After midnight, August 2

Friday/Saturday

Day 17 of the war

The soldier chain jumped the gun and in fact, the IDF spent all day searching, with no final news of the welfare of kidnapped Hadar, a British Israeli soldier who was taken during a ceasefire at 9:30am yesterday, in southern Gaza. It has been over half a day. The IDF told local residents to stay inside their houses as they search everywhere. The IDF is shelling, which hopefully makes it impossible for the kidnappers to move from that area.

Instead of making me feel better, blogging about a kidnapping has made me sick. War makes you ill. And so terror aims to strike fear and horror into civilian families. For this, Hamas has trained for years, as you can see for yourselves in this video. Welcome to Hamas’ Gaza. Warning: watch on an empty stomach; it will give you a chilling case of war-sickness.

http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=A2KLqIST1dJTQQUA7wv7w8QF;_ylu=X3oDMTBzMmE0cGszBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDdmlkBHZ0aWQDBGdwb3MDNTM-?p=hamas+preschool+terror+training&vid=25bbdcdf0bb52af234c6ee831e30693c&l=1%3A15&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts3.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DVN.608012363973264242%26pid%3D15.1&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DGIfdfKBD244&tit=Teaching+Palestinian+Children+To+Hate&c=22&sigr=11anlp49t&sigt=11525p3he&age=0&b=31&fr=iphone&tt=b

To complete the bilious picture, watch Hamas use television to train its future wives of Hamas. They flat out discuss Jews, not Zionists.  This is threadbare, institutionalized racism. Violent. Hateful.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10204364105643660&set=vb.1260604466&type=2&theater

Obama showed up on Israeli news after dinner, saying all the right things but looking worn down. This war may be getting to him too; Hamas is a dirty player, Geneva Convention rules don’t apply.

On an almost bright note, we heard from our son, who, dirty but fine, dashed our hopes of seeing him for his birthday next week. He said Operation Protective Edge has more to go, and could take weeks. I grieve for the families that have suffered loss, and fear there is more to come. And I miss my son. But he is busy doing good work. Here is a video the IDF released as an example of tunnel busting.The Times of Israel is a great way to keep in touch with Israel, by the way.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/watch-idf-soldiers-uncover-tunnel-shaft-in-mosque/

Jews have always had to fight anti-Semitism, sometimes against the foulest of enemies, and now we have Israel, the only country that can be about and for Jews.On a Friday night like tonight, you can connect with your Judaism, preserved and nurtured, thriving.

I hope Saturday reveals good tidings from the tough neighborhood in which Operation Protective Edge operates. Like Mr. Obama, I look like I could use some good news!