-controlled Government Media Office (GMO), yields wildly different and irreconcilable results, indicating that the media reports methodology is dramatically understating fatalities among adult males, the demographic most likely to be combatants. This undercuts the persistent claim that 72 percent of those killed in Gaza are women and children—a problem that has worsened since it was first noted by a Washington Institute report in January.
 

The result is that MOH statistics do not appear to offer a reliable guide to the actual Palestinian death toll even by the “foggy” standards of normal wartime reporting. Journalists, analysts, and government officials need to be aware that the actual overall death toll may be significantly higher (or, less likely, lower) than what the MOH has reported; the demographic composition of these fatalities is certainly far different than what the MOH claims.

The inaccuracy of reporting is further exacerbated by Hamas's inability to separate combatants from civilians, which is practically impossible when you're using your civilian population as human shields. What exactly does Hamas think is going to happen? These people are trapped in the middle of a hot war. People will die. 

And for the record, it's not like Hamas and Hezbollah aren't shooting missiles at Israel day in and day out. The wild fires in the north of Israel are the direct result of missile and drone and interceptions, according to The Jerusalem Post. This is an ongoing war being fought on several fronts. Let me repeat that: THIS IS AN ONGOING WAR.

On the other hand.....

AIPAC

For reasons I actually understand, Israel is expected to and is delivering aid to Gaza. Although I'm not a big AIPAC fan, this image and the article, Israel Is Working to Improve the Humanitarian Situation in Gaza, does a reasonably good job of illustrating the reality on the ground. No, the system is vastly imperfect, but it's more than other countries do in the middle of an active war. Do you see Russia sending aid to Ukraine? Yet, Israel sends thousands of tons of food, medicine, and fuel into Gaza knowing full well that much of it never reaches the civilian population so desperately in need. Because of the refusal of Hamas to ever build a functioning economy for the people of Gaza, they are reliant on others for their basic needs. And gee whiz, isn't it screwy that Israel is supplying much of those needs? That's the part I just don't get. 

Photo by Tom Wilson on Unsplash

Pro-Hamas demonstrations increase in size, demands for the functional dismantling of Israel grow more strident, and many of us are left wondering how long we will be able to stay in the United States. And then, there's the corollary to that thought: once the Pro Hamas decides Feckless Felon is their candidate, and their growing influence is tossed behind him, how are they going to go up against the evangelical tide behind him? And when he and his minions manage to gut the Constitution, where are all those happy Pride people going to go to save their diminishing civil rights? I guess they never heard of the domino theory. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Day

This meme has been making the rounds.

I think it says it all:

Credi