Israel: Deal or no Deal

Good morning Stroock's Books faithful. After a month of unseasonably cool weather today we're having an unseasonably warm 85 + degrees day, that's Fahrenheit, thank goodness. 

A deal between Hamas and Israel is close, they say. We await details. We're trying to make ourselves hate the idea of a truce but can't quite do it. The price of a deal would be high but is potentially worth it.  Getting several dozen hostages back would relieve a ton of domestic pressure on the Israeli government. Benny Gantz insists the deal would include a ceasefire only, not an end to the war. A ceasefire would also provide a means for more Israeli diplomatic successes. 

An example of the above-mentioned diplomatic success...US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is in the Middle East, calling on Hamas to accept Israel's offer, working on an Israeli-Saudi normalization plan, and 'hailing' the increase in Israeli humanitarian aid into Gaza. Blinken called the Israeli offer 'extraordinarily generous. And Whitehouse spokesguy John Kirby said that there 'can't be an independent Palestinian state with Hamas in control of Gaza. Can't happen.' The pressure's on Hamas. Rafah ain't goin' nowhere. This is a big war, and there are plenty of places and ways to fight Iran. 

Our tentative approval of a deal [And lord knows they're worried about what you think-Ed] is predicated on the idea that Bibi and the government aren't giving away the farm. Right now it seems their offer is 33 hostages for a 40 day truce and thousands of terrorist detainees. This may be the absolute best the Israelis will do.  We shall see.

Related...Facebook tells us that 10 years ago today we attended the Veterans for Peace conference at our own Raritan Valley Community College. There were three panelists. One guy was in the IDF in 73, one guy was in the Iranian air force, one guy was an arty officer in the 24th Mech in Desert Storm. We liked the guy from the 24th Mech a lot, talked about his background his son in the service and we thought made some very good points. Then one guy started bashing Israel. 'That's a lie!' we shouted. Remarked the real Ed at the time, 'I can't believe how well behaved you were .... Until the end. Could have been worse!' We were asked by a colleague about this later and let him have it too. Somewhere exists a tape of this event. 

The leader of this blog's Confederate Contingent suggested we do a War Night story about a family in another country. 'If you are going to do a pov story how about one from a family in a country not involved in the war say Chile for instance how would they react and would their government react to the world powers destroying everything.' That is a pretty interesting take and affords the opportunity for some family dynamics. India...? 

Monday Metal...Slash featuring Brian Johnson. Stick with the vid to see the mystery harmonica player. That harmonica solo leads to Slash playing a very Jimmy Page like guitar solo. This song is just loaded with awesome: