Will's Good Idea for the Week of 4/7/24

Good Sabbath morning, Stroock's Books Christian readers. 

Today marks the 6th month anniversary of the Gaza War. That was a hell of a thing to wake up to. 

Here's the state of play as Stroock's Books sees it. Since the World Central Kitchen debacle, the Regime has put tremendous pressure on Israel to cave to Hamas. In response Netanyahu has admonished some commanders, opened land and sea crossings to Gaza, opened bakeries, opened a water pipeline, and withdrawn all but one brigade from the strip.* These are difficult concessions. Hamas is demanding more concessions, and why wouldn't they given Joe's admonishment of the Jews?  Israel is under intense diplomatic pressure and has lost the PR war, which was always inevitable. 

On the other hand, the IDF has inflicted devastating losses upon Hamas and severely weakened its control of Gaza. Israel is talking with various Gazan tribes about assuming responsibility for the strip. Despite the withdrawal, IDF operations continue.  Just this morning Israeli engineers destroyed a massive tunnel in Khan Younis. The IDF has shown it can go wherever it wants in Gaza and Hamas can't stop them. Israel has gotten the better of the constant skirmishing with Hezbollah and awaits Iran's retaliation. 

At home Netanyahu's government remains unpopular and the public is not satisfied with the conduct and results of the war. That's okay, in 1862 the American public wasn't satisfied with Lincoln's conduct of the war either. The Haredi members of the government are pissed that the draft exception expired. Massive protests have resumed. Israel feels as disunited as it did the day before the massacre. Disunity is not good. It's not bad. It just is. In a democracy the job of the opposition to oppose. 

The October 7th Massacre unleashed a horrifying torrent of Juden hass abroad and here in the United States. Islamists and their moron friends walk the Rutgers campus, 20 minutes from here, chanting genocidal slogans. Not in our lifetime have we seen Juden hass on such a grand scale here. The Jewish golden age in America is over. Yesterday at the gym someone complimented us on our Israel T-shirt. We find great solace in that. 

Overall we feel great fear and trepidation. Gut feeling: not good. Israel is on the cusp of a military victory but in danger of suffering a strategic defeat. To put it another way, Isarel is at a low point. Exit question, can it get lower? Tough to write but there it is.** 

On to nicer things....Will's Good Idea for the Week of 4/7/24. We are looking forward to deleting our World War 1990: Norway research links. The Pancho Villa short story is due in just over two weeks. It's almost done. The same editors have asked us to submit a WWII alternate history story. We've no idea what we're submitting. We're in an excellent position to complete War Night's Lexington short story. What do you do when Frankfurt and Cincinatti go up but you don't? 

From there the question remains, what are we beginning in the autumn? We won't be working on another nuke novel till we see what War Night does sales wise. There's always World War 1990: Thatcher's War. We can spend August re-researching that and get started in the autumn. Or...are we ready to start a new project? [You know, you can really come off like an indecisive old woman sometimes-Ed]. We can...we can. [Hey! Whatever happened to Invasion 1984?-Ed] We don't know. 

After four days of 5 + miles walking we hit the gym yesterday, where the scale pleasantly surprised us: 245 pounds. We lifted yesterday, so today would normally be a cardio day, but with nice weather returning we'd like to resume our 5-mile walks. Exit question, what should our non-weight days at the gym look like?

*The IDF says pinpoint raids are better and references the Shifa Hospital operations and point out they can always go back. Just because it's spin doesn't mean it isn't true. 

** Maybe we're just being too pessimistic. Post in this webzone if we're being too pessimistic.