Three Years on

Good morning, Stroock's Books reader(s). Today is October 7th. Let's go see if Stabby has been up to anything today...Not so far. 

Do we have to spend today looking at October 7th footage? Remember, we were on twitter that morning. We've seen things you wouldn't believe. Here's what we wrote on October 7th, 2024. This blog insists reader(s) click through. 

Our foot is still bothering us so there will be no Operation Hatikva II. But we write this in our local Dunkin Donuts wearing our Israel cap and I Stand with Israel shirt. 

What Will's Reading:  In the War Room: The Inside Story of Israel's Fight Against Hamas and the Iranian Axis. This book continues to amaze. We are riveted. 

Some critics say the Gaza offensive was too slow, that the IDF should have blitzed the entire strip at once. The Israelis couldn't do that because they had to keep significant forces in the north in case Hezbollah attacked. So the IDF's Gaza campaign was incremental, taking out Hamas cities one by one... Gaza City, Khan Yunis, Rafah...

The Israelis approached Hamas tunnels with great caution, which we knew. But we didn't know the IDF figured out that Hamas used the tunnels for storage and movement, not fighting. And once the Israelis entered a tunnel, Hamas usually bugged out. Eventually the Israelis used the tunnels to move around the strip themselves. 

To the surprise of nobody, the Biden Regency stalled the Israelis, and even called upon them not to invade the Gaza strip. Netanyahu was extremely cautious as well and wouldn't authorize a new phase of the ground invasion until the IDF gave him an articulate plan with concrete objectives. Bibi always moves cautiously and never makes a decision until he has to. 

Also, the ground attack began on 29 October. During the interval Israeli troops trained for urban and tunnel warfare, one of the reasons for the delay. 

Moving on...

An interesting article on Hungary and Ukraine. We know that guy. Smart kid. 

Cornell...At the moment, the Cornell-7 are guilty of nothing except bad judgement. That may change. But what would make a young woman want to engage in a drug and alcohol fueled orgy? And why would she be surprised later that the young men 'didn't respect her in the morning'? Joining an orgy was not a good idea, not for these young men, and especially not for this young woman. And then word got out. And rather than exciting or empowering, for this young woman the orgy was shameful and regretful. It seems from texts and phone messages some of the Cornell-7 felt the same way. Exit question: What did she think would happen? 

Political note, international. We quote the great Israeli journalist Amit Segal on Israeli polls, 'In recent weeks, Benjamin Netanyahu has faced a dilemma: Which channel does he believe? Channel 12, which has the opposition at 54 and Netanyahu’s bloc at 53, or Channel 14, which has him significantly stronger at 63, while the opposition hovers at 45?' Segal points to Brazil as well, where Flavio outperformed his poll numbers by 7 points. Exit question: if it's happening there, and Bibi thinks it is, is it happening here?

DOGE report.

There's little more we can do to Thatcher's War at the moment. 

We read through three 5th nuke novel stories and are quite pleased. 

Hmmm....should the 5th nuke novel be published before Thatcher's War? We still need one more story. 

Upon this idea we shall dwell.