Yaacov Lozowick's Gaza War Journal

Report number twenty: A year later It’s been a year since I last wrote, and things have largely gotten worse. Not everything, mind you. Iran’s Ring of Fire around us is mostly gone, and that’s good. Yet if our internal strife doesn’t get resolved somehow, I’m no longer convinced our long-term existence is assured. The other day Ronen Bar, the chief of the Shabak, sort of Israel’s counterpart to the FBI, submitted a sworn affidavit to the supreme court explaining why Netanyahu’s attempt to fire him should be blocked, even as Bar admits that he must soon resign because of his failure to warn and protect us on October 7 th . The affidavit may be the most troubling document ever produced by an Israeli official – and I’ve seen tens of thousands of official records. Bar describes how Netanyahu has been trying to subvert Israeli democracy; and use the secret police to harm his political opponents and also to short-circuit his own criminal trial; and hamper freedom of the press; and obstru...

  May 9th, 2024 Dear family and friends, Report number 19: tipping point?   This may be my final installment in this series of reports from Israel during our war with Hamas. I’ve reached a point where I no longer wish to defend Israel to non-Israelis, in English, and need to turn to explaining ourselves to my fellow Israelis, in Hebrew. That’s the point we’ve reached. *             *             * Reuma Kedem is a popular clothes designer, I’m told. She’s also a bereaved mother. Her daughter, son in law, and three grandchildren were all murdered on October 7 th . (You hope they were all murdered in a single hail-fire of bullets, but it was probably worse than that). Today there’s a two-minute film ricocheting around our WhatsApp lists in which she’s sitting on the ground next to Einav Tsangauker, surrounded by other family members of hostages, damning us fo...

  April 14th, 2024 Dear family and friends, Report number 18: Iran   We’re interrupting our usual program for a short news bulletin. April 13 th was Haim Peri’s 80 th birthday. As we stood in the cold Jerusalem evening, his grandson told us about him, about his second children’s book which was to have been published for his birthday but instead will remain in boxes, and about the sadness of marking his 80 th birthday while he’s still a hostage in Gaza. The next speaker mentioned the expected Iranian missile attack, and hoped it wouldn’t push aside the urgency of freeing them. At 11pm the headlines were that Iranian drones were already flying towards us; soon they also told of cruise missiles. The pundits (correctly) estimated that ballistic missiles, which require only minutes to arrive, would be synchronized with the arrival of the drones and cruise missiles. Estimated time of arrival, they said: 2am. At around 1am I deliberated going to bed, but decided to k...

  April 3rd, 2024 Dear family and friends, Report number 17: Famine   I’ve been circling around this report for weeks. I’ve started writing it at least four times, only to discard whatever I’ve written a day or two later. This will be my last try. If I can’t write this report, I’ll have to end this whole series. Israel is doing bad things in Gaza, and it’s the obligation of a thinking patriot to admit it. I’m no bleeding heart or pacifist. From 18 to 21 I served in the IDF. Until age 40 I cumulatively spent another two years on reserve duty. I know about weapons, and soldiers, and armies. And service, and duty. I went to war three weeks after our wedding, with nary a second thought. I know Israel would long ago have been destroyed were it not for its strong army, and its tenacious and determined soldiers. This is a simple fact. Now more than ever. We’re facing an evil foe. Back in October there was a discussion as to whether October 7 th had been like the Shoah or...

  March 4th, 2024 Dear family and friends, Report number 16: wartime protests Last week a large crowd of Gazans swarmed a food convoy. There was a melee, nearby IDF troops opened fire, and more than 100 civilians were killed. Israel claimed most died in the stampede, not from our fire. French President Emanuel Macron angrily condemned us.   Most of the world (those paying attention, that is) blame us. The Israeli consensus is that we’re blameless. There’s very little willingness among Israelis these days even to recognize what we’re doing to the Gazan population, much less to understand how the world sees it. We’ve convinced ourselves most of the world is antisemitic, so we’re aggrieved and defiant. We’ve got no patience for talk about starvation in Gaza. There are good reasons for this Israeli mood. Our insistence on focusing on our aggrievement and not on the results of our actions may be explicable and human, but it’s still very dark. For months now I’ve been circli...